Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands

The Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands comprise an archipelago located within the territory of Norway. They lie off the coast of Norway to its northwest. The water bodies that surround it are the Arctic Ocean, Norwegian Sea, Greenland Sea and Barents Sea. The islands have an arctic landscape, with rugged ice-capped mountains, glacial deposits, snowfields and fjords. The flora and fauna are typical of the Arctic; however, there are a considerable number of flowering plants, including Arctic bell-heather, Hawkweed-leaved saxifrage, Alpine bistort, Moss campion, Svalbard poppy, mountain sorrel, and purple saxifrage. The chief animals of the region are the arctic fox, various species of seals, beluga, polar bears, minke whales, walrus, and reindeer. Birds in the Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands come in numerous varieties, including black guillemot, puffin, little auk, fulmar and kittiwake, arctic tern, skua, and ivory gull. The archipelago is also the ‘land of the midnight sun&’: The sun does not set between April 20 and August 23; conversely, the ‘polar night’ phenomenon occurs between October 26 and February 15.