Yana Bay

The Yana Bay (Russian: Янский залив; Yanskiy Zaliv) is the most important gulf of the Laptev Sea. It is located between Cape Buor-Khaya on its western side and the Ebelyakh Bay at its eastern end.

The Yana River flows into the Yana Bay, forming a huge river delta (10,200 km²) that takes up much of the bay's coastline. The sea in this wide gulf is frozen for about nine months every year and is often clogged with ice floes.

Yarok is a large flat island located east of the main mouths of the Yana. Other islands in the Yana Bay are Makar and the Shelonsky Islands. East of these islands lies a deep inlet stretching southwards known in Russian as Sellyakhskaya Guba.

Administratively the Yana Bay belongs to the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) of the Russian Federation.

History

In 1712 Yakov Permyakov and his companion Merkury Vagin, the first recorded Russian explorers of the area, crossed the Yana Bay on dogsled from the mouth of the Yana River to Bolshoy Lyakhovsky over the ice in order to explore the then unknown island. Unfortunately Permyakov and Vagin were killed on the way back from their exploration by mutineering expedition members.

In 1892-1894 Baron Eduard Von Toll, accompanied by expedition leader Alexander von Bunge, carried out geological surveys in the area on behalf of the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences.

References

* [http://worldmaps.web.infoseek.co.jp/russia_guide.htm Location]
* [http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/1099-1530(200004/06)11:2%3C137::AID-PPP345%3E3.0.CO%3B2-L Thermokarst and land-ocean interactions, Laptev sea region, Russia]
* [http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/ppp.387.abs Permafrost thickness evolution models for the Laptev Sea shelf and coastal lowlands ]
* [http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0921818105000585 Geochemistry of Surficial and Ice-rafted Sediments ]
* [http://www.unep.org/dewa/giwa/areas/reports/r1a/assessment_giwa_r1a.pdf Benthofauna]