Markgama

Markgama, or Markham Island, (Russian: Остров Маркгама) is a small, isolated island in the southern region of the Kara Sea off the Sorevnovaniya Bay. This island has only sparse tundra vegetation and it is covered with snow most of the year. The coast of the Taymyr Peninsula is located 15 Km to the southeast.

The island's length is only 2 Km and its maximum width 1.5 Km. The sea surrounding it is covered with pack ice with some polynias in the long winter and there are many ice floes even in the summer.

Markgama belongs to the Krasnoyarsk Krai administrative division of the Russian Federation. It is also part of the Great Arctic State Nature Reserve – the largest nature reserve of Russia and one of the biggest in the world.

History

The area around Markgama was explored by Otto Sverdrup on ship "Eklips" in 1914 while he was searching for Brusilov and Rusanov. The island was named after British Arctic explorer Albert Hastings Markham, but it is mostly known by the Russian version or spelling of "Markham": "Markgama".

References

* [http://land.worldcitydb.com/dolgano-nenetskiy_in_russian_federation_state.html]
* [http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic27-1-2.pdf ]
* [http://www.bigarctic.ru/Eng/ Nature Reserve]