1.
Svalbard
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Svalbard is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. Situated north of mainland Europe, it is midway between continental Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the range from 74° to 81° north latitude. The largest island is Spitsbergen, followed by Nordaustlandet and Edgeøya, administratively, the archipelago is not part of any Norwegian county, but forms an unincorporated area administered by a governor appointed by the Norwegian government. Since 2002, Svalbards main settlement, Longyearbyen, has had a local government. Other settlements include the Russian mining community of Barentsburg, the station of Ny-Ålesund. Svalbard is the northernmost settlement in the world with a permanent civilian population, other settlements are farther north, but are populated only by rotating groups of researchers. The islands were first taken into use as a base in the 17th and 18th centuries. Coal mining started at the beginning of the 20th century, the Svalbard Treaty of 1920 recognizes Norwegian sovereignty, and the 1925 Svalbard Act made Svalbard a full part of the Kingdom of Norway. They also established Svalbard as an economic zone and a demilitarized zone. The Norwegian Store Norske and the Russian Arktikugol remain the mining companies in place. Research and tourism have become important supplementary industries, with the University Centre in Svalbard, no roads connect the settlements, instead snowmobiles, aircraft and boats serve inter-community transport. Svalbard Airport, Longyear serves as the main gateway, the archipelago features an Arctic climate, although with significantly higher temperatures than other areas at the same latitude. The flora take advantage of the period of midnight sun to compensate for the polar night. Svalbard is a ground for many seabirds, and also features polar bears, reindeer, the Arctic fox. Seven national parks and twenty-three nature reserves cover two-thirds of the archipelago, protecting the largely untouched, yet fragile, approximately 60% of the archipelago is covered with glaciers, and the islands feature many mountains and fjords. Svalbard and Jan Mayen are collectively assigned the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code SJ, both areas are administered by Norway, though they are separated by a distance of over 500 nautical miles and have very different administrative structures. The Svalbard Treaty of 1920 defines Svalbard as all islands, islets and skerries from 74° to 81° north latitude, the land area is 61,022 km2, and dominated by the island of Spitsbergen, which constitutes more than half the archipelago, followed by Nordaustlandet and Edgeøya
2.
Jan Mayen
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Jan Mayen is a Norwegian volcanic island situated in the North Arctic Ocean. It is 55 km long and 373 km2 in area, partly covered by glaciers and it has two parts, larger northeast Nord-Jan and smaller Sør-Jan, linked by a 2.5 km wide isthmus. It lies 600 km northeast of Iceland,500 km east of central Greenland and 1,000 km west of the North Cape, the island is mountainous, the highest summit being the Beerenberg volcano in the north. The isthmus is the location of the two largest lakes of the island, Sørlaguna, and Nordlaguna, a third lake is called Ullerenglaguna. Jan Mayen was formed by the Jan Mayen hotspot, although administered separately, Svalbard and Jan Mayen are collectively assigned the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code SJ. Jan Mayen Island has one exploitable natural resource, gravel, from the site at Trongskaret, other than this, economic activity is limited to providing services for employees of Norways radio communications and meteorological stations located on the island. Jan Mayen has one unpaved airstrip, Jan Mayensfield, which is about 1,585 m long, the 124.1 km coast has no ports or harbours, only offshore anchorages. There are important fishing resources, and the existence of Jan Mayen establishes a large Exclusive Economic Zone around it, a dispute between Norway and Denmark regarding the fishing exclusion zone between Jan Mayen and Greenland was settled in 1988 granting Denmark the greater area of sovereignty. Significant deposits of petroleum and natural gas are suspected by geologists to lie below Jan Mayens surrounding seafloors, Jan Mayen Island is an integral part of the Kingdom of Norway. Since 1995, Jan Mayen has been administered by the County Governor of the northern Norwegian county of Nordland to which it is closest. However, some authority over Jan Mayen has been assigned to the commander of the Norwegian Defence Logistics Organisation. The only inhabitants on the island are personnel working for the Norwegian Armed Forces, eighteen people spend the winter on the island, but the population may double during the summer, when heavy maintenance is performed. Personnel serve either six months or one year, and are exchanged twice a year in April, the main purpose of the military personnel is to operate a Loran-C base. The support crew, including mechanics, cooks, and a nurse, are among the military personnel, both the LORAN transmitter and the meteorological station are located a few kilometres away from the settlement Olonkinbyen, where all personnel live. Transport to the island is provided by C-130 Hercules military transport planes operated by the Royal Norwegian Air Force that land at Jan Mayensfields gravel runway, the planes fly in from Bodø Main Air Station eight times a year. Since the airport does not have any instrument landing capabilities, good visibility is required, for heavy goods, freight ships visit during the summer, but since there are no harbours, the ships must anchor. The island has no population, but is assigned the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code SJ. It uses the Internet country code top-level domain. no and data code JN, Jan Mayen has telephone and internet connection over satellite, using Norwegian telephone numbers
3.
Norwegian language
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Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken mainly in Norway, where it is the official language. Along with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants. These Scandinavian languages, together with Faroese and Icelandic as well as extinct languages. Faroese and Icelandic are hardly mutually intelligible with Norwegian in their spoken form because continental Scandinavian has diverged from them, as established by law and governmental policy, the two official forms of written Norwegian are Bokmål and Nynorsk. The official Norwegian Language Council is responsible for regulating the two forms, and recommends the terms Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk in English. Two other written forms without official status also exist, one and it is regulated by the unofficial Norwegian Academy, which translates the name as Standard Norwegian. Nynorsk and Bokmål provide standards for how to write Norwegian, no standard of spoken Norwegian is officially sanctioned, and most Norwegians speak their own dialects in all circumstances. Thus, unlike in other countries, the use of any Norwegian dialect. Outside Eastern Norway, this variation is not used. From the 16th to the 19th centuries, Danish was the written language of Norway. As a result, the development of modern written Norwegian has been subject to strong controversy related to nationalism, rural versus urban discourse, historically, Bokmål is a Norwegianised variety of Danish, while Nynorsk is a language form based on Norwegian dialects and puristic opposition to Danish. The unofficial form known as Riksmål is considered more conservative than Bokmål, Norwegians are educated in both Bokmål and Nynorsk. A2005 poll indicates that 86. 3% use primarily Bokmål as their written language,5. 5% use both Bokmål and Nynorsk, and 7. 5% use primarily Nynorsk. Thus, 13% are frequently writing Nynorsk, though the majority speak dialects that resemble Nynorsk more closely than Bokmål. Broadly speaking, Nynorsk writing is widespread in western Norway, though not in major urban areas, examples are Setesdal, the western part of Telemark county and several municipalities in Hallingdal, Valdres, and Gudbrandsdalen. It is little used elsewhere, but 30–40 years ago, it also had strongholds in rural parts of Trøndelag. Today, not only is Nynorsk the official language of four of the 19 Norwegian counties, NRK, the Norwegian broadcasting corporation, broadcasts in both Bokmål and Nynorsk, and all governmental agencies are required to support both written languages. Bokmål is used in 92% of all publications, and Nynorsk in 8%
4.
ISO 3166-1 alpha-2
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They are the most widely used of the country codes published by ISO, and are used most prominently for the Internets country code top-level domains. They were first included as part of the ISO3166 standard in its first edition in 1974, the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes are used in different environments and are also part of other standards. In some cases they are not perfectly implemented, the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes are used in the following standards, Starting in 1985, ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes have been used in the Domain Name System as country code top-level domains. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority currently assigns the ccTLDs mostly following the alpha-2 codes, but with a few exceptions. For example, the United Kingdom, whose code is GB, uses. uk instead of. gb as its ccTLD. The European Commission generally uses ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes with two exceptions, EL is used to represent Greece, and UK is used to represent the United Kingdom. This notwithstanding, the Official Journal of the European Communities specified that GR and GB be used to represent Greece, for VAT administration purposes, the European Commission uses EL and GB for Greece and the United Kingdom respectively. IETF language tags are also derived from ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes. The full list of ISO 3166-1 codes assigned to countries and territories are usable as region subtags, also, the exceptionally reserved alpha-2 codes defined in ISO 3166-1 are also usable as region subtags for language tags. Some other region grouping subtags are derived from other standards, under the newer stability policies, old assigned codes that have been withdrawn from ISO 3166-1 should no longer be reassigned to another country or territory. The following is a colour-coded decoding table of all ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes, click on the cell to see the definition of each code. The following alpha-2 codes can be user-assigned, AA, QM to QZ, XA to XZ, for example, UN/LOCODE assigns XZ to represent installations in international waters. The Unicode Common Locale Data Repository assigns QO to represent Outlying Oceania, before the adoption of the macroregion code EU by ISO, CLDR also used QU to represent the European Union. The code XK is being used by the European Commission, the IMF, the code XA is being used by Switzerland, as a country code for the Canary Islands, although IC is already reserved for that purpose. The code XN is being used by the World Intellectual Property Organization as an indicator for the Nordic Patent Institute, the codes XE, XS and XW are used by WhatsApp to represent the flags of England, Scotland and Wales as Emoji. Reserved code elements are codes which have become obsolete, or are required in order to enable a user application of the standard. The reserved alpha-2 codes can be divided into the four categories, exceptional reservations, transitional reservations, indeterminate reservations. These codes may be used only during a period of at least five years while new code elements that may have replaced them are taken into use
5.
