Brusneva Island (russian: Остров Бруснева, Ostrov Brusneva), is a small island in the

Laptev Sea The Laptev Sea ( rus, мо́ре Ла́птевых, r=more Laptevykh; sah, Лаптевтар байҕаллара, translit=Laptevtar baỹğallara) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is located between the northern coast of Siberia, th ...

. It is located off the eastern side of the

Lena delta The Lena (russian: Ле́на, ; evn, Елюенэ, ''Eljune''; sah, Өлүөнэ, ''Ölüöne''; bua, Зүлхэ, ''Zülkhe''; mn, Зүлгэ, ''Zülge'') is the easternmost of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean ...

in the Tiksi Bay, only 5 km ENE of

Tiksi Tiksi ( rus, Ти́кси, , ˈtʲiksʲɪ; sah, Тиксии, ''Tiksii'' – lit. ''a moorage place'') is an urban locality (an urban-type settlement) and the administrative center of Bulunsky District in the Sakha Republic, Russia, located o ...

. Its length is 2.3 km and its maximum breadth less than 1 km. The name of this island is also spelt as "Brusnova" in some maps. Tiksi Bay, the area where Brusneva Island lies, is subject to severe Arctic weather with frequent gales and blizzards. The sea in the bay is frozen for about nine months every year.

History

In August 1901 Russian Arctic ship ''Zarya'' headed across the

, searching for the legendary

Sannikov Land Sannikov Land (russian: Земля Санникова) was a phantom island in the Arctic Ocean. Its supposed existence became something of a myth in 19th-century Russia. History Yakov Sannikov and Matvei Gedenschtrom claimed to have seen the ...

(Zemlya Sannikova) but was soon blocked by floating

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

New Siberian Islands The New Siberian Islands ( rus, Новосиби́рские Oстрова, r=Novosibirskiye Ostrova; sah, Саҥа Сибиир Aрыылара, translit=Saña Sibiir Arıılara) are an archipelago in the Extreme North of Russia, to the north o ...

. During 1902 the attempts to reach Sannikov Land continued while ''Zarya'' was trapped in fast ice. Leaving the ship, Russian Arctic explorer Baron

Eduard Toll Eduard Gustav Freiherr von Toll (russian: Эдуа́рд Васи́льевич Толль, translit=Eduárd Vasíl'evič Toll'; 1902), better known in Russia as Eduard Vasilyevich Toll and often referred to as Baron von Toll, was a Russian ge ...

and three companions vanished forever in November 1902 while travelling away from

Bennett Island Bennett Island ( rus, Остров Бе́ннетта, r=Ostrov Bennetta; sah, Беннетт Aрыыта, translit= Bennett Arııta) is the largest of the De Long Islands in the northern part of the East Siberian Sea. The area of this island ...

towards the south on loose ice floes. After its ordeal in the ice, a badly-leaking ''Zarya'' was finally moored close to Brusneva Island in Bukhta Tiksi, never to leave the place again. The remaining members of the expedition returned to

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, while Captain Matisen went to

Yakutsk Yakutsk (russian: Якутск, p=jɪˈkutsk; sah, Дьокуускай, translit=Djokuuskay, ) is the capital city of the Sakha Republic, Russia, located about south of the Arctic Circle. Fueled by the mining industry, Yakutsk has become one of ...

. The island was named after

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 ...

Engineer M. I. Brusnev, a member of the Russian Arctic Expedition. Brusnev led one of the two search parties that were dispatched in the spring of 1903 in order to search for ill-fated Baron Eduard Toll. Brusnev's group searched the shores of the New Siberian Islands, while the other, led by

Aleksandr Kolchak Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak (russian: link=no, Александр Васильевич Колчак; – 7 February 1920) was an Imperial Russian admiral, military leader and polar explorer who served in the Imperial Russian Navy and fought ...

travelled by whaleboat to

. Brusnev found the remains of a

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 and, ...

in the island of

New Siberia New Siberia (russian: Но́вая Сиби́рь, ; English transliteration: ''Novaya Sibir'', ; sah, Саҥа Сибиир, translit=Saña Sibiir) is the easternmost of the Anzhu Islands, the northern subgroup of the New Siberian Islands ...

during his unfruitful search for Eduard Toll.The Carcasses of the Mammoth and Rhinoceros Found in the Frozen Ground of Siberia
/ref>

References

Brusnev

Monitoring of Macro-Zoobenthos in the Lena River Mouth
Islands of the Laptev Sea Islands of the Sakha Republic {{SakhaRepublic-geo-stub