The Dunay Islands, or Duunay Aryta, (russian: Острова Дунай) is a group of islands in the

Laptev Sea The Laptev Sea ( rus, мо́ре Ла́птевых, r=more Laptevykh; sah, Лаптевтар байҕаллара, translit=Laptevtar baỹğallara) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is located between the northern coast of Siberia, t ...

. They are located close to the mouths of the Lena River, off the northwestern shores of the Lena Delta.

Geography

The Dunay islands form a compact cluster; their shores are very irregular with narrow beach ridges, sand bars and swales. The maximum length of the main island is 16 km and its maximum breadth 8 km. The island in the SE is named "Ostrov Yegorsha". The strait between these islands and the Lena Delta shore is known as ''Proliv Dzhiyelligestyakh-Oburuosa''. The area where these islands lie is subject to severe Arctic weather. Although there are some offshore

polynya A polynya () is an area of open water surrounded by sea ice. It is now used as a geographical term for an area of unfrozen seawater within otherwise contiguous pack ice or fast ice. It is a loanword from the Russian полынья (), which r ...

s towards the north, there is fast ice between the Dunay Islands and the Lena Delta for about nine months every year. There is a meteorological station in the islands called Dunay. It had some importance during the golden years of the

Northern Sea Route The Northern Sea Route (NSR) (russian: Се́верный морско́й путь, ''Severnyy morskoy put'', shortened to Севморпуть, ''Sevmorput'') is a shipping route officially defined by Russian legislation as lying east of No ...

. Administratively these islands belong to the Sakha Republic of the

Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

Adjacent islands

* 15 km to the WSW of Dunay lie the Bulgunnyakhtakh-Byolkyoy Islands (Ostrova Bulgunnyakhtakh-Bëlkëy). These are five small islands in a chain . The largest one is only 4 km in length. Although located farther offshore, they are a continuation of the Lena delta islands.Ostrova Bulgunnyakhtakh-belkey
/ref> * 33 km to the west of Dunay's westernmost tip lie two very narrow "C"-shaped islands. The southern one is called Samolyota Island (Остров Самолёта; Ostrov Samolëta) , and the northern one Aerosyomki Islands (Острова Аэросъёмки; Ostrova Aeros"yomki) . Both these islands are little more than long curved landspits of over 10 km across and less than a few hundred meters wide. Their curve is open towards the east. While Samolyota is a long, continuous landspit, Aerosyomki is broken in no less than three places, forming four separate smaller islands.

References

Archipelagoes of the Laptev Sea Archipelagoes of the Sakha Republic Populated places of Arctic Russia {{SakhaRepublic-geo-stub