Nordaustlandet

Nordaustlandet
Geography
Location	Arctic Ocean
Coordinates	79°48′N 22°24′E / 79.8°N 22.4°ECoordinates: 79°48′N 22°24′E / 79.8°N 22.4°E
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

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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.

[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

List of islands of Norway

[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.