![Siberia DL](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Siberia_DL.png)
Henrietta Island ( rus, Остров Генриетты, r=Ostrov Genriyetty; sah, Хенриетта Aрыыта, translit=Xenriyetta Arııta) is the northernmost
island
An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...
of the
De Long archipelago
An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands.
Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Archi ...
in the
East Siberian Sea
The East Siberian Sea ( rus, Восто́чно-Сиби́рское мо́ре, r=Vostochno-Sibirskoye more) is a marginal sea in the Arctic Ocean. It is located between the Arctic Cape to the north, the coast of Siberia to the south, the New Si ...
. Administratively it belongs to
Yakutia
Sakha, officially the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia),, is the largest republic of Russia, located in the Russian Far East, along the Arctic Ocean, with a population of roughly 1 million. Sakha comprises half of the area of its governing Far Eas ...
of the
Russian Federation
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
.
Geography
Henrietta is roughly circular in shape with a diameter of about and area of about . Its shoreline consists of high, continuous, and rocky
seacliff
Seacliff comprises a beach, an estate and a harbour. It lies east of North Berwick, East Lothian, Scotland.
History
The beach and estate command a strategic position at the mouth of the Firth of Forth, and control of the area has been conte ...
s.
Cape Melville (Mys Mel'villya), Henrietta's northernmost landhead, is the northernmost point of the De Long Islands, as well as the northernmost land thousands of miles east and west. The closest land is
Jeannette Island
Jeannette Island ( rus, Остров Жанне́тты, r=Ostrov Zhannetty; sah, Жаннетта Aрыыта, translit=Jannetta Arııta) is the easternmost island of the De Long Islands archipelago in the East Siberian Sea. Administratively ...
, located to the east-southeast.
[Shumskiy, P.A., 1939. ''A glaciological and geomorphological sketch of Henrietta Island.'' ''Izvestiya GGO'', 71(9), pp.1352-1365.]
Ice cap
Almost half of the island is covered by a central
ice cap
In glaciology, an ice cap is a mass of ice that covers less than of land area (usually covering a highland area). Larger ice masses covering more than are termed ice sheets.
Description
Ice caps are not constrained by topographical features ...
that reaches its maximum height at above sea level. The ice cap area has a surface of approximately and occupies the highest south-eastern part of the island. The southern and eastern edges of the ice cap are fringed by tall icy cliffs rising above the underlying
basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...
plateau.
Geology
Henrietta Island consists of unmetamorphosed,
folded and
faulted Ediacaran
The Ediacaran Period ( ) is a geological period that spans 96 million years from the end of the Cryogenian Period 635 million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Cambrian Period 538.8 Mya. It marks the end of the Proterozoic Eon, and th ...
and Middle-Upper
Cambrian
The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized C with bar, Ꞓ) was the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 53.4 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 538.8 million ...
volcaniclastic
Volcaniclastics are geologic materials composed of broken fragments (clasts) of volcanic rock. These encompass all clastic volcanic materials, regardless of what process fragmented the rock, how it was subsequently transported, what environment it ...
sedimentary
Sedimentary rocks are types of rock (geology), rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic matter, organic particles at Earth#Surface, Earth's surface, followed by cementation (geology), cementation. Sedimentati ...
strata
In geology and related fields, a stratum ( : strata) is a layer of rock or sediment characterized by certain lithologic properties or attributes that distinguish it from adjacent layers from which it is separated by visible surfaces known as ei ...
and Upper Cambrian
basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...
.
[Ershova, V.B., Lorenz, H., Prokopiev, A.V., Sobolev, N.N., Khudoley, A.K., Petrov, E.O., Estrada, S., Sergeev, S., Larionov, A. and Thomsen, T.B., 2016. ''The De Long Islands: A missing link in unraveling the Paleozoic paleogeography of the Arctic.'' ''Gondwana Research'', 35, pp.305-322.][Prokopiev, A.V., Ershova, V.B., Anfinson, O., Stockli, D., Powell, J., Khudoley, A.K., Vasiliev, D.A., Sobolev, N.N. and Petrov, E.O., 2018. ''Tectonics of the New Siberian Islands archipelago: Structural styles and low-temperature thermochronology.'' ''Journal of Geodynamics'', 121, pp.155-184.]
The Ediacaran strata consist of about of volcaniclastic
turbidite
A turbidite is the geologic deposit of a turbidity current, which is a type of amalgamation of fluidal and sediment gravity flow responsible for distributing vast amounts of clastic sediment into the deep ocean.
Sequencing
Turbidites were ...
beds with subordinate beds of tuffaceous
breccia
Breccia () is a rock composed of large angular broken fragments of minerals or rocks cemented together by a fine-grained matrix.
