Tiksi

Urban-type settlement Tiksi Тикси ( Russian ) Тиксии ( Yakut ) Federal district far East republic Sakha (Yakutia) Ulus Bulun Founded 1933 Urban-type settlement since 1939 population 5063 inhabitants (as of Oct. 14, 2010) Height of the center 10  m Time zone UTC + 9 Telephone code (+7) 41167 Post Code 678400 License Plate 14th OKATO 98 212 551 Geographical location Coordinates 71 ° 38 '  N , 128 ° 52'  E Coordinates: 71 ° 38 '15 "  N , 128 ° 51' 53"  E

Situation in Russia

Location in the Sakha Republic

Tiksi settlement

Tiksi ( Russian Тикси , Yakut Тиксии / Tiksii ) is a port on the Arctic Ocean coast of the autonomous Russian republic Sakha (Yakutia). The urban-type settlement has 5063 inhabitants (as of October 14, 2010) and is the administrative center of the Rajons (Ulus) Bulun .

geography

location

Tiksi is located in the north of Yakutia, east of the Charaulach ridge , a northern foothill of the Verkhoyansk Mountains . The village, which consists of a north and a south part, is located on the west coast of Tiksi Bay , part of the Buor-Chaja-Gulf belonging to the Laptev Sea (Arctic Ocean) . North past the northern part Tiksis flows in southwest-northeast direction of Chorogor , who shortly afterwards in the Neelowagolf flows. From this district towards the northeast, the Bykowski Peninsula joins, which separates the Tiksibucht in the south and the Neelowagolf in the north. About 6 km away from the northern part is the southern part of Tiksi. The highest elevation in the area is Stolowaja (literally " Table Mountain "), which is about 4 km west of the southern part of the village, at 319  m .

55 km west of Tiksi flows beyond Charaulach- and Tuora-Sis-back (another northern foothills of the Verkhoyansk Mountains), the Lena , which ascends to the north by Neelowagolf reaching and minimum 22 km (each a straight line ) away from the north side of village Lena Delta trains.

structure

Tiksi is divided into several districts. Today's largest district, Tiksi 1, is located at the port. This is where most of the central facilities such as the municipal administration, savings bank, school (with grammar school and boarding school), church, sports and youth center, weather office (Roshydromet) and fire department can be found.

The district of Tiksi 3 is approx. 3 km north of the port and is directly connected to the airport. This district was reserved exclusively for the military in Soviet times, but has also been accessible to civilians since the final withdrawal of the military (at that time) in 2012. The district was largely deserted in 2014, but the largest hotel in Tiksi is located here today.

It is unclear what the district Tiksi 2 represents and whether it even exists. According to contradicting information from the locals, this name should either refer to the former construction camp (today the cemetery) from the time of the first construction, the drinking water reservoir, one of the two airport projects that were canceled under construction (approx. 15 km southwest and north) or the radio systems denote Table Mountain or just serve to confuse for camouflage reasons.

The Polarka research station is about 5 km south on the bank on a rocky ridge a few meters high. In Soviet times, it was a largely self-sufficient village with up to 250 inhabitants. In addition to the wooden residential buildings and research facilities, it had a shop, power station, kindergarten and elementary school. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, apart from the weather station, the research facilities were gradually closed and the settlement abandoned. Today only one house is temporarily occupied by employees of the weather station.

climate

Due to its location by the sea, Tiksi has a milder climate than central Siberia, but the mean monthly temperature only rises above freezing point in four months of the year (June to September).

Tiksi
Climate diagram
J F. M. A. M. J J A. S. O N D.     26th   -29 -36     29   -27 -34     12   -22 -31     10   -14 -24     14th   -3 -10     28   7th 0     43   11 3     45   10 4th     27   4th -1     17th   -9 -16     24   -21 -28     48   -25 -32 Temperature in ° C ,  precipitation in mm Source: Roshydromet

Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Tiksi Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Max. Temperature ( ° C ) −28.7 −26.8 −22.3 −14.0 −2.9 6.9 10.6 10.3 4.0 −9.0 −21.1 −24.9 O −9.7 Min. Temperature (° C) −36.1 −34.2 −31.3 −24.2 −10.3 −0.1 2.9 3.9 −1.4 −15.6 −28.2 −32.4 O −17.2 Precipitation ( mm ) 26th 29 12 10 14th 28 43 45 27 17th 24 48 Σ 323 Rainy days ( d ) 5 4th 3 3 4th 6th 9 8th 7th 6th 5 7th Σ 67 Source: Roshydromet

history

Tiksi was founded in 1933 (according to other sources already from 1930) when a port was built here in connection with plans to use the Northern Sea Route . As early as 1939 the place received the status of an urban-type settlement. The port quickly gained economic importance. Up to 1954, up to 25% of the freight traffic to Yakutia was handled via Tiksi, where the cargo was loaded from sea to river vessels and transported on via the Lena. With the completion of the branch line of the Trans-Siberian Railway from Taischet to Ust-Kut on the upper reaches of the Lena, freight traffic via Tiksi fell drastically and in 1961 only made up 3% of the goods imported into Yakutia.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent economic crisis in Russia in the 1990s, the population of the place sank dramatically. The port is ruined by the unprofitable Northeast Passage . For the population, which was relatively well supplied during the Soviet era, there are hardly any opportunities to work or live, so that many people have left the settlement.

