Wrangel Island
Encyclopedia
Wrangel Island is an island
in the Arctic Ocean
, between the Chukchi Sea
and East Siberian Sea
. Wrangel Island lies astride the 180°
meridian
. The International Date Line
is displaced eastwards at this latitude to avoid the island as well as the Chukchi Peninsula
on the Russia
n mainland. The closest land to Wrangel Island is tiny and rocky Herald Island
located 60 km (37.3 mi) to the east.
Nearly all of Wrangel Island, and Herald Island, are a federally protected nature sanctuary administered by Russia's Ministry of Natural Resources. The island, and their surrounding waters, were classified as a "Zapovednik" (a "strict nature reserve") in 1976 and, as such, receive the highest level of protection and excludes practically all human activity other than for scientific purposes. The Chukotka Regional government extended the marine protected area out to 24 nautical miles in 1999. As of 2003, there were four rangers who reside on the island year-round. In addition a core of about 12 scientists conduct research during the summer months.
Wrangel Island is about 125 km (77.7 mi) wide and 7600 km² (2,934.4 sq mi) in area. It consists of a southern coastal plain that is as wide as 15 km (9.3 mi); a central belt of low-relief mountains; and a northern coastal plain that is as wide as 25 km (15.5 mi). The east-west trending central mountain belt, the Tsentral'nye Mountain Range, is as much as 40 km (24.9 mi) wide and 145 km (90.1 mi) long from coast to coast. Typically, the mountains are a little over 500 m (1,640.4 ft) above mean sea level. The highest mountain on this island is Sovetskaya Mountain with an elevation of 1096 m (3,595.8 ft) above mean sea level. The east-west trending mountain range terminates at sea cliffs at either end of the island.
Wrangel Island belongs administratively to the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug
of the Russian Federation. This rocky island has a weather station
and, formerly, two Chukchi
fishing settlements on the southern side of the island (Ushakovskoye
and Zvyozdny on the shore of Somnitelnaya Bay).
Wrangel Island consists of folded, faulted, and metamorphosed volcanic, intrusive, and sedimentary rock
s ranging in age from Upper Precambrian
to Lower Mesozoic
. The Precambrian rocks, which are about 2 km (1.2 mi) thick, consist of Upper Proterozoic
sericite
and chlorite
slate
and schist
that contain minor amounts of metavolcanic rock
s, metaconglomerate
s, and quartzite
. These rocks are intruded by metamorphosed gabbro
, diabase
, and felsic
dikes
and sills
and granite
intrusion
s. Overlying the Precambrian strata are up to 2.25 km (1.4 mi) of Upper Silurian
to Lower Carboniferous
consisting of interbedded sandstone
, siltstone
, slate, argillite
, some conglomerate
and rare limestone
and dolomite
. These strata are overlain by up to 2.15 km (1.3 mi) of Carboniferous to Permian
limestone, often composed largely of crinoid
plates, that is interbedded with slate, argillite and locally minor amounts of thick breccia
, sandstone, and chert
. The uppermost stratum consists of 0.7 to 1.5 km (0.434960915654865 to 0.93205910497471 mi) of Triassic
clayey quartz
ose turbidite
s interbedded with black slate and siltstone.
A thin veneer of Cenozoic
gravel
, sand
, clay
and mud
underlie the coastal plains of Wrangel Island. Late Neogene
clay and gravel, which are only a few tens of meters thick, rest upon the eroded surface of the folded and faulted strata that comprise Wrangel Island. Indurated Pliocene
mud and gravel, which are only a few meters thick, overlie the Late Neogene sediments. Sandy Pleistocene
sediment
s occur as fluvial
sediments along rivers and streams and as a very thin and patchy surficial layer of either colluvium
or eluvium
.
Wrangel Island is a breeding ground for polar bear
s (having the highest density of dens in the world), seal
s, walrus, and lemming
s. During the summer it is visited by many types of bird
s. Arctic fox also make their home on the island.
Woolly mammoth
s survived there until 1650 BC, the most recent survival of all known mammoth populations. However, due to limited food supply, they were much smaller in size
than typical mammoths. Domestic reindeer
were introduced in the 1950s and their numbers are managed at around 1,000 in order to reduce their impact on nesting bird grounds. In 1975 musk ox
were also introduced. The population has grown from 20 to about 200 animals. Recently, Arctic Wolf
have been spotted on the island; wolves have lived on the island in historical times but previous packs were eradicated to reduce predation on reindeer and musk ox.
The flora includes 417 species of plant
s, double that of any other Arctic tundra
territory of comparable size and more than any other Arctic island. For these reasons, the island was proclaimed the northernmost World Heritage Site
in 2004.
. The region is blanketed by dry and cold Arctic air masses for most of the year. Warmer and more humid air can reach the island from the south-east during summer. Dry and heated air from Siberia
comes to the island periodically.
Wrangel Island is influenced by both the Arctic and Pacific air masses. One consequence is the predominance of high winds. The island is subjected to “cyclonic” episodes characterized by rapid circular winds. It is also an island of mists and fogs.
Winters are prolonged and are characterized by steady frosty weather and high northerly winds. During this period the temperatures usually stay well below freezing for months. In February and March there are frequent snow-storms with wind speeds of 140 km/h (87 mph) or above.
There are noticeable differences in climate between the northern, central and southern parts of the island. The central and southern portion is warmer, with some of the valleys having semi-continental climates that support a number sub-Arctic steppe-like meadow species. This is a unique feature in the High Arctic.
The short summers are cool but comparatively mild as the polar day
generally keeps temperatures above 0 °C (32 °F). Some frost
s and snowfalls occur, and fog
is common. Warmer and drier weather are experienced in the center of the island because the interior's topography encourages foehn winds. As of 2003, the frost-free period on the island was very short, usually not more than 20-to-25 days, and more often only two weeks.
Average relative humidity is about 82%.
s as an isolated population until their extinction about 2000 BC, making them the most recent surviving population known to science. A specific variant of the species seems to have survived as a dwarf version of the species originating from Siberia. A combination of late climate change (warming) and the presence of modern humans using advanced hunting and survival skills probably hastened their demise on this frozen isle which until recently was ice bound for most years with infrequent breaks of clear water in some Arctic summers. A mirror development can be found with the Dwarf elephant
on Malta, originating from the African species.
Evidence for prehistoric
human occupation was uncovered in 1975 at the Chertov Ovrag
site. Various stone and ivory
tools were found, including a toggling harpoon
. Radiocarbon dating
shows the human inhabitation roughly coeval with the last mammoth
s on the island circa 1700 BC, though no direct evidence of mammoth hunting has been found.
Paleoeskimos people established camps on the southern side of the island for marine hunters. By the time Wrangel Island was discovered by Europeans there was no aboriginal population.
A legend prevalent among the Chukchi people of Siberia tells of a chief Krachai
(or Krächoj, Krahay, Khrakhai), who fled with his people (the Krachaians or Krahays, also identified as the Onkilon or Omoki--Siberian Yupik people) across the ice to settle in a northern land. Though the story may be mythical, the existence of an island or continent to the north was lent credence by the annual migration of reindeer
across the ice, as well as the appearance of slate spear-points washed up on Arctic shores, made in a fashion unknown to the Chukchi. Michael E. Krauss has recently presented archaeological, historical, and linguistic evidence that Wrangel Island was a way station on a trade route linking the Inuit settlement at Point Hope, Alaska
with the north Siberian coast, and that the coast may have been colonized in late prehistoric and early historic times by Inuit settlers from North America. Krauss suggests that the departure of these colonists was related to the Krachai legend.
(1797–1870), who, after reading Andreyev's report and hearing Chukchi stories of land at the island's coordinates
, set off on an expedition (1820–1824) to discover the island, with no success.
, captain of HMS Herald
, landed on and named Herald Island
. He thought he saw another island to the west, which he called Plover Island; thereafter it was indicated on British
admiralty charts as Kellett Land.
