Jeannette Island ( rus, Остров Жанне́тты, r=Ostrov Zhannetty; sah, Жаннетта Aрыыта, translit=Jannetta Arııta) is the easternmost

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 Islands The De Long Islands ( rus, Острова Де-Лонга, r=Ostrova De-Longa; sah, Де Лоҥ Aрыылара, translit=De Loñ Arıılara) are an uninhabited archipelago often included as part of the New Siberian Islands, lying north east of ...

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

Jeannette is the second smallest island of the De Long group, being only in length. It has an area of approximately . The island surface is mainly 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 ...

and

firn __NOTOC__ Firn (; from Swiss German "last year's", cognate with ''before'') is partially compacted névé, a type of snow that has been left over from past seasons and has been recrystallized into a substance denser than névé. It is ice that ...

. The highest peak of the island is in the middle of the ice cap, reaching a height of . A second subordinate peak reaches an elevation of . On all sides, the shores of the island consist 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 that are higher and steeper in the southern and southeastern part and shallower in the northern part.Chernova, A.I., Metelkin, D.V., Matushkin, N.Y., Vernikovsky, V.A. and Travin, A.V., 2017. ''Geology and paleomagnetism of Jeannette Island (De Long Archipelago, Eastern Arctic).'' ''Russian Geology and Geophysics '', 58(9), pp.1001-1017.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.

Geology

The most accessible and extensive exposure of bedrock is along the southwestern coast. These seacliffs expose a thick succession of 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 ...

rocks which contain subordinate beds of

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 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 ...

and

andesitic 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 predomina ...

lava flows Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or un ...

. The volcanoclastic rocks are penetrated by

mafic A mafic mineral or rock is a silicate mineral or igneous rock rich in magnesium and iron. Most mafic minerals are dark in color, and common rock-forming mafic minerals include olivine, pyroxene, amphibole, and biotite. Common mafic rocks include ...

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, ...

and sills. These sedimentary rocks consist generally of both fine- and coarse-grained 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 ...

s with thick beds of volcaniclastic

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 which can divided into four layers. The lowermost of the exposed layers consists of of fine-grained volcaniclastic turbidites, occasionally interbedded with thin layers of coarse-grained

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) ...

and pebbly sandstone. The middle part of this layer exhibits slump structures and convolute bedding along with a few lava flows and layers of bright red tuff. Overlying the lowermost layer, is of tuffaceous breccias with a sandy or silty matrix. The poorly rounded and sharp-edged pebbles forming the breccia consist mainly of andesitic volcanic rocks. The next overlying layer consists of of fine-grained volcaniclastic turbidites and minor tuffaceous breccias. The breccias consists of angular to sub-angular pebbles of volcanic rocks (andesite, dacite and occasionally

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 ...

ic andesite). The uppermost layer of sedimentary rocks, exposed in these seaclifts, consists of of predominantly coarse-grained volcaniclastic turbidites. The bedding within these volcanoclastic rocks dip steeply towards the east-northeast. The bedding is deformed by similar folds accompanied by cleavage and east-dipping

thrust fault A thrust fault is a break in the Earth's crust, across which older rocks are pushed above younger rocks. Thrust geometry and nomenclature Reverse faults A thrust fault is a type of reverse fault that has a dip of 45 degrees or less. If ...

s with displacements of few tens of meters. The bedding is also offset by

normal fault In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...

s inclined to the east and intruded by northwest trending

dolerite Diabase (), also called dolerite () or microgabbro, is a mafic, holocrystalline, subvolcanic rock equivalent to volcanic basalt or plutonic gabbro. Diabase dikes and sills are typically shallow intrusive bodies and often exhibit fine-grained ...

dikes.

History

It was discovered in 1881 by the ''Jeannette'' Expedition, commanded by 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, ...

. The expedition 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 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 ...

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 Henrietta Island ( rus, Остров Генриетты, r=Ostrov Genriyetty; sah, Хенриетта Aрыыта, translit=Xenriyetta Arııta) is the northernmost island of the De Long archipelago in the East Siberian Sea. Administratively i ...

. According to ''The Annual Report of the Secretary of the Navy, for the Year 1882'',''The Annual Report of the Secretary of the Navy, for the Year 1882'' (pg.16) "A sled party landed, hoisted the national ensign, and took possession in the name of the United States.Naval Historical Center, 2003
''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.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, ...

The excursion, 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 ...

, landed on June 2 or 3, constructed a cairn, and placed inside it a record of their visit. During the 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 ...

of 1910–1915 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'' approached Jeannette Island with the intention of mapping Jeannette and Henrietta Islands, but heavy ice blocked the approach. 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 ...

.Headland, R.K., 1994
OSTROVA DE-LONGA ('De Long Islands')

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. Some U.S. individuals assert American ownership of Jeannette Island, and others of the De Long group, based on the 1881 discovery. However, the United States government has not pursued De Long's claim to Jeannette Island, and recognizes it as Russian territory.Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, US State Department, 2003
''Status of Wrangel and other Arctic islands''
Last visited March 15, 2014.

References

External links

* Anisimov, M.A., and V.E. Tumskoy, 2002

32nd International Arctic Workshop, Program and Abstracts 2002. Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado at Boulder, pp 23–25. * Headland, R. K.,1994

Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom. * Naval Historical Center, 2003

Last 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.
The Mysterious Disappearance of Jeannette Island (on Google Maps)
{{East Siberian Sea Islands De Long Islands Islands of the East Siberian Sea Islands of the Sakha Republic