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87-555: The fjord's mouth faces west to the Greenland Sea , and is 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) wide. The length is 30 kilometres (19 mi), the mean depth is 90 metres (300 ft), and the maximal depth is 260 metres (850 ft). Hornsund cuts different geological formations, from the Precambrian to the west to the upper Mesozoic to the east, and it is perpendicular to the main regional fractures of Spitsbergen. The coastline of Hornsund

174-401: A 200-nautical-mile (370 km; 230 mi) exclusive economic zone (EEZ) around Svalbard in 1977, Norway retains a restrictive fisheries policy in the zone, and the claims are disputed by Russia. Tourism is focused on the environment and is centered on Longyearbyen. Activities include hiking, kayaking, walks through glacier caves and snow-scooter and dog-sled safaris. Cruise ships generate

261-501: A distinct sub-species. While it was previously almost extinct, hunting is permitted for both it and the Arctic fox. About thirty types of bird are found on Spitsbergen, most of which are migratory . The Barents Sea is among the areas in the world with most seabirds , with about 20 million counted during late summer. The most common are little auk , northern fulmar , thick-billed murre and black-legged kittiwake . Sixteen species are on

348-687: A few privately owned houses, most of which are recreational cabins. Because of this, it is almost impossible to live on Spitsbergen without working for an established institution. Since the resettlement of Spitsbergen in the early 20th century, coal mining has been the dominant commercial activity. Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani , a subsidiary of the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry , operates Svea Nord in Sveagruva and Mine 7 in Longyearbyen. The former produced 3.4 million tonnes in 2008, while

435-575: A fifth hydrocarbon concession has been sold. ExxonMobil , the largest oil company in the world and with a lot of experience in the Arctic, was also applying for oil extraction rights in the Greenland Sea initially, but pulled out in December 2013 for unexplained reasons, concentrating efforts on shale gas and the American market instead. Drilling for oil in deep waters in an ice-filled Arctic environment

522-476: A mine. Sveagruva is a dorm town, with workers commuting from Longyearbyen on a weekly basis. Since 2002, Longyearbyen Community Council has had many of the same responsibilities of a municipality , including utilities, education, cultural facilities, fire department, roads and ports. No care or nursing services are available, nor is welfare payment available. Norwegian residents retain pension and medical rights through their mainland municipalities. The hospital

609-468: A monopoly on whaling in Spitsbergen, based on the (erroneous) claim that Hugh Willoughby had discovered the land in 1553. Not only had they wrongly assumed a 1553 English voyage had reached the area, but on 27 June 1607, during his first voyage in search of a "northeast passage" on behalf of the company, Henry Hudson sighted "Newland" (i.e. Spitsbergen), near the mouth of the great bay Hudson later named

696-527: A near monopoly on whaling in the bay until they abandoned it in the late 1650s. In 1634 there was a dispute between the London and Yarmouth ships there, resulting in the death of one man. This Spitsbergen location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Greenland Sea The Greenland Sea is a body of water that borders Greenland to the west, the Svalbard archipelago to

783-508: A population of 2,753, of whom 423 were Russian or Ukrainian , 10 were Polish and 322 were non-Norwegians living in Norwegian settlements. The largest non-Norwegian groups in Longyearbyen in 2005 were from Thailand, Sweden, Denmark, Russia and Germany. Spitsbergen is among the safest places on Earth, with virtually no crime. Longyearbyen is the largest settlement on the island, the seat of

870-432: A school, library, sports center, community center, swimming pool, farm and greenhouse. Pyramiden has similar facilities; both are built in typical Soviet style and are the site of the world's two most northerly Lenin statues and other socialist realism artwork. The three main industries on Spitsbergen are coal mining, tourism and research. In 2007, there were 484 people working in the mining sector, 211 people working in

957-531: A significant portion of the traffic, including stops by both offshore vessels and expeditionary cruises starting and ending in Svalbard. Traffic is strongly concentrated between March and August; overnight stays have quintupled from 1991 to 2008, when there were 93,000 guest-nights. Research on Svalbard centers on Longyearbyen and Ny-Ålesund, the most accessible areas in the high Arctic. Norway grants permission for any nation to conduct research on Svalbard, resulting in

