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 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 ...

lying between 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, t ...

and

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 ...

. Its area of approximately places it the 102nd largest islands in the world. New Siberia Island is low lying, rising to only and covered with

tundra In physical geography, tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. The term ''tundra'' comes through Russian (') from the Kildin Sámi word (') meaning "uplands", "treeless mou ...

vegetation. The island is a part of the territory of

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 E ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

Geology

New Siberia Island consists of

clastic Clastic rocks are composed of fragments, or clasts, of pre-existing minerals and rock. A clast is a fragment of geological detritus,Essentials of Geology, 3rd Ed, Stephen Marshak, p. G-3 chunks, and smaller grains of rock broken off other rocks ...

sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand ...

s ranging from Late

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

in age. The Late Cretaceous sediments consist of extensively folded layers of gray and greenish gray tuffaceous

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class ...

, tuffaceous

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel ...

, pebbly sand, and layers of

brown coal Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35%, and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat ...

exposed in sea cliffs along it southwest coast. The sand and silt often contain either

volcanic glass Volcanic glass is the amorphous (uncrystallized) product of rapidly cooling magma. Like all types of glass, it is a state of matter intermediate between the closely packed, highly ordered array of a crystal and the highly disordered array of ...

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

plants,

rhyolite Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals ( phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained groundmass. The miner ...

pebble A pebble is a clast of rock with a particle size of based on the Udden-Wentworth scale of sedimentology. Pebbles are generally considered larger than granules ( in diameter) and smaller than cobbles ( in diameter). A rock made predomina ...

s, or some combination of them.

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', ...

sand, silt,

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay pa ...

, and brown coal overlies an erosional

unconformity An unconformity is a buried erosional or non-depositional surface separating two rock masses or strata of different ages, indicating that sediment deposition was not continuous. In general, the older layer was exposed to erosion for an interval ...

cut into the Late Cretaceous sediments. Within the northwest part of New Siberia Island, these sediments grade into clays that contain fragments of

marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military ...

bivalves Bivalvia (), in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class of marine and freshwater molluscs that have laterally compressed bodies enclosed by a shell consisting of two hinged parts. As a group, bival ...

. Directly overlying the Eocene sediments and another erosional unconformity are sands of

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but t ...

and Early

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

age. They contain thin beds of silt, mud, clay, and pebbles. These sands contain fossil plants and lagoonal, swamp, and lacustrine

diatom A diatom ( Neo-Latin ''diatoma''), "a cutting through, a severance", from el, διάτομος, diátomos, "cut in half, divided equally" from el, διατέμνω, diatémno, "to cut in twain". is any member of a large group comprising se ...

s. These sands are overlain by

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58peat Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially Decomposition, decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, Moorland, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and ...

, and pebbles.Fujita, K., and D.B. Cook, 1990, ''The Arctic continental margin of eastern Siberia'', in A. Grantz, L. Johnson, and J. F. Sweeney, eds., pp. 289–304, The Arctic Ocean Region. Geology of North America, vol L, Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colorado.Kos’ko, M.K., and G.V. Trufanov, 2002
Middle Cretaceous to Eopleistocene Sequences on the New Siberian Islands: an approach to interpret offshore seismic.
''

Marine and Petroleum Geology ''Marine and Petroleum Geology'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering marine and petroleum geology. It was established in 1984 and is published by Elsevier. The editor-in-chief is Massimo Zecchin ( Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di ...

''. vol. 19, no. 7, pp. 901–919. Except for the Derevyannye Hills,

sediments blanket almost the entire surface of New Siberia Island. These deposits consist of layers of

sediments overlain by terrestrial sediments. The lower marine sediments are composed of three superimposed beds of marine to

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estua ...

water clay containing fossil

mollusk Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is e ...

s and capped with peat. The overlying terrestrial sediments consist of an ice complex composed of ice-rich wind-blown silt in which ice wedges have developed. This ice complex accumulated over tens of thousands of years during the Late Pleistocene, through the

Last Glacial Maximum The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), also referred to as the Late Glacial Maximum, was the most recent time during the Last Glacial Period that ice sheets were at their greatest extent. Ice sheets covered much of Northern North America, Northern Eu ...

, until it stopped at about 10,000 BP. During this period of tens of thousands of years, the formation of ice complex buried and preserved in permafrost an enormous number of

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 ...

tusk Tusks are elongated, continuously growing front teeth that protrude well beyond the mouth of certain mammal species. They are most commonly canine teeth, as with pigs and walruses, or, in the case of elephants, elongated incisors. Tusks share ...

s and bones and the bones of other “

megafauna In terrestrial zoology, the megafauna (from Greek μέγας ''megas'' "large" and New Latin ''fauna'' "animal life") comprises the large or giant animals of an area, habitat, or geological period, extinct and/or extant. The most common thresho ...

