Arkticheskiy Institut Islands

Location of the Arkticheskiy Institut Islands in the Kara Sea.

The Arkticheskiy Institut Islands or Arctic Institute Islands (Russian: Острова Арктического института) is a compact archipelago of narrow islands covered with tundra vegetation. It is located in the Kara Sea, about 173 km north of the coast of Siberia, and just 45 km south of the nearest island group, the Izvesti Tsik Islands.

The distance between the northern and the southern end of the archipelago is 49.5 km and its maximum width is of 21 km from east to west. The main island is called Bolshoy.

The sea surrounding the Arkticheskiy Institut Islands is covered with pack ice in the long winter and the climate is severe. There are numerous ice floes even in the summer.

This island group belongs to the Krasnoyarsk Krai administrative division of the Russian Federation and is part of the Great Arctic State Nature Reserve, the largest nature reserve of Russia.

The Arkticheskiy Institut Islands were named in honor of the Arctic Institute of the USSR, which was then known as "All-Union Arctic Institute". The combination "Arkticheskiy Institut Islands" is technically incorrect, for it is a strange combination of Russian and English. Even so, the name "Arkticheskiy Institut Islands" has become popular and its use has been widespread in this manner for many decades and in many modern maps and atlases. "Arctic Institute Islands", which would be the grammatically correct way of naming these islands in English, is very rarely used.

References

• William Barr, Reinhard Krause and Peter-Michael Pawlik, The polar voyages of Captain Eduard Dallmann, whaler, trader, explorer 1830–96.

• On sea Ice conditions near the Arkticheskiy Institut Islands: http://www.springerlink.com/content/k755260821m1q011/

• Nature Reserve: http://www.bigarctic.ru/Eng

See also

• Kara Sea