Alexander Island Franz Josef Land on the map. To the northernmost borders of the motherland - the land of Franz Joseph. Practical discovery of FJL
Franz Josef Land is known to many by the songs of Yuri Vizbor, who traveled all over the northern seas from Murmansk to Chukotka and further along the Far East!
And it's worth it, because Franz Josef Land (abbreviated as FJL) beats many Russian and world records: there is the northernmost point of the island land of Russia, the closest land to the North Pole, the northernmost frontier post of the Russian Federation, the northernmost post office and the northernmost airfield in world, the northernmost theater of operations in the Patriotic War, the most extreme of our islands!
And this list can be continued for a long time!
And, of course, the northernmost Orthodox Cross - to our heroes, explorers and travelers who, without sparing their lives, expanded the boundaries of our boundless Motherland!
Geography: island point: Cape Fligely on Rudolf Island in the archipelago of Franz Josef Land is located to the north of all - 81 ° 49 "N, the distance from Cape Fligely to the North Pole is only 900 km.
Rudolf Island is the northernmost of the Franz Josef Land islands. Cape Fligeli on the island is the northernmost point of land belonging to the Russian Federation, and at the same time the northernmost point of Europe. The island administratively belongs to the Arkhangelsk region. Area 297 km². Almost completely covered by a glacier.
The island, like the entire Franz Josef Archipelago, was discovered in 1873 by the Austro-Hungarian expedition of the explorer J. Payer, and was named after Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria. In 1936, the base of the first Soviet air expedition to the North Pole was established on the island. From there, in May 1937, four heavy four-engine ANT-6 aircraft delivered the Papanin team to the top of the world.
The military played a leading role in the development of many remote territories of our country. In some places in the Far North and the Far East, garrisons are still the main type of settlements to this day. True, in the post-Soviet period, the number of such garrisons and the population in them have declined sharply. However, our geography textbooks still do not write anything about "military" development, even in cases where it has long been no longer a secret. This is a little surprising, since for many old-developed regions and regions of new development, parts of various law enforcement agencies perform the functions of city-forming enterprises.
Franz Josef Land was discovered at the end of the 19th century. by the Austro-Hungarian expedition, which set off in 1872 in search of the Northeast Passage, and perhaps also to reach the North Pole, and in 1873 pressed against the shores of hitherto unknown land, named after the then emperor of Austria-Hungary *. ZFI, as it is usually called in the North, has an area of approximately 16,000 km2 and consists of 191 islands.
The first permanent settlement on Novaya Zemlya appeared in 1877. It is called Small Karmakuly. In 1896, a hydrometeorological station was established in the Small Karmakuly, which still exists today and is the oldest polar station in Russia.
Straits
The Arkhangelsk Strait runs between the Polar Pilots Peninsula and the Armitage Peninsula. South of the Arkhangelsk Strait is the Cambridge Strait, which washes the southern part of the island.
Bays and gulfs of Alexandra Land
Shallow Bay
Bay of St. John's Wort
Topographers Bay (between Cape Melekhov and the western coast of the Polar Pilots Peninsula)
Bay Dezhnev
Severnaya Bay
Ostrovnaya Bay
Weyprecht bay
Gulf of Nordenskiöld
Capes of Alexandra Land
Listing from extreme west point clockwise:
Cape Mary Harmsworth
cape nimrod
Cape Strelka
Cape Nagursky
Cape Tempting
cape thomas
Cape Melekhov
Cape Double
Cape Babushkina
Cape Icy
Cape Abrosimov
Cape Finger
Cape Ludlov
cape lofley
mid-polar summer at FJL 
WILCHEK'S LAND
Wilczek Land is an island in the Arctic Ocean, the second largest island in the Franz Josef Land archipelago. It is named after Hans Wilczek, who financed the Austrian expedition of Karl Weyprecht and Julius Payer, who discovered the island in 1873.
Located in the eastern part of the archipelago. It is separated from the western group of islands by the Austrian Strait, from Graham Bell Island, which lies to the northeast, by the Morgan Strait. The surface of the island is a plateau with a relative height of 400-600 m and is almost completely covered by a glacier. The area of the island is about 2000 km², the highest point is 606 m.
nearby small islands
9 km south of Perseus Bay lies the island of Klagenfurt, named after the Austrian city of Klagenfurt.
Not far from the east coast are the Gorbunov Islands, named after the Russian naturalist Grigory Petrovich Gorbunov.
Four small islands lie 1.5 km to the southeast:
Wood
Dawes
McCult
tillo
Climate
The climate is harsh, arctic. In a year, on average, only 18 days are recorded with temperatures above 0 °C. The average annual air temperature is -12 °C, the maximum recorded temperature is +12 °C, the minimum is -42 °C. The average annual rainfall is 280 mm.
GREEHAM BELL ISLAND
Graham Bell is the easternmost island in the Franz Josef Land archipelago, in northern Europe. Part of the polar possessions of Russia, is part of the Arkhangelsk region. The area is 1.7 thousand km².
It was discovered in 1899 during a sledge ride by the American meteorologist Evelyn Baldwin, named after Alexander Graham Bell.
The highest point is 509 meters, the windy ice dome.
The largest lake on the island is Melkoye, the second largest is Severnoye.
The northernmost point of the island is Cape Aerial Surveys, the eastern one is Cape Seven (Sandy Cape). The easternmost point of the island and the entire archipelago is Cape Olney, to the north of which Cape Kolzat is located; the extreme southern point is Cape Leiter.
In the west there is a large bay - Matusevich Bay. In the east there is a small bay of Ilistaya with many small sandy islands.
The nearest islands are the island of Perlamutrovy and Trekhluchevy. To the west, Graham Bell is separated from Wilczek Land by the Morgan Strait.
Cape Trieste, Champ Island 
JOURNEY TO FRANZ JOSEPH LAND
The archipelago of Franz Josef Land is not only the most remote northern part of Russia, but also, perhaps, one of the most unexplored tourist spots in the world. No, the specialists there undoubtedly worked and tried to figure out a lot, but for tourists this region of our country is still “Terra incognita”.
Indeed, firstly, the opportunity to visit these islands for domestic and foreign travel enthusiasts appeared just a couple of decades ago. Secondly, you can get there either by air, for example, by helicopter, or by sea-ocean, from Murmansk, but this is far away, or from Arkhangelsk - this, of course, is closer, but in both cases, tourist trips to the FJL area do not happen often . Thirdly, it is possible to visit them for a very limited time, about three months a year.