”.Basilyan, A., and P.A. Nikolskiy, 2002
''Quaternary Deposits of New Siberia Island (Russian Arctic).''
32nd Annual Arctic Workshop Abstracts, March 14–16, 2002, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado at Boulder.Dorofeev, V.K., M.G. Blagoveshchensky, A.N. Smirnov, and V.I. Ushakov, 1999, ''New Siberian Islands. Geological structure and metallgeny''. VNIIOkeangeologia, St. Petersburg, Russia. 130 pp. (in Russian) New Siberia Island is noted for abundant upright tree trunks, logs, leaf prints, and other plant debris that occur within sediments that are exposed along sea cliffs and within the uplands of the Derevyannye Hills along its southern coast.Armstrong, A., 1857, ''A Personal Narrative of the Discovery of the North-west Passage : With numerous incidents of travel and adventure during nearly five years' continuous service in the Arctic regions while in search of the expedition under Sir John Franklin.'' Hurst and Blackett Publishers, London, England. 616 pp.Taylor, R. C., 1848, ''Statistics of Coal: The Geographical and Geological Distribution of Mineral Combustibles or Fossil Fuel or Mineral Combustibles or Fossil Fuel.'' J. W. Moore, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 754 pp.von Toll E., 1890, ''Tertiire Pflanzen der Insel Neu-Sibirien.'' In J. Schmalliausen, ed., Wissenflschaftliche Resultate der von der kaiserlichen Akademie zur. Erforschung des Jana-Landes u.s,w, ausgesandten Expedition, II, Mérn. Acad. Imp. Sci. Saint-Pétersb., 1890, 7e sér. XXXVII, no. 5. Due to the abundance of exposed coalified logs and upright trunks, early explorers and paleobotanists referred to the Derevyannye Hills as either the "Wood Mountains", "Wood Hills", or "Tree Mountain".Kropotkin, P., 1900
''Hurst and Blackett Review: Baron Toll on New Siberia and the Circumpolar Tertiary Flora.''
The Geographical Journal. vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 95–98.von Toll, E., and P. Kropotkin, 1989
''Proposal for an Expedition to Sannikoff Land''.
The Geographical Journal. vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 162–172. At one time, the highly folded layers of sand, silt, mud, clay, and brown coal containing these coalified tree fossils were once thought to have accumulated during either the Miocene or Eocene Epoch. These sediments and the fossil trunks and logs, which they contain, are now known to date to the Late Cretaceous Period (

Turonian The Turonian is, in the ICS' geologic timescale, the second age in the Late Cretaceous Epoch, or a stage in the Upper Cretaceous Series. It spans the time between 93.9 ± 0.8 Ma and 89.8 ± 1 Ma (million years ago). The Turonian is preceded b ...

Stage).Klubov, B.A., A.A. Korshunov, and I.G. Badera, 1976, ''New data on coal measures of Novaya Sibir' Island, New Siberian.'' Transactions Doklady of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences: Earth Science Sections. vol. 231, no. 1-6, pp. 58–60. Baron Von Toll, Dr. Klubov and others, Dr. Dorofeev and others, as well as other publications all demonstrate that the claims by some authors, i.e. Mr. Southall,Southall, J.C., 1875, ''The Recent Origin of Man, as Illustrated by Geology and the Modern Science of Pre-Historic Archaeology.'' J.B. Lippincott & Company, London, United Kingdom. 606 pp. that the "Wood Hills" of New Siberia Island are either partially or completely "formed of driftwood" are completely erroneous.

Vegetation

Rush/grass, forb,

cryptogam A cryptogam (scientific name Cryptogamae) is a plant (in the wide sense of the word) or a plant-like organism that reproduces by spores, without flowers or seeds. The name ''Cryptogamae'' () means "hidden reproduction", referring to the fact ...

tundra covers the New Siberia Island. It is tundra consisting mostly of very low-growing grasses, rushes,

forb A forb or phorb is an herbaceous flowering plant that is not a graminoid (grass, sedge, or rush). The term is used in biology and in vegetation ecology, especially in relation to grasslands and understory. Typically these are dicots without woo ...

s, mosses, lichens, and

liverwort The Marchantiophyta () are a division of non-vascular land plants commonly referred to as hepatics or liverworts. Like mosses and hornworts, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in which cells of the plant carry only a single set of ...

s. These plants either mostly or completely cover the surface of the ground. The soils are typically moist, fine-grained, and often hummocky.CAVM Team, 2003
''Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map''
Scale 1:7,500,000. Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) Map No. 1. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Anchorage, Alaska.

History

Russian explorer

Yakov Sannikov Yakov Sannikov () (January 29, 1780, Ust-Yansk – 1810s, Sakha Republic) was a Russian merchant and explorer of the New Siberian Islands. In 1800, Sannikov discovered and charted Stolbovoy Island, and in 1805 Faddeyevsky Island. In 1809–1810, h ...

was the first recorded European to set foot on New Siberia Island, in 1806. He discovered it during one of several hunting expeditions financed by merchants, Semyon and Lev Syrovatsky.Mills, W. J., 2003, ''Exploring polar frontiers: a historical encyclopedia.'' ABC CLIO Publishers, Oxford, United Kingdom.

References

External links

* anonymous, nd, aerial photographs of these islands. * Andreev, A.A., and D.M. Peteet, 1999
''Climate and Diet of Mammoths in the East Siberian Arctic .''
Science Briefs (August 1999). Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, New York. Last visited July 12, 2008. * 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. * Kuznetsova, T.V., L.D. Sulerzhitsky, Ch. Siegert, 2001, New data on the “Mammoth” fauna of the Laptev Shelf Land (East Siberian Arctic), The World of Elephants - International Congress, Rome 2001. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Centro di Studio per il Quaternario e l'Evoluzione Ambientale, Università di Roma, Roma, Italy. * 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. {{East Siberian Sea Islands New Siberian Islands Anzhu Islands Islands of the Sakha Republic

Geology

Vegetation

History

See also

References

External links