Moffen (island)
| Moffen | ||
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| Waters | Greenland Sea | |
| Archipelago | Spitsbergen | |
| Geographical location | 80 ° 1 '42 " N , 14 ° 30' 49" E | |
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| length | 3 km | |
| width | 2 km | |
| surface | 5 km² | |
| Residents | uninhabited | |
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Moffen is a small island in the north of to Norway belonging archipelago Spitsbergen . The flat atoll- like island is about three kilometers long, up to two kilometers wide and, including the lagoon inside, about five square kilometers. It is located approximately at 80 degrees north of latitude at the exit of the Wijdefjord , twenty kilometers north of the island of Spitsbergen , the largest island in the archipelago, or northwest of the Reinsdyrflya peninsula , Haakon VII Land .
The island was discovered by Dutch seal and whale hunters in the middle of the 17th century and was possibly named after the derogatory term used in the Netherlands for Germans, Mof . The island is now an important retreat for walruses , hundreds of which live on the flat island. It is therefore regularly visited by excursion boats, but may not be entered until mid-September. Eider ducks , arctic terns , brent geese and swallow gulls breed on Moffen . The island is a nature reserve ( Moffen nature reserve ) within the Nordvest-Spitsbergen National Park and represents the north-easternmost land mass there.
Web links
- Moffen on Spitzbergen.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Moffen . In: The Place Names of Svalbard (first edition 1942). Norsk Polarinstitutt , Oslo 2001, ISBN 82-90307-82-9 (English, Norwegian).
- ↑ Moffen nature reserve on the website of the Norsk Polarinstitutt (English)