Between the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago and the Taimyr Peninsula in the west and the New Siberian Islands in the east lies a sea that bears the name of the Russian navigators, the Laptev brothers. Its western border runs along the eastern shores of the Severnaya Zemlya Islands from the Arctic Cape (Komsomolets Island), through the Strait of the Red Army along the eastern shore of the island. October Revolution to m. Anuchin, through the Shokalsky Strait to m. Sandy on about. Bolshevik and along its eastern shore to Cape Vaigach, then along the eastern border of the Vilkitsky Strait and further along the mainland coast to the top of the Khatanga Bay. The northern boundary of the sea runs from the Arctic Cape to the point of intersection of the meridian of the northern tip of the island. Kotelny (cape Anisiy) with the edge of the continental shallow (79 ° N, 139 ° E), the eastern border - from this point along the meridian to about. Kotelny, further along its western shore, through the Sannikov Strait, along the western shores of the Bolshoy and Maly Lyakhovsky Islands and along the western border of the Dmitry Laptev Strait to Cape Svyatoy Nos. The southern boundary of the sea runs along the mainland coast from this cape to the top of the Khatanga Bay.

The Laptev Sea belongs to the type of continental marginal seas. Its area is 662 thousand km 2, volume - 353 thousand km 3, average depth - 533 m, maximum depth - 3385 m.

There are several dozens of islands in the Laptev Sea, most of which are located in the western part of the sea. Most major islands- Komsomolskaya Pravda, Vilkitsky and Thaddeus. Among the single islands, Starokadomsky, Maly Taimyr, Bolshoy Begichev, Peschany, Stolbovoy and Belkovsky stand out for their size. Many small islands are located in river deltas.

The coasts of the sea are quite strongly indented and form bays, bays, bays, peninsulas and capes of various shapes and sizes. The eastern shores of the islands of Severnaya Zemlya and the Taimyr Peninsula are significantly dissected. East of it coastline forms several large bays (Khatanga, Anabarsky, Oleneksky, Yansky), bays (Kozhevnikova, Nordvik, Tiksi), bays (Buor-Khaya, Vankina) and peninsulas (Khara-Tumus, Nordvik). The western coast of the New Siberian Islands is much less indented.

By their nature, the coasts of the sea are quite diverse. There are both abrasion and accumulative, there are also ice shores. Sometimes low mountains approach the water, most of the coast is low.

Climate

The Laptev Sea is one of the most severe Arctic seas. Its climate, generally maritime polar, also has signs of continentality, which is most clearly manifested in the relatively large annual fluctuations in air temperature.

In the cold season, the sea is located mainly in the area of ​​high atmospheric pressure - the Siberian anticyclone. In autumn, unstable winds gradually acquire a southerly direction and intensify to storms. Cyclones pass less often, cloudiness decreases.

In winter, the Laptev Sea is affected by three large baric systems. Above the southeastern part lies a spur of the Siberian anticyclone, the center of which is near Yansky Bay. The crest of the polar maximum extends from the north. In the western part of the sea, the influence of the Icelandic low is sometimes observed. In accordance with such baric conditions, southern and southwestern winds with an average speed of about 8 m/s prevail in this season. By the end of winter, their speed decreases, calms are often observed. The air becomes very cold. The air temperature over the sea generally decreases from northwest to southeast in January and in the area of ​​Tiksi Bay it is -26 - 29°. Calm and partly cloudy winter weather is sometimes interrupted by cyclones passing several south of the sea. They cause strong cold northern winds and snowstorms that last only a few days.

At the beginning of the warm season, the destruction of atmospheric pressure regions begins. The baric situation is generally similar to the winter one, but somewhat more blurred, so the spring winds are very unstable in direction. In addition to the south, north winds sometimes blow. The winds are usually gusty but not strong. The air temperature is steadily rising. Cloudy, rather cold weather prevails. In summer, the Siberian maximum is absent, and the polar maximum appears rather weakly. To the south of the sea, the pressure is somewhat lower; above the sea itself, it is slightly higher. As a result, northern winds blow most often at a speed of 3-4 m/s. Strong winds (with speeds over 20 m/s) are not observed in summer. The average monthly air temperature in August is the maximum of the year, in the central part of the sea the temperature is 1-5°. On the coast, in closed bays, the air sometimes (albeit very rarely) warms up quite significantly (up to 32.7 ° in Tiksi). Summer is characterized by increased cyclonic activity. At this time, cyclones go over the southern part of the sea, which are filled here. Then cloudy weather sets in over the sea with continuous drizzling rain. At the end of August, the Siberian pressure maximum begins to form, which marks the transition to autumn.

Thus, the Laptev Sea is under the influence of the Siberian anticyclone for most of the year. This causes relatively weak cyclonic activity and predominantly weak monsoonal winds.

Prolonged and strong cooling with a calm wind regime of winter is the most important climatic feature of the sea. Another very important factor in the formation of the natural appearance of the Laptev Sea is the continental runoff. Many small and several large rivers flow into this sea. The largest of them - Lena - annually brings an average of about 515 km 3 of water, Khatanga - over 100, Yana - more than 30, Olenyok - about 35 and Anabar - about 20 km 3. All other rivers provide about 20 km 3 of water per year. The total annual runoff to the sea is about 720 km3, which is 30% of the total runoff to all Arctic seas. However, the distribution of runoff is very uneven in time and space. About 90% of the annual flow falls on the summer months (June-September), of which about 35-40% of the annual flow falls in August, while in January it barely reaches 5%. This character of the runoff distribution during the year is explained by the fact that the rivers flowing into the Laptev Sea are fed by snow, and the vast majority of their waters enter the southeast. eastern part sea ​​(one Lena provides 70% of the total coastal runoff). Depending on the amount of water brought by the rivers and the hydrometeorological situation, river waters spread to the northeast, reaching the northern tip of about. Kotelny, then far to the east, leaving through the straits to the East Siberian Sea. A large continental runoff leads to freshening of waters in vast expanses of the sea, especially in its southern and eastern parts.

Water temperature and salinity

The Laptev Sea (like the Kara Sea) is dominated by surface arctic waters. In zones of strong influence of coastal runoff, as a result of the mixing of river and surface Arctic waters, water with a relatively high temperature and low salinity. At the boundary of their division (horizon 5-7 m), large salinity and density gradients are created. In the north, in a deep trough, warm Atlantic waters are common over the surface Arctic water, but their temperature is somewhat lower than in the troughs of the Kara Sea. They penetrate here 2.5 - 3 years after they start their journey near Svalbard. In the deeper (compared to the Kara) Laptev Sea, the horizons from 800-1000 m to the bottom are occupied by cold near-bottom Arctic water with a temperature of –0.4-0.9° and almost uniform (34.90-34.95‰) salinity.

