| Jan Mayen, island
of Norway, in the Arctic Ocean, between Greenland and Norway. Jan Mayen
is 63 km (about 39 mi) long and 14 km (about 9 mi) wide. The highest point
is Beerenberg (2277 m/7470 ft), a dormant volcano. The island was discovered
in 1607 by the English navigator Henry Hudson, who named it Hudson's Tutches.
The present name is derived from that of a Dutch sea captain, Jan Mayen,
who had a whaling base on the island between 1611 and 1635. In 1929 the
island was annexed by Norway. Whalers and seal hunters occasionally visit
Jan Mayen, but the island is uninhabited except by the operators of communications
and meteorological stations, which were first established in 1921 by the
Norwegian government. During World War II (1939-1945), a United States Navy
weather station was maintained on the island. |