Northern Earth

In the history of the study of the North, the most vivid, heroic pages are associated with the discovery and exploration of a large Northern Earth archipelago that delimits the Arctic seas: Kara in the west and Laptevs - in the east.

In the history of the study of the North, the most vivid, heroic pages are associated with the discovery and exploration of a large Northern Earth archipelago that delimits the Arctic seas

On signs of the existence of the Northern Earth to the north of the peninsula Taymyr indicated birds flying and the movement of polar foxes and polar bears. Even during the Great Northern Expedition in 1742, navigator Chelyuskin tried to explore the sea north of the cape, which today is named after him. But because of the large ice floes it was necessary to return back, and not having seen the mysterious Northern Earth. The thought of the existence of the earth in these latitudes was also expressed by the great Russian scientist M. V. Lomonosov, and later the discoverer of Franz Josef Land M.G. Schilling, the geographer P.O. Kropotkin, and also the researcher E.V.Tolle. Check these statements and on their own eyes to see the mysterious Northern Earth tried many researchers. In August 1878, the well-known Swedish polar explorer A. Nordenskiold came here on the Vega, but stopped before an irresistible ice barrier. In 1893, on the threshold of the discovery was the famous Norwegian scientist F. Nansen, who drifted in this area on his "Fram", but because of unfavorable meteorological conditions - thick fog - he did not see the archipelago of the Northern Earth.

In 1914 the Northern Earth, the existence of which had long been claimed by scientists, was finally achieved by the Russian expedition of B.A. Vilkitsky on the icebreakers Vaigach and Taimyr. Researchers saw the cloudy southern shore of the land, which they were looking for. Members of the expedition landed on an inhospitable land. The official opening of the Northern Earth took place!

But what is the Northern Land archipelago, what are its dimensions, how far it extends to the north and west, it consists of one or several islands - all of these questions were not answered by VA Vilkitsky's expedition. Scientists have only tentatively plotted the southern and eastern shores of the Northern Earth archipelago. So for a long time they had a dashed effect on geographical maps, just as the shores of a distant Antarctica.

In the summer of 1930, the expedition on the icebreaker Georgi Sedov reached the unknown western shores of the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago. A few small lands were discovered that later became known as the Sedov islands, and on one of them - Domashniy - a special base was built, where a well-equipped expeditionary detachment of four researchers was left for a period of 2 years. In addition to commander G.O. Ushakov, the detachment included a geologist M.M. Urvantsev, a radio operator V.V. Khodov and a hunter S.P. Zhuravlev.

It became known that the Northern Land is an archipelago from several large and many small islands: the October Revolution, Bolshevik, Komsomolets, the Pioneer, which are separated by the channels of the Red Army, Shokalsky, etc. The unkind nature of the Northern Earth. Almost half of its surface is chained with an ice shell, the rest is covered with poor vegetation, mostly moss and lichens. Only sometimes you can see wild deer, polar foxes and polar bears. A long winter with temperatures that sometimes exceed 50 degrees below zero and a short cold summer with temperatures not exceeding 8 degrees Celsius are such climatic conditions of the Northern Earth.

Tools