Kara Sea

Coordinates: 77°N 77°E / 77°N 77°E / 77; 77
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Kara Sea
Kara Sea is located in Arctic
Kara Sea
Kara Sea
Map showing the location of the Kara Sea.
LocationArctic Ocean
Coordinates77°N 77°E / 77°N 77°E / 77; 77
TypeSea
Basin countriesRussia
Surface area926,000 km2 (358,000 sq mi)
Average depth131 m (430 ft)
Water volume121,000 km3 (98×10^9 acre⋅ft)
FrozenPractically all year round
References[1]

The Kara Sea

marginal sea, separated from the Barents Sea to the west by the Kara Strait and Novaya Zemlya, and from the Laptev Sea to the east by the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago. Ultimately the Kara, Barents and Laptev Seas are all extensions of the Arctic Ocean north of Siberia
.

The Kara Sea's northern limit is marked geographically by a line running from

Cape Molotov (Arctic Cape), the northernmost point of Komsomolets Island in Severnaya Zemlya
.

The Kara Sea is roughly 1,450 km (900 mi) long and 970 km (600 mi) wide with an area of around 880,000 km2 (339,770 sq mi) and a mean depth of 110 metres (360 ft).

Its main ports are

Exxon having until September 26 to discontinue its operations in the Kara Sea.[2]

Name origin

It is named after the Kara river (flowing into Baydaratskaya Bay), which is now relatively insignificant but which played an important role in the Russian conquest of northern Siberia.[3] The Kara river name is derived from a Nenets word meaning 'hummocked ice'.[4]

Geography

Extent

Main islands and island groups in the central and eastern regions of the Kara Sea.

The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Kara Sea as follows:[5]

On the West. The Eastern limit of Barents Sea [Cape Kohlsaat to Cape Zhelaniya (Desire); West and Southwest coast of Novaya Zemlya to Cape Kussov Noss and thence to Western entrance Cape, Dolgaya Bay (70°15′N 58°25′E / 70.250°N 58.417°E / 70.250; 58.417) on Vaigach Island. Through Vaigach Island to Cape Greben; thence to Cape Belyi Noss on the mainland].
On the North. Cape Kohlsaat to Cape Molotov (81°16′N 93°43′E / 81.267°N 93.717°E / 81.267; 93.717) (Northern extremity of Severnaya Zemlya on Komsomolets Island).
On the East. Komsomolets Island from Cape Molotov to South Eastern Cape; thence to Cape Vorochilov, Oktiabrskaya Revolutziya Island to Cape Anuchin. Then to Cape Unslicht on Bolshevik Island. Bolshevik Island to Cape Yevgenov. Thence to Cape Pronchisthehev on the main land (see Russian chart No. 1484 of the year 1935).

Islands

Kara Sea structural map

There are many islands and island groups in the Kara Sea. Unlike the other marginal seas of the Arctic, where most islands lie along the coasts, in the Kara Sea many islands, like the

Uedineniya or Lonely Island, Wiese Island, and Voronina Island
are located in the open sea of its central regions.

The largest group in the Kara Sea is by far the

unglaciated except for Ushakov Island at the extreme northern limit of the Kara Sea.[6]

Current patterns

Water circulation patterns in the Kara Sea are complex. The Kara Sea tends to be

Taz). The Kara Sea is also affected by the water inflow from the Barents Sea, which brings 0.6 Sv in August and 2.6 Sv in December.[9] The advected water originates from the Atlantic, but it was cooled and mixed with freshwater in the Barents Sea before it reaches the Kara Sea.[7] Simulations with the Hamburg shelf ocean model (HAMSOM) suggest that no typical water current pattern consists in the Kara Sea throughout the year. Depending on the freshwater run-off, the dominant wind patterns, and the sea ice formation, the water currents change.[7]

Connections to global weather

This section is an excerpt from Arctic sea ice decline § Barents Sea ice.[edit]

Barents Sea is the fastest-warming part of the Arctic, and some assessments now treat Barents sea ice as a separate tipping point from the rest of the Arctic sea ice, suggesting that it could permanently disappear once the global warming exceeds 1.5 degrees.

