The Kara Sea is a marginal sea, separated from the Barents Sea to the west by the Kara Strait and Novaya Zemlya, and from the Laptev Sea to the east by the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago. Ultimately the Kara, Barents and Laptev Seas are all extensions of the Arctic Ocean north of Siberia.
Svalbard, also known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it lies about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group range from 74° to 81° north latitude, and from 10° to 35° east longitude. The largest island is Spitsbergen, followed in size by Nordaustlandet and Edgeøya. The largest settlement is Longyearbyen.
Spitsbergen is the largest and the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in northern Norway.
Bear Island is the southernmost island of the Norwegian Svalbard archipelago. The island is located in the western part of the Barents Sea, approximately halfway between Spitsbergen and the North Cape. Bear Island was discovered by Dutch explorers Willem Barentsz and Jacob van Heemskerck on 10 June 1596. It was named after a polar bear that was seen swimming nearby. The island was considered terra nullius until the Spitsbergen Treaty of 1920 placed it under Norwegian sovereignty.
Franz Josef Land, Frantz Iosef Land, Franz Joseph Land or Francis Joseph's Land is a Russian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. It is inhabited only by military personnel. It constitutes the northernmost part of Arkhangelsk Oblast and consists of 192 islands, which cover an area of 16,134 square kilometers (6,229 sq mi), stretching 375 kilometers (233 mi) from east to west and 234 kilometers (145 mi) from north to south. The islands are categorized in three groups separated by the British Channel and the Austrian Strait. The central group is further divided into a northern and southern section by the Markham Sound. The largest island is Prince George Land, which measures 2,741 square kilometers (1,058 sq mi), followed by Wilczek Land, Graham Bell Island and Alexandra Land.
Severnaya Zemlya is a 37,000 km2 (14,000 sq mi) archipelago in the Russian high Arctic. It lies off Siberia's Taymyr Peninsula, separated from the mainland by the Vilkitsky Strait. This archipelago separates two marginal seas of the Arctic Ocean, the Kara Sea in the west and the Laptev Sea in the east.
Komsomolets Island is the northernmost island of the Severnaya Zemlya group in the Russian Arctic, and the third largest island in the group. It is the 82nd largest island on earth. About 65% of the island is covered with glaciers.
Severny Island is a Russian Arctic island. It is the northern island of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. It was historically called Lütke Land after Friedrich Benjamin von Lütke, who explored it. It lies approximately 400 km north of the Russian mainland. It has an area of 48,904 square kilometres (18,882 sq mi), making it the 30th-largest island in the world and the 3rd-largest uninhabited island in the world. It is part of Russian Arctic National Park.
The Arctic Cape is a headland in Severnaya Zemlya, Russia.
Georgy Alexeyevich Ushakov was a Soviet explorer of the Arctic.
Wiese Island, or Vize Island, also known as Zemlya Vize is an isolated Russian island located in the Arctic Ocean, named after Russian oceanographer of German-descent Vladimir Wiese.
Russian Arctic National Park is a national park of Russia, which was established in June 2009. It was expanded in 2016, and it covers a large and remote area of the Arctic Ocean, the northern part of Novaya Zemlya, and Franz Josef Land.
Nordaust-Svalbard Nature Reserve is located in the north-eastern part of the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. The nature reserve covers all of Nordaustlandet, Kong Karls Land, Kvitøya, Sjuøyane, Storøya, Lågøya, Wilhelm Island, Wahlbergøya and a small section of the north-east corner of Spitsbergen. The reserve is 55,354 square kilometres (21,372 sq mi), of which 18,663 square kilometres (7,206 sq mi) is on land and 36,691 square kilometres (14,166 sq mi) is on water—making it the largest preserved area in Norway. It includes the largest glacier in Norway, Austfonna, as well as Vestfonna and parts of Olav V Land. The reserve has been protected since 1 July 1973 and borders in the south to Søraust-Svalbard Nature Reserve.
Svalbard is an Arctic, wilderness archipelago comprising the northernmost part of Norway. It is mostly uninhabited, with only about 3,000 people, yet covers an area of 61,020 square kilometres (23,560 sq mi).
Poseidon Expeditions is a leading provider of polar expeditions in the cruise industry. The company was started up in 1999 as a tour operator specializing in expedition cruises to the North Pole and the Russian High Arctic aboard icebreakers and ice-strengthened ships. Today Poseidon Expeditions offers expedition cruises to Antarctica, the North Pole and the Arctic destinations of Svalbard, Greenland, Franz Josef Land and Iceland.
Franz Josef Land, an uninhabited archipelago located in the Arctic Ocean, Barents Sea and Kara Sea, may have been discovered by the 1865 expedition of the Norwegian sealing vessel Spidsbergen captained by Nils Fredrik Rønnbeck. However, the discovery was never announced and the existence of the territory only came to public notice following the Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition of 1872, which named the archipelago in honor of Franz Joseph I of Austria. Benjamin Leigh Smith led the next expedition in 1880, which continued the work of the first expeditions in investigating the southern and central parts of the archipelago. Concurrent expeditions followed in 1896, Nansen's Fram expedition and the Jackson–Harmsworth Expedition, which met by accident. These two journeys explored the northern area and the flanks of Franz Josef Land.
Johan Kiil Kjeldsen was a Norwegian skipper. He took part in many Arctic expeditions and is credited with the discovery of Kvitøya.
