Alexandra Land

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the Russian island. For the former Australian territory, see
Alexandra Land (Australia)
.

Alexandra Land
Земля Александры (Russian)
Location of Alexandra Land in the Franz Josef Archipelago
Alexandra Land is located in Russia
Alexandra Land
Alexandra Land
Geography
LocationArctic
Coordinates80°38′02″N 46°35′02″E / 80.6339°N 46.5839°E / 80.6339; 46.5839
ArchipelagoFranz Josef Land
Area1,050 km2 (410 sq mi)
Length70 km (43 mi)
Width30 km (19 mi)
Highest elevation382 m (1253 ft)
Highest pointKupol Lunny
Administration
Demographics
Population5 (2007)
An Ilyushin Il-76 landing at Alexandra Land.

Alexandra Land (

Victoria Island
, it is the westernmost island of Franz Josef Land. It is the site of a Russian military base that was reopened in 2017.

Geography

The highest point of the island, 382 m (1,253 ft), is the summit of Kupol Lunny (Купол Лунный) "Dome of the Moon", a large

unglacierized and its eastern end forms a peninsula stretching southwards, the Polyarnykh Letchikov Peninsula.[4] This peninsula is covered by Kupol Kropotkina (Купол Кропоткина), a smaller ice dome.[5] There are three large lakes on the island, including the Utinoye Lake (Duck Lake) and the Ledyanoye Lake
(Ice Lake).

Dezhnev Bay (Zaliv Dezhneva) lies between the western part of the island and the Polyarnykh Letchikov Peninsula. Cape Thomas (Mys Tomasa) is the southernmost headland of the peninsula. Cambridge Channel (Proliv Kambritch) is a wide sound between Alexandra Land and Zemlya Georga.

At the southern end this island has two capes pointing southwestwards in its southernmost coast: Cape Lofley and Cape Ludlow. Cape Mary Harmsworth, the cape pointing westwards is the westernmost point of the Franz Josef Archipelago proper.

History

The English explorer Benjamin Leigh Smith, sighted Alexandra Land in 1880, but did not land. He named the area for Alexandra, then Princess of Wales.[6] An alternative account states that the name "Alexandra Land" commemorates

Archduke Joseph of Austria, Palatine of Hungary (1776-1847).[citation needed
]

The

Alfred Harmsworth's wife Mary. In 1897, Jackson established that the land discovered by Leigh Smith was in fact composed of two separate islands. He named the southeastern island Prince George Land.[7]

First map to show Alexandra Land, from the 1880 expedition by Benjamin Leigh Smith
Alexandra Land in an 1898 map of Franz Josef Land showing the explorations of Frederick Jackson

Russian navigator Valerian Albanov of the Svyataya Anna reached Cape Mary Harmsworth in Alexandra Land in 1914 after his ordeal on the polar ice.

During World War II, the Germans established an ill-fated meteorological station on the island, called Schatzgräber ("Treasure Hunter"). Most of the members were stricken with trichinosis after eating raw polar bear meat. The survivors were removed and the project abandoned.[8][9]

During the Cold War it was the site of the 31st Independent Radio-Technical Company (Military Unit Number 03184 ([1])), part of the 10th Independent Air Defence Army of the Soviet Air Defence Forces.[10]

Nagurskoye

Nagurskoye airfield

Alexandra Land is home to

Nagurskoye
military base, Russia's northernmost military base, built in the 1950s.

An-72
cargo aircraft crashed while landing at Nagurskoye on 23 December 1996.

A major new base, named the "Arctic Trefoil" (Arkticheskiy trilistnik) for its three-lobed structure, was constructed at Nagurskoye. It can house 150 soldiers for 18 months and has an area of 14,000 square metres (150,000 sq ft).[11]

Ecology

The

subpopulations in differing Arctic subregions.[12]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Kupol Lunny". Mapcarta. Retrieved 6 October 2016.
  2. ^ "Alexandra Land – Franz-Joseph-Land". Franz-Joseph-Land Info. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
  3. ^ "Popular Science Monthly/Volume 55/September 1899/Scientific Literature". Wikisource. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
  4. ^ "Poluostrov Polyarnykh Letchikov". Mapcarta. Retrieved 6 October 2016.
  5. ^ "Kupol Kropotkina, Russia - Geographical Names, map, geographic coordinates". geographic.org.
  6. ^ Mills, William James (2003). "Alexandra Land (Franz Josef Land)". Exploring Polar Frontiers: A Historical Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. p. 9.
    ISBN 9781576074220
    . Retrieved 2 October 2019. [...] discovery is generally credited to Benjamin Leigh Smith in 1880, who named it for Princess Alexandra, wife of Edward, Prince of Wales.
  7. S2CID 129006829
    . pp. 20f.
  8. ^ Warnes, Indra (22 October 2016). "Secret NAZI ice-base ordered by Adolf Hitler discovered in Arctic". The Express. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  9. ISBN 1-55238-110-2
    .
  10. ^ http://www.ww2.dk/new/pvo/radar/3rtp.htm
  11. ^ Russia Builds Second Military base to Support Arctic Ambitions
  12. ^ C. Michael Hogan. Nicklas Stromberg (ed.). "Polar Bear: Ursus maritimus". Globaltwitcher.com. Archived from the original on 8 March 2012.

Further reading

External links
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