Svalbard and Jan Mayen
Encyclopedia
- This article is about the collective term "Svalbard and Jan Mayen" as defined by the ISO. For details of the two separate territories, see SvalbardSvalbardSvalbard is an archipelago in the Arctic, constituting the northernmost part of Norway. It is located north of mainland Europe, midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. The group of islands range from 74° to 81° north latitude , and from 10° to 35° east longitude. Spitsbergen is the...
and Jan MayenJan MayenJan Mayen Island is a volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean and part of the Kingdom of Norway. It is long and 373 km2 in area, partly covered by glaciers . It has two parts: larger northeast Nord-Jan and smaller Sør-Jan, linked by an isthmus wide...
respectively.
Svalbard and Jan Mayen ' onMouseout='HidePop("46219")' href="/topics/ISO_3166-1_alpha-2">ISO 3166-1 alpha-2
ISO 3166-1 alpha-2
ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes are two-letter country codes defined in ISO 3166-1, part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization , to represent countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest...
: SJ, ISO 3166-1 alpha-3
ISO 3166-1 alpha-3
ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 codes are three-letter country codes defined in ISO 3166-1, part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization , to represent countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest...
: SJM, ISO 3166-1 numeric
ISO 3166-1 numeric
ISO 3166-1 numeric codes are three-digit country codes defined in ISO 3166-1, part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization , to represent countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest...
: 744) is a statistical designation defined by ISO 3166-1
ISO 3166-1
ISO 3166-1 is part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization , and defines codes for the names of countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest. The official name of the standard is Codes for the representation of names...
of two parts of Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
under separate jurisdictions—Svalbard
Svalbard
Svalbard is an archipelago in the Arctic, constituting the northernmost part of Norway. It is located north of mainland Europe, midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. The group of islands range from 74° to 81° north latitude , and from 10° to 35° east longitude. Spitsbergen is the...
and Jan Mayen
Jan Mayen
Jan Mayen Island is a volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean and part of the Kingdom of Norway. It is long and 373 km2 in area, partly covered by glaciers . It has two parts: larger northeast Nord-Jan and smaller Sør-Jan, linked by an isthmus wide...
. While the two are combined for the purposes of the International Organization for Standardization
International Organization for Standardization
The International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO, is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations. Founded on February 23, 1947, the organization promulgates worldwide proprietary, industrial and commercial...
(ISO) category, they are not administratively related. This has further resulted in the country code top-level domain
Country code top-level domain
A country code top-level domain is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, a sovereign state, or a dependent territory....
.sj
.sj
.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...
being issued for Svalbard and Jan Mayen, and ISO 3166-2:SJ
ISO 3166-2:SJ
ISO 3166-2:SJ is the entry for Svalbard and Jan Mayen in ISO 3166-2, part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization , which defines codes for the names of the principal subdivisions of all countries coded in ISO 3166-1.Currently no ISO 3166-2 codes...
. The United Nations Statistics Division also uses this code, but has named it Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands.
Svalbard is an archipelago
Archipelago
An archipelago , sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- and πέλαγος – pélagos through the Italian arcipelago...
in the Arctic Ocean
Arctic Ocean
The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions...
under the full sovereignty
Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...
of Norway, but is subject to the special status granted by the Svalbard Treaty
Svalbard Treaty
The Treaty between Norway, The United States of America, Denmark, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Great Britain and Ireland and the British overseas Dominions and Sweden concerning Spitsbergen signed in Paris 9th February 1920, commonly called the Svalbard Treaty or the Spitsbergen Treaty...
. Jan Mayen is a remote island in the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
; it has no permanent population and is administrated by the County Governor of Nordland. Svalbard and Jan Mayen have in common that they are the only integrated parts of Norway not allocated to counties
Counties of Norway
Norway is divided into 19 administrative regions, called counties . The counties form the primary first-level subdivisions of Norway and are further divided into 430 municipalities...
. While a separate ISO code for Svalbard was proposed by the United Nations, it was the Norwegian authorities who took initiative to include Jan Mayen in the code.
Svalbard
Svalbard is an archipelago in the ArcticArctic
The Arctic is a region located at the northern-most part of the Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The Arctic region consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean, surrounded by treeless permafrost...
about midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole
North Pole
The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is, subject to the caveats explained below, defined as the point in the northern hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface...
