Severny Island () is a Russian Arctic island. It is the northern island of the

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 ...

archipelago. It was historically called Lütke Land after Friedrich Benjamin von Lütke, who explored it. It lies approximately 400 km north of the

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 ...

n mainland. It has an area of , making it the 30th-largest island in the world and the 3rd-largest uninhabited island in the world, although there was formerly a settlement at Lagerni on the northern shore of the narrow

Matochkin Strait Matochkin Strait or Matochkin Shar () is a strait, structurally a fjord, between the Severny and Yuzhny Islands of Novaya Zemlya. It connects the Barents Sea and the Kara Sea. Geography The Matochkin Strait is one of the largest fjords in the ...

. It is part of Russian Arctic National Park.

Geography

Severny Island is separated from

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 ...

(''Southern'') by the narrow

. Forty percent of the island is covered by the

Severny Island ice cap Severny Island ice cap is an ice cap on Severny Island, northern island of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in Russia. It covers 40% of Severny Island (which is the 30th largest island in the world) at total area of approximately which, if Novaya ...

, which is the largest glacier by area and by volume in Europe (if counted as part of it). Severny Island is known for its numerous

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. Cape Flissingsky is the easternmost point of Severny Island, while Cape Zhelaniya is the northernmost point; the most westterly point is Sukhoy Nos.

Climate

Severny Island has a cold

tundra climate The tundra climate is a polar climate sub-type located in high latitudes and high mountains. It is classified as ET according to the Köppen climate classification. It is a climate which at least one month has an average temperature high enough ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

''ET''), with average temperatures barely reaching the freezing mark in the warmest months. The temperature varies from in winter to in summer.

Ice cap and glaciers

Unlike Yuzhny Island, Severny has an inner

ice cap In glaciology, an ice cap is a mass of ice that covers less than of land area (usually covering a highland area). Larger ice masses covering more than are termed ice sheets. Description By definition, ice caps are not constrained by topogra ...

with numerous

s, most of which have their terminus on the eastern or western shore of the island.J. J. Zeeberg, ''Climate and Glacial History of the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago, Russian Arctic''.

History

The cape of Sukhoy Nos, located at the southern end of the island, was used for nuclear weapons testing between 1958 and 1961. 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 ...

hydrogen bomb test on October 30, 1961 destroyed all buildings in the village of Severny (both wooden and brick). The village was located 55 kilometres (34 miles) from ground zero within the Sukhoy Nos test range. Tsar Bomba was the most powerful nuclear weapon detonated and was the most powerful anthropogenic explosion in human history. It had a yield of 50 megatons of TNT, scaled down from its maximum 100 megaton design yield. Severny is now the site of a

Russian Army The Russian Ground Forces (), also known as the Russian Army in English, are the Army, land forces of the Russian Armed Forces. The primary responsibilities of the Russian Ground Forces are the protection of the state borders, combat on land, ...

base and has a

harbor A harbor (American English), or harbour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be moored. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is ...

. There is a meteorological station at Cape Zhelaniya, Severny's northernmost cape.

Gallery

File:Kap Zhelanyia 2 2014-09-03.jpg, View of Cape Zhelaniya. File:Inostrantsewa-Gletscher 1 2014-09-05.jpg, Inostrantsev Glacier terminus. West coast. File:Walruses in the Russian Arctic National Park, Novaya Zemlya 2015-1.jpg,

Walrus The walrus (''Odobenus rosmarus'') is a large pinniped marine mammal with discontinuous distribution about the North Pole in the Arctic Ocean and subarctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. It is the only extant species in the family Odobeni ...

es resting on the shore of Severny Island.

References