For most of the year, the water temperature is close to freezing and drops rapidly after the summer maximum. In winter, the surface water temperature varies from –0.8° (near Mostakh Island) to –1.7° (near Cape Chelyuskin), which is associated with differences in salinity in these areas.

In the first spring months, the ice melts, so the water temperature remains almost the same as in winter. Only in coastal areas (especially in the estuarine areas), which are cleared of ice earlier than others, the water temperature is slightly higher than in central regions. It generally decreases from south to north and from east to west. During the summer, the surface of the sea warms up noticeably. In August, in the south (Buor-Khaya Bay), the water temperature on the surface can reach 10 and even 14 °, in the central regions it is 3 - 5 °, at the northern tip of about. Boiler 0.8 ° and at Cape Chelyuskin 1 °. In general, the western part of the sea, where the cold waters of the Arctic basin come, is characterized by a lower (2 - 3 °) water temperature than the eastern, where the bulk of warm river waters are concentrated, and the surface temperature here can reach 6 - 8 °.

The temperature of the water decreases rapidly with depth. In winter, in areas with depths up to 50 - 60 m, the water temperature is the same from the surface to the bottom. In the coastal zone it is -1-1.2°, and in the open sea about -1.6°. In the northern regions, at horizons of 50-60 m, the water temperature rises by 0.1-0.2 ° due to the inflow of other waters.

In the north, in the region of a deep trench, negative temperatures are observed from the surface to 100 m. Below, it begins to rise (up to 0.6-0.8 °) to about 300 m and then slowly decreases towards the bottom. High temperatures (above zero) in the 100-300 m layer are associated with the penetration of warm Atlantic waters into the Laptev Sea from the Central Arctic Basin.

In summer, the upper layer 10-15 m thick warms up well and has a temperature of 8-10° in the south-eastern part and 3-4° in the central regions. Deeper than these horizons, the temperature drops sharply and reaches -1.4-1.5° at the horizon of 25 m. These or similar values ​​remain until the very bottom. In the western part of the sea, where warming is less, such sharp differences in temperature are not observed.

Salinity in the Laptev Sea is very heterogeneous: in summer it varies from 1 to almost 31‰, but desalinated waters with a salinity of 20-30‰ predominate in the surface layer, and its distribution is very complex. In general, it increases from the southeast to the northwest and north.

In winter, with minimal river runoff and intense ice formation, salinity increases. At the same time (as in summer) in the west, it is higher (near Cape Chelyuskin - 34‰ than in the east (near Kotelny Island - 25‰). This high salinity lasts for quite a long time, only in June, with the beginning of ice melting, does it begin to decrease .

In summer, the southeastern part of the sea is the most desalinated. In the Buor-Khaya Bay, salinity drops to 5‰ and lower; to the west of the Lyakhovsky Islands, it rises (10-15‰). More saline waters (30 - 32‰) spread in the west of the sea. They are located somewhat north of the line about. Petra - m. Anisy. Thus, desalinated water exits to the north in the eastern part of the sea, and saline waters descend to the south in the western part of the sea.

Salinity increases with depth, but there are seasonal differences in its distribution. In winter, in shallow water, it increases from the surface to horizons of 10-15 m, and below and to the bottom it remains almost unchanged. At great depths, salinity noticeably increases not from the surface itself, but from the underlying horizons. The spring vertical distribution of salinity begins with the time of intensive melting of snow and ice. At this time, salinity rapidly decreases in the surface layer and retains winter values ​​at the lower horizons.

In summer, in the zone of distribution of river waters, the upper layer (5 - 10 m) is very desalinated, below there is a very sharp increase in salinity. In a layer from 10 to 25 m, the salinity gradient in some places reaches 20‰ per 1 m. In the northern part of the sea, salinity increases relatively quickly from the surface to 50 m, hence, up to 300 m, salinity increases more slowly (in the range from 29 to 33 - 34‰) deeper, it hardly changes.

Autumn in southern regions the summer jump in salinity is gradually eroded.

In the Laptev Sea, the density distribution is more related to salinity than to temperature. This is explained by the large range of salinity and the weak effect of low water temperature on the density.

Density increases from southeast to northwest. In winter and autumn, the water is denser than in summer and spring. In winter and early spring, the density is almost the same from the surface to the bottom. In summer, large salinity and temperature gradients at 10-15 m horizons also determine a sharp drop in density. In autumn, due to the cooling and salinization of surface waters, their density increases.

Density stratification of waters is clearly seen from late spring to early autumn. It is most pronounced in the southeastern and central regions of the sea and near the ice edge.

Port in the Arctic

Bottom relief

The bottom of the Laptev Sea is an almost undissected plain, gently descending to the north. Several gutters, low hills and cans stand out here. A wide but short chute is located opposite the Lena delta, a funnel-shaped chute is located near the Oleneksky Bay, a narrow and long chute leaves from about. Stolbovoy to the north. In the eastern part of the sea, the Semenovskaya and Vasilievskaya banks rise. Half of the entire area of ​​the sea is occupied by depths up to 50 m, and to the south of 76 ° N. they do not exceed 25 m. The northern part of the sea is much deeper. At a depth of 100 m, the bottom drops sharply. The appearance of the sea is formed mainly by the waters of the southern part with depths of 25-100 m.

Bottom relief and currents of the Laptev Sea

currents

Wind mixing in the ice-free spaces of the sea is poorly developed due to relatively weak winds in the warm season and the large ice cover of the sea. During spring and summer, the wind mixes only the uppermost layers up to 5-7 m thick in the east and up to 10 m thick in the western part of the sea.

Strong autumn-winter cooling and intense ice formation cause active development convective mixing. Due to the relatively high degree of water homogeneity and early ice formation, density mixing penetrates most deeply (up to 90-100 m horizons) in the north of the sea. In the central part, convection reaches the bottom (40-50 m) by the beginning of winter, and in the southern part, due to large vertical salinity gradients, even at shallow (up to 25 m) depths, it spreads to the bottom only by the end of winter.

In general, the sea is characterized by the usual cyclonic circulation. The coastal current, moving along the coast of the mainland from west to east, deviates to the north and northwest near the eastern shores and, in the form of the New Siberian Current, goes beyond the sea, connecting with the Transarctic Current of the Central Arctic Basin. From it, at the northern tip of Severnaya Zemlya, the East Taimyr current branches off to the south, which moves south along the eastern shores of Severnaya Zemlya and the Taimyr Peninsula and closes the cyclonic ring. A small part of the waters of the coastal flow goes through the Dmitry Laptev and Sannikov straits into the East Siberian Sea.

