Medvezhji Islands

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Medvezhji Islands
Beacon on Krestovsky
Beacon on Krestovsky
Waters East Siberian Sea
Geographical location 70 ° 52 '  N , 161 ° 26'  E Coordinates: 70 ° 52 '  N , 161 ° 26'  E
Medvezhji Islands (Republic of Sakha)
Medvezhji Islands
Number of islands 6th
Main island Krestovsky
Total land area 60 km²
Residents uninhabited
Map of the Medvezhji Islands
Map of the Medvezhji Islands

The Medweschji- or Bear Islands ( Russian Медвежьи острова ) are an uninhabited group of islands at the western end of the Kolyma Gulf in the East Siberian Sea .

geography

The six islands are about 100 kilometers from the mouth of the Kolyma . The 15 km long island of Krestowski is the largest, with 273 meters the highest (Gora Schapka) and westernmost of the group. It is located 35 kilometers off the coast of Siberia . A weather station was set up in 1933 on Cheetyrjochstolbowoi, the easternmost and southernmost of the six islands.

Administratively, the group belongs to the Nizhnekolymski ulus administrative district of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) . The name is derived from the Russian word medwed for "bear" or " polar bear ".

The six islands from west to east:

  1. Krestovsky
  2. Andreyeva
  3. Pushkaryova
  4. Leontieva
  5. Lyssova
  6. Cheetyrjochstolbowoi.

history

The islands were discovered by accident by Russian merchants and Cossacks several times before they were finally specifically mapped. From a European point of view, the merchant Jakow Wjatka was the first in 1655 to see one of the islands - probably Krestowski - and to put some men ashore. In the course of the Great Nordic Expedition led by Vitus Bering , Dmitri Laptev mapped the mainland coast between the mouths of the rivers Lena and Kolyma and "discovered" one of the islands on August 3, 1740 again. In 1763 the Cossack and geodesist Stepan Andrejew was sent to undertake the first complete mapping of the Medweschji Islands. He then reported seeing a large island in the distance to the east. Numerous expeditions searched in vain for this Andreevland until the 20th century. I. Leontjew, I. Lyssow and A. Pushkarev, who visited the archipelago from 1769 to 1771 accompanied by their interpreter Nikolai Daurkin , carried out a more detailed survey of the land . After them and Andreev, the four islands, which had not been named until 1912, were named by the Hydrographic Expedition of the Arctic Ocean (1910–1914).

During Ferdinand von Wrangel's expedition along the coasts of the East Siberian Sea and the Chukchi Sea , which lasted from 1820 to 1824 , the Arctic explorer Fyodor Matjuschkin (1799–1872) circumnavigated the Medvezhji Islands with a sledge and mapped them again.

Even Adolf Erik Nordenskiold sighted the islands on his voyage through the Northeast Passage .

Others

Flora and fauna are typical of the tundra . The Medvezhji Islands are almost permanently surrounded by ice and have a very cold, dry climate. In the summer, industrial fishing is carried out in the area of ​​the islands .

literature

  • Nikolai V. Latkin: Medvezh'i ostrova . In: Энциклопедический словарь Брокгауза и Ефрона - Enziklopeditscheski slowar Brokgausa i Jefrona . tape 18 a [36]: Малолетство – Мейшагола. Brockhaus-Efron, Saint Petersburg 1896, p. 870 (Russian, full text [ Wikisource ] PDF - Medvezhji Islands - Bear Islands).

Web links

Commons : Medvezhyi Islands  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ История полярных арктических станций с 30-х годов XX века , History of the (Russian) polar stations in the 1930s, accessed on January 29, 2018 (Russian).
  2. ↑ Ferdinand von Wrangel: Journey of the Imperial Russian Fleet Lieutenant Ferdinand v. Wrangel along the north coast of Siberia and on the Arctic Ocean, from 1820 to 1824 . tape 1 . Verlag der Voss'schen Buchhandlung, Berlin 1839, p. 23–24 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  3. ↑ Ferdinand von Wrangel: Journey of the Imperial Russian Fleet Lieutenant Ferdinand v. Wrangel along the north coast of Siberia and on the Arctic Ocean, from 1820 to 1824 . tape 1 . Verlag der Voss'schen Buchhandlung, Berlin 1839, p. 68 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  4. ↑ Ferdinand von Wrangel: Journey of the Imperial Russian Fleet Lieutenant Ferdinand v. Wrangel along the north coast of Siberia and on the Arctic Ocean, from 1820 to 1824 . tape 1 . Verlag der Voss'schen Buchhandlung, Berlin 1839, p. 73–78 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  5. ^ William James Mills: Exploring Polar Frontiers - A Historical Encyclopedia . tape 1 . ABC-CLIO, 2003, ISBN 1-57607-422-6 , pp. 71 (English, limited preview in Google Book search).
  6. ^ William Barr: A Tsarist Attempt at Opening the Northern Sea Route: The Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition, 1910-1915 . In: Polar Research . tape 45 , no. 1 , 1975, p. 51-64 (English). hdl : 10013 / epic.29422