Where is the Franz Joseph Land archipelago located? Franz Josef Land. Franz Josef Land - islands. Franz Josef Land - tours

Where permafrost prevails, and the average annual temperature is −12 °C.

The Archipelago is located approximately a thousand kilometers from the North Pole. Most of Franz Josef Land is covered by glaciers.

Although, one should not confuse FJL with the North Pole. In summer, temperatures here can still reach +12 °C and the snow usually melts in July.

During this period, the ground is exposed, which in just a couple of weeks is covered with mosses and lichens, as well as flowering polar poppies, saxifrage, polar willow and other unpretentious plants.

There are not that many birds here, but they are there. These are little auks, guillemots, guillemots, kittiwakes, white gulls, glaucous gulls, terns, skuas, eiders, geese, etc.

Animals include polar bear and arctic fox. By the way, did you know that the polar bear belongs to marine mammals and even a Latin name polar bear- Ursus maritimus is translated as “sea bear”? In the sea there are also seals, bearded seals, harp seals, walruses, narwhals and beluga whales.

Franz Josef Land is a region that is part of a small natural zone known as the polar desert zone.

People have never lived in the FJL for obvious reasons - there is no firewood, no berries, no mushrooms, no deer that can be domesticated, or other animals that can be hunted. There is simply nothing to feed and keep warm here. Even driftwood (logs brought by the sea) does not burn here, unlike driftwood on the coast. This happens, apparently, because wet firewood simply does not have time to dry, so it is completely “saturated” with ice all year round.

However, in the twentieth century, during the development of the Arctic, weather stations and military camps were built on Franz Josef Land, so it turned out that with the complicity of civilization it was possible to live here. True, all this costs a lot of money, considering high cost delivery of food, fuel and building materials.

History of the emergence of Franz Josef Land (geological history)

In pre-Paleozoic times on the site of the modern Barents Sea there was a huge continent, extending west to the coast of Greenland. During the Paleozoic period, powerful mountain-building movements began to occur, after which most of the present Barents Sea began to represent a continent with difficult mountainous terrain.

However, erosion and denudation processes gradually cut off mountainous terrain mainland, turned it into a flat country,which in Upper Devonian time was captured by the waters of the sea.

At the beginning of the Permian time it began to happen raising the bottom marine geosynclinal basins and their shallowing. Later, mountain-building movements appeared, accompanied by vigorous volcanic activity. Mountain-forming processes were powerful mountain ranges Novaya Zemlya, Urals, Kanin and parts of Spitsbergen. The rise of the shelf is accompanied by volcanic eruptions (basalt covers of Spitsbergen and Franz Josef Land). According to Fridtjof Nansen, on the site of the Barents Sea in Tertiary times there was Mountain country, elevated above modern sea level by 500 m.

In Quaternary time there was placement of powerful ice sheets. During the maximum phase of glaciation, under the influence of glacial load, the islands and adjacent areas of the seabed sank by 300-400 m. In late and post-glacial times, loss of ice sheets and complex fluctuations coastline seas. The process of raising the coastline of the Barents Sea continues today. The rate of general uplift of the archipelago over the past 7000 years is 1-5 mm/year.

By the way, on Franz Josef Land you can still find pieces of petrified trees, as well as deer antlers, which suggests that once upon a time a variety of flora and fauna could have actively grown and lived here.

Reindeer lived on Franz Josef Land in the Middle Holocene (8-2.5 thousand years ago). It follows that in the Middle Holocene the climate of the archipelago was warmer and the vegetation richer than at present.

The end of the "time of the deer" can be precisely dated. Deer antlers are not found below the 5-meter level. Consequently, climate deterioration, a major advance of glaciers and the extinction of deer on the islands of the archipelago occurred when its shores were 5 m lower, i.e. about 2.5 thousand years ago.

The extinction of deer and the major advance of glaciers on the archipelago coincides with the movement of the forest zone to the south and the revival of the tundra zone along the northern coast of Russia, as well as with the departure of heat-loving fauna from the coastal waters of Spitsbergen.

History of the discovery and development of Franz Josef Land

Theoretical discovery of ZFI

The first thoughts about the need to explore the northern territories appeared in the 18th century. Mikhail Lomonosov in his work entitled " Short description different travels By northern seas and an indication of the possible passage of the Siberian Ocean into East India", expected to find islands east of Spitsbergen.

At the end of the sixties of the nineteenth century, the famous Russian meteorologist A.I. Voeikov raised the question of organizing a large expedition to explore the Russian polar seas. This idea was warmly supported famous geographer and revolutionary, anarchist theorist Prince P.A. Kropotkin.

Various considerations, but mainly observations of the ice of the Barents Sea, led Kropotkin to the conclusion that “between Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya there is not yet open land, which extends to the north beyond Spitsbergen and holds the ice behind it... The possible existence of such an archipelago was indicated by the Russian naval officer Baron Schilling in his excellent but little-known report on currents in the Arctic Ocean.” In 1870, Kropotkin drew up a project for the expedition. However, the tsarist government refused funds, and the expedition did not take place.

Practical opening of the FFI

Franz Josef Land was discovered by the Austro-Hungarian expedition of Julius Payer and Karl Weyprecht, and it was explored by everyone - the British, the Scots, and the Americans... But we still got it. In the photo are Julius Payer and Karl Weyprecht. By the way, what kind of fur coat does one of them have? Not from the Red Book polar bear?)

In 1901, the archipelago was explored by the first Russian expedition on the icebreaker Ermak under the command of Vice Admiral Makarov. It is alleged that it was during this period that the Russian flag was first raised on the islands of the archipelago.

In 1914, in search of G. Ya. Sedov, Ishak Islyamov visited the archipelago. He also announced the FFI Russian territory and raised the Russian flag over it.

Some sources (even in the same notorious Wikipedia) write that it was Islyamov who declared ZFI as Russian territory. Although, Makarov had already raised the flag before him, so it seems that it was Makarov who was the first to claim Russia’s rights to Franz Josef Land?

Why such a wayfarer arose - I don’t know, but for the sake of fairness I will note both facts - and you decide for yourself who was first.

Considering that the Barents Sea shelf adjacent to the FFI is promising for the discovery of hydrocarbon deposits here, the Archipelago can become a very profitable “acquisition”.

Islyamov, reporting the acquisition for the country new territory, proposed to immediately rename it from Franz Josef Land to Romanov Land, but the proposal was stuck in bureaucratic jungle. And there, first one empire went down into history, and immediately after it another. Iskhak Islyamov became a member of the Helsingfors Muslim Executive Committee of the Army, Navy and Workers, then fought as part of the White Army, emigrated, and headed the hydrographic part of the Russian naval base in Constantinople.

In 1926, the USSR Central Executive Committee adopted a decree according to which all Arctic islands adjacent to the land borders of the state were declared Soviet territory. Three years later, in the summer of 1929, Otto Schmidt, during polar expedition on the icebreaking steamship Georgy Sedov hoisted the Soviet flag on the archipelago.

In 1929, the Soviet government decided to establish a research station to enhance scientific work in the Arctic. At the same time, the first Soviet research station opened in Tikhaya Bay on Hooker Island. In 1931, the archipelago was declared a territory of the Soviet Union, and from that time the exploration of the North Pole by Soviet researchers began. Since then, the archipelago has been visited annually by Soviet polar expeditions.

