Lednikovoye (, rus, Леднико́вое, p=ˈlʲɪdnikovojʲɪ, ) is a lake on the Northern Island of

Novaya Zemlya Novaya Zemlya (, also , ; , ; ), also spelled , is an archipelago in northern Russia. It is situated in the Arctic Ocean, in the extreme northeast of Europe, with Cape Flissingsky, on the northern island, considered the extreme points of Europe ...

, administratively belongs to the

Arkhangelsk region Arkhangelsk Oblast ( rus, Архангельская область, p=ɐrˈxanɡʲɪlʲskəjə ˈobɫəsʲtʲ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). It includes the Arctic archipelagos of Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya, as well as t ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. The lake is of glacial origin, formed by water damming by ridges of terminal

moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and Rock (geology), rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a gla ...

s of

glacier A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

s after their retreat. The length of the reservoir exceeds , the area of the

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

is . The lake is located on a lowland stretching in the latitudinal direction from the Severnaya Sulmeneva Bay of the western shore to the glacier in the central part of the island.Satellite image of the lake from July 18, 2022
''

Sentinel-2 Sentinel-2 is an Earth observation mission from the Copernicus Programme that acquires optical imagery at high spatial resolution (10 m to 60 m) over land and coastal waters. The mission's Sentinel-2A and Sentinel-2B satellites were joined in or ...

'' According to official data, the surface area of the lake is , but since the outlet tongues of five

s flow into the lake, its area varies significantly depending on the stretch of these glaciers into the lake. Due to modern

climate warming Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...

, over the period from 1999 to 2016, the boundaries of the glaciers in the lake retreated by more than a mile, thereby significantly increasing its area.Lednikovoye Glaciers, Novaya Zemlya 1999-2016 retreat
''From a Glacier's Perspective - AGU Blogosphere'' As a result of the retreat of glaciers, a chain of new islands was formed in the lake in its western part. Its area, most likely, exceeded the area of Lake Goltsovoye (another big lake of the island{{in lang, ru}
Озеро Гольцовое
/ref>) and, thus, Lednikovoye became the largest inland reservoir of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. In addition to the five glaciers that flow directly into the lake, about a dozen more glaciers descend to it, but do not reach the water.

References

Biosphere reserves of Russia Taymyr Novaya Zemlya Glacial lakes of Russia

See also

References