ISO 3166-1
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The official name of the standard is Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions – Part 1, Country codes. ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 – three-letter country codes which allow a visual association between the codes and the country names than the alpha-2 codes. The alphabetic country codes were first included in ISO3166 in 1974, as a widely used international standard, ISO 3166-1 is implemented in other standards and used by international organizations to allow facilitation of the exchange of goods and information. However, it is not the standard for country codes. Other country codes used by international organizations are partly or totally incompatible with ISO 3166-1. Currently 249 countries, territories, or areas of geographical interest are assigned codes in ISO 3166-1. Once a country name or territory name appears in either of two sources, it will be added to ISO 3166-1 by default. The ISO 3166/MA may reserve code elements for other entities that do not qualify for inclusion based on the above criteria, ISO 3166-1 is published officially in both English and French. For this reason, common components of names like Republic, Kingdom, United. As a consequence, for example, the United Kingdom is officially assigned the alpha-2 code GB rather than UK, based on its official name United Kingdom of Great Britain, some codes are chosen based on the native names of the countries. For example, Germany is assigned the alpha-2 code DE, based on its native name Deutschland, the following is a complete ISO 3166-1 encoding list of the countries which are assigned official codes. It is listed in order by the English short country name used by the ISO 3166/MA. Note, Each countrys alpha-2 code is linked to information about the assignment of its code elements. Besides the officially assigned codes, code elements may be expanded by using either reserved codes or user-assigned codes. Reserved code elements are codes which have become obsolete, or are required in order to enable a user application of the standard. Codes are usually reserved for countries, overseas territories, international organizations. A country is assigned new ISO 3166-1 codes if it changes its name or its territorial boundaries. In general, new codes are assigned if a country changes a significant part of its name
6.
Norway
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The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the Kingdom. Norway also lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land, until 1814, the kingdom included the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. It also included Isle of Man until 1266, Shetland and Orkney until 1468, Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres and a population of 5,258,317. The country shares a long border with Sweden. Norway is bordered by Finland and Russia to the north-east, Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea. King Harald V of the Dano-German House of Glücksburg is the current King of Norway, erna Solberg became Prime Minister in 2013, replacing Jens Stoltenberg. A constitutional monarchy, Norway divides state power between the Parliament, the Cabinet and the Supreme Court, as determined by the 1814 Constitution, the kingdom is established as a merger of several petty kingdoms. By the traditional count from the year 872, the kingdom has existed continuously for 1,144 years, Norway has both administrative and political subdivisions on two levels, counties and municipalities. The Sámi people have an amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament. Norway maintains close ties with the European Union and the United States, the country maintains a combination of market economy and a Nordic welfare model with universal health care and a comprehensive social security system. Norway has extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, minerals, lumber, seafood, the petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the countrys gross domestic product. On a per-capita basis, Norway is the worlds largest producer of oil, the country has the fourth-highest per capita income in the world on the World Bank and IMF lists. On the CIAs GDP per capita list which includes territories and some regions, from 2001 to 2006, and then again from 2009 to 2017, Norway had the highest Human Development Index ranking in the world. It also has the highest inequality-adjusted ranking, Norway ranks first on the World Happiness Report, the OECD Better Life Index, the Index of Public Integrity and the Democracy Index. Norway has two names, Noreg in Nynorsk and Norge in Bokmål. The name Norway comes from the Old English word Norðrveg mentioned in 880, meaning way or way leading to the north. In contrasting with suðrvegar southern way for Germany, and austrvegr eastern way for the Baltic, the Anglo-Saxon of Britain also referred to the kingdom of Norway in 880 as Norðmanna land. This was the area of Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway, and because of him
7.
International Organization for Standardization
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The International Organization for Standardization is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations. Founded on 23 February 1947, the organization promotes worldwide proprietary and it is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and as of March 2017 works in 162 countries. It was one of the first organizations granted general consultative status with the United Nations Economic, ISO, the International Organization for Standardization, is an independent, non-governmental organization, the members of which are the standards organizations of the 162 member countries. It is the worlds largest developer of international standards and facilitates world trade by providing common standards between nations. Nearly twenty thousand standards have been set covering everything from manufactured products and technology to food safety, use of the standards aids in the creation of products and services that are safe, reliable and of good quality. The standards help businesses increase productivity while minimizing errors and waste, by enabling products from different markets to be directly compared, they facilitate companies in entering new markets and assist in the development of global trade on a fair basis. The standards also serve to safeguard consumers and the end-users of products and services, the three official languages of the ISO are English, French, and Russian. The name of the organization in French is Organisation internationale de normalisation, according to the ISO, as its name in different languages would have different abbreviations, the organization adopted ISO as its abbreviated name in reference to the Greek word isos. However, during the meetings of the new organization, this Greek word was not invoked. Both the name ISO and the logo are registered trademarks, the organization today known as ISO began in 1926 as the International Federation of the National Standardizing Associations. ISO is an organization whose members are recognized authorities on standards. Members meet annually at a General Assembly to discuss ISOs strategic objectives, the organization is coordinated by a Central Secretariat based in Geneva. A Council with a membership of 20 member bodies provides guidance and governance. The Technical Management Board is responsible for over 250 technical committees, ISO has formed joint committees with the International Electrotechnical Commission to develop standards and terminology in the areas of electrical and electronic related technologies. Information technology ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 was created in 1987 to evelop, maintain, ISO has three membership categories, Member bodies are national bodies considered the most representative standards body in each country. These are the members of ISO that have voting rights. Correspondent members are countries that do not have their own standards organization and these members are informed about ISOs work, but do not participate in standards promulgation. Subscriber members are countries with small economies and they pay reduced membership fees, but can follow the development of standards
8.
.sj
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. sj is the Internet country code top-level domain reserved for the designation Svalbard and Jan Mayen. The domain name registry is Norid, but. sj is not open for registration. sj was designated on 21 August 1997, both were placed under the. no registry Norid, which is also the sponsor. Norwegian policy states that. no is sufficient for those connected to both Svalbard and Jan Mayen, and therefore the domain is not open to registration. It is Norwegian policy not to commercialize domain resources, so there are no plans to sell. sj, should the domain later come into use, it will be under regulation of the Norwegian Post and Telecommunications Authority and follow the same policy as. no. There are two second-level domains reserved for the two areas, svalbard. no and jan-mayen. no, but other web addresses are also used, Svalbard and Jan Mayen are two integrated territories of Norway with special status. Jan Mayen is a nearly unpopulated volcanic island in the Atlantic Ocean and is an integrated part of Norway. During the establishment of the ISO3166 codes, it was proposed that Svalbard have its own code, following the ISO codes. sj was allocated on 21 August 1997, at the same time. bv was allocated. In June 2015, Norwegian computer scientist Håkon Wium Lie and the Socialist Left Party proposed using the. sj domain, along with. bv, the proposal aims at protecting both the Norwegian authorities and foreign dissidents from surveillance. Management of. sj lies with the Trondheim-based Norid, which is also the name registry for. no. Norid is a company owned by Uninett, which is again owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Education. The policy for use of. sj is regulated by the Regulation Concerning Domain Names Under Norwegian Country Code Top-level Domains and this regulation also regulates Norways other two ccTLDs. bv and. no. Should. sj later come unto use, the rules and procedures currently regarding. no would be used for. sj. The domain remains reserved for future use. Sale of the two unused ccTLDs has not been an item to consider for policymakers, as commercialization of the resources is in direct contradiction to Norwegian policy. no eller aldri
9.
Archipelago
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An archipelago, sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster or collection of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi-, in Italian, possibly following a tradition of antiquity, the Archipelago was the proper name for the Aegean Sea and, later, usage shifted to refer to the Aegean Islands. It is now used to refer to any group or, sometimes. Archipelagos may be isolated in large amounts of water or neighbouring a large land mass. For example, Scotland has more than 700 islands surrounding its mainland which form an archipelago, archipelagos are often volcanic, forming along island arcs generated by subduction zones or hotspots, but may also be the result of erosion, deposition, and land elevation. Depending on their origin, islands forming archipelagos can be referred to as oceanic islands, continental fragments. Oceanic islands are mainly of volcanic origin, continental fragments correspond to land masses that have separated from a continental mass due to tectonic displacement. Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, New Zealand, Maldives, the Bahamas, Greece, Hawaii, the largest archipelagic state in the world by area and population is Indonesia. Island arc List of landforms List of archipelagos by number of islands List of archipelagos List of islands Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Archipelago
10.
