The Firnley Islands, also spelt Firnleya or Firileya (Russian: острова Фирнлея; Ostrova Firnleya) is a group of three small islands covered with tundra vegetation and with scattered stones on their shores. They lie in the Kara Sea

Kara Sea

The Kara Sea is part of the Arctic Ocean north of Siberia. It is separated from the Barents Sea to the west by the Kara Strait and Novaya Zemlya, and the Laptev Sea to the east by the Severnaya Zemlya....

, close to the bleak coast of Siberia

Siberia

Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...

's Taymyr Peninsula

Taymyr Peninsula

The Taymyr Peninsula is a peninsula in the Far North of Russia, in the Siberian Federal District, that forms the northernmost part of mainland Eurasia and Asia...

, not far east of the Nordenskjold Archipelago. These islands are about 35 km from the continental shore.

The Firnley Islands are covering the entrance to the Vilkitsky Strait

Vilkitsky Strait

Vilkitsky Strait is a strait between the Taimyr Peninsula and Bolshevik Island in the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago. The strait connects the Kara and Laptev Seas. The length of the Vilkitsky Strait is 104 km, the width – approx. 55 km, and the depth – between 32 and 210 m. It is...

 from the west.
Dlinnyy, the largest island of the group, is only about 5 km in length.

The sea surrounding the Firnley Islands is covered with fast ice in the winter, which is long and bitter, and the climate is exceptionally severe. The surrounding sea is obstructed by pack ice even in the summer, so that these islands are connected with the mainland for most of the year.

This island group belongs to the Krasnoyarsk Krai

Krasnoyarsk Krai

Krasnoyarsk Krai is a federal subject of Russia . It is the second largest federal subject after the Sakha Republic, and Russia's largest krai, occupying an area of , which is 13% of the country's total territory. The administrative center of the krai is the city of Krasnoyarsk...

 administrative division of the Russian Federation. It is also part of the Great Arctic State Nature Reserve

Great Arctic State Nature Reserve

The Great Arctic State Nature Reserve is a nature reserve in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia...

, the largest nature reserve of Russia.

The Firnley Islands were named by Fridtjof Nansen

Fridtjof Nansen

Fridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen was a Norwegian explorer, scientist, diplomat, humanitarian and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. In his youth a champion skier and ice skater, he led the team that made the first crossing of the Greenland interior in 1888, and won international fame after reaching a...

 after Thomas Fearnley

Thomas Fearnley

Thomas Fearnley was a Norwegian painter.-Background:Thomas Fearnley was born in Fredrikshald , in Østfold county, Norway. Fearnley's father's family came originally from Yorkshire, in England. His grandfather was a merchant who came to Fredrikshald, Norway in 1753...

^?, a Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 merchant who was one of the main financiers of the Fram

Fram

Fram is a ship that was used in expeditions of the Arctic and Antarctic regions by the Norwegian explorers Fridtjof Nansen, Otto Sverdrup, Oscar Wisting, and Roald Amundsen between 1893 and 1912...

expedition.

Adjacent islands

Although located relatively close by, the following islands are usually not considered part of the Firnley group:

• Moristyy Island 77°19′N 100°18′E is a round isolated island located 20 km north of the Firnley group. Moristy is 600 m across.

• Lishniy Island 76°57′N 100°27′E lies 35 km further SSE of Yuzhnyy Firnleya, 16 km from the coast. Lishniy is 1.3 km long and 650 m wide.

• Levinson-Lessing Island (Ostrov Levinsona-Lessinga) 77°01′N 101°17′E is located close to the shore, 23 km to the NE of Lishniy. This 7 km long island was named after prominent Russian geologist Feodor Yulievich Levinson-Lessing
  Feodor Yulievich Levinson-Lessing
  Fëdor Yulievich Levinson-Lessing , or Franz Theodor Levinson-Lessing was a Russian geologist....
  
  .