Wiese Island, or Vize Island ( rus, Остров Визе ''Ostrov Vize''), also known as ''Zemlya Vize'' ( rus, Земля Визе) is an isolated

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

island located in the Arctic Ocean, named after

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, ...

oceanographer of

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

-descent

Vladimir Wiese Vladimir Yulyevich Wiese (russian: Владимир Юльевич Визе; 5 March 1886 – 19 February 1954) was a Russian scientist of German descent who devoted his life to the study of the Arctic ice pack. His name is associated with the S ...

Geography

This island is desolate and subject to severe Arctic storms, but it has no

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its Ablation#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...

s. In the summer, large areas of the island are free of ice and snow. Its total area is . Compared to other Arctic islands it is relatively large and flat, its highest point being only above mean sea level. The closest land is

Ushakov Island Ushakov Island (russian: Остров Ушакова, ''Ostrov Ushakova'') is an isolated island located in the Arctic Ocean, Russian Federation. The average yearly precipitation ranges from at a height of and between and around the highest po ...

further north.

Google Earth Google Earth is a computer program that renders a 3D computer graphics, 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposition, superimposing satellite images, aerial photography, and geog ...

Wiese Island lies at the northern end of 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. ...

, roughly midway between

Franz Josef Land , native_name = , image_name = Map of Franz Josef Land-en.svg , image_caption = Map of Franz Josef Land , image_size = , map_image = Franz Josef Land location-en.svg , map_caption = Location of Franz Josef ...

and

Severnaya Zemlya Severnaya Zemlya (russian: link=no, Сéверная Земля́ (Northern Land), ) is a archipelago in the Russian high Arctic. It lies off Siberia's Taymyr Peninsula, separated from the mainland by the Vilkitsky Strait. This archipelago s ...

. It belongs to the

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 ...

of the

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 ...

administrative division of Russia. Owing to its extreme northerly location, the surrounding sea is covered with

pack ice Drift ice, also called brash ice, is sea ice that is not attached to the shoreline or any other fixed object (shoals, grounded icebergs, etc.).Leppäranta, M. 2011. The Drift of Sea Ice. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. Unlike fast ice, which is "fasten ...

in the winter, and it is quite full of ice floes even in the summer. The island's coastline is also receding at a very fast rate, due to erosion. Between 2009 and 2016, its coastline is reported to have receded by up to , making it one of the fastest receding islands in the world.

History

In 1924, oceanographer

studied the drift of

Georgy Brusilov Georgy Lvovich Brusilov (russian: Гео́ргий Льво́вич Бруси́лов; May 19, 1884 – disappeared in 1914) was a Russian naval officer of the Imperial Russian Navy and an Arctic explorer. His father, Lev Brusilov, was also a na ...

's ill-fated Russian ship '' Svyataya Anna'' when she was trapped on the pack ice of the

. Wiese detected an odd deviation of the path of the ship's drift caused by certain variations of the patterns of sea and ice currents. He deemed that the deviation was caused by the presence of an undiscovered island whose coordinates he was able to calculate with precision thanks to the availability of the successive positions of the ''St. Anna'' during its drift. The data of the drift had been supplied by navigator

Valerian Albanov Valerian Ivanovich Albanov (russian: Валериа́н Ива́нович Альбанов; 26 May 1881 – 1919) was a Russian navigator, best known for being one of two survivors of the Brusilov expedition of 1912, which killed 22. Ea ...

, one of the only two survivors of the ''St. Anna''.Wladilen Troizki, ''The Exploits of second officer Valerian Albanov'', Krasnoyarsk Publishing House, 1989
/ref> Finally, the island was discovered on 13 August 1930 by a Soviet expedition led by

Otto Schmidt Otto Yulyevich Shmidt, be, Ота Юльевіч Шміт, Ota Juljevič Šmit (born Otto Friedrich Julius Schmidt; – 7 September 1956), better known as Otto Schmidt, was a Soviet scientist, mathematician, astronomer, geophysicist, statesm ...

aboard the

Icebreaker Sedov The ''Georgiy Sedov'' (russian: Георгий Седов) was a Soviet ice-breaker fitted with steam engines. She was originally the Newfoundland seal fishery support vessel ''Beothic'' and was renamed after Russian captain and polar explorer ...

under

Captain Vladimir Voronin Vladimir Ivanovich Voronin (russian: Владимир Иванович Воронин; October 17, 1890 – October 18, 1952) was a Soviet Navy captain, born in Sumsky Posad, in the present Republic of Karelia, Russia. In 1932 he commanded the e ...

. The island was named after Professor Wiese of the Soviet Arctic Institute who was at the time aboard the ''Sedov'' and who was able to set foot on the island whose existence he had predicted. The first wintering in Wiese Island took place in 1945–46. A

hydrometeorological Hydrometeorology is a branch of meteorology and hydrology that studies the transfer of water and energy between the land surface and the lower atmosphere. Hydrology, Hydrologists often use data provided by meteorologists. As an example, a meteorol ...

polar station A number of governments maintain permanent research stations in the Arctic. Also known as Arctic bases, polar stations or ice stations, these bases are widely distributed across the northern polar region of Earth. Historically few research sta ...

was established on 1 November 1945. Wiese Island's polar station is one of the northernmost in the world. Wiese-Insel 1 2014-09-02

Climate

Wiese island has an extreme

Arctic climate The climate of the Arctic is characterized by long, cold winters and short, cool summers. There is a large amount of variability in climate across the Arctic, but all regions experience extremes of solar radiation in both summer and winter. Som ...

, with temperatures only able to struggle above freezing slightly for a couple of months a year and temperatures are regularly below −20 °C from November all the way through to the following April.

References

Select bibliography

* ''Summary of the Arctic archipelagos and islands.'' Scott Polar Research Institute,

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

External links