On December 19, 2016, an Il-18W of the Russian Air Force had to make an emergency landing on the flight from Kansk military airport to Tiksi 29 kilometers northwest of the airport. There were 30 passengers and 7 crew members on board (38 people according to other information). There were no deaths, but everyone on board was injured, 16 of them seriously.

Population development

year	Residents
1939	697
1959	4,833
1970	8,099
1979	9,505
1989	11,649
2002	5,873
2010	5,063
2013	5,023

Note: census data

Infrastructure and military base

Tiksi has a port on the Northeast Passage in the southern part of the village , the nine berths of which are expected to have an annual loading capacity of 67,000 tons (2017). The Russian government is planning a comprehensive upgrade of the site by 2025 at a cost of five billion rubles (approx. 72 million euros). New feeder ships are to be built that will be able to transport goods landed via the Northeast Passage during the only 90-day ice-free season over the Siberian rivers inland. In the northern part of the village there has been an airport ( ICAO code UEST ) since the 1950s , which is also used by the Russian Air Force . It has a 3000 m long runway. At the beginning of 2018, the Russian Air Force announced that it would modernize Tiksi Airport , which has been owned by a state company since 2007 , along with other Arctic bases . However, the Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov had already partially withdrawn some ambitious expansion plans in March 2017. Accordingly, it was originally planned to improve the infrastructure of numerous locations along the north Siberian coast, including Arkhangelsk , Dikson , Narjan-Mar , Pewek and Tschokurdach , but for financial reasons the Russian government wants to limit modernization to Tiksi and Tschokurdach by the end of 2021. Further investments were planned for new military building projects on Franz Josef Land and the New Siberian Islands . A mobile air defense regiment is stationed in Tiksi and is said to be equipped with long-range missiles of the S-400 series and short-range missiles of the Panzir-S1 type.

Research stations and wind farm

There has been a weather station in Tiksi since 1932, which was expanded and extensively modernized in 2006. In 2007/08 a second meteorological research facility was built about 1.5 kilometers away, which works as a Clean Air Facility (CAF) with international participation . Since the station, which is dominated by a 20-meter-high observation tower, mainly deals with air purity, emphasis was placed on an environment that was as pristine as possible. All footpaths in the area lead over footbridges in order to minimally burden the ground. The facility was officially inaugurated in August 2010. Despite political tensions, Russian experts announced that they would continue their cooperation with American scientists in Tiksi. About 115 kilometers west of Tiksi, in the Lena Delta , is the international research station Samoylov Island , which can be reached by speedboat in four hours.

In the winter of 2017/18, work began on a wind farm with initially three turbines. Due to the exposed location on the Siberian north coast, there are good wind conditions all year round, averaging 5.8 m / s. The plant is being built by the Japanese company Komaihaltec Inc., financed by Mitsui & Co., also from Japan. The aim of the wind farm is to reduce the town's dependence on expensive diesel fuel.

There is a monitoring station of the SDKM system on site.

literature

• Klaus Bednarz : Ostlich der Sonne , Reinbek Rowohlt 2003 ISBN 3-499-61656-4

Web links

Commons : Tiksi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Homepage of the settlement (Russian)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Itogi Vserossijskoj perepisi naselenija 2010 goda. Tom 1. Čislennostʹ i razmeščenie naselenija (Results of the All-Russian Census 2010. Volume 1. Number and distribution of the population). Tables 5 , pp. 12-209; 11 , pp. 312–979 (download from the website of the Federal Service for State Statistics of the Russian Federation)
2. ^ William Barr: The First Soviet Convoy to the Mouth of the Lena (PDF; 2.1 MB). In: ARCTIC 35 (2), 1982, pp. 317-325
3. ↑ Russian plane crashes in Siberia, injuring 38. In: BBC News. www.bbc.co.uk, December 19, 2016, accessed on August 3, 2018 (English). 
4. ^ ASN Aircraft accident Ilyushin Il-18V RF-91821 Tiksi Airport (IKS). aviation-safety.net, accessed on August 3, 2018 (English). 
5. ↑ https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/industry-and-energy/2017/01/5-billion-development-tiksi-infrastructure
6. ↑ https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/arctic/2017/03/slow-take-russias-arctic-airports-budget-cuts-put-upgrades-ice
7. ↑ https://limacharlienews.com/russia/russia-arctic-military-bases/
8. ↑ https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/arctic/observatories/tiksi/
9. ↑ https://sputniknews.com/environment/201705131053581284-russia-us-arctic-deal-rosgidromet-finland/
10. ↑ https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/industry-and-energy/2017/03/russias-remotest-arctic-coast-wind-power-plant/