- Yamal Peninsula
The Yamal Peninsula ( _ru. полуо́стров Яма́л), located in
Yamal-Nenets autonomous district of northwestSiberia ,Russia , extends roughly 700 km (435 mi) and is bordered principally by theKara Sea ,Baydaratskaya Bay on the west, and by theGulf of Ob on the east. In the language of its indigenous inhabitants, the Nenets, "Yamal" means "End of the World".The
peninsula consists mostly ofpermafrost ground and is geologically a very young place—less than 10,000 years old.In the Russian Federation, the Yamal peninsula is the place where traditional large-scale
nomad icreindeer husbandry is best preserved. On the peninsula, several thousand Nenets andKhanty reindeer herders hold about 500,000 domestic reindeer. At the same time, Yamal is inhabited by a multitude of migratory bird species.Yamal holds Russia's biggest
natural gas reserves. The Bovanenkovskoye deposit is planned to be developed by the Russian gas monopolistGazprom by 2011-2012, a fact which put the future of nomadic reindeer herding at considerable risk.On the peninsula in the Summer of 2007 the well preserved remains of a 10,000 year old mammoth calf were found by a reindeer herder. The animal was female and approximately six months old at the time of death.
References
* Location: [http://worldmaps.web.infoseek.co.jp/russia_guide.htm]
* Mammoth: [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/11/world/europe/11briefs-mammoth.html?ex=1341806400&en=b3ad73300da74b30&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss NY Times July 11, 2007 Story]External links
*" [http://www.vehi.net/brokgauz/all/120/120325.shtml Ялмал] ", статья ЭСБЕ ru icon
* [http://slovari.yandex.ru/dict/bse/article/00094/91900.htm Статья БСЭ]Great Soviet Encyclopedia ru icon
* [http://www.mnh.si.edu/arctic/html/yamalcu.html Yamal Culture] en icon
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