Arctic Ocean
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The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the worlds five major oceans. Alternatively, the Arctic Ocean can be seen as the northernmost part of the all-encompassing World Ocean, located mostly in the Arctic north polar region in the middle of the Northern Hemisphere, the Arctic Ocean is almost completely surrounded by Eurasia and North America. It is partly covered by sea ice throughout the year and almost completely in winter, the summer shrinking of the ice has been quoted at 50%. The US National Snow and Ice Data Center uses satellite data to provide a record of Arctic sea ice cover. The Arctic may become ice free for the first time in human history within a few years or by 2040, for much of European history, the north polar regions remained largely unexplored and their geography conjectural. He was probably describing loose sea ice known today as growlers or bergy bits, his Thule was probably Norway, early cartographers were unsure whether to draw the region around the North Pole as land or water. The makers of navigational charts, more conservative than some of the more fanciful cartographers, tended to leave the region blank and this lack of knowledge of what lay north of the shifting barrier of ice gave rise to a number of conjectures. In England and other European nations, the myth of an Open Polar Sea was persistent, john Barrow, longtime Second Secretary of the British Admiralty, promoted exploration of the region from 1818 to 1845 in search of this. In the United States in the 1850s and 1860s, the explorers Elisha Kane, even quite late in the century, the eminent authority Matthew Fontaine Maury included a description of the Open Polar Sea in his textbook The Physical Geography of the Sea. Nevertheless, as all the explorers who travelled closer and closer to the reported, the polar ice cap is quite thick. Fridtjof Nansen was the first to make a crossing of the Arctic Ocean. The first surface crossing of the ocean was led by Wally Herbert in 1969, in a dog sled expedition from Alaska to Svalbard, with air support. The first nautical transit of the pole was made in 1958 by the submarine USS Nautilus. Since 1937, Soviet and Russian manned drifting ice stations have extensively monitored the Arctic Ocean, scientific settlements were established on the drift ice and carried thousands of kilometres by ice floes. In World War II, the European region of the Arctic Ocean was heavily contested, the Arctic Ocean occupies a roughly circular basin and covers an area of about 14,056,000 km2, almost the size of Antarctica. The coastline is 45,390 km long and it is surrounded by the land masses of Eurasia, North America, Greenland, and by several islands. It is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Bering Strait and to the Atlantic Ocean through the Greenland Sea, countries bordering the Arctic Ocean are, Russia, Norway, Iceland, Greenland, Canada and the United States. There are several ports and harbours around the Arctic Ocean In Alaska, in Canada, ships may anchor at Churchill in Manitoba, Nanisivik in Nunavut, Tuktoyaktuk or Inuvik in the Northwest territories
11.
Sovereignty
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Sovereignty is understood in jurisprudence as the full right and power of a governing body to govern itself without any interference from outside sources or bodies. In political theory, sovereignty is a term designating supreme authority over some polity. It is a basic principle underlying the dominant Westphalian model of state foundation, derived from Latin through French souveraineté, its attainment and retention, in both Chinese and Western culture, has traditionally been associated with certain moral imperatives upon any claimant. The concept of sovereignty has been discussed throughout history, and is still actively debated and it has changed in its definition, concept, and application throughout, especially during the Age of Enlightenment. The current notion of state sovereignty contains four aspects consisting of territory, population, authority, Sovereignty is a hypothetical trade, in which two potentially conflicting sides, respecting de facto realities of power, exchange such recognitions as their least costly strategy. The Roman jurist Ulpian observed that, The imperium of the people is transferred to the Emperor, the Emperor is not bound by the law. Emperor is the law making and abiding force, Ulpian was expressing the idea that the Emperor exercised a rather absolute form of sovereignty, although he did not use the term expressly. Classical Ulpians statements were known in medieval Europe, but sovereignty was an important concept in medieval times, Medieval monarchs were not sovereign, at least not strongly so, because they were constrained by, and shared power with, their feudal aristocracy. Furthermore, both were strongly constrained by custom, Sovereignty existed during the Medieval Period as the de jure rights of nobility and royalty, and in the de facto capability of individuals to make their own choices in life. 1380–1400, the issue of sovereignty was addressed in Geoffrey Chaucers Middle English collection of Canterbury Tales. The story revolves around the knight Sir Gawain granting to Dame Ragnell, his new bride, what is purported to be wanted most by women and we desire most from men, From men both lund and poor, To have sovereignty without lies. For where we have sovereignty, all is ours, Though a knight be ever so fierce and it is our desire to have master Over such a sir. Jean Bodin, partly in reaction to the chaos of the French wars of religion, in his 1576 treatise Les Six Livres de la République Bodin argued that it is inherent in the nature of the state that the sovereign must have both great and perpetual authority. Bodin rejected the notion of transference of sovereignty from people to the ruler, however, although he is often connected with absolutism, Bodin held some moderate opinions on how government should in practice be carried out. Thus, Bodin’s sovereign was restricted by the law of the state. Bodin believed that “the most divine, most excellent, and the form most proper to royalty is governed partly aristocratically and partly democratically”. With his doctrine that sovereignty is conferred by law, Bodin predefined the scope of the divine right of kings. During the Age of Enlightenment, the idea of sovereignty gained both legal and moral force as the main Western description of the meaning and power of a State
12.
Svalbard Treaty
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The Svalbard Treaty or the Spitsbergen Treaty, recognises the sovereignty of Norway over the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, at the time called Spitsbergen. The exercise of sovereignty is, however, subject to certain stipulations, the treaty regulates the demilitarisation of the archipelago. The signatories were given rights to engage in commercial activities on the islands. As of 2012, Norway and Russia are making use of this right, uniquely, the archipelago is an entirely visa-free zone under the terms of the Svalbard Treaty. The treaty was signed on 9 February 1920 and submitted for registration in the League of Nations Treaty Series on 21 October 1920. There were 14 original High Contracting Parties, including, the United States, Denmark, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Several additional nations signed within the five years before the treaty came into force, including the Soviet Union in 1924 and Germany. Of the original signatories, Japan was the last to ratify the treaty on 2 August 1925, on 14 August 1925, the treaty came into force. As of 2016, there are 45 parties to the treaty, the archipelago was discovered by the Dutch explorer Willem Barentsz in 1596 and named Spitsbergen, meaning sharp-peaked mountains. The islands were renamed in the 1920s by Norway as Svalbard, spitsbergen/Svalbard began as a territory free of a nation, with multiple people from different countries participating in industries including fishing, whaling, mining, research and later, tourism. However, by the 20th century mineral deposits were found on the main island, the Spitsbergen Treaty was signed in Paris on 9 February 1920, during the Versailles negotiations after World War I. In this treaty, international diplomacy recognized Norwegian sovereignty and other relating to Svalbard. This includes, Svalbard is part of Norway, Svalbard is completely controlled by, however, Norways power over Svalbard is restricted by the limitations listed below, Taxation, This allows taxes to be collected, but only enough to support Svalbard and the Svalbard government. This results in lower taxes than mainland Norway and the exclusion of any taxes on Svalbard supporting Norway directly, also, Svalbards revenues and expenses are separately budgeted from mainland Norway. Environmental conservation, Norway must respect and preserve the Svalbard environment, the residents of Svalbard must follow Norwegian law though Norwegian authority cannot discriminate against or favor any residents of any given nationality. Military restrictions, Article 9 prohibits naval bases and fortifications and also the use of Svalbard for war-like purposes and it is not, however, entirely demilitarized. There has been a dispute, primarily between Norway and Russia over fishing rights in the region. In 1977, Norway established a fishery in a 200-nautical-mile zone around Svalbard
13.
County governor (Norway)
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County Governor is a Norwegian government agency represented in 17 of the Norwegian counties responsible for a number of supervision and management duties. The Governor is the representative of the King and Government of Norway in each county, the County Governors are subordinate to the Ministry of Government Administration and Reform, but are also subordinate to other ministries in their respective duties. Governors are parts of the branch and thus formally appointed by the King in the cabinet meeting. The Governor is also responsible for matters including marriage, divorce. If a municipality do not have an economy, the Governor will enter the municipality into the ROBEK registry. The Governor of Svalbard has wider authorities, including the police authority, the County Governor has been an institution since the 12th century, though the institution has had many names, including sysselmann, lensmann, amtmann and now fylkesmann. Its present form was created in 1976 when the county municipality was demerged to form a separate, most governors are former politicians or have a background in the police force. It is uncommon for governors to hold an office for less than a decade, although almost all County Governors are former active politicians, it has been regarded as customary that an incumbent County Governor does not participate in partisan politics
14.
