Kolosovykh Islands

The Kolosovykh Islands (Russian: острова КОЛОСОВЫХ; Ostrova Kolosovykh) is a group of islands, in the Kara Sea off the coast of Siberia. Most islands of this group are only a few kilometres from the deeply indented shores of the Taymyr Peninsula. The largest island of this Archipelago is Kolosovykh Island.

This coastal archipelago, is located north of the small Kolosovykh peninsula, which is almost an island itself. This island group is located between 74° 45' and 75° N and between 85° and 87° 30'E. Geologically the Kolosovykh Islands are part of the Minina Skerries a complex structure that includes the Plavnikovyye Islands further south.

The sea surrounding the Kolosovykh Islands is covered with fast ice in the winter and the climate is severe, with bitter and long winters. The surrounding sea is obstructed by pack ice even in the summer.

This island group belongs to the Krasnoyarsk Krai administrative division of Russia and is part of the Great Arctic State Nature Reserve, the largest nature reserve of the Russian Federation.

History

In 1937 the Arctic Institute of the USSR organized an expedition to investigate the Northern Sea Route in the Kara Sea. Relics of the ill-fated 1912-13 Vladimir Rusanov’s expedition on the "Gercules" were found on Popova-Chukchina Island located west of Kolosovykh Island at (74° 56'N and 86° 18'E).

References

* Nature Reserve: [http://www.bigarctic.ru/Eng]
* Albert Hastings Markham. "Arctic Exploration," 1895
* Armstrong, T., "The Russians in the Arctic", London, 1958.
* Early Soviet Exploration: [http://www.whoi.edu/beaufortgyre/history/history_soviet.html]
* History of Russian Arctic Exploration: [http://www.tour-land.ru/extr/north_p/eng/hist_ark.shtml]

ee also

* Kara Sea
* Taymyr Peninsula