But there is also a fourth. A trip there by any of the acceptable methods costs decent money, in other words, well, you need a lot of money, so there are much more inquisitive foreigners from different regions of the Earth, for whom such amounts are not critical, visited the archipelago much more than Russians, although our compatriots go there began to get, and the further, the more.
Miracles in the FJL are found literally on every island, but among all there is one very amazing piece of land. And his name is also unusual - Champ, so short, but very sonorous. It turned out that he was named after William Champ, who in 1905, being the personal secretary of the American millionaire Ziegler, went as the head of a rescue operation to search for the missing polar expedition, financed by the same Ziegler.
So the Arctic island named after Champa is one of the most unique places on Earth - it is all littered with strange, perfectly round stones, called "spherulites", while they range from small, pocket-size, to giants with a diameter of more than two meters and weighing a lot. tons. The nature of their origin has not yet been explained by science. All this was told to us at one of the briefings, and even photographs were shown. Very impressive photos, I must say. Imagine how we longed to be there!
It was to this unusual island that our ship rushed. And everything would be fine, but the closer we got to the island, the denser the fog became, and the less likely it was that we would land. The main danger in such weather was represented by bears, because the animals could approach completely silently, fog was not a hindrance to them, and it was very difficult to organize one hundred percent protection of tourists. And to inspect the island in such a fog is a very dubious pleasure.
It was decided that the "50 Years of Victory" would stay for a while near the island of Champa, and we would all wait, all of a sudden the gods would be merciful, and the fog would dissipate.
After making such a decision, tourists, in order to distract them from sad thoughts, were invited to the lecture hall for another unusual and amazing event - a Charity Auction, the northernmost of all that has ever been held in the world, all funds from it should go to fund for the protection of polar bears.
We were still a little bored, but then everyone was invited to come for dinner, and we went to a restaurant. A big surprise awaited us there - a Russian dinner, all the waitresses were dressed in Russian national costumes, on the "buffet" table, along with the usual salads and snacks, there were traditional Russian products - jars of black caviar, bottles with a variety of vodka, which is just not there. it was: and Stolichnaya, and Tsarskaya, and Five Lakes, and so on, and so on. There was only Bad, but this does not happen in jokes.
Everything was fine, there was only one problem - both cans and bottles, as they were closed, were closed and remained until the end of dinner. Maybe they were dummies? We never understood.
After dinner, we were assured that if the fog dissipated at night, and this was expected around two in the morning, then we would be lifted up and we would go on an excursion on the “zodiacs”, there would be no darkness, because the polar day overboard does not stop at night .
We slept soundly, but then the speakerphone sounded:
- We invite everyone to an excursion to Champ Island.
While this message was dubbed in other languages, we managed to get dressed, and only at the door did we pay attention to the TV screen. What we saw amazed us, it turned out that it really was 2 am.
- They give, - burst out of us at the same time.
On the upper deck, we stood in a long line, it turned out that almost all the foreigners had already gathered, and the Chinese were the first, apparently, they were all sleeping without undressing, otherwise how could they get together so quickly.
Boarding began, "zodiac" after "zodiac" filled with tourists, but did not leave, but gathered nearby in a flock, we moved closer and closer to the gangway, the sixth boat filled up, and they all immediately disappeared into the fog. Yes, yes, it was in the fog, which had not diminished in the slightest, that it seemed to thicken even more.
- Maybe it's only here, around the ship, such a fog, but it's clear near the shore? - sounded someone's voice from behind.
We looked at each other, such a simple thought did not occur to us. But, after all, this is probably true, I thought, otherwise, why are we being dragged there in the middle of the night?
The boats left, we were told that we would have to wait at least an hour for their return. This means that they will reach the shore, disembark there, take a walk for a while and again sit in the "zodiacs" to return on board, and only after that we will sail. Some of the tourists left, deciding that waiting in the middle of the night was not justified, but we were so curious, so eager to see these round stones, and one, what to hide, secretly put in our pocket that we stayed, and did not lose. That's what finally happened.
We stood leaning on the railing, anxiously awaiting the return of the boats. Our eyes were directed into the foggy distance towards the stern of the ship, we were not worried about extraneous sounds, nothing distracted us, we were, how would it be more correct to say, probably fixated on the waiting process itself. Imagine yourself, they wake you up in the middle of the night and say: you have to stand and wait an hour. What would you do if you agreed to stand for an hour and wait at 2 am?
About half an hour passed, active stirring began on the yachts, apparently, they received the “Good” and began to prepare rubber boats for launching, but then our “zodiacs” emerged from the fog, and we turned our attention to them. Tourists climbed the ladder, mostly they were silent and somehow distressed and dull. One of the Russians who managed to make the first call explained to us that there was no less fog, there was nothing to look at, except for birds, they didn’t catch any of the living creatures, in general, it’s not worth swimming.
But we considered it unreasonable to refuse the trip, after we had already waited so long, and even at such a time, and were placed on the sides of the boat, which was driven by Dmitry. There was only one more boat next to us, there were no more passengers. A few minutes later the icebreaker disappeared into the fog, the second boat kept nearby, but sometimes it also began to dissolve in space, and then its contours could hardly be seen through the oncoming waves of dense fog. We moved on a whim, the Zodiacs were not equipped with any navigational devices, but we were not supposed to slip past a rather large island, and we could correct our route from the icebreaker on the radio, because they saw us perfectly, or rather not us, of course , but the point that on the locator screen corresponded to our location.
The fog cleared a little, and it became clearer and farther away. Before us appeared the shore of the island, covered with a glacier, sliding into the sea, one of the icebergs, recently broken away from this glacier, floated very close by. There are many birds on the iceberg, which have chosen it as a mobile recreation base. Some of the birds were floating on the water.
Dmitry directed the boat towards the iceberg so that we could get a good look at the birds. And then two fast and agile figures appeared between the shore and the boat in the sea - they were young walruses. The animals, not paying any attention to us, dived, disappearing for a long time under the water.
Walruses once again dived and disappeared under water for a long time. Dmitry started the engine and started moving in the direction where the walruses had recently been.
We won't scare them? someone asked.
Yes, no, on the contrary. They are curious, they will come closer to the noise.
That's how it all happened. The walruses surfaced next to our boat and swam nearby for a while, as if posing so that we could get a good look at them. An interesting fact: according to evolutionary theory, a walrus is a bear that has gone underwater. We tried to find similarities between a bear and a walrus, sometimes it worked out, but more often the walrus looked like anything but a bear.