The current velocities in this circulation are small (2 cm/s). Depending on the large-scale baric situation, the center of cyclonic circulation can shift from the middle of the northern part of the sea towards Severnaya Zemlya. Accordingly, there are branches from the main streams. Tidal currents are superimposed on constant currents.

In the Laptev Sea, tides are well expressed, everywhere having an irregular semidiurnal character. A tidal wave enters from the north from the Central Arctic Basin, damping and deforming as it moves south. The magnitude of the tide is usually small, mostly about 0.5 m. Only in the Khatanga Bay, the range of tidal level fluctuations exceeds 2 m in syzygy. This is due to the well-known funnel effect observed, for example, in the Bay of Fundy. The tidal wave that came to the Khatanga Bay (“funnel”) grows in size and spreads almost 500 km up the river. Khatanga. This is one of the cases of deep penetration of the tidal wave up the river. However, the phenomenon of boron in Khatanga is not observed. In other rivers flowing into the Laptev Sea, the tide almost does not set. It attenuates very close to the mouths, as the tidal wave is extinguished in the deltas of these rivers.

In addition to tidal fluctuations in the Laptev Sea, seasonal and surge fluctuations in the level are observed. Seasonal level changes are generally negligible. Most of all, they are expressed in the southeastern part of the sea, in areas close to the mouths of the rivers, where the range of fluctuations reaches 40 cm. The minimum level is observed in winter, the maximum - in summer.

Surge fluctuations in the level are observed everywhere and at any time of the year, but they are most significant in the southeastern part. Surges and surges cause the largest decreases and increases in the level in the Laptev Sea. The range of fluctuations in the level of surge and surge reaches 1-2 m, and sometimes reaches 2.5 m (Tiksi Bay). Most often, surges and surges are observed in autumn with strong and stable winds. In general, northerly winds cause surge, and southern winds cause surge, but depending on the configuration of the coast, surge-surge level fluctuations in each specific area create winds of certain directions. Thus, in the southeastern part of the sea, the most effective surge winds include western and northwestern ones.

On average, waves of 2-4 points prevail in the Laptev Sea with wave heights of about 1 m. In summer (July - August) in the western and central parts seas, storms of 5-7 points occasionally develop, during which the wave height reaches 4-5 m. Autumn is the most stormy time of the year, when the highest waves (up to 6 m) are observed. However, even in this season, waves with a height of about 4 m predominate, which is determined by the fetch length and depths.

ice coverage

Most of the year (from October to May) the Laptev Sea is covered with ice. Ice formation begins at the end of September and takes place simultaneously throughout the sea. In winter, in its shallow eastern part, extensive fast ice up to 2 m thick is developed. The boundary of fast ice distribution is a depth of approximately 25 m, which in this area of ​​the sea is several hundred kilometers away from the coast. The area of ​​landfast ice is approximately 30% of the area of ​​the entire sea. In the western and northwestern parts of the sea, fast ice is small, and in some winters it is completely absent. To the north of the landfast zone there are drifting ice.

With the almost constant removal of ice from the sea to the north in winter, behind the fast ice, significant areas of polynyas and young ice. The width of this zone varies from tens to several hundreds of kilometers. Its individual sections are called the East Severozemelskaya, Taimyr, Lena and Novosibirsk polynyas. The last two at the beginning of the warm season reach enormous sizes (thousands of km 2). The melting of ice begins in June - July, and by August, significant areas of the sea are freed from ice. In summer, the ice edge often changes its position under the influence of winds and currents. The western part of the sea is generally more arctic than the eastern part. From the north, along the eastern coast of Taimyr, the oceanic Taimyr ice mass descends into the sea, in which heavy multi-year ice. It stably persists until new ice formation, depending on the prevailing winds, moving either north or south. The local Yansky ice massif, formed by landfast ice, usually melts “in place” by the second half of August or is partially carried away to the north beyond the sea.

Economic importance

Due to severe natural conditions the biological productivity of the Laptev Sea is low, and life in its waters is generally poor in quantity and quality. 37 species of fish live here. In very small quantities they catch vendace, omul, and partly whitefish.

It is located between the Taimyr Peninsula and the Severnaya Zemlya Islands in the west and the New Siberian Islands in the east.

Area 662,000 sq. km.

Depths up to 50 m prevail, the greatest depth is 3385 m.

Large bays: Khatanga, Oleneksky, Faddey, Yansky, Anabarsky, Maria Pronchishcheva Bay, Buor-Khaya. There are many islands in the western part of the sea.
The islands of Komsomolskaya Pravda are located in the southwestern part of the sea.
Rivers flow into the sea: Khatanga, Anabar, Olenyok, Lena, Yana.
main port- Tiksi.

Most of the year (October to May) Laptev sea covered with ice. Ice formation begins at the end of September and takes place simultaneously throughout the sea. In winter, in its shallow eastern part, extensive fast ice up to 2 m thick is developed. The boundary of fast ice distribution is a depth of approximately 25 m, which in this area of ​​the sea is several hundred kilometers away from the coast. The area of ​​landfast ice is approximately 30% of the area of ​​the entire sea. In the western and northwestern parts of the sea, fast ice is small, and in some winters it is completely absent. To the north of the landfast zone there are drifting ice.

The average air temperature in January is about -30°C, in the coastal part there are frosts down to -60°C. Most of the year is covered with ice; a wide fast ice is kept along the coast, the Siberian polynya extends to the north, and the Taimyr ice massif is preserved to the east of the Vilkitsky Strait. Salinity from 10 (or less) in the south to 34 ‰ in the north; tides are semidiurnal, up to 0.5 m.
IN Laptev sea tides are well expressed, everywhere having an irregular semidiurnal character. A tidal wave enters from the north from the Central Arctic Basin, damping and deforming as it moves south. The magnitude of the tide is usually small, mostly about 0.5 m. Only in the Khatanga Bay, the range of tidal level fluctuations exceeds 2 m in syzygy. Other rivers flowing into Laptev sea, the tide almost does not set. It attenuates very close to the mouths, as the tidal wave is extinguished in the deltas of these rivers.

Fauna and flora of the Laptev Sea

are typically arctic. Phytoplankton is represented by marine diatoms and freshwater diatoms. The most widespread zooplankton species here are planktonic marine ciliates, rotifers, copepods and amphipods. Benthic organisms include foraminifera, polychaetes, isopods, bryozoans, and mollusks. Fish are represented by Siberian whitefish, arctic char, omul, nelma, sturgeon, etc.

Of the mammals, there are walruses, seals and white whales, a sea hare, a seal; bird colonies on the banks; many commercial fish: char, muksun, nelma, taimen, perch, sturgeon, sterlet. Polar bears live on ice islands and large ice fields in the open sea. Colonies of sea gulls live near the coasts.