. The group of islands range from 74°
74th parallel north
The 74th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 74 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane, in the Arctic. It crosses the Atlantic Ocean, Europe, Asia, the Arctic Ocean and North America....
to 81° north
81st parallel north
The 81st parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 81 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane, in the Arctic. It crosses the Atlantic Ocean, Europe, Asia, the Arctic Ocean and North America....
latitude, and from 10°
10th meridian east
The meridian 10° east of Greenwich is a line of longitude that extends from the North Pole across the Arctic Ocean, Europe, Africa, the Atlantic Ocean, the Southern Ocean, and Antarctica to the South Pole....
to 35° east
35th meridian east
The meridian 35° east of Greenwich is a line of longitude that extends from the North Pole across the Arctic Ocean, Europe, Asia, Africa, the Indian Ocean, the Southern Ocean, and Antarctica to the South Pole....
longitude. The area is 61022 square kilometres (23,560.7 sq mi) and there were 2,572 residents in 2009. Spitsbergen
Spitsbergen
Spitsbergen is the largest and only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. Constituting the western-most bulk of the archipelago, it borders the Arctic Ocean, the Norwegian Sea and the Greenland Sea...
is the largest island, followed by Nordaustlandet
Nordaustlandet
Nordaustlandet is the second-largest island in the archipelago of Svalbard, Norway, with an area of . It lies north east of Spitsbergen, separated by Hinlopenstretet. Much of Nordaustlandet lies under large ice caps, mainly Austfonna and Vestfonna, the remaining parts of the north being tundra...
and Edgeøya
Edgeøya
Edgeøya, occasionally anglicised as Edge Island, is an uninhabited Norwegian island in southeast of the Svalbard archipelago; it is the third largest island in this archipelago. An Arctic island, it forms part of the South East Svalbard Nature Reserve, home to polar bears and reindeer. Its eastern...
. The administrative center is Longyearbyen
Longyearbyen
Longyearbyen is the largest settlement and the administrative centre of Svalbard, Norway. It is located on the western coast of Spitsbergen, the largest island of the Svalbard archipelago, on the southern side on Adventfjorden , which continues inland with Adventdalen...
, and other settlements, in addition to research outposts, are the Russian mining community of Barentsburg
Barentsburg
Barentsburg is the second largest settlement on Svalbard, with about 500 inhabitants , almost entirely Russians and Ukrainians. The Russian-owned Arktikugol has been mining coal here since 1932.-Status:...
, the research community of Ny-Ålesund
Ny-Ålesund
Ny-Ålesund is one of the four permanent settlements on the island of Spitsbergen in the Svalbard archipelago. It is located on the Brøgger peninsula at Kongsfjorden...
and the mining outpost of Sveagruva.
The Svalbard Treaty
Svalbard Treaty
The Treaty between Norway, The United States of America, Denmark, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Great Britain and Ireland and the British overseas Dominions and Sweden concerning Spitsbergen signed in Paris 9th February 1920, commonly called the Svalbard Treaty or the Spitsbergen Treaty...
of 1920 recognizes Norwegian sovereignty, and the 1925 Svalbard Act
Svalbard Act
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. The law was passed by the Parliament of Norway on 17 July 1925, establishes Norwegian sovereignty of the island, and states that...
made Svalbard a full part of the Kingdom of Norway. The archipelago is administrated by the Governor of Svalbard
Governor of Svalbard
The Governor of Svalbard represents the Norwegian government in exercising its sovereignty over the Svalbard archipelago .The position reports to the Norwegian Ministry of Justice, but it maintains all Norwegian interests in the area, including environmental protection, law enforcement,...
, which is subordinate the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and the Police
Norwegian Ministry of Justice and the Police
The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Justice and the Police is a Norwegian government ministry in charge of justice, police and domestic intelligence. The main purpose of the Ministry is to provide for the maintenance and development of the basic guarantees of the rule of law...
. Unlike the rest of Norway (including Jan Mayen), Svalbard is a free economic zone
Free economic zone
Many countries have, or have had at some time, designated areas where companies are taxed very lightly or not at all to encourage development or for some other reason...
, a demilitarized zone
Demilitarized zone
In military terms, a demilitarized zone is an area, usually the frontier or boundary between two or more military powers , where military activity is not permitted, usually by peace treaty, armistice, or other bilateral or multilateral agreement...
, is not part of the Schengen Area
Schengen Area
The Schengen Area comprises the territories of twenty-five European countries that have implemented the Schengen Agreement signed in the town of Schengen, Luxembourg, in 1985...
nor the European Economic Area
European Economic Area
The European Economic Area was established on 1 January 1994 following an agreement between the member states of the European Free Trade Association and the European Community, later the European Union . Specifically, it allows Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway to participate in the EU's Internal...
.
Jan Mayen
Jan Mayen is a volcanic island in the Arctic OceanArctic Ocean
The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions...
located at the border of the Norwegian Sea
Norwegian Sea
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 and the Barents Sea to the northeast. In the southwest, it is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by a...
and the Greenland Sea
Greenland Sea
The Greenland Sea is a body of water that borders Greenland to the west, the Svalbard archipelago to the east, Fram Strait and the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Norwegian Sea and Iceland to the south. The Greenland Sea is often defined as part of the Arctic Ocean, sometimes as part of the...
