Glimpses soviet town norwegian isle free#
Unlike Greenland, the waters around the south and west of Svalbard are relatively free of ice due to the moderating influence of the Gulf Stream that pushes warmer waters up the coast. Svalbard is located further north than the most northerly settlement in Greenland. Svalbard is so far north it would be permanently locked in by ice without the Gulf Stream There are references to the land of Svalbarð in Old Norse which literally translates as ‘cold shores’. The name Svalbard means ‘cold shores’Īlthough the official discovery is attributed to Willem Barentsz, it is thought that Svalbard could have been discovered by Norsemen as early as the 12th century. Dutch explorer Willem Barentsz discovered it in 1596 and named it Spitsbergen, or ‘pointy mountain’ in Dutch. It is the only island with a human population. Spitsbergen consists of over half of Svalbard’s total land area. Spitsbergen is the largest of Svalbard’s islands To add to the confusion, prior to 1925, Svalbard was known as Spitsbergen, which today is one of the islands in the Svalbard archipelago. The total land area of Svalbard is 24,209 square miles. There are 9 main islands: Spitsbergen, Nordaustlandet, Edgeøya, Barentsøya, Prins Karls Foreland, Kvitøya, Kong Karls Land, Bjørn Island, and Hopen, and a number of smaller outlying islands. Svalbard consists of a group of remote, Arctic islands.
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