Hayes Island

Hayes Island
Map of the Franz Josef Land
Waters	Arctic Ocean
Archipelago	Franz Josef Land
Geographical location	80 ° 35 '  N , 57 ° 42'  E Coordinates: 80 ° 35 '  N , 57 ° 42'  E
length	16 km
width	10 km
surface	132 km²
Highest elevation	Hydrograph ice cap (Kupol Gidrografow) 242  m
Residents	4 ward staff (winter) (2007) <1 inh / km²
main place	Geophysical Observatory ET Krenkel
Location of Hayes Island

The Hayes Island ( Russian остров Хейса / Ostrow Chjejsa , English Hayes Island or Heiss Island ) is an island of the Franz Josef Land archipelago belonging to Russia . In the northeast of the island is the geophysical observatory ET Krenkel , one of the two Russian polar stations on Franz Josef Land.

geography

With an area of ​​132 km², Hayes Island is one of the smaller Franz Josef Lands. It is located in the middle of the archipelago north of Hall Island and southeast of Champ and Salisbury Island . In the northeast lies the Wiener Neustadt Island and in the east the Wilczek Island . To the north is the small Fersman Island. Markham Sound meets Austriasund on Hayes Island .

Hayes Island is relatively flat and ice-free, with the exception of an ice cap about five kilometers in diameter on the north coast . The south coast is characterized by basalt cliffs . Most of the island is covered by sedimentary deposits from the Cretaceous and Jurassic . Several dolerite - Dykes criss-cross the island from the southeast to the northwest. In between there are meltwater streams. In the far northeast is a volcanic crater lake .

climate

There is a maritime arctic climate on Hayes Island . The mean annual temperature is −12 ° C. Only July has a mean temperature above freezing point. It is often foggy in the summer months. The mean air humidity is over 80% all year round and over 90% in the summer months. Strong winds blow on the island all year round, in winter mainly from the east and in summer from the north-west.

Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Krenkelstation, Hayes Island Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Max. Temperature ( ° C ) −20 −21 −21 −17 −7 0 1 1 −2 −10 −16 −20 O −10.9 Min. Temperature (° C) −26 −27 −26 −21 −10 −2 0 −1 −4 −14 −21 −25 O −14.7 Temperature (° C) −22 −23 −23 −18 −8 −1 1 0 −3 −11 −18 −22 O −12.3 Precipitation ( mm ) 36 33 23 18th 20th 13 23 23 30th 23 41 33 Σ 316 Humidity ( % ) 84 81 80 81 85 88 91 91 89 85 84 84 O 85.3 Source: DA Walker et al .: 2010 Expedition to Krenkel Station, Hayes Island, Franz Josef Land, Russia (PDF; 9.1 MB), accessed on December 14, 2012 (English)

Flora and fauna

Walruses off Hayes Island

Vegetation is sparse on Hayes Island. There are mainly lichens and mosses before. The most common vascular plant is the arctic poppy . On the island breeding eider ducks , sea beach runner , Arctic skuas , Arctic terns , snow buntings and ivory gulls . In addition, fulmars , red-throated divers , great skuas , spatula gulls , ice gulls , kittiwakes , crab grebes and black guillemots could also be observed.

history

Ernst Krenkel Station

The island was sighted by the Austro-Hungarian North Polar Expedition in 1874 , but Julius Payer thought it was a peninsula of Hall Island. In 1898 it was named by members of the Wellman expedition after the US polar explorer Isaac Israel Hayes .

A polar station has been located on Hayes Island since 1957. From 1965 it was expanded to become the largest weather observatory in the Arctic . At times, up to 200 scientists worked here. Between 1956 and 1990, 1,950 sounding rockets , such as the MR-12, were launched from the island .

In honor of the Russian polar explorer Ernst Theodorowitsch Krenkel , the station on Hayes Island was named Geophysical Observatory ET Krenkel in 1972 . In 2001 a fire destroyed the power supply facilities and some buildings. As part of the International Polar Year 2007/2008 , the research station on Hayes Island was rebuilt through a Russian-US cooperation.

Web links

Commons : Heiss Island  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Photos ( Memento from April 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ UNEP Islands (English)
2. ↑ Topographic map U-40-XXXIV, XXXV, XXXVI on a scale of 1: 200,000
3. ↑ EA Slagoda et al .: permafrost in Hayes Iceland, Franz Josef Land Archipelago (PDF; 31.6 MB). In: Kriosfera Zemli . Volume 19, No. 4, 2015, pp. 17–28 (English)
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} D. A. Walker et al .: 2010 Expedition to Krenkel Station, Hayes Island, Franz Josef Land, Russia (PDF; 9.1 MB), Data Report, Alaska Geobotany Center, Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK 2011 (English)
5. ↑ Meredith Williams, Julian A. Dowdeswell: Mapping seabird nesting habitats in Franz Josef Land, Russian High Arctic, using digital Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery ( Memento of the original from May 23, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was inserted automatically and still Not checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: POLAR 17, 1998, pp. 15–30 (English)
6. ^ William James Mills: Exploring Polar Frontiers - A Historical Encyclopedia , Vol. 1, ABC-CLIO, 2003, ISBN 1-57607-422-6 , p. 290 (English)
7. ↑ List of rocket launches from Hayes Island in Encyclopedia Astronautica , accessed on October 4, 2017.
8. ↑ Andreas Umbreit: Hayes (Chejsa, Kheysa, Heiss) Insel - Krenkel Station - Franz-Joseph-Land on the website www.franz-josef-land.info , accessed on October 4, 2017
9. ↑ FERMAP Franz Josef Land Environmental Research, Monitoring and Assessment Program (PDF; 460 kB; German)