Edgeøya

Edgeøya is the third largest island of belonging to Norway Svalbard archipelago in the North Atlantic. It is located east of the island of Spitsbergen ( the main island of the archipelago ), south of the slightly smaller island Barentsøya and north of the island Hopen. Edgeøya has an area of ​​5030 km ² and is uninhabited.

Climate

As on the entire Svalbard archipelago, the climate of the high latitude is accordingly hocharktisch. Bring the West Spitsbergen Current (the last northern tip of the Gulf Stream ) along the western coast of Svalbard for arctic conditions, relatively high temperatures and plenty of rain yet, so the cold Ostspitzbergenstrom provides on Edgeøya for much lower temperatures and for Küsteneis even in the summer months.

Geology

The island is composed of uniform sediments of the Triassic. These include sandstone, siltstone and mudstone that were deposited in shallow shelf seas and coastal areas. The storage is obtained largely undisguised, the layers are therefore more or less horizontally. In places, the island is very rich in fossils (mainly ammonites), sometimes occur in thin coal seams that are economical but uninteresting.

Landscape

The landscape Edgeøyas consists largely of widely held plateaux, mesas and soft slopes inland. In the south, the two 400 -meter-high mesas Kvalpynten and Negerpynten that fall on the south coast of the steep into the sea. The glaciation is on Edgeøya not as pronounced as in other parts of Svalbard with more precipitation and is limited to a large extent on the ice. The largest ice cap, Edgeøyjøkulen 1365 km ², covering the entire south-east and abuts the east coast before on a broad front as Stonebreen into the sea.

Flora and Fauna

Despite the hostile conditions the island is quite diverse. There are a number of stone crushing and buttercup, Scheuchzers cotton grass and other plant species. Fungi are available in large quantities. Especially kittiwakes nest on narrow ledges of rocks, in mammals, there is the Arctic fox, the polar bear and the Svalbard reindeer.

History

On Edgeøya there are still remains of Pomors huts which probably already came to Svalbard in the 16th century. Between 1899 and 1902, a Swedish-Russian expedition degree measurement was on the island, to which in 1904 the first Norwegian trappers came to Edgeøya. Also remains of Old English whaling stations still exist. 1968-1969 led by Dutch scientist biological investigations on the island.

Southeast Svalbard Nature Reserve

Edgeøya located entirely within the Southeast Svalbard Nature Reserve. It is there any technical intervention ( construction of buildings, operation of mines, etc.) prohibited any leave of waste, as well as any disruption or introduction of animals and plants. In addition, the land must not be traveled by motorized vehicles. The Sysselmann can also completely block areas for visitors.