Franz Josef Land

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Location of Franz Josef Land (Map is annotated in German).
Location of Franz Josef Land (Map is annotated in German).

Franz Josef Land (Russ. Земля Франца-Иосифа, Zemlya Frantsa-Iosifa) is an archipelago located in the far north of Russia. It is found in the Arctic Ocean north of Novaya Zemlya and east of Svalbard, and is administered by Arkhangelsk Oblast. Franz Josef Land consists of 191 ice-covered islands with an area of 16,134 km² and is largely uninhabited.

At latitudes between 80.0° and 81.9° north, it is the most northerly group of islands associated with Eurasia. The extreme northernmost point is Cape Fligely on Rudolf Island (ostrov Rudolfa). The archipelago is only 900 to 1110 km (560 to 690 statute miles) from the North Pole, closer than all land masses except for Canada's Ellesmere Island and Greenland.

The archipelago was possibly first discovered by the Norwegian sealers Nils Fredrik Rønnbeck and Aidijärvi aboard the schooner "Spidsbergen" in 1865, who according to the scarce reports sailed eastward from Svalbard until they reached a new land. Whether they were ashore, what was denoted Nordost-Spitsbergen (Spitsbergen was the contemporary name of Svalbard), is not known and the new islands were soon forgotten.

The officially recognized discovery took place in 1873 by the Austrian polar explorers Payer and Weyprecht, who named it in honour of the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph I. As the expedition was only privately sponsored and not official, these islands have never been part of Austria. In 1926 the islands were taken over by the Soviet Union, and a few inhabitants came for research and military purposes. Access by ships is possible only for a few summer weeks and requires a special permit.

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[edit] Characteristics

The archipelago is volcanic, composed of Tertiary and Jurassic basalts, and though covered mostly by ice it does have outcroppings covered with moss and lichens. The northeastern part of the archipelago is locked in pack ice all year round, however the ice sometimes retreats past the southern islands in the late summer. The northernmost point in the archipelago, and in the entirety of Asia, is Mys Fligely (Fligely Point), on Ostrov Rudolfa (Rudolfa Island), which reaches as far north as 81°52'N. The largest island is Zemlya Georga (Georga Island) which measures 69 miles (110 km) from end to end. The highest point in the archipelago is on Zemlya Viner-Neyshtadt (Viner-Neyshtadt Island) which reaches 2,035 ft (620 m) MSL.

[edit] Weather

In January the normal daily low is −15 °C (5 °F) and the high is −10.5 °C (13 °F). In July the normal daily low is 0 °C (32 °F) and daily high 2.2 °C (36 °F). The annual mean temperature is −12.8 °C (9 °F). In a 30-year period, the highest temperature recorded has been 13 °C (55.4 °F) and lowest −54 °C (-64.2 °F). Precipitation is common year round, but is most common during the transition seasons of late spring and autumn. Fog is very common in the late summer. From data for Nagurskoye and SevMeteo.

[edit] Wildlife

Native wildlife consists mostly of walrus, Arctic foxes, and polar bears. Common birds include kittiwakes, fulmars, and gulls. Beluga whales are often spotted in the waters. Caribou antlers have been found on Hooker Island, suggesting that herds reached here up to about 1,300 years ago during a warmer climate.

Map of Franz Josef Land.
Map of Franz Josef Land.

[edit] Places of significance

The following list describes important islands in Franz Josef Land and their significance.

  • Zemlya Aleksandry. Nagurskoye ( 80°49′N, 47°25′E) (see Jan Nagórski) has served as one of the most important meteorological stations in the archipelago. During the Cold War it probably housed an air defense radar.[citation needed] It has a 1,500 m (4,900 ft) snow runway. An Antonov An-72 cargo aircraft crashed while landing at Nagurskoye on 1996-12-23.
  • Ostrov Rudolfa (Rudolf Island) is the northernmost island. Teplitz Bay ( 81°48′N, 57°56′E) is a camp site that served as a staging point for numerous polar expeditions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Due to the steep terrain, the only airfield access is a small snow strip 300 m (1000 ft) up a glacier at (81°47'N 58°45'E).
  • Ostrov Kheysa. Krenkel ( 80°37′N, 58°03′E) is the site of a meteorological station.
  • Ostrov Gofmana. Site of a snow runway ( 81°17′N, 60°13′E).
  • Ostrov Greem-Bell (Graham Bell Island). Greem Bell is home to a Cold War outpost and to the airfield Greem-Bell ( 81°09′N, 64°17′E), the largest airfield in the archipelago. It has a runway 2,100 m (7,000 ft) long. Russian cargo and fighter aircraft have regularly landed here since the 1950s.
  • Ostrov Tsiglera (Ziegler Island). The Austrian observing site Payer-Weypricht (probably 81°06′N, 56°11′E) was established around the turn of the century.
  • Ostrov Nortbruk (Northbrook Island). The island is the most accessible location in the island group and formed the main base for polar expeditions in the late 19th and early 20th century. The camp ( 79°57′N, 50°05′E) at Cape Flora is historically significant. A chance encounter between explorers Fridtjof Nansen and Frederick George Jackson took place here in 1896. In 1904 coal was mined about 150 m (500 ft) up the slopes by explorers wintering over after their ship sank at Rudolf Island.
  • Ostrov Dzheksona (Jackson Island). Cape Norway ( 80°12′N, 55°37′E) was where Fridtjof Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen wintered in 1895-96 after failing to reach the North Pole. A hut and a wooden post still remain.
  • Ostrov Gukera (Hooker Island). Tikhaya Bay ( 80°20′N, 52°47′E) was the site of a major base for polar expeditions, and the location of a meteorological station from 1929 to 1963. It was visited by the Graf Zeppelin airship in July 1931 during a landmark aerial survey. Staff were marooned here from 1941 to 1945 during World War II. A graveyard and two modern buildings exist. A large seabird colony exists near Tikhaya Bay at Skala Rubini (Rubini Rock, 80°18′N, 52°50′E).
  • Ostrov Aldzher (Alger Island). The wintering site of the failed American Evelyn Baldwin expedition of 1901.
  • Zemlya Vilcheka (Wilczek Island). Cape Geller ( 80°46′N, 59°36′E) was the wintering site for two members of the 1899 Welle expedition waiting for the team's return from the pole.
  • Ostrov Stolichki. This tiny island ( 81°11′N, 58°16′E) is the site of a large walrus rookery.
  • Ostrov Gallya was on August 30, 1873, the first of the Franz Josef Islands to be discovered. A small camp was built at Mys Tegetkhof (Cape Tegetthoff, 80°05′N, 58°01′E) by the Walter Wellman expedition in 1898-99 and contains a marker honoring the discovery of the archipelago.
  • Ostrov Viktoriya (Victoria Island) is the westernmost of all Russian Arctic islands.