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1044-404: A small area. These results may be interpreted as an early sign of a beginning recovery for this particular species, that once formed the largest bowhead population in the world, at an estimated 52,000 whales. The Inuit hunted whales on a non-industrial scale in the Greenland Sea since the 15th century, as evidenced by archaeology. The first complete man-powered crossing of the Greenland Sea

1131-581: A winter population of 35 and a summer population of 180. Poland operates the Polish Polar Station at Hornsund , with ten permanent residents. Barentsburg is the only remaining Russian settlement, after Pyramiden was abandoned in 1998. A company town, all facilities are owned by Arktikugol, which operates a coal mine. In addition to the mining facilities, Arktikugol has opened a hotel and souvenir shop, catering to tourists taking day trips or hikes from Longyearbyen. The village has facilities such as

1218-429: Is Longyearbyen . Other settlements, in addition to research outposts, are the mining community of Barentsburg , the research community of Ny-Ålesund , and the mining outpost of Sveagruva . Spitsbergen was covered in 21,977 km (8,485 sq mi) of ice in 1999, which was approximately 58.5% of the island's total area. The island was first used as a whaling base in the 17th and 18th centuries, after which it

1305-533: Is a demilitarized zone , as the treaty prohibits the establishment of military installations. The treaty requires Norway to protect the natural environment. The island is administered by the Governor of Svalbard , who holds the responsibility as both county governor and chief of police , as well as authority granted from the executive branch. Although Norway is part of the European Economic Area (EEA) and

1392-479: Is a " doomsday " seedbank to store seeds from as many of the world's crop varieties and their botanical wild relatives as possible. A cooperation between the government of Norway and the Global Crop Diversity Trust , the vault is cut into rock near Longyearbyen, keeping it at a natural −6 °C (21 °F) and refrigerating the seeds to −18 °C (0 °F). The Svalbard Undersea Cable System

1479-567: Is a 1,440-kilometre (890 mi) fibre optic line from Svalbard to Harstad , needed for communicating with polar orbiting satellite through Svalbard Satellite Station and installations in Ny-Ålesund. The Arctic World Archive , a huge digital archiving concern run by Norwegian private company Piql and the state-owned coal-mining company Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani , opened in March 2017. In mid-2020, it acquired its biggest customer in

1566-520: Is a major breeding ground for seals, including harp seal , hooded seal , and gray seal . It was discovered in the early 18th century by British whalers and since late 1750s was used for seal hunting. The hunting was especially intensive in the 19th century, but declined in the 20th century because of hunting restrictions and lower market demand. Around 5 April 1952, a major storm resulted in disappearance of ships with 79 Norwegian seal hunters on board. Seven other Norwegian seal hunting vessels shipwrecked

1653-771: Is a potential new undertaking for the oil industry, and poses many risks and dangers. Because of these difficulties, the Greenland Minister Council expects the first exploratory drills to take place no sooner than the mid 2020s. They estimate that a full preliminary program with seismic surveys, exploratory drills, and proper safety measures will take about 16 years and an investment of about US$ 500 million in each concession. Spitsbergen Spitsbergen ( Urban East Norwegian: [ˈspɪ̀tsˌbærɡn̩] ; formerly known as West Spitsbergen ; Norwegian : Vest Spitsbergen or Vestspitsbergen [ˈvɛ̂stˌspɪtsbærɡn̩] , also sometimes spelled Spitzbergen )

1740-407: Is about −1 °C (30 °F) or lower in the north and 1–2 °C (34–36 °F) in the south; the corresponding summer temperatures are about 0 and 6 °C (32 and 43 °F) respectively. The bottom water temperatures are below −1 °C (30 °F). The surface water salinity is 3.30–3.45% in the eastern and below 3.20% in the western parts, increasing to 3.49% toward the bottom. The water

1827-409: Is diversified, with a number of bays at the mouths of mountainous glacial valleys. Some of these bays have appeared as late as the beginning of the last century due to recession of glaciers. A Polish research station has been operating there since 1957. The English explorer Jonas Poole visited Hornsund in 1610, giving the fjord its name after his men had brought back a reindeer antler. In 1613