The first recorded landing on the island was in 1866 by a German whaler
, Eduard Dallmann
.
In August 1867, Thomas Long, an American
whaling captain, "approached it as near as fifteen miles. I have named this northern land Wrangell [sic] Land … as an appropriate tribute to the memory of a man who spent three consecutive years north of latitude 68°
, and demonstrated the problem of this open polar sea forty-five years ago, although others of much later date have endeavored to claim the merit of this discovery."
George W. DeLong
, commanding USS Jeannette
, led an expedition in 1879 attempting to reach the North Pole
, expecting to go by the "east side of Kellett land," which he thought extended far into the Arctic. His ship became locked in the polar ice pack
and drifted westward, passing within sight of Wrangel before being crushed and sunk in the vicinity of the New Siberian Islands
. A landing on Wrangel Island took place on August 12, 1881, by a party from the USRC
Corwin
, who claimed the island for the United States and named it "New Columbia." The expedition, under the command of Calvin L. Hooper, was seeking the Jeannette and two missing whaler
s in addition to conducting general exploration. It included naturalist
John Muir
, who published the first description of Wrangel Island. The USS Rodgers
, also searching for the Jeannette, landed a party on Wrangel Island, also in 1881 but after the Corwin party. They stayed about two weeks and conducted an extensive survey and search.
In 1911, the Russian Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition on icebreaker
s Vaygach
and Taymyr
under Boris Vilkitsky
, landed on the island. In 1916 the Tsarist government declared that the island belonged to the Russian empire.
, organized by Vilhjalmur Stefansson
, were marooned on Wrangel Island for nine months after their ship, the Karluk, was crushed in the ice pack. The survivors were rescued by the American motorized fishing schooner
King & Winge
after Captain Robert Bartlett walked across the Chukchi Sea
to Siberia to summon help.
In 1921, Stefansson sent five settlers (the Canadian Allan Crawford, three Americans: Fred Maurer, Lorne Knight and Milton Galle, and Eskimo
seamstress and cook Ada Blackjack
) to the island in a speculative attempt to claim it for Canada
. The explorers were handpicked by Stefansson based upon their previous experience and academic credentials. Stefansson considered those with advanced knowledge in the fields of geography and science for this expedition. At the time, Stefansson claimed that his purpose was to head off a possible Japanese claim. An attempt to relieve this group in 1922 failed when the schooner Teddy Bear under Captain Joe Bernard became stuck in the ice . In 1923, the sole survivor of the Wrangel Island expedition, Ada Blackjack, was rescued by a ship that left another party of 13 (American Charles Wells and 12 Inuit). In 1924, the Soviet Union
removed the American and the 13 Inuit (one was born on the island) of this settlement aboard the Krasny Oktiabr. Wells subsequently died of pneumonia in Vladivostok during a diplomatic American-Soviet row about an American boundary marker on the Siberian coast, and so did an Inuit child. The others were deported from Vladivostok to the Chinese border post Suifenhe
, but the Chinese government didn't want to accept them as the American consul in Darbin told them the Inuit were not American citizens. Later the American government came up with a statement that the Inuit were 'wards' of the United States, but that there were no funds for returning them. Eventually the American Red Cross came up with $1600 for their return. They subsequently moved through Darwin, Darien
, Kobe
and Seattle (where another Inuit child drowned during the wait for the return trip to Alaska) back to Nome. During the Soviet trip the American reindeer owner Carl J. Lomen
from Nome had taken over the possessions of Stefansson and had acquired explicit support ("go and hold it") from US Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes
to claim the island for the United States, a goal which the Russian expedition got to hear during their trip. Loman dispatched the MS Herman, commanded by captain Louis L. Lane. Due to unfavorable ice conditions the Herman could not get any further than Herald Island, where the American flag was raised.
In 1926, the government of the Soviet Union reaffirmed the Tsarist claim to sovereignty over Wrangel Island.
In 1929, the icebreaker Fyodor Litke was chosen for a rescue operation. It sailed from Sevastopol
, commanded by captain Konstantin Dublitsky. On July 4, it reached Vladivostok
where all Black Sea
sailors were replaced by local crew members. Ten days later Litke sailed north; it passed Bering Strait
, and tried to pass De Long Strait
and approach the island from south. On August 8 a scout plane reported impassable ice in the strait, and Litke turned north, heading to Herald Island
. It failed to escape mounting ice; August 12 the captain shut down the engines to save coal and had to wait two weeks until the ice pressure eased. Making a few hundred meters a day, Litke reached the settlement August 28. On September 5, Litke turned back, taking all the 'islanders' to safety. This operation earned Litke the order of the Red Banner of Labour
(January 20, 1930), as well as commemorative badges for the crew.
According to a 1936 article in Time Magazine Wrangel Island became the scene of a bizarre criminal story in the 1930s when it fell under the increasingly arbitrary rule of its appointed governor Konstantin Semenchuk. Semenchuk controlled the local populace and his own staff through open extortion and murder. He forbade the local Eskimo
s (recruited from Provideniya Bay in 1926) to hunt walrus
, which put them in danger of starvation, while collecting food for himself. He was then implicated in the mysterious deaths of some of his opponents, including the local doctor. The subsequent Moscow
trial in June 1936 sentenced Semenchuk to death for "banditry" and violation of Soviet law.
In 1948, a small herd of domestic reindeer was introduced with the intention of establishing commercial herding to generate income for island residents.
A prisoner who later emigrated to Israel
, Efim Moshinsky, claims to have seen Raoul Wallenberg
there in 1962. However, despite the legends, there never was a Gulag camp on Wrangel.
Aside from the main settlement of Ushakovskoye
near Rogers Bay, on the south-central coast, in the 1960s, a new settlement named Zvyozndy was established to the west in the Somnitelnaya Bay area, where ground runways reserved for military aviation purposes were constructed (these were abandoned in the 1970s). Moreover, a military radar installation was built on the southeast coast at Cape Hawaii. Rock crystal mining had been carried out for a number of years in the center of the island near Khrustalnyi Creek. At the time, a small settlement, Perkatkun, had been established nearby to house the miners, but later on it was completely destroyed.
By the 1980s, the reindeer-herding farm on Wrangel had been abolished and the settlement of Zvezdnyi was virtually abandoned. Hunting had already been stopped, except for a small quota of marine mammals for the needs of the local population. In 1992, the military radar installation at Cape Hawaii (on the southeast coast) was closed and only the settlement of Ushakivskoe remained occupied on the island.
no such claim exists. The USSR/USA Maritime Boundary Treaty, which has yet to be approved by the Russian Duma
, does not address the status of these islands nor the martime boundaries
associated with them.
In 2004 Wrangel Island and neighboring Herald Island, along with their surrounding waters, were added to UNESCO's World Heritage List.
The polar weather station and village of Ushakovskoe, with its surrounding non-Reserve buffer zone lying just outside the Nature Reserve poses the greatest immediate threat to the Reserve. Present day human impact within the Reserve is minimal. According to a 2003 report prepared by the Nature Reserve staff, there has already been environmental damage from the 80-plus years of settlement at Ushakovskoe. For instance, the staff at the polar weather station are rotational and their behaviour is not always sensitive to the vulnerabilities of the island. The Reserve rangers currently spend much of their time observing the activities at Ushakovskoe to minimize environmental damage. The Reserve staff do not have patrol boats and the threat of unauthorized fishing and poaching is always a serious threat.
's novel César Cascabel
, the protagonists float past Wrangel Island on an iceberg. In Verne's description, a live volcano is located on the island: "Between the two capes on its southern coast, Cape Hawan and Cape Thomas, it is surmounted by a live volcano, which is marked on the recent maps." In Chukchi author Yuri Rytkheu
's historical novel A Dream in Polar Fog, set in the early 20th century, the Chukchi knew of Wrangel Island and referred to it as the "Invisible Land" or "Invisible Island."
