- Cape Chelyuskin
Cape Chelyuskin ( _ru. мыс Челюскина) is the northernmost point of the Eurasian continent, and the northermost point of mainland Russia. It is situated at the tip of the
Taymyr Peninsula , south ofSevernaya Zemlya archipelago, inKrasnoyarsk Krai ,Russia . The landhead has a 17 m high light on a framework tower. [ [http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:jNn_kRND3ccJ:coastalexplorer.net/downloads/guide_books/sailing_directions/Pub183.db%3Bdownload+nordovyy+isalnd&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=7&gl=th Russian Coastal explorer] ]Cape Chelyuskin is located 1370 km from the
North Pole .History
The cape was first reached in May, 1742 by an expedition party led by
Semion Chelyuskin , and was initially called Cape East-Northern. It was renamed in honour of Chelyuskin by the Russian Geographical Society in 1842, on the 100th anniversary of the discovery.In 1919 Norwegian explorer
Roald Amundsen 's ship "Maud", left behind two men,Peter Tessem and Paul Knutsen , at Cape Chelyuskin after having made winter quarters there. The Maud continued eastwards into theLaptev Sea and the men were instructed to wait for the freeze-up of theKara Sea and then sledge southwestwards towardsDikson carrying Amundsen's mail. However, these two men disappeared mysteriously and were never seen again.In 1922Nikifor Begichev led a Soviet expedition in search for Peter Tessem and Paul Knutsen on request of the government ofNorway , but Begichev was not successful.A Weather and a
hydrology research base named "Polar Station Cape Chelyuskin" was constructed in 1932, and headed byIvan Papanin . It was renamed the "E. K. Fyodorov Hydrometeorological Observatory" in 1983. The station has a magnetic observatory and stands on the easter side of the point.The cape hosts the northernmost airfield in Eurasia.
References
William Barr, "The Last Journey of Peter Tessem and Paul Knutsen", 1919.
External links
* [http://arcticcircle.uconn.edu/HistoryCulture/russianexplor.html 17th Century Cape Exploration note]
* [http://vitiaz.ru/congress/en/thesis/98.html Russian-Soviet polar stations and their role in the Arctic Seas exploration]
* [http://www.whoi.edu/beaufortgyre/history/history_drifting.html North Pole Drifting Stations (1930s-1980s)]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.