Nordland
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The county was formerly known as Nordlandene amt. The county administration is in Bodø, the remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen has been administered from Nordland since 1995. In the southern part is Vega, listed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list, the county is divided into traditional districts. These are Helgeland in the south, Salten in the centre, in the northwest lie the archipelagoes of Lofoten and Vesterålen. Nordland is located along the northwestern coast of the Scandinavian peninsula in Northern Norway, due to the large distance to the densely populated parts of Europe, this is one of the least polluted areas in Europe. Nordland extends about 500 km from Nord-Trøndelag to Troms, the distance by road from Bindal in the far south of the county to Andenes on the northern tip is roughly 800 km. Nordland has a coastline, with many fjords. From south to north, the main fjords are Bindalsfjord, Vefsnfjord, Ranfjord, Saltfjord-Skjerstadfjord, Folda, Tysfjord, Ofotfjord and Andfjord, which is shared with Troms county. The best-known is perhaps the Vestfjorden, which is not really a fjord, the Raftsundet strait, with its famous branch Trollfjord, is the shortest waterway connecting Lofoten and Vesterålen. The continental shelf is very narrow west of Andenes, nowhere else in Norway is the ocean only a few kilometres from shore. Saltstraumen whirlpool is just southeast of Bodø, and Moskenstraumen is located in southern Lofoten, the southern part of Norways largest island, Hinnøya is in Nordland, as is the third largest island, Langøya. In the fjords, the brim is much less developed, There might be a more gradual slope, with hills, towards the mountains. There are often valleys at the head of fjords, usually with a river at the centre of the valley, Mo i Rana, Mosjøen and Rognan are situated in such valleys. Norways second largest glacier, Svartisen, the second largest lake, Røssvatnet, the largest river is Vefsna which forms the Laksforsen waterfall. The Saltfjellet mountain range forms a border between Helgeland and Salten, and is where the Arctic Circle cuts through the county. The interior of Nordland, towards the border with Sweden, is dominated by the Kjølen Mountains, the highest mountain in Nordland is Oksskolten in Okstindan range, the second highest is Suliskongen in Fauske, and the third is Storsteinfjellet in Narvik. Stetind in Tysfjord has been voted as Norways national mountain, There are many glaciers in the mountains, like Blåmannsisen, Okstindbreen, the Sulitjelma Glacier, and Frostisen -7 of the 15 largest glaciers in continental Norway are located in Nordland. This Cambrian - Silurian bedrock, much of it mica schist, is by far the largest area in Norway with soft bedrock rich in nutritions good for plant growth
15.
Counties of Norway
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Norway is divided into 19 administrative regions, called counties, until 1918, they were known as amter. The counties form the first-level subdivisions of Norway and are divided into 428 municipalities. Svalbard and Jan Mayen are outside the county division and ruled directly on national level, the capital Oslo is considered both a county and a municipality. In 2017 the government decided to abolish the current counties and to them with fewer, larger administrative regions. Below is a list of the Norwegian counties as they have been since 1919, note that the counties are administered both by appointees of the national government and to a lesser extent by their own elected bodies. The county numbers are from the numbering system ISO 3166-2, NO. The number 13 was dropped from the system when the city of Bergen was merged into Hordaland in 1972, from the consolidation to a single kingdom, Norway was divided into a number of geographic regions that had its own legislative assembly or Thing, such as Gulating and Frostating. The second-order subdivision of these regions was into fylker, such as Egdafylke and Hordafylke, in 1914, the historical term fylke was brought into use again to replace the term amt introduced during the union with Denmark. Current day counties often, but not necessarily, correspond to the historical areas. Finnmark, the Faroe Islands, the Orkney Islands, Shetland, the Hebrides, Isle of Man, Iceland and Greenland were Norwegian skattland, from the end of the 12th century, Norway was divided into several syssel. The head of the various syssel was the syslemann, who represented the king locally, the following shows a reconstruction of the different syssel in Norway c. 1300, including sub-syssel where these seem established, from 1308, the term len in Norway signified an administrative region roughly equivalent to todays counties. The historic len was an important administrative entity during the period of Dano-Norwegian unification after their amalgamation as one state, which lasted for the period 1536–1814. At the beginning of the 16th century the political divisions were variable, up to 1660 the four principal len were headquartered at the major fortresses Bohus Fortress, Akershus Fortress, Bergenhus Fortress and the fortified city of Trondheim. The sub-regions corresponded to the districts for the Lutheran church in Norway. Båhus len Akershus len Trondheim len Bergenhus len These four principal len were in the 1530s divided into approximately 30 smaller regions. From that point forward through the beginning of the 17th century the number of subsidiary len was reduced, from 1660 Norway had nine principal len comprising 17 subsidiary len, Len written as län continues to be used as the administrative equivalent of county in Sweden to this day. Each len was governed by a lenman, with the royal decree of February 19,1662, each len was designated an amt and the lenmann was titled amtmann, from German Amt, reflecting the bias of the Danish court of that period
16.
Bellsund
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Bellsund is a 20-kilometer long sound on the west coast of Spitsbergen, part of the Svalbard archipelago of Norway. It is separated from Van Mijenfjorden by the islands of Akseløya, Bellsund is located south of Nordenskiöld Land and north of Wedel Jarlsberg Land. Bellsund was first seen by William Barents in 1596 and he simply referred to it as Inwyck. In 1610 Jonas Poole explored Bellsund, giving the fjord the name it retains to this day and he named it after a nearby bell-shaped mountain. In 1612 the Dutchman Willem Cornelisz, Van Muyden was the first to attempt to catch whales here, but he wasnt very successful as he didnt have any Basque whalemen among his crew. In 1613, Basque, Dutch, and French whaling vessels resorted to Bellsund, in 1614 the Dutch agreed to give Bellsund to the English, but only for one season. In 1615 the Dutch built the first semi-permanent whaling station in Spitsbergen at the mouth of Schoonhoven and it was appropriated by the English the following year. In 1626 this station was damaged by York and Hull whalers, here they were found by the heavily armed flagship of the London whaling fleet, the Hercules, under admiral William Goodlad. A two-hour battle ensued, resulting in defeat for the Hull and York fleet, Hull continued to send whaling vessels to occupy this station for the next 25 years, while the English as a whole probably resorted to Bellsund at least until the late 1650s
17.
Arctic
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The Arctic is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Alaska, Canada, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, land within the Arctic region has seasonally varying snow and ice cover, with predominantly treeless permafrost-containing tundra. Arctic seas contain seasonal sea ice in many places, the Arctic region is a unique area among Earths ecosystems. For example, the cultures in the region and the Arctic indigenous peoples have adapted to its cold, in recent years, Arctic sea ice decline has been caused by global warming. Life in the Arctic includes organisms living in the ice, zooplankton and phytoplankton, fish and marine mammals, birds, land animals, plants, Arctic land is bordered by the subarctic. The word Arctic comes from the Greek word ἀρκτικός, near the Bear, northern, there are a number of definitions of what area is contained within the Arctic. The area can be defined as north of the Arctic Circle, the southern limit of the midnight sun. The Arctics climate is characterized by cold winters and cool summers and its precipitation mostly comes in the form of snow and is low, with most of the area receiving less than 50 cm. High winds often stir up snow, creating the illusion of continuous snowfall, average winter temperatures can be as low as −40 °C, and the coldest recorded temperature is approximately −68 °C. Coastal Arctic climates are moderated by oceanic influences, having generally warmer temperatures, the Arctic is affected by current global warming, leading to Arctic sea ice shrinkage, diminished ice in the Greenland ice sheet, and Arctic methane release as the permafrost thaws. Due to the migration of the planets isotherms, the Arctic region is currently shrinking. Perhaps the most spectacular result of Arctic shrinkage is sea ice loss, there is a large variance in predictions of Arctic sea ice loss, with models showing near-complete to complete loss in September from 2040 to some time well beyond 2100. About half of the models show near-complete to complete sea ice loss in September by the year 2100. Arctic life is characterized by adaptation to short growing seasons with long periods of sunlight, Arctic vegetation is composed of plants such as dwarf shrubs, graminoids, herbs, lichens and mosses, which all grow relatively close to the ground, forming tundra. As one moves northward, the amount of available for plant growth decreases considerably. Colder summer temperatures cause the size, abundance, productivity and variety of plants to decrease, trees cannot grow in the Arctic, but in its warmest parts, shrubs are common and can reach 2 m in height, sedges, mosses and lichens can form thick layers. In the coldest parts of the Arctic, much of the ground is bare, non-vascular plants such as lichens and mosses predominate, along with a few scattered grasses, herbivores on the tundra include the Arctic hare, lemming, muskox, and caribou. They are preyed on by the owl, Arctic fox, Grizzly bear
18.
