Vilkitsky Island (Kara Sea)

Summary

Vilkitsky Island, (Russian: Остров Вильки́цкого; Ostrov Vil'kitskogo) is an island in the Kara Sea. It is located 40 km northeast of Shokalsky Island, off the tip of the Gyda Peninsula in North Siberia.

Vilkitsky Island
Native name:
о́стров Вильки́цкого
Map of Vilkitsky and Neupokoyeva Islands
Location of Vilkitsky and Neupokoyeva Islands in the Kara Sea
Geography
LocationKara Sea
Coordinates73°28′N 75°45′E / 73.467°N 75.750°E / 73.467; 75.750
Area153.9 km2 (59.4 sq mi)
Length42 km (26.1 mi)
Width12 km (7.5 mi)
Highest elevation5 m (16 ft)
Administration
Russia
OblastTyumen Oblast
OkrugYamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug
Demographics
Populationuninhabited

This island is not to be confused with other islands called "Vilkitsky", such as the small Vilkitsky group (now mentioned as Dzhekman Islands in most maps) which is part of the Nordenskiöld Archipelago, the Vilkitsky Islands located in the Laptev Sea off the eastern shores of the Taymyr Peninsula, and also Vilkitsky Island in the De Long Group in the East Siberian Sea.

Geography edit

Vilkitsky Island is bleak and windswept and is covered with tundra. The island is crescent-shaped and it is divided in two by a narrow sound in its midst. It is 42 km in length but only 12 km wide at its broadest zone.

The sea surrounding this island is covered with pack ice in the winter and there are numerous ice floes even in the summer. There is a large shallow area between Vilkitsky Island and its southern neighbor, Neupokoyev Island (Остров Неупокоева),[1] named after Konstantin Neupokoev (1884—1924), a naval officer, hydrographer and explorer of the Russian Hydrographic Service in Soviet times.[2]

Vilkitsky Island belongs to the Tyumen Oblast administrative division of the Russian Federation. It is also part of the Great Arctic State Nature Reserve, the largest nature reserve of Russia.[3]

This island is named after Russian hydrographer Boris Vilkitsky's father Andrey Vilkitsky,[4] while the Vilkitsky Islands in the Laptev sea are named after Russian hydrographer Boris Vilkitsky himself.

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Fast ice conditions Archived July 8, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Синюков, В. В. Александр Васильевич Колчак : Учёный и патриот : в 2 ч. / В. В. Синюков; отв. ред. А. П. Лисицын ; Ин-т истории естествознания и техники им. С. И. Вавилова РАН. — М.: Наука, 2009. — ISBN 978-5-02-035761-7 (ч. 2), С. 34
  3. ^ Nature Reserve Archived October 8, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ Вилькицкий Андрей Ипполитович

External links edit

  • Contamination in the Kara Sea