The Soviet government was going to change the name of Franz Joseph as politically inconvenient and rename the archipelago in honor of the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen or the Russian anarchist Kropotkin, but the decision was never understood.

In addition to scientists, military personnel have settled heavily in the FJL. In 1936, the first military air base of the USSR was established on Rudolf Island. And then off we went... However, in the 90s of the twentieth century, due to well-known economic and political reasons, the military left the archipelago, leaving only the Nagurskoye border post, located on the island of Alexandra Land, to function.

The town of the border linear department of military unit 9794, including the most northern airport and the border post - it still works. Not long ago, an excellent two-story building was built there with all the amenities: central heating, sewerage, cold and hot water, satellite television. There is a “winter garden” inside the complex, although the plants and trees there are artificial. The border guards call this garden the “Atrium”. There is always a blue sky with cumulus clouds, a children's playground, a fountain, benches, billiards, an aquarium with live fish, a cinema hall, and table tennis.

Only officers and warrant officers serve in Nagurskoye. A third of the border guards live at the outpost with their wives. They fly here from Vorkuta and Arkhangelsk. Dense fogs, low clouds, precipitation and strong winds - this is the weather in Alexandra Land all year round. There were cases of unsuccessful landings, but an amazing thing: in the entire history, not a single person on the island died.

Although, there were victims on other islands. For example, on Graham Bell, where from the 50s to the 90s of the twentieth century there was a unique ice airfield, there were plane crashes with casualties a couple of times.

The crew of the 254th flight squad took off from the Nagurskaya airfield at 08:20 Moscow time for the purpose of reconnaissance of ice conditions northern approaches to ensure the withdrawal of the icebreaker "Indigirka". The connection stopped after 3 hours 40 minutes. after takeoff. On October 23, an Il-14 aircraft was discovered on the northwestern slope of the glacier. Graham Bell destroyed and burned. During the fire at the disaster site, the ice partially melted and therefore the debris was found frozen into the glacier. Only 4 bodies were found.

In the last report, the crew reported their coordinates, true heading and flight altitude. From Fr. Hoffman's plane passed north of the island. Graham Bell and, having flown around it from the south, entered the Morgan Strait. During the flight, the crew repeatedly requested the actual weather of the Graham Bell and Sredniy airfields, but the data was not transmitted due to their absence. Despite the presence in the area of. Graham Bell weather was below the minimum for flights in the area of islands and straits, the crew continued to carry out the mission and encountered severe weather conditions in the Morgan Strait.

At 11:50 the crew inquired whether the Graham Bell airfield drive was operating. Having received a negative answer, the crew requested a press on the communication transmitter to determine the bearing. Having determined the bearing, the crew considered that they had already passed the dangerous bottleneck of the strait. Heading for Graham Bell airfield, the crew believed that the flight was passing over the fast ice of the strait. Due to design flaws, neither the radio altimeter nor the radar provided true indications of the flight altitude and the actual picture of the terrain flown when flying over glacial massifs. In fact, the flight took place over the rising slope of a glacier. At an altitude of 150 m in horizontal flight, the plane collided with the slope of a glacier. Having separated, it flew 750 m, once again collided with the slope of the glacier at an altitude of 200 m, collapsed and burned. In memory of the victims, the westernmost cape of the island was named Cape of the Seven.

During the day, in normal weather conditions, while landing at the Ice Base airfield, 53 km from Graham Bell Island, an accident occurred with An-12 aircraft No. 12962 of the Krasnoyarsk Civil Aviation Administration. The crew of the Norilsk OJSC consisting of the ship's commander A.D. Ulagashev, co-pilot A.I. Menzhulin, crew navigator V.P. Chikhachev, flight mechanic E.A. and flight radio operator A.A. Kalachev carried out a transport flight to service the high-latitude expedition “North-86”.

On the pre-landing straight, due to the general whiteness from the freshly fallen snow, the ship’s commander was unable to determine the distance to the snow-covered ice surface, but continued the approach, allowing for an excess vertical speed reduction. Before reaching the start of the runway, the plane collided with a snow parapet and suffered a breakdown. Reason aviation accident there was an error by the ship's commander in calculating the landing and in determining the moment of leveling due to his incomplete preparation for flights on this species work, as well as violation by the flight crew of the standards for crew admission to flights to service high-latitude expeditions. As a result of movement and hummocking of the ice, on May 12, 1986, the fuselage of the aircraft, prepared for evacuation, sank.

And finally, near the airfield lies AN-12 No. 11994, but no information about him could be found.

On one of the forums I found information that it was just an unsuccessful landing - the plane landed on the runway too early. But there were no casualties - everything ended well.

If we talk about casualties, then I suspect that the main danger on the Franz Josef Land Archipelago arises from polar bears. Although, on the other hand, given the huge number of bears in the Polar Region, there were not many deaths due to them. It is believed that Franz Josef Land is a maternity hospital for polar bears, so it can be assumed that the servicemen encountered predators constantly. This means that the percentage of accidents is actually not high at all.

Well, again, if people died at the Polar Field, it was solely because of their own stupidity and negligence. Everything is the same as everywhere else. Here's an example story:

“The next day we flew to Naguria and back, it’s about two and a half thousand kilometers. And then an urgent medical flight to Osir Grem-Bell, to ZFI. There's some kind of communications company there. The soldier took a sip of alcohol, got it somewhere, and he felt very bad. We took him, and while we were going to Dixon, he died in the arms of our nurse.

We arrived, and they told us: guys, we need to fly there again, urgently. It turns out that when they found out there, a whole line lined up to see the doctor: and we tried it! We went there again, and it was already the second day that we went, what kind of scientific and technical establishment is there? Let's go to the soldiers: brothers, we say, whoever tried at least a little, don't hide it, we're flying with us, we won't be able to do it a third time! In the air, two of them became very ill, one of them died in the hospital. It turned out that there was another one there, but we couldn’t, it was the third day. An ice scout was resting on Dikson, he was urgently picked up and flew off. And like this for a whole month. We flew one hundred and eighty hours.

Memoirs of polar aviation navigator Mark Solomonovich Edelshtein.”

Although, enough about the sad things. There are also many good things in Franz Josef Land. And few tourists have the opportunity to verify this.

Franz Josef Land in our time - photos, descriptions, maps

ZFI is the most northern territory Russia, located approximately nine hundred kilometers from the North Pole. Administratively, the archipelago belongs to the Arkhangelsk region. Frankz Josef Land coordinates: 80.666667, 54.833333.

Wikipedia says that FJL consists of 192 islands. But it turns out that there were still certain doubts about this, and the 192nd island has not yet been officially “registered” and does not have a separate name.

The bottom line is that Northbrook Island in the southwest of the archipelago is two pieces of land separated by a strait. Moreover, initially it was considered a single island, but consisting of two parts connected by a narrow isthmus. However, due to the intensification of coastal processes, retreat sea ice In the summer and the thawing of the permafrost, the isthmus was washed away, and a strait formed between the two sections of the island.