LAPTEV SEA, a marginal sea of ​​the Arctic Ocean, off the northeastern coast of Asia, between the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago, the Taimyr Peninsula, the coast of Siberia and the New Siberian Islands. It communicates through the straits with the seas: in the west with the Kara Sea, in the east with the East Siberian Sea. The western border runs from Cape Arktichesky (the northern point of Komsomolets Island) along the eastern shores of the islands of the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago and the straits of the Red Army, Shokalsky, Vilkitsky, then along the eastern coasts of the Taimyr Peninsula to the mouth of Khatanga; southern - further along the mainland coast to Cape Svyatoy Nos (141 ° east longitude); eastern - along the Dmitry Laptev Strait, the western coast of the Big Lyakhovsky Island, the Eterikan Strait, the western coast of the Small Lyakhovsky Island, the Sannikov Strait, west coast Kotelny Islands to Cape Anisii, then in the open sea along the meridian of longitude 139° east to parallel 79° north latitude; northern - from this point along the arc of a great circle to Cape Arctic. Within these boundaries, the area of ​​the Laptev Sea is 662 thousand km 2, the volume is 353 thousand km 3. The greatest depth is 3385 m (79°35' north latitude, 124°40' east longitude).

The heavily indented shores of the Laptev Sea form many bays, coves, and peninsulas. Large bays - Khatanga, Anabar, Oleneksky, Yansky, Faddey; bays - Pronchishcheva, Kozhevnikova, Nordvik, Tiksi; lips - Buor-Khaya, Vankina, Sellakhskaya, Ebelyakhskaya; peninsulas - Khara-Tumus, Nordvik, Shirokostan. There are several dozen islands (mostly small) located near the western and south coast; the largest islands - Big Begichev, Small Taimyr, Starokadomsky, Belkovsky, Stolbovoy; group of islands - Thaddeus, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Petra, Danube. Many small islands are located in the mouths and deltas of rivers. The nature of the shores is diverse, abrasion and accumulative prevail; large sections of the coasts are composed of fossil ice, they are subject to intense erosion; Thus, the Vasilievsky and Semyonovsky Islands, discovered in 1815, were completely washed out and by the mid-1950s turned into sand banks with the same names. The coasts are mostly low-lying, but in some areas low mountains come close to the coastline.

relief and geological structure bottom. The bottom of the Laptev Sea is represented by a plain, slightly dissected by several trenches, gently descending from south to north. The sea is shallow, about half of the bottom is at depths of less than 50 m, the shelf (along the 200 m isobath) occupies 72%. The continental slope is cut by the Sadko deep-water trench, which passes into the Nansen Basin to the north. Areas with depths of more than 2000 m (the northwestern part of the sea) account for only 13%. The large, shallow-water part of the Laptev Sea is located in the junction of the Taimyr, Verkhoyansk-Kolyma and Novosibirsk-Chukotka fold systems, the Mesozoic complexes of which are dissected by a branched Cenozoic rift system of northwestern strike and overlain by a cover of Upper Cretaceous - Cenozoic sediments with a thickness of 1-1.5 km per uplifts up to 8-12 km in troughs. In the northern, deep part of the sea, the sedimentary cover rests on igneous rocks of the oceanic crust. Modern bottom sediments on the shelf are represented by sands, silty silt, sometimes with inclusions of pebbles and boulders; in deep-water areas, predominantly silty-argillaceous and clayey oozes are observed at the bottom. The sedimentation of coastal areas is significantly influenced by solid river runoff. Only Lena and Yana annually bring up to 17.5 million tons of suspended sediments to the southeastern part of the sea. The eastern part of the Laptev Sea is seismically active (earthquakes with magnitude up to 6 occur); increased seismicity of the coast is noted.

Climate. The climate is arctic maritime, with signs of continental in the southern coastal regions; high latitude position, proximity to the mainland, isolation from the softening influence of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans determine its severity. The polar night lasts from three to five months. For most of the year, the sea is under the influence of the Siberian High, which leads to weak cyclonic activity and the monsoonal nature of the wind situation. In winter, south and southwest winds prevail at a speed of 8-10 m/s, the air becomes very cool, the temperature in January drops to -34 °С, the absolute minimum was -61 °С. In summer, mainly northern winds (speed 3-4 m/s), air temperature in July from 0 °С at the northern borders to 4 °С at southern coasts. In small bays that are well protected from the wind, the air warms up to 12-15 °С in summer, the maximum temperatures in summer reach 22-24 °С, and the minimum temperatures drop to -4 °С.

hydrological regime. Many small and several large rivers flow into the Laptev Sea, so freshwater runoff has a significant impact on the hydrological regime of the shallow sea. One of the largest rivers in the Arctic Ocean basin - Lena annually brings 520 km 3 of water, Khatanga - 105 km 3, Olenyok - 38 km 3, Yana - 31.5 km 3. In total, more than 700 km 3 enters the Laptev Sea annually. fresh water, or more than 30% of the river runoff of the Arctic basin. The runoff is unevenly distributed over the seasons of the year: in January, about 36 km 3 (over 5% of the annual value) flows into the sea, and in August up to 290 km 3 (over 40%) of water. In coastal areas with a strong influence of river runoff, highly desalinated water forms in the surface layer in summer, when salinity drops to 10‰ in the Lena estuary. Salinity increases in the direction to the north and north-west, reaching 31‰ near the Arctic Cape. The water temperature on the surface at this time varies accordingly from 4 to -1 °C. In winter, salinity everywhere noticeably increases due to a decrease in freshwater runoff and salinization of the surface layer during the process of ice formation: up to 15‰ in the Tiksi region, up to 33‰ near Cape Arkticheskoe. The water temperature on the surface in winter is everywhere close to the freezing point and is determined by the salinity of the water; it varies accordingly from -1 to -1.8 °C. The temperature drops rapidly with depth, and below 15–20 m, it takes negative values ​​everywhere even in summer. Only in deep-sea regions, in the 100-300 m layer, the water temperature is above 0 °C due to the warming effect of the intermediate Atlantic waters.

Most of the year the sea is covered with ice. The ice-forming season lasts from 7-8 months in the south to 9-11 months in the north. In cold years, ice can form in all seasons, in very warm years in late August - early September, the sea is completely free of ice. Extensive coastal regions, especially in the southeastern part, are covered with fixed fast ice in winter.

Usually, the width of the fast ice strip is determined by the isobath of 25 m; therefore, in the Laptev Sea, fast ice can occupy up to 30% of the water area. In the rest of the sea, the ice is drifting. By the end of winter, fast ice and drifting ice can (in one season) grow in thickness up to 1.8-2.0 m. The concentration of drifting ice strongly depends on the prevailing winds. Steady eastern winds often drive away drifting ice from the fast ice, creating a space of open water even in the most severe frosts - the so-called fast ice polynya. Such a phenomenon in the past was called the Great Siberian polynya. With the termination of the action of the east winds, the polynya is quickly covered with young ice.

