Jan Mayen () is a Norwegian volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean with no permanent population. It is long (southwest-northeast) and in area, partly covered by glaciers (an area of around the Beerenberg volcano). It has two parts: larger northeast Nord-Jan and smaller Sør-Jan, linked by a wide isthmus. It lies northeast of Iceland (495 km [305 mi] NE of Kolbeinsey), east of central Greenland, and northwest of Vesterålen, 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 (South Lagoon) and Nordlaguna (North Lagoon). A third lake is called Ullerenglaguna (Ullereng Lagoon). Jan Mayen was formed by the Jan Mayen hotspot and is defined by geologists as a microcontinent.
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". It was also given the Internet domain of .sj. However, the domain is not in use and Norway's .no is used in its place.
Jan Mayen is home to Beerenberg, which is the northernmost subaerial active volcano in the world.Quinn, Joyce A. (2015). Earth's Landscape: An Encyclopedia of the World's Geographic Features. ABC-CLIO. Page 362. ISBN 9781610694469.Central Intelligence Agency (2016). The World Factbook 2009. U.S. Executive Office of the President. Page 323. ISBN 9781597974141.
Natural resources
Jan Mayen Island has one exploitable natural resource, gravel, from a site located at Trongskaret. Other than this, economic activity is limited to providing services for employees of Norway's radio communications and meteorological stations located on the island. Jan Mayen has one unpaved airstrip, Jan Mayensfield, which is about long. The coast has no ports or harbors, only offshore anchorages.
There are important fishing resources, and the existence of Jan Mayen establishes a large exclusive economic zone (EEZ) around it. Norway has asserted a EEZ around the island since 1980 encompassing more than a quarter of a million square kilometers. The Norwegian Coast Guard is responsible for conducting fishery and other maritime surveillance and enforcement in these waters.
Norway has found large deposits of minerals along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between Jan Mayen and southern Svalbard/Bear Island, including copper, zinc, cobalt, gold and silver. The expeditions have also discovered high concentrations of lithium and scandium. In total, it is estimated that the amount of copper could amount to 21.7 million tonnes, but other estimates are around 7 million tonnes. Licensing for deep sea mining was under consideration in 2021.
A dispute between Norway and Denmark regarding the fishing exclusion zone between Jan Mayen and Greenland was settled in 1988 granting Denmark the greater area of sovereignty. Geologists suspect significant deposits of petroleum and natural gas lie below Jan Mayen's surrounding seafloors.
In 2021, the Regulation on the protection of Jan Mayen Nature Reserve was last consolidated. It labeled the island as a protected nature reserve of Norway (with the exception of the area which holds several pre-existing buildings and a smaller area to the west). This protection forbids continued development in locations which may harm native flora, fauna, and the environment.
Status
Jan Mayen Island is an integral part of the Kingdom of Norway. Since 1995, Jan Mayen has been administered by the County Governor (statsforvalter) of the northern Norwegian county of Nordland, to which it is closest. However, some authority over Jan Mayen has been assigned to the station commander of the , a branch of the Norwegian Armed Forces. In late-2025, the Norwegian defence ministry presented a draft proposal for the possible expansion of military police authority on the island. According to the proposal, under the "Military Police Act" a “military area can be established and enforced on the island – as an officer in the Armed Forces, the station commander there will also have authority to intervene to maintain security and prevent or stop law violations.”
Society Demography
The only inhabitants on the island are personnel working for the Norwegian Armed Forces and the Norwegian Meteorological Institute. Eighteen people spend the winter on the island, but the population may roughly double (35) during the summer, when heavy maintenance is performed. Personnel serve either six months or one year and are exchanged twice a year in April and October. The support crew, including mechanics, cooks, and a nurse, are among the military personnel. The military personnel operated a Loran-C base until it closed at the end of 2015. Both the LORAN transmitter and the meteorological station are located a few kilometres away from the settlement Olonkinbyen (Olonkin Town), where all personnel live.
Transport Transport to the island is provided by C-130 Hercules military transport planes operated by the Royal Norwegian Air Force which land at Jan Mayensfield's gravel runway. The planes fly in from Bodø Main Air Station eight times a year. Since the airport does not have any instrument landing capabilities, good visibility is required, and it is not uncommon for the planes to have to return to Bodø Airport, two hours away, without landing. For heavy goods, freight ships visit during the summer, but since there are no harbours, the ships must anchor. Tourists arrive with cruise ships which are allowed to bring passengers onshore if weather permits.
Communication The island has no indigenous population but is assigned the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code SJ (together with Svalbard). It uses the internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) .no (.sj is allocated but not used) and data code JN. Jan Mayen has telephone and internet connection over satellite, using Norwegian telephone numbers (country code 47). Its amateur radio call sign prefix is JX; the island is occasionally the venue for a DXpedition. It has a postal code, NO-8099 JAN MAYEN, but delivery time varies, especially during the winter.
