| Austfonna | |
|---|---|
 Austfonna on the island Nordaustlandet. Sørfonna is part of Austfonna, while Vestfonna is a separate glacier. | |
| Location | Svalbard, Arctic Ocean, Norway |
| Coordinates | 79°47.0′N 24°39.8′E / 79.7833°N 24.6633°E |
| Area | 7,800 km2 (1,927,000 acres) (including Vegafonna) |
Austfonna is an ice cap located on Nordaustlandet in the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. Covering an area of 7,800 km2,[1] it is Europe's third-largest glacier by area and volume, after the Severny Island ice cap of Novaya Zemlya, Russia, and Vatnajökull in Iceland.[2] The combined area of Austfonna and the Vegafonna ice cap is 8,492 km2.[3]
Austfonna has a thickness of up to 560 metres (235 meters average thickness), and is 200 km in circumference. The ice dome reaches an elevation of 783 meters above sea level.[citation needed]
The southern third of Austfonna is sometimes called Sørfonna, which is a separate ice cap, separated from the main part of Austfonna by a long, ice-filled depression, and forming a separate crestal dome.[4]
Vegafonna ice cap in the southwest is also connected to Austfonna proper, specifically to Sørfonna, and is separated from it by Erica Valley.[4] Vegafonna also forms a separate dome. Immediately west of Vegafonna is Glittne ice cap,[4] which is considered part of the former.[citation needed]
Vestfonna in the northwest of the island is a totally separate ice cap (the third largest of Svalbard and Norway).[citation needed]
- ^ Moholdt, G. & Kääb, A. A new DEM of the Austfonna ice cap by combining differential SAR interferometry with ICESat laser altimetry. Polar Res 31, 18460, https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v31i0.18460 (2012).
- ^ "Hver er stærsti jökull í Evrópu?". Vísindavefurinn (in Icelandic). 5 February 2016.
- ^ "Austfonna". Norwegian Polar Data Centre.
- ^ a b c Sharp, Robert. "Glaciers in the Arctic" (PDF).