Belkovsky Island Explained

Belkovsky
Settlement Type:	Island
Coordinates:	75.5528°N 135.8417°W
Pushpin Map:	Russia Sakha Republic
Pushpin Label Position:	left
Subdivision Type:	Country
Subdivision Name:	Russian Federation
Subdivision Type1:	Federal subject
Subdivision Name1:	Far Eastern Federal District
Subdivision Type2:	Republic
Subdivision Name2:	Yakutia

Belkovsky Island (Russian: Бельковский Oстров|r=; sah|Бельков Aрыыта|translit=Bel'kov Arııta) is the westernmost island of the Anzhu Islands subgroup of the New Siberian Islands archipelago in the Laptev Sea.

Location

The strait between Belkovsky Island and neighboring Kotelny Island is known as the Zarya Strait, after Eduard Toll's Zarya (polar ship). Ostrov Strizhëva is a small islet located right off Belkovsky's southern shore.

Belkovsky Island is approximately 500 km² in area. The highest point of the island is 120 m.

Administratively, Belkovsky Island is a part of Yakutia, Russian Federation.

Geology

Belkovsky Island consist of tightly folded Upper Devonian and Lower Carboniferous strata. The Upper Devonian rocks are clayey marine carbonates interbedded with limestone, sandstone, and conglomerate. The Lower Carboniferous rocks are composed of siltstone, argillite, and sandstone interbedded with breccia, limestone, and infrequent rhyolitic lavas.^[1] ^[2]

Fauna and Flora

There are big bird colonies and a walrus rookery on the island.

Rush/grass, forb, cryptogam tundra covers the Belkovsky Island. It is tundra consisting mostly of very low-growing grasses, rushes, forbs, mosses, lichens, and liverworts. These plants either mostly or completely cover the surface of the ground. The soils are typically moist, fine-grained, and often hummocky.^[3]

History

The island was discovered in 1808 by a Russian merchant named Belkov.

External links

anonymous, nd, Laptev Sea Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research - Research Unit Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany.

Rachold, V., nda, pebble beach of Belkovsky Island. Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research - Research Unit Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany.

Rachold, V., ndb, remnants of sea-ice, August 2002. Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research - Research Unit Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany.

Notes and References

Kos’ko, M.K., B.G. Lopatin, and V.G. Ganelin, 1990, Major geological features of the islands of the East Siberian and Chukchi Seas and the Northern Coast of Chukotka. Marine Geology. vol. 93, pp. 349–367.
Fujita, K., and D.B. Cook, 1990, The Arctic continental margin of eastern Siberia, in A. Grantz, L. Johnson, and J. F. Sweeney, eds., pp. 289-304, The Arctic Ocean Region. Geology of North America, vol L, Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colorado.
CAVM Team, 2003, Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map. Scale 1:7,500,000. Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) Map No. 1. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Anchorage, Alaska.