Journey through FJL - icebreaker Kapitan Dranitsyn 
GALL ISLAND
We were going at that time at cruising speed towards the island of Gall, one of the southernmost islands of the archipelago. It was there that we planned the last helicopter landing on the table mountain of Cape Tegetthoff. Table Mountain - so in a scientific way, they call all peaks with a truncated, flat top. There are an innumerable number of such mountains in the world, their formation is explained by the weathering of sedimentary rocks from which they are composed. We saw a lot of them at FJL. But it seemed to me that there the tops of the mountains were simply simply licked by a glacier, or crushed so that a flat surface was formed.
The sea was calm, the fog swirled somewhere in the distance, the visibility was very acceptable, so for a very long time we, those who were on the navigation bridge, saw a huge iceberg lying alone on the surface of the sea.
The captain immediately appeared, ordering to slow down and approach this handsome man. And there was something to see. A block of blue ice lay motionlessly on the sea surface, it seemed that it just lay at the very top, stretching out in length for a good hundred meters and rising up to the height of a ten-story building, such a mountain arose in front of us.
Behind the iceberg we could already see the islands to which we aspired, but there was no time for them. We saw a real iceberg for the first time and were eager to see it from all sides. The reason for the death of the Titanic became clear, stumble at full speed on such an obstacle and nothing will survive, not a single ship, perhaps even the same as our icebreaker.
The icebreaker got close to the ice mountain almost close, and then lightly poked its nose into the edge of this wall, and pieces and pieces immediately fell from it, the wall turned out to be weak.
There was mass photography against the backdrop of this miracle of nature. People took the most bizarre poses, just to catch the angle they liked. We are not far behind everyone.
We stood high above the water level and looked down, so we clearly saw that the mountain goes right under the water. It was impossible to determine how far, or rather, how deep it continues under water, but it is obvious that the experts are right, and most of the ice is down there, exactly under water, but about 90%, I don’t know, it seems to me that this figure is somewhat exaggerated.
The nuclear-powered ship slowly walked around the icy mountain, it was obvious that nature knows its business well, the ice was all eaten away by the cool sun, fogs and rains. It was clear that this piece of ice in the ocean would not swim for a long time, it would soon come to an end, and the volume of sea water would not be much replenished.
We swam around the iceberg and saw its reverse side, it seemed that this creation of human hands, such a smooth, slightly inclined, upward surface, appeared before us, well, just the take-off deck of an aircraft carrier, and immediately a handsome Admiral Kuznetsov appeared before our eyes.
That's it, the iceberg was left far behind, and we continued on our way to the island of Gall. Before us lay, it seemed, an endless strip of islands covered with snow and ice, perhaps the Austrian sailors, the discoverers of these islands, saw just such a picture.
The ship anchored near the famous Cape Tegetthoff. Well, since I wrote that the cape is famous, it is necessary to explain why. The fact is that the history of the development of the Franz Josef Land archipelago began from this cape. After all, it was precisely in the region of the island of Gall, or, to be more precise, to this very cape, on August 30, 1873, the ice brought the schooner "Admiral Tegetthoff" of the Austrian expedition - the discoverers of the FJL. In memory of their landing, a monument to a schooner was erected on the cape.
We looked from the deck of the nuclear-powered ship at sharp kekurs sticking out directly from the depths of the sea, which the famous Russian polar explorer Viktor Boyarsky figuratively called “Dragon Fangs”, and indeed they really resemble something like that, however, we did not manage to see the dragons themselves, but their fangs could be only such and no others, and the place, it would seem, is downright created for them.
There was a long wait for our turn for a helicopter tour. In fairness, the management changed the order of flights, and this time the first to fly were tourists from the very last group. The procedure was built as follows. First of all, the guard flew to the mountain, you can expect anything from the bears. By the way, the first tourists saw a white bear below, but, most likely, he was greatly frightened by the helicopter crash, and he preferred to hide, we did not see him anymore. Together with the guards, Yan and his friend also flew there, who led all the landing and disembarkation operations.
The empty helicopter returned to the ship, the Chinese comrades loaded into it, and the carousel spun - the helicopter dangled back and forth, carried the next group from the icebreaker, then took the previous group from the island, and so on until the very end, when it made the last flight, taking Yan from the island and security. We were now almost at the end, but the queue, no matter how slowly it crawled - after all, it took about 10-12 minutes for a two-way flight with two take-offs and landings and a change of tourists - they nevertheless reached us, and we, sitting in helicopter, this time next to the pilot, in order to better see everything, went to the island.
So, jumping from stone to stone, we moved from the landing site, perhaps the only truly flat place suitable for a helicopter, to the edge of the summit, from where we could take decent photographs of the cape, the sea and the ship, and then back to the landing site .
From above, of course, the view of the cape is even nothing, two rocks are perfectly visible - remnants, 25 and 60 meters high. There is a border at the cape - they go south, and in the north lies Surovaya Bay, which is already part of the Arctic waters, like this. It must be said that this boundary is not clearly demarcated.
Slowly moving up the mountain, we tried to find at least some signs of life, but around there were only stones, stones, ice and snow, but no, in one place there was a tiny island of greenery that pleased us with its love of life.
Everything is over, the helicopter came for us, it's time to go down to the ship, but first we need to look at the island from above.
Down from the top of the table mountain of Gall Island stretch beautiful rocks, named in memory of the outstanding Soviet geologist Academician Alexander Nikolaevich Zavarnitsky, the Zavarnitsky rocks, stretching 15 kilometers inland, reaching a maximum height of 500 meters.
Well, the helicopter propeller froze, everyone returned on board, you can go further. We were surprised to hear the announcement that the icebreaker was turning around and we would go back to Champ Island. We really liked this decision, maybe we will still be able to get to the island with stone balls.
Going further, we cast our last glance at the "fangs of the dragon", from this point they could be mistaken for a kind of gate blocking the path to the island of Gall and to the cape itself with two outliers decorating it.
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SOURCE OF INFORMATION AND PHOTO:
Team Nomads
Savatyugin L.M., Dorozhkina M.V. Archipelago Franz Josef Land: history, names and titles. - St. Petersburg: AARI, 2012. - 484 p. — ISBN 978-5-98364-054-2
Sergei V. Popov, Vladilen A. Trinity Archipelago Franz Josef Land // Toponymy of the seas of the Soviet Arctic / Ed. L. A. Borisova. - Leningrad: Geographical Society of the USSR, 1972. - S. 85-128. — 316 p. - 1000 copies.
Franz Josef Land: Collection of articles / USSR, Nauch.-tekhn. ex. VSNKh No. 352. - M .: State Technical Publishing House, 1930. - (Proceedings of the Institute for the Study of the North; issue 47).