The word has its origins in the Italian language, in which it means "rubble". A breccia may have a variety of di ...
s and
dacitic
Dacite () is a volcanic rock formed by rapid solidification of lava that is high in silica and low in alkali metal oxides. It has a fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic texture and is intermediate in composition between andesite and rhyolite ...
tuff
Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock cont ...
s. They are similar to the volcaniclastic rocks observed on Jeanette Island. These turbidites are mainly fine-grained,
grading from
siltstone
Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt. It is a form of mudrock with a low clay mineral content, which can be distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility.Blatt ''et al.'' 1980, p ...
s at their base to
mudstone
Mudstone, a type of mudrock, is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Mudstone is distinguished from '' shale'' by its lack of fissility (parallel layering).Blatt, H., and R.J. Tracy, 1996, ''Petrology. ...
s at their top. Rare beds of pebbly breccias with a
sand
Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class of s ...
y matrix occur at the base of the coarser turbidites. Their
pebble
A pebble is a clast of rock with a particle size of based on the Udden-Wentworth scale of sedimentology. Pebbles are generally considered larger than granules ( in diameter) and smaller than cobbles ( in diameter). A rock made predominant ...
s are composed of volcanic rocks. These strata contain several meters of red tuffs and
synsedimentary slump structures.
The Cambrian strata consists of two sets of sedimentary strata. The lower set of strata consists of about of parallel-laminated
sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...
s and siltstone with beds of
polymictic conglomerates, The
cobble
Cobble may refer to:
* Cobble (geology), a designation of particle size for sediment or clastic rock
* Cobblestone, partially rounded rocks used for road paving
* Hammerstone, a prehistoric stone tool
* Tyringham Cobble, a nature reserve in Tyr ...
s and pebbles of the conglomerates range from sub-angular to rounded and are composed of
schist
Schist ( ) is a medium-grained metamorphic rock showing pronounced schistosity. This means that the rock is composed of mineral grains easily seen with a low-power hand lens, oriented in such a way that the rock is easily split into thin flakes o ...
,
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
s,
quartz
Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...
, and
volcanic
A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface.
On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates a ...
rocks. In the northern clifts of Henrietta Island, a bed of basaltic
andesite
Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predomi ...
occurs within this set of strata. It conformably overlies the Ediacaran strata. The upper set of Cambrian strata consists of about of medium- to coarse-grained quartzose sandstone. The sandstone contains beds of quartz conglomerates and subordinate beds of siltstones. Sandstones exhibit parallel and planar-lamination with occasional ripple marks. Thick beds of Upper Cambrian basalt and andesitic basalt unconformably overlie these beds.
The intensity of tectonic deformation varies across the island. The most intense deformation, folding and thrusting, occurs in the southwest part of Henrietta Island. In contrast, the strata are monoclinal with gently dipping beds in the south, east, and north of the island. The Ediacaran and Cambrian strata have been intruded by numerous
sills and
dikes
Dyke (UK) or dike (US) may refer to:
General uses
* Dyke (slang), a slang word meaning "lesbian"
* Dike (geology), a subvertical sheet-like intrusion of magma or sediment
* Dike (mythology), ''Dikē'', the Greek goddess of moral justice
* Dikes, ...
of basalt and porphyritic
diorite
Diorite ( ) is an intrusive igneous rock formed by the slow cooling underground of magma (molten rock) that has a moderate content of silica and a relatively low content of alkali metals. It is intermediate in composition between low-silic ...
.
History
American explorer and
US Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...
lieutenant commander
George W. De Long
George Washington De Long (22 August 1844 – ) was a United States Navy officer and explorer who led the ill-fated ''Jeannette'' expedition of 1879–1881, in search of the Open Polar Sea.
Career
''Jeannette'' expedition
In 1879, ...
set out in 1879 aboard the , hoping to reach
Wrangel Island
Wrangel Island ( rus, О́стров Вра́нгеля, r=Ostrov Vrangelya, p=ˈostrəf ˈvrangʲɪlʲə; ckt, Умӄиԓир, translit=Umqiḷir) is an island of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia. It is the 91st largest island in the w ...
and to discover open seas in the Arctic Ocean near the
North Pole
The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distinguish from the Mag ...
. However, the ship entered an ice pack near
Herald Island in September 1879 and became trapped. The vessel drifted several hundred miles with the ice, passing north of Wrangel Island. In May 1881 it approached Jeannette Island and Henrietta Island. According to ''The Annual Report of the Secretary of the Navy, for the Year 1882'' (p. 16), "A sled party landed, hoisted the national ensign, and took possession in the name of the United States".
[Naval Historical Center, 2003a]
''A Lengthy Deployment: The Jeannette Expedition in Arctic Waters as Described in Annual Reports of the Secretary of the Navy, 1880–1884''
Last visited May 26, 2008.[Naval Historical Center, 2003b]
Last visited May 26, 2008 The excursion was led by
George W. Melville
George Wallace Melville (January 10, 1841 – March 17, 1912) was an American engineer, Arctic explorer, and author. As chief of the Bureau of Steam Engineering, he headed a time of great expansion, technological progress and change, ofte ...