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1914-549: Is green. Tides are semidiurnal with the average height of 4.4 m (14.4 ft). Together with the water currents, they break up the floating ice sheets and mix various water layers both laterally and along the depth. The progressively colder waters of North Atlantic Current sink in the Arctic Ocean, returning south in the form of cold East Greenland Current , an important part of the Atlantic conveyor belt, which flows along

2001-632: Is most abundant in Nordenskiöld Land , around Isfjorden and where effected by guano . While there is little precipitation, giving the island a steppe climate, plants still have good access to water because the cold climate reduces evaporation. The growing season is very short, and may last only a few weeks. There are six national parks on Spitsbergen: Indre Wijdefjorden , Nordenskiöld Land , Nordre Isfjorden Land , Nordvest-Spitsbergen , Sassen-Bünsow Land and Sør-Spitsbergen . The island also features Festningen Geotope Protected Area ; some of

2088-669: Is part of University Hospital of North Norway , while the airport is operated by state-owned Avinor . Ny-Ålesund and Barentsburg are company towns with all infrastructure owned by Kings Bay and Arktikugol, respectively. Other public offices with presence on Svalbard are the Norwegian Directorate of Mining , the Norwegian Polar Institute , the Norwegian Tax Administration and the Church of Norway . Svalbard

2175-614: Is possible by snowmobile during winter, or by ship all year round. All settlements have ports, and Longyearbyen has a bus system. Svalbard Airport, Longyear , located 3 km (2 mi) from Longyearbyen, is the only airport offering air transport for the island. Scandinavian Airlines has daily scheduled services to Tromsø and Oslo ; there are also irregular charter services to Russia. Lufttransport provides regular corporate charter services from Longyearbyen to Ny-Ålesund Airport, Hamnerabben and Svea Airport for Kings Bay and Store Norske; these flights are in general not available to

2262-479: Is subordinate Nord-Troms District Court and Hålogaland Court of Appeal , both located in Tromsø. Ny-Ålesund is a permanent settlement based entirely on research. Formerly a mining town, it is still a company town operated by the Norwegian state-owned Kings Bay . While there is some tourism at the village, Norwegian authorities limit the access to the outpost to minimise impact on the scientific work. Ny-Ålesund has

2349-564: Is the Norwegian town of Longyearbyen , while the second-largest settlement is the Russian coal-mining settlement of Barentsburg . (This was sold by the Netherlands in 1932 to the Soviet company Arktikugol.) Other settlements on the island include the former Russian mining communities of Grumantbyen and Pyramiden (abandoned in 1961 and 1998, respectively), a Polish research station at Hornsund , and

2436-592: Is the largest and the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in northern Norway in the Arctic Ocean . Constituting the westernmost bulk of the archipelago, it borders the Arctic Ocean, the Norwegian Sea and the Greenland Sea . Spitsbergen covers an area of 37,673 km (14,546 sq mi), making it the largest island in Norway and the 36th largest in the world . The administrative centre

2523-581: The Danish–Norwegian crown in 1616 claimed ownership of Jan Mayen and the Spitsbergen islands, as all of Svalbard was then known, but in 1613, the English Muscovy Company had done the same. The primary and most profitable whaling grounds of this joint-stock company came to be centered on Spitsbergen in the early 17th century, and the company's 1613 Royal Charter from the English Crown granted

2610-531: The Dutch spits - pointed, bergen - mountains), at first applied both to the main island and to the associated archipelago as a whole . In the 17th and 18th centuries, English whalers referred to the islands as "Greenland", a practice still followed in 1780 and criticized by Sigismund Bacstrom at that time. The "Spitzbergen" spelling was used in English during the 19th century, for instance by Beechey, Laing, and

2697-455: The IUCN Red List . Particularly Storfjorden and Nordvest-Spitsbergen are important breeding ground for seabirds. The Arctic tern has the furthest migration, all the way to Antarctica . Only two songbirds migrate to Spitsbergen to breed: the snow bunting and the northern wheatear . Rock ptarmigan is the only bird to overwinter. Two partial skeletons of Pliosaurus funkei from

Hornsund - Misplaced Pages Continue

2784-467: The Jurassic period were discovered in 2008. It is the largest Mesozoic marine reptile ever found—a pliosaur estimated to be almost 15 m (49 ft) long. Svalbard has permafrost and tundra , with both low, middle and high Arctic vegetation . One hundred and sixty-five species of plants have been found on the archipelago. Only those areas which defrost in the summer have vegetation. Vegetation