Mikhail N. Ivanychuk 14 months in the land of Franz Josef. Impressions of a winterer. - Kharkov: Ukrainian Robotnik, 1934. - 122, p.
http://greenbag.ru/russia/
Martynov V. | Novaya Zemlya - military land | Newspaper "Geography" No. 09/2009
Island of Captain Kuchiev | Ship side April 2, 2008 | Publishing house "Northern week"
Kryukov V. D., Zatsepin E. N., Sergeev M. B. Historical essay on the Polar Marine Exploration Expedition. "Exploration and protection of mineral resources" No. 8, 2012
The northernmost branch of the Russian Post.
Two million barrels await Putin's partners in the Arctic
Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg: 1890-1907.
http://www.photosight.ru/
photo V. Balyakin, O. Parshina, A. Zolotina, S. Anisimov
In a work entitled “A Brief Description of Various Voyages in the Northern Seas and an Indication of a Possible Passage by the Siberian Ocean to the East Indies” (1763), he assumed the presence of islands east of Svalbard.
In 1865, the Russian naval officer, Admiral N. G. Schilling, in his article “Considerations on a New Route in the North Polar Sea”, published in the “Sea Collection”, based on an analysis of the movement of ice in the western part of the Arctic Ocean, suggested the existence of an unknown land , located to the north beyond Svalbard.
In the late 1860s, 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 geographer (later a revolutionary) Prince P. A. Kropotkin. Observations on the ice of the Barents Sea led him to the conclusion that:
“between Svalbard and Novaya Zemlya there is still undiscovered land that extends north further than Svalbard and holds 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 the Russian naval officer Baron Schilling.”
On May 20, 1874, the crew of the Tegetthoff was forced to abandon the ship and go over the ice to the shores of Novaya Zemlya, where they met with Russian Pomor fishermen who assisted in the return of the expedition.
Research
In September 1927, the Soviet sailing and motor vessel "Elding" of the Northern scientific and fishing expedition of the Supreme Council of National Economy approached Cape Flora, due to the large accumulation of broken ice off the coast, no landing was made.
Since 1928, the situation around the archipelago began to worsen. After the successful flight of Umberto Nobile and Raul Amundsen on the airship "Norway", preparations began in Italy for the next, purely national Arctic expedition on the airship "Italy", in connection with this, opinions were expressed in the Italian press about the possible upcoming annexation of Franz Josef Land in favor of Italy. "Italy", having taken off from the base on Svalbard, passed over the northern tip of the archipelago from west to east in mid-May 1928, during its second Arctic flight, but a disaster occurred on the third flight to the pole. In the subsequent search for the airship, the Soviet Union took an active part, using icebreakers and icebreaking ships.
On July 31, 1928, the Council of People's Commissars issued a resolution on strengthening scientific research in the Arctic possessions of the USSR. The first five-year plan for scientific research was being developed, according to which, on Franz Josef Land, as well as on other Arctic lands, it was supposed to build geophysical observatories. Financing of scientific work was carried out by deductions of 1.5-2.25% from the income from the Arctic fishing and trade. Expeditions aimed at securing the most disputed territories for the country (Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land) were equipped in advance, without waiting for the final approval of the plan.
In August 1928, as part of the search for the crew of "Italia", a significant area along the southern coast of Franz Josef Land was explored by the icebreaker "G. Sedov" for a month, having carried out extensive hydro and meteorological observations.
August 30, 1929 the grand opening of the first permanent polar station on Franz Josef Land took place, at 13:30 the USSR flag was raised over the station and the first radiogram was transmitted to the mainland. From that moment on, the archipelago was annually visited by Soviet polar expeditions.
From 1990 to 2010 The Marine Arctic Complex Expedition (MAKE) of the Russian Research Institute of Cultural and Natural Heritage named after V.I. D. S. Likhachev under the command and scientific guidance of P. V. Boyarsky. MAKE, within the framework of its programs: "Integrated Study of the Cultural and Natural Heritage of the Arctic" and "In the Footsteps of Arctic Expeditions", identified, researched and described in its scientific works the vast majority of cultural heritage sites in the archipelago of the 19th - 20th centuries, published a comprehensive monograph "Franz-Land Joseph” (M.: 2013), the first map and book supplement to it “The Franz Josef Land Archipelago. Cultural and natural heritage. Map pointers. Chronicle of Franz Josef Land” (M.: 2011) under the general editorship of P. V. Boyarsky.
The Russian Ministry of Defense in 2016 began construction of the Nagurskoye airfield on Alexandra Land. The length of the concrete runway at the Nagurskoye airfield will be 2,500 meters, the width will be up to 46 meters, which will make it possible to receive all types of aircraft in service with the Russian Aerospace Forces. On the island, the stationary airfield closest to the North Pole, on which will be based: Il-78, A-50, A-100, Il-38 and others. Also, Su-27 and MiG-31 fighters will be permanently located at the Nagurskoye airfield, which will fully protect the air borders of Russia in the Arctic region.
Geography
Franz Josef Land is one of the northernmost territories in Russia and the world. Consists of 192 islands, the total area is 16,134 km². It is divided into 3 parts: the eastern one, separated from the others by the Austrian Strait, with large islands of Zemlya Vilchek (2.0 thousand km²), Graham Bell (1.7 thousand km²); the central one - between the Strait of Austria and the British Channel, where the most significant group of islands is located, and the western one - to the west of the British Channel, which includes the largest island of the entire archipelago - George's Land (2.9 thousand km²).
The surface of most of the islands of the Franz Josef Land archipelago is plateau-like. Average heights reach 400-490 m (the highest point of the archipelago is 620 m).
Population
There is no permanent population on the archipelago. There is not a single municipality and settlement. The temporary population consists of scientists at research stations, meteorologists and FSB border guards.
Hydrology
Most of the islands are covered with glaciers, in places free from them there are many lakes, most of the year covered with ice. Permafrost .
lakes
Many lakes still do not have names, the following have acquired their own designations: Cosmic, Ice, Small, Northern, Duck, Shirshova.
Glaciers
The study of the glaciation of the archipelago began especially intensively with the beginning of the International Geophysical Year. As a result of two years of field work, the participants of this Russian expedition of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR received the first summary of the glaciology of the territory, which was published in the collective monograph “Glaciation of Franz Josef Land” (authors M. G. Grosvald et al., 1973). It contained a description of the morphology of glacial complexes, glacial climate, ice formation zones, temperature regime, structure and tectonics of glaciers. The domestic glaciologist M. G. Grovald and his collaborators for the first time made an important conclusion that the FJL glaciation is decreasing: over the past 30 years, the archipelago has lost an average of 3.3 km³ of ice per year. Prior to these works, the world scientific community was of the opinion that the FJL glaciation is stationary or even growing.
