Smøla is the 19th largest
island
An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...
in
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
. The island is located in
Smøla Municipality
Smøla is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Møre og Romsdal Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Nordmøre Districts of Norway, region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Hopen, Mø ...
in
Møre og Romsdal
Møre og Romsdal (; ) is a Counties of Norway, county in the northernmost part of Western Norway, Western Norway. It borders the counties of Trøndelag, Innlandet, and Vestland. The county administration is located in the Molde (town), town of M ...
county; the vast majority of the municipality is the island. The island has a good road network across the island that connects it to many of the small surrounding islands, however, it does not have any outside road connections to the rest of Norway. The only regular ferry service is via the small island of
Edøya to the south of Smøla, which one can drive to and from Smøla.
The population of the island is mostly employed in the
fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...
industry or in industries that support the fishing industry. There is also a window factory on the island, as well as some dairy and vegetable farming (especially carrots).
Geography
The island lies to the north of the
Edøyfjorden and to the west of the
Ramsøyfjorden, about north of the town of
Kristiansund
Kristiansund (, ; historically spelled Christianssund and earlier named Fosna) is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality on the western coast of Norway in the Nordmøre district of Møre og Romsdal counties of Norway, county. The admin ...
. The islands of
Hitra Hitra may refer to:
Places
* Hitra Municipality, a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway
* Hitra (island), an island within Hitra Municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway
* Hitra Church, a church in Hitra Municipality in Trøndelag county, Nor ...
and
Frøya lie to the northeast,
Skardsøya and
Ertvågsøya to the southeast,
Stabblandet and
Tustna to the south, and the open
Norwegian Sea
The Norwegian Sea (; ; ) is a marginal sea, grouped with either the Atlantic Ocean or the Arctic Ocean, northwest of Norway between the North Sea and the Greenland Sea, adjoining the Barents Sea to the northeast. In the southwest, it is separate ...
to the west and north.
The island is very low and marshy with only 5% of the land cultivated into agricultural use. The highest point on the island is the high ''Nerdvikberget''. The island is surrounded by literally thousands of small islets including the historically-important island of
Edøya. Due to the flat, unobstructed nature of the island, the
Smøla Wind Farm is located on the northwestern part of the island.
History
Scientists of the ''Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformationtechnique'' of
Technische Universität Berlin
(TU Berlin; also known as Berlin Institute of Technology and Technical University of Berlin, although officially the name should not be translated) is a public university, public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was the first ...
were testing the antique maps of
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...
and recognized a pattern of calculation mistakes that occurred when one tried to convert the old coordinates from Ptolemy into modern cartographical maps. The scientists believe that, when one compensates for these mistakes, the mythological location
Thule corresponds to the island of Smøla.
The island has been governed by a variety of municipalities over the years. At one point it was divided over 3 different municipalities:
Brattvær Municipality,
Hopen Municipality, and
Edøy Municipality. Today, there are 3 churches on the island (
Brattvær Church,
Hopen Church, and
Edøy Church), each was the main church for those respective municipalities. Since 1960, the whole island has been part of the same municipality. The largest population centres on the island are the villages of
Hopen (in the north) and
Råket-
Dyrnes (in the northwest).
Media gallery
See also
*
List of islands of Norway
References
{{authority control
Islands of Møre og Romsdal
Smøla