Peter I Island in the context of "Volcanic island"

Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of Norway. Bouvet Island, located in the Subantarctic, is a dependency, and not a part of the Kingdom; Norway also claims the Antarctic territories of Peter I Island and Queen Maud Land. Norway has a population of 5.6 million. Its capital and largest city is Oslo. The country has a total area of 385,207 square kilometres (148,729 sq mi). The country shares a long eastern border with Sweden, and is bordered by Finland and Russia to the northeast. Norway has an extensive coastline facing the Skagerrak strait, the North Atlantic Ocean, and the Barents Sea. In 2024, Norway was ranked the seventh happiest country in the world.

The unified kingdom of Norway was established in 872 as a merger of petty kingdoms and has existed continuously for 1,152–1,153 years. From 1537 to 1814, Norway was part of Denmark–Norway, and, from 1814 to 1905, it was in a personal union with Sweden. Norway was neutral during the First World War, and in the Second World War until April 1940 when it was invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany until the end of the war.

Norway has three dependent territories (Norwegian: biland), all uninhabited and located in the Southern Hemisphere. Bouvet Island (Bouvetøya) is a sub-Antarctic island in the South Atlantic Ocean. Queen Maud Land is the sector of Antarctica between the 20th meridian west and the 45th meridian east. Peter I Island is a volcanic island located 450 kilometres (280 mi) off the coast of Ellsworth Land of continental Antarctica. Despite being unincorporated areas, neither Svalbard nor Jan Mayen is formally considered a dependency. While the Svalbard Treaty regulates some aspects of that Arctic territory, it acknowledges that the islands are part of Norway. Similarly, Jan Mayen is recognized as an integral part of Norway.

Both Peter I Island and Queen Maud Land are south of 60°S and are thus part of the Antarctic Treaty System. While the treaty does not affect these claims, the only states that recognize Norwegian sovereignty also have Antarctic claims. Administration of the dependencies is handled by the Polar Affairs Department of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security in Oslo. Norwegian criminal law, private law and procedural law apply to the dependencies, as do other laws that explicitly state they are valid on the dependencies.

Queen Maud Land (Norwegian: Dronning Maud Land) is a roughly 2.7-million-square-kilometre (1.0-million-square-mile) region of Antarctica claimed by Norway as a dependent territory. It borders the claimed British Antarctic Territory 20° west, specifically the Caird Coast, Coats Land on the West, and the Australian Antarctic Territory 45° east, specifically Enderby Land on the East. In addition, a small unclaimed area from 1939 was annexed in June 2015. Positioned in East Antarctica, it makes out about one-fifth of the continent, and is named after the Norwegian Queen Maud (1869–1938).

In 1930, the Norwegian Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen was the first person known to have set foot in the territory. On 14 January 1939, the territory was claimed by Norway. On 23 June 1961, Queen Maud Land became part of the Antarctic Treaty System, making it a demilitarised zone. It is one of two Antarctic claims made by Norway, the other being Peter I Island. They are administered by the Polar Affairs Department of the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Public Security in Oslo.

The Bellingshausen Sea is an area along the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula between 57°18'W and 102°20'W, west of Alexander Island, east of Cape Flying Fish on Thurston Island, and south of Peter I Island (there the southern Vostokkysten). The Bellingshausen Sea borders the Eights Coast, the Bryan Coast, and the west part of the English Coast in Antarctica. To the west of Cape Flying Fish it joins the Amundsen Sea.

Bellingshausen Sea has an area of 487,000 km (188,000 sq mi) and reaches a maximum depth of 4.5 kilometers (2.8 mi). It contains the undersea plain Bellingshausen Plain.

Lars Christensen Peak, also known as Lars Christensentoppen, is the highest point at 1,640 metres (5,381 ft) on Peter I Island, off the coast of Antarctica.

The peak is a shield volcano. It is not known whether it is extinct or not, for the upper part is apparently unmodified by glaciation.

Nils Larsen (19 June 1900 – 29 September 1976) was a Norwegian sea captain. Larsen is perhaps most associated with the Norvegia expeditions of Antarctica.

Larsen was born in Sandar, and became a noted whaler, captaining a number of whaling ships principally for Thor Dahl A/S of Sandefjord.He also served as a first mate on Norvegia expeditions of Antarctica financed by Norwegian whale-ship owner Lars Christensen. During these expeditions, Norway achieved annexation of Bouvet Island (1927) and Peter I Island (1929).

Ola Olstad (22 February 1885 – 15 November 1969) was a Norwegian zoologist and polar explorer.

Olstad Glacier on Peter I island is named after him.

Eights Coast is a portion of the coast of West Antarctica, between Cape Waite and Pfrogner Point. To the west is the Walgreen Coast, and to the east is the Bryan Coast. It is part of Ellsworth Land and stretches between 103°24'W and 89°35'W. This coast is bordered by Thurston Island, Abbot Ice Shelf and some islands within the ice shelf, and for most of its length touches the Bellingshausen Sea (west of Thurston Island by the Amundsen Sea). Most of Eights Coast is not claimed by any nation. In the east, Eights Coast borders the sector claimed by Chile as part of its southernmost province. Peter I Island, 450 kilometers (280 miles) north of the coast, is claimed by Norway as a dependency.

The coast was sighted by members of the US Antarctic Service by flights from the USS Bear during February 1940. It was mapped in detail by the United States Geological Survey from surveys and from U.S. Navy air photographs, 1960–1966. Eights Coast was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for James Eights of Albany, New York, a geologist on the ship Annawan during 1830, who performed geological investigations of the South Shetland Islands, and who cruised westward on the Annawan, in company with the ship Penguin, to 103°W. Eights, the earliest American scientist in the Antarctic, discovered the first known fossils in the Antarctic region, a tree section in the South Shetland Islands. As a result of these investigations Eights, during 1833, published in the Transactions of the Albany Institute (Vol. 2) what proved to be remarkably accurate observations and conclusions concerning the natural phenomena of the region.