Minina Skerries

Location of the Minina Skerries.

The complex coastline of the Minina Skerries.

The Minina Skerries (Russian: Шхеры Минина; Shkhery Minina) are located in the Kara Sea, in the northwestern shores of Siberia. They stretch between the Mikhailov Peninsula and the mouths of the river Pyasina. Their latitude is between 74° and 75° N, and their longitude between 84° and 87° 30' E.

These skerries are a complex system of islands, channels and small peninsulas on the bleak tundra coast of the Taymyr Peninsula. Winters are long and bitter, so the coast and the islands are merged as an icy whole for the greatest part of the year. The summer thaw typically lasts only about two months in an average season.

The Minina Skerries include the Kolosovykh Islands, the Kolosovykh Peninsula, and the Plavnikovyye Islands, as well as other minor coastal islands and deep inlets. They all belong to the Krasnoyarsk Krai administrative division of the Russian Federation.

There is a great variety of Arctic fauna in the Minina Skerries and the whole area is part of the Great Arctic State Nature Reserve, the largest nature reserve of Russia.

History

This cold region was first explored by Fridtjof Nansen and then, more in depth, by Baron Eduard von Toll during his last venture, the Russian Arctic Expedition of 1900-1903 on ship Zarya. Eduard Toll and Zarya's captain Nikolai Nikolaevich Kolomeitsev were quite frustrated with the navigation through the tortuous waters of these skerries. In his writings Toll described this whole area as a labyrinth.

The Zarya took a week to negotiate these complicated waters and it ran aground three times. Despite some inaccuracies in the measurements of positions and identification of islands, Toll and the scientists of his expedition went ashore at many islands and headlands, naming them and contributing useful scientific data on this relatively unknown area of the Arctic. The name of the entire Minina Skerries was first given by Toll and his expedition members. They were named after Russian polar explorer Fedor Alekseyevich Minin.

References

• William Barr, The Last Journey of Peter Tessem and Paul Knutsen, 1919.
• William Barr, Baron Eduard von Toll’s Last Expedition.
• Great Arctic State Nature Reserve

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°37′N 85°40′E / 74.617°N 85.667°E / 74.617; 85.667