In the summer of 2007, the Norwegian Borge Ousland, together with a fellow athlete from Switzerland, Thomas Ullrich, made a memorial expedition - they followed in the footsteps of Fridtjof Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen and, in the process of exploring Northbrook Island, discovered the strait. They did not keep silent about their find, and sent a letter to the Russian Embassy in Norway with a statement about the discovery of a new island in the FJL. The letter was transmitted through the Russian Embassy in Norway to the Russian Foreign Ministry, and from there they sent an order to the Navigation and Oceanography Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Defense to figure out how many islands there actually are in the archipelago.

At the same time, after public statements about the “appearance of a new island in Russia,” deputies of the Arkhangelsk Regional Assembly named the island after the famous polar captain Yuri Kuchiev. And under this name it already appears on Wikipedia, although the decision of the regional assembly on this issue is not legitimate. So now all that remains is to complete the discovery - to officially recognize and name the new geographical features, which will have to be done by the Office of Navigation and Oceanography and the Commission on Geographical Names.

Sights of Franz Josef Land

The northernmost branch of the Russian Post, weather station - Hayes Island

On August 25, 2005, Russian Post announced that it was opening the northernmost Postal office world "Arkhangelsk 163100". It is located on Hayes Island. The post office is open one day a week: Wednesday from 10 to 11 am. And what is important - without interruption.

Since the summer of 1957, the Krenkel Observatory has been located on the island.

Interesting information:

On Hayes Island, Vladimir Sanin wrote one of his most famous books, “Don’t Say Goodbye to the Arctic.”
On February 12, 1981, an Il-14 plane carrying equipment and scientists for the observatory crashed while landing on Hayes Island. The crashed plane can still be seen today.

Gallya Island, Cape Tegethoff

Cape Tegethoff of Gallya Island is an iconic place. The Franz Josef Land archipelago was discovered here. On August 30, 1873, the ship Admiral Tegetthoff arrived here with the expedition of Julius Payer and Karl Weiprecht.

The remains of the winter quarters of Wellman's expedition are also located here.

Also famous are the cliffs at the tip of the island, which rise out of the sea itself.

Vilcek Island

Another island associated with the tragic events of the expedition of the discoverers of the archipelago is Vilcek Island. On high island there is the grave of one of the expedition members on the ship "Admiral Tegethoff" Otto Krisch, who was a mechanic on the ship and died in 1873 from scurvy.

Champa Island, Cape Trieste

Cape Trieste has unique rock formations perfectly round in shape - spherulites, or nodules. Marcasite nodules are found everywhere on the cape, and their sizes range from a few centimeters to several meters in diameter.

The word “concretions” comes from the Latin concretio – “accretion”. These are nodules, rounded mineral formations in sedimentary rocks. Its composition is sandstone. At the very center of the concretion is an organic core, around which loose material of continental origin has accumulated.

Strait of Negri

A narrow strait between Gall Island and McClintock Island. Here are some of the largest glaciers archipelago. The strait is often literally clogged with icebergs.

Apollonov and Stolichka Islands

These islands do not stand out in appearance, and even on nautical charts Usually only the larger island is designated - Stolichka, but, as often happens, all the most interesting things are located on the island nearby, very small and inconspicuous. In this case, it is Apollo Island. The island is famous for the fact that it is home to one of the largest rookeries of Atlantic walruses, listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation.

Hooker Island

On Hooker Island there is an abandoned Soviet polar station "Tikhaya". The station was opened in 1929 and closed in 1959, but at that time it was the largest Arctic research station in the USSR. Until today, the station has retained its appearance– you can see with your own eyes how polar explorers lived in those days.

Rubini Rock

The largest bird market, where more than 50 thousand birds nest. Among them are kittiwakes, guillemots, guillemots, glaucous guillemots and little auks. Guillemots nest directly on ledges. They do not build nests, but lay eggs on bare stone surfaces. Kittiwake gulls build nests from grasses, lichens and other vegetation, holding it together with their own droppings.

Alger Island

Here in 1901 there was base camp expedition that arrived at the archipelago on steam yacht"America". The expedition was financed by millionaire William Ziegler.

Wilczek Land, Cape Heller

The island contains the remains of the Fort McKinley winter quarters and the grave of Bernt Bentsen, who was unable to survive the winter of 1898-99. He was part of Walter Wellman's expedition, the main goal of which was to conquer the North Pole. The main camp of the expedition was located at Cape Tegetthoff on the island of Hall. A temporary food warehouse was organized at Cape Geller. It was built from large flat stones and covered with the skins of killed walruses and bears. The temperature inside it in winter remained below 10 degrees. In January 1899, Bernt Bentsen died. However, he was buried only in the spring. Before his death, he asked not to bury him until spring, as he feared that his body would become easy prey for arctic foxes and polar bears.

Rudolf Island, Cape Fligeli

Most northern cape The Franz Josef Land archipelago is the extreme island point of the Russian Federation and Eurasia.

Rudolf Island, Teplitz Bay

In Teplitz Bay there is an abandoned weather station, which was built in 1931–1932. This was the second station on the archipelago and it operated until 1995.

Jackson Island

Jackson Island and Cape Norway are famous for the fact that Fridtjof Nansen and Jamar Johansen spent the winter here (1895–96). They were returning after an attempt to conquer the North Pole, as they thought, to Spitsbergen, but they came to Franz Josef Land. They had time to prepare for winter. They shot walruses and polar bears and built a dwelling in which they spent the winter, mostly lying down in one sleeping bag. On Christmas Day they turned their shirts inside out, and on New Year Nansen told Johansen that after everything they had been through together, he could just call him Fridtjof, and not Mr. Nansen, and shook his hand. But they remained on “you”. Mounted on the cape memorial sign and there are remains of the winter hut.

Northbrook Island, Cape Flora

A distinctive feature of the Franz Josef Land archipelago is the presence of a large number historical places- the remains of wintering camps for expeditions that planned to use the archipelago as a launching pad to reach the North Pole, and some expeditions ended up in the archipelago after unsuccessful attempts to conquer the top of the planet. Almost all expeditions to Franz Josef Land stopped at Cape Flora of Northbrook Island.

The island was discovered by Benjamin Lee-Smith's expedition in 1880. His second expedition of 1881–1182 wintered here. Wintering was forced. Lee-Smith originally planned to spend the winter on Bell Island. In 1894, Briton Frederick Jackson built the first settlement on Cape Flora, Elmwood. The remains of the expedition's buildings can still be seen today.

In 1896, the historic meeting of Fridtjof Nansen and Frederick Jackson took place at Cape Flora. On June 17, two people approached the cape. No one was waiting for them or meeting them, and they themselves did not expect to meet anyone here. These were the famous polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen and his companion Frederik Jamar Johansen. They were covered from head to toe with soot and dirt, and they had two kayaks and sleds with them. For three years, on the Fram ship, specially built for navigation in ice and wintering, Nansen and his 12 companions planned to conquer the North Pole. In 1893, the Fram froze into the islands north of the archipelago New Siberian Islands. The ship passed much further south. After two years in the ice, the Fram reached its northernmost geographical location. 700 kilometers from the North Pole, Nansen and Johansen left the ship and set off to conquer the Pole on dog sledding and kayaks. On April 8, they reached a record latitude of 86 degrees 14 minutes north and were forced to turn south towards the Franz Josef Land archipelago. After wintering on Jackson Island at Cape Norway, they moved south and reached Cape Flora, where they met Jackson's expedition. This meeting actually saved their lives. At one time, Nansen did not take Frederick Jackson with him on the Fram, because he believed that the North Pole should be conquered by the Norwegians. Jackson was from Great Britain.

