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Severnaya Zemlya – the Last Major Geographical Discovery on Earth
No comments · Posted by Sergei Rzhevsky in Nature, Regions, Travel
Severnaya Zemlya (literally “Northern Land”, until 1926 – Land of Emperor Nicholas II) is an archipelago located in the central part of the Arctic Ocean north of the Taimyr Peninsula on the border of the Kara Sea and the Laptev Sea. This is the northernmost part of Krasnoyarsk Krai of Russia.
The archipelago consists of 4 large islands (October Revolution, Komsomolets, Bolshevik, Pioneer) and a number of small ones. The area of Severnaya Zemlya is about 37 thousand square km. The length from north to south is 380 km, from west to east – 340 km. There is no permanent population on the islands. Severnaya Zemlya on Google Maps. The following photographs were taken by Slava Stepanov in July.
Severnaya Zemlya is the only archipelago discovered in the 20th century, as well as the last large mapped landmass. It was discovered by the hydrographic expedition of Boris Vilkitsky in 1913. It was explored in detail in the 1930s.
About 47% of the area of Severnaya Zemlya is covered with ice. In total, there are 20 large glaciers in the archipelago. Places where glaciers reach the sea are often sources of iceberg formation.
The climate of the islands is arctic. The average long-term temperature is -14 degrees Celsius, the minimum temperature in winter reaches -47 °C, in summer – +6.2 °C. At a depth of 15 cm there is permafrost.
The research station “Cape Baranov” located on Bolshevik Island is the largest hydrometeorological polar observatory in Russia. During the polar night, from October to February, about 20 people can work here, in the summer – up to 40 researchers.
Tags: Krasnoyarsk krai
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