Danskøya

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Danskøya lies to the northwest of Spitsbergen.
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Danskøya lies to the northwest of Spitsbergen.

Danskøya is an island in Norway's Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. It lies just off the northwest coast of Spitsbergen, the largest island in the archipelago, near to Magdalenefjorden.[1] Just to the north lies the island of Amsterdamøya. Like many of Svalbard's islands, Danskøya is uninhabited.[2] The island has an area of 40.6 square kilometers (15.7 sq mi) and is located at geographic coordinates 79°40′N 10°52′E.

S. A. Andrée's balloon before takeoff on July 11, 1897.
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S. A. Andrée's balloon before takeoff on July 11, 1897.

The island is the location from which S. A. Andrée's Arctic balloon expedition of 1897 started. Andrée's hydrogen balloon crashed on the pack ice three days after its launch from Danskøya, and after wandering and drifting for nearly three months, the explorers finally perished on Kvitøya, also in Svalbard.[3]

The name means "the Dane's island".

[edit] See also

[edit] Citations

  1. ^ Location information from Spitzbergen North. Svalbard-images.com (URL accessed 24 July 2006)
  2. ^ Only three of the islands (Spitsbergen, Bjørnøya and Hopen) have settlements. Svalbard: General, Norwegian Polar Institute. Last updated 27 May 2004. (URL accessed 24 July 2006)
  3. ^ Lundström, Sven (1997), pp. 73–114

[edit] References

  • Lundström, Sven (1997). "Vår position är ej synnerligen god…" Andréexpeditionen i svart och vitt. Borås: Carlssons förlag. (Swedish)

Coordinates: 79°40′N 10°30′E


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