Nordaust-Svalbard Nature Reserve is located in the north-eastern part of the Svalbard

Svalbard

Svalbard is an archipelago in the Arctic, constituting the northernmost part of Norway. It is located north of mainland Europe, midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. The group of islands range from 74° to 81° north latitude , and from 10° to 35° east longitude. Spitsbergen is the...

 archipelago in Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. The nature reserve

Nature reserve

A nature reserve is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research...

 covers all of Nordaustlandet

Nordaustlandet

Nordaustlandet is the second-largest island in the archipelago of Svalbard, Norway, with an area of . It lies north east of Spitsbergen, separated by Hinlopenstretet. Much of Nordaustlandet lies under large ice caps, mainly Austfonna and Vestfonna, the remaining parts of the north being tundra...

, Kong Karls Land

Kong Karls Land

Kong Karls Land or King Charles Land is an island group in the Svalbard archipelago, in Arctic Ocean. The island group covers an area of and is made up of the islands of Kongsøya, Svenskøya, Abeløya, Helgolandøya and Tirpitzøya....

, Kvitøya

Kvitøya

Kvitøya is an island in the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, with an area of . It is located at , making it the easternmost part of the Kingdom of Norway...

, Sjuøyane

Sjuøyane

Sjuøyane is the northernmost part of the Svalbard archipelago, just north of Nordaustlandet. As the name implies, this is a group of seven islands , although three are mere islets. The principal islands are Phippsøya, Parryøya, Martensøya, Nelsonøya and Waldenøya, the islets are Tavleøya, Vesle...

, Storøya, Lågøya

Lågøya

Lågøya is an island in Svalbard, Norway. It is situated north west of Nordaustlandet. The area is 103.5 km². The island has rarely been visited....

, Wilhelmøya

Wilhelmøya

Wilhelmøya is an island in Svalbard. It is situated North East of Olav V Land on Spitsbergen, in the Hinlopen Strait. Its area is 120 km².-See also:* List of islands of Norway...

, Wahlbergøya

Wahlbergøya

Wahlbergøya is an island in Hinlopenstretet, between Spitsbergen and Nordaustlandet of the archipelago Svalbard. The island has an area of about . It is named after Swedish botanist Peter Fredrik Wahlberg. It is the largest island of the island group Vaigattøyane.The island is included in the...

 and a small section of the north-east corner of Spitsbergen

Spitsbergen

Spitsbergen is the largest and only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. Constituting the western-most bulk of the archipelago, it borders the Arctic Ocean, the Norwegian Sea and the Greenland Sea...

. The reserve is 55354 square kilometres (21,372.3 sq mi), of which 18663 square kilometres (7,205.8 sq mi) is on land and 36691 square kilometres (14,166.5 sq mi) is on water—making it the largest preserved area in Norway (including national park

National park

A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...

s). It includes the largest glacier in Norway, Austfonna

Austfonna

Austfonna is an ice cap located on Nordaustlandet in the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. Covering an area of 8,105 km² it is the largest ice cap by area and with 1,900 km³ the second largest by volume in Europe, after the Vatnajökull in Iceland Austfonna is an ice cap located on Nordaustlandet in...

, as well as and Vestfonna

Vestfonna

Vestfonna is an ice cap located on the western part Nordaustlandet in the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. The glacier covers an area of about 2,500 km². It is the third largest ice cap in Svalbard and Norway by area, after Austfonna and Olav V Land....

 and parts of Olav V Land

Olav V Land

Olav V Land is the largest glacier of Spitsbergen Island, Svalbard. It covers about 4150 km².The only larger ice cap in the Svalbard Archipelago is Austfonna in Nordaustlandet with 8492 km².-References:* http://www.ssb.no/aarbok/kart/i.html...

. The reserve has been protected since 1 July 1973 and borders in the south to Søraust-Svalbard Nature Reserve

Søraust-Svalbard Nature Reserve

Søraust-Svalbard Nature Reserve is located in the south-eastern part of the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. The nature reserve covers all of Edgeøya and Barentsøya in addition to a number of smaller islands, including Tusenøyane, Ryke Yseøyane and Halvmåneøya...