Glaciers cover 87% of the archipelago. Ice thickness ranges from 100 to 500 m. Glaciers descending into the sea produce a large number of icebergs. The most intense glaciation is observed in the southeast and east of each island and the archipelago as a whole. Ice formation occurs only on the top surfaces of ice domes. The glaciers of the archipelago are rapidly shrinking, and if the observed rate of degradation continues, the glaciation of Franz Josef Land may disappear in 300 years.
Climate
The climate of the archipelago is typically arctic. The average annual temperature is up to −12 ° C (Rudolf Island); average July temperatures from -1.2 ° C in Tikhaya Bay (Hooker Island) to +1.6 ° C (Hays Island, where the world's northernmost meteorological station is located -
The Franz Josef Land archipelago is a group of islands located in the high latitude Arctic - where permafrost dominates, and the average annual temperature is -12 ° C.
The archipelago is located about 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, the temperature here can still reach +12 ° C and the snow usually melts in July.
During this period, the land 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 so many birds here, but they are. These are little auks, guillemots, guillemots, kittiwakes, ivory gulls, glaucous gulls, terns, skuas, eiders, geese, etc.
From animals there is a polar bear and an arctic fox. By the way, did you know that the polar bear belongs to marine mammals and even the Latin name of the polar bear - Ursus maritimus is translated as "sea bear"? There are also seals, bearded seals, harp seals, walruses, narwhals and white whales in the sea.
- a region that is part of a small natural area known as the polar desert zone. You can read about the Arctic desert here.
People have never lived in the FJL for obvious reasons - there are 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 the fin (logs brought by the sea) does not burn here, unlike the fin on the coast. This happens, apparently, because wet firewood simply does not have time to dry, so they are completely “saturated” with ice all year round.
Nevertheless, in the twentieth century, during the period of exploration of the Arctic, weather stations and military camps were built on Franz Josef Land, so it turned out that it was possible to live here with the complicity of civilization. True, all this costs a lot of money, given the high cost of delivering food, fuel and building materials.
HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN OF FRANZ JOSEPH LAND (GEOLOGICAL HISTORY)
In pre-Paleozoic time on the site of the modern Barents Sea was a huge mainland, extending west to the coast of Greenland. During the Paleozoic period, powerful
mountain building movements, after which most of the current Barents Sea began to represent the mainland with difficult mountainous terrain.
However, erosion and denudation processes gradually cut off the mountainous relief of the mainland, turned it into a flat country,which in the Upper Devonian was taken by the waters of the sea.
At the beginning of the Permian time began to occur bottom lifting marine geosynclinal basins, and their shallowing. Later, mountain building movements appeared, accompanied by vigorous volcanic activity. Mountain building processes were powerful mountain ranges of Novaya Zemlya, the Urals, Kanin and separate parts of Spitsbergen were created. The uplift of the shelf is accompanied by volcanic eruptions (basalt covers of Svalbard and Franz Josef Land). According to Fridtjof Nansen, on the site of the Barents Sea in the Tertiary time there was a mountainous country, elevated above the modern sea level by 500 m.
It happened in the Quaternary placement of powerful ice sheets. In the maximum phase of glaciation, under the influence of the glacial load, the islands and adjacent areas of the sea bottom sank by 300–400 m. dieback of ice sheets and complex fluctuations in the coastline of the sea. The process of raising the coastline of the Barents Sea continues to this day. The rate of general uplift of the archipelago over the last 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 grow and live here quite actively.
Deer on Franz Josef Land lived in the Middle Holocene (8-2.5 thousand years ago). Hence 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 accurately dated. Deer antlers are not found below the 5-meter level. Consequently, the deterioration of the climate, 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 reindeer and a major advance of the archipelago's glaciers coincides in time with the receding 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 Svalbard.
HISTORY OF THE DISCOVERY AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE FRANZ JOSEPH LAND
Theoretical discovery of Franz Josef Land
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 Voyages in the Northern Seas and an Indication of a Possible Passage of the Siberian Ocean to the East Indies," suggested finding islands east of Svalbard.
In the late 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 ardently supported by the well-known geographer and revolutionary, theorist of anarchism, Prince P.A. Kropotkin. Various considerations, and mainly observations of the ice in the Barents Sea, led Kropotkin to the conclusion that “between Svalbard and Novaya Zemlya there is still undiscovered land that extends north further than Svalbard and holds 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 the Russian naval officer Baron Schilling”. In 1870, Kropotkin drafted an expedition. However, the tsarist government refused to provide funds, and the expedition did not take place.
Practical discovery of Franz Josef Land
Franz Josef Land was discovered by the Austro-Hungarian expedition of Julius Payer and Karl Weyprecht, and was not explored by anyone - the British, the Scots, and the Americans ... But we still got it.
In the photo 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 Yermak 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, Iskhak Islyamov visited the archipelago in search of G. Ya. Sedov. He also declared the FJL a Russian territory and raised the Russian flag over it.
In some sources (even in the same notorious Wikipedia) they write that it was Islyamov who declared the FJI Russian territory. Although, the flag had already been set by Makarov before him, therefore, it seems like it turns out that it was Makarov who first laid claim to Russia's rights to Franz Josef Land?
Why such a traveler arose - I do not know, but for the sake of justice I will note both facts - and you yourself decide who was the first.
Islyamov, announcing the acquisition of a new territory for the country, proposed to immediately rename it from Franz Josef Land to the Romanov Lands, but the proposal got stuck in the bureaucratic jungle. And there, first one empire went down in 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 in the White Army, emigrated, and was in charge of the hydrographic part of the Russian naval base in Constantinople.
In 1926, the Central Executive Committee of the USSR adopted a decree according to which all the Arctic islands adjacent to the land borders of the state were declared Soviet territory. Three years later, in the summer of 1929, Otto Schmidt hoisted the Soviet flag on the archipelago during a polar expedition on the icebreaker Georgy Sedov.
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 was opened in the Tikhaya Bay of Hooker Island. In 1931, the archipelago was declared the territory of the Soviet Union, from that time the development 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, the military settled down densely on the FJL. In 1936, the first air force base of the USSR was organized on Rudolf Island. And then it went and went ... Nevertheless, in the 90s of the twentieth century, due to well-known economic and political reasons, the military left the archipelago, leaving only the Nagurskoye frontier post located on the island of Alexandra Land to function.
