Semyonovsky Island ('о. Семёновский' in Russian) was an

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An isla ...

in the

Lyakhovsky Islands The Lyakhovsky Islands ( rus, Ляховские острова, r=Lyakhovskiye ostrova; sah, Ляхов арыылара) are the southernmost group of the New Siberian Islands in the Arctic seas of eastern Russia. The islands are named in hono ...

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 ...

. It was located in the southwestern area of the archipelago, in the eastern part of 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 ...

. Before its disappearance, it was at 4 km², one of the smallest islands in the

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Arch ...

. In 1945, just before it disappeared, its sea cliffs rose about 24 meters above sea level.Grigorov, I.P., 1946, ''Disappearing islands.'' Priroda, pp. 58–65 (in Russian)Gavrilov, A.V., N.N. Romanovskii, V.E. Romanovsky, H.-W. Hubberten, and V. E. Tumskoy (2003). Reconstruction of Ice Complex Remnants on the Eastern Siberian Arctic Shelf. ''

Permafrost and Periglacial Processes ''Permafrost and Periglacial Processes'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research on permafrost and periglacial geomorphology. It covers the subject from various points of views including engineering, hydrology, process g ...

''. vol. 14, pp. 187–198.

History

Mr. I. Lyakhov, a merchant from Yakutsk, discovered this island in 1770. He discovered it by following the tracks of an enormous herd of reindeer across frozen sea ice. Czarina

Catherine II , en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes , house = , father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst , mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp , birth_date = , birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anhal ...

rewarded him for discovering this and another island in the New Siberian Island

with the exclusive rights to collect

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 ...

ivory Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals i ...

from them.Nordenskiold, A. E., 1885, ''The Voyage of the Vega Round Asia and Europe: With a Historical Review of Previous Journeys Along the North Coast of the Old World.'' Macmillan and co. London, 756 pp. Since its discovery, Semenovsky Island rapidly decreased in size until it disappeared between 1952 and the early 1960s. The area of Semyonovsky Island was 4.6 km² in 1823, 0.9 km² in 1912, 0.5 km² in 1936, and 0.2 km² in 1945. In 1950, it was only a solitary baydzharakh (thermokarst mound). By 1952, it had been eroded down into a sand bar lying just above the sea surface. When Semyonovsky Island was visited in the early 1960s, it had vanished and only a sand shoal with an average depth of 10 m and minimum depth of 0.2 m remained.

References

{{Laptev Sea Islands New Siberian Islands Former islands of Russia Islands of the Sakha Republic Lyakhovsky Islands