.
The Kong Karls Land archipelago serves as the most important breeding ground for polar bears in Svalbard and Franz Josef Land

Franz Josef Land

Franz Josef Land, Franz Joseph Land, or Francis Joseph's Land is an archipelago located in the far north of Russia. It is found in the Arctic Ocean north of Novaya Zemlya and east of Svalbard, and is administered by Arkhangelsk Oblast. Franz Josef Land consists of 191 ice-covered islands with a...

; therefore, the archipelago is completely off limit to all visitors. Walrus

Walrus

The walrus is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous circumpolar distribution in the Arctic Ocean and sub-Arctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the Odobenidae family and Odobenus genus. It is subdivided into three subspecies: the Atlantic...

es have resting places in the reserve. At Alkefjleet, guillemot

Guillemot

Guillemots is the common name for several species of seabird in the auk family . In British use, the term comprises two genera: Uria and Cepphus. In North America the Uria species are called "murres" and only the Cepphus species are called "guillemots"...

s have a nesting ground, and also brent geese can be found breeding in the reserve, as can Sabine's gull

Sabine's Gull

The Sabine's Gull is a small gull. Its generic placement is disputed; some authors treat it as the sole species in the genus Xema as Xema sabini, while others retain it in the genus Larus as Larus sabini. It breeds in the arctic and has a circumpolar distribution through northernmost North America...

 and ivory gull

Ivory Gull

The Ivory Gull Pagophila eburnea is a small gull, the only species in its genus. It breeds in the high arctic and has a circumpolar distribution through Greenland, northernmost North America, and Eurasia.-Taxonomy:...

. Other important breeding areas for seabird

Seabird

Seabirds are birds that have adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same environmental problems and feeding niches have resulted in similar adaptations...

s include Sjuøyane, Lågøya and Hinlopenstretet. Common animals within the nature reserve is Arctic fox

Arctic fox

The arctic fox , also known as the white fox, polar fox or snow fox, is a small fox native to Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and is common throughout the Arctic tundra biome. The Greek word alopex, means a fox and Vulpes is the Latin version...

 and Svalbard reindeer

Reindeer

The reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one has already gone extinct.Reindeer vary considerably in color and size...

.

Three-quarters of Nordaustlandet is covered by glaciers, the largest being Austfonna at 7000 square kilometres (2,702.7 sq mi). The landscape has low, rounded hills and plains, created by glaciation during former ice age

Ice age

An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...

s. Most of the reserve has little or no vegetation, and the reserve belongs to the polar desert

Polar desert

Polar deserts are areas with annual precipitation less than 250 millimeters and a mean temperature during the warmest month of less than 10°C and in the coldest month has a mean temperature of 56degress Polar deserts on Earth cover nearly 5 million square kilometers and are mostly hard bedrock or...

. The nature reserve is used by scientists and tourists, the latter commonly sailing eastwards along Hinlopenstretet or round Nordaustlandet. The most popular places to visit are Sjuøyane, Alkefjellet, Bråsvellbreen

Bråsvellbreen

Bråsvellbreen is a glacier at Nordaustlandet, Svalbard. The glacier is a 45 kilometre long stream southwards from the ice dome Sørdomen of Austfonna, debouching into the sea at the south coast. In the late 1930s it was observed that the glacier had exhibited a recent huge surge, forming a ten...

 and Kvitøya.

There are some cultural heritage sites within the reserve, including a Russian Orthodox cross on Krossøya, and Andréeneset on Kvitøya, the starting point for the S. A. Andrée's Arctic balloon expedition of 1897

S. A. Andrée's Arctic balloon expedition of 1897

S. A. Andrée's Arctic balloon expedition of 1897 was an ill-fated effort to reach the North Pole in which all three expedition members perished. S. A. Andrée , the first Swedish balloonist, proposed a voyage by hydrogen balloon from Svalbard to either Russia or Canada, which was to pass,...

. There is also a winter camp at the shores of Sorgfjorden, which hosted a 1899–1900 Swedish-Russian Arc-of-Meridian Expedition to measure the meridian arc

Meridian arc

In geodesy, a meridian arc measurement is a highly accurate determination of the distance between two points with the same longitude. Two or more such determinations at different locations then specify the shape of the reference ellipsoid which best approximates the shape of the geoid. This...

. In Rijpfjorden there is a German meteorological station from World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.