Heiberg Islands

Not to be confused with Axel Heiberg Island, which is named for the same person
Heiberg Islands
Transliterations from Russian
Geyberg / Gejberg / Geiberg

The Heiberg Islands and adjacent coastal islands.

Location of the Heiberg Islands in the Kara Sea.
Geography
Location Kara Sea
Coordinates 77°40′N 101°27′E / 77.667°N 101.450°E / 77.667; 101.450
Archipelago Heiberg Islands
Administration
Demographics
Population 0

The Heiberg Islands, spelt Geyberg, Gejberg or Geiberg (Russian: Гейберга Острова; Geyberga Ostrova or also острова Акселя Гейберга) is a group of four small islands covered with tundra vegetation and with scattered stones on their shores. They lie in the Kara Sea, between the bleak coast of Siberia's Taymyr Peninsula and Severnaya Zemlya. These islands are between 35 and 45 km (22 and 28 mi) from the continental shore.

The Heiberg Islands are covering the entrance to the Vilkitsky Strait from the west. The latitude of this group is 77° 40' N and the longitude 101° 27' E. 77°40′N 101°27′E / 77.667°N 101.450°E / 77.667; 101.450 The largest island of the group is only about
5 km (3.1 mi) in length.

The sea surrounding the Heiberg Islands is covered with fast ice in the winter, which is long and bitter, and the climate is severe. The surrounding sea is obstructed by pack ice even in the summer, so that these islands are connected with the mainland for most of the year.

The Heiberg Islands were named by Fridtjof Nansen after Axel Heiberg, financial director of the Norwegian Ringnes brewery, who was the main financier of the Fram expedition to the Arctic. These Siberian islands should not be confused with Axel Heiberg Island in Canada.

This island group 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.

History

A Soviet polar meteorological station was established on Heiberg in 1940 to aid navigation of the Northern Sea Route. After the breakup of the USSR, commercial navigation in the Arctic went into decline. More or less regular shipping is to be found only from Murmansk to Dudinka in the west and between Vladivostok and Pevek in the east. The areas around the Taymyr Peninsula, including the Vilkitsky Strait, see next to no shipping at all.

The polar station on the Heiberg Islands is now abandoned, with millions of rubles of equipment still there.

Adjacent islands

See also

References

    External links

    Coordinates: 77°40′N 101°27′E / 77.667°N 101.450°E / 77.667; 101.450

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