2871-475: The Mid-Atlantic Ridge ). To the west, the bottom rises first slowly, but then rapidly toward the wide Greenland coastal strip. Silts fill the submarine hollows and gorges; silty sands, gravel, boulders, and other products of erosion coat the shelves and ridges. Although the deepest point inside of the sea is 4,846 m (15,899 ft), depths down to 5,570 m (18,270 ft) have been measured in

2958-533: The Northern Sea Route in June 1596. The first good map, with the east coast roughly indicated, appeared in 1623, printed by Willem Janszoon Blaeu . Around 1660 and 1728, better maps were produced. The archipelago may have been known to Russian Pomor hunters as early as the 14th or 15th century, although solid evidence preceding the 17th century is lacking. Following the English whalers and others in referring to

3045-705: The Polish Polar Station , Indian Himadri Station , and the Chinese Arctic Yellow River Station , plus Russian facilities in Barentsburg. The University Centre in Svalbard in Longyearbyen offers undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate courses to 350 students in various arctic sciences, particularly biology , geology and geophysics . Courses are provided to supplement studies at the mainland universities; there are no tuition fees and courses are held in English, with Norwegian and international students equally represented. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault

3132-556: The Royal Society . In 1906 the Arctic explorer Sir Martin Conway regarded the Spitzbergen spelling as incorrect; he preferred Spitsbergen , as he noted that the name was Dutch, not German. This had little effect on British practice. In 1920 the international treaty determining the status of the islands was entitled the "Spitsbergen Treaty". The islands were generally referred to in

3219-561: The Schengen Agreement , Svalbard is not part of the Schengen Area nor EEA. Residents of Spitsbergen do not need visas for Schengen but are prohibited from reaching Svalbard from mainland Norway without them. People without a means of income can be rejected as residents by the governor. Citizens of any treaty signatory country may visit the island without a visa. Russia retains a consulate in Barentsburg . In 2009, Spitsbergen had

3306-486: The 1990s, the Odden ice tongue rarely develops. The Greenland Sea is densely inhabited by the organisms that form the base of the oceanic food chain . Large invertebrates , fish (such as cod , herring , redfish , halibut , and plaice ), birds, and mammals (including various species of seals , whales , and dolphins ) all feed on the smaller invertebrates and small organisms . Mosses, lichens, and scanty bushes around

3393-564: The Allied weather station in Operation Zitronella . On 6 September, a squadron consisting of Tirpitz , the battleship Scharnhorst , and nine destroyers weighed anchor in Altenfjord and Kåfjord and headed for Spitsbergen, to attack the Allied base. At dawn on 8 September 1943, Tirpitz and Scharnhorst opened fire against the two 3-inch guns which comprised the defences of Barentsburg, and

3480-513: The Atlantic. The sea has Arctic climate with regular northern winds and temperatures rarely rising above 0 °C (32 °F). It previously contained the Odden ice tongue (or Odden ) area, which extended eastward from the main East Greenland ice edge in the vicinity of 72 – 74°N during the winter and acted as a key winter ice formation area in the Arctic. The West Ice forms in winter in

3567-564: The Great Indraught ( Isfjorden ). In this way, the English hoped to head off expansion in the region by the Dutch, at the time their major rival. Initially, the English tried to drive away competitors, but after disputes with the Dutch (1613–24), they, for the most part, only claimed the bays south of Kongsfjorden . From 1617 onwards, a Danish-chartered company began sending whaling fleets to Spitsbergen. This successful expansion by Denmark into

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3654-461: The Greenland Sea is considered part of the Nordic Seas , along with the Norwegian Sea . The Nordic Seas are the main connection between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans and, as such, could be of great significance in a possible shutdown of thermohaline circulation . In oceanography the Arctic Ocean and Nordic Seas are often referred to collectively as the "Arctic Mediterranean Sea", a marginal sea of

3741-524: The Greenland Sea to the south, the Greenland Sea has a narrow window for commercial navigation: The ice season starts in October and ends in August. Three types of floating ice are distinguished: Arctic pack ice (several meters thick), sea ice (about a meter thick), and freshwater icebergs. In winter, a large area north of Iceland between Greenland and Jan Mayen , called West Ice , is covered by continuous ice. It

