Svalbard Svalbard is an archipelago belonging to Norway located East of Greenland from 74 to 81 degrees North. The two largest islands are Spitsbergen, and Nordaustlandet. Historically, Svalbard was discovered by Vikings, but did not effectively belong to any country until granted to Norway in 1920. Hunting, trapping, and whaling were once widespread in the archipelago. Over the last 40 years, geological research has been frequent, much of that tied to the abundance of coal. Svalbard does have a modest population, there being a number of mining settlements on Spitsbergen, of which Longyearbyen is the largest.  (Aga 1986)