| Geography and Climate |
Svalbard is located in Northern Europe, between the Arctic Ocean, Barents Sea, Greenland Sea, and Norwegian Sea, north of Norway. Area - comparative: slightly smaller than West Virginia.
Climate is arctic, tempered by warm North Atlantic Current; cool summers, cold winters; North Atlantic Current flows along west and north coasts of Spitsbergen, keeping water open and navigable most of the year. Terrain consists of wild, rugged mountains; much of high land ice covered; west coast clear of ice about one-half of the year; fjords along west and north coasts.
Elevation extreme has the lowest point in Arctic Ocean 0 m and highest point in Newtontoppen 1,717 m. Natural resources are coal, copper, iron ore, phosphate, zinc, wildlife, fish.
Irrigated land: NA sq km
Natural hazards: ice floes often block up the entrance to Bellsund (a transit point for coal export) on the west coast and occasionally make parts of the northeastern coast inaccessible to maritime traffic.
Geography—note: northernmost part of the Kingdom of Norway; consists of nine main islands; glaciers and snowfields cover 60% of the total area.
Ref. Anonymous, 1999 |