3828-524: The Greenland Sea, north of Iceland, between Greenland and Jan Mayen island. It is a major breeding ground of harp seal and hooded seal that has been used for seal hunting for more than 200 years. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Greenland Sea as follows: On the North. A line joining the Northernmost point of Spitzbergen [ sic ] [ Svalbard ] to

3915-593: The Molloy Deep of the Fram Strait which connects the sea to the Arctic Ocean on the north. The Greenland ice sheet reaches down to the sea at Jokel Bay . Major islands of the Greenland Sea include the Svalbard archipelago, Jan Mayen as well as coastal islands off the NE Greenland shores, such as Hovgaard , Ella , Godfred Hansen , Île-de-France , Lynn , Norske , Gamma and Schnauder islands. Of those, only

4002-741: The North Atlantic has recently been cited by historians as the first step of the Danish–Norwegian state into overseas colonialism. It eventually built a small overseas empire of East Indian trade posts, North Atlantic possessions (such as Greenland and Iceland), and a small Atlantic trade route between possessions on the Guinea Coast (in modern Ghana) and what are now the United States Virgin Islands . The entire Svalbard archipelago, nominally ruled first by Denmark–Norway , and later

4089-902: The Northernmost point of Greenland . On the East. The West coast of West Spitzbergen [ sic ] [island of Spitsbergen ]. On the Southeast. A line joining the Southernmost point of West Spitzbergen [ sic ] to the Northern point of Jan Mayen Island, down the West coast of that island to its Southern extreme, thence a Line to the Eastern extreme of Gerpir (67°05′N, 13°30′W) [ sic , actually at 65°05′N 13°30′W  /  65.083°N 13.500°W  / 65.083; -13.500 ] in Iceland . On

4176-531: The Norwegian North-Atlantic Expedition. Since then, many countries, mostly Norway, Iceland and Russia have sent scientific expeditions to the area. The complex water current system in the Greenland Sea was described in 1909 by Fridtjof Nansen . The Greenland Sea was a popular hunting ground for the whaling industry for 300 years, until 1911, primarily based in Spitsbergen . At that point,

4263-552: The Norwegians (as Union between Sweden and Norway from 1814 to 1905, independent Norway from 1905), remained a source of riches for fishery and whaling vessels from many nations. The islands also became the launching point for a number of Arctic explorers, including William Edward Parry , Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld , Otto Martin Torell , Alfred Gabriel Nathorst , Roald Amundsen and Ernest Shackleton . Between 1913 and 1920, Spitsbergen

4350-534: The Southwest. A line joining Straumnes (NW extreme of Iceland) to Cape Nansen ( 68°15′N 29°30′W  /  68.250°N 29.500°W  / 68.250; -29.500 ) in Greenland. On the West. The East and Northeast coast of Greenland between Cape Nansen and the northernmost point. While the sea has been known for millennia, the first scientific investigations were carried out in 1876–1878 as part of

4437-489: The Svalbard islands are inhabited, and Jan Mayen has only temporal military staff. After the League of Nations gave Norway jurisdiction over the island, in 1921 Norway opened the first meteorological station there, which was a subject of contention between Germany and United Kingdom during World War II. Several radio and meteorological stations operate on the island nowadays. The climate is Arctic and varies significantly across

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4524-506: The United States as "Spitsbergen" from that time, although the spelling "Spitzbergen" also commonly occurred through the 20th century. The Norwegian administrating authorities named the archipelago Svalbard in 1925, the main island becoming Spitsbergen . By the end of the 20th century, this usage had become common. The first recorded sighting of the island was by Willem Barentsz, a Dutch explorer who came across it while searching for

4611-475: The archipelago as Greenland, they named it Grumant (Грумант). The name Svalbard is first mentioned in Icelandic sagas of the 10th and 11th centuries, but this may have been Jan Mayen . Early whaling expeditions to Svalbard in general and Spitsbergen in particular tended, because of currents and fauna, to cluster on the western coast of Spitsbergen and the islands off shore. Shortly after whaling began (1611),

