page_title: Jan Mayen
section_title: Geography and geology
hierarchical_section_title: Jan Mayen / Environment / Geography and geology
caption_attribution_description: English: sheet R-29-IX,X,XI of Soviet Genshtab maps, scale 1:200K, edition 1967, cropped
context_page_description: Jan Mayen is a Norwegian volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean, with no permanent population. It is 55 km long and 373 km² in area, partly covered by glaciers. It has two parts: larger northeast Nord-Jan and smaller Sør-Jan, linked by a 2.5 km wide isthmus. It lies 600 km northeast of Iceland, 500 km east of central Greenland and 1,000 km west of the North Cape, Norway. The island is mountainous, the highest summit being the Beerenberg volcano in the north. The isthmus is the location of the two largest lakes of the island, Sørlaguna, and Nordlaguna. A third lake is called Ullerenglaguna. Jan Mayen was formed by the Jan Mayen hotspot.
  Although administered separately, in the ISO 3166-1 standard Jan Mayen and Svalbard are collectively designated as Svalbard and Jan Mayen, with the two-letter country code "SJ".
  The island and the circa 1960s NATO base is frequently referenced in the Kathryn Bigelow film, K-19: The Widowmaker.
context_section_description: Jan Mayen consists of two geographically distinct parts. Nord-Jan has a round shape and is dominated by the 2,277 m (7,470 ft) high Beerenberg volcano with its large ice cap (114.2 km² or 44 sq mi), which can be divided into twenty individual outlet glaciers.  The largest of those is Sørbreen, with an area of 15 km² (5.8 sq mi) and a length of 8.7 km (5.41 mi).  South-Jan is narrow, comparatively flat and unglaciated. Its highest elevation is Rudolftoppen at 769 m (2,523 ft). The station and living quarters are located on South-Jan.  The island lies at the northern end of the Jan Mayen Microcontinent. The microcontinent was originally part of the Greenland Plate, but now forms part of the Eurasian Plate.
caption: Soviet topographic map
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