Island
An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...
in the Arctic Ocean
Arctic Ocean
The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions...
, between the Chukchi Sea
Chukchi Sea
Chukchi Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is bounded on the west by the De Long Strait, off Wrangel Island, and in the east by Point Barrow, Alaska, beyond which lies the Beaufort Sea. The Bering Strait forms its southernmost limit and connects it to the Bering Sea and the Pacific...
and East Siberian Sea
East Siberian Sea
The East Siberian Sea is a marginal sea in the Arctic Ocean. It is located between the Arctic Cape to the north, the coast of Siberia to the south, the New Siberian Islands to the west and Cape Billings, close to Chukotka, and Wrangel Island to the east...
. Wrangel Island lies astride the 180°
180th meridian
The 180th meridian or antimeridian is the meridian which is 180° east or west of the Prime Meridian passing through the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. It is common to both east longitude and west longitude. It is used as the basis for the International Date Line because it for the most part passes...
meridian
Meridian (geography)
A meridian is an imaginary line on the Earth's surface from the North Pole to the South Pole that connects all locations along it with a given longitude. The position of a point along the meridian is given by its latitude. Each meridian is perpendicular to all circles of latitude...
. The International Date Line
International Date Line
The International Date Line is a generally north-south imaginary line on the surface of the Earth, passing through the middle of the Pacific Ocean, that designates the place where each calendar day begins...
is displaced eastwards at this latitude to avoid the island as well as the Chukchi Peninsula
Chukchi Peninsula
The Chukchi Peninsula, Chukotka Peninsula or Chukotski Peninsula , at about 66° N 172° W, is the northeastern extremity of Asia. Its eastern end is at Cape Dezhnev near the village of Uelen. It is bordered by the Chukchi Sea to the north, the Bering Sea to the south, and the Bering Strait to the...
on the Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n mainland. The closest land to Wrangel Island is tiny and rocky Herald Island
Herald Island (Arctic)
Herald Island or Gerald Island is a small, isolated Russian island in the Chukchi Sea, to the east of Wrangel Island. It rises in sheer cliffs, making it quite inaccessible, either by ship or by plane. The only sliver of shoreline is at its northwestern point, where the cliffs have crumbled into...
located 60 km (37.3 mi) to the east.
Nearly all of Wrangel Island, and Herald Island, are a federally protected nature sanctuary administered by Russia's Ministry of Natural Resources. The island, and their surrounding waters, were classified as a "Zapovednik" (a "strict nature reserve") in 1976 and, as such, receive the highest level of protection and excludes practically all human activity other than for scientific purposes. The Chukotka Regional government extended the marine protected area out to 24 nautical miles in 1999. As of 2003, there were four rangers who reside on the island year-round. In addition a core of about 12 scientists conduct research during the summer months.
Wrangel Island is about 125 km (77.7 mi) wide and 7600 km² (2,934.4 sq mi) in area. It consists of a southern coastal plain that is as wide as 15 km (9.3 mi); a central belt of low-relief mountains; and a northern coastal plain that is as wide as 25 km (15.5 mi). The east-west trending central mountain belt, the Tsentral'nye Mountain Range, is as much as 40 km (24.9 mi) wide and 145 km (90.1 mi) long from coast to coast. Typically, the mountains are a little over 500 m (1,640.4 ft) above mean sea level. The highest mountain on this island is Sovetskaya Mountain with an elevation of 1096 m (3,595.8 ft) above mean sea level. The east-west trending mountain range terminates at sea cliffs at either end of the island.
Wrangel Island belongs administratively to the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug
Chukotka Autonomous Okrug
Chukotka Autonomous Okrug , or Chukotka , is a federal subject of Russia located in the Russian Far East.Chukotka has a population of 53,824 according to the 2002 Census, and a surface area of . The principal town and the administrative center is Anadyr...
of the Russian Federation. This rocky island has a weather station
Weather station
A weather station is a facility, either on land or sea, with instruments and equipment for observing atmospheric conditions to provide information for weather forecasts and to study the weather and climate. The measurements taken include temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, wind speed, wind...
and, formerly, two Chukchi
Chukchi people
The Chukchi, or Chukchee , ) are an indigenous people inhabiting the Chukchi Peninsula and the shores of the Chukchi Sea and the Bering Sea region of the Arctic Ocean within the Russian Federation. They speak the Chukchi language...
fishing settlements on the southern side of the island (Ushakovskoye
Ushakovskoye
Ushakovskoye was a rural locality on the south east coast of Wrangel Island, Shmidtovsky District in the Russian Arctic that was deserted in 2003. Ushakovskoye was named after the explorer and founder of the polar station in Rogers Bay, Georgy Ushakov, who discovered a number of new islands in...
and Zvyozdny on the shore of Somnitelnaya Bay).
Geology
Sedimentary rock
Sedimentary rock are types of rock that are formed by the deposition of material at the Earth's surface and within bodies of water. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause mineral and/or organic particles to settle and accumulate or minerals to precipitate from a solution....
s ranging in age from Upper Precambrian
Precambrian
The Precambrian is the name which describes the large span of time in Earth's history before the current Phanerozoic Eon, and is a Supereon divided into several eons of the geologic time scale...
to Lower Mesozoic
Mesozoic
The Mesozoic era is an interval of geological time from about 250 million years ago to about 65 million years ago. It is often referred to as the age of reptiles because reptiles, namely dinosaurs, were the dominant terrestrial and marine vertebrates of the time...
. The Precambrian rocks, which are about 2 km (1.2 mi) thick, consist of Upper Proterozoic
Proterozoic
The Proterozoic is a geological eon representing a period before the first abundant complex life on Earth. The name Proterozoic comes from the Greek "earlier life"...
sericite
Sericite
Sericite is a fine grained mica, similar to muscovite, illite, or paragonite. Sericite is a common alteration mineral of orthoclase or plagioclase feldspars in areas that have been subjected to hydrothermal alteration typically associated with copper, tin, or other hydrothermal ore deposits...
and chlorite
Chlorite
The chlorite ion is ClO2−. A chlorite is a compound that contains this group,with chlorine in oxidation state +3. Chlorites are also known as salts of chlorous acid.-Oxidation states:...
slate
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...
and schist
Schist
The schists constitute a group of medium-grade metamorphic rocks, chiefly notable for the preponderance of lamellar minerals such as micas, chlorite, talc, hornblende, graphite, and others. Quartz often occurs in drawn-out grains to such an extent that a particular form called quartz schist is...
that contain minor amounts of metavolcanic rock
Metavolcanic rock
In geology, metavolcanic rock is a type of metamorphic rock. Such a rock was first produced by a volcano, either as lava or tephra. Then, the rock was buried underneath subsequent rock and was subjected to high pressures and temperatures, causing the rock to recrystallize...
s, metaconglomerate
Metaconglomerate
Metaconglomerate is a rock type which originated from conglomerate after undergoing metamorphism. Conglomerate is easily identifiable by the pebbles or larger clasts in a matrix of sand, silt, or clay. Metaconglomerate looks similar to conglomerate, although sometimes the clasts are deformed...
s, and quartzite
Quartzite
Quartzite is a hard metamorphic rock which was originally sandstone. Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tectonic compression within orogenic belts. Pure quartzite is usually white to gray, though quartzites often occur in various shades of pink...
. These rocks are intruded by metamorphosed gabbro
Gabbro
Gabbro refers to a large group of dark, coarse-grained, intrusive mafic igneous rocks chemically equivalent to basalt. The rocks are plutonic, formed when molten magma is trapped beneath the Earth's surface and cools into a crystalline mass....
, diabase
Diabase
Diabase or dolerite is a mafic, holocrystalline, subvolcanic rock equivalent to volcanic basalt or plutonic gabbro. In North American usage, the term diabase refers to the fresh rock, whilst elsewhere the term dolerite is used for the fresh rock and diabase refers to altered material...