Where permafrost prevails, and the average annual temperature is −12 °C.

The Archipelago is located approximately a thousand kilometers from the North Pole. Most of Franz Josef Land is covered by glaciers.

Although, one should not confuse FJL with the North Pole. In summer, temperatures here can still reach +12 °C and the snow usually melts in July.

There are not that many birds here, but they are there. These are little auks, guillemots, guillemots, kittiwakes, white gulls, glaucous gulls, terns, skuas, eiders, geese, etc.

Animals include polar bear and arctic fox. By the way, did you know that the polar bear is a marine mammal and even the Latin name for the polar bear - Ursus maritimus - translates as “sea bear”? In the sea there are also seals, bearded seals, harp seals, walruses, narwhals and beluga whales.

Franz Josef Land is a region that is part of a small natural zone known as the polar desert zone.

However, in the twentieth century, during the development of the Arctic, weather stations and military camps were built on Franz Josef Land, so it turned out that with the complicity of civilization it was possible to live here. True, all this costs a lot of money, given the high cost of delivering food, fuel and building materials.

History of the emergence of Franz Josef Land (geological history)

In pre-Paleozoic times on the site of the modern Barents Sea there was a huge continent, extending west to the coast of Greenland. During the Paleozoic period, powerful mountain-building movements began to occur, after which most of the current Barents Sea began to represent a continent with difficult mountainous terrain.

However, erosion and denudation processes gradually cut off the mountainous terrain of the mainland, turned it into a flat country,which in Upper Devonian time was captured by the waters of the sea.

At the beginning of the Permian time it began to happen raising the bottom marine geosynclinal basins and their shallowing. Later, mountain-building movements appeared, accompanied by vigorous volcanic activity. Mountain-forming processes were powerful mountain ranges of Novaya Zemlya, the Urals, Kanin and individual parts of Spitsbergen were created. The rise of the shelf is accompanied by volcanic eruptions (basalt covers of Spitsbergen and Franz Josef Land). According to Fridtjof Nansen, on the site of the Barents Sea in Tertiary times there was a mountainous country, elevated 500 m above modern sea level.

In Quaternary time there was placement of powerful ice sheets. During the maximum phase of glaciation, under the influence of glacial load, the islands and adjacent areas of the seabed sank by 300-400 m. In late and post-glacial times, dying ice sheets and complex fluctuations of the sea coastline. The process of raising the coastline of the Barents Sea continues today. The rate of general uplift of the archipelago over the past 7000 years is 1-5 mm/year.

History of the discovery and development of Franz Josef Land

Theoretical discovery of ZFI

The first thoughts about the need to explore the northern territories appeared in the 18th century. Mikhail Lomonosov, in his work entitled “A Brief Description of Various Travels in the Northern Seas and an Indication of the Possible Passage of the Siberian Ocean to East India,” suggested finding islands east of Spitsbergen.

At the end of the sixties of the nineteenth century, the famous Russian meteorologist A.I. Voeikov raised the question of organizing a large expedition to explore the Russian polar seas. This idea was warmly supported by the famous geographer and revolutionary, anarchist theorist Prince P.A. Kropotkin.

Various considerations, and mainly observations of the ice of the Barents Sea, led Kropotkin to the conclusion that “between Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya there is an as yet undiscovered land that extends north beyond Spitsbergen and holds the ice behind it... The possible existence of such an archipelago was indicated in his excellent, but little-known report on currents in the Arctic Ocean by Russian naval officer Baron Schilling.” In 1870, Kropotkin drew up a project for the expedition. However, the tsarist government refused funds, and the expedition did not take place.

Practical opening of the FFI

In 1914, in search of G. Ya. Sedov, Ishak Islyamov visited the archipelago. He declared ZFI Russian territory and raised the Russian flag over it.

Why such a wayfarer arose - I don’t know, but for the sake of fairness I will note both facts - and you decide for yourself who was first.

Considering that the Barents Sea shelf adjacent to the FFI is promising for the discovery of hydrocarbon deposits here, the Archipelago can become a very profitable “acquisition”.

Islyamov, reporting the acquisition of a new territory for the country, proposed to immediately rename it from Franz Joseph Land to Romanov Land, but the proposal was stuck in the bureaucratic jungle. And there, first one empire went down into history, and immediately after it another. Iskhak Islyamov became a member of the Helsingfors Muslim Executive Committee of the Army, Navy and Workers, then fought as part of the White Army, emigrated, and headed the hydrographic part of the Russian naval base in Constantinople.

In 1926, the USSR Central Executive Committee adopted a decree according to which all Arctic islands adjacent to the land borders of the state were declared Soviet territory. Three years later, in the summer of 1929, Otto Schmidt, during a polar expedition on the icebreaking steamer Georgiy Sedov, hoisted the Soviet flag on the archipelago.

The town of the border line department of military unit 9794, which includes the northernmost airport and the border post, is still in operation. Not long ago, an excellent two-story building was built there with all the amenities: central heating, sewerage, cold and hot water, satellite TV. There is a “winter garden” inside the complex, although the plants and trees there are artificial. The border guards call this garden the “Atrium”. There is always a blue sky with cumulus clouds, a children's playground, a fountain, benches, billiards, an aquarium with live fish, a cinema hall, and table tennis.

The crew of the 254th flight detachment took off from the Nagurskaya airfield at 08:20 Moscow time with the aim of reconnaissance of the ice conditions of the northern approaches to ensure the withdrawal of the icebreaker "Indigirka". The connection stopped after 3 hours 40 minutes. after takeoff. On October 23, an Il-14 aircraft was discovered on the northwestern slope of the glacier. Graham Bell destroyed and burned. During the fire at the disaster site, the ice partially melted and therefore the debris was found frozen into the glacier. Only 4 bodies were found.

In the last report, the crew reported their coordinates, true heading and flight altitude. From Fr. Hoffman's plane passed north of the island. Graham Bell and, having flown around it from the south, entered the Morgan Strait. During the flight, the crew repeatedly requested the actual weather of the Graham Bell and Sredniy airfields, but the data was not transmitted due to their absence. Despite the presence in the area of. Graham Bell weather was below the minimum for flights in the area of islands and straits, the crew continued to carry out the mission and encountered severe weather conditions in the Morgan Strait.

At 11:50 the crew inquired whether the Graham Bell airfield drive was operating. Having received a negative answer, the crew requested a press on the communication transmitter to determine the bearing. Having determined the bearing, the crew considered that they had already passed the dangerous bottleneck of the strait. Heading for Graham Bell airfield, the crew believed that the flight was passing over the fast ice of the strait. Due to design flaws, neither the radio altimeter nor the radar provided true indications of the flight altitude and the actual picture of the terrain flown when flying over glacial massifs. In fact, the flight took place over the rising slope of a glacier. At an altitude of 150 m in horizontal flight, the plane collided with the slope of a glacier. Having separated, it flew 750 m, once again collided with the slope of the glacier at an altitude of 200 m, collapsed and burned. In memory of the victims, the westernmost cape of the island was named Cape of the Seven.

