Investigations were carried out in the regions of the Hornsund Station, Spitsbergen at summer 1979. The aim of the studies was to determine the effect of the Station on the natural environment around the Station. After taking an inventory of the sources of pollution and in result of the determination of the range of the pressure of anthropogenic factors the whole area under degradation was divided into three parts: an area without possibilities of recultivation, a devastated area and an area of normal natural environment. It was found thąt the main source of the contamination of tundra are fuels derived from mineral oil. The distribution of fuel concentrations in the soil corresponds to the direction of the slope of the ground and the flow of the surface waters. Mechanical transformation of the surface of the tundra is also an outcome of the degradation.