Svalbard is a Norwegian archipelago in the high Arctic, positioned where the Arctic Ocean meets the Atlantic roughly halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. Its largest island, Spitsbergen, covers about 37,673 square kilometers, with Nordaustlandet, Edgeoya and Barentsoya among the other principal islands. About 60 percent of the archipelago is covered by glaciers, the largest being Austfonna, and repeated ice ages have carved the ancient plateau into mountains and fjords, including the highest peak, Newtontoppen, at 1,717 meters. Svalbard forms part of the High Arctic Large Igneous Province and remains seismically active, having recorded the strongest known earthquake in Norway there in 2009.
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Svalbard (Wikipedia)
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Svalbard (US: SVAHL-bar(d), UK: also SVAL-, Urban East Norwegian: [ˈsvɑ̂ːɫbɑr]), formerly Spitsbergen or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago that lies at the convergence of the Arctic Ocean with the Atlantic Ocean.
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