North Pole
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The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is defined as the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earths axis of rotation meets its surface. The North Pole is the northernmost point on the Earth, lying diametrically opposite the South Pole and it defines geodetic latitude 90° North, as well as the direction of true north. At the North Pole all directions point south, all lines of longitude converge there, along tight latitude circles, counterclockwise is east and clockwise is west. The North Pole is at the center of the Northern Hemisphere, while the South Pole lies on a continental land mass, the North Pole is located in the middle of the Arctic Ocean amid waters that are almost permanently covered with constantly shifting sea ice. This makes it impractical to construct a permanent station at the North Pole, however, the Soviet Union, and later Russia, constructed a number of manned drifting stations on a generally annual basis since 1937, some of which have passed over or very close to the Pole. Since 2002, the Russians have also established a base, Barneo. This operates for a few weeks during early spring, studies in the 2000s predicted that the North Pole may become seasonally ice-free because of Arctic ice shrinkage, with timescales varying from 2016 to the late 21st century or later. The sea depth at the North Pole has been measured at 4,261 m by the Russian Mir submersible in 2007 and at 4,087 m by USS Nautilus in 1958. The nearest land is said to be Kaffeklubben Island, off the northern coast of Greenland about 700 km away. The nearest permanently inhabited place is Alert in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada, around the beginning of the 20th century astronomers noticed a small apparent variation of latitude, as determined for a fixed point on Earth from the observation of stars. Part of this variation could be attributed to a wandering of the Pole across the Earths surface, the wandering has several periodic components and an irregular component. The component with a period of about 435 days is identified with the eight-month wandering predicted by Euler and is now called the Chandler wobble after its discoverer and it is desirable to tie the system of Earth coordinates to fixed landforms. Of course, given plate tectonics and isostasy, there is no system in all geographic features are fixed. Yet the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service and the International Astronomical Union have defined a framework called the International Terrestrial Reference System. As early as the 16th century, many eminent people correctly believed that the North Pole was in a sea and it was therefore hoped that passage could be found through ice floes at favorable times of the year. Several expeditions set out to find the way, generally with whaling ships, one of the earliest expeditions to set out with the explicit intention of reaching the North Pole was that of British naval officer William Edward Parry, who in 1827 reached latitude 82°45′ North. In 1871 the Polaris expedition, a US attempt on the Pole led by Charles Francis Hall, another British Royal Navy attempt on the pole, part of the British Arctic Expedition, by Commander Albert H. Markham reached a then-record 83°2026 North in May 1876 before turning back. An 1879–1881 expedition commanded by US naval officer George W. DeLong ended tragically when their ship, over half the crew, including DeLong, were lost
19.
Spitsbergen
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Spitsbergen is the largest and only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in northern Norway. Constituting the westernmost bulk of the archipelago, it borders the Arctic Ocean, the Norwegian Sea, Spitsbergen covers an area of 39,044 km2, making it the largest island in Norway and the 36th-largest in the world. Other settlements, in addition to research outposts, are the Russian mining community of Barentsburg, the community of Ny-Ålesund. The island was first used as a base in the 17th and 18th centuries. Coal mining started at the end of the 19th century and several permanent communities were established, the Svalbard Treaty of 1920 recognized Norwegian sovereignty and established Svalbard as a free economic zone and a demilitarized zone. The Norwegian Store Norske and the Russian Arktikugol remain the mining companies. Research and tourism have become important supplementary industries, featuring among others the University Centre in Svalbard, no roads connect the settlements, instead snowmobiles, aircraft, and boats serve as local transport. Svalbard Airport, Longyear provides the point of entry and exit. The island has an Arctic climate, although significantly higher temperatures than other places at the same latitude. The flora benefits from the period of midnight sun, which compensates for the polar night. Svalbard is a ground for many seabirds, and also supports polar bears, reindeer. Six national parks protect the largely untouched, yet fragile environment, the island has many glaciers, mountains and fjords. Spitsbergen was named by its discoverer, the Dutch navigator Willem Barentsz, the name Spitsbergen, meaning “pointed mountains”, was at first applied to both the main island and the archipelago as a whole. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, English whalers referred to the islands as Greenland, the Spitzbergen spelling was used in English during the 19th century, for instance by Beechey, Laing, and the Royal Society. In 1906, the Arctic explorer Sir Martin Conway thought that the Spitzbergen spelling was incorrect, preferring Spitsbergen as he noted that the name was Dutch and this had little effect on British practice. In 1920, the international treaty determining the fate of the islands was entitled the Spitsbergen Treaty, the islands were generally referred to in the USA as Spitsbergen from that time, although the spelling Spitzbergen was also commonly used through the 20th century. Under Norwegian governance, the archipelago was named Svalbard in 1925, by the end of the 20th century, this usage had become common. The first confirmed and recorded sighting of the island by a European was by Willem Barentsz, the first good map with the east coast roughly indicated, appeared in 1623, printed by Willem Janszoon Blaeu
20.
Nordaustlandet
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Nordaustlandet is the second-largest island in the archipelago of Svalbard, Norway, with an area of 14,443 square kilometres. It lies north east of Spitsbergen, separated by Hinlopen Strait, much of Nordaustlandet lies under large ice caps, mainly Austfonna and Vestfonna, the remaining parts of the north being tundra inhabited by reindeer and walruses. The island is uninhabited and lies entirely within Nordaust-Svalbard Nature Reserve, english walrus hunters first sighted the south point of Nordaustlandet in 1617. This discovery was shown on the Muscovy Companys map, with the island labeled as Sir Thomas Smyths Iland and it also shows the North Cape. A Dutch map of 1710 was the first to show the island accurately, the rock types in Nordaustlandet stem from many different geological eras. The northern part consists of old crystalline basement, with such as marble, quartzite, mica schist, gneiss. East of Lady Franklinfjorden, on the peninsula Botniahalvøya and east of Duvefjorden there are volcanic rocks, in the east and south of Rijpfjorden the bedrock is made up of distinctive red-coloured granite. The Rijpfjord granite is medium grained, and contains two micas in addition to quartz, plagioclase and pink K-feldspar and it was emplaced in late Silurian times. Layered gabbro and dolerite of Silurian age occur at Kapp Laura in easternmost Nordaustlandet, on the island of Storøya, on Andréeneset, in the southern part of Kvitøya, gneisses and granites are the most common rock types. Four generations of rocks, gneiss, amphibolite, and grey and pink granite are present on Isispynten, south of Wahlenbergfjorden there is a large area with sedimentary rocks – mostly limestone and dolomite – from the Carboniferous and Permian. The youngest rocks in Nordaustlandet are Jurassic–Cretaceous dolerite dikes, which intrude the basement rocks on the island of Lågøya, unconsolidated deposits in Nordaustlandet consist of scree slopes, block fields and raised shore deposits. There are only small amounts of river deposits, the largest strandflats on Nordaustlandet can be found in the north-west, around Murchisonfjorden and on the island of Lågøya. Another large strandflat is Svartknausflya in the south, just west of the glacier of Bråsvellbreen, here, there are raised shore deposits up to 120 m. a. s. l. where ancient whale bones have been found 70 m above today’s sea level. Svartknausflya is also the largest moraine area in Nordaustlandet, it measures about 70 km2, glacial activity has shaped the landscape in Nordaustlandet through several ice ages. Gentle plateaus and rounded mountains are the most common sight, the tallest and steepest mountains, up to 600 m. a. s. l. can be found in the north. The eastern part of Nordaustlandet is covered in glaciers, and there are few areas without ice, between Vibebukta and Kapp Laura, the steep front of the Austfonna ice cap dominates. The glacier has retracted a bit during recent decades, revealing new areas of dry land on the few headlands that can be found around here, Austfonna, including Vegafonna, stretch across an area of 8,450 km2. Austfonna covers approximately 58% of Nordaustlandet, the largest areas with no ice are between Austfonna and Vestfonna and on the peninsulas in the north and north-west of Nordaustlandet
21.
Longyearbyen
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Longyearbyen (Norwegian pronunciation, is the largest settlement and the administrative centre of Svalbard, Norway. As of December 2015, the town had a population of 2,144, Longyearbyen is located in the Longyear Valley and on the shore of Adventfjorden, a bay of Isfjorden located on the west coast of Spitsbergen. Since 2002, Longyearbyen Community Council has had many of the same responsibilities of a municipality, including utilities, education, cultural facilities, fire brigade, roads, the town is the seat of the Governor of Svalbard. It is the worlds northernmost settlement of any kind with greater than 1,000 permanent residents, known as Longyear City until 1926, the town was established by and named after John Munro Longyear, whose Arctic Coal Company started coal mining operations in 1906. Operations were taken over by Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani in 1916, the town was almost completely destroyed by the German Kriegsmarine on 8 August 1943, but was rebuilt after the Second World War. Traditionally, Longyearbyen was a town, but most mining operations have moved to Sveagruva since the 1990s, while the town has seen a large increase in tourism. This has seen the arrival of such as the University Centre in Svalbard. The community is served by Svalbard Airport, Longyear and Svalbard Church, in 1896, Vesteraalens Dampskibsselskab started tours to Hotellneset. To accommodate tourists, they built a hotel, but it was not profitable and was closed after the 1897 season. However, two families overwintered in 1898–99 and Norway Post operated a post office at Hotellneset from 1897 to 1899, the first commercially viable coal on Svalbard was harvested by Søren Zakariassen in 1899. In 1901, Bergen-Spitsbergen Kullgrube-kompani started mining coal in Adventtoppen, the American industrialist John Munroe Longyear visited Spitsbergen as a tourist in 1901, where he met with an expedition prospecting for coal. He returned to Spitsbergen 1903, where he met Henrik B, næss in Adventfjorden, who gave him samples and information on coal fields. Along with his associate Frederick Ayer, Longyear bought the Norwegian claims on the west side of Adventfjorden, in 1906, the Boston-based Arctic Coal Company, with Ayer and Longyear as the main shareholders, started mining in Mine 1a, after having built docks and housing. The company had American administration, but mostly Norwegian labourers, Coal was transported the 1.2 kilometers from the mine to the port using an aerial tramway. In 1913, the company started work to open Mine 2a. Following financial difficulties during the First World War, the operations were bought by Store Norske. That year, SNSK built five new barracks, including one that was made into a hospital, SNSK introduced its own money with approval from Norges Bank, consisting entirely of banknotes at par with Norwegian krone. The American community buried their dead at Hotellneset, in 1918, eleven people were killed by the Spanish flu and a graveyard was established in Longyear City
22.
