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Jan Mayen Island, a part of the Kingdom Of Norway , is a 55 km long (southwest-northeast) and 373 km&2 large Arctic Volcanic Island in the Arctic Ocean , partly covered by Glacier s and divided into larger Nord-Jan and smaller Sor-Jan by an Isthmus 2.5 km wide. It lies 600km north of Iceland , 500km east of Greenland and 1,000km west of the Norwegian mainland at . The island is mountainous, the highest summit being Beerenberg in the north (2,277 m). The isthmus is the location of the two largest lakes of the island, Sørlaguna (South Lagoon), and Nordlaguna. A third lake is called Ullerenglaguna. ECONOMY Jan Mayen Island has no exploitable Natural Resources . Economic activity is limited to providing services for employees of Norway 's radio and meteorological stations located on the island. It has one unpaved airstrip about 1585 meters long, and its 124.1 kilometers of coast include no ports or harbors, only offshore anchorages. Commercial whaling took place between 1633 and 1640 by the Dutch but ended when the Dutch team of seven died of scurvy and the Greenland Right Whale nearly became extinct. A dispute between Norway and Denmark regarding the fishing exclusion zone between Jan Mayen and Greenland was settled in 1988 granting Denmark with the greater area of sovereignty. Jan Mayen is an integrated geographical body of Norway . Since 1995 it has been administered by the county governor (''fylkesmann'') of Nordland ; however, some authority has been delegated to a station commander of the Norwegian Logistics Organisation-CIS, a branch of the armed forces. HISTORY The first certain discovery of the island is from 1614 . There are earlier claims and possible discoveries, even as early as the early 6th century. Some historians believe that an Irish monk, Brendan , who was known as a good sailor, was close to Jan Mayen in the early 6th century. He came back from one of his voyages and reported that he had been close to a black island, which was on fire, and that it was a terrible noise in the area. He thought that he might have found the entrance to hell. Viking sailors are also believed to have known about the island. The island is named after the Dutchman Jan Jacobs May Van Schellinkhout who visited the island in 1614. His first mate did some mapping of the coast and named the island Jan Mayen. It is assumed that Henry Hudson discovered the island in 1607 and called it ''Hudson's Tutches'' or ''Touches''. Thereafter it was observed several times by navigators who claimed its discovery and renamed it. Thus, in 1611 or the following year whalers from Hull named it ''Trinity Island''; in 1612 Jean Vrolicq , a French whaler, called it ''Île de Richelieu;'' and in 1614 English captain John Clarke named it ''Isabella''. The island is inhabited by personnel operating a Call Sign prefix is JX. EXTERNAL LINKS
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