Abstract The Ediacaran to Cambrian transition of the Digermul Peninsula consists of an ichnologically rich, thick, conformable, shallow marine siliciclastic succession that crosses the Neoproterozoic–Cambrian boundary. The Tanafjord section has been independently dated by published palynological and new body fossil discoveries. As is also observed at the current Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the Ediacaran–Cambrian boundary at Fortune Head in Newfoundland, Canada, there is a marked increase in burrow size and inferred behavioural diversity around the inferred boundary level at a surface without a significant hiatus. The diversity of this trace fossil assemblage presents an opportunity to compare the ichnological first appearance datums between the GSSP and another sedimentologically similar, but palaeogeographically remote, succession. We found that the first appearance datums of taxa in Finnmark broadly support the definition and stratigraphic extents of the Harlaniella podolica , Treptichnus pedum, Rusophycus avalonensis and Cruziana tenella zones. Our work shows that there is a marked increase in ichnodiversity in the lowermost Fortunian, mostly in the form of shallow tier traces. The main post-Fortunian ichnological innovation is the evolution of bulk sediment deposit feeding that is first evidenced by spreiten burrows at around the base of Cambrian Stage 2 in both the GSSP and in the Tanafjord section. Supplementary material: Additional images of trace fossils from the studied section are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3462561 Gold Open Access: This article is published under the terms of the CC-BY 3.0 license .

Abstract This paper outlines some significant visits made to north Norway by geologists and mountaineers from Britain and Ireland from the early to late nineteenth century. These visitors wrote up their travels and climbing experiences in a region in north Norway that was difficult to get to other than by sea: Øksfjordjøkelen and Lyngen. Early travellers revealed the sights of the fjord areas and thereby promoted the region for subsequent travellers. Leopold von Buch’s Travels though Norway and Lapland during the Years 1806, 1807, and 1808 probably prompted J. D. Forbes to visit and produce Norway and Its Glaciers and Archibald Geikie’s Geological Sketches at Home and Abroad as part of the contemporary discussions about the ‘glacial theory’. In the latter years of the nineteenth century the British climbers William Cecil Slingsby and George Hastings, with local climber Josef Caspari, explored the Lyngen Peninsula. Elizabeth Main (Mrs Aubrey Le Blond) also climbed in Lyngen. As well as providing written summaries of their exploits, the early explorers included photographs in their books. Some of these images are helpful in the reconstruction of the glacierized landscapes at the end of the Little Ice Age. It is suggested that present-day travellers might leave their observations available, in digital media, for future investigators.