4698-555: The archipelago. Once named Spitsbergen after its largest island, the Svalbard archipelago was made a part of Norway—not a dependency—by the Svalbard Act of 1925 . Since this date, it has been a region of Norway, with a Norwegian-appointed governor resident at the administrative centre of Longyearbyen. Limitations on the imposition of certain Norwegian laws are outlined in the Spitsbergen Treaty. The largest settlement on Spitsbergen

4785-452: The coasts serve as food to the deer and musk oxen , which in turn are hunted by the polar bear . The Greenland Sea was formerly home to a large population of various whale species, especially bowhead whales , but the whaling industry decimated them greatly from the beginning of the 1600s till 1911. In the last few decades there have been a few signs indicating a beginning recovery. US Geological Survey has estimated that at least 13% of

4872-675: The concessions are located in seas west of Greenland (primarily the Davis Strait and Baffin Bay ), but with 19 concessions in the Greenland Sea. In late 2013, a total of three consortia obtained hydrocarbon extraction rights to four large areas of the Greenland Sea from the Greenland Bureau of Mineral and Petroleum . The consortia are led by the oil companies of Statoil , Chevron , and Eni , but includes several other smaller companies such as Shell , BP , DONG Energy and Nunaoil . Since then,

4959-457: The destroyers ran inshore with landing parties, destroying a supply dump and wrecking a landing station. By noon, the hostilities had ended, with the landing parties returning to the ships, along with some prisoners. The German ships returned safely to Altenfjord and Kåfjord on 9 September 1943. This was the last operation for the Tirpitz . On 29 August 1996, Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801 crashed on

5046-471: The east, Fram Strait and the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Norwegian Sea and Iceland to the south. The Greenland Sea is often defined as part of the Arctic Ocean , sometimes as part of the Atlantic Ocean . However, definitions of the Arctic Ocean and its seas tend to be imprecise or arbitrary. In general usage the term "Arctic Ocean" would exclude the Greenland Sea. In oceanographic studies

5133-401: The first whaling ships used Hornsund, the majority of which were driven away by the English. In 1614 the fjord was ceded to the Dutch , but only for this season. In 1617 and 1618 Dutch ships again used Hornsund, but were either driven away or had their goods stolen. Danish ships also resorted to the fjord in 1617, and were forced to give a fifth of their catch to the English. The English held

5220-442: The form of GitHub , a subsidiary of Microsoft . Within Longyearbyen, Barentsburg and Ny-Ålesund, there are road systems, but they do not connect with each other. Off-road motorized transport is prohibited on bare ground, but snowmobiles are used extensively during winter—both for commercial and recreational activities. Transport from Longyearbyen to Barentsburg (45 km or 28 mi) and Pyramiden (100 km or 62 mi)

5307-422: The formerly rich whale population here, was so depleted that the industry was no longer profitable. The remaining whales of the Greenland Sea has been protected ever since, but the populations have not shown any proof of significant regeneration. Since the late 1990s, polar biologists reports an increase in the local bowhead whale population and in 2015, arctic scientists discovered a surprising abundance of them in

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5394-439: The governor, and the only incorporated town. It features a hospital, primary and secondary school, university, sports centre with a swimming pool, library, cultural centre, cinema, bus transport, hotels, a bank, and several museums. The newspaper Svalbardposten is published weekly. Only a small fraction of the mining activity remains at Longyearbyen; instead, workers commute to Sveagruva (or Svea) where Store Norske operates

5481-399: The iconic symbol of Spitsbergen and one of the main tourist attractions. While they are protected, persons going outside settlements are required to carry a rifle to kill polar bears in self-defence , as a last resort should they attack. Spitsbergen shares a common polar bear population with the rest of Svalbard and Franz Joseph Land . The Svalbard reindeer ( R. tarandus platyrhynchus ) is

5568-546: The important supplementary industries, featuring among others the University Centre in Svalbard and the Svalbard Global Seed Vault . No roads connect the settlements; instead snowmobiles, aircraft and boats serve as local transport. Svalbard Airport, Longyearbyen provides the main point of entry and exit. The island has an Arctic climate , although with significantly higher temperatures than other places at

5655-572: The inhabitants on the island were Russian and Germany and the Soviet Union had a non-aggression pact until 22 June 1941. Once the non-aggression pact was ended, the United Kingdom and Canada sent military forces to the island to destroy German installations, both the Soviet coal mines and the German weather station. In 1943, the German battleship Tirpitz and an escort flotilla shelled and destroyed