During the day, in normal weather conditions, while landing at the Ice Base airfield, 53 km from Graham Bell Island, an accident occurred with An-12 aircraft No. 12962 of the Krasnoyarsk Civil Aviation Administration. The crew of the Norilsk OJSC consisting of the ship's commander A.D. Ulagashev, co-pilot A.I. Menzhulin, crew navigator V.P. Chikhachev, flight mechanic E.A. and flight radio operator A.A. Kalachev carried out a transport flight to service the high-latitude expedition “North-86”.

On the pre-landing straight, due to the general whiteness from the freshly fallen snow, the ship's commander was unable to determine the distance to the snow-covered ice surface, but continued the approach, allowing the vertical rate of descent to be exceeded. Before reaching the start of the runway, the plane collided with a snow parapet and suffered a breakdown. The cause of the accident was the ship's commander's error in calculating the landing and in determining the moment of leveling due to his incomplete preparation for flights for this type of work, as well as the violation by the flight command staff of the standards for crew admission to flights to service high-latitude expeditions. As a result of movement and hummocking of the ice, on May 12, 1986, the fuselage of the aircraft, prepared for evacuation, sank.

And finally, near the airfield lies AN-12 No. 11994, but no information about him could be found.

On one of the forums I found information that it was just an unsuccessful landing - the plane landed on the runway too early. But there were no casualties - everything ended well.

Well, again, if people died at the Polar Field, it was solely because of their own stupidity and negligence. Everything is the same as everywhere else. Here's an example story:

“The next day we flew to Naguria and back, it’s about two and a half thousand kilometers. And then an urgent medical flight to Osir Grem-Bell, to ZFI. There's some kind of communications company there. The soldier took a sip of alcohol, got it somewhere, and he felt very bad. We took him, and while we were going to Dixon, he died in the arms of our nurse.

We arrived, and they told us: guys, we need to fly there again, urgently. It turns out that when they found out there, a whole line lined up to see the doctor: and we tried it! We went there again, and it was already the second day that we went, what kind of scientific and technical establishment is there? Let's go to the soldiers: brothers, we say, whoever tried at least a little, don't hide it, we're flying with us, we won't be able to do it a third time! In the air, two of them became very ill, one of them died in the hospital. It turned out that there was another one there, but we couldn’t, it was the third day. An ice scout was resting on Dikson, he was urgently picked up and flew off. And like this for a whole month. We flew one hundred and eighty hours.

Memoirs of polar aviation navigator Mark Solomonovich Edelshtein.”

Although, enough about the sad things. There are also many good things in Franz Josef Land. And few tourists have the opportunity to verify this.

Franz Josef Land in our time - photos, descriptions, maps

FJL is the northernmost territory of Russia, located approximately nine hundred kilometers from the North Pole. Administratively, the archipelago belongs to the Arkhangelsk region. Frankz Josef Land coordinates: 80.666667, 54.833333.

The bottom line is that Northbrook Island in the southwest of the archipelago is two pieces of land separated by a strait. Moreover, initially it was considered a single island, but consisting of two parts connected by a narrow isthmus. However, due to the intensification of coastal processes, the retreat of sea ice in summer and the thawing of permafrost, the isthmus was eroded, and a strait formed between the two sections of the island.

Sights of Franz Josef Land

The northernmost branch of the Russian Post, weather station - Hayes Island

On August 25, 2005, Russian Post announced that it was opening the northernmost post office in the world, Arkhangelsk 163100. It is located on Hayes Island. The post office is open one day a week: Wednesday from 10 to 11 am. And what is important - without interruption.

Since the summer of 1957, the Krenkel Observatory has been located on the island.

Interesting information:

On Hayes Island, Vladimir Sanin wrote one of his most famous books, “Don’t Say Goodbye to the Arctic.”
On February 12, 1981, an Il-14 plane carrying equipment and scientists for the observatory crashed while landing on Hayes Island. The crashed plane can still be seen today.

Gallya Island, Cape Tegethoff

The remains of the winter quarters of Wellman's expedition are also located here.

Also famous are the cliffs at the tip of the island, which rise out of the sea itself.

Vilcek Island

Another island associated with the tragic events of the expedition of the discoverers of the archipelago is Vilcek Island. On the high island there is the grave of one of the expedition members on the ship Admiral Tegethoff, Otto Krisch, who was a mechanic on the ship and died in 1873 from scurvy.

Champa Island, Cape Trieste

On Cape Trieste there are unique stone formations of a perfectly round shape - spherulites, or concretions. Marcasite nodules are found everywhere on the cape, and their sizes range from a few centimeters to several meters in diameter.

Strait of Negri

A narrow strait between Gall Island and McClintock Island. Some of the largest glaciers in the archipelago are located here. The strait is often literally clogged with icebergs.

Apollonov and Stolichka Islands

These islands do not stand out in any way, and even on nautical maps only the larger island, Stolichka, is usually indicated, but, as often happens, all the most interesting things are located on the island nearby, very small and inconspicuous. In this case, it is Apollo Island. The island is famous for the fact that it is home to one of the largest rookeries of Atlantic walruses, listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation.

Hooker Island

On Hooker Island there is an abandoned Soviet polar station "Tikhaya". The station was opened in 1929 and closed in 1959, but at that time it was the largest Arctic research station in the USSR. Until today, the station has retained its appearance - you can see with your own eyes how polar explorers lived in those days.

Rubini Rock

Alger Island

Here in 1901 the base camp of the expedition was located, which arrived in the archipelago on the steam yacht America. The expedition was financed by millionaire William Ziegler.

Wilczek Land, Cape Heller

Rudolf Island, Cape Fligeli

The northernmost cape of the Franz Josef Land archipelago is the extreme island point of the Russian Federation and Eurasia.

Rudolf Island, Teplitz Bay

In Teplitz Bay there is an abandoned meteorological station, which was built in 1931–1932. This was the second station on the archipelago and it operated until 1995.

Jackson Island

Jackson Island and Cape Norway are famous for the fact that Fridtjof Nansen and Jamar Johansen spent the winter here (1895–96). They were returning after an attempt to conquer the North Pole, as they thought, to Spitsbergen, but they came to Franz Josef Land. They had time to prepare for winter. They shot walruses and polar bears and built a dwelling in which they spent the winter, mostly lying down in one sleeping bag. On Christmas Day they turned their shirts inside out, and on New Year's Day Nansen told Johansen that after everything they had been through together he could just call him Fridtjof and not Mr. Nansen, and shook his hand. But they remained on “you”. There is a memorial sign on the cape and the remains of a winter hut.

Northbrook Island, Cape Flora

A distinctive feature of the Franz Josef Land archipelago is the presence of a large number of historical sites - the remains of wintering camps of expeditions that planned to use the archipelago as a launching pad to reach the North Pole, and some expeditions ended up in the archipelago after unsuccessful attempts to conquer the top of the planet. Almost all expeditions to Franz Josef Land stopped at Cape Flora of Northbrook Island.

