Vize Island

Location of Vize Island in the Kara Sea.

Vize Island or Wiese Island (Russian: Остров Визе, Ostrov Vize or Земля Визе, Zemlya Vize) is an isolated island located in the Arctic Ocean at the northern end of the Kara Sea, roughly midway between Franz Josef Land and Severnaya Zemlya, its latitude is 79° 30' N and its longitude 76° 54' E. It belongs to the Krasnoyarsk Krai administrative division of Russia.

This island is desolate and subject to severe Arctic storms, but it has no glaciers. In the summer, large areas of the island are free of ice and snow. Its total area is 289 km² (112 sq mi). Compared to other Arctic islands it is relatively large and flat, its highest point being only 30 m (98 ft) above mean sea level. The closest land is lonely Ushakov Island 140 km (87 mi) further north.

Owing to its extreme northerly location, the surrounding sea is covered with pack ice in the winter, and it is quite full of ice floes even in the summer.

History

In 1924, oceanographer V. Yu. Vize studied the drift of Georgy Brusilov's ill-fated Russian ship Svyataya Anna when she was trapped on the pack ice of the Kara Sea. Professor Vize detected an odd deviation of the path of the ship's drift caused by certain variations of the patterns of sea and ice currents. He deemed that the deviation was caused by the presence of an undiscovered island whose coordinates he was able to calculate with precision thanks to the availability of the successive positions of the St. Anna during its drift. The data of the drift had been supplied by navigator Valerian Albanov, one of the only two survivors of the St. Anna.

Finally, the island was discovered on 13 August 1930 by a Soviet expedition led by Otto Schmidt aboard the Icebreaker Sedov under Captain Vladimir Voronin. The island was named after Professor Vize of the Soviet Arctic Institute who was at the time aboard the Sedov and who was able to set foot on the island whose existence he had predicted.

The first wintering in Vize Island took place in 1945–46. A hydrometeorological polar station was established on 1 November 1945. Vize Island's polar station is one of the northernmost in the world.

Climate

Vize island has an extreme arctic climate, with temperatures only able to struggle above freezing slightly for a couple of months a year and temperatures are regularly below −20 °C from November all the way through to the following April.

See also

• List of islands of Russia

References

Select bibliography

• Summary of the Arctic archipelagos and islands. Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge.

External links

• Picture of a radiogram from airplane H425 to the polar base at Vize Island:

Coordinates: 79°18′00″N 76°32′24″E / 79.30000°N 76.54000°E / 79.30000; 76.54000

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 Kolomeytsev 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