Kamennyye Islands

Location of the Kamennyye Islands in the Kara Sea.

The Kamennyye Islands or Kammennyy Islands (Russian: Каменные Острова; Ostrova Kamennye) is a group of islands covered with tundra vegetation. It is located in the Kara Sea, off the coast of Siberia, west of the mouths of river Pyasina.

The main islands are (from East to West):

• Morzhovo Island, with a diameter of only 4 km, is the closest to land. It is only about 11 km from the Siberian coastline.
• Rastorguyev Island. It is long and narrow, and about 15 km in length. It is occasionally confused with Kolchak Island (which is located further east in the Kara Sea along the coast south of the Nordenskiold Archipelago, and until 2005, used to also be known as Rastorguyev Island).
• Vostochnyy Island, is the largest in the group; 17 km in length and 9 km wide.
• Zapadnyy Kamennyy Island, roughly circular in shape; 8.5 km in diameter.

The sea surrounding the Kamennyye Islands is covered with pack ice with some polynias in the winter and there are many ice floes even in the summer, so that they are connected with the Siberian mainland during the long winters. The climate is severe and summers last only about two months.

This island group belongs to the Krasnoyarsk Krai administrative division of the Russian Federation. It also is included in the Great Arctic State Nature Reserve of the Russian Arctic.

These islands were explored by Russian geologist Baron Eduard Von Toll during an expedition on behalf of the Imperial Russian Academy of Sciences.

References

• http://worldmaps.web.infoseek.co.jp/russia_guide.htm
• http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic27-1-2.pdf
• http://www.shparo.com/Toll/toll_biograf.htm

See also

• Kara Sea

Islands of the Kara Sea (Russian Arctic) Arkticheskiy Institut Islands Belukha and Prodolgovatyy Bely Island Bera Island Bolshoi Korsakovsky Islands Bonevi Dzhekman Islands Dikson Island Eastern Islands Firnley Islands Gavrilova Graham Bell Island Heiberg Islands Helland-Hansen Island Izvestiy TSIK Islands Kamennyye Islands Khalyango Kirov Islands Kolchak Island Kolomeytseva Islands Kolosovykh Komsomolets Krasnoflotskiye Krestovsky Island Krusenstern Islands Labyrintovyye Levdiyev Island Levinson-Lessing Island Lishniy Litke Island Litke Islands Markgama Mestnyy Minina Skerries Mona Islands Moristyy Myachina Islands Nablyudeniy Nansen Island Neupokoyeva Nordenskiöld Archipelago Nosok Novaya Zemlya October Revolution Oleniy Pakhtusov Islands Pilota Makhotkina Pioneer Island Plavnikovyye Proklyatyye Rastorguyev Island Russky Island Schmidt Island Scott Hansen Islands Sedov Archipelago Severnaya Zemlya Severny Island Shokalsky Shren Islands Sibiryakov Island Sorevnovaniya Storozhevyye Sverdrup Island Taymyra Tillo Islands Tsivolko Islands Ushakov Island Uyedineniya Vaygach Island Vilkitsky Island Vize Island Voronina Yarzhinsky Islands Yermolov Island Yuzhny Island Zveroboy

Coordinates: 74°07′N 82°48′E / 74.117°N 82.800°E / 74.117; 82.800