, and felsic
Felsic
The word "felsic" is a term used in geology to refer to silicate minerals, magma, and rocks which are enriched in the lighter elements such as silicon, oxygen, aluminium, sodium, and potassium....
dikes
Dike (geology)
A dike or dyke in geology is a type of sheet intrusion referring to any geologic body that cuts discordantly across* planar wall rock structures, such as bedding or foliation...
and sills
Sill (geology)
In geology, a sill is a tabular sheet intrusion that has intruded between older layers of sedimentary rock, beds of volcanic lava or tuff, or even along the direction of foliation in metamorphic rock. The term sill is synonymous with concordant intrusive sheet...
and granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
intrusion
Intrusion
An intrusion is liquid rock that forms under Earth's surface. Magma from under the surface is slowly pushed up from deep within the earth into any cracks or spaces it can find, sometimes pushing existing country rock out of the way, a process that can take millions of years. As the rock slowly...
s. Overlying the Precambrian strata are up to 2.25 km (1.4 mi) of Upper Silurian
Silurian
The Silurian is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Ordovician Period, about 443.7 ± 1.5 Mya , to the beginning of the Devonian Period, about 416.0 ± 2.8 Mya . As with other geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period's start and end are well identified, but the...
to Lower Carboniferous
Carboniferous
The Carboniferous is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Devonian Period, about 359.2 ± 2.5 Mya , to the beginning of the Permian Period, about 299.0 ± 0.8 Mya . The name is derived from the Latin word for coal, carbo. Carboniferous means "coal-bearing"...
consisting of interbedded sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
, siltstone
Siltstone
Siltstone is a sedimentary rock which has a grain size in the silt range, finer than sandstone and coarser than claystones.- Description :As its name implies, it is primarily composed of silt sized particles, defined as grains 1/16 - 1/256 mm or 4 to 8 on the Krumbein phi scale...
, slate, argillite
Argillite
An argillite is a fine-grained sedimentary rock composed predominantly of indurated clay particles. Argillaceous rocks are basically lithified muds and oozes. They contain variable amounts of silt-sized particles. The argillites grade into shale when the fissile layering typical of shale is...
, some conglomerate
Conglomerate (geology)
A conglomerate is a rock consisting of individual clasts within a finer-grained matrix that have become cemented together. Conglomerates are sedimentary rocks consisting of rounded fragments and are thus differentiated from breccias, which consist of angular clasts...
and rare limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
and dolomite
Dolomite
Dolomite is a carbonate mineral composed of calcium magnesium carbonate CaMg2. The term is also used to describe the sedimentary carbonate rock dolostone....
. These strata are overlain by up to 2.15 km (1.3 mi) of Carboniferous to Permian
Permian
The PermianThe term "Permian" was introduced into geology in 1841 by Sir Sir R. I. Murchison, president of the Geological Society of London, who identified typical strata in extensive Russian explorations undertaken with Edouard de Verneuil; Murchison asserted in 1841 that he named his "Permian...
limestone, often composed largely of crinoid
Crinoid
Crinoids are marine animals that make up the class Crinoidea of the echinoderms . Crinoidea comes from the Greek word krinon, "a lily", and eidos, "form". They live both in shallow water and in depths as great as 6,000 meters. Sea lilies refer to the crinoids which, in their adult form, are...
plates, that is interbedded with slate, argillite and locally minor amounts of thick breccia
Breccia
Breccia is a rock composed of broken fragments of minerals or rock cemented together by a fine-grained matrix, that can be either similar to or different from the composition of the fragments....
, sandstone, and chert
Chert
Chert is a fine-grained silica-rich microcrystalline, cryptocrystalline or microfibrous sedimentary rock that may contain small fossils. It varies greatly in color , but most often manifests as gray, brown, grayish brown and light green to rusty red; its color is an expression of trace elements...
. The uppermost stratum consists of 0.7 to 1.5 km (0.434960915654865 to 0.93205910497471 mi) of Triassic
Triassic
The Triassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about 250 to 200 Mya . As the first period of the Mesozoic Era, the Triassic follows the Permian and is followed by the Jurassic. Both the start and end of the Triassic are marked by major extinction events...
clayey quartz
Quartz
Quartz is the second-most-abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust, after feldspar. It is made up of a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall formula SiO2. There are many different varieties of quartz,...
ose turbidite
Turbidite
Turbidite geological formations have their origins in turbidity current deposits, which are deposits from a form of underwater avalanche that are responsible for distributing vast amounts of clastic sediment into the deep ocean.-The ideal turbidite sequence:...
s interbedded with black slate and siltstone.
A thin veneer of Cenozoic
Cenozoic
The Cenozoic era is the current and most recent of the three Phanerozoic geological eras and covers the period from 65.5 mya to the present. The era began in the wake of the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous that saw the demise of the last non-avian dinosaurs and...
gravel
Gravel
Gravel is composed of unconsolidated rock fragments that have a general particle size range and include size classes from granule- to boulder-sized fragments. Gravel can be sub-categorized into granule and cobble...
, sand
Sand
Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal...
, clay
Clay
Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...
and mud
Mud
Mud is a mixture of water and some combination of soil, silt, and clay. Ancient mud deposits harden over geological time to form sedimentary rock such as shale or mudstone . When geological deposits of mud are formed in estuaries the resultant layers are termed bay muds...
underlie the coastal plains of Wrangel Island. Late Neogene
Neogene
The Neogene is a geologic period and system in the International Commission on Stratigraphy Geologic Timescale starting 23.03 ± 0.05 million years ago and ending 2.588 million years ago...
clay and gravel, which are only a few tens of meters thick, rest upon the eroded surface of the folded and faulted strata that comprise Wrangel Island. Indurated Pliocene
Pliocene
The Pliocene Epoch is the period in the geologic timescale that extends from 5.332 million to 2.588 million years before present. It is the second and youngest epoch of the Neogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Pliocene follows the Miocene Epoch and is followed by the Pleistocene Epoch...
mud and gravel, which are only a few meters thick, overlie the Late Neogene sediments. Sandy Pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
sediment
Sediment
Sediment is naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of fluids such as wind, water, or ice, and/or by the force of gravity acting on the particle itself....
s occur as fluvial
Fluvial
Fluvial is used in geography and Earth science to refer to the processes associated with rivers and streams and the deposits and landforms created by them...
sediments along rivers and streams and as a very thin and patchy surficial layer of either colluvium
Colluvium
Colluvium is the name for loose bodies of sediment that have been deposited or built up at the bottom of a low-grade slope or against a barrier on that slope, transported by gravity. The deposits that collect at the foot of a steep slope or cliff are also known by the same name. Colluvium often...
or eluvium
Eluvium
Eluvium is the moniker of ambient recording artist Matthew Cooper, who currently resides in Portland, Oregon. Cooper, who was born in Tennessee and raised in Louisville, Kentucky before relocating to the Northwest, is known for blending various genres of experimental music including shoegaze,...
.
Fauna and flora
Polar Bear
The polar bear is a bear native largely within the Arctic Circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the world's largest land carnivore and also the largest bear, together with the omnivorous Kodiak Bear, which is approximately the same size...
s (having the highest density of dens in the world), seal
Pinniped
Pinnipeds or fin-footed mammals are a widely distributed and diverse group of semiaquatic marine mammals comprising the families Odobenidae , Otariidae , and Phocidae .-Overview: Pinnipeds are typically sleek-bodied and barrel-shaped...
s, walrus, and lemming
Lemming
Lemmings are small rodents, usually found in or near the Arctic, in tundra biomes. They are subniveal animals, and together with voles and muskrats, they make up the subfamily Arvicolinae , which forms part of the largest mammal radiation by far, the superfamily Muroidea, which also includes rats,...
s. During the summer it is visited by many types of bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
s. Arctic fox also make their home on the island.