Barentsburg
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Barentsburg is the second-largest settlement on Svalbard, with about 500 inhabitants, almost entirely Russians and Ukrainians. It is the site of the Barentsburg Pomor Museum, named after Dutch explorer Willem Barents, the town is a mining town, with coal mining conducted by the Soviet company Arktikugol since 1932. The population has declined over the decades, in its heyday, although Svalbard is under Norwegian sovereignty, the unique Svalbard Treaty of 1920 allows citizens of signatory countries equal rights to exploit natural resources. Russia, along with Norway, maintains mining operations on Svalbard as a result, Russia maintains a consulate in Barentsburg, the northernmost diplomatic mission of any kind in the world. Barentsburg still has a Norwegian mail address and Norwegian phone numbers, Barentsburg started as a Dutch mining town in the 1920s. In 1932 the Dutch sold their concession to the Soviet Union, since 1932 the Russian state-owned Arktikugol Trust has been operating on Svalbard. The main economic activity is coal mining by the Arktikugol company, the coal is usually exported to Northern European buyers. The town relies entirely on mainland Russia for food and coinage, there have been instances in which not enough food was sent, and aid packages were sent from Longyearbyen. Tourism is now being developed, but does not yet generate enough income to revive the town, the distance from Longyearbyen to Barentsburg is about 55 km but there are no roads connecting the two settlements. Most contact between the two is by boat, snowmobile, or helicopter, there is a heliport with a road connection at Heerodden,4 km north of Barentsburg. Tourists usually arrive via a 2-3-hour boat trip from Longyearbyen, the coal is freighted by ship. The port is located in the middle of Barentsburg, the Barentsburg Pomor Museum presents Pomor culture, Arctic flora and fauna, and archeological objects preserved in the permafrost. It is open when the daily, summer-only boat from Longyear arrives, there is an athletic complex, including a swimming pool with heated seawater. Every summer, several dozen geophysicists, geologists, archeologists, biologists, glaciologists, geographers, etc. from Russia, there is also a year-round meteorological observatory and the northernmost cosmic rays station. Adrian Briscoe completed Dream Town, a film about Barentsburg. From documentary to fiction, the film concludes with a series of resolutions centered on the themes of love, dreams and escapism. Co-written by novelist Ray Robinson, Dream Town won the Best Picture award at both the Chicago Underground Film Festival and the Derby Film Festival, UK in the spring of 2014, coal mining resumed at the end of 2010
23.
Sveagruva
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Sveagruva, or simply Svea, is a mining settlement in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, lying at the head of Van Mijenfjord. It is the third largest settlement in the archipelago, currently, around 300 workers living in Longyearbyen commute to Sveagruva for work on a daily or weekly basis. The mine is operated by Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani and is served by Svea Airport, the town was established in 1917 by Swedes. It was thereafter destroyed in 1944, but quickly re-established after World War II, the mining activity ceased in 1949, and was not re-established until 1970. In the 1990s, the town nearly vanished, as mines in Longyearbyen proved more productive, mining was suspended for a short period in 1987. In 2005, a fire erupted, lasting uninterrupted for more than five weeks. Today, Sveagruva holds the most productive coal mine of Svalbard, opened in 2001, the mine produces up to 4 million metric tons of coal annually, making it one of the largest underground coal mines in Europe
24.
Svalbard Act
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The Svalbard Act of 17 July 1925 no. 11, normally referred to as the Svalbard Act, is a law of Norway which governs the major aspects of the Svalbard archipelago, otherwise, other provisions and laws only apply when specified. The act further established the policy for administration, including creating the Governor of Svalbard, the act also establishes rules for real estate and environmental protection. The act established the basis for a society on the islands. The law has been amended several times, and consists of 6 chapters and 46 paragraphs, from 1 July 2002, the Svalbard Environmental Act of 15 June 2001 nr.79 supplements the Svalbard Act, regulating all environmental aspects of the archipelago
25.
Governor of Svalbard
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The Governor of Svalbard represents the Norwegian government in exercising its sovereignty over the Svalbard archipelago. An important part of the position is to good working relations with the Russian community in Barentsburg. To this end, the organization consists of, a staff section with Russian interpreters and advisors on legal matters, tourism. The offices annual budget is determined by the Norwegian Storting, and runs at about NOK60 million, of which the largest part is used for transportation
26.
Free economic zone
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Free economic zones, free economic territories or free zones are a class of special economic zone designated by the trade and commerce administrations of various countries. The term is used to designate areas in which companies are taxed very lightly or not at all to encourage economic activity, the taxation rules are determined by each country. The World Trade Organization Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures has content on the conditions, some special economic zones are called free ports. Sometimes they have historically been endowed with favorable customs regulations such as the port of Trieste. In recent years the port system has been accused of facilitating international art crime. An early type of special economic zone was free ports, these historically were endowed with favorable customs regulations such as the port of Trieste. In modern times free port has come to mean a type of special economic zone
27.
Demilitarized zone
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A demilitarized zone, DMZ or DZ is an area in which treaties or agreements between nations, military powers or contending groups forbid military installations, activities or personnel. A DMZ often lies along an established frontier or boundary between two or more powers or alliances. A DMZ may sometimes form a de facto border, such as the 38th parallel between North and South Korea. Other examples of demilitarized zones are a 120-mile area between Iraq and Kuwait, Antarctica and outer space, many demilitarized zones are considered neutral territory because neither side is allowed to control it, even for non-combat administration. Some zones remain demilitarized after an agreement has awarded control to a state which had ceded its right to maintain military forces in the disputed territory. Several demilitarized zones have also unintentionally become wildlife preserves because their land is unsafe for construction or less exposed to human disturbances, examples include the Korean Demilitarized Zone, the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone, and the Green Line in Cyprus. Aegean Islands – The Greek islands of Chios, Icaria, Mytilene, the Treaty forbids all naval fortifications and bases and stipulates that military forces on the islands be limited to the normal contingent called up for military service. The Treaty does however provide for the use of personnel or equipment for scientific research or for any other peaceful purpose. Ceuta border fence and Melilla border fence – A de facto demilitarized zone exists between the Spanish territories of Ceuta and Melilla and Morocco, perimeter fences around both cities have been constructed by Spanish and Moroccan authorities, creating a demilitarized zone between the Spanish and Moroccan fences. Ground Safety Zone – A5 km -wide demilitarized area between Serbia and Kosovo was created under the Kumanovo Agreement following the Kosovo War, Korean Demilitarized Zone – The Korean Armistice Agreement created a 4 km -wide demilitarized zone between North Korea and South Korea following the Korean War. It is currently the most heavily guarded area in the world, kuwait–Iraq barrier – The United Nations Security Council approved the creation of a demilitarized zone between Iraq and Kuwait in Resolution 689. Although the demilitarized zone is no longer mandated by the Council, preah Vihear Temple – The International Court of Justice had ordered the creation of a provisional demilitarized zone around the Temple whose ownership is claimed by both Cambodia and Thailand. Sinai Peninsula – The Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty sets a limit to the amount of forces Egypt can place in the Sinai Peninsula, parts of the peninsula are demilitarized to various degrees, especially within 20–40 kilometres of Israel. Israel also agreed to limit its forces within 3 kilometres of the Egyptian border, the areas are monitored by the Multinational Force and Observers. Because of the Sinai insurgency all sides agreed and encouraged Egypt to send large amounts of forces into the area, including tanks and helicopters. Svalbard – The Svalbard Treaty of 1920, which recognized Norwegian sovereignty over the territory, Sudan – A10 km demilitarized zone along the Sudan – South Sudan border. It was authorized by Resolution 186 and is patrolled by the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus, the zone is monitored by the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force. A neutral territory was established between the British territory of Gibraltar and Spain after the end of the 1727 siege
28.
