Jan Mayen Island, a part of the Kingdom of Norway, is a 55 km long (southwest-northeast) and 373 km² large arctic volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean, partly covered by glaciers and divided into larger Nord-Jan and smaller Sor-Jan by an isthmus 2.5 km wide. It lies 600km north of Iceland, 500km east of Greenland and 1,000km west of the Norwegian mainland at . The island is mountainous, the highest summit being Beerenberg in the north (2,277 m). The isthmus is the location of the two largest lakes of the island, Sørlaguna (South Lagoon), and Nordlaguna. A third lake is called Ullerenglaguna.

Economy

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Jan Mayen Island has no exploitable natural resources. Economic activity is limited to providing services for employees of Norway's radio and meteorological stations located on the island. It has one unpaved airstrip about 1585 meters long, and its 124.1 kilometers of coast include no ports or harbors, only offshore anchorages. Commercial whaling took place between 1633 and 1640 by the Dutch but ended when the Dutch team of seven died of scurvy and the Greenland right whale nearly became extinct. A dispute between Norway and Denmark regarding the fishing exclusion zone between Jan Mayen and Greenland was settled in 1988 granting Denmark with the greater area of sovereignty.

Jan Mayen is an integrated geographical body of Norway. Since 1995 it has been administered by the county governor (fylkesmann) of Nordland; however, some authority has been delegated to a station commander of the Norwegian Logistics Organisation-CIS, a branch of the armed forces.

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