Woolly mammoth
Woolly mammoth
The woolly mammoth , also called the tundra mammoth, is a species of mammoth. This animal is known from bones and frozen carcasses from northern North America and northern Eurasia with the best preserved carcasses in Siberia...
s survived there until 1650 BC, the most recent survival of all known mammoth populations. However, due to limited food supply, they were much smaller in size
Insular dwarfism
Insular dwarfism, a form of phyletic dwarfism, is the process and condition of the reduction in size of large animals – typically mammals – when their population's range is limited to a small environment, primarily islands. This natural process is distinct from the intentional creation of dwarf...
than typical mammoths. Domestic reindeer
Reindeer
The reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one has already gone extinct.Reindeer vary considerably in color and size...
were introduced in the 1950s and their numbers are managed at around 1,000 in order to reduce their impact on nesting bird grounds. In 1975 musk ox
Musk Ox
The muskox is an Arctic mammal of the family Bovidae, noted for its thick coat and for the strong odor emitted by males, from which its name derives. This musky odor is used to attract females during mating season...
were also introduced. The population has grown from 20 to about 200 animals. Recently, Arctic Wolf
Arctic Wolf
The Arctic Wolf , also called Polar Wolf or White Wolf, is a subspecies of the Gray Wolf, a mammal of the family Canidae. Arctic Wolves inhabit the Canadian Arctic, Alaska and the northern parts of Greenland....
have been spotted on the island; wolves have lived on the island in historical times but previous packs were eradicated to reduce predation on reindeer and musk ox.
The flora includes 417 species of plant
Plant
Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...
s, double that of any other Arctic tundra
Tundra
In physical geography, tundra is a biome where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons. The term tundra comes through Russian тундра from the Kildin Sami word tūndâr "uplands," "treeless mountain tract." There are three types of tundra: Arctic tundra, alpine...
territory of comparable size and more than any other Arctic island. For these reasons, the island was proclaimed the northernmost World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
in 2004.
Climate
Wrangel Island has a severe polar climatePolar climate
Regions with a polar climate are characterized by a lack of warm summers . Regions with polar climate cover over 20% of the Earth. The sun shines 24 hours in the summer, and barely ever shines at all in the winter...
. The region is blanketed by dry and cold Arctic air masses for most of the year. Warmer and more humid air can reach the island from the south-east during summer. Dry and heated air from 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...
comes to the island periodically.
Wrangel Island is influenced by both the Arctic and Pacific air masses. One consequence is the predominance of high winds. The island is subjected to “cyclonic” episodes characterized by rapid circular winds. It is also an island of mists and fogs.
Winters are prolonged and are characterized by steady frosty weather and high northerly winds. During this period the temperatures usually stay well below freezing for months. In February and March there are frequent snow-storms with wind speeds of 140 km/h (87 mph) or above.
There are noticeable differences in climate between the northern, central and southern parts of the island. The central and southern portion is warmer, with some of the valleys having semi-continental climates that support a number sub-Arctic steppe-like meadow species. This is a unique feature in the High Arctic.
The short summers are cool but comparatively mild as the polar day
Midnight sun
The midnight sun is a natural phenomenon occurring in summer months at latitudes north and nearby to the south of the Arctic Circle, and south and nearby to the north of the Antarctic Circle where the sun remains visible at the local midnight. Given fair weather, the sun is visible for a continuous...
generally keeps temperatures above 0 °C (32 °F). Some frost
Frost
Frost is the solid deposition of water vapor from saturated air. It is formed when solid surfaces are cooled to below the dew point of the adjacent air as well as below the freezing point of water. Frost crystals' size differ depending on time and water vapour available. Frost is also usually...
s and snowfalls occur, and fog
Fog
Fog is a collection of water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. While fog is a type of stratus cloud, the term "fog" is typically distinguished from the more generic term "cloud" in that fog is low-lying, and the moisture in the fog is often generated...
is common. Warmer and drier weather are experienced in the center of the island because the interior's topography encourages foehn winds. As of 2003, the frost-free period on the island was very short, usually not more than 20-to-25 days, and more often only two weeks.
Average relative humidity is about 82%.
Waters On and Around Wrangel
According to a 2003 report prepared by the Wrangel Island Nature Preserve, the hydrographic network of Wrangel Island consists of approximately 1,400 rivers over 1 kilometer in length; five rivers over 50 kilometres (31.07 mi) long; and approximately 900 shallow lakes, mostly located in the northern portion of Wrangel Island with a total surface area of 80 square kilometers. The waters of the East Siberian Sea and the Sea of Chukchi surrounding Wrangel and Herald Islands are classified as a separate chemical oceanographic region. These waters have among the lowest levels of salinity in the Arctic basin as well as a very high oxygen content and increased biogenic elements.Prehistory
This remote Arctic island is believed to be the final place on Earth to support woolly mammothWoolly mammoth
The woolly mammoth , also called the tundra mammoth, is a species of mammoth. This animal is known from bones and frozen carcasses from northern North America and northern Eurasia with the best preserved carcasses in Siberia...
s as an isolated population until their extinction about 2000 BC, making them the most recent surviving population known to science. A specific variant of the species seems to have survived as a dwarf version of the species originating from Siberia. A combination of late climate change (warming) and the presence of modern humans using advanced hunting and survival skills probably hastened their demise on this frozen isle which until recently was ice bound for most years with infrequent breaks of clear water in some Arctic summers. A mirror development can be found with the Dwarf elephant
Dwarf elephant
Dwarf elephants are prehistoric members of the order Proboscidea, that, through the process of allopatric speciation, evolved to a fraction of the size of their immediate ancestors...
on Malta, originating from the African species.
Evidence for prehistoric
Prehistory
Prehistory is the span of time before recorded history. Prehistory can refer to the period of human existence before the availability of those written records with which recorded history begins. More broadly, it refers to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing...
human occupation was uncovered in 1975 at the Chertov Ovrag
Chertov Ovrag
Chertov Ovrag is an archaeological site on the Russian arctic island of Vrangelya .In 1975, evidence was found at this site of human occupation at the time of the final extinction of mammoths, around 1750BCE. This is the westernmost site of Paleo-Eskimo habitation...
site. Various stone and ivory
Ivory
Ivory is a term for dentine, which constitutes the bulk of the teeth and tusks of animals, when used as a material for art or manufacturing. Ivory has been important since ancient times for making a range of items, from ivory carvings to false teeth, fans, dominoes, joint tubes, piano keys and...
tools were found, including a toggling harpoon
Toggling harpoon
The toggling harpoon is an ancient weapon and tool used in whaling to impale a whale when thrown. Unlike earlier harpoon versions which had only one point, a toggling harpoon has a two-part point...
. Radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating is a radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring radioisotope carbon-14 to estimate the age of carbon-bearing materials up to about 58,000 to 62,000 years. Raw, i.e. uncalibrated, radiocarbon ages are usually reported in radiocarbon years "Before Present" ,...
shows the human inhabitation roughly coeval with the last mammoth
Mammoth
A mammoth is any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus. These proboscideans are members of Elephantidae, the family of elephants and mammoths, and close relatives of modern elephants. They were often equipped with long curved tusks and, in northern species, a covering of long hair...
s on the island circa 1700 BC, though no direct evidence of mammoth hunting has been found.
Paleoeskimos people established camps on the southern side of the island for marine hunters. By the time Wrangel Island was discovered by Europeans there was no aboriginal population.
A legend prevalent among the Chukchi people of Siberia tells of a chief Krachai
Krachai
This article is about the legendary chief. For the root vegetable, see Boesenbergia rotunda.A legend prevalent among the Chukchi people of Siberia tells of a chief Krachai , who fled with his people across the ice to settle in a northern land...