Due to weak winds in summer and high ice concentration in winter, wind mixing is poorly developed and usually does not penetrate deeper than 8-10 m. northern - to a depth of 90-100 m. Horizontal circulation is mainly cyclonic in nature. Along the mainland coast, the flow moves from west to east. At the New Siberian Islands, most of the flow goes north in the form of the Novosibirsk Current, where it is divided into two branches: one turns east, into the East Siberian Sea, the other goes west. At Severnaya Zemlya, the current deviates to the south and, under the name of the East Taimyr Current, closes the cycle.

The tides are of an irregular semi-diurnal nature, the height is 0.3-0.8 m. Only at the top of the funnel of the Khatanga Bay during the syzygy, the tide exceeds 2 m. Up the Khatanga, the tidal wave penetrates 200-300 km. Surge fluctuations in the level usually do not exceed 2.0-2.5 m. Seasonal fluctuations in the level are small, observed mainly only in the southeastern regions, where they reach 0.4 m (the minimum level is observed in winter, the maximum in summer). The prevailing excitement is 2-4 points with a wave height of about 1 m. In the central part of the sea, during autumn storms with a force of 5-7 points, the height of the waves reaches 4-5 m, their maximum height is 6 m.

Research history. The Laptev Sea has been known to Russian explorers since the 1st half of the 17th century. Found on the shores of the Taimyr Peninsula, traces of the presence of the Pomor artel indicate that the Russians penetrated the Laptev Sea no later than 1620. In 1633-34, explorers Ilya Perfilyev and I. I. Rebrov, descending the Lena, discovered Olenyok Bay, the mouth of the Olenyok River, Yansky Bay, and the mouth of the Yana River. The first surveys of the shores of the Laptev Sea from the mouth of the Lena to the northern shores of Taimyr were carried out in 1735-36 by Lieutenant V. V. Pronchishchev. The former names of the sea were Siberian, from the end of the 19th century - Nordenskiöld, in 1935 the modern name was established in honor of naval officers, members of the 2nd Kamchatka expedition of V. I. Bering, cousins ​​D. Ya. Laptev and Kh. P. Laptev, who finished surveying its mainland coasts and compiled the first reliable map of the area. The New Siberian Islands were discovered by Siberian hunters in 1712-1812. The first reliable maps of the islands were compiled by the government expedition of Lieutenant P. F. Anjou in 1821-23. The Severnaya Zemlya archipelago was discovered in 1913 by a hydrographic expedition of the Arctic Ocean, led by Senior Lieutenant B. A. Vilkitsky. A map of the coasts of Severnaya Zemlya was compiled by the expedition of G. A. Ushakov in 1930-32.

Economic use. The Laptev Sea is characterized as an area of ​​weak economic use. Fishing is of local importance. Among the commercial species are arctic char, Siberian whitefish, omul, nelma, sturgeon, vendace, muksun. Mammals are represented by walruses, seals, white whales. Polar bears breed on the islands. On the shores - white fox, lemmings. The world of birds is diverse, especially in bird markets where guillemots and guillemots nest; numerous species of gulls, skuas; the polar owl is widespread, etc.

The Laptev Sea is part of the Northern Sea Route. The main port is Tiksi, where river-sea cargo is transshipped. Timber, building materials, furs, food products predominate in cargo transportation. Sea freight transportation is carried out under icebreaking assistance. The Laptev Sea is promising in terms of oil and gas potential, but its development is difficult due to harsh natural conditions.

Ecological situation. In general, the ecological situation of the Laptev Sea is characterized as favorable due to the poor economic use of this area. The shallow parts of the sea are slightly polluted, as a result of which eutrophication of bays, bays, and coastal areas of the sea is noted; there is a decrease in the size of hydrobionts.

Lit .: Dobrovolsky A.D., Zalogin B.S. Seas of the USSR. M., 1982; Atlas of the Arctic. M., 1985; Tectonic map of the Kara and Laptev seas and the north of Siberia / Edited by N. A. Bogdanov, V. E. Khain. M., 1998; Zalogin B. S., Kosarev A. N. Morya. M., 1999; Geoecology of the shelf and coasts of the Russian seas / Edited by N. A. Aibulatov. M., 2001.

The Laptev Sea is a peripheral or marginal sea of ​​the Arctic Ocean, which is located near the northern coast of Russia, in Asia. In the west it is bounded by the Taimyr Peninsula and the Severnaya Zemlya Islands, in the east by the New Siberian Islands.

The neighboring Kara Sea, with which the Laptev Sea is connected by the Vilkitsky Strait, as well as the East Siberian Sea, with which it is connected by the Sannikov and Dmitry Laptev Straits. The Laptev Sea is named after Russian navigators and northern explorers Khariton and Dmitry Laptev, who explored this harsh territory back in the 18th century. In the language of the indigenous people, the Yakuts, the name sounds like Laptevtar. One of the previous names is Nordenskiöld.

The area of ​​the sea is 672 thousand square meters. km.sq.

The prevailing depths are 30 - 80 m.

The average depth is 540 m.

The greatest depth is 3385 m.

Geographic coordinates - 76 ° 16'07 "N. 125°38’23” E

The salinity of the water is low.

The coastline has a length of 1300 km and is quite indented. Because of this, there are many bays and bays on the coast. The main bays: Olenksky, Khatanga, Faddey.

The climate here is arctic continental and very severe. For more than nine months a year, the temperature is below zero degrees Celsius. And only for two months, August and September, the sea is freed from the ice that binds it. The water temperature in summer in the south is from +12 to +15°, in the north from +1 to +6°. In winter, the water temperature under the ice is -1.5°C. The polar night and day last for more than three months each. The air temperature in January reaches -50°С, and in July it rarely reaches +5°С

The density of the indigenous population (Yukaghirs, Chuvans, Evenks and Evens) is very low. Their traditional occupations are reindeer herding, fishing, and hunting. And this is despite the fact that the local flora and fauna are very scarce. There are 39 species of fish in the Laptev Sea, the main of which are char, omul, whitefish, sturgeon, vendace, nelma and sea animal - seal, walrus, beluga. On the islands and coast polar bear, fox.

On the territory of the sea there are a couple of dozen islands on which the remains of mammoths were found, which have been preserved in good condition. The largest port village is Tiksi.

The following rivers flow into the Laptev Sea: Lena, Anabar, Khatanga, Olenk, Yana and other smaller rivers.

Today, the main human activity in this region is navigation and mining.

Video: Tiksi. Laptev sea.

