Franz Josef Land / Russia

Franz Josef Land is a Russian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. Located northeast of Spitsbergen its northernmost point is located only about 900 km from the North Pole. The approximately 190 islands are of volcanic origin and today covered permanently 80% with ice. In 1865, the archipelago was sighted by the Norwegian sealers Nils Fredrik Rönnebeck, but for the time kept secret. In 1868, he then took some of the islands in Norway in possession and called them "Ronne Beck's Land". Officially, the islands were discovered in 1873 by the Austria-Hungarian North Pole expedition and they received within that time the present name, in honor of Emperor Franz Joseph I.