Sjuøyane (English: ''Seven Islands'') is the northernmost part of the Svalbard archipelago north of mainland

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

, and some 20 km north of the eastern major island

Nordaustlandet Nordaustlandet (sometimes translated as North East Land) is the second-largest island in the archipelago of Svalbard, Norway, with an area of . It lies north east of Spitsbergen, separated by Hinlopen Strait. Much of Nordaustlandet lies under l ...

. The islands are the northernmost landmass reachable by normal means, being 1024.3 kilometers (637 mi / 553 nm) south of the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

. In comparison,

Robert Falcon Scott Captain Robert Falcon Scott, , (6 June 1868 – c. 29 March 1912) was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the ''Discovery'' expedition of 1901–1904 and the ill-fated ''Terra Nov ...

started his ill-fated

Terra Nova Expedition The ''Terra Nova'' Expedition, officially the British Antarctic Expedition, was an expedition to Antarctica which took place between 1910 and 1913. Led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott, the expedition had various scientific and geographical objec ...

1374 km (742 Nm) from the

South Pole The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole, Terrestrial South Pole or 90th Parallel South, is one of the two points where Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on Earth and lies antipod ...

. Many of the islands are named after English explorers, most notably Captain Nelson.

Geography

As the name implies, this is regarded as a group of seven islands (including several islets and skerries), of which the three larger ones are: * Phippsøya * Martensøya * Parryøya And the four smaller: * Nelsonøya * Waldenøya * Tavleøya * Vesle Tavleøya with Rossøya Rossøya, more a

skerry A skerry is a small rocky island, or islet, usually too small for human habitation. It may simply be a rocky reef. A skerry can also be called a low stack (geology), sea stack. A skerry may have vegetative life such as moss and small, hardy ...

than an island, is at 80°49’44" the northernmost land of Svalbard and thus of

. Ice conditions are often difficult, but they are often earlier accessible than other parts of Svalbard further southeast because of the influence of the last drops of the

Gulf Stream The Gulf Stream, together with its northern extension the North Atlantic Drift, is a warm and swift Atlantic ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico and flows through the Straits of Florida and up the eastern coastline of the Uni ...

. Sjuøyane belong to the Nordaust-Svalbard Nature Reserve.

History

Sjuøyane were first marked on a map by the Dutchman Hendrick Doncker (1663). Pieter Goos (1666) and other cartographers soon followed. Cornelis Giles and Outger Rep (c. 1710) were the first to put the islands in their correct position. The islands may have been sighted as early as 1618, as an

Enkhuizen Enkhuizen () is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland and the region of West-Frisia. History Enkhuizen, like Hoorn and Amsterdam, was one of the harbor-towns of the VOC, from where overseas trade ...

whaler is said to have seen the islands this year. As map-makers often lagged years behind the actual discoveries of the archipelago, this claim may very well be true, although evidence is lacking.

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. * Norwegian Polar Institute
Place names in Norwegian polar areas
* Norwegian Polar Institute Sjuøyane website page: http://cruise-handbook.npolar.no/en/northeast_reserve/sjuoyane.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Sjuoyane Islands of Svalbard

Geography

History

See also

References