Barentsøya, sometimes anglicized as Barents Island, is an

island An island or isle is a piece of subcontinental land completely surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island in a river or a lake island may be ...

in the Svalbard archipelago of

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 ...

, lying between

Edgeøya Edgeøya (), occasionally anglicised as Edge Island, is a Norwegian island located in southeast of the Svalbard archipelago; with an area of , it is the third-largest island in this archipelago. An Arctic island, it forms part of the Søraust- ...

and

Spitsbergen Spitsbergen (; formerly known as West Spitsbergen; Norwegian: ''Vest Spitsbergen'' or ''Vestspitsbergen'' , also sometimes spelled Spitzbergen) is the largest and the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in northern N ...

. Barents Island has no permanent human inhabitants. Named for the Dutch explorer

Willem Barents Willem Barentsz (; – 20 June 1597), anglicized as William Barents or Barentz, was a Dutch navigator, cartographer, and Arctic explorer. Barentsz went on three expeditions to the far north in search for a Northeast passage. He reached as ...

(who actually never sighted the island), it is a part of

Søraust-Svalbard Nature Reserve Søraust-Svalbard Nature Reserve ( no, Søraust-Svalbard naturreservat) is located in the south-eastern part of the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. The nature reserve covers all of Edgeøya and Barentsøya in addition to a number of smaller isla ...

. Barentsøya is an

Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada ( Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm ( Greenland), Finland, Iceland ...

island. Around 43 per cent of its area of is glaciated. To the north, in the sound between Barentsøya and Spitsbergen, lies the island of Kükenthaløya. To the south, the

sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by ...

separating Barents Island from Edgeøya is

Freemansundet Freemansundet is the sound separating Barentsøya, to the north, from Edgeøya, in the Svalbard archipelago, Norway. Background The straight is named after Alderman Ralph Freeman, who was involved in the English whaling trade in the early 17th cent ...

. In geologic time much of the surface rock has been eroded by

glaciation A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate bet ...

. The entire area is visited by polar bears, who have a recognisable genetic differentiation specialised to the Barents Sea region. At Dørstubukta there is also a large nesting mainly used by

kittiwakes The kittiwakes (genus ''Rissa'') are two closely related seabird species in the gull family Laridae, the black-legged kittiwake (''Rissa tridactyla'') and the red-legged kittiwake (''Rissa brevirostris''). The epithets "black-legged" and "red- ...

Geography

Barentsøya has an approximately square shape, with maximum lengths and widths of about fifty kilometers, and an area of . A significant part of the island, more than , is glaciated. The ice cap of Barentsjøkulen covers a large part of the island, with the largest offspring Besselsbreen (north),

Duckwitzbreen Duckwitzbreen is a glacier on Barentsøya, Svalbard. It is an offshoot of Barentsjøkulen, reaching down to the sea in the western direction. The glacier is named after German politician Arnold Duckwitz Arnold Duckwitz (27 January 1802 in Bremen ...

(west), Freemanbreen (south), and Hübnerbreen (southeast). Barentsjøkulen has the two large ice domes of

Peer Gyntslottet Peer may refer to: Sociology * Peer, an equal in age, education or social class; see Peer group * Peer, a member of the peerage; related to the term " peer of the realm" Computing * Peer, one of several functional units in the same layer of a ne ...

and Solveigdomen. The mountain of

Schweinfurthberget Schweinfurthberget is a mountain in Barentsøya, Svalbard. It has a height of 590 m.a.s.l., and is the highest mountain of Barentsøya. The mountain is named after German scientist Georg August Schweinfurth Georg August Schweinfurth (29 December ...

is a nunatak of Barentsjøkulen. At the northern side of Barentsøya is the ice-free peninsula of Frankenhalvøya, between Ginevra Bay at the western side and Dorstbukta to the east. Grimheia is an ice-free mountainous area extending over a length of about thirteen kilometers at the northern part of the island. The westernmost point of the island is the headland of Mistakodden. At the southern part of Barentsøya are the mountains of

Krefftberget Krefftberget is a mountain group at Barentsøya, Svalbard. It is named after Australian zoologist Gerard Krefft Johann Ludwig (Louis) Gerard Krefft (17 February 1830 – 19 February 1881), a talented artist and draughtsman, and the Curator of ...

and Høgrinden, while Jeppeberget is located to the southeast. The largest lakes of the island are Veslemjøsa in Heimarka, and Dalskilvatnet between the valleys of Sjodalen and Grimdalen. Dorst_bay

References

Line notes

*C. Michael Hogan (2008
''Polar Bear: ''Ursus maritimus'', globalTwitcher.com, ed. Nicklas Stromberg

External links

Svalbard Images: Barentsøya
(URL accessed 26 December 2008) {{DEFAULTSORT:Barentsoya Islands of Svalbard Uninhabited islands of Norway

Geography

See also

References

Line notes

External links