The Taz Estuary (russian: Тазовская губа) is a long gulf formed by the Taz River. It consists of a roughly long estuary that begins in the area of the settlement of Tazovsky and ends in the Gulf of Ob, which is connected with 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 archipel ...

. Its average width is about and it is one of the biggest estuaries in the world. It begins in the mouths of the Taz and the Pur Rivers in a roughly north–south direction at a latitude of 67° 30' N, and it bends westwards at a latitude of 69° N, widening further before joining the Gulf of Ob. The Russian

Gazprom PJSC Gazprom ( rus, Газпром, , ɡɐzˈprom) is a Russian majority state-owned multinational energy corporation headquartered in the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. As of 2019, with sales over $120 billion, it was ranked as the large ...

company is investing in the expansion of gas production in the Taz Estuary area, where there are said to be huge reserves. The area of the estuary was explored early. In the 19th century Estonian biologist and explorer

Alexander von Middendorff Alexander Theodor von Middendorff (russian: Алекса́ндр Фёдорович Ми́ддендорф; tr. ; 18 August 1815 – 24 January 1894) was a zoologist and explorer of Baltic German and Estonian extraction. He is known for his ex ...

found a frozen

mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks an ...

near the Taz Estuary. The body of the mammoth was transported to St. Petersburg in 1866.Erki Tammiksaar & Ian R. Stone, ''Alexander von Middendorff and his expedition to Siberia (1842–1845)''

References

{{Authority control Estuaries of Russia Gulfs of the Kara Sea Bodies of water of Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug Taz basin