Schengen Area
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The Schengen Area is an area comprising 26 European states that have officially abolished passport and any other type of border control at their mutual borders. The area mostly functions as a country for international travel purposes. The area is named after the Schengen Agreement, States in the Schengen Area have eliminated border controls with other Schengen members and strengthened border controls with non-Schengen countries. Twenty-two of the twenty-eight European Union member states participate in the Schengen Area, three European microstates – Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City – can be considered de facto participants. The Schengen Area has a population of over 400 million people, as a result of the migration crisis ongoing as of early 2017, Austria, Denmark, Germany, Norway and Sweden temporarily imposed controls on some or all of their borders with other Schengen states. Following the November 2015 Paris attacks and subsequent attacks in France, France declared a state of emergency, the Schengen Agreement was signed on 14 June 1985 by five of the ten EEC member states in the town of Schengen, Luxembourg. The Schengen Area was established separately from the European Economic Community, in 1990 the Agreement was supplemented by the Schengen Convention, which proposed the abolition of internal border controls and a common visa policy. The Agreements and the rules adopted under them were separate from the EC structures. As more EU member states signed the Schengen Agreement, consensus was reached on absorbing it into the procedures of the EU, the Agreement and its related conventions were incorporated into the mainstream of European Union law by the Amsterdam Treaty in 1997, which came into effect in 1999. A consequence of the Agreement being part of European law is that any amendment and regulation is made within its processes, in which the non-EU members are not participants. The UK and Ireland have maintained a Common Travel Area since 1923, but beyond this the UK could not accept abolishing border controls, and were given a full opt-out from the area. While not signing the Schengen Treaty, Ireland has always looked more favourably on joining but has not done so to maintain the CTA, the Nordic members required Norway and Iceland to be included, which was accepted, and so a consensus could be reached. The Schengen Area consists of 26 states, including four which are not members of the European Union, two of the non-EU members, Iceland and Norway, are part of the Nordic Passport Union and are officially classified as states associated with the Schengen activities of the EU. Switzerland was subsequently allowed to participate in the manner in 2008. Liechtenstein joined the Schengen Area on 19 December 2011, de facto, the Schengen Area also includes three European micro-states – Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican City – that maintain open or semi-open borders with other Schengen member countries. Two EU members – Ireland and the United Kingdom – negotiated opt-outs from Schengen, the remaining four EU member states – Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus and Romania – are obliged to eventually join the Schengen Area. However, before implementing the Schengen rules, each state must have its preparedness assessed in four areas, air borders, visas, police cooperation. This evaluation process involves a questionnaire and visits by EU experts to selected institutions, the only land borders with border controls between EU/EEA members, are those of Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania, and the one at Gibraltar and those at the Channel Tunnel
29.
European Economic Area
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The European Economic Area is the area in which the Agreement on the EEA provides for the free movement of persons, goods, services and capital within the European Single Market. The EEA was established on 1 January 1994 upon entry into force of the EEA Agreement, the EEA Agreement specifies that membership is open to member states of either the European Union or European Free Trade Association. EFTA states which are party to the EEA Agreement participate in the EUs internal market without being members of the EU and they adopt most EU legislation concerning the single market, however with notable exclusions including laws regarding agriculture and fisheries. The EEAs decision-shaping processes enable EEA EFTA member states to influence and contribute to new EEA policy, third country goods are excluded for these states on rules of origin. Membership has grown to 31 states as of 2016,28 EU member states, the Agreement is applied provisionally with respect to Croatia—the remaining and most recent EU member state—pending ratification of its accession by all EEA parties. One EFTA member, Switzerland, has not joined the EEA, in the late 1980s, the EFTA member states, led by Sweden, began looking at options to join the then European Communities. The reasons identified for this are manifold, many authors cite the economic downturn in the beginning of the 1980s, and the subsequent adoption by the European Union of the Europe 1992 agenda as a primary reason. Other authors point to the end of the Cold War, which joining the EU less politically controversial for neutral countries. Delors proposed a European Economic Space in January 1989, which was renamed the European Economic Area. By the time the EEA was established, however, several developments hampered its credibility, first of all, Switzerland rejected the EEA agreement in a national referendum on 6 December 1992 obstructing full EU-EFTA integration within the EEA. Furthermore, Austria had applied for full EEC membership in 1989, and was followed by Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland between 1991 and 1992. The EEA Agreement was signed in Porto on 2 May 1992 by the seven states of the European Free Trade Association. Switzerland is instead linked to the EU by a series of bilateral agreements, liechtensteins participation in the EEA was delayed until 1 May 1995. As of 2014 the contracting parties to the EEA are 3 of the 4 EFTA member states and 27 of the 28 EU member states, after Slovenia, Croatia has recovered best from the break-up of the former Yugoslavia and is the second former Yugoslav state to join the EU. According to Eurostat, Croatia has a market economy and its GDP per capita in 2010 was 61 per cent of the EU average. EU accession negotiations were concluded on 30 June 2011, and the Treaty of Accession was signed on 9 December 2011 in Brussels, Accession negotiations were expected to be completed by the autumn of 2013, and on 20 November 2013 it was announced that an enlargement agreement was reached. As of January 2017, the agreement has been ratified by 15 out of 31 EEA member states, the agreement did not fully enter into force until 9 November 2011. On the other hand, the EEA Agreement was applied on a basis to the 10 acceding countries in May 2004 as from the date of their accession to the EU
30.
High island
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In geology, a high island or volcanic island is an island of volcanic origin. The term can be used to such islands from low islands. Volcanic islands normally arise above a so-called hotspot and this hampers or hinders human settlement on many low islands. Atoll Low island Volcanic arc Micronesian culture, High island and low island cultures at Britannica. com
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Norwegian Sea
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The Norwegian Sea is a marginal sea in the North Atlantic Ocean, northwest of Norway. It is located between the North Sea and the Greenland Sea and adjoins the North Atlantic Ocean to the west, in the southwest, it is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by a submarine ridge running between Iceland and the Faroe Islands. To the North, the Jan Mayen Ridge separates it from the Greenland Sea, unlike many other seas, most of the bottom of the Norwegian Sea is not part of a continental shelf and therefore lies at a great depth of about two kilometres on average. Rich deposits of oil and natural gas are found under the sea bottom and are being explored commercially, the coastal zones are rich in fish that visit the Norwegian Sea from the North Atlantic or from the Barents Sea for spawning. The warm North Atlantic Current ensures relatively stable and high temperatures, so that unlike the Arctic seas. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Norwegian Sea as follows, a line joining the southernmost point of West Spitzbergen to North Cape of Bear Island, through this island to Cape Bull and thence on to North Cape in Norway. The West coast of Norway between North Cape and Cape Stadt, from a point on the West coast of Norway in Latitude 61°00 North along this parallel to Longitude 0°53 West thence a line to the NE extreme of Fuglö and on to the East extreme of Gerpir in Iceland. The Southeastern limit of Greenland Sea, the Norwegian Sea was formed about 250 million years ago, when the Eurasian plate of Norway and the North American Plate, including Greenland, started to move apart. The existing narrow shelf sea between Norway and Greenland began to widen and deepen, the present continental slope in the Norwegian Sea marks the border between Norway and Greenland as it stood approximately 250 million years ago. In the north it extends east from Svalbard and on the southwest between Britain and the Faroes and this continental slope contains rich fishing grounds and numerous coral reefs. Settling of the shelf after the separation of the continents has resulted in landslides, the coasts of the Norwegian Sea were shaped during the last Ice Age. Large glaciers several kilometres high pushed into the land, forming fjords, removing the crust into the sea and this is particularly clear off the Norwegian coast along Helgeland and north to the Lofoten Islands. The Norwegian continental shelf is between 40 and 200 kilometres wide, and has a different shape from the shelves in the North Sea and it contains numerous trenches and irregular peaks, which usually have an amplitude of less than 100 metres, but can reach up to 400 metres. They are covered with a mixture of gravel, sand, and mud, deeper into the sea, there are two deep basins separated by a low ridge between the Vøring Plateau and Jan Mayen island. The southern basin is larger and deeper, with areas between 3,500 and 4,000 metres deep. The northern basin is shallower at 3, 200–3,300 metres, submarine thresholds and continental slopes mark the borders of these basins with the adjacent seas. To the south lies the European continental shelf and the North Sea, to the west, the Scotland-Greenland Ridge separates the Norwegian Sea from the North Atlantic. This ridge is on average only 500 metres deep, only in a few reaching the depth of 850 metres
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Greenland Sea
