Peschany Island (russian: о́стров Песча́ный; 'Sandy Island'), also known as Ostrov Mel, is an unusually-shaped 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, t ...
.
Geography
Peschany Island consists of a -long elliptical
landspit
A spit or sandspit is a deposition bar or beach landform off coasts or lake shores. It develops in places where re-entrance occurs, such as at a cove's headlands, by the process of longshore drift by longshore currents. The drift occurs due ...
which is broken in its eastern and southeastern side forming three smaller islands. The curved spit encloses a shallow lagoon, making Peschany look like a tropical
atoll
An atoll () is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical oceans and seas where corals can gro ...
in the maps. This island is barren and uninhabited.
Peschany is located to the east of
Bolshoy Begichev Island
Bolshoy Begichev (russian: Большой Бегичев, translation= Big Begichev) is an island in the Laptev Sea, in the Sakha Republic, Russia.
Geography
The area of the island is . Bolshoy Begichev is located within the Khatanga Gulf (russia ...
. The
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 ...
n coast lies to the south.
The sea surrounding Peschany Island is covered with pack ice in the winter. There are large
polynia
A polynya () is an area of open water surrounded by sea ice. It is now used as a geographical term for an area of unfrozen seawater within otherwise contiguous pack ice or fast ice. It is a loanword from the Russian полынья (), which re ...
s forming on the sea in Peschany Island's vicinity.
The climate is marked by severe Arctic weather with frequent gales and low temperatures even in the short summer season which lasts barely two months.
The island is host to colonies of
walruses
The walrus (''Odobenus rosmarus'') is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous distribution about the North Pole in the Arctic Ocean and subarctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the fami ...
.
A British yachtsman visiting Peschany Island recently commented on the weather and on the desolation of the place: ''"I have been anchored off Ostrov Peschany for a week now and during that time have had to move position eight times. There is, as a rule of thumb, a gale per day lasting between 8 and 12 hours"'' ... ''"Ostrov Peschany must be one of the bleakest and least inviting islands anywhere in the world."''
Alpha Global Expedition
/ref>
Administration
The island is administered by the Sakha Republic
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 ...
of Russia.
References
External links
Alpha Global Expedition
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070816014936/http://www.polarmuseum.sp.ru/Eng/route.htm On Russian explorations
{{Laptev Sea Islands
Islands of the Laptev Sea
Islands of the Sakha Republic