The Yamal Peninsula (russian: полуостров Ямал, poluostrov Yamal) is located in the

Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug The Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (YaNAO; russian: Яма́ло-Не́нецкий автоно́мный о́круг (ЯНАО), ; yrk, Ямалы-Ненёцие автономной ӈокрук, ) or Yamalia (russian: Ямалия) is a fed ...

of northwest

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 of ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. It extends roughly 700 km (435 mi) and is bordered principally by the

Kara Sea The Kara Sea (russian: Ка́рское мо́ре, ''Karskoye more'') is a marginal sea, separated from the Barents Sea to the west by the Kara Strait and Novaya Zemlya, and from the Laptev Sea to the east by the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago. ...

Baydaratskaya Bay Baydaratskaya Bay or Baydarata Bay (russian: Байдарацкая губа, Baydaratskaya guba, Tundra Nenets language, Tundra Nenets: Пэдарита, ''Pėdarita'') is a gulf in Russia, located in the southern part of the Kara Sea between t ...

on the west, and by the

Gulf of Ob The Gulf of Ob ( (russian: Обская губа, Obskaya guba; also known as ''Bay of Ob'', russian: Обский залив, Obsky zaliv, link=no) is a bay of the Arctic Ocean, located in Northern Russia at the mouth of the Ob River.

on the east. At the northern end of this peninsula lie the Malygina Strait and, beyond it,

Bely Island Bely Island (also spelled as Belyy and Beliy, russian: Белый остров, Tundra Nenets: Сэр’’ ӈо, ''Sėr’’ ŋo'') is a relatively large island in the Kara Sea off the tip of the Yamal Peninsula, Siberia, Russia. Close to th ...

. Across the river lies the

Gyda Peninsula The Gyda Peninsula () is a geographical feature of the Siberian coast in the Kara Sea. It takes its name from the river Gyda, that flows on the peninsula. It is roughly 400 km long and 360 km wide. This wide peninsula lies between t ...

. In the language of its indigenous inhabitants, the Nenets, "Yamal" means "End of the Land". The Yamal peninsula is inhabited by a multitude of migratory bird species. The well-preserved remains of

Lyuba Lyuba may refer to: * Lyuba (given name) Ljuba is a Slavic given name. In the Serbian language, it is best known as a masculine name, cognate to Ljubomir or Ljubo. In other Slavic languages it's more often a feminine name (Czech, Bulgarian, Maced ...

, a 37,000-year-old mammoth calf, were found by a reindeer herder on the peninsula in the summer of 2007. The animal was female and was determined to be one month old at the time of death.

Geography

The

peninsula A peninsula (; ) is a landform that extends from a mainland and is surrounded by water on most, but not all of its borders. A peninsula is also sometimes defined as a piece of land bordered by water on three of its sides. Peninsulas exist on all ...

consists mostly of

permafrost Permafrost is ground that continuously remains below 0 °C (32 °F) for two or more years, located on land or under the ocean. Most common in the Northern Hemisphere, around 15% of the Northern Hemisphere or 11% of the global surface ...

ground and there are numerous lakes of

thermokarst Thermokarst is a type of terrain characterised by very irregular surfaces of marshy hollows and small hummocks formed as ice-rich permafrost thaws. The land surface type occurs in Arctic areas, and on a smaller scale in mountainous areas such as ...

origin, the biggest of which are

Neito Neito (russian: Нейто) is a freshwater lake group in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Russia.Google Earth The water in the lakes is cleaner than in Lake Baikal. Neito is a traditional sacred site for the Nenets, the indigenous people of the ...

and Yambuto in the central part.

Google Earth Google Earth is a computer program that renders a 3D computer graphics, 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposition, superimposing satellite images, aerial photography, and geog ...

Many hydrocarbon fields have been discovered on the Yamal Peninsula, including large gas fields. The main hydrocarbon resources are concentrated in the permeable Aptian-Cenomanian complex.

Reindeer husbandry

According to anthropologist

Sven Haakanson Sven Haakanson, Jr. (born 1967) (Alutiiq) is an American anthropologist who specializes in documenting and preserving the language and culture of the Alutiiq. He served, from 2000-2013, as Executive Director of the Alutiiq Museum in Kodiak, Ala ...