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The Greenland Sea is often defined as part of the Arctic Ocean, sometimes as part of the Atlantic Ocean. However, definitions of the Arctic Ocean and its seas tend to be imprecise or arbitrary, in general usage the term Arctic Ocean would exclude the Greenland Sea. In oceanographic studies the Greenland Sea is considered part of the Nordic Seas, the Nordic Seas are the main connection between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans and, as such, could be of great significance in a possible shutdown of thermohaline circulation. In oceanography the Arctic Ocean and Nordic Seas are often referred to collectively as the Arctic Mediterranean Sea, the sea has Arctic climate with regular northern winds and temperatures rarely rising above 0 °C. The West Ice forms in winter in the Greenland Sea, north of Iceland and it is a major breeding ground of harp seal and hooded seal that has been used for seal hunting for more than 200 years. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Greenland Sea as follows, a line joining the Northernmost point of Spitzbergen to the Northernmost point of Greenland. The West coast of West Spitzbergen, a line joining Straumnes to Cape Nansen in Greenland. The East and Northeast coast of Greenland between Cape Nansen and the northernmost point, while the sea is known for millennia, its first scientific investigations were carried out in 1876–1878 within the Norwegian North-Atlantic Expedition. Since then, many countries, mostly Norway, Iceland and Russia have sent scientific expeditions to the area, the complex water current system was detailed in 1909 by the Fridtjof Nansen. The Greenland Sea was a hunting ground for the whaling industry for 300 years, until 1911. At that point, the formerly rich whale population here, was so depleted that the industry was no longer profitable, the remaining whales of the Greenland Sea has been protected ever since, but the populations had not shown any proof of significant regeneration. In the last 20 years, polar biologists reports an increase in the local bowhead whale population and in 2015, arctic scientists discovered a surprising abundance of them in a small area. These results may be interpreted as an sign of a beginning recovery for this particular species. The inuit hunted whales on a scale in the Greenland Sea since the fifteenth century. The Greenland Sea is bounded to the west by the island of Greenland, to the southeast, behind the Jan Mayen island lies the vast expanse of the Norwegian Sea, of which Greenland Sea may be considered an extension. Across the Fram Strait to the northeast, the sea is delimited by the Svalbard archipelago, the bottom of the Greenland Sea is a depression bounded to the south by the underwater Greenland-Iceland ridge and to the east by the Mohns Ridge and Knipovich Ridge. To the west, the bottom rises first slowly, but then rapidly toward the wide Greenland coastal strip, silts fill the submarine hollows and gorges, silty sands, gravel, boulders, and other products of erosion coat the shelves and ridges. Of those, only the Svalbard islands are inhabited, and Jan Mayen has only temporal military staff, several radio and meteorological stations operate on the island nowadays
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Beerenberg
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Beerenberg is a 2,277 m stratovolcano which forms the northeastern end of the Norwegian island of Jan Mayen. It is the worlds northernmost subaerial active volcano, the volcano is topped by a mostly ice-filled crater about 1 km wide, with numerous peaks along its rim including the highest summit, Haakon VII Toppen, on its western side. The upper slopes of the volcano are largely ice-covered, with several major glaciers including five which reach the sea. The longest of the glaciers is the Weyprecht Glacier, which flows from the summit crater via a breach through the portion of the crater rim. Beerenberg is composed primarily of basaltic lava flows with minor amounts of tephra, numerous cinder cones have been formed along flank fissures. Its most recent eruptions took place in 1985 and 1970 both of which were flank eruptions from fissures on the northeast side of the mountain, other eruptions with historical records occurred in 1732,1818, and 1851. Its name means Bear Mountain in Dutch, and it takes its name from the polar bears seen there by Dutch whalers in the early 17th century
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Olonkinbyen
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Olonkinbyen or Olonkin City/Town is the only settlement on the Norwegian island of Jan Mayen. It was named after the explorer Gennady Olonkin and is the defined capital of the island. The only inhabitants on the island are personnel working for the Norwegian Armed Forces, Olonkinbyen houses the staff that operates the meteorological observation station, Loran-C station, Jan Mayensfield air field and other infrastructure. This staff make up the entirety of the islands population, the meteorological observation service staff is responsible for radiosonde release and synoptic weather observations. The crew of the station is engaged for six months at a time. Supplies are delivered eight times a year by aircraft, fuel and heavy goods are transported by boat during the summer. The settlement generates its own electrical power via three generators, INA Station at Olonkinbyen View of Olonkinbyen Photograph of Olonkinbyen Aerial view of Olonkinbyen
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Norwegian Meteorological Institute
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The Norwegian Meteorological Institute, also known as MET Norway, is Norways national institute which provides weather forecasts. Its three main offices are located in Oslo, Bergen and Tromsø, MET Norway has around 500 employees and some 650 part-time observers around the country. The institute was founded in 1866 with the help of Norwegian astronomer and he is credited with founding meteorological research in Norway. The institute represents Norway in international organizations like the World Meteorological Organization, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, the Institute is also partner to a number of international research and monitoring projects including EMEP, MyOcean, MyWave and the North West Shelf Operational Oceanographic System. Marine forecasts of sea state parameters are issued both commercially to oil companies and more generally for the public, the institute also provides data for the free online service yr. no, launched in 2007, which provides weather forecasts for some 7 million places in the world. The institute is responsible for maintaining, quality checking, archiving and updating the network consisting of automated weather stations, radiosondes. The marine observations of wave height and other oceanographic parameters gathered by petroleum platforms in Norwegian waters are also archived by the institute, the institute produces operational weather forecasts using different numerical weather prediction models including the Unified Model and HIRLAM. The forecasts are subject to modifications introduced by human forecasters before being issued, the institute also runs a suite of operational ocean models ranging in resolution from 20 km to less than 1 km. The model suite currently comprises both the Princeton Ocean Model as well as the more recent Regional Ocean Modeling System, Henrik Mohn Aksel Steen Hans Theodor Hesselberg Ragnar Fjørtoft Kaare Langlo Arne Grammeltvedt Anton Eliassen yr. no Official website Information about yr. no
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Coat of arms
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A coat of arms is an heraldic visual design on an escutcheon, surcoat, or tabard. The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the heraldic achievement which in its whole consists of shield, supporters, crest. A coat of arms is traditionally unique to a person, family, state. The ancient Romans used similar insignia on their shields, but these identified military units rather than individuals, the first evidence of medieval coats of arms has been attributed to the 11th century Bayeux Tapestry in which some of the combatants carry shields painted with crosses. However, that heraldic interpretation remains controversial, coats of arms came into general use by feudal lords and knights in battle in the 12th century. By the 13th century, arms had spread beyond their initial battlefield use to become a flag or emblem for families in the social classes of Europe. Exactly who had a right to use arms, by law or social convention, in the German-speaking regions both the aristocracy and burghers used arms, while in most of the rest of Europe they were limited to the aristocracy. The use of spread to the clergy, to towns as civic identifiers. Flags developed from coats of arms, and the arts of vexillology, the coats of arms granted to commercial companies are a major source of the modern logo. Despite no widespread regulation, heraldry has remained consistent across Europe, some nations, like England and Scotland, still maintain the same heraldic authorities which have traditionally granted and regulated arms for centuries and continue to do so in the present day. In England, for example, the granting of arms is and has controlled by the College of Arms. Unlike seals and other emblems, heraldic achievements have a formal description called a blazon. Many societies exist that also aid in the design and registration of personal arms, in the heraldic traditions of England and Scotland, an individual, rather than a family, had a coat of arms. In those traditions coats of arms are legal property transmitted from father to son, wives, undifferenced arms are used only by one person at any given time. Other descendants of the bearer could bear the ancestral arms only with some difference. One such charge is the label, which in British usage is now always the mark of an apparent or an heir presumptive. Because of their importance in identification, particularly in seals on legal documents and this has been carried out by heralds and the study of coats of arms is therefore called heraldry. In time, the use of arms spread from military entities to educational institutes, the author Helen Stuart argues that some coats of arms were a form of corporate logo
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Flag of Norway
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It is difficult to establish what the earliest flag of Norway looked like. During ancient times countries did not fly flags, kings and other rulers flew flags, especially in battle. Saint Olav used a serpent within a white mark at the Battle of Nesjar, prior to this the raven or dragon was used. Magnus the Good used the mark as Saint Olav. Harald Hardråde used the raven banner and this flag was flown by various Viking chieftains and other Scandinavian rulers during the 9th, 10th, and 11th centuries AD. Inge used a red lion on gold, sverre used an eagle in gold and red. The earliest known flag which could be described as a flag of Norway is the one used today as the Royal Standard. Eirik Magnusson used a flag described as a lion with axe and crown on red from 1280. The flag is based on the Coat of Arms and was only a flag for the ruler of Norway. It was later used on ships and on fortresses until it was gradually phased out during the 17th and 18th centuries. Its earliest certain depiction is on the seal of duchess Ingebjørg in 1318, around 1500 it became the custom for ships to fly the flag of their home country to identify their nationality. A red flag with the lion and silver halberd is depicted as the flag of Norway in a Dutch flag book from 1669 to 1670. At least as late as 1698 the lion banner was flown over Akershus Fortress, the Norwegian lion was placed in the colours of all the Norwegian regiments in 1641. In 1748 a decree stated that the Dannebrog should be the only legal merchant flag, from about the 16th century until 1814, Norway used the same flag as Denmark, as it was in union with that country. In 1814 independent Norway adopted the Danish flag with the Norwegian lion in the canton or the square at the hoist. This flag was in use as state and war flag until 1815, the same design in a rectangular flag was introduced as an alternate merchant flag in 1818, for use in distant waters, i. e. south of Cape Finisterre in Spain. The current flag of Norway was designed in 1821 by Fredrik Meltzer and it was adopted by both chambers of the Storting on 11 May and 16 May, respectively. However, the king refused to sign the law
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Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Norway)
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The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the foreign ministry of the Kingdom of Norway. It was established on June 7,1905, the day the Parliament of Norway decided to dissolve the personal union with Sweden. The ministry is headed by Minister of Foreign Affairs, currently Børge Brende who is minister in the Solbergs Cabinet that has governed since 16 October 2013, the Ministry and foreign missions have a total staff of approx. Minister of Foreign Affairs Børge Brende State Secretaries Bård Glad Pedersen, Hans Brattskar, Foreign relations of Norway List of diplomatic missions in Norway List of diplomatic missions of Norway Official website of the Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs
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