[edit] History

The first recognized exploration of the archipelago was done in 1873 by Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition explorers Karl Weyprecht and Julius von Payer, while their ship was locked in ice trying to find a northeast passage. After exploration of its southern islands, the name was bestowed in honor of Austrian emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. The Norwegians Fridtjof Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen passed through the islands in 1895/96 after an aborted attempt to reach the pole. By sheer coincidence, they met British explorer Frederick George Jackson at Northbrook Island in 1896.

With the introduction of larger steam-powered vessels, a number of sealing expeditions were made to the islands from the last decade of the 19th century, more than 80% of these were Norwegian. In the late 1920's both the Soviet Union and Norway claimed the islands, the latter called them "Fridtjof Nansen Land". According to a Soviet decree of 15. April 1926, they claimed a Soviet sector in the Arctic region that also included Franz Josef Land and the nearby Victoria Island. Norway was notified on 6. May and officially protested on 19. December, contesting the Soviet claim.

The following years Norwegian authorities put much effort in annexing Victoria Island and Franz Josef Land. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not wish to take any measures to lay official claims, but had no objection to private initiatives. In 1929 consul Lars Christensen of Sandefjord, a whaling tycoon whose expeditions had annexed Bouvet Island and Peter I Island in the Antarctica, funded an expedition of two vessels, S/S Torsnes and M/C Hvalrossen. Upon departure from Tromsø the crew were given detailed instructions to erect a manned wireless station and leave a wintering crew on Franz Josef Land, and also to claim Victoria Island on behalf of Christensen. The objective was to obtain legal footing in part of the archipelago before the Soviets did. The expedition never reached Franz Josef Land due to severe ice conditions, and while waiting for better conditions they were surpassed by the Soviet icebreaker Georgij Sedov. On 29. July 1929 professor Schmidt of the Sedov Expedition raised the Soviet flag at Tikaya Bay, Hooker Island, and declared that Franz Josef Land was a part of the Soviet Union. Norway did not officially contest the Soviet annexation of Franz Josef Land itself, but continued their efforts regarding Victoria Island. This dispute ended by the Soviet annexation of the island in September 1932.

In July 1931, a German airship marked a milestone in Russian polar exploration. The Graf Zeppelin travelled from Berlin to Hooker Island, by way of Leningrad (St. Petersburg). Here it delivered 650 pounds (300 kg) of commemorative mail and met with the icebreaker 'Malygin'. After traveling east along the 81st parallel to Severnaya Zemlya, it returned to Hooker Island and began a groundbreaking aerial survey of the archipelago, flying as far north as Ostrov Rudolfa.

During the Cold War years, the polar regions were a hot buffer zone between the U.S. and Russia, and many points in the arctic became key strategic locations. The islands were declared one of many national security areas from the 1930s to 1991, and were off limits to foreigners. An airfield was built at Greem Bell to serve as a staging base for Russian bomber aircraft, and training missions were quite common between Franz Josef Land, the mainland, and Novaya Zemlya. Though the islands were militarily sensitive, a cruise ship visited in 1971.

In 2005 Austrian geographer Christoph Höbenreich led the Payer-Weyprecht-Memorialexpedition to Franz Josef Land. The Austrian-Russian team followed the historic footsteps of explorer Julius Payer by ski and pulkasleds.

[edit] See also

Swedish musician Stina Nordenstam's sound installation Isens Fasor was spoken directly from the journal of Karl Weyprecht, on the voyage he and Payer took to discover the islands, which almost failed when their ship became trapped in arctic ice and they and their crew were forced to walk 1000 miles to Russia.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Andreas Umbreit, SPITSBERGEN: Svalbard, Franz Josef Land, Jan Mayen, Bradt Travel Guides, U.K, 2005
  • Karl Weyprecht, Die Metamorphosen des Polareises. Österr.-Ung. Arktische Expedition 1872-1874 (The Metamorphosis of Polar Ice. The Austro-Hungarian Polar Expedition of 1872-1874)
  • Julius von Payer, New Lands within the Arctic Circle (1876)
  • Andreas Pöschek, Geheimnis Nordpol. Die Österreichisch-Ungarische Nordpolexpedition 1872-1874. - Wien: 1999 (Available as PDF)
  • I. Gjertz, B. Mørkved, "Norwegian Arctic Expansionism, Victoria Island (Russia) and the Bratvaag Expedition", Arctic, Vol. 51, No. 4 (December 1998), P. 330-335 (Available as PDF)
  • H. Straub, Die Entdeckung des Franz-Joseph-Landes (discovery report), Styria-Verlag, Austria 1990.

[edit] External links

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