Wiese Island, or Vize Island ( ''Ostrov Vize''), also known as ''Zemlya Vize'' () is an isolated

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

island located in the Arctic Ocean, named after

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

oceanographer of

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

-descent

Vladimir Wiese Vladimir Yulyevich Wiese (; 5 March 1886 – 19 February 1954) was a Russian scientist of German descent who devoted his life to the study of the Arctic ice pack. His name is associated with the Scientific Prediction of Ice Conditions theory. W ...

Geography

This island is desolate and subject to severe Arctic storms, but it has no

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. In the summer, large areas of the island are free of ice and snow. Its total area is . Compared to other Arctic islands it is relatively large and flat, its highest point being only above mean sea level. The closest land is

Ushakov Island Ushakov Island (, ''Ostrov Ushakova'') is an isolated island located in the Arctic Ocean, Russian Federation. The average yearly precipitation ranges from at a height of and between and around the highest point of the island's ice cap. Geogr ...

further north.

Google Earth Google Earth is a web mapping, web and computer program created by Google that renders a 3D computer graphics, 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposition, superimposing satelli ...

Wiese Island lies at the northern end of 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 ...

, roughly midway between

Franz Josef Land Franz Josef Land () is a Russian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. It is inhabited only by military personnel. It constitutes the northernmost part of Arkhangelsk Oblast and consists of 192 islands, which cover an area of , stretching from east ...

and

Severnaya Zemlya Severnaya Zemlya (, ) is a archipelago in the Russian high Arctic. It lies off Siberia's Taymyr Peninsula, separated from the mainland by the Vilkitsky Strait. This archipelago separates two marginal seas of the Arctic Ocean, the Kara Sea i ...

. It belongs to the Taymyrsky Dolgano-Nenetsky District of 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 Russia. Owing to its extreme northerly location, the surrounding sea is covered with

pack ice Pack or packs may refer to: Music * Packs (band), a Canadian indie rock band * ''Packs'' (album), by Your Old Droog * ''Packs'', a Berner album Places * Pack, Styria, defunct Austrian municipality * Pack, Missouri, United States (US) * ...

in the winter, and it is quite full of ice floes even in the summer. The island's coastline is also receding at a very fast rate, due to erosion. Between 2009 and 2016, its coastline is reported to have receded by up to , making it one of the fastest receding islands in the world.

History

In 1924, oceanographer

studied the drift of Georgy Brusilov's ill-fated Russian ship ''

Svyataya Anna The HMS ''Newport'' was launched in Wales in 1867. Having become the first ship to pass through the Suez Canal, she was sold in 1881 and renamed ''Pandora II''. She was purchased again in about 1890 and renamed ''Blencathra'', taking part in e ...

'' when she was trapped on the pack ice of the

. Wiese detected an odd deviation of the path of the ship's drift caused by certain variations of the patterns of sea and ice currents. He deemed that the deviation was caused by the presence of an undiscovered island whose coordinates he was able to calculate with precision thanks to the availability of the successive positions of the ''St. Anna'' during its drift. The data of the drift had been supplied by navigator Valerian Albanov, one of the only two survivors of the ''St. Anna''.Wladilen Troizki, ''The Exploits of second officer Valerian Albanov'', Krasnoyarsk Publishing House, 1989
/ref> Finally, the island was discovered on 13 August 1930 by a Soviet expedition led by

Otto Schmidt Otto Yulyevich Shmidt (born Otto Friedrich Julius Schmidt; – 7 September 1956), better known as Otto Schmidt, was a Soviet scientist, mathematician, astronomer, geophysicist, statesman, and academician. Biography He was born in the town of ...

aboard the Icebreaker Sedov under

Captain Vladimir Voronin Vladimir Ivanovich Voronin (; October 17, 1890 – October 18, 1952) was a Soviet Navy captain, born in Sumsky Posad, in the present Republic of Karelia, Russia. In 1932 he commanded the expedition of the Soviet icebreaker '' A. Sibiryakov'' whi ...

. The island was named after Professor Wiese of the Soviet Arctic Institute who was at the time aboard the ''Sedov'' and who was able to set foot on the island whose existence he had predicted. The first wintering in Wiese Island took place in 1945–46. A

hydrometeorological Hydrometeorology is a branch of meteorology and hydrology that studies the transfer of water and energy between the land surface and the lower atmosphere for academic research, commercial gain or operational forecasting purposes. Whilst tradition ...

polar station was established on 1 November 1945. Wiese Island's polar station is one of the northernmost in the world. Wiese-Insel 1 2014-09-02

Climate

Wiese Island has an extreme

Arctic climate The climate of the Arctic is characterized by long, cold winters and short, cool summers. There is a large amount of variability in climate across the Arctic, but all regions experience extremes of solar radiation in both summer and winter. Som ...

, with temperatures only able to struggle above freezing slightly for a couple of months a year and temperatures are regularly below −20 °C from November all the way through to the following April. Wiese Island has not yet recorded a temperature at or above .

References

Select bibliography

* ''Summary of the Arctic archipelagos and islands.'' Scott Polar Research Institute,

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

External links