Sukhoy Nos (russian: Сухой Нос, literally 'Dry Cape'; there is another Sukhoy Nos on Vaygach island south of Novaya Zemlya) is a

cape A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment which drapes the wearer's back, arms, and chest, and connects at the neck. History Capes were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon. T ...

Severny Island Severny Island (russian: Се́верный о́стров, Severnyy ostrov, Northern Island) is a Russian Arctic island. It is the northern island of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. It was historically called Lütke Land after Friedrich Benjamin ...

, the northern island of the archipelago

Novaya Zemlya Novaya Zemlya (, also , ; rus, Но́вая Земля́, p=ˈnovəjə zʲɪmˈlʲa, ) 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 ...

, projecting westward into the

Barents Sea The Barents Sea ( , also ; no, Barentshavet, ; russian: Баренцево море, Barentsevo More) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia and divided between Norwegian and Russian ter ...

. The site lies near the southwestern corner of the island, from

Mityushikha Bay Mityushikha Bay (russian: Губа Митюшиха) is a bay on Severny Island in Novaya Zemlya, Russia. Nuclear tests were conducted in 1961 in the area of the bay. Geography It is a long fjord open to the west near the SW end of the island, j ...

, north of

Matochkin Strait Matochkin Strait or Matochkin Shar (russian: Ма́точкин Шар) 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 i ...

, which separates Severny from

Yuzhny Island Yuzhny (russian: Южный остров, lit. southern island) is the southern island of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, lying north of Russia. It has an area of , which while smaller than the northern island of Severny, makes it one of the larg ...

, the southern island of the archipelago. The cape is composed of black and reddish

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especia ...

. Underwater sandbars are located off its northern shore. In the 19th century, numerous birds nested on the steep cliffs, particularly

loon Loons (North American English) or divers ( British / Irish English) are a group of aquatic birds found in much of North America and northern Eurasia. All living species of loons are members of the genus ''Gavia'', family Gaviidae and order G ...

s.Сухой Нос
in the ''

Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary The ''Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopaedic Dictionary'' ( Russian: Энциклопедический словарь Брокгауза и Ефрона, abbr. ЭСБЕ, tr. ; 35 volumes, small; 86 volumes, large) is a comprehensive multi-volume ...

'' (Энциклопедический словарь Ф.А. Брокгауза и И.А. Ефрона – С.-Пб.: Брокгауз-Ефрон. 1890–1907)

History

Sukhoy Nos was a site of

nuclear testing Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine nuclear weapons' effectiveness, Nuclear weapon yield, yield, and explosive capability. Testing nuclear weapons offers practical information about how the weapons function, how detona ...

for the former

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

, being the third and the northernmost detonating site of three on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago (designated "Zone C"). It was used between 1958 and 1961 and in October 1961 was the site of the record-breaking 50-megaton hydrogen bomb, known as

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

References

Novaya Zemlya Russian nuclear test sites Nuclear test sites Nuclear weapons program of the Soviet Union Sukhoy Nos {{Portal bar, Nuclear technology