Khatanga (russian: Хатанга) is a

rural locality In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are describ ...

(a '' selo'') 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 ...

Russia 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 ...

, located on the

Khatanga River The Khatanga (russian: Хатанга) is a river in Krasnoyarsk Krai in Russia. The river is navigable. The river port of Khatanga is located on the river. Course It begins at the confluence of the rivers Kotuy and Kheta. The Khatanga is lo ...

on the

Taymyr Peninsula The Taymyr Peninsula (russian: Таймырский полуостров, Taymyrsky poluostrov) is a peninsula in the Far North of Russia, in the Siberian Federal District, that forms the northernmost part of the mainland of Eurasia. Administrati ...

. It is one of the northernmost inhabited localities in Russia. Its elevation is above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

. As of the 2002 Census, its population was 3,450. The name Khatanga means "large water" in the local

Evenki language Evenki (Ewenkī), formerly known as Tungus or Solon, is the largest member of the northern group of Tungusic languages, a group which also includes Even, Negidal, and the more closely related Oroqen language. The name is sometimes wrongly given ...

. The locality is known to have existed since the 17th century. It is served by the

Khatanga Airport Khatanga Airport is an airport in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia located southeast of Khatanga. It is a major airfield servicing medium-sized airliners. Interceptor aircraft were based here in the 1970s, and the airfield may have been home to de ...

. Khatanga is relatively close to the

Popigai impact structure The Popigai impact structure is the eroded remnant of an impact crater in northern Siberia, Russia. It is tied with the Manicouagan structure as the fourth largest verified impact structure on Earth. A large bolide impact created the diameter ...

, an asteroid impact structure and geological formation located in northern Siberia. The crater has been noted since September 2012 as a potential source of a significant new global supply of

industrial diamond Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, b ...

Economy

Tourism

Khatanga is sometimes visited by Western sightseers touring the surrounding natural wilderness in

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

. It has a hotel, a natural history museum, and weather reporting stations. In 2019, mayor Yevgeny Vershinin announced plans to develop the locality to act as a hub for travelers on their way to 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 ...

, hoping to compete with

Longyearbyen Longyearbyen (, locally �lɔ̀ŋjɑrˌbyːən "The Longyear Town") is the world's northernmost settlement with a population greater than 1,000 and the largest inhabited area of Svalbard, Norway. It stretches along the foot of the left bank ...

, a Norwegian town on the island of

Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), also known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it is about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group range ...

, for Arctic tourists. The locality has been used as a pit stop for northern expeditions in the past, with helicopters coming from

Krasnoyarsk Krasnoyarsk ( ; rus, Красноя́рск, a=Ru-Красноярск2.ogg, p=krəsnɐˈjarsk) (in semantic translation - Red Ravine City) is the largest city and administrative center of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It is situated along the Yeni ...

occasionally stopping there on their way to the North Pole. The Khatanga airport is one of the largest and most operable in the Russian Arctic, with the main runway receiving renovations in 2009. However, the rest of the airport, especially the terminal, is in extremely poor condition.

Port

The locality is home to the ZAO Sea Commercial Port of Khatanga which accepts various Arctic cargo shipments. While the port only operates from June until September, it has five mooring berths capable of admitting vessels with draughts up to . Two of the berths service the port fleet, two receive general cargo, and one is reserved for oil products. Goods such as refrigerated cargo,

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

, and bulk shipments of coal, sand, gravel, and oil are processed at the port.

Climate

Khatanga has a

subarctic climate The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of an ocean, ge ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

''Dfc'') with short, mild summers and bitterly cold winters. Precipitation is quite low, but is somewhat heavier in summer, when it falls mostly as rain, than in the rest of the year, when it falls mostly as snow.

References

{{Authority control Rural localities in Krasnoyarsk Krai Yeniseysk Governorate Populated places of Arctic Russia North Siberian Lowland