The Middendorff Bay, () is a deeply indented bay in the shores of the

Taymyr Peninsula The Taymyr Peninsula ( ) is a peninsula in the Far North of Russia, in the Siberian Federal District, that forms the northernmost part of the mainland of Eurasia. Administratively it is part of the Krasnoyarsk Krai Federal subject of Russia. Ge ...

. It is located southwest of the Nordenskiöld Archipelago in 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 ...

and it is open towards the west.

Geography

This bay is limited on its eastern side by the Zarya Peninsula, named after Baron Eduard von Toll's ship '' Zarya''. On the northern side of the Zarya Peninsula there is a small gulf called ''Bukhta Kolomeitseva'', named after Captain N. N. Kolomeitsev, commander of ship ''Zarya''. The Middendorff Bay is surrounded by bleak tundra coast. It is full of small islands and island groups, foremost of which are Gavrilova Island, the Shren Islands, the Krusenstern Islands, and farther offshore, Belukha and Prodolgovatyy Islands. The small Myachina Islands are located off Cape Vilda, further west from the bay along the coast. The climate in the area is severe, with long and bitter winters and frequent blizzards and gales. This desolate bay is frozen for about nine months in a year and even in summer it is never quite free of ice floes. The Middendorff Bay and adjacent islands belong to the

Krasnoyarsk Krai Krasnoyarsk Krai (, ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (a krai) of Russia located in Siberia. Its administrative center is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Krasnoyarsk, the second-largest city in Siberia after ...

administrative division of the

Russian Federation 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 ...

and the whole area is part of the

Great Arctic State Nature Reserve The Great Arctic State Nature Reserve () is a nature reserve in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. With an area of , it is the largest reserve of Russia and Eurasia, as well as one of the largest in the world. History The Great Arctic State Nature Reserv ...

, the largest nature reserve of Russia.

History

This bay was explored by Russian geologist Baron Eduard von Toll during his last venture, the Russian Arctic Expedition of 1900–1903. It was named after Alexander Theodor von Middendorff, a Russian zoologist, historian and explorer of Baltic-German origin.Alexander von Middendorff and his expedition to Siberia (1842–1845)
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References

Bays of Krasnoyarsk Krai Bays of the Kara Sea {{KrasnoyarskKrai-geo-stub

Geography

History

Further reading

References