Simonsen Island Explained

Simonsen Island
Native Name:	Simonsenøya
Map:	Svalbard
Coordinates:	78.9279°N 21.6316°W
Country:	Norway

Simonsen Island^[1] (Norwegian: Simonsenøya)^[2] is one of the Rønnbeck Islands in the Svalbard archipelago. It lies in Hinlopen Strait northeast of Cape Weyprecht on Spitsbergen. The island is a low basalt cliff and its highest point is only 10m (30feet) above sea level. The closest islands are neighboring Nedrevaag Island about 500m (1,600feet) to the southwest and Tobiesen Island about 3km (02miles) to the northeast. The wildlife consists largely of polar bears.

The island was discovered in 1867 by the Swedish-Norwegian polar explorer Nils Fredrik Rønnbeck. It is named after W. Simonsen (or Simonson), a Norwegian navigator that helped explore the Kara Sea in 1871 on board the Sleipner.^{[2] [3] [4]}

Notes and References

1. http://www.geographic.org/geographic_names/name.php?uni=-3395919&fid=5884&c=svalbard National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency: Geographical Names.
2. http://placenames.npolar.no/stadnamn/Simonsen%C3%B8ya?ident=12994 Stadnamn i norske polarområde: Simonsenøya (Svalbard).
3. August Petermann, Wilhelm von Freeden, & Adolf Mühry. 1872. Papers on the Eastern and Northern Extensions of the Gulf Stream. Second Supplement.. Washington: Government Printing Office, p. 22.
4. August Petermann, Wilhelm von Freeden, & Adolf Mühry. 1873. Papers on the Eastern and Northern Extensions of the Gulf Stream. Third Supplement.. Washington: Government Printing Office, pp. 20–22.