Herald Island
| Herald Island | ||
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| Waters | Chukchi Sea | |
| Geographical location | 71 ° 23 ′ 0 ″ N , 175 ° 40 ′ 0 ″ W | |
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| length | 9.6 km | |
| width | 3.6 km | |
| surface | 11.3 km² | |
| Highest elevation | 372 m | |
| Residents | uninhabited | |
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The Herald Island ( Russian Остров Геральд ) is a Russian island 63.5 km east of Wrangel Island in the Chukchi Sea . The island is very rugged and surrounded by cliffs. This makes it difficult to get to by ship. The only landable point is at the northwest point of the island, where the cliffs have crumbled into loose rocks and gravel due to the weather. The island has an area of 11.3 km². The highest point on the island is 372 m above sea level. The island is uninhabited and despite its northern location has no glaciers . Administratively it belongs to the Chukchi Autonomous Okrug and thus to Russia. The island has been part of the Wrangel Island nature reserve since 1976.
geology
The Herald Island consists of metamorphic rocks , sediments and magmatites . At the northeast tip of the island there is a 600 m thick rock formation made of sandstone , phyllites , quartz sandstone , mylonite compounds and syenite . These rocks were formed in the Proterozoic or late Paleozoic . The main part of the island consists of plutonic granite, which was formed in the Jurassic .
climate
For most of the year, cold air masses from the Arctic lie over Herald Island. In summer, warmer and more humid Pacific air blows from the southeast. At this time dry and strongly heated air masses from Siberia also reach the island. Polar Day lasts from mid-May to July 20th. The polar night lasts from mid-November to the end of January. The average temperature in January is −21.3 ° C, but the coldest months are February and March. During this time, temperatures can be below −30 ° C for several weeks, and there are regular snowstorms with wind speeds of 40 m / s or more. The summers are cool, frost or snowfall are not uncommon. In July the mean temperature fluctuates between 2 ° C and 2.5 ° C. The relative humidity is around 88%. About 120 mm of precipitation falls over a year.
history
Several nations were involved in the discovery and exploration of Herald Island. The island was discovered in 1849 by British Royal Navy officer Henry Kellett with the frigate HMS Herald during a search for the missing Rear Admiral John Franklin . Kellett landed on the island and named it after his ship. The next ships to visit the island were the USS Vincennes in 1855 under John Rodgers and the USS Jeannette under George W. DeLong on September 4, 1879. DeLong did not land on the island. In 1914, four shipwrecked Karluk escaped to the island and probably died of smoke inhalation. Their skeletons were not found until 1924.
In 1916, the Russian ambassador to London stated in a letter that he saw the Herald Island and other Arctic islands as part of the Russian Empire. The Soviet Union did not abandon this land claim either. The Soviet icebreaker Stavropol under Georgi Ushakow approached the island in 1926, but was not able to land on the island due to the ice that was too thick. The also Soviet icebreaker Krasin made another attempt to land on the island in 1953 on the way to Wrangel Island. The operation failed because of the thick fog. The landing took place on the way back.
Because of the American landing in 1855, some American people demand the return of the islands from Russia to the USA. The request was supported by a 1988 Alaska Senate resolution. However, the US never made any claim to it and accepted the Herald and some other islands as Russian territory. In 1994 the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that these islands are not part of Alaska.
In 2004, the Wrangel Island Nature Reserve was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List .
Individual evidence
- ^ William James Mills: Exploring Polar Frontiers - A Historical Encyclopedia . tape 1 . ABC-CLIO, 2003, ISBN 1-57607-422-6 , pp. 296 (English, limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ Delivery of 8 American Alaska Islands to Russia (English) ( Memento from February 14, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) State Department Watch, Washington, DC
- ↑ Position of the Wrangel and other Arctic Islands (English) US Department of State, Washington, DC