Lake Qinghai on the Tibetan Plateau.[16]

However, BKS ice research is often subject to the same uncertainty as the broader research into Arctic amplification/whole-Arctic sea ice loss and the jet stream, and is often challenged by the same data.[17] Nevertheless, the most recent research still finds connections which are statistically robust,[18] yet non-linear in nature: two separate studies published in 2021 indicate that while autumn BKS ice loss results in cooler Eurasian winters, ice loss during winter makes Eurasian winters warmer:[19] as BKS ice loss accelerates, the risk of more severe Eurasian winter extremes diminishes while heatwave risk in the spring and summer is magnified.[17][20]

History

The Kara Sea was formerly known as Oceanus Scythicus or Mare Glaciale and it appears with these names in 16th century maps. Since it is closed by ice most of the year it remained largely unexplored until the late nineteenth century.

In 1556

Arthur Pet and Charles Jackman, attempt its passage. They too failed to penetrate it, and England lost interest in searching for the Northeast Passage
.

In 1736–1737

Ob River
.

In 1878, Finnish explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld on ship Vega sailed across the Kara Sea from Gothenburg, along the coast of Siberia, and despite the ice packs, got to 180° longitude by early September. Frozen in for the winter in the Chukchi Sea, Nordenskiöld waited and bartered with the local Chukchi people. The following July, the Vega was freed from the ice, and continued to Yokohama, Japan. He became the first to force the Northeast Passage. The largest group of islands in the Kara Sea, the Nordenskiöld Archipelago, has been named in his honour. The year 1912 was a tragic one for Russian explorers in the Kara Sea. In that fateful year unbroken consolidated ice blocked the way for the Northern Sea Route and three expeditions that had to cross the Kara Sea became trapped and failed: Sedov's on vessel St. Foka, Brusilov's on the St. Anna, and Rusanov's on the Gercules. Georgy Sedov intended to reach Franz Josef Land on ship, leave a depot over there, and sledge to the pole. Due to the heavy ice the vessel could only reach Novaya Zemlya the first summer and wintered in Franz Josef Land. In February 1914 Sedov headed to the North Pole with two sailors and three sledges, but he fell ill and died on Rudolf Island. Georgy Brusilov attempted to navigate the Northeast Passage, was trapped in the Kara Sea, and drifted northward for more than two years reaching latitude 83° 17' N. Thirteen men, headed by Valerian Albanov, left the vessel and started across the ice to Franz Josef Land, but only Albanov and one sailor (Alexander Konrad) survived after a gruesome three-month ordeal. The survivors brought the ship log of St. Anna, the map of her drift, and daily meteorological records, but the destiny of those who stayed on board remains unknown. In the same year the expedition of Vladimir Rusanov was lost in the Kara Sea. The prolonged absence of those three expeditions stirred public attention, and a few small rescue expeditions were launched, including Jan Nagórski's five air flights over the sea and ice from the NW coast of Novaya Zemlya.

After the

Icebreaker Sedov carried groups of scientists to Severnaya Zemlya, the last major piece of unsurveyed territory in the Soviet Arctic; the archipelago was completely mapped under Georgy Ushakov
between 1930 and 1932.

Particularly worth noting are three cruises of the

Icebreaker Sadko, which went farther north than most; in 1935 and 1936 the last unexplored areas in the northern Kara Sea were examined and the small and elusive Ushakov Island
was discovered.

In the summer of 1942, German Kriegsmarine warships and submarines entered the Kara Sea to destroy as many Russian vessels as possible. This naval campaign was named "Operation Wunderland". Its success was limited by the presence of ice floes, as well as bad weather and fog. These effectively protected the Soviet ships, preventing the damage that could have been inflicted on the Soviet fleet under fair weather conditions.