The town of the border line branch of military unit 9794, which includes the northernmost airport and the frontier post, is still operating. Not so long ago, they built an excellent two-story building with all amenities: central heating, sewerage, cold and hot water, satellite TV. Inside the complex there is a "winter garden", however, the plants and trees there are artificial. The border guards call this garden "Atrium". There is always a blue sky with cumulus clouds, a playground, a fountain, benches, billiards, an aquarium with live fish, a cinema hall, and table tennis.
Only officers and ensigns 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 on 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, a couple of times there were plane crashes with victims.
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 victims - everything ended well.
If we talk about the victims, then, I suspect, the main danger in the Franz Josef Land Archipelago arises from polar bears.
Although, on the other hand, given the huge number of bears in the FJL, 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 met with predators constantly. This means that the percentage of accidents is actually not at all high.
Well, again, if people died at the FJL, it was solely because of their own stupidity and negligence. Everything is like everywhere else. For example, here's the story:
But enough of the sad stuff. There are also many good people in Franz Josef Land. And few tourists have the opportunity to see this.
FRANZ JOSEPH LAND IN OUR TIME - PHOTOS, DESCRIPTIONS, MAPS
FJL is the northernmost territory of Russia, located about nine hundred kilometers from the North Pole. Administratively, the archipelago belongs to the Arkhangelsk region. Franz 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 letter was sent through the Russian Embassy in Norway to the Russian Foreign Ministry, and from there an order was sent toThe Department of Navigation and Oceanography of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation - to figure out how many islands are actually in the archipelago.
At the same time, after public statements about the “appearance of a new island in Russia”, the 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 it remains to complete the opening - to officially recognize and name new geographical features, which will have to be done by the Office of Navigation and Oceanography and the Commission on Geographical Names. On Heiss Island, Vladimir Sanin wrote one of his most famous books, “Don’t Say Goodbye to the Arctic.”
Gall Island, Cape Tegetthoff
Also famous are the rocks at the tip of the island, which rise from the sea itself.
Wilczek Island
Another island associated with the tragic events of the expedition of the discoverers of the archipelago is Wilchek Island. On the high island is the grave of one of the expedition members on the Admiral Tegetthoff ship, Otto Krish, who was a mechanic on the ship and died in 1873 from scurvy.
Champa Island, Cape Trieste
At Cape Trieste there are unique stone formations of perfectly round shape - spherulites, or concretions. Marcasite concretions are ubiquitous on the cape, and their sizes vary from a few centimeters to several meters in diameter.
The word "nodules" comes from the Latin concretio - "growth". These are concretions, rounded mineral formations in sedimentary rocks. Its composition is sandstone. In the very center of the concretion there is an organic core, around which loose material of continental origin accumulated.
Negri Strait
Islands of Apollonov and Stolichka
These islands do not stand out in appearance, and even on sea charts only a larger island is usually indicated - Stolichka, but, as often happens, all the most interesting is on the island nearby, very small and inconspicuous. In this case, it is the island of Apollo. The island is known for the fact that one of the largest rookeries of Atlantic walruses, listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation, is located here.
Hooker Island
The abandoned Soviet polar station Tikhaya is located on Hooker Island. 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, burgomasters and little auks. Guillemots nest directly on ledges. They do not build nests, but lay their eggs on a bare stone surface. Kittiwake gulls build nests from grasses, lichens and other vegetation, fastening it with their own droppings.
Alger Island
Wilczek Land, Geller Cape
The island contains the remains of Fort McKinley's winter hut and the grave of Bernt Bentsen, who could not survive the winter of 1898-99. He was part of the expedition of Walter Wellman, whose main goal was to conquer the North Pole. The main camp of the expedition was at Cape Tegetthoff of Gall Island. A temporary food warehouse was organized at Cape Geller. It was built from large flat stones and covered with the skins of dead walruses and bears. The temperature inside it in winter kept 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
The northernmost cape of the Franz Josef Land archipelago is the extreme island point of the Russian Federation and Eurasia.
Rudolf Island, Teplice Bay
There is an abandoned meteorological station in the Teplitz bay, which was built in 1931–1932. It was the second station in the archipelago and it worked until 1995.
Jackson Island
Jackson Island and Cape Norway are famous for being where Fridtjof Nansen and Jamar Johansen spent the winter (1895–96). They were returning after an attempt to conquer the North Pole, as they thought, to Svalbard, but they came to Franz Josef Land. They had time to prepare for winter. They shot walruses and polar bears, built a dwelling in which they spent the winter, mostly lying down in one sleeping bag. At Christmas they turned their shirts inside out, and on New Year's Eve Nansen told Johansen that after everything they'd been through together, he could just call him Frithjof, not Mr. Nansen, and shook his hand. But they remained on "you". A memorial sign is installed on the cape and there are remains of a winter hut.
Nordbrook 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 on the archipelago after unsuccessful attempts to conquer the top of the planet. Almost all expeditions to Franz Josef Land stopped at Cape Flora of Nordbrook Island.
The island was discovered by the expedition of Benjamin Lee-Smith in 1880. His second expedition of 1881-1182 also wintered here. The winter was forced. Lee-Smith originally planned to spend the winter on Bell Island. In 1894, Briton Frederick Jackson built the first settlement at Cape Flora - Elmwood. The remains of the expedition's buildings can still be seen today.
In 1896, Fridtjof Nansen and Frederick Jackson met at Cape Flora. On June 17, two men approached the cape. No one expected or met them, and they themselves did not expect to meet anyone here. They were the famous polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen and his companion Frederik Jamar Johansen. They were covered from head to toe in soot and mud, and they carried two kayaks and sleds. For three years, Nansen and his 12 satellites planned to conquer the North Pole on the Fram ship, specially built for navigation in ice and wintering.
In 1893, the Fram was frozen 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 in dog sleds and kayaks. On 8 April 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 in Cape Norway, they moved south and reached Cape Flora, where they met with Jackson's expedition. This meeting actually saved their lives. At one time, Nansen did not take Frederick Jackson to the Fram, as he believed that the North Pole should be conquered by the Norwegians. Jackson was from the UK.
Today, every day we hear more and more about the development of the Arctic in the 21st century, but many do not know how this development will take place and, most importantly, where exactly, one of the objects of this scientific research is Franz Josef Land. Today I want to tell a little about this unique land located in permafrost.
1. The archipelago is located in the Arctic Ocean and is the northernmost point of the Russian Federation. The total area of the islands is 16,134 km². and consists of 192 small islands. Conventionally, the archipelago is divided into three main parts: Eastern - the islands of Wilchek, Graham Bell; Central - in this group the largest group of islands is located; And the Western part includes the islands from George's Land.
