Novosibirsk Islands is an archipelago located in the Arctic Ocean. Included in the territory of Russia, but not yet mastered, but only studied. This article will talk in more detail about the Sannikov Strait, named after one of its first researchers.
Novosibirsk islands
This archipelago divides two large northern seas: the Laptev and East Siberian. The total area of all islands is 38.4 thousand square kilometers, they are part of a specially protected area. This zone is part of the Ust-Lensky nature reserve and at the same time is a border zone.
The Novosibirsk islands are divided into three groups: Lyakhovsky, Anjou and De Long. In total, 24 islands are included in the archipelago. The largest of them is called Kotelny with an area of 23 thousand square kilometers. He is known for the large number of mammoth tusks found. By the way, poachers are still hunting for this valuable fossil. This is considered to be a very profitable business in these parts, some even manage to raise vegetative villages with this money. They first learned about the islands from the Cossack Yakov Permyakov in the early 18th century. He, as part of a detachment led by Mercury Vagin, visited Bolshoi Lyakhovsky Island. They explored the Novosibirsk islands mainly thanks to the efforts of mammoth bone hunters, and only then they began to be studied more seriously. In the history of their development, one can distinguish the researcher Sannikov, after whom the strait, river and polar station are named.
Sannikov Strait
It is located between the largest island of Kotelny and Small Lyakhovsky. The Sannikov Strait connects the two seas - the Laptev and East Siberian, and at the same time divides the two island groups - Anjou and Lyakhovsky. It was discovered by an industrialist from Yakutia Lyakhov, but named after another researcher. Where the Sannikov Strait is located, the Northern Sea Route passes , this is its smallest section. The length of the strait is 238 kilometers, the width reaches 55 kilometers, the depth reaches 24 meters. All year round, floating ice can be observed in the strait.
Vessels successfully enter these waters thanks to the luminous sign of Sannikov, besides him, the buildings of the Arctic station "Sannikov Strait" are visible. Kotelny Island has the following bays: Smirnitsky, Malygintsev and Bolshaya Guba. Near the last is the polar station "Bunge".
In whose honor is the strait named
The modern name was approved in 1935 by the government of the USSR. In honor of whom the Sannikov Strait is named, you can understand if you watch the famous Soviet film. In honor of Arctic explorer Jacob Sannikov. It was a Russian merchant who hunted prey for a mammoth and Arctic fox tusk. He gained fame thanks to his discovery of an unknown island, which was nicknamed "Sannikov Land." According to his assumption, this separate vast land area should have been located north of Kotelny Island.
He claimed that there high mountains rise above the sea. In addition, it was said that this mythical land is also fertile, with warm climatic conditions. This assumption was based on the fact that birds - polar geese - supposedly fly there in the spring, and in the fall they return from there with offspring. They could not survive in harsh conditions, which spoke in favor of the existence of Sannikov Land. Emperor Alexander III said that anyone who finds this unknown territory will have rights to it.
Searches for Sannikov Land
To find this wonderful place, many researchers went on dog sledding, since navigation on water for most of the year is impossible - the whole sea is ice-bound. These expeditions were carried out with a risk to life in the spring months, often they were interrupted in the ice and hummocks. Sannikov himself also sought this land from 1810 to 1811. He discovered and described the island of Pillar in 1800 (in the south-west of the archipelago) and Faddeevsky, which actually turned out to be a peninsula.
The search for Sannikov Land provoked new Arctic expeditions. For example, organized by Baron Tollem, who was sure of the existence of a whole continent called Arctida, the shores of which, in his opinion, were observed by Sannikov. Later, Nansen explored a stretch of the sea north of the Novosibirsk Islands, but found nothing similar to Sannikov Land. In the USSR, interest in this topic was revived thanks to the geologist and paleontologist Obruchev. He wrote the science fiction novel Land of Sannikov. At his request, the site at sea was again explored from the Soviet icebreaker Sadko, planes were sent to the same area, but nothing was found.
Polar station "Strait of Sannikov"
It is located on the island of Kotelny, on its southern shore. Near the raging waters of the Sannikov Strait. For many years it was studied here for suitability for shipping. Previously, only the Laptev Strait was navigable, so they began to study the Sannikov Strait. In the 90s, interest in studying has faded away, but scientific research is currently being resumed.
A weather station explores weather events over the sea. Sometimes polar bears appear near her, trying to plunder food supplies. The dog guarding the station survived a heart attack when meeting with them, but then learned to drive them away. On the initiative of the rescue service from Yakutia, a chapel was built here, the consecration of which took place in 2009.