Recently, among Russians, interest in their homeland is growing more and more. Many prefer to rest within the country, and these are not only the resorts of the Krasnodar Territory, but also the mountains of the Urals and Altai, the taiga in Siberia, Lake Baikal, etc. And just recently, there have been fans of traveling to hard-to-reach regions of Russia, for example, in the Arctic North. In this regard, in this article we will tell the reader about where the New Siberian Islands are located, we will introduce them to their peculiarity and significance for our Motherland. So let's get started.
Novosibirsk Islands on the map
This archipelago is located in the Arctic Ocean. It serves as the border between the East Siberian Sea and the Laptev Sea. Administratively belongs to Yakutia. The New Siberian Islands consist of three groups. The first of them is the southernmost - Lyakhovsky. They are separated from Eurasia by the D. Laptev Strait, and from Anzhi Island by the Sannikov Strait. Kotelny (Novosibirsk Islands archipelago) and New Siberia make up the second group. The last, third - De-Long. They are to the northeast of the Anjou group and are small islands. Everyone can find the New Siberian Islands on the map of Russia. Their coordinates: 75 degrees 16minutes north and 145 degrees 15 minutes east.
Features
The Novosibirsk Islands used to be part of the continent. They lie in the zone of the continental plume. The relief of the islands is flat. The climate is arctic, it is characterized by cold winters, the duration of which is nine months. Summer is very cold and windy. The archipelago has large wetlands, a huge number of glacial lakes and small streams, thanks to which a relatively diverse ecosystem has formed here in permafrost conditions. Kotelny Island differs from the rest in that Bunge Land is located here - a unique sandy Arctic desert. It is noteworthy that earlier (several millennia ago) the climatic conditions on the New Siberian Islands were completely different - much milder than today. This is evidenced by the numerous finds of paleontologists: the remains of mammoths, woolly rhinos and ancient horses.
Discovery history
The New Siberian Islands archipelago was discovered by the Cossack Y. Permyakov in 1712 during his expedition from the mouth of the Lena River to the mouth of the Kolyma. They discovered the island, which today bears the name of Bolshoi Lyakhovsky. The subsequent exploration of the archipelago was carried out by the traveler I. Lyakhov in 1772-1773 and Y. Sannikov in 1805. Almost 16 years later, Peter Anzhu (1821-1823) described in detail the group of islands of this archipelago, which were subsequentlynamed after him. And in 1879-1891, the American De-Long opened a third group. And already in the twentieth century, several remote islands of this archipelago were discovered.
What is there?
The Novosibirsk Islands are under the patronage of the Ust-Lensky Reserve. During the Soviet Union, there were scientific settlements here, but with the collapse of the USSR, they disappeared. Only the polar station functions. Today, for those who want to get acquainted with this remote corner of our Motherland, travel companies offer tours to the islands, where you will have the opportunity to explore the sights of the archipelago.
Why does interest in the Arctic continue?
Here is a very stable winter, snow lies almost all year round, there are swamps, lakes and rivers. There are minerals: coal, natural gas and others. What can attract a person's eye to this harsh land? Once upon a time, people were interested in the Novosibirsk Islands as a source of bones of various fossil animals - mainly mammoths. For more than two hundred years, they were exported from the archipelago in tons. According to the recollections of one of the merchants who came to Bolshoy Lyakhovsky in search of this product, the island consisted of mammoth bones mixed with sand and ice. The tusks were simply melted out of the ice that formed the archipelago.
The attention of a modern person to these islands is caused to a greater extent by the geopolitical situation - after all, the Arctic is included in the range of strategic plans of the Russian Federation. Now the eyes are riveted to her shelfnot only politicians, but also geologists and other scientists. This is due to the set geopolitical tasks - the need to divide the shelf. The problem of its division and continental slope includes both ecological, economic and political aspects. This is explained by the fact that the expansion of the borders of the countries of the Arctic zone, including the Russian Federation, will allow in the near future to more confidently invest in geological surveys for new oil and gas fields.
Research Issues
The Novosibirsk Islands are the most remote and impregnable for Russia in any respect: both geologically and geographically. Of course, they cannot be called a white spot on the map of our country, but there are areas with white spots. For example, Jeannette Island is located in the De Long group - it does not have any geological descriptions. The fact is that it has very steep banks, most likely of volcanic origin - very steep. In addition, it does not have a suitable landing area for a helicopter. So while research scientists have not been able to get to it. In August 2012, a scientific expedition was carried out in the archipelago under a grant from the Russian Geographical Society. In particular, zoological research was carried out on the islands. As a result of the expedition, the most valuable data on the distribution and species composition of marine mammals were collected. In addition to visual observations, the scientists collected samples of biomaterials for further studies in the laboratory. In addition, there wascollected information about the life cycle of walruses and polar bears living on the New Siberian Islands. An important discovery was the meeting with gray whales. This is the first recorded occurrence of these animals in the waters of this archipelago.