(or Krächoj, Krahay, Khrakhai), who fled with his people (the Krachaians or Krahays, also identified as the Onkilon or Omoki--Siberian Yupik people) across the ice to settle in a northern land. Though the story may be mythical, the existence of an island or continent to the north was lent credence by the annual migration of reindeer
Reindeer
The reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one has already gone extinct.Reindeer vary considerably in color and size...
across the ice, as well as the appearance of slate spear-points washed up on Arctic shores, made in a fashion unknown to the Chukchi. Michael E. Krauss has recently presented archaeological, historical, and linguistic evidence that Wrangel Island was a way station on a trade route linking the Inuit settlement at Point Hope, Alaska
Point Hope, Alaska
Point Hope is a city in North Slope Borough, Alaska, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 757.-Geography:...
with the north Siberian coast, and that the coast may have been colonized in late prehistoric and early historic times by Inuit settlers from North America. Krauss suggests that the departure of these colonists was related to the Krachai legend.
Outside discovery
In 1764 the Cossack Sergeant Stepan Andreyev claimed to have sighted this island. Calling it Tikegen Land, Andreyev found evidence of its inhabitants, the Krahay. Eventually, the island was named after Baron Ferdinand von WrangelFerdinand von Wrangel
Baron Ferdinand Friedrich Georg Ludwig von Wrangel – May 25 , 1870) was a Russian explorer and seaman, Honorable Member of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences, a founder of the Russian Geographic Society...
(1797–1870), who, after reading Andreyev's report and hearing Chukchi stories of land at the island's coordinates
Coordinate system
In geometry, a coordinate system is a system which uses one or more numbers, or coordinates, to uniquely determine the position of a point or other geometric element. The order of the coordinates is significant and they are sometimes identified by their position in an ordered tuple and sometimes by...
, set off on an expedition (1820–1824) to discover the island, with no success.
British, American, and Russian expeditions
In 1849, Henry KellettHenry Kellett
Vice Admiral Sir Henry Kellett KCB was a British naval officer and explorer.-Naval career:Kellett joined the Royal Navy in 1822...
, captain of HMS Herald
HMS Herald (1822)
HMS Herald was an Atholl-class 28-gun sixth-rate corvette of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1821 as HMS Termagant, commissioned in 1824 as Herald and converted to a survey ship in 1845...
, landed on and named Herald Island
Herald Island (Arctic)
Herald Island or Gerald Island is a small, isolated Russian island in the Chukchi Sea, to the east of Wrangel Island. It rises in sheer cliffs, making it quite inaccessible, either by ship or by plane. The only sliver of shoreline is at its northwestern point, where the cliffs have crumbled into...
. He thought he saw another island to the west, which he called Plover Island; thereafter it was indicated on British
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
admiralty charts as Kellett Land.
The first recorded landing on the island was in 1866 by a German whaler
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...
, Eduard Dallmann
Eduard Dallmann
Eduard Dallmann was a German whaler, trader and Polar explorer....
.
In August 1867, Thomas Long, an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
whaling captain, "approached it as near as fifteen miles. I have named this northern land Wrangell [sic] Land … as an appropriate tribute to the memory of a man who spent three consecutive years north of latitude 68°
68th parallel north
The 68th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 68 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane, in the Arctic. It crosses the Atlantic Ocean, Europe, Asia and North America....
, and demonstrated the problem of this open polar sea forty-five years ago, although others of much later date have endeavored to claim the merit of this discovery."
George W. DeLong
George W. DeLong
George Washington DeLong was a United States Navy officer and explorer.- Biography :Born in New York City, he was educated at the United States Naval Academy in Newport, Rhode Island...
, commanding USS Jeannette
USS Jeannette (1878)
The first USS Jeannette was originally HMS Pandora, a Philomel-class gunvessel of the Royal Navy, and was purchased in 1875 by Sir Allen Young for his arctic voyages in 1875-1876. The ship was purchased in 1878 by James Gordon Bennett, Jr., owner of the New York Herald; and renamed Jeannette...
, led an expedition in 1879 attempting to reach the North Pole
North Pole
The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is, subject to the caveats explained below, defined as the point in the northern hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface...
, expecting to go by the "east side of Kellett land," which he thought extended far into the Arctic. His ship became locked in the polar ice pack
Sea ice
Sea ice is largely formed from seawater that freezes. Because the oceans consist of saltwater, this occurs below the freezing point of pure water, at about -1.8 °C ....
and drifted westward, passing within sight of Wrangel before being crushed and sunk in the vicinity of the New Siberian Islands
New Siberian Islands
The New Siberian Islands are an archipelago, located to the North of the East Siberian coast between the Laptev Sea and the East Siberian Sea north of the Sakha Republic....
. A landing on Wrangel Island took place on August 12, 1881, by a party from the USRC
United States Revenue Cutter Service
The United States Revenue Cutter Service was established by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton in 1790 as an armed maritime law enforcement service. Throughout its entire existence the Revenue Cutter Service operated under the authority of the United States Department of the Treasury...
Corwin
USRC Thomas Corwin (1876)
The Thomas Corwin was a United States Revenue Cutter and subsequently a merchant vessel. These two very different roles both centered on Alaska and the Bering Sea...
, who claimed the island for the United States and named it "New Columbia." The expedition, under the command of Calvin L. Hooper, was seeking the Jeannette and two missing whaler
Whaler
A whaler is a specialized ship, designed for whaling, the catching and/or processing of whales. The former included the whale catcher, a steam or diesel-driven vessel with a harpoon gun mounted at its bows. The latter included such vessels as the sail or steam-driven whaleship of the 16th to early...
s in addition to conducting general exploration. It included naturalist
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
John Muir
John Muir
John Muir was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, have been read by millions...
, who published the first description of Wrangel Island. The USS Rodgers
USS Rodgers (1879)
USS Rodgers was a steamship in the United States Navy acquired to search for Jeannette in 1881.On 3 March 1881, Congress, besieged by constituents as well as government agencies, appropriated $175,000 "to enable the Secretary of the Navy to charter, or purchase, equip, and supply a vessel for the...
, also searching for the Jeannette, landed a party on Wrangel Island, also in 1881 but after the Corwin party. They stayed about two weeks and conducted an extensive survey and search.
In 1911, the Russian Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition on icebreaker
Icebreaker
An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters. Although the term usually refers to ice-breaking ships, it may also refer to smaller vessels .For a ship to be considered an icebreaker, it requires three traits most...
s Vaygach
Icebreaker Vaygach
Icebreaker Vaygach was an icebreaking steamer of moderate size built for the Russian Imperial Navy at St. Petersburg in 1909. It was named after Vaygach Island in the Russian Arctic....
and Taymyr
Icebreaker Taymyr
Icebreaker Taymyr was an icebreaking steamer of 1200 tons built for the Russian Imperial Navy at St. Petersburg in 1909. It was named after the Taymyr Peninsula....
under Boris Vilkitsky
Boris Vilkitsky
Boris Andreyevich Vilkitsky was a Russian hydrographer and surveyor. He was the son of Andrey Ippolitovich Vilkitsky....
, landed on the island. In 1916 the Tsarist government declared that the island belonged to the Russian empire.
Stefansson expeditions
In 1914, members of the ill-equipped Canadian Arctic ExpeditionCanadian Arctic Expedition 1913-1916
The Canadian Arctic Expedition 1913–1916 was organized and led by Vilhjalmur Stefansson. The expedition was divided into a Northern Party led by Stefansson, and a Southern Party led by R M. Anderson. The objective of the Northern Party was to explore for new land north and west of the known lands...
, organized by Vilhjalmur Stefansson
Vilhjalmur Stefansson
Vilhjalmur Stefansson was a Canadian Arctic explorer and ethnologist.-Early life:Stefansson, born William Stephenson, was born at Gimli, Manitoba, Canada, in 1879. His parents had emigrated from Iceland to Manitoba two years earlier...
, were marooned on Wrangel Island for nine months after their ship, the Karluk, was crushed in the ice pack. The survivors were rescued by the American motorized fishing schooner
Schooner
A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....
