The Nordenskiöld Archipelago or Nordenskjold Archipelago () is a large and complex cluster of about 90 islands in the eastern region of the

Kara Sea The Kara Sea 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. Ultimately the Kara, Barents and Laptev Seas are all ...

. Its eastern limit lies west of the

Taymyr Peninsula The Taymyr Peninsula ( ) is a peninsula in the Far North of Russia, in the Siberian Federal District, that forms the northernmost part of the mainland of Eurasia. Administratively it is part of the Krasnoyarsk Krai Federal subject of Russia. Ge ...

. The archipelago is part of the Taymyrsky Dolgano-Nenetsky District of the

Krasnoyarsk Krai Krasnoyarsk Krai (, ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (a krai) of Russia located in Siberia. Its administrative center is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Krasnoyarsk, the second-largest city in Siberia after ...

administrative division of

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. These are mainly formed by

igneous rock Igneous rock ( ), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rocks are formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava. The magma can be derived from partial ...

s and are covered with

tundra In physical geography, a tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. There are three regions and associated types of tundra: #Arctic, Arctic, Alpine tundra, Alpine, and #Antarctic ...

vegetation. Except for two polar stations, one which was permanent in

Russky Island Russky Island () is an island in Peter the Great Gulf in the Sea of Japan, in Primorsky Krai, Russia. It is the largest island in the Eugénie Archipelago, separated from the Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula immediately to the north by the Eastern ...

between 1935 and 1999 and a temporary one in Tyrtov Island (Tyrtova) (1940–1975), there is no permanent human presence in any island of the archipelago.

Geography and environment

The Nordenskiöld Archipelago stretches for almost from west to east and about from north to south in the

, off the

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

n shores, where there are large coastal islands around Taymyr Island. The average elevation of the islands is relatively low. The highest point of the archipelago (107 m) is located in Chabak, one of the islands of the Vilkitsky subgroup. Some of the islands have

wetlands A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

. The climate in the Nordenskiöld Archipelago is Arctic and severe. The sea surrounding the multitude of island groups is covered with fast ice in the winter and it is obstructed by pack ice even in the summer, which lasts only about two months in a normal year.

Birds

The islands regularly support significant populations of brent geese and ivory gulls. The archipelago has been recognised as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

Islands

There are about 90 cold, windswept and desolate islands in this archipelago. They are divided into groups, with the main ones from west to east:

Tsivolko Islands

The Tsivolko Islands (острова Циволько; ''Ostrova Tsivolko'') is the westernmost group. * Krasin Island, named after icebreaker Krasin, the biggest island in the group. * Lenin Island * Yermak Island * Kuchum Island * Sadko Island * Schultz Island * Mametkul Island * Vitte Island (Lemeshok) * Kovalevsky Island * Ukromny Island * Brandwacht Island * Savvy Loshkin Island * Vasilyev Island * Gryada Island * Kazak Island * Ledokol Island * Makarov Island * Oktyabr Island

Vilkitsky Islands

The Vilkitsky Islands (острова Вилькицкого), also known as 'Dzhekman Islands' , located north of the Matisen Strait. * Novyy Island (New Island) * Strizhev Island * Chabak Island, the biggest and highest island in the group. *

Tsentralny Island Tsentralny (masculine), Tsentralnaya (feminine), or Tsentralnoye (neuter) may refer to: *Tsentralny District (disambiguation), several districts in the countries of the former Soviet Union *Tsentralny Okrug (disambiguation), various divisions in Rus ...

(Central Island) * Korsar Island * Opasnyye Islands, group of small islets * Grozny Island (Terrible Island) * Tugut Island * Pet Island * Smezhny Island * Shvetsov Island * Dzhekman Island * Kamenisty Island * Ovalny Island * Hovgaard Island (Khovgarda) * Herberstein Island (Gerbersteina)

Pakhtusov Islands

The Pakhtusov Islands (острова Пахтусова; ''Ostrova Pakhtusova'') , located south of the Lenin Strait. * Alexandra Island * Pakhtusov Island * Shpanberg Island * Truvor Island * Silach Island * Petersen Island, largest island in the group. * Olyeg Island * Dobrynia Nikitich Island * Skudnye Island * Zverolovny Island * Granichny Island * Navarin Island * Yurt Island * Kotovsky Island

Litke Islands

The Litke Islands (острова Литке; ''Ostrova Litke''), . This group includes

(остров Русский; ''Ostrov Russkiy'') . Located at the archipelago's northern end, this is the largest island of the Nordenskiöld group. * Shileyko Island, close to Russky's southern coast * Torosny Island, with 42 m, the highest point in the subgroup * Sofii Island * Sikora Island * Unkovsky Island * Yermolov Island, large island, south of Shileyko * Pedashenko Island * Tribrata Island (Three Brothers Islands), a group of three small islands

Vostochnyye Islands

The Vostochnyye Islands (Восточные острова; ''Vostochnyye Ostrova'', "Eastern Islands"), latitude 76° 38' N and longitude 97° 30' E. This group includes the Kolomeitsev Islands (острова Коломейцева; ''Ostrova Kolomeytseva'') . * Tyrtov Island, longest island of the group * Lovtsov Island * Zheleznyakov Island * Dezhnev Islands, small group of two islands * Matros Island, 54 m high rocky island * Salome Island * Volna Island (Wave Island) * Yevgeny Fyodorov Islands, group of two relatively large islands * Nord Island, named after ship ''Nord'' of the Russian Hydrographic Department. * Bianki Island * Leskinen Island * Dalniy Island * Priemny Island, the easternmost island of the archipelago

Coastal islands

The southern extension of the wider archipelago, consisting of the islands located south of the Matisen Strait near and around Taymyr Island. Kolchak Island, located further south, is not geographically part of the Nordenskiöld Archipelago in the strict sense. * Taymyr Island, the largest island of the coastal group * Bonevi Island *

Nansen Island Nansen Island () is the largest of the islands lying in Wilhelmina Bay off the west coast of Graham Land, Antarctica. Location Nansen Island is off the Danco Coast on the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula. It is in the northeast of Wilhe ...

