Muostakh Island (Russian: Остров Муостах), also spelled "Mostakh", is an island in the

Buor-Khaya Gulf The Buor-Khaya Gulf or Buor-Khaya Bight () is one of the most important gulfs of the Laptev Sea The Laptev Sea () is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is located between the northern coast of Siberia, the Taimyr Peninsula, Severnaya Zemly ...

of the

Laptev Sea The Laptev Sea () is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is located between the northern coast of Siberia, the Taimyr Peninsula, Severnaya Zemlya, and the New Siberian Islands. Its northern boundary passes from the Arctic Cape to a point with ...

. It is located off the eastern side of the

Lena delta The Lena is a river in the Russian Far East and is the easternmost river of the three great rivers of Siberia which flow into the Arctic Ocean, the others being Ob and Yenisey. The Lena River is long and has a capacious drainage basin of ; thus ...

, enclosing the Tiksi Bay, about 35 km ESE of

Tiksi Tiksi ( rus, Ти́кси, , ˈtʲiksʲɪ; , ''Tiksii'' – lit. ''a moorage place'') is an urban locality (an urban-type settlement) and the administrative center of Bulunsky District in the Sakha Republic, Russia, located on the shore of the B ...

Geography

Muostakh Island is long and narrow; its length is 13 km and its maximum breadth about 0.5 km on average. Off its southern tip lies a much smaller 2 km long island of similar characteristics. The area where Muostakh Island lies, is subject to severe Arctic weather with frequent gales and blizzards. The sea in the bay is frozen for about nine months every year and often clogged with ice floes. There are 4 to 5 m wide baydzharakhs on the island. Administratively Muostakh Island belongs to the

Sakha Republic Sakha, officially the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), is a republics of Russia, republic of Russia, and the largest federal subject of Russia by area. It is located in the Russian Far East, along the Arctic Ocean, with a population of one million ...

(Yakutia) 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 ...

. There is a weather and biological research station in Muostakh Island.

Heavy erosion

Geologically Muostakh Island is the remainder of an ancient great plain that was part of the Siberian continental about two thousand years ago. The strait which now separates the island from the mainland was just beginning to form at that time. Nowadays its northern headland is subject to spectacular sea erosion, receding at a rate of 6 m a year. Sometimes the receding coastline exposes the bones and tusks of prehistoric animals such as

mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus.'' They lived from the late Miocene epoch (from around 6.2 million years ago) into the Holocene until about 4,000 years ago, with mammoth species at various times inhabi ...

s.Erosion at the Northern Cape of Muostakh Island
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References

2006 Laptev Delta & East Siberian Sea Expedition; Muostakh Phase

Muostakh Island erosion (with pictures)
Islands of the Laptev Sea Islands of the Sakha Republic {{SakhaRepublic-geo-stub