Group "Lips" - the Laptev Sea (Reggae with Adriano Celentano. Comedy Club

Posted Mon, 27/04/2015 - 06:59 by Cap

The Laptev Sea (Yakut. Laptevtar baygallar) is a marginal sea of ​​the Arctic Ocean. located between north coast Siberia in the south, the islands of Severnaya Zemlya in the west and.
The sea is named after Russian polar explorers, cousins ​​Dmitry and Khariton Laptev. In the past, it was known under various names, the last of which is the Nordenskjöld Sea.
The sea has a harsh climate with temperatures below 0 °C for more than nine months of the year, low salinity, sparse flora and fauna, and low population along the coast. Most of the time, with the exception of August and September, it is under ice.

map of the Laptev sea


For thousands of years, the sea coast was inhabited by the indigenous tribes of the Yukaghirs, and later the Evens and Evenks, who were engaged in fishing, hunting and nomadic reindeer herding. Then the shores were populated by Yakuts and Russians. The development of the territory by Russian explorers began in the 17th century from the south, along the channels of rivers flowing into the sea.

There are several dozen islands in the Laptev Sea, many of which contain well-preserved remains of mammoths.
The main human activities in this area are mining and navigation along the Northern Sea Route; fishing and hunting are practiced but have no commercial value. The largest settlement and port is Tiksi.

Length and boundaries
Basic physical and geographical features. Between the archipelago of Severnaya Zemlya and in the west lies the sea, which bears the name of the Laptev brothers. It is limited by natural boundaries and conditional lines. Its western border runs along the eastern from the Arctic Cape (Komsomolets Island), then through the Strait of the Red Army along the eastern shore of the island. October Revolution to m. Anuchin, through the Shokalsky Strait to m. Sandy on about. Bolshevik and along its eastern shore to Cape Vaigach, then along the eastern border of the Vilkitsky Strait and further along the mainland coast to the top of the Khatanga Bay.
The northern boundary of the sea runs from the Arctic Cape to the point of intersection of the meridian of the northern tip of the island. Kotelny (139 ° E) with the edge of the continental shelf (79 ° N, 139 ° E), the eastern border from the indicated point is to the western coast of the island. Kotelny, further along the western border of the Sannikov Strait, goes around the western shores of the Bolshoy and Maly Lyakhovsky Islands and then goes along the western border of the Dmitry Laptev Strait. The southern boundary of the sea runs along the mainland coast from Cape Svyatoy Nos to the top of the Khatanga Bay. Within these boundaries, the sea lies between the parallels 81°16′ and 70°42′ N. sh. and meridians 95°44′ and 143°30′ E. d.

By geographic location and hydrological conditions different from the ocean with which the sea freely communicates, it belongs to the type of continental marginal seas. Within the accepted boundaries, the Laptev Sea has the following dimensions: area - 662 thousand km2, volume 353 thousand km3, average depth 533 m, maximum depth 3385 m.

The Laptev Sea on the coast of the northernmost sea

Physical location
The surface area of ​​the sea is 672,000 km².
The largest river flowing into the Laptev Sea (and the second largest of the Arctic rivers after the Yenisei) is the Lena with its large delta. Rivers also flow into the sea: Khatanga, Anabar, Olenyok, Yana.

The shores are strongly indented and form bays and bays of various sizes. The coastal landscape is varied, with low mountains.
Large bays: Khatanga, Oleneksky, Faddey, Yansky, Anabarsky, Maria Pronchishcheva Bay, Buor-Khaya.

In the western part of the sea and river deltas there are several dozen islands with total area 3784 km². Frequent storms and currents due to melting ice lead to severe erosion of the islands, for example, the Semyonovsky and Vasilyevsky Islands, discovered in 1815, have already disappeared.
Most Komsomolskaya Pravda and Thaddeus.
The largest single islands: Bolshoy Begichev (1764 km²), Belkovsky (500 km²), Maly Taimyr (250 km²), Stolbovoy (170 km²), Starokadomsky Island (110 km²), and Sandy (17 km²)

Bottom relief
Depths up to 50 m prevail, the greatest depth is 3385 meters, the average depth is 540 meters. More than half of the sea (53%) is a gently sloping continental shelf with medium depth less than or slightly more than 50 meters, in addition, the bottom areas south of the 76th parallel are at a depth of less than 25 meters. In the northern part of the sea, the bottom abruptly breaks off to the ocean floor with depths of the order of one kilometer (22% of the sea area). In shallow areas, the bottom is covered with sand and silt mixed with pebbles and boulders. Near the banks, river precipitation accumulates at a high rate, up to 20-25 centimeters per year. At great depths, the bottom is covered with silt.
The continental slope is cut by the Sadko Trough, passing in the north into the Nansen Basin with depths of more than 2 kilometers, the maximum depth of the Laptev Sea is also noted here - 3385 meters (79°35′ N 124°40′ E).

polar lights in the Laptev Sea

Climate
The climate of the Laptev Sea is arctic continental and, due to its remoteness from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, is one of the most severe among the Arctic seas. Polar night and polar day last about 3 months a year in the south and 5 months in the north. The air temperature remains below 0 °C 11 months a year in the north and 9 months in the south.
The average temperature in January (the coldest month) varies from place to place between -31°C and -34°C, with a minimum of -50°C. In July the temperature rises to 0°C (max 4°C) in the north and 5°C (max 10°C) in the south, however it can reach 22-24°C on the coast in August. A maximum of 32.7 °C was recorded in Tiksi. Strong winds, blizzards and snowstorms are common in winter. Snow falls even in summer and alternates with fogs. The winds blow from the south and southwest in winter. average speed 8 m/s and subside by spring. In summer, they change direction to the north, and their speed is 3-4 m/s. Relatively weak wind speeds lead to low convection in surface waters, which occurs only to a depth of 5-10 meters.

Tiksi Bay Laptev Sea

HYDROLOGY OF THE SEA
Hydrological characteristic.
Large continental runoff in general, the spread of fresh water over vast expanses of the sea, along with other factors (climate severity, free water exchange with the Arctic Ocean, year-round existing ice over large areas) significantly affect the hydrological conditions of the Laptev Sea. This is primarily manifested in the magnitudes of the distribution and spatio-temporal variability of oceanological characteristics in the sea under consideration.