King & Winge
King & Winge (fishing schooner)
The King & Winge was one of the most famous ships ever built in Seattle, Washington, United States. Built in 1914, in the next 80 years she had participated in a famous Arctic rescue, been present at a great maritime tragedy, and been employed as a halibut schooner, a rum runner, a pilot boat, a...
after Captain Robert Bartlett walked across the Chukchi Sea
Chukchi Sea
Chukchi Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is bounded on the west by the De Long Strait, off Wrangel Island, and in the east by Point Barrow, Alaska, beyond which lies the Beaufort Sea. The Bering Strait forms its southernmost limit and connects it to the Bering Sea and the Pacific...
to Siberia to summon help.
In 1921, Stefansson sent five settlers (the Canadian Allan Crawford, three Americans: Fred Maurer, Lorne Knight and Milton Galle, and Eskimo
Inuit
The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...
seamstress and cook Ada Blackjack
Ada Blackjack
Ada Blackjack, was an Inuit woman who lived for two years as a castaway on uninhabited Wrangel Island in northern Siberia.- Biography :...
) to the island in a speculative attempt to claim it for Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. The explorers were handpicked by Stefansson based upon their previous experience and academic credentials. Stefansson considered those with advanced knowledge in the fields of geography and science for this expedition. At the time, Stefansson claimed that his purpose was to head off a possible Japanese claim. An attempt to relieve this group in 1922 failed when the schooner Teddy Bear under Captain Joe Bernard became stuck in the ice . In 1923, the sole survivor of the Wrangel Island expedition, Ada Blackjack, was rescued by a ship that left another party of 13 (American Charles Wells and 12 Inuit). In 1924, the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
removed the American and the 13 Inuit (one was born on the island) of this settlement aboard the Krasny Oktiabr. Wells subsequently died of pneumonia in Vladivostok during a diplomatic American-Soviet row about an American boundary marker on the Siberian coast, and so did an Inuit child. The others were deported from Vladivostok to the Chinese border post Suifenhe
Suifenhe City
Suifenhe , is a city in southeastern Heilongjiang province, Northeast China, located situated where the former Chinese Eastern Railway crosses the border with Russia's Primorsky Krai.The city shares its name with the Suifen River....
, but the Chinese government didn't want to accept them as the American consul in Darbin told them the Inuit were not American citizens. Later the American government came up with a statement that the Inuit were 'wards' of the United States, but that there were no funds for returning them. Eventually the American Red Cross came up with $1600 for their return. They subsequently moved through Darwin, Darien
Dalian
Dalian is a major city and seaport in the south of Liaoning province, Northeast China. It faces Shandong to the south, the Yellow Sea to the east and the Bohai Sea to the west and south. Holding sub-provincial administrative status, Dalian is the southernmost city of Northeast China and China's...
, Kobe
Kobe
, pronounced , is the fifth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture on the southern side of the main island of Honshū, approximately west of Osaka...
and Seattle (where another Inuit child drowned during the wait for the return trip to Alaska) back to Nome. During the Soviet trip the American reindeer owner Carl J. Lomen
Carl J. Lomen
Carl Joys Lomen was an American entrepreneur and photographer. He was known as The Reindeer King of Alaska, because of his role in "organizing, promoting, marketing, and lobbying for the reindeer industry" in the first decades of the 20th century, as president of the Lomen Company.In 1954, he...
from Nome had taken over the possessions of Stefansson and had acquired explicit support ("go and hold it") from US Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes
Charles Evans Hughes
Charles Evans Hughes, Sr. was an American statesman, lawyer and Republican politician from New York. He served as the 36th Governor of New York , Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States , United States Secretary of State , a judge on the Court of International Justice , and...
to claim the island for the United States, a goal which the Russian expedition got to hear during their trip. Loman dispatched the MS Herman, commanded by captain Louis L. Lane. Due to unfavorable ice conditions the Herman could not get any further than Herald Island, where the American flag was raised.
In 1926, the government of the Soviet Union reaffirmed the Tsarist claim to sovereignty over Wrangel Island.
Soviet rule
In 1926, a team of Soviet explorers, equipped with three years of supplies, landed on Wrangel Island. Clear waters that facilitated the 1926 landing were followed by years of continuous heavy ice surrounding the island. Attempts to reach the island by sea failed and it was feared that the team would not survive their fourth winter.In 1929, the icebreaker Fyodor Litke was chosen for a rescue operation. It sailed from Sevastopol
Sevastopol
Sevastopol is a city on rights of administrative division of Ukraine, located on the Black Sea coast of the Crimea peninsula. It has a population of 342,451 . Sevastopol is the second largest port in Ukraine, after the Port of Odessa....
, commanded by captain Konstantin Dublitsky. On July 4, it reached Vladivostok
Vladivostok
The city is located in the southern extremity of Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula, which is about 30 km long and approximately 12 km wide.The highest point is Mount Kholodilnik, the height of which is 257 m...
where all Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
sailors were replaced by local crew members. Ten days later Litke sailed north; it passed Bering Strait
Bering Strait
The Bering Strait , known to natives as Imakpik, is a sea strait between Cape Dezhnev, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia, the easternmost point of the Asian continent and Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, USA, the westernmost point of the North American continent, with latitude of about 65°40'N,...
, and tried to pass De Long Strait
De Long Strait
The De Long Strait separates Wrangel Island from the Siberian mainland. It is very broad, its minimum width being 141 km, between Cape Blossom at the southwestern tip of Wrangel Island and Cape Billings, close to Gytkhelen, Chukotka.Technically, more than a strait in the proper sense of the...
and approach the island from south. On August 8 a scout plane reported impassable ice in the strait, and Litke turned north, heading to Herald Island
Herald Island (Arctic)
Herald Island or Gerald Island is a small, isolated Russian island in the Chukchi Sea, to the east of Wrangel Island. It rises in sheer cliffs, making it quite inaccessible, either by ship or by plane. The only sliver of shoreline is at its northwestern point, where the cliffs have crumbled into...
. It failed to escape mounting ice; August 12 the captain shut down the engines to save coal and had to wait two weeks until the ice pressure eased. Making a few hundred meters a day, Litke reached the settlement August 28. On September 5, Litke turned back, taking all the 'islanders' to safety. This operation earned Litke the order of the Red Banner of Labour
Order of the Red Banner of Labour
The Order of the Red Banner of Labour was an order of the Soviet Union for accomplishments in labour and civil service. It is the labour counterpart of the military Order of the Red Banner. A few institutions and factories, being the pride of Soviet Union, also received the order.-History:The Red...
(January 20, 1930), as well as commemorative badges for the crew.
According to a 1936 article in Time Magazine Wrangel Island became the scene of a bizarre criminal story in the 1930s when it fell under the increasingly arbitrary rule of its appointed governor Konstantin Semenchuk. Semenchuk controlled the local populace and his own staff through open extortion and murder. He forbade the local Eskimo
Eskimo
Eskimos or Inuit–Yupik peoples are indigenous peoples who have traditionally inhabited the circumpolar region from eastern Siberia , across Alaska , Canada, and Greenland....
s (recruited from Provideniya Bay in 1926) to hunt walrus
Walrus
The walrus is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous circumpolar distribution in the Arctic Ocean and sub-Arctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the Odobenidae family and Odobenus genus. It is subdivided into three subspecies: the Atlantic...
, which put them in danger of starvation, while collecting food for himself. He was then implicated in the mysterious deaths of some of his opponents, including the local doctor. The subsequent Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
trial in June 1936 sentenced Semenchuk to death for "banditry" and violation of Soviet law.
In 1948, a small herd of domestic reindeer was introduced with the intention of establishing commercial herding to generate income for island residents.
