Nordaustlandet

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Nordaustlandet
Nordaustlandet labelled.png
Geography
Nordaustlandet.png
Location Arctic Ocean
Coordinates 79°48′N 22°24′E / 79.8°N 22.4°E / 79.8; 22.4Coordinates: 79°48′N 22°24′E / 79.8°N 22.4°E / 79.8; 22.4
Archipelago Svalbard
Area 14,443 km², 11,009 km² glaciated. Perimeter 1,688 km. (58th)
Highest point Norddomen (700 m (2,297 ft))
Country
Norway
Demographics
Population 0
Nordaustlandet is an Arctic desert

Nordaustlandet (sometimes translated as North East Land) is the second largest island in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, with an area of 14,443 km². As its name suggests, it lies north east of Spitsbergen, separated by the Hinlopen Strait.

Much of Nordaustlandet lies under large ice caps, mainly Austfonna (Europe's largest glacier, its southern part being called Sørfonna) and Vestfonna, the remaining parts of the north being tundra inhabited by reindeer and walruses.

The island is uninhabited.

Contents

[edit] History

English walrus hunters first sighted the south point of Nordaustlandet in 1617. This discovery was shown on the Muscovy Company's map (1625; but based on discoveries made in and prior to 1622), with the island labeled as Sir Thomas Smyth's Iland. It also shows the North Cape (Point Purchas). It is first named Oostlandt ("East Land") on a Dutch map of 1662, and the following year another Dutch map marked its coastline more distinctly, showing its west and north coasts, separating the latter from the Seven Islands (Sjuøyane). A Dutch map of 1710 was the first to show the island accurately, naming it Het Noord Ooster Land ("The North-east Land").

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  • Conway, W. M. 1906. No Man’s Land: A History of Spitsbergen from Its Discovery in 1596 to the Beginning of the Scientific Exploration of the Country. Cambridge: At the University Press.

[edit] External links

Walrus colony on Nordaustlandet