The Great Siberian Polynya () is a strip of open water and young ice that regularly forms beyond the outer edge of the

fast ice Fast ice (also called ''land-fast ice'', ''landfast ice'', and ''shore-fast ice'') is sea ice or lake ice that is "fastened" to the coastline, to the sea floor along shoals, or to grounded icebergs.Leppäranta, M. 2011. The Drift of Sea Ice. B ...

in the area from

Bolshoy Begichev Island Bolshoy Begichev () is an island in the Laptev Sea, in the Sakha Republic, Russia. Geography The area of the island is . Bolshoy Begichev is located within the Khatanga Gulf (), splitting the gulf into two straits. Adjacent Islands Maliy Begich ...

in 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 ...

to the Medvezhyi Islands in the

East Siberian Sea The East Siberian Sea (; ) is a marginal sea in the Arctic Ocean. It is located between the Arctic Cape to the north, the coast of Siberia to the south, the New Siberian Islands to the west and Cape Billings, close to Chukchi Peninsula, Chukotka, ...

. In some years, the polynya significantly decreases and two relatively independent areas of open water and young ice form - the Lena and Novosibirsk

polynya A polynya () is an area of open water surrounded by sea ice. It is now used as a geographical term for an area of unfrozen seawater within otherwise contiguous pack ice or fast ice. It is a loanword from the Russian language, Russian (), whic ...

s. An early information about ice-free waters beyond Arctic fast ice was obtained in the 18th century. As early as 1736,

Lomonosov Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (; , ; – ) was a Russian polymath, scientist and writer, who made important contributions to literature, education, and science. Among his discoveries were the atmosphere of Venus and the law of conservation of ...

wrote in his "Brief Description of Various Voyages in the Northern Seas and an Indication of a Possible Passage through the Siberian Ocean to East India", based on historical documents and information received from the

Pomors The Pomors (, ) are an ethnographic group traditionally thought to be descended from Russian settlers (primarily from Veliky Novgorod) living on the White Sea coasts and nearby regions, with their southern boundary marked by a watershed dividi ...

, "at a distance of five and seven hundred miles from the Siberian shores, the Siberian Ocean in the summer months is free of such ice that would impede ship travel." He also gave a description of the mechanism of the formation of the ice-free area. According to him, southern winds push the ices to the pole and open the waters heated by the sea bottom.

See also

References

Further reading