, a large island * Pravdy Island * Vkhodnoy Island * Nablyudeniy Island * Bliznetsy Islands * Rifovyy Island * Nizkiy Island * Moiseyev Island * Lafetnyye Islands * Ledyanyye Islands * Skalistyye Island * Rozmyslov Island * Malyy Island * Serp i Molot Island * Zvezda Island * Pilot Alexeyev Island * Pilot Makhotkin Island, a large island with a very indented coastline * Siversiy Island

History

This archipelago was first reported in 1740 by Nikifor Chekin, who accompanied Semion Chelyuskin in the Great Northern Expedition. Many years later it was named after arctic explorer

Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld (; 18 November 183212 August 1901) was a Finland-Swedish aristocrat, geologist, mineralogist and Arctic explorer. He was a member of the noble Nordenskiöld family of scientists and held the title of a friherre (ba ...

by Norwegian polar explorer

Fridtjof Nansen Fridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen (; 10 October 1861 – 13 May 1930) was a Norwegian polymath and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He gained prominence at various points in his life as an explorer, scientist, diplomat, humanitarian and co-founded the ...

in his maps of the northern coasts and seas of Siberia. In 1893, when

's '' Fram'' was near the Nordenskjold Archipelago, it got stuck in dead water. This is a strange phenomenon that typically occurs in

fjord In physical geography, a fjord (also spelled fiord in New Zealand English; ) is a long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Antarctica, the Arctic, and surrounding landmasses of the n ...

s, as glaciers melt and a form a shallow layer of freshwater ice over salty water. This is how Nansen described the phenomenon: In 1900 the islands of the Nordenskiöld Archipelago were explored and mapped with accuracy by Captain Fyodor Andreyevich Matisen during the Russian polar expedition of 1900–1902. This venture was led by Baron Eduard Von Toll on behalf of the Imperial

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...

aboard ship '' Zarya''. Toll sent Matisen to make a survey of the archipelago in the early spring while the ''Zarya'' was wintering close to Taymyr Island. Most islands of the Nordenskiöld Archipelago were charted and named during this effort. Matisen crisscrossed the whole vast frozen area on dogsled twice. He divided the archipelago into four of the five main groups mentioned above and named more than forty islands. Like Nansen, Eduard Toll observed that it was difficult to navigate through the archipelago on account of the ice.

William Barr William Pelham Barr (born May 23, 1950) is an American attorney who served as United States Attorney General, United States attorney general in the administration of President George H. W. Bush from 1991 to 1993 and again in the first adminis ...

, ''Baron Eduard Von Toll's Last Expedition.'', ARCTIC Sept 1980 After the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

, the archipelago was explored in the 1930s by a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

expedition on the icebreaker '' Sedov''. In 1937 the Arctic Institute of the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

organized an expedition on ship ''Toros''. The purpose of this expedition was to explore the Nordenskiöld Archipelago and to thoroughly investigate the

Northern Sea Route The Northern Sea Route (NSR) (, shortened to Севморпуть, ''Sevmorput'') is a shipping route about long. The Northern Sea Route (NSR) is the shortest shipping route between the western part of Eurasia and the Asia-Pacific region. Ad ...

in the

. The ''Toros'' overwintered in Ledyanaya Bay on Bonevi Island west of Taymyr Island and sailed back to

Archangelsk Arkhangelsk (, ) is a city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina near its mouth into the White Sea. The city spreads for over along the banks of the river and numerous islands o ...

during the summer thaw after having explored many Kara Sea islands. On 25 August 1942, during Operation Wunderland,

Kriegsmarine The (, ) was the navy of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official military branch, branche ...

cruiser ''Admiral Scheer'' fell upon the Russian icebreaker '' Sibiryakov'' (under the command of Captain Kacharev) off the northwest coast of

at the northern end of the Nordenskiöld Archipelago. The ''Sibiryakov'' resisted but was sunk by the German warship. Then ''Admiral Scheer'' headed southwest in order to attack the

military installations at Dikson. Since May 1993 the Nordenskiöld Archipelago is part of the

Great Arctic State Nature Reserve The Great Arctic State Nature Reserve () is a nature reserve in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. With an area of , it is the largest reserve of Russia and Eurasia, as well as one of the largest in the world. History The Great Arctic State Nature Reserv ...

, the largest

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...

of Russia.Nature Reserve
The Arctic station at Russky Island was closed in 1999.

References

Bibliography

* Valerian Albanov, ''In the Land of the White Death'', 2001. Contains pictures of Fridtjof Nansen's early Arctic maps.

External links

*
The Nordenskiöld Archipelago; Ousland
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nordenskiold Archipelago Archipelagoes of the Arctic Ocean Archipelagoes of the Kara Sea Archipelagoes of Krasnoyarsk Krai Uninhabited islands of Russia Important Bird Areas of Arctic islands Important Bird Areas of North Asia Important Bird Areas of Russia