In October 2010, the Russian government awarded a license to Russian oil company Rosneft for developing the East-Prinovozemelsky oil and gas structure in the Kara Sea.[21][22]

Nuclear dumping

Main article: Ocean disposal of radioactive waste

There is concern about

icebreaker Lenin) which were dumped at five sites in the Kara Sea. Most of the dumped reactors had suffered an accident.[24]

The Soviet submarine K-27 was scuttled in Stepovogo Bay with its two reactors filled with spent nuclear fuel.[25] At a seminar in February 2012 it was revealed that the reactors on board the submarine could re-achieve criticality and explode (a buildup of heat leading to a steam explosion vs. nuclear). The catalogue of waste dumped at sea by the Soviets, according to documents seen by Bellona, includes some 17,000 containers of radioactive waste, 19 ships containing radioactive waste, 14 nuclear reactors, including five that still contain spent nuclear fuel; 735 other pieces of radioactively contaminated heavy machinery, and the K-27 nuclear submarine with its two reactors loaded with nuclear fuel.[26]

Nature reserve

The

Uedineniya
(Ensomheden) and a number of smaller islands. This section represents rather fully the natural and biological diversity of Arctic sea islands of the eastern part of the Kara Sea.

Nearby, the Franz Josef Land and Severny Island in northern Novaya Zemlya are also registered as a sanctuary, the Russian Arctic National Park.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ /ˈkɑːrə/ KAHR-ə; Russian: Карское море, romanized: Karskoye more, pronounced [ˈkarskə(j)ɪ ˈmorʲɪ]

References

  1. ISBN 9780080558851
    .
  2. ^ "Sanksjoner kan avslutte boring i Karahavet" [Sanctions could end drilling in the Kara Sea]. DN (in Norwegian). September 16, 2014. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
  3. ^ Pospelov, E.M. (1998). Geograficheskie nazvaniya mira [Geographic names of the world] (in Russian). Moscow. p. 191.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. ^ Vize, V.Yu. (1939). Karskoye more // Morya Sovetskoy Arktiki: Ocherki po istorii issledovaniya [Kara Sea // Seas of the Soviet Arctic: Essays on the history of research] (in Russian). Leningrad. pp. 180–217.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. ^ "Limits of Oceans and Seas, 3rd edition" (PDF). International Hydrographic Organization. 1953. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 October 2011. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
  6. ^ Arctic Glaciers; Ushakov Island
  7. ^
    doi:10.1029/1999JC900048
    .
  8. doi:10.1016/0967-0645(95)00046-1
    .
  9. doi:10.1016/S0967-0637(02)00125-5
    .
  10. ^ Armstrong McKay, David (9 September 2022). "Exceeding 1.5°C global warming could trigger multiple climate tipping points – paper explainer". climatetippingpoints.info. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
  11. doi:10.1029/2009JD013568
    .
  12. S2CID 92214293
    .
  13. S2CID 126675127
    .
  14. S2CID 125312203
    .
  15. doi:10.3389/feart.2022.886192
    .
  16. S2CID 133858619
    .
  17. ^
    S2CID 238716298
    .
  18. S2CID 245672460
    .
  19. S2CID 236235248
    .
  20. S2CID 251230011
    .
  21. ^ "Rosneft and Gazprom clinch Arctic acreage". Upstream Online. NHST Media Group. 2010-10-15. Retrieved 2011-01-30.
  22. ^ "BP and Rosneft in exploration pact". Upstream Online. NHST Media Group. 2011-01-14. Retrieved 2011-01-30.
  23. ^ "Radioecological Hazard of Ship Nuclear Reactors Sunken in the Arctic", Atomic Energy, Vol.79, No. 3, 1995.
  24. ^ Mount, M.E., Sheaffer, M.K. and Abbott, D.T. (1994). "Kara Sea radionuclide inventory from naval reactor disposal". J. Environ. Radioactivity, 25, 1–19.
  25. ^ "Lifting Russia's accident reactors from the Arctic seafloor will cost nearly €300 million". The Barents Observer. 8 March 2020.
  26. ^ Charles Digges (28 August 2012). "Russia announces enormous finds of radioactive waste and nuclear reactors in Arctic seas". Bellona. Archived from the original on 23 September 2012. Retrieved 23 September 2012.

External links

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