For most of the year, the water temperature is close to the freezing point. In cold seasons, it quickly decreases in autumn, and in winter on the surface it changes over the sea from -0.8° (near Mostakh Island) to -1.7° (near Cape Chelyuskin). Similar values ​​are observed at this time in other regions. In the first months of spring warming, ice melts, so the water temperature remains almost the same as in winter. Only in coastal areas, especially near estuarine areas, which are cleared of ice earlier than others, does the water temperature increase. Its magnitude generally decreases from south to north and from east to west. In summer, the surface of the sea warms up. In August, in the south (Buor-Khaya Bay), the water temperature on the surface can reach +10° and even +14°, in the central regions it is +3-5°, at the northern tip of about. Boiler and at Cape Chelyuskin + 0.8-1.0 °. In general, the western part of the sea, where the cold waters of the Arctic basin come, is characterized by lower water temperatures (+2–3°) than the eastern part, where the bulk of warm river waters are concentrated, so the surface temperature here can reach +6–8°.

The vertical distribution of water temperature is not the same in cold and warm seasons. Its change with depth is clearly expressed only in summer. In winter, in areas with depths of up to 50-60 m, the water temperature is the same from the surface to the bottom. In the coastal zone it is -1.0-1.2°, and in the open sea is about -1.6°. At great depths, at levels of 50-60 m, the water temperature rises by 0.1-0.2°. This is due to the influx of other waters, since at the same time the salinity increases slightly.

In the north, in the regions of a deep trench, the negative temperature extends from the surface to about 100 m. From here it begins to rise to 0.6-0.8°. This temperature persists up to about 300 m, and below it again slowly decreases to the bottom. High temperatures in the 100–300 m layer are associated with the penetration of warm Atlantic waters into the Laptev Sea from the Central Arctic Basin.

In summer, the upper layer 10–15 m thick warms up well and has a temperature of 8–10° in the southeastern part and 3–4° in the central part. Deeper than these horizons, the temperature drops sharply, reaching -1.4-1.5° at a horizon of 25 m. These values, or those close to them, persist to the very bottom. In the western part of the sea, where the heating is less than in the east, such sharp differences in temperature are not observed.

The salinity in the Laptev Sea varies and varies in space and time. Its differences are very large (from 1 to 34‰), but desalinated waters with a salinity of 20–30‰ predominate. The distribution of salinity over the surface is very complex. In general, it increases from the southeast to the northwest and north.

In winter, with minimal river runoff and intense ice formation, salinity is the highest. At the same time, it is higher in the west than in the east. At m. Chelyuskin it is almost 34‰, and at about. Boiler room only 25‰. At the beginning of spring, salinity remains quite high, but in June, with the beginning of ice melting, it begins to decrease. In summer, at maximum runoff, salinity is characterized by low values ​​(see Fig. 26, b). The southeastern part of the sea is the most desalinated. In the Buor-Khaya bay, salinity drops to 5‰ and lower, to the north of it it is slightly higher, up to 10–15‰. More saline waters (30–32‰) spread in the west of the sea. They are located somewhat north of the line about. Petra - m. Anisy. Thus, desalinated waters wedge out to the north in the eastern part of the sea, and salty waters descend in a wide tongue to the south in the western part of the sea.

In autumn, river runoff decreases, and in October ice formation begins and salinization of surface waters occurs. Salinity generally increases with depth. However, its vertical distribution has seasonal differences in different areas of the sea. In winter, in shallow waters, it increases from the surface to 10-15 m, and then remains almost unchanged to the bottom. At great depths, a noticeable increase in salinity does not begin from the surface itself, but from the underlying horizons, from which it slowly increases to the bottom. The spring type of the vertical distribution of salinity, different from the winter type, sets in from the time of intensive ice melting. At this time, salinity sharply decreases in the surface layer and retains rather high values ​​at the lower horizons.

In summer, in the zone of influence of river waters, the upper layer of 5-10 m is very strongly desalinated; below, a very sharp increase in salinity is observed. In a layer from 10 to 25 m, the salinity gradient in some places reaches 20‰ per 1 m. From here, the salinity either remains unchanged or gradually increases by tenths of a ppm. In the northern part of the sea, salinity increases relatively rapidly from the surface to 50 m, from here to 300 m it rises more slowly, ranging from 29 to 33–34‰, and hardly changes deeper.

In autumn, in the southern regions, salinity values ​​increase with depth, and the summer jump gradually levels off. In the north, the same salinity covers the upper layer, and below it increases with depth. The temperature and salinity of water determine its density, and in the Laptev Sea, salinity has a great influence on the density. In accordance with the change in salinity and temperature in space and time, the density of water also changes. It increases from southeast to northwest. In winter and autumn, the water is denser than in summer and spring. Density increases with depth. In winter and early spring, it is almost the same from the surface to the bottom. In summer, the jump in salinity and temperature on the horizon of 10-15 m determines here a sharply pronounced jump in density. In autumn, salting and cooling of surface waters increases their density.

Density stratification of waters is clearly seen from late spring to early autumn; it is most pronounced in the southeastern and central regions of the sea and near the ice edge. The different degree of water overstratification along the vertical causes unequal opportunities for the development of mixing in different areas of the Laptev Sea. Laptev sea

Wind mixing in the ice-free spaces of this sea is poorly developed due to the relatively calm wind conditions in the warm season, the large ice cover of the sea and the stratification of its waters. During spring and summer, the wind mixes only the uppermost layers up to 5-7 m thick in the east and up to 10 m thick in the western part of the sea.

Strong autumn-winter cooling and intense ice formation cause active, but uneven development of convection from place to place. It starts in the northeast and north, then occurs in the central part, in the south and southeast of the sea. Due to the relatively low degree of stratification and early ice formation, density mixing penetrates most deeply (up to horizons of 90–100 m) in the north of the sea, where its distribution is limited by the density structure of the waters. In the central regions, convection reaches the bottom (40–50 m) by the beginning of winter, and in the southern part, subject to the influence of continental runoff, even at shallow (up to 25 m) depths, it spreads to the bottom only towards the end of winter as a result of a significant increase in salinity during due to winter ice formation, which is explained here by the stratification of water in depth.

The natural features of the Laptev Sea determine the markedly pronounced heterogeneity of its waters. Due to a certain similarity between the considered and the Kara Seas, their hydrological structure and the mechanism of its formation are similar and are shown in the section on the Kara Sea. Thus, in the Laptev Sea (similar to the Kara Sea), arctic surface waters with their characteristic characteristics and seasonal stratification in temperature and salinity predominate. In zones of strong influence of coastal runoff, as a result of the mixing of river and surface Arctic waters, water with a relatively high temperature and low salinity is formed. At their interface (horizon 5-7 m) large gradients of salinity and density are created. In the north, in a deep trench under the surface Arctic water, warm Atlantic waters are common, but their temperature is somewhat lower than in the Kara Sea trenches. They penetrate here 2.5-3 years after the start of their journey near Svalbard. In the deeper Laptev Sea compared to the Kara Sea, the horizons from 800–1000 m to the bottom are occupied by cold bottom water with a temperature of −0.4–0.9° and almost uniform (34.90–34.95‰) salinity. Its formation is associated with the sinking of the chilled waters of the sea along the continental slope to great depths. The decisive role in the hydrological conditions of the Laptev Sea belongs to the processes occurring in the surface Arctic waters and in the zones of their mixing with river waters.