. The single island covers an area of 377 square kilometres (145.6 sq mi) and is dominated by the 2277 metres (7,470.5 ft) tall Beerenberg
Beerenberg
Beerenberg is a stratovolcano which forms the northeastern end of the Norwegian island of Jan Mayen. It is the world's northernmost subaerial active volcano...
volcano. The island's only population is a combined military and meteorological outpost that operates a LORAN-C transmitter
LORAN-C transmitter Jan Mayen
The LORAN-C transmitter Jan Mayen is a LORAN-C transmission facility on the island of Jan Mayen at . The LORAN-C transmitter Jan Mayen uses as antenna a 190-metre high guyed mast....
at Olonkinbyen
Olonkinbyen
Olonkinbyen or Olonkin City is a settlement on the Norwegian island of Jan Mayen.Olonkinbyen houses the staff that operates the weather station and the radio station. Currently there are 18 members stationed in Olonkinbyen who make up the entirety of the island's population, therefore making it...
. The Norwegian Meteorological Institute
Norwegian Meteorological Institute
Norwegian Meteorological Institute is the Norwegian national institute for weather forecasts.The three main offices are located in Oslo, Bergen and Tromsø. The Institute has around 500 employees and keeps around 650 paid observers of various kinds around the country...
annexed the island for Norway in 1922. On 27 February 1930, the island was made de jure a part of the Kingdom of Norway. Since 1994, the island has been administrated by the County Governor of Nordland, with some authority delegated to the station commander.
Application
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
, and the flag of Norway
Flag of Norway
The flag of Norway is red with an indigo blue Scandinavian cross outlined in white that extends to the edges of the flag; the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side in the style of the Dannebrog, the flag of Denmark.- History :...
is used for both of them, both alone and as a group.
An attempt to change the ISO code to just "Svalbard" has previously failed because of opposition from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the foreign ministry of the Kingdom of Norway...
. However, for statistics use within population and trade, "Svalbard and Jan Mayen" essentially means just "Svalbard".
ISO 3166-2
ISO 3166-2:SJ is the entry for Svalbard and Jan Mayen in ISO 3166-2ISO 3166-2
ISO 3166-2 is part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization , and defines codes for the names of the principal subdivisions of all countries coded in ISO 3166-1...
, a system for assigning codes to subnational administrative divisions. However, further subdivision for Svalbard and Jan Mayen occurs under Norway's entry, ISO 3166-2:NO
ISO 3166-2:NO
ISO 3166-2:NO is the entry for Norway in ISO 3166-2, part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization , which defines codes for the names of the principal subdivisions of all countries coded in ISO 3166-1.Currently for Norway, ISO 3166-2 codes are...
:
- NO-21 SvalbardSvalbardSvalbard is an archipelago in the Arctic, constituting the northernmost part of Norway. It is located north of mainland Europe, midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. The group of islands range from 74° to 81° north latitude , and from 10° to 35° east longitude. Spitsbergen is the...
- NO-22 Jan MayenJan MayenJan Mayen Island is a volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean and part of the Kingdom of Norway. It is long and 373 km2 in area, partly covered by glaciers . It has two parts: larger northeast Nord-Jan and smaller Sør-Jan, linked by an isthmus wide...
The hierarchical administrative subdivision codes
Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes
Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes are codes to represent names of country subdivisions, such as states, province, regions.They are described in the book "Administrative Subdivisions of Countries: A Comprehensive World Reference, 1900 Through 1998" written by Gwillim Law.The codes are...
for Svalbard is SJ.SV and for Jan Mayen is SJ.JM.
Top-level domain
By virtue of the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2ISO 3166-1 alpha-2
ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes are two-letter country codes defined in ISO 3166-1, part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization , to represent countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest...
code
SJ, Svalbard and Jan Mayen were grouped together and allocated the InternetInternet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
country code
Country code
Country codes are short alphabetic or numeric geographical codes developed to represent countries and dependent areas, for use in data processing and communications. Several different systems have been developed to do this. The best known of these is ISO 3166-1...
top-level domain
Top-level domain
A top-level domain is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in lower levels, it is the last part of the domain name, that is, the last label of a...
(ccTLD) .sj. Norid
Norid
Uninett Norid AS, trading as Norid, is the domain name registry for the three Norwegian country code top-level domains .no, .sj and .bv. The non-profit company is based in Trondheim, where it shares offices with its parent company Uninett; both companies being owned by the Norwegian Ministry of...
, who also administrated the Norway's .no
.no
.no is the Internet country code top-level domain for Norway. Registrations are processed via accredited registrars and internationalized domain names may also be registered ....
ccTLD, was given the responsibility for the .sj and Bouvet Island
Bouvet Island
Bouvet Island is an uninhabited Antarctic volcanic island in the South Atlantic Ocean, 2,525 km south-southwest of South Africa. It is a dependent territory of Norway and, lying north of 60°S latitude, is not subject to the Antarctic Treaty. The centre of the island is an ice-filled crater of an...
's .bv
.bv
.bv is the Internet country code top-level domain reserved for the uninhabited Norwegian dependent territory of Bouvet Island. The domain name registry and sponsor is Norid, but .bv is not open for registration. .bv was designated on 21 August 1997 and was placed under the .no registry Norid...
domain in 1997. Policy prohibits any registration with either of the domains, as institutions connected to Svalbard can use the .no domain. Norwegian authorities do not want to commercialize the domain resources, and therefore .sj will not be sold to a third party.