It lies east of Wilhelm Island and northeast of Spitsbergen.

The island has a banana-like shape, with a length of 615 meters (2,018 ft) in a north-south orientation, but its width does not exceed 200 meters (660 ft).

The island is a low basalt cliff that reaches an elevation of only 11 meters (36 ft) above sea level.

The Bastian Islands were discovered in 1867 by the Swedish-Norwegian polar explorer Nils Fredrik Rønnbeck, who was the first to sail around Spitsbergen.

Most of the Bastian Islands were named during the First German North Polar Expedition in 1868, led by Carl Koldewey, and this island was named after the German geographer Gustav Adolf von Klöden[2] (1814–1885).