In 1896, the historic meeting of Fridtjof Nansen and Frederick Jackson took place at Cape Flora. On June 17, two people approached the cape. No one was waiting for them or meeting them, and they themselves did not expect to meet anyone here. These were the famous polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen and his companion Frederik Jamar Johansen. They were covered from head to toe with soot and dirt, and they had two kayaks and sleds with them. For three years, on the Fram ship, specially built for navigation in ice and wintering, Nansen and his 12 companions planned to conquer the North Pole. In 1893, the Fram froze into the islands north of the New Siberian Islands archipelago. The ship passed much further south. After two years in the ice, the Fram reached its northernmost geographical position. 700 kilometers from the North Pole, Nansen and Johansen left the ship and set off to conquer the Pole on dog sleds and kayaks. On April 8, they reached a record latitude of 86 degrees 14 minutes north and were forced to turn south towards the Franz Josef Land archipelago. After wintering on Jackson Island at Cape Norway, they moved south and reached Cape Flora, where they met Jackson's expedition. This meeting actually saved their lives. At one time, Nansen did not take Frederick Jackson with him on the Fram, because he believed that the North Pole should be conquered by the Norwegians. Jackson was from Great Britain.

After a year's break on Franz Josef Land - the northernmost archipelago of Russia and Eurasia - work will resume to eliminate accumulated environmental damage. This is the official name for cleaning up the Arctic. The islands became a pilot for this project. It was here in 2010 that Vladimir Putin announced the need to carry out a “general cleaning” in the Arctic.

Garbage on four Eiffel towers

A geoecological survey of Franz Josef Land in 2011–12 was carried out by several specialized institutes and organizations. It was necessary to identify the most problematic areas. Six islands have been declared an environmental disaster area: Alexandra Land, Hooker Island, Hayes Island, Rudolph Island, Hoffman Island and Graham Bell Island. Somewhere the military was based, others were polar stations. Rusty fuel barrels have become a symbol of Arctic waste. They also represented the greatest danger.

Work began on Alexandra Land. Now the most western island The archipelago has been practically cleared, the fields of barrels are no longer here, and technical soil reclamation has been carried out. The situation on Graham Bell turned out to be the most difficult. This is the most east island, where in Soviet times an air defense station, a Long-Range Aviation regiment and the world’s northernmost ice airfield.

"Due to climate change a large number of barrels of petroleum products ended up in the water. They were stored along the coastline. If oil products had entered the ocean, the slick would have moved towards Spitsbergen. In 2013, we prevented an environmental disaster on Graham Bell,” says the first director national park"Russian Arctic" Roman Ershov.

Not every year does ice conditions allow a ship to even approach Graham Bell, let alone unload. Nevertheless, over the five years of Arctic cleanup, more than 40 thousand tons of waste were removed from the islands: scrap metal, barrels, household and industrial waste, remains of buildings and equipment. In terms of mass, this is four Eiffel towers along with the foundation. After the garbage is removed, the top layer of soil is also cleaned. 270 hectares have already been reclaimed - the area is approximately 380 football fields.

“In 2017, it is planned to reduce the negative impact on the environment on the territory of the Russian Arctic National Park in a volume of at least 8 thousand tons,” says acting director of the park Alexander Kirilov about plans for the upcoming season. “Simultaneously with cleaning the territory of four of the islands of the Franz Josef Land archipelago: Alexandra Land, Hayes Land, Graham Bell Land, Hooker Land and, possibly, Hoffmann Island - a geo-ecological survey will be carried out at the sites of future work. This is necessary in order to assess the situation - where what is left - and clarify the further plan actions."

The park is convinced that cleanup should continue until the environmental damage on the polar islands is completely eliminated.

Wreckage of Il-14 and the world's northernmost kindergarten

There is a balance to be struck between cleaning and what needs to be preserved. In 2014, Yuri Rutkauskas supervised the progress of work on Hayes Island as a state inspector of the national park. "Our responsibilities were to accept work from the organization involved in cleaning of this island from previous human activities, as well as compliance with environmental legislation in the course of work. (...) At the final stage of cleaning, workers walked around and manually collected the remains of vital activity." He complains that quite a lot of interesting finds - old equipment, equipment - went under the knife of an excavator.

An Il-14 plane, which crashed here in February 1981, was left on the island. The plane was landing in the dark and landed to the left of the runway, landing in deep snow. At the same time, an additional fuel tank, which was located in the salon. Two passengers died. The aircraft remained on the island.

Some of the artifacts are now used for exhibitions in the national park, for example, an M-100 rocket with a parachute and a launch control. This Soviet two-stage, unguided, solid-propellant weather rocket with a lift altitude of 100 km was used for atmospheric sounding.

Since 1957, on Hayes Island there was not just a weather station, but an observatory, which in 1972 began to bear the name of the famous polar radio operator Ernst Krenkel. Special place The scientific program included high-altitude sounding. Since October 1957, rockets have been launched into near space. The program was discontinued in the early 90s. In its heyday, up to 200 people lived on Hayes Island, and it was the northernmost in the world. kindergarten, and the village consisted of up to 40 houses.

The station was closed in 2001 after a fire and resumed operations in 2004. “Currently, four people work at the station. They carry out standard observations: meteorological, marine coastal hydrological, aerological. As for high-altitude sounding of the atmosphere, it is planned to resume, but it is unknown when,” says the head of the department of the state observation network of the Federal State Budgetary Institution about the current situation. Northern UGMS" (Northern Administration for Hydrometeorology and Monitoring environment. - Approx. TASS) Vasily Shevchenko.

According to him, data from Hayes Island is important for weather forecasting, since there are no more stations in this region, including automatic ones. And there are no plans to install the latter yet.

Dog Street and Aircraft Hangar of the Museum Island

The polar station "Tikhaya Bay", opened on August 30, 1929 on Hooker Island, became the first permanent settlement on Franz Josef Land. It is interesting that in 1929, Soviet and Norwegian expeditions were sent to the archipelago almost simultaneously. The last one was prevented by a heavy ice conditions. Tikhaya Bay is an iconic place. Georgy Sedov named it that way; here he spent the winter of 1913–14, and from here he went on his last desperate trip to the North Pole.

The station operated actively until 1957, but was closed due to the creation of a new one on Hayes Island. It turned out to be more favorable for meteorological research. There is a whole village left in Tikhaya Bay: not only residential buildings, workshops, laboratories, but also a whole street of dog kennels. Even the bowls were preserved. By 2011, when the Russian Arctic National Park began operating on Franz Josef Land, the buildings were abandoned, clogged with snow and ice. On Hooker Island, during the cleanup work, it was decided to leave the entire station complex. And create an open-air museum.

This island was cleaned by hand: the station is located on a slope, like steps. The technology cannot be deployed there. The garbage was packed into bags, which were then transported by sea. As Maria Gavrilo, deputy director for scientific work of the Russian Arctic, says, the most a difficult situation now with a wooden airplane hangar. “The whole village needs to be preserved, but the hangar is in the most critical condition. It is being cleared of ice, and it has become more vulnerable,” explains the scientist.

If there are still houses or, for example, laboratories of this type in the Russian Arctic, then the hangar is a unique structure. “It was built in 1932 under the leadership of Papanin and was intended to house a small seaplane Sh-2 or a biplane Po-2. At that time it was a large and complex structure. Its construction on Franz Josef Land was an extremely difficult task. Great luck, that the hangar has survived to this day,” says leading researcher at the national park Evgeniy Ermolov.