The general circulation of the waters of the Laptev Sea is not yet sufficiently clear in detail, especially with regard to movement in the lower horizons, vertical components, etc. There are quite definite ideas about constant currents on the sea surface. In general, this sea is characterized by cyclonic circulation of surface waters. It is formed by a coastal stream moving along the mainland from west to east, where it is reinforced by the Lena Current. With further movement, most of it deviates to the north and northwest and, in the form of the New Siberian Current, goes beyond the sea, connecting with the Transarctic Current. At the northern tip of Severnaya Zemlya, the East Taimyr current branches off, which moves south along the eastern shores of Severnaya Zemlya and closes the cyclonic ring in the sea. A small part of the waters of the coastal flow goes through the Sannikov Strait into the East Siberian Sea.

sunbathing on the Laptev Sea

ICE CONDITION
For most of the year (from October to May), the entire Laptev Sea is covered with ice of various thicknesses and ages (see Fig. 28). Ice formation begins at the end of September and takes place simultaneously throughout the sea. In winter, extremely extensive fast ice up to 2 m thick develops in its shallow eastern part. The boundary of fast ice distribution is a depth of 20–25 m, which in this area of ​​the sea runs at a distance of several hundred kilometers from the coast. The fast ice area is approximately 30% of the area of ​​the entire sea. In the western and northwestern parts of the sea, fast ice is small, and in some winters it is completely absent. To the north of the landfast zone there are drifting ice.

With the almost constant removal of ice from the sea to the north in winter, behind the fast ice, significant areas of polynyas and young ice remain. The width of this zone varies from tens to several hundreds of kilometers. Its individual sections are called the East Severozemelskaya, Taimyr, Lena and Novosibirsk polynyas. The last two, at the beginning of the warm season, reach enormous sizes (thousands of square kilometers) and become centers for the sea to be cleared of ice. The melting of ice begins in June-July, and by August large expanses of the sea are freed from ice. In summer, the ice edge often changes its position under the influence of winds and currents. The western part of the sea is generally more arctic than the eastern part. From the north, a spur of the oceanic Taimyr ice mass descends into the sea, in which heavy multi-year ice is often found. It persists until new ice formation, depending on the prevailing winds, moving now to the north, then to the south. The local Yansky ice massif, formed by landfast ice, usually melts in place by the second half of August or is partially carried away to the north beyond the sea.

Andrey Island Laptev Sea

Flora and fauna
Flora and fauna are scarce due to the harsh climate. The vegetation of the sea is represented mainly by diatoms, of which there are more than 100 species. For comparison, green, blue-green algae and flagellates - about 10 species of each. The total concentration of phytoplankton is 0.2 mg/l. Also in the sea there are about 30 species of zooplankton with a total concentration of 0.467 mg/l. The flora of the coast consists mainly of mosses, lichens and several species of flowering plants, including the polar poppy, saxifrage, rump and small populations of polar and creeping willows. Vascular plants are rare and are represented mainly by saxifrage and saxifrage. Nonvascular, on the contrary, are very diverse: mosses of the genera Ditrichum, Dicranum, Pogonatum, Sanionia, Bryum, Orthothecium and Tortula, as well as lichens of the genera Cetraria, Thamnolia, Cornicularia, Lecidea, Ochrolechia and Parmelia.
In the sea, 39 species of fish have been recorded, most of them typical of the brackish water environment. The main ones are different kinds graylings and whitefish, such as muksun, whitefish, omul. Sardine, Bering Sea omul, polar smelt, navaga, arctic cod, flounder, arctic char and nelma are also common.
Mammals constantly live here: walrus, sea hare, seal, harp seal, lemming, arctic fox, reindeer, wolf, ermine, polar hare and polar bear. Beluga whales make seasonal migrations to the coast (for flying). Walruses from the Laptev Sea are sometimes classified as a separate subspecies of Odobenus rosmarus laptevi, but this issue remains controversial.
Several dozen species of birds live here. Some of them are sedentary and live here permanently, such as snow bunting, sea sandpiper, snowy owl and black goose. While others roam the polar regions or migrate from the south, creating large colonies on the islands and the coast of the mainland. The latter include auk, common kittiwake, common guillemot, ivory gull, murre, charadriiformes and arctic gull. Also found are skuas, terns, fulmar, glaucous gull, pink gull, long-tailed duck, eiders, loons and ptarmigan.
In 1985, the Ust-Lena Nature Reserve was organized in the delta of the Lena River. In 1993, they were also included in its buffer zone. The territory of the reserve is 14,330 km². It contains numerous species of plants (402 species of vascular plants), fish (32 species), birds (109 species) and mammals (33 species), many of which are listed in the Red Books of the USSR and Russia.

Khatanga Bay Laptev Sea

History and development
The coast of the Laptev Sea has long been inhabited by aboriginal tribes of northern Siberia, such as the Yukagirs and Chuvans. The traditional occupations of these tribes were fishing, hunting, nomadic reindeer herding, and hunting for wild deer. Starting from the 2nd century, the gradual assimilation of the Yukaghirs by Evens and Evenks began, and from the 9th century by much more numerous Yakuts, and later by Koryaks and Chukchis. Many of these tribes moved north from the territories of Lake Baikal, avoiding clashes with the Mongols. All these tribes practiced shamanism, but the languages ​​were different. In the XVII-XIX centuries, the number of Yukaghirs decreased due to epidemics and civil strife.

Development by Russians
Russians began to explore the coast of the Laptev Sea and nearby islands around the 17th century, rafting Siberian rivers. Many early expeditions appear to have been undocumented, as evidenced by graves found on the islands by their official discoverers. In 1629, the Siberian Cossacks sailed through the entire Lena in boats and reached its delta. They left a record that the river flows into the sea. In 1633, another group reached the delta of the Olenyok River.
In 1712, Yakov Permyakov and Mercury Vagin explored the eastern part of the Laptev Sea and Bolshoi Lyakhovsky Island, which they had discovered two years earlier. When repeated, they, however, were killed by the rebellious Cossacks of their detachment. In the spring of 1770, the industrialist Ivan Lyakhov succeeded. Having discovered a fossil mammoth bone there, on his return he asked for a monopoly right to collect it and, as a result, received it by a special decree of Catherine II. During his sleigh trip, he described several other islands, including Kotelny, named by him because of the copper cauldron found on it. In 1775 he compiled detailed map Big Lyakhovsky Island.

As part of the Great Northern Expedition, two detachