Jan Mayen Island

 island  Add category

Jan Mayen Island is a 55 km (34 miles) long (southwest-northeast) and 373 km² (144 mi²)

During the International Polar Year 1882-83 the Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition stayed one year at Jan Mayen. The expedition performed extensive mapping of the area, their maps being of such quality that they were used until the 1950s. The Austrian polar station on Jan Mayen Island was built and equipped in 1882 fully at Count Wilczek's own costs.

Between 1900 and 1920, there were a number of Norwegian trappers spending winters on Jan Mayen, hunting white and blue foxes in addition to some polar bears. But the exploitation soon made the profits decline, and the hunting ended.

The first meteorological station was opened in 1921 by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, who annexed the island in 1922 for Norway. By law of February 27, 1930 the island was made part of the Kingdom of Norway. During World War II Jan Mayen was not occupied by Germans as continental Norway was in 1940, but still the meteorologists chose to burn down the station. In 1941, they returned with soldiers to rebuild the station. On 7 August 1942 a German Focke-Wulf Fw 200 "Condor", probably on a mission to bomb the station, smashed into the mountainside of Danielsenkrateret near it in fog, killing all 9 crewmembers.[4] In 1950, the wreck of another German plane with 4 crewmembers was discovered on the southwest side of the island.[5] In 1943, the Americans established a radio locating station named Atlantic City in the north to try to locate German radio bases in Greenland.

After the war the meteorological station was located at Atlantic City, but moved in 1949 to a new location. Radio Jan Mayen also served as an important radio station for ship traffic in the Arctic Ocean. In 1959, NATO decided to build the LORAN-C network in the Atlantic Ocean, and one of the transmitters had to be on Jan Mayen. By 1961, the new military installations, including a new air field, were operational.

For some time scientists doubted if there could be any activity in the volcano Beerenberg, but in 1970 the volcano erupted, and added another three square kilometres (1.2 sq mi) of land mass to the island during the three to four weeks it lasted. It had more eruptions in 1973 and most recently in 1985. During an eruption the sea temperature around the island may increase from just above freezing to about 30 Celsius degrees (86 °F).

Historic stations and huts on the island are Hoyberg, Vera, Olsbu, Puppebu (cabin), Gamlemetten or Gamlestasjonen (the old weather station), Jan Mayen Radio, Helenehytta, Margarethhytta, and Ulla (a cabin at the foot of the Beerenberg).

Jan Mayen consists of two geographically distinct parts. Nord-Jan has a round shape and is dominated by the 2277 m high Beerenberg volcano with its large ice cap (114.2 km²), which can be divided into twenty individual outlet glaciers. The largest of those is Sørbreen, with an area of 15.00 km² and a length of 8.7 km. South-Jan is narrow, comparatively flat and unglaciated. Its highest elevation is Rudolftoppen with 769 meters. The station and living quarters are located on South-Jan. The island lies on the world's smallest microplate. The island was previously attached to Greenland.