Archipelago-mainland

Each island of Franz Josef Land is compared by those who have been there to a separate planet. They are so diverse. Hooker Island is now visited by almost every cruise ship that comes to the archipelago. A historical site, the world's northernmost post office accessible to tourists, plus unique natural landscapes. Rock Rubini was once named after the famous opera singer. She really sings - tens of thousands of birds nest in the largest bird market on the archipelago: guillemots, kittiwakes, little auks, guillemots, fulmars and glaucous guillemots. The rock seems to be made of hexagonal basalt pencils, the protrusions of which are ideal for arranging nests. As Maria Gavrilo says, the same guillemots, for example, can return a year later to the same ledge where they nested last season. Scientists use this for research - they put loggers on the birds, which record the route of their movement. After a year or several years, the bird is caught, the device is removed and the data is decrypted. Such research will continue this year, as will monitoring of polar bears, bowhead whales and walruses.

At the walrus rookery adjacent to Hooker Dead Islands The seal is working with a video camera. “We hope that she survived the second year, and we will have dynamics of filling the rookery,” says Maria Gavrilo.

Observations of the white gull will continue, a bird that never flies from the Arctic and is listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation. “There was, for example, a colony on Alexandra Land, consisting of two clusters of 150 birds each,” says the researcher. “So one of them was located right next to the border guards’ runway. The head of the outpost (Nagurskoe. - Approx. TASS) Maxim Nosov protected her very much.”

The scientist says that the archipelago has been unevenly studied. On the one hand, compared to other Russian polar islands we can say that the study is in good condition, “but compared to Spitsbergen we are failing, but 50 countries were studied there,” she notes. It is known what kind of birds and mammals live on Franz Josef Land, but there are still many discoveries to be made about those that live in the sea and invertebrates, says Gavrilo. In the late 90s, Kuna Island was found the new kind fish - the band-bodied gymnasium, in 2012 - a new species of bell-bellied mosquito, it was named in honor of Franz Josef Land. Many collections are being processed, for example nematodes (roundworms. - Approx. TASS) was sent for description to Bulgaria. According to preliminary data, the list of species is already larger than on Spitsbergen.

“In a number of biological groups, Franz Josef Land is ahead of Spitsbergen,” says Gavrilo, “where conditions are more favorable. Why there is such diversity needs to be explained. For now, we have more questions. Such is the archipelago-continent.”

Botanist Oleg Ezhov says that according to vascular (floral. - Approx. TASS) for plants the picture is more or less clear. There are about 50 species: various saxifrages, polar poppies, buttercups, cereals. There are those that are found on almost every island, and there are those found only on one. Like, for example, one of the types of bluegrass that is found only on Hooker Island. But mosses, lichens and fungi have been studied much less well. “About 800 species of lichens are known from Spitsbergen, less than two hundred are known from Franz Josef Land. We need to study further,” explains Yezhov. “My five-year “mushroom” hikes in Franz Josef Land and the efforts of my colleagues are already yielding preliminary list there are more mushrooms than on Spitsbergen,” says Gavrilo.

Some of the collections were collected during a complex expedition, which in 2013, “Russian Arctic” was carried out jointly with the National Geographic Society of the United States (National Geographic). "Franz Josef Land is one of the wildest and beautiful places that I have seen in the world. With its polar bears, walruses, bowhead whales and huge colonies of nesting seabirds, it is pure in its pristine state,” says National Geographic staff hydrobiologist Enric Sala.

Sala is confident that Franz Josef Land has enormous potential for ecotourism, but properly regulated. "The Arctic is a fragile environment, but a well-designed tourism plan can help raise awareness of the importance of protecting such places without damaging the environment," the expert said.

As explained in the “Russian Arctic”, during the five years of existence of the specially protected natural area tourists landed on the shore, examined from board a ship, boat or helicopter only 30 - but the most iconic and beautiful - places in Franz Josef Land and the north of Novaya Zemlya. “It is possible to visit new places; this will be taken into account when zoning the Russian Arctic National Park.” From interesting places, which will most likely be accessible to tourists after the completion of the cleanup - the polar station on Heiss Island," explained the head of the park, Alexander Kirilov.

The park says that the number of visitors to Franz Josef Land could reach 5-7 thousand per year. Now it's about a thousand. There are several conditions. One of them is the operation of a border checkpoint on the island of Alexandra Land for various ships. For now it is operating in test mode for a specific vessel. In addition, Alexandra Land is being put into operation runway strip year-round action. Provided that an agreement is reached on its use by civil aviation, tourists may also arrive to the archipelago by air. But careful preparation is needed: arrangement of ecological trails, training of professional personnel to work with tourists and increasing awareness of visitors about the rules of behavior on the territory.

Irina Skalina

Map of the Franz Josef Land archipelago.

Franz Josef Land is an island archipelago of the North Arctic Ocean, located northwest of the archipelago New Earth, east of the Spitsbergen archipelago and northeast of the Scandinavian peninsula. The island received its name from its discoverers in honor of the Emperor of Austria-Hungary.

The archipelago consists of more than 190 islands and rocks. Conventionally, the archipelago is divided into three parts: the eastern part, slightly removed from the rest of the group of islands through the Austrian Strait, which includes the largest islands of Wilczek Land and Graham Bell, and the central part, enclosed between the British Channel and the Austrian Strait and containing the largest number of islands , and western, located in a westerly direction from the British Channel, including the most big Island archipelago - George's Land.

The total area of the islands of the Franz Josef Land archipelago exceeds 17 thousand square kilometers.

The archipelago is territorially part of the polar domains of the Russian Federation and is administratively part of the Arkhangelsk region.

South coast of Northbrook Island.

Story.

About the possible existence of an archipelago north of Kola Peninsula Lomonosov and other Russian geographers also spoke out, but they were never able to organize an expedition to search for undiscovered islands. The archipelago was discovered quite randomly on August 30, 1873 by an Austro-Hungarian expedition led by polar explorers Karl Weyprecht and Julius Payer, who tried to open a passage to the east along the northern seas on the schooner Admiral Tegenhoff. The expedition's schooner was covered in ice in the area of the Novaya Zemlya islands and carried by the current to the shores of an unknown archipelago. Weyprecht and Payer were able to initially partially explore some of the islands of the archipelago and give it a name in honor of the then Austro-Hungarian Emperor (Kaiser) Franz Joseph I.

At different times and periods, the archipelago was explored by the expeditions of Benjamin Lee Smith, Frederick Jackson, Nansen and Johansen, Wellman and Baldwin and many other famous polar explorers.

In 1901, the archipelago was explored by the first Russian expedition on the icebreaker Ermak under the command of Vice Admiral Makarov; it is claimed that it was during this period that the Russian flag was first raised on the islands of the archipelago.

In 1913-14, on the way to the North Pole, the famous Russian polar explorer G.Ya. Sedov died and was buried on the islands.

In the summer of 1914, Islyamov’s expedition set out in search of Sedov, who, having visited the archipelago, declared it Russian territory and also raised the Russian flag on the coast.

During Soviet times, research on the archipelago began in 1929, when a research station was first opened on the coast of Tikhaya Bay on Hooker Island.

From the 50s to 1990 of the 20th century, radar tracking stations of the Soviet Army were based on the archipelago, which were considered the northernmost army unit in the USSR.

