Matochkin Strait or Matochkin Shar () is a

strait A strait is a water body connecting two seas or water basins. The surface water is, for the most part, at the same elevation on both sides and flows through the strait in both directions, even though the topography generally constricts the ...

, structurally a

fjord In physical geography, a fjord (also spelled fiord in New Zealand English; ) is a long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Antarctica, the Arctic, and surrounding landmasses of the n ...

, between the Severny and

Yuzhny Island Yuzhny Island () is the southern island of Russia's Novaya Zemlya archipelago, lying north of mainland Russia. It has an area of , which while smaller than the northern island of Severny, still makes it one of the largest islands in the world. I ...

s 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 ...

. It connects the

Barents Sea The Barents Sea ( , also ; , ; ) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia and divided between Norwegian and Russian territorial waters.World Wildlife Fund, 2008. It was known earlier among Russi ...

and the

Kara Sea The Kara Sea is a marginal sea, separated from the Barents Sea to the west by the Kara Strait and Novaya Zemlya, and from the Laptev Sea to the east by the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago. Ultimately the Kara, Barents and Laptev Seas are all ...

Geography

The Matochkin Strait is one of the largest fjords in the world. The banks along the strait are high and steep. Its length is approximately and its width in its narrowest part is approximately . The strait is covered with ice for most of the year. There are abandoned fishing settlements along the strait (Matochkin Shar, Stolbovoy).

History

The

Tsar Bomba The Tsar Bomba (code name: ''Ivan'' or ''Vanya''), also known by the alphanumerical designation "AN602", was a Thermonuclear weapon, thermonuclear aerial bomb, and by far the most powerful nuclear weapon ever created and tested. The Soviet phy ...

was detonated in October 1961, in the vicinity of Matochkin Strait, over the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. It is also the site where, from 1963 to 1990, about 39 underground

nuclear test Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the performance of nuclear weapons and the effects of their explosion. Nuclear testing is a sensitive political issue. Governments have often performed tests to signal strength. Bec ...

s took place in a vast array of tunnels and shafts under Mount Lazarev and other massifs. After 2000,

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 ...

started to reactivate the test site by enlarging old tunnels and starting construction work. Each summer since then various subcritical hydronuclear experiments have taken place. In 2004,

Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom (commonly referred to as Rosatom rus, Росатом, p=rosˈatəm}), also known as Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation, (), or Rosatom State Corporation, is a Russian State corporation (Russia), sta ...

reportedly performed a series of subcritical hydronuclear experiments with up to of weapon-grade plutonium each.

References

Fjords of Russia Bodies of water of the Barents Sea Bodies of water of the Kara Sea Bodies of water of Arkhangelsk Oblast Novaya Zemlya Straits of the Arctic Ocean Russian nuclear test sites {{ArkhangelskOblast-geo-stub

Geography

History

See also

References