The islands of Hitra and Frøya lie to the northeast, Skardsøya and Ertvågsøya to the southeast, Stabblandet and Tustna to the south, and the open Norwegian Sea to the west and north.

[3] The 214-square-kilometre (83 sq mi) island is very low and marshy with only 5% of the land cultivated into agricultural use.

[3] Scientists of the Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformationtechnique of Technische Universität Berlin were testing the antique maps of Ptolemy and recognized a pattern of calculation mistakes that occurred when one tried to convert the old coordinates from Ptolemy into modern cartographical maps.

The scientists believe that, when one compensates for these mistakes, the mythological location Thule corresponds to the island of Smøla.

The largest population centres on the island are the villages of Hopen (in the north) and Råket-Dyrnes (in the northwest).