The Shelonsky Islands (russian: Шелонские острова, Shelonskiye Ostrova) is an island group in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia),

Russian Federation 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-eig ...

. They are located 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 ...

and are subject to severe Arctic weather with frequent gales and blizzards. There are no settlements on the islands.

Geography

The Shelonsky Islands are part of the coastal lowlands of the

Yana Bay Yana may refer to: Locations *Yana, Burma, a village in Hkamti Township in Hkamti District in the Sagaing Region of northwestern Burma *Yana, India, a village in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, India * Yana, Nigeria, an administrative ca ...

, east of the mouths of the Chondon river and west of

Sellyakh Bay Sellyakh Bay (russian: Селляхская губа; sah, Сиэллээх тамах) is a bay in Ust-Yansky District, Sakha Republic (Yakutia), Russian Federation. Google Earth There are no settlements in the bay area, the nearest inhabited ...

. They are marshy and flat. The coastal area off which these islands lie, is an extensive

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The p ...

zone. Further north, the sea in the Yana Bay is frozen with thick ice for about eight months yearly, so that these coastal islands are merged with the mainland most of the year.Polynyas and frozen surface in the Laptev Sea during the winter

Islands

*The largest is Vostochnyy Shelonsky, it is located on the northern shores of the Manyko Peninsula (Poluostrov Manyko). This island has a length of 17 km and a maximum width of 7.2 km. Vostochnyy has many small lakes and becomes narrower towards its eastern end. East of this island lies a deep inlet stretching southwards known in Russian as Sellyakhskaya Guba. *Zapadnyy Shelonsky Island is much smaller, being only 2.5 km across. It lies off Vostochnyy's western tip, separated from it by a 2 km wide sound. *Yuzhnyy Shelonsky lies detached from the main group, 20 km further to the west, off the NE shores of

Yarok Yarok Island (russian: остров Ярок) is a coastal island in the Laptev Sea, a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. The island is located off the mouths of the Chondon, east of the Yana river. Administratively, Yarok Island is part of Ust-Y ...

Island. It is 3 km long and 0.7 km wide. *There are a few other small unnamed islands in the group, all of them close to Vostochnyy.

References

External links

Permafrost and formation of thermokarst lakes
Archipelagoes of the Laptev Sea Archipelagoes of the Sakha Republic {{SakhaRepublic-geo-stub