A prisoner who later emigrated to Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, Efim Moshinsky, claims to have seen Raoul Wallenberg
Raoul Wallenberg
Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish businessman, diplomat and humanitarian. He is widely celebrated for his successful efforts to rescue thousands of Jews in Nazi-occupied Hungary from the Holocaust, during the later stages of World War II...
there in 1962. However, despite the legends, there never was a Gulag camp on Wrangel.
Aside from the main settlement of Ushakovskoye
Ushakovskoye
Ushakovskoye was a rural locality on the south east coast of Wrangel Island, Shmidtovsky District in the Russian Arctic that was deserted in 2003. Ushakovskoye was named after the explorer and founder of the polar station in Rogers Bay, Georgy Ushakov, who discovered a number of new islands in...
near Rogers Bay, on the south-central coast, in the 1960s, a new settlement named Zvyozndy was established to the west in the Somnitelnaya Bay area, where ground runways reserved for military aviation purposes were constructed (these were abandoned in the 1970s). Moreover, a military radar installation was built on the southeast coast at Cape Hawaii. Rock crystal mining had been carried out for a number of years in the center of the island near Khrustalnyi Creek. At the time, a small settlement, Perkatkun, had been established nearby to house the miners, but later on it was completely destroyed.
Establishment of Federal Nature Reserve
Resolution #189 of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) was adopted on March 23, 1976, for the establishment of the state Nature Reserve “Wrangel Island” for the purpose of conserving the unique natural systems of Wrangel and Herald Islands, a the surrounding waters out to five nautical miles. On 15 December 1997, the Russian Government's Decree No. 1623-r expanded the marine reserve out to 12 nautical miles. And on 25 May 1999, the (regional) Governor of Chukotka issued Decree No. 91 which again expanded the protected water area to 24 nautical miles around Wrangel and Herald Islands.By the 1980s, the reindeer-herding farm on Wrangel had been abolished and the settlement of Zvezdnyi was virtually abandoned. Hunting had already been stopped, except for a small quota of marine mammals for the needs of the local population. In 1992, the military radar installation at Cape Hawaii (on the southeast coast) was closed and only the settlement of Ushakivskoe remained occupied on the island.
Post-Soviet era
According to some US individuals, including the group State Department Watch, eight Arctic islands currently controlled by Russia, including Wrangel Island, are claimed by the United States. However, according to the United States Department of StateUnited States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
no such claim exists. The USSR/USA Maritime Boundary Treaty, which has yet to be approved by the Russian Duma
State Duma
The State Duma , common abbreviation: Госду́ма ) in the Russian Federation is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia , the upper house being the Federation Council of Russia. The Duma headquarters is located in central Moscow, a few steps from Manege Square. Its members are referred to...
, does not address the status of these islands nor the martime boundaries
Maritime boundary
Maritime boundary is a conceptual means of division of the water surface of the planet into maritime areas that are defined through surrounding physical geography or by human geography. As such it usually includes areas of exclusive national rights over the mineral and biological resources,...
associated with them.
In 2004 Wrangel Island and neighboring Herald Island, along with their surrounding waters, were added to UNESCO's World Heritage List.
Tourism On Wrangel
Tourism is primarily by cruise ship and is subject to permits, as well as strict regulations and access criteria. Ships anchor near the island and disembark passengers who roam along the shores outside the Nature Reserve but do not enter the Reserve itself. Tourism into the Reserve is tightly controlled and includes scientific expeditions led by Reserve staff. This is a source of revenue for the Reserve and a means of promoting the Reserve’s values. The facilities on the island are primitive. The Reserve is dependent on oil and diesel generators for all of its energy.The polar weather station and village of Ushakovskoe, with its surrounding non-Reserve buffer zone lying just outside the Nature Reserve poses the greatest immediate threat to the Reserve. Present day human impact within the Reserve is minimal. According to a 2003 report prepared by the Nature Reserve staff, there has already been environmental damage from the 80-plus years of settlement at Ushakovskoe. For instance, the staff at the polar weather station are rotational and their behaviour is not always sensitive to the vulnerabilities of the island. The Reserve rangers currently spend much of their time observing the activities at Ushakovskoe to minimize environmental damage. The Reserve staff do not have patrol boats and the threat of unauthorized fishing and poaching is always a serious threat.
In literature
In Jules VerneJules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
's novel César Cascabel
César Cascabel
César Cascabel is a novel written by Jules Verne in 1890. It is part of Voyages Extraordinaires series .-Plot summary:...
, the protagonists float past Wrangel Island on an iceberg. In Verne's description, a live volcano is located on the island: "Between the two capes on its southern coast, Cape Hawan and Cape Thomas, it is surmounted by a live volcano, which is marked on the recent maps." In Chukchi author Yuri Rytkheu
Yuri Rytkheu
Yuri Sergeyevich Rytkheu was a Chukchi writer, who wrote in both his native Chukchi and in Russian. He is considered to be the father of Chukchi literature.- Biography :Yuri Rytkheu was born March 8, 1930 to a family of trappers and hunters...
's historical novel A Dream in Polar Fog, set in the early 20th century, the Chukchi knew of Wrangel Island and referred to it as the "Invisible Land" or "Invisible Island."
External links
- Adventure Associates, 2008, Polar Expeditions to the Far North. Sydney, Australia. (Icebreaker journey to Wrangel Island.)
- Anonymous, 2008, Wrangel Island. Oceandots.com (aerial image and description of Wrangel Island)
- Pictures from Wrangel Island., 2007.
- Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, 2003, Status of Wrangel and Other Arctic Islands. U.S. Department of State, Washington, D.C. (Fact sheet on Wrangel Island.)
- Eglin, Libby, 2000, Run For Wrangel. Tourist's account and photography.
- Eime, Roderick, nd, Wrangel Island: Isolation, Desolation and Tragedy. Comments about history and tourism of Wrangel Island.
- Gray, D., 2003, The story of the Canadian Arctic Expedition of 1913-1918. Virtual Museum of Canada, Canadian Museum of Civilization, Gatineau, Quebec. (Includes Loss of the Karluk and Wrangel Island)
- Gualtieri, L., nd, The Late Pleistocene Glacial and Sea Level History of Wrangel Island, Northeast Siberia. Quaternary Research Center, University of Washington. (Numerous comments, picture, papers, links, concerning various aspects of Wrangel Island)
- Detailed map of Wrangel Island
- McClanahan, A.J., nd, The Heroine of Wrangel Island. LitSite, Alaska. (Article about Ada BlackjackAda BlackjackAda Blackjack, was an Inuit woman who lived for two years as a castaway on uninhabited Wrangel Island in northern Siberia.- Biography :...
Johnson and Wrangel Island.) - MacPhee, Ross, nd, Siberian Expedition to Wrangel Island. American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York. (Hunting mammoths on Wrangel Island)
- Muir, John, 1917, The Cruise of the Corwin: Journal of the Arctic Expedition of 1881 in search of De Long and the Jeannette. Norman S. Berg, Dunwoody, Georgia. John MuirJohn MuirJohn Muir was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, have been read by millions...
's description of the 1881 exploration of Wrangel Island.} - Natural Heritage Protection Fund, 2008, Wrangel Island. Moscow, Russian Federation. (Web page about the Wrangel Island World Heritage Site.)
- Rosse, I.C., 1883, The First Landing on Wrangel Island: With Some Remarks on the Northern Inhabitants. Journal of the American Geographical Society of New York. vol. 15, pp. 163–214. Text files from Project GutenbergProject GutenbergProject Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...
. (Also, available from JSTOR at http://www.jstor.org/pss/196541) - Stefansson, Vilhjalmur, 1921, The friendly Arctic; the story of five years in polar regions G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, New York, 319 pp.
- Vartanyan, S.L., Kh.A. Arslanov, T.V. Tertychnaya and S.B. Chernov, 1995, Radiocarbon Dating Evidence for Mammoths on Wrangel Island. Radiocarbon. vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 1–6.
- UNESCO World Heritage Committee, nd, Natural System of Wrangel Island Reserve. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, New York, New York.