Wilhelmøya
| Wilhelmøya | ||
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| Waters | Hinlopenstrasse , Barents Sea | |
| Archipelago | Spitsbergen | |
| Geographical location | 79 ° 4 ′ N , 20 ° 26 ′ E | |
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| length | 15.5 km | |
| width | 14.1 km | |
| surface | 120 km² | |
| Highest elevation | Keisarkampen 565 m |
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| Residents | uninhabited | |
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Wilhelmøya is an island on the Hinlopen Strait belonging to the Norwegian Svalbard Archipelago . It is named after Wilhelm I (German Empire) . Bjørnsundet (formerly Bismarckstrasse ), which is only 1.25 km wide at its narrowest point, separates Wilhelm Island from Spitsbergen . To the southeast lies the Bastianøyane archipelago .
geography
The uninhabited island has an east-west extension of 15.5 km and a north-south extension of 14.1 km. With an area of 120 km², it is the tenth largest island in Svalbard. The southernmost point of the island is Cape Ravenstein, the westernmost Cape Koldewey , the northernmost Cape Breusing , and the Eastern Cape is called Tumlingodden. The highest point reaches 565 m above sea level. The island is poor in vegetation and consists mainly of horizontally stored sediments from the Jura . A third of the area of Wilhelmøya is glaciated .
history
It is not known when Wilhelmøya was discovered. The Hinlopenstrasse was visited early on by whalers and pomors . In 1868, the First German North Pole Expedition , headed by Carl Koldewey , sailed its unexplored southern part. The area was mapped and a number of place names were given. Wilhelmøya got its name in honor of the Prussian king and later German emperor Wilhelm I. The expedition was able to prove that it was an island and not, as previously assumed, a cape.
Wilhelmøya has been part of the Northeast Svalbard Nature Reserve since 1973 .
Web links
- Wilhelmøya . In: The Place Names of Svalbard (first edition 1942). Norsk Polarinstitutt , Oslo 2001, ISBN 82-90307-82-9 (English, Norwegian).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Svalbard Statistics 2005 (PDF; 6.8 MB), Statistics Norway, Oslo-Kongsvinger 2005, p. 136
- ↑ Keisarkampen . In: The Place Names of Svalbard (first edition 1942). Norsk Polarinstitutt , Oslo 2001, ISBN 82-90307-82-9 (English, Norwegian).
- ↑ islands of Hinlopen Strait on www.spitzbergen.de , accessed May 1, 2011
- ↑ Richard Andree : The Battle for the North Pole. History of the North Pole Travel 1868–1879 . Velhagen & Klasing, Bielefeld and Leipzig 1880 (3rd edition), p. 79
- ↑ Reinhard A. Krause: Two hundred days in pack ice. The authentic reports of the "Hansa" men of the German East Greenland expedition 1869–1870 , Kabel Verlag, Hamburg 1997 (= writings of the German Maritime Museum, vol. 46). ISBN 3-8225-0412-2 , p. 277