2. Surely you will be interested to know the history of the origin of the name of the archipelago. The existence of these islands was suspected even by Lomonosov himself, but the discovery of the archipelago was made by the Austro-Hungarian expedition in 1872, and the islands were discovered quite by accident, a group of researchers was carried by ice to these places. "Kaiser Franz Josef Land" - this name was given to this suddenly appeared country participants of the expedition. The first map of the islands was drawn up in 1874.
3. The announcement of Franz Josef Land by the territory of the Russian Federation and the raising of the Russian flag over the archipelago was made in 1914. And already in 1929, the first scientific stations were formed on the island, since then Russian expeditions began to visit the islands regularly. And in 1950, the country's military-radiotechnical air defense bases were created on the islands. After the collapse of the USSR, all valuable equipment was removed, and fuel supplies and other remnants of the stations were abandoned here.
4. In general, Franz Josef Land is permafrost and permafrost. Today, 87 percent of the land is covered by glaciers. Moreover, the thickness of the ice reaches 500 meters. Today, in connection with global climate warming, a clear reduction in glaciers is observed in the archipelagos; an area of 3.3 km³ is cleared of ice per year. If this trend continues, then after some 300 years we will be able to see the land without ice.
5. As you already understood, the climate in the archipelago is very harsh, typically arctic. The average annual temperature here is -12 degrees °C. The average summer temperature is +1.6 °C and the average winter temperature is 24 °C. The lowest temperature ever recorded was 52 degrees Celsius.
6. As for the flora and fauna on the island, for obvious reasons, it is very scarce here. Of the plants, the most popular are mosses and lichens, trees are found but very rarely, and then small ones such as: polar poppy, saxifrage, grains, polarwillow.
7. Of the inhabitants of the animal world, here you can meet only a polar bear, rarely a white fox. Of the "water" inhabitants on the archipelago live - seals, bearded seals, seals, walruses (make up the bulk of the inhabitants) and beluga whales. The latter live better here than in any other place on the planet, here a person can rarely harm them.
Franz Josef Land, whose islands (and there are 192 in total) have a total area of 16,134 sq. km, located in the Arctic Ocean. The main part of the Arctic territory is part of Primorskoye. Geographically, it is divided into 3 large parts: eastern, central and western. The first includes the islands of Wilczek Land (2 thousand sq. km) and Graham Bell (1.7 thousand sq. km). They are separated from the rest by the Strait of Austria. The largest in number is located in the central part. It is washed by the British Channel and the Austrian Strait. The western region includes the entire alliance - George Land with an area of 2.9 thousand square meters. km. Franz Josef Land for the most part has a flat, plateau-like surface. Its average height reaches 400-490 m, and the highest point is 620 m.
Detection
The existence of a group of islands to the east of Spitsbergen was predicted by more than one great Russian scientist: first Lomonosov, and then Schilling and Kropotkin. Moreover, the latter in 1871 presented his expedition plan for their study to the Russian Geographical Society, but the government refused to allocate funds. The archipelago of Franz Josef Land was discovered only by chance. This happened when the Austro-Hungarian expedition under the leadership of J. Payer and K. Weyprecht set off in 1872 to develop the Northeast Passage. However, their ship was caught in ice, and gradually it drifted westward from Novaya Zemlya. In 1873, on August 30, the schooner "Admiral Tegetthoff" moored to the shores of unknown land. At the same time, Payer and Weyprecht explored its northern and southern margins. Before that, where Franz Josef Land is located, no one knew. In April 1874, Payer managed to reach a point with a coordinate of 82 ° 5 "north latitude. He also drew up a preliminary diagram of the found archipelago. At that time, it seemed to the researchers that it consisted of a number of large sections. The discovered land was named after the famous Franz Joseph I, Austrian emperor.
Development
In 1873, Payer and Weyprecht explored the southern part of the territory, and in the spring of 1874 they crossed it across from south to north on sleds. At the same time, Franz Josef Land was schematically depicted for the first time. The map, as it turned out later, had many errors. In 1881-1882. the open area on the yacht "Eira" was visited by the Scot B. L. Smith. And in 1895-1897. English geographer Frederick Jackson conducted many important surveys of the southwestern, middle and southern parts of the alliance. Subsequently, it turned out that the group consists of a much larger number of islands than expected. However, they were less significant in size compared to the designations on the Payer map.
Around the same period of time, Nansen and Johansen visited the northeastern and middle parts of the archipelago. In June 1896, the Norwegian Nansen accidentally discovered on about. Northbrook winter quarters for Frederick Jackson. In the summer of 1901, Vice-Admiral S. O. Makarov visited and surveyed the southwestern and southern shores of the islands. In the course of the work, the approximate size of the entire territory was established. Then in 1901-1902. research work continued to be conducted by American scientists Baldwin and Ziegler. Following them from 1903 to 1905. in order to get to the Pole on the ice, a new expedition was organized. It was led by Ziegler and Fial. In the period from 1913 to 1914, a group of geographers G. Ya. Sedov worked in Tikhaya Bay near Hooker Island. In the summer of 1914, the last surviving members of Brusilov's expedition, Albanov and Konrad, managed to reach the old Jackson-Harmsworth base. It was located on Cape Flora about. Northbrook. There, the geographers were saved by the schooner St. Foka, which had entered.
Accession to Russia and further development
In 1914, in search of a group of G. Ya. Sedov, an expedition led by Islyamov visited the islands. He also declared the area part of the territory of Russia and raised the flag. In 1929, in the bay of Quiet Island. Hooker, Soviet scientists opened the first research station. Thanks to her, Franz Josef Land has since become an annual host of Soviet polar expeditions. In the 50s. In the 20th century, air defense units were reorganized. One of them was accepted by Franz Josef Land. The military base was located on about. Graham Bell. The 30th separate radar company and a separate aviation commandant's office are located here. The latter served the ice airfield. But these are not all the strategic facilities that Franz Josef Land had. Alexandra Island received the 31st separate radar company "Nugarskaya". These units belonged to the northernmost military units of the Soviet Union. In the early 90s. they were eliminated. In 2008, in the course of research on a nuclear-powered icebreaker called "Yamal", it was discovered that separated from about. Northbrook part of the land. In honor of the Arctic captain, she was named after Yuri Kuchiev. On September 10, 2012, the AARI expedition on the nuclear icebreaker "Rossiya" discovered another detached part from about. Northbrook.
