Nordvik (Laptev Sea)

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Map showing the location of Nordvik Bay. Nordvik penal colony was located in the small peninsula on the western side of the bay.

Nordvik (Russian: Нордвик) was a harbor in the Khatanga Gulf (Laptev Sea) at the mouth of the Khatanga River. It was located on the Uryung Tumus Peninsula, west of a bay called Nordvik Bay (Бухта нордвик; Bukhta Nordvik). Formerly there was a small town and a penal colony in Nordvik. The climate is exceptionally severe, with prolonged, bitter winters.

Near Nordvik there is a paleozoic salt dome known as Tus-Takh on the Uryung Tumus Peninsula itself. It was suspected that the ground underneath would probably yield oil and gas. The remains of a plesiosaur (Plesiosaurus robustus) were also found on this peninsula.

[edit] History

In 1933 the newly-formed Glavsevmorput' (Chief Administration of the Northern Sea Route) sent ship Pravda to Nordvik with an oil exploration expedition led by N.N. Urvantsev. By 4 September freighter Pravda was close to Nordvik. Kapitan Belitskiy had decided to approach Bukhta Nordvik from the east, between Poluostrov Paksa and Bolshoy Begichev Island. Despite having no knowledge of the depths in the channel Belitskiy went ahead, without taking the elementary precaution of sounding and Pravda ran aground in the centre of the channel two times.

According to Urvantsev, drilling at Nordvik over the next few seasons revealed small, shallow oil pockets in connection with salt structures with little commercial significance. However the salt itself was extracted on a fairly massive scale by means of forced labourers in a penal colony. From the 1930s onwards Nordvik became an important source of salt supply for the northern fisheries. Although the original prospects for oil at Nordvik did not materialise, experience was gained in the exploration for hydrocarbons within the continuous permafrost zones. This experience proved invaluable in the later exploration and exploitation of the massive oil and gas fields of Western Siberia.

The penal colony closed in mid 1940's when Americans arrived in Nordvik as allies of the USSR. The salt was extracted by internal deportees rather than prisoners after the camp closure. The settlement at Nordvik was closed in 1956.

Nordvik in the Laptev Sea should not be confused with the town in Norway also called Nordvik.