, the Yamal peninsula is the place within the Russian Federation where traditional large-scale

nomad A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the popu ...

reindeer Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...

husbandry is best preserved. Nenets and

Khanty The Khanty (Khanty: ханти, ''hanti''), also known in older literature as Ostyaks (russian: остяки) are a Ugric indigenous people, living in Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug, a region historically known as "Yugra" in Russia, together ...

reindeer herders hold about half a million domestic reindeer.

Development

The area is largely undeveloped, but work is ongoing with several large infrastructure projects, including a gas pipeline and several bridges. Yamal holds Russia's biggest

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

reserves. The 572 km Obskaya–Bovanenkovo railway, completed in 2011, is the northernmost railway in the world. Russian gas monopolist

Gazprom PJSC Gazprom ( rus, Газпром, , ɡɐzˈprom) is a Russian majority state-owned multinational energy corporation headquartered in the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. As of 2019, with sales over $120 billion, it was ranked as the larges ...

had planned to develop the

Yurkharovskoye gas field The Yurkharovskoye gas field is a natural gas field located in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. It was discovered in 1970 and developed by Novatek. It began production in 2003 and produces natural gas and condensates. The total proven reserv ...

by 2011–2012. The peninsula's gas reserves are estimated to be 55 trillion

cubic meters The cubic metre (in Commonwealth English and international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures) or cubic meter (in American English) is the unit of volume in the International System of Units (SI). Its symbol is m ...

(tcm). Russia's largest energy project in history, known as the

Yamal project Yamal project, also referred to as Yamal megaproject, is a long-term plan to exploit and bring to the markets the vast natural gas reserves in the Yamal Peninsula, Russia. Administratively, the project is located in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Ok ...

, puts the future of nomadic reindeer herding at considerable risk.

Yamal craters

In 2014, Yamal was the discovery site of a distinct

sinkhole A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are locally also known as ''vrtače'' and shakeholes, and to openi ...

, or

pingo Pingos are intrapermafrost ice-cored hills, high and in diameter. They are typically conical in shape and grow and persist only in permafrost environments, such as the Arctic and subarctic. A pingo is a periglacial landform, which is defin ...

, which quickly drew the attention of world media. The sinkhole appeared to be the result of a huge explosion and several hypotheses were suggested to explain the formation of the crater, including a hit by a meteorite or a UFO, or the collapse of an underground gas facility. A spokesperson for the Yamal branch of the Emergencies Ministry said, "We can definitely say that it’s not a meteorite.". Cryovolcanism has been pointed out as the most probable cause in recent researches. The 60-meter (66-yard) crater is believed by a senior researcher from the Scientific Research Center of the Arctic, Andrei Plekhanov, in remarks to the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

, to be likely the result of a "buildup of excessive pressure" underground because of warming regional temperatures in that portion of Siberia. Tests conducted by Plekhanov's team showed unusually high concentrations of methane near the bottom of the sinkhole. The destabilization of gas hydrates containing huge amounts of methane gas is believed to have caused the craters on the Yamal Peninsula. As of 2015, the Yamal peninsula had at least five similar craters. Another crater appeared in August 2020.

Offshore methane leaks

According to researchers at Norway's (CAGE), through a process called geothermal heat flux, the Siberian

, which extends to the seabed of the

, a section of the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...

between the Yamal Peninsula and

Novaya Zemlya Novaya Zemlya (, also , ; rus, Но́вая Земля́, p=ˈnovəjə zʲɪmˈlʲa, ) is an archipelago in northern Russia. It is situated in the Arctic Ocean, in the extreme northeast of Europe, with Cape Flissingsky, on the northern island, ...

, is thawing. According to a CAGE researcher, Aleksei Portnov:

Methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The relative abundance of methane on Eart ...

is leaking in an area of at least 7500 m². In some areas gas flares extend up to . Prior to their research it was proposed that methane was tightly sealed into the permafrost by water depths up to . Close to the shore however, where the permafrost seal tapers to a depth of as little as , there are significant amounts of gas leakage.

References

External links

*
Ялмал
', статья ЭСБЕ
Статья БСЭ
reat Soviet Encyclopedia
Yamal Culture

Article on Nenets culture, religion and history
{{Authority control Peninsulas of Russia Landforms of Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug