Victoria Island (Russian Arctic)
| Russian: Остров Виктория | |
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Victoria Island is mostly covered with ice and snow the whole year round
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| Geography | |
| Location | Queen Victoria Sea, Arctic Ocean |
| Coordinates | 80°09′N 36°46′E / 80.150°N 36.767°ECoordinates: 80°09′N 36°46′E / 80.150°N 36.767°E |
| Area | 10.8 km2 (4.2 sq mi) |
| Length | 6.5 km (4.04 mi) |
| Width | 3.3 km (2.05 mi) |
| Highest elevation | 105 m (344 ft) |
| Highest point | Ice cap HP |
| Administration | |
| Demographics | |
| Population | 0 |
Victoria Island (Russian: Остров Виктория; Ostrov Viktoriya) is a small Arctic island of the Russian Federation. It is located at 80°9'N 36°46'E, halfway between the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard and the Russian archipelago of Franz Josef Land.
This westernmost of all Russian Arctic islands is administered as part of Franz Josef Land and belongs to the Arkhangelsk Oblast administrative division of the Russian Federation.
The maximum height of Victoria Island is 105 m. The Northwestern cape is known as Cape Knipovich (Мыс Книповича; Mys Knipovicha).
Victoria Island has a surface of 10.8 km² and is almost completely covered by an ice cap where the highest point reaches 105 m above sea level. In the 1990s there was an area of about ten hectares at the northern end of the island that was unglaciated. Since then the ice cover has retreated an has left a narrow strip of unglaciated shore stretching along the northwestern side. By 2012 the surface of the ice cap was only 6.1 km².
The island was discovered on 20 July 1898 by two Norwegian sealing captains, Johannes Nilsen and Ludvig Bernard Sebulonsen. The next day, captain P. W. Nilsen of the steam yacht Victoria, owned by the English adventurer Arnold Pike, sighted the island and named it after the yacht.
Although Victoria Island is situated only less than 32 nautical miles (c. 60 km) off Kvitøya in the Svalbard archipelago, it lies east of the territories put under the sovereignty of Norway according to the Spitsbergen Treaty in 1920. Consequently, the island was considered Terra nullius, until a Soviet decree of 15 April 1926 that claimed a Soviet sector in the Arctic region that also included Franz Josef Land and Victoria Island. Norway was notified on 6 May and officially protested on 19 December, contesting the Soviet claim.
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Wikipedia