Dikson ( rus, Ди́ксон, , dʲiksən) is a port located in

northern Russia Russian North (russian: Русский Север) is an ethnocultural region situated in the northwestern part of Russia. It spans the regions of Arkhangelsk Oblast, the Republic of Karelia, Komi Republic, Vologda Oblast and Nenets Autonomous ...

and is one of the world's

northernmost settlements The most northern settlements on Earth are communities close to the North Pole, ranging from about 70° N to about 89° N. This is a list showing all of the northernmost settlements on Earth, which are all south of latitude 90° N. There are no ...

. Dikson is an urban locality (an

urban-type settlement Urban-type settlementrussian: посёлок городско́го ти́па, translit=posyolok gorodskogo tipa, abbreviated: russian: п.г.т., translit=p.g.t.; ua, селище міського типу, translit=selyshche mis'koho typu, ab ...

) situated in

Taymyrsky Dolgano-Nenetsky District Taymyrsky Dolgano-Nenetsky District (russian: Таймы́рский Долга́но-Не́нецкий райо́н) is an administrativeLaw #10-4765 and municipalLaw #2-54 district (raion), one of the forty-three in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia ...

Krasnoyarsk Krai Krasnoyarsk Krai ( rus, Красноя́рский край, r=Krasnoyarskiy kray, p=krəsnɐˈjarskʲɪj ˈkraj) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai), with its administrative center in the city of Krasnoyarsk, the third-largest city in Siber ...

. It is situated on the

Kara Sea The Kara Sea (russian: Ка́рское мо́ре, ''Karskoye more'') is a marginal sea, separated from the Barents Sea to the west by the Kara Strait and Novaya Zemlya, and from the Laptev Sea to the east by the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago. ...

, located on a headland at the mouth of the

Yenisei Gulf The Yenisey Gulf (russian: Енисейский залив, ''Yeniseysky zaliv'') is a large and long estuary through which the lower Yenisey flows into the Kara Sea. The Yenisey Gulf and its islands belong to the Krasnoyarsk Krai administrative ...

(the

Yenisei River The Yenisey (russian: Енисе́й, ''Yeniséy''; mn, Горлог мөрөн, ''Gorlog mörön''; Buryat: Горлог мүрэн, ''Gorlog müren''; Tuvan: Улуг-Хем, ''Uluğ-Hem''; Khakas: Ким суғ, ''Kim suğ''; Ket: Ӄук, ...

estuary), on Russia's

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...

coast. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 676.

Geography

Dikson is the northernmost port in Russia and the northernmost settlement on the

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

n continent. It is so far north that no

civil twilight Twilight is light produced by sunlight scattering in the upper atmosphere, when the Sun is below the horizon, which illuminates the lower atmosphere and the Earth's surface. The word twilight can also refer to the periods of time when this il ...

appears from 8 December to 5 January, but it has 24 hours of civil twilight from 18 April to 26 August. It is one of the world's most isolated settlements. Dikson's inhabitants informally call their settlement "Capital of the Arctic", taken from a popular

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

song. Dikson and

Dikson Island Dikson Island (russian: Ди́ксон), initially Dickson, is the name of an island in Taymyrsky Dolgano-Nenetsky District (russian: Таймы́рский Долга́но-Не́нецкий райо́н), Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, situated in ...

were named after Swedish Arctic pioneer Baron

Oscar Dickson Baron Oscar Dickson, or Oskar Dickson (2 December 1823 – 6 June 1897) was a Swedish magnate, bulk merchant, industrialist and philanthropist from a family of Scottish origin. In his time he was considered the most affluent of all Swedes. Court ...

. Dickson, along with

Aleksandr Mikhaylovich Sibiryakov Alexander Mikhaylovich Sibiryakov (russian: Алекса́ндр Миха́йлович Сибиряко́в) ( in Irkutsk – 1933) was a Russian gold mine and factories owner and explorer of Siberia. Biography Sibiryakov graduated from the ...

, was the patron of a number of early Arctic expeditions, including

Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld (18 November 183212 August 1901) was a Finland-Swedish aristocrat, geologist, mineralogist and Arctic explorer. He was a member of the Fenno-Swedish Nordenskiöld family of scientists and held the title of a friher ...

's Russian Arctic explorations.

Demographics

The population crashed following the demise of the Soviet Union, like many other cities in the far north of Russia, as the perceived lack of economic prospectives by many of the residents resulted in large-scale emigration from the region. Children under age 12 make up 20% of the population, compared to 15% nationwide.

Climate

Dikson has a

tundra climate The tundra climate is a polar climate sub-type located in high latitudes and high mountains. undra climate https://www.britannica.com/science/tundra-climateThe Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2019 It is classified as ET according to Köppen ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...

: ''ET'') where arboreal vegetation is unknown. For a polar climate temperatures are relatively moderate, similar to coastal

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

. Its climate is

semiarid A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi- ...

(below 350 mm annual precipitation) but covered with

ice Ice is water frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 degrees Celsius or Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air, it can appear transparent or a more or less opaqu ...

and

snow Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...

. Pitch precipitation is in dry form. Usually, in these climates in the warmest month, most of the days feature temperatures below 10 °C, however on some occasions the city can have fresh summers instead of cold, with temperatures between 15 and 18 °C. For most of the year, the temperatures are below freezing which results in long and rigorous winters. Liquid precipitation is concentrated between late spring and early fall. Temperatures do not fall below −50 °C as happens in much lower latitudes due to marine moderation. The place is known for pronounced climate change, with the highest Arctic temperatures, correlated with permafrost and marine ice pack

melting Melting, or fusion, is a physical process that results in the phase transition of a substance from a solid to a liquid. This occurs when the internal energy of the solid increases, typically by the application of heat or pressure, which inc ...

. It has experienced the fastest warming in recent decades.

References

{{Authority control Urban-type settlements in Krasnoyarsk Krai Port cities and towns in Russia Kara Sea Populated places of Arctic Russia 1915 establishments in the Russian Empire Populated places established in 1915 Road-inaccessible communities of Krasnoyarsk Krai

Geography

Demographics

Climate

See also

References