5742-427: The island, killing all 141 people on board. The Svalbard Treaty of 1920 established full Norwegian sovereignty over Svalbard. All 40 signatory countries of the treaty have the right to conduct commercial activities on the archipelago without discrimination, although all activity is subject to Norwegian legislation. The treaty limits Norway's right to collect taxes to that of financing services on Svalbard. Spitsbergen

5829-427: The island: the Arctic fox , the Svalbard reindeer , and accidentally introduced southern vole , which are only found in Grumant. Attempts to introduce the Arctic hare and the muskox have both failed. There are fifteen to twenty types of marine mammals , including whales, dolphins, seals , walruses and polar bears . Arctic charr inhabit Linne´vatn and other freshwater lakes on the island. Polar bears are

5916-433: The land formerly test-drilled on has been protected as nature reserves or national parks. Spitsbergen Island coins were issued in 1946, with Russian Cyrillic lettering, in the USSR denomination of 10 and 20 kopecks. Then in 1993, coins were again minted in Russian values of 10, 20, 50 and 100 roubles. Both series have the motto "Arctic coal". Spitsbergen was historically a base for both whaling and fishing. Norway claimed

6003-424: The latter sends 35% of its output to Longyearbyen Power Station. Since 2007, there has not been any significant mining by the Russian state-owned Arktikugol in Barentsburg. There has previously been some test drilling for petroleum on land, but this did not give results good enough to justify permanent operation. The Norwegian authorities do not allow offshore petroleum drilling activities for environmental reasons, and

6090-427: The main East Greenland ice edge in the vicinity of 72–74°N during the winter because of the presence of very cold polar surface water in the Jan Mayen Current , which diverts some water eastward from the East Greenland Current at that latitude. Most of the already formed ice continued floating south, driven by the wind, so a cold open water surface was exposed on which new ice formed as frazil ice and pancake ice in

6177-430: The north. The summer is very short: The number of days per year when the temperature rises above 0 °C (32 °F) varies between 225 in the north to 334 in the south. The annual precipitation is 250 mm (10 in) in the north, but 500 mm (20 in) in the south. Northern winds continue through the whole year, cooling the surface water and bringing ice to the south. The average surface water temperature

6264-665: The public. There are heliports in Barentsburg and Pyramiden, and helicopters are frequently used by the governor and to a lesser extent the mining company Arktikugol. The climate of Svalbard is dominated by its high latitude, with the average summer temperature at 4 °C (39 °F) to 6 °C (43 °F) and January averages at −12 °C (10 °F) to −16 °C (3 °F). The North Atlantic Current moderates Spitsbergens's temperatures, particularly during winter, giving it up to 20 °C (36 °F) higher winter temperature than similar latitudes in Russia and Canada. This keeps

6351-407: The remote northern settlement of Ny-Ålesund . RAF , RN , Fleet Air Arm Svalbard (1941–1945) Lapland War Associated articles Allied soldiers were stationed on the island in 1941 to prevent Nazi Germany from occupying the islands. Norway came under German occupation in 1940. Germany took control of the coal fields and the weather station during this time, although most of

6438-435: The rough seas, producing a giant tongue shape. The salt rejected back into the ocean from this ice formation caused the surface water to become denser and sink, sometimes to great depths (2,500 m (8,200 ft) or more), making this one of the few regions of the ocean where winter convection occurred, which helped drive the entire worldwide system of surface and deep currents known as the thermohaline circulation . Since

6525-535: The same latitude. The flora benefits from the long period of midnight sun , which compensates for the polar night . Svalbard is a breeding ground for many seabirds, and also supports polar bears , arctic foxes , reindeer and marine mammals . Six national parks protect the largely untouched, yet fragile environment. The island has many glaciers , mountains and fjords. The Dutch navigator Willem Barentsz gave Spitsbergen its name when he discovered it in 1596. The name Spitsbergen , meaning "pointed mountains" (from

6612-470: The same month. The Odden ice tongue or simply the Odden (Odden is Norwegian word for headland ) was a key winter ice formation area in the Arctic. It was known for a long time and was encountered by Fridtjof Nansen but was only fully understood with the advent of satellite imagery. The Odden had a length of about 1,300 km (810 mi) and covered an area of up to 330,000 km (130,000 sq mi) in most years. It extended eastward from