Foothills of the plateau on Hooker Island.

Origin and geography of the island.

The islands of the Franz Josef Archipelago are scattered over a fairly large area, so geographical coordinates are calculated in general geographical center archipelago: 80°40′00″ N. w. 54°50′00″ E.

Cape Outbuildings of Rudolph Island is the most northern point both Russia and the Franz Josef Land archipelago itself, Cape Mary Harmsworth - the extreme western point archipelago, the cape of the same name on Lamont Island is the southernmost, and Cape Olney on Graham Bell Island is the easternmost.

The archipelago is a remote part of the Eurasian geological plate, therefore, by its origin, it belongs to the mainland islands. The terrain on most of the islands of the archipelago is replete with low plateaus, which reach an average height of 300-500 m. The highest point of the islands is the Forbes Glacier, reaching a height of approximately 620 meters.

The geological structure of the islands of the archipelago consists of siltstones, sandstones and limestone rocks with a basalt cover. Among the mineral resources, small deposits of brown coal were discovered on the islands.

The surface of the vast majority of the islands is covered with glaciers, and where there are none, there are a large number of lakes on the frozen ground, which even today remain nameless.

The southern coast and the glaciers leading down to the ocean on McClinton Island.

Climate.

The climate on Franz Josef Land is distinctly arctic. The average temperature throughout the year does not rise above −12 °C. During the summer months, the average temperature ranges from −1.5 °C to +2 °C. In winter, the air temperature can drop to −50 °C with an average of −24 °C. Winter time It is also characterized by strong winds and storms. Precipitation falls mainly in the form of snow and its amount is quite small, which is quite consistent with this climatic zone, their absolute value ranges from 250 mm to 600 mm per year.

Population.

It would be more correct to say that the islands are uninhabited. Permanent residence there are no people on the island. Naturally, there are no cities or towns on the islands. The so-called temporary population is represented by scientists and researchers at scientific and meteorological stations, as well as border guards of the FSB of Russia, who serve at the northernmost border outpost in Russia. On average, the number of people staying on the islands at the same time does not exceed 80-100 people.

View of the plateau and Forbes Glacier.

Flora and fauna.

Severe climatic conditions the archipelago does not contribute to the flourishing and fragrant flora and fauna. The vegetation here is mainly represented by mosses and lichens. Sometimes you can find polar poppy and polar willow on the islands, but they are a real rarity here. Some types of mushrooms are also found on the islands.

Mammals are represented on the archipelago by the polar bear and the arctic fox, but in Lately their population has declined greatly.

Living in the coastal waters of the islands, marine animals are more widely represented. Rings, seals of several subspecies, and sometimes walruses are quite common here.

On the islands, which is typical for these latitudes, there is always a large number of birds, among them guillemots, kittiwakes, white gulls and many other species, numbering more than 20, are found in large numbers.

Foothills of the plateau on the island of Alexandra Land.

Tourism.

In terms of tourism, the archipelago will be of interest only to rare lovers extreme recreation. Naturally, the people arriving on the island, mainly by rotary-wing aircraft, consist exclusively of scientists and military personnel, who in these harsh conditions clearly have no time for entertainment and relaxation. But it’s still worth noting that even with all this, there is something to see here. These are numerous summer bird markets, and glaciers sliding towards the coast, and in summer time numerous lakes.

Eastern coast of Vilcek Island.

The famous Lomonosov predicted the existence of these islands, and after him Kropotkin spoke about it. Even in 1871 he offered the Russian Geographical Society his own expedition project, but the government did not provide him with the necessary funds. Therefore, the archipelago was discovered by chance during the Austrian expedition of Julius Payer and Karl Weyprecht. This happened in 1872. Only two years later, scientists compiled a map of the vast archipelago. The newly discovered land was named by Austrian travelers after the Austrian emperor. Where is it located?

The Franz Josef Land region is part of a small natural zone, which is also called the polar desert zone, they have a small area. For example, on Hayes Island there is a meteorological station called the Krenkel Observatory; it is considered the northernmost on the planet. Franz Josef Land has a typically arctic climate. In summer, the average temperature reaches from 1.2 to 1.6 degrees. But in January, the average temperature drops to -24 degrees, although drops of up to -52 degrees occur.

Features of Franz Josef Land

The Franz Josef Land archipelago includes a total of 191 islands. TO largest islands include: George Land, Alexandra Land, Graham Bell and Wilczek Land. It is believed that these islands began to form over 410 million years ago. Deep straits separate the islands from each other. They are characterized by constant strong currents; in a short time, algae clog the narrow passage between the ice and the islands. As a result, ships cannot pass through. Note that Franz Josef Land is approximately 85 percent glaciers. Therefore, there is almost no vegetation on the islands. You can only see lichens and mosses, although there are over 250 species of them here. What hotels in . Choose for yourself.

Since the archipelago is so lifeless, it is often called the lunar archipelago. As for the fauna, there are many animals here. The inhabitants of the islands include arctic foxes, polar bears and others. The local reservoirs are inhabited by: bearded seal, seal, beluga whale, narwhal, walrus, and Greenland walrus. According to eyewitnesses, polar bears calmly walk next to the side of the icebreaker, standing on their hind legs, they carefully examine people. It's an interesting sight. The feathered inhabitants of the islands of Franz Josef Land include: guillemots, kittiwakes, little auks, white gulls, guillemots and glaucous guillemots. On multi-meter rocks and cliffs, they gather in unique bird colonies.

After the first expedition of Austrian travelers, expeditions from other major countries of the world began to arrive on this land. Therefore, the feet of the British, Norwegians, Russians, Americans, Germans, Italians and Poles set foot on the islands. Over the decades, Franz Josef Land has become a place of interesting, sometimes tragic events. We are talking about the opening of the Arctic and the Northern Sea Route. In that harsh land many found their last refuge.

Franz Josef Land today

On this moment no one lives permanently on the archipelago. Also not here settlement And municipalities. The temporary population consists of: scientists working at research stations, as well as military personnel of the air defense unit and FSB border guards. These specialists are engaged in Russian missile defense. In 2005, a post office was established on Hayes Island, making it the northernmost of its kind. This post office is open for only one hour, four times a week.

When the International Geophysical Year began, scientists began to intensively study the glaciation of the archipelago. For two years, members of the Russian expedition carried out field work. They were able to obtain the first summary of the glaciology of the territory, which was published in the collective monographic work “Glaciation of Franz Joseph Land”. This publication describes the morphology of glacial complexes, ice formation zones, glacial climate, temperature regime, as well as tectonics and structure of glaciers.

Around that period, members of the expedition led by M.G. Grovald came to the conclusion that the glaciation of these islands is gradually decreasing. For example, over the past thirty years, the archipelago has lost an average of 3.3 square kilometers of ice every year. Before these works the world science community believed that the glaciation of Franz Josef Land was increasing from time to time. Today, ice thickness varies between 100-500 meters. Due to the glaciers that descend into the sea, many icebergs are formed. Quite strong glaciation can be seen in the east and southeast of the archipelago. In this case, ice formation occurs only at the tops of glacier domes. Due to the shrinking glaciers of the archipelago, in about three hundred years the glaciation of the islands may come to a minimum or disappear altogether.