, accompanied by William Dunbar, William Nindemann, Hans Erichsen, Walter Sharvell and James Bartlett. They landed on June 2 or 3, constructed a cairn, and placed inside it a record of their visit.
During the 1914–1915 Imperial Russian
Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition
The Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition (GESLO) (1910–1915) was a scientific expedition organized by Russia for the purpose of the development of the Northern Sea Route.
This expedition accomplished its goal of exploring the uncharted areas ...
led by
Boris Vilkitsky
Boris Andreyevich Vilkitsky (russian: Бори́с Андре́евич Вильки́цкий) (22 March (3 April N.S.) 1885, Pulkovo – 6 March 1961) was a Russian hydrographer and surveyor. He was the son of Andrey Ippolitovich Vilkitsky.
...
, the ''
Vaygach
Vaygach Island (russian: Вайга́ч, ''Vajgač''; Nenets: Вай Хабць, romanized: ''Vai Habcj’'') an island in the Arctic Sea between the Pechora Sea and the Kara Sea.
Vaygach Island is separated from the Yugorsky Peninsula in the ...
'' approached Jeannette Island with the intention of mapping Jeannette and Henrietta Islands, but heavy ice blocked the approach.
[Starokadomski, L.M. and O.M. Cattley, 1919]
"Vilkitski's North-East Passage, 1914–15"
''The Geographical Journal''. vol. 54, no. 6, pp. 367–375 (December 1919) (requires JSTOR
JSTOR (; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library founded in 1995 in New York City. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary sources as well as current issues of j ...
access). In 1916 the Russian ambassador in London issued an official notice to the effect that the Imperial government considered Henrietta, along with other Arctic islands, integral parts of the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
. This territorial claim was later maintained by the
Soviet Union
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 national ...
.
A
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
polar station was established on Henrietta Island in 1937 in an expedition by
Rudolf Samoylovich
Rudolf (Ruvim) Lazarevich Samoylovich (russian: Рудольф Лазаревич Самойлович) (13 September ( O.S. 1 September), 1881 – 4 March 1939) was a Soviet polar explorer, professor, and doctor of geographic sciences.
Biograph ...
, and closed in 1963. Henrietta Island served in 1979 as the starting point for a Soviet expedition to the North Pole on skis.
[Adventure Club, nd]
25 лет с Северным полюсом!
a description of the 1979 polar ski trek from the Adventure Club (Russian). Last visited May 26, 2008.
Some U.S. individuals
assert American ownership of Henrietta Island, and others of the De Long group, based on the 1881 discovery and claim. However, according to the U.S. Department of State in 2003, the U.S. government has never claimed Henrietta Island.
[Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, US State Department, 2003]
''Status of Wrangel and other Arctic islands''
Last visited May 10, 2009.
Physical description
Henrietta Island was described by the sled party from the De Long expedition in the following terms: "The island is a desolate rock, surmounted by a snow-cap, which feeds several discharging glaciers on its east face.
Dovekie
The little auk or dovekie (''Alle alle'') is a small auk, the only member of the genus ''Alle''. ''Alle'' is the Sami name of the long-tailed duck; it is onomatopoeic and imitates the call of the drake duck. Linnaeus was not particularly fam ...
s nesting in the face of the rock are the only signs of game. A little moss, some grass, and a handful of rock were brought back as trophies. The cliffs are inaccessible, because of their steepness."
[De Long, Emma, ed., 1883]
''The Voyage of the Jeannette: The Ship and Ice Journals of George W. De Long'', Volume II
Houghton Mifflin and Company. Last visited May 26, 2008 at the Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
).
References
External links
*Anisimov, M.A., and V.E. Tumskoy, 2002
Environmental History of the Novosibirskie Islands for the last 12 ka.32nd International Arctic Workshop, Program and Abstracts 2002. Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado at Boulder, pp 23–25.
*Anonymous, 1923
''Wrangel Island.''The Geographical Journal, Vol. 62, No. 6. pp. 440–444 (Dec., 1923). (requires JSTOR access).
*Headland, R.K., 1994
Scott Polar Research Institute
The Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) is a centre for research into the polar regions and glaciology worldwide. It is a sub-department of the Department of Geography in the University of Cambridge, located on Lensfield Road in the south o ...
, Cambridge University. Lasted visited May 26, 2008.
*Schirrmeister, L., H.-W. Hubberten, V. Rachold, and V.G. Grosse, 2005
''Lost world - Late Quaternary environment of periglacial Arctic shelves and coastal lowlands in NE-Siberia. ''2nd International Alfred Wegener Symposium Bremerhaven, October, 30 - November 2, 2005.
{{Authority control
De Long Islands
Islands of the East Siberian Sea
Islands of the Sakha Republic