Business There are no exploitable resources on Jan Mayen, except fish in the surrounding waters of the Island and gravel. The economic activity is limited to the operation of the station that is staffed by the Norwegian Cyberdefence and the Norwegian Meteorological Institute. There has also been established a reference station for EGNOS. There is also a reference station for the satellite navigation system Galileo on Jan Mayen. There was also an earlier Jan Mayen LORAN-C Transmitter, but the transmitter is now decommissioned and demolished.
Jan Mayen Radio Jan Mayen Radio was a Norwegian coastal radio station on Jan Mayen. The first radio station was built in 1921 on a part of the island called "Eldsmetten - Norwegian" on the eastern side of the Island. The radio station consisted of a 3 kW Telefunken spark-gap transmitter and a wooden radio mast. Fearing a German occupation, the station was destroyed in September 1940, and the crew was sent to Iceland.
In 1941 a new radio station was constructed on the western side of the island, it was moved to a plateau above. In 1962 this station was again moved to "Helenesanden - Norwegian" about north from the Norwegian army's LORAN-station.
In 1984 the station was moved to the Norwegian army's station. In 1989 there was a VHF-receiver installed, and later in October 1994 the local control of the radio station was terminated. Before the local control was terminated a MF-Digital-Selcall-receiver was installed and controlled remotely from Bodø-Radio. The station is still (Jan 2024) controlled remotely via satellite, but can be taken in local control by a disconnection against Eik Satellite Earth Station in Rogaland Norway.
History Unverified "discoveries" of a terra nullius
The land named Svalbarð ("cold coast") by the Vikings in the early medieval book Landnámabók may have been Jan Mayen (instead of Spitsbergen, renamed Svalbard by the Norwegians in modern times); the distance from Iceland to Svalbarð mentioned in this book is two days' sailing (with favorable winds), consistent with the approximate to Jan Mayen and not with the minimum to Spitsbergen.J. M. Wordie (1922), "Jan Mayen Island", The Geographical Journal Vol 59 (3), pp. 180–194 However much Jan Mayen may have been known in Europe at that time, it was subsequently forgotten for some centuries.
In the 17th century, many claims of the island's rediscovery were made, spurred by the rivalry on the Arctic whaling grounds, and the island received many names. According to Thomas Edge, an early 17th-century whaling captain who was often inaccurate, "William Hudson" discovered the island in 1608 and named it "Hudson's Touches" (or "Tutches"). However, the well-known explorer Henry Hudson could only have come by on his voyage in 1607 (if he had made an illogical detour) and he made no mention of it in his journal.
According to William Scoresby (1820: p. 154), referring to the mistaken belief that the Dutch had discovered the island in 1611, Hull whalers discovered the island "about the same time" and named it "Trinity Island". Muller (1874: pp. 190–191) took this to mean they had come upon Jan Mayen in 1611 or 1612, which was repeated by many subsequent authors. There were, in fact, no Hull whalers in either of these years, the first Hull whaling expedition having been sent to the island only in 1616 (see below). As with the previous claim made by Edge, there is no cartographical or written proof for this supposed discovery.
During the Golden Age of Dutch exploration and discovery (c. 1590s–1720s)
First verified discoveries: mapping and naming
The first verified discoveries of Jan Mayen, by three separate expeditions, occurred in the summer of 1614, probably within one month of each other. The Dutchman Fopp Gerritsz, whilst in command of a whaling expedition sent out by the Englishman John Clarke, of Dunkirk, claimed (in 1631) to have discovered the island on 28 June and named it "Isabella".Louwrens Hacquebord, "The Jan Mayen Whaling Industry" in Jan Mayen Island in Scientific Focus, Stig Skreslet, editor, Springer Verlag 2004Hart, S. De eerste Nederlandse tochten ter walvisvaart (1957), p. 50. Hart says it occurred in 1613. In January the Noordsche Compagnie (Northern Company), modelled on the Dutch East India Company, had been established to support Dutch whaling in the Arctic. Two of its ships, financed by merchants from Amsterdam and Enkhuizen, reached Jan Mayen in July 1614.
The captains of these ships—Jan Jacobszoon May van Schellinkhout (after whom the island was ultimately named) on the Gouden Cath (Golden Cat), and Jacob de Gouwenaer on the Orangienboom (Orange Tree)—named it Mr. Joris Eylant after the Dutch cartographer Joris Carolus who was on board and mapped the island. The captains acknowledged that a third Dutch ship, the Cleyn Swaentgen (Little Swan) captained by Jan Jansz Kerckhoff and financed by Noordsche Compagnie shareholders from Delft, had already been at the island when they arrived. They had assumed the latter, who named the island Maurits Eylandt (or Mauritius) after Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange, would report their discovery to the States General. However, the Delft merchants had decided to keep the discovery secret and returned in 1615 to hunt for their own profit. The ensuing dispute was only settled in 1617, though both companies were allowed to whale at Jan Mayen in the meantime.