Meet Norway’s Most Isolated Community

Station commander Wiggo Johansen and nurse Siw Landro.

Arctic Deeply ventures to Jan Mayen island to meet the 18 people who compose Norway’s most isolated community. Learn more about Siw Landro, who works as the island’s nurse, librarian and everything in between.

Siw Landro fell in love, again, when she arrived on Jan Mayen, Norway. Siw has a partner and children back home, but Mr. Beerenberg immediately caught her eye. “Mr. Beerenberg is the most handsome man I ever saw.” He’s moody, she said, but “he almost makes my husband jealous. I get goosebumps just looking at him.” “He” last erupted in 1985.

Mr. Beerenberg is the 2,277-meter-tall (7,470 feet) volcano that dominates the north end of Jan Mayen, a Norwegian territory that lies closer to Greenland than any other Arctic territory.