Population
There are no municipalities and permanent residents on Franz Josef Land. The temporary composition of the population includes border guards of the FSB, employees of research stations. From time to time, military personnel of the air defense unit also live here. They carry out missile defense of the northern direction of Russia. According to press reports, in 2005 the outermost post office "Arkhangelsk 163100" was opened on the territory of Heiss Island. Its working time was to be only 1 hour, from 10 am to 11 am from Tuesday to Friday. As of September 2013, under the index 163100 is the post office "Arkhangelsk" (Heis Island, Franz Josef Land). His work schedule is from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. every Wednesday.
Glaciers
They cover most of the surface of the archipelago (87%). The thickness varies from 100 to 500 m. Icebergs subsequently form from the glaciers descending into the sea. To a greater extent, the eastern and southeastern parts of the entire territory are subject to icing. New formations appear only at the very tops of ice sheets. At the same time, according to the results of ongoing research, the cover of Franz Josef Land is shrinking very quickly. If the observed rate of its destruction remains the same, the glaciation of the territory after 300 years may disappear forever.
Franz Josef Land. Hot, cold?
The group of islands has a typical arctic climate. The average annual temperature on about. Rudolf reaches -12°C. In July, in the Tikhaya Bay of Hooker Island, the air warms up to -1.2°C, and on Hayes Island, where the Observatory named after. Krenkel (the northernmost meteorological station in the world), - up to +1.6°C. The average temperature in January is about -24°C, and the lowest temperature reaches -52°C. Maximum gusts of wind - 40 m/sec. In the zone of accumulation of ice sheets, an average of 250 to 550 mm of precipitation falls annually.
Flora and fauna of the Arctic
The flora of the archipelago is dominated by mosses and lichens. There are also grains, saxifrage and polar poppy. Among the mammals you can see the polar bear. Less common is the white fox. Walrus, beluga whale, narwhal, sea hare and seal live in coastal waters. Birds are richer represented in the fauna of the archipelago - there are only 26 species of winged ones. Among them are guillemots, kittiwakes, guillemots, white gulls, little auks, burgomaster, etc. In summer they form bird rookeries.
Tourist trips to the North Pole
How much does a cruise to Franz Josef Land cost? Tours to the Arctic can be purchased at a cost of 875,076 rubles. ($24,995). Yes, very expensive pleasure! The voucher may include a trip with an expedition team to the Franz Josef Land nature reserve. Undoubtedly, this is one of the most unusual and luxurious holiday options. The excursion program invites its guests to reach the "Top of the World" - 90 degrees N. sh. aboard the world's most powerful nuclear-powered icebreaker "50 Years of Victory". The conquest of the ice expanses ends with a polar barbeque on the ice cover, a cheerful round-the-world round dance and swimming in the Arctic Ocean. On the way back, travelers will be offered helicopter tours to the islands of the archipelago, the incredible panorama of which will surely captivate with its beauty. 540 miles from the North Pole is home to a huge number of seals, arctic birds, walruses and polar bears. In the case of planning such a tourist trip, one should take into account the fact that the trip takes place in a hard-to-reach, little-studied and remote part of the globe. As a result, the route of the program can be considered only as a general, familiarization plan of the expedition, since under the influence of such external factors as ice conditions, weather, etc., it may change. As ten-year practice shows, not a single expedition tour to the Arctic repeats exactly the previous one. The nature of the North Pole makes its own adjustments. This is the peculiarity and specificity of expedition cruises.
General travel plan
Day 1
Arrival in Murmansk, boarding the icebreaker. At the pier, waiting for a group of travelers to board, stands the world's most powerful nuclear-powered icebreaker with the lyrical name "50 Years of Victory". After some time, the ship will leave the mainland and set off towards new experiences, passing by
Day 2
in the Barents Sea. An integral part of each expedition is the preparation of passengers for the peculiarities of an unusual journey. Members of the organizational team will acquaint vacationers with the safety rules on board the ship and helicopter, as well as tell about all the nuances associated with the implementation of landings in the Arctic.
Day 3-5
Direct course to the Arctic. The next three busy days spent on the ship will introduce passengers to interesting historical facts and the amazing nature of this region.
Day 6
Arrival at the North Pole. On approaching the destination, the captain will bring the icebreaker to the coveted coordinate - 90 ° north latitude with slow, clear maneuvers. After the ship stops, the vacationers will descend onto a suitable ice floe and will conduct the ritual of the "round the world procession" that has already become traditional. This is followed by another interesting ritual - travelers will be asked to write notes, which are subsequently placed in metal capsules and immersed in the abyss of the Arctic Ocean.
Day 7-9
Destination - Franz Josef Land. Despite the fact that the main task of the expedition has already been completed, travelers will still expect many interesting and impressive events. Well-preserved buildings make it possible to trace the most important historical events that took place on the archipelago many years ago. Among them, it is worth noting a house on about. Bell, built in 1881 by members of the expedition of Lee Smith, and the ruins of the old camp on about. Northbrook. It was there in 1896 that a significant meeting between Nansen and Jackson took place. It is also worth visiting Cape Norway, where for a long 7 months Nansen F. and Johansen conducted joint research; to honor the memory of the scientist G. Ya. Sedov, whose image became the prototype of the protagonist in the creation of the novel "Two Captains" by Kaverin. The pristine expanses of the Arctic and the originality of landscapes are presented by Franz Josef Land to its guests. Photos taken in this area invariably amaze with their uniqueness and beauty. Glaciers, reminiscent of lunar craters, combined with multi-colored carpets of mosses and bright poppy flowers, create an amazing, indescribable atmosphere of harmony. An obligatory component of the Arctic landscape are also thousands of bird colonies and walrus rookeries that fill the coastal horizon of the Franz Josef Land archipelago. A photo in the bosom of polar nature will allow you to capture a unique moment in life and keep it in your memory for many years.
Day 10-11
in the Barents Sea. It's time to return to Murmansk. On the way back, the captain will invite travelers to dinner in his apartment. There, passengers will be able to relax in an interesting company and listen to entertaining real stories about the service on the icebreaker from the original source.
What is included in the total cost of the tour
- Journey aboard the icebreaker "50 Years of Victory".
- Planned group excursions. This includes all shore trips, visits to historic sites and other helicopter activities.
- Excursions on the zodiacs (upon the decision of the expedition leader due to worsening weather conditions, they can be canceled).
- Lecture program prepared by famous naturalists and specialists of the region.
- Four meals a day (including fresh pastries for an afternoon snack); coffee and light snacks throughout the day; drinking water.
- Rubber boots for rent during the cruise.
- Information materials for acquaintance and expedition diary with photos on DVD.
- Postage and technical costs.
- Special jacket for the expedition.
- Medical accident insurance on board.