6699-547: The sea is delimited by the Svalbard archipelago (Norway). The southern part of the Greenland Sea, roughly the area south of the Jan Mayen Francture Zone or the line Cape Brewster – Jan Mayen is sometimes referred to as Iceland Sea . The bottom of the Greenland Sea is a depression bounded to the south by the underwater Greenland-Iceland ridge and to the east by the Mohns Ridge and Knipovich Ridge (parts of

6786-400: The surrounding waters open and navigable most of the year. The interior fjord areas and valleys, sheltered by the mountains, have larger temperature differences than the coast, giving about 2 °C (4 °F) lower summer temperatures and 3 °C (5 °F) higher winter temperatures. On the south of Spitsbergen, the temperature is slightly higher than further north and west. During winter,

6873-465: The temperature difference between south and north is typically 5 °C (9 °F), while about 3 °C (5 °F) in summer. Spitsbergen is the meeting place for cold polar air from the north and mild, wet sea air from the south, creating low pressure and changing weather and fast winds, particularly in winter; in January, a strong breeze is registered 17% of the time at Isfjord Radio , but only 1% of

6960-507: The time in July. In summer, particularly away from land, fog is common, with visibility under 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) registered 20% of the time in July. Precipitation is frequent but falls in small quantities, typically less than 400 millimetres (16 in) annually in western Spitsbergen. More rain falls in the uninhabited east side, where there can be more than 1,000 millimetres (39 in) annually. Three terrestrial mammalian species inhabit

7047-429: The tourism sector and 111 people working in the education sector. The same year, mining produced a revenue of NOK 2,008 million, tourism NOK 317 million and research NOK 142 million. In 2006, the average income for economically active people was NOK 494,700—23% higher than on the mainland. Almost all housing is owned by the various employers and institutions and rented to their employees; there are only

7134-473: The vast sea area. Air temperatures fluctuate between −49 °C (−56 °F) near Spitsbergen in winter and 25 °C (77 °F) off Greenland in summer. Averages are −10 °C (14 °F) in the south and −26 °C (−15 °F) in the north in February, which is the coldest month. The corresponding values for the warmest month, August, are 5 °C (41 °F) in the south and 0 °C (32 °F) in

7221-483: The western part of the sea. Along the eastern part flows the warm Spitsbergen Current , a part of Gulf Stream . Mixtures of cold, freshwater ice melt and the warm, salty Spitsbergen Current may experience cabbeling , which might contribute to thermohaline circulation. The combination of those currents creates a counter-clockwise water flow in the central part of the sea. Because of frequent fogs, winds, and currents, which continuously transport ice and icebergs through

7308-479: The world's undiscovered oil deposits and 30% of the world's undiscovered gas pockets are located in the Arctic, with the Greenland Sea potentially holding large amounts of natural gas and lesser amounts of natural gas liquids and crude oil . This has led the Greenland's minister and provincial council to offer a large number of off-shore concessions to potential hydrocarbon (oil and gas) extraction. The majority of

7395-429: Was a neutral condominium . The Spitsbergen Treaty of 9 February 1920, recognises the full and absolute sovereignty of Norway over all the arctic archipelago of Svalbard. The exercise of sovereignty is, however, subject to certain stipulations, and not all Norwegian law applies. Originally limited to nine signatory nations, over 40 are now signatories of the treaty. Citizens of any of the signatory countries may settle in

7482-462: Was abandoned. Coal mining started at the end of the 19th century, and several permanent communities were established. The Svalbard Treaty of 1920 recognized Norwegian sovereignty and established Svalbard as a free economic zone and a demilitarized zone . The Norwegian Store Norske and the Russian Arktikugol are the only mining companies at Spitsbergen. Research and tourism have become

7569-514: Was achieved in 2017 by rowing expedition, Polar Row led by Fiann Paul . The Greenland Sea is bounded to the west by the island of Greenland , and to the south by the Denmark Strait and Iceland . To the southeast, behind the Jan Mayen island (Norway) lies the vast expanse of the Norwegian Sea , of which Greenland Sea may be considered an extension. Across the Fram Strait to the northeast,

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