- Shelonsky Islands
The Shelonsky Islands ( _ru. Шелонские острова, Shelonskiye Ostrova) is an island group in the
Laptev Sea . It is located in the coastal lowlands of theYana Bay , east of the mouths of the Yana river.The Shelonsky Islands are marshy and flat.
*The largest is Vostochnyy Shelonsky, it is located on the northern shores of theManyko Peninsula (Poluostrov Manyko). This island has a length of 17 Km and a maximum width of 7.2 Km. Vostochnyy has many small lakes and becomes narrower towards its eastern end. East of this island lies a deep inlet stretching southwards known in Russian as Sellyakhskaya Guba.
*Zapadnyy Shelonsky Island is much smaller, being only 2.5 Km across. It lies off Vostochnyy's western tip, separated from it by a 2 Km wide sound.
*Yuzhnyy Shelonsky lies detached from the main group, 20 Km further to the west, off the NE shores ofYarok Island. It is 3 Km long and 0.7 Km wide.
*There are a few other islands in the group, all of them close to Vostochnyy, but they seem to have no name.The Yana delta, the coastal area off which these islands lie, is an extensive wetland zone. It is subject to severe Arctic weather with frequent gales and blizzards. Further north, the sea in the Yana Bay is frozen with thick ice for about eight months yearly, so that these coastal islands are merged with the mainland most of the year. [ [http://www.gi.alaska.edu/snowice/sea-lake-ice/papers/05DTKE.pdf Polynyas and frozen surface in the Laptev Sea during the winter] ]
Administratively the Shelonsky group belongs to the
Sakha Republic (Yakutia) of theRussian Federation .References
* [http://worldmaps.web.infoseek.co.jp/russia_guide.htm Geographical data]
* [http://www.traveljournals.net/explore/russia/map/m4206161/shelonskiye_ostrova.html Location]
* [http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0277379103003482 Permafrost and formation of thermokarst lakes]
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