Sverdrup Island (Kara Sea)

The Sverdrup Island (Russian Остров Свердрупа, Ostrow Swerdrupa ) is an uninhabited Russian island in the Kara Sea. It belongs administratively to the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

Geography

The island is isolated in the southern part of the Kara Sea, a marginal sea of ​​the Arctic Ocean. From the Siberian mainland in Dikson it is around 110 km, 90 km from the islands of the Arctic Institute in the Northeast. The island, with a maximum extension of 15 km an area of ​​70 km ². It points to the east and in the west on sandy spits of land which make up about one- third of the area and enclose the west, a lagoon. In its central part, the Sverdrup Island reaches a maximum height of 33 meters above the sea. It is part of the Great Arctic Nature Reserve, established in 1993, Russia's largest nature reserve.

Climate

The climate on the Sverdrup Island is arctic. The average temperature in July is between 0.4 and 3.4 ° C in January from -26 to -28 ° C. Every year there are only 20 to 30 frost-free days. The annual rainfall is 200-300 mm.

Flora and Fauna

The Sverdrup Island has only a sparse vegetation, which corresponds to the polar cold of a desert. It 34 taxa of vascular plants, 33 species of mosses and 27 species of lichens were detected.

In mammals the Siberian lemming and seasonal Arctic fox are represented. On the island breed Alpine beach runners and various Charadriiformes.

History

The island was discovered on 18 August 1893 by the Norwegian Fram expedition, Fridtjof Nansen and Otto Sverdrup after, the captain of the ship, named, who had spotted first. The first landing took place in August 1933 as part of a led by Yakov Yakovlevich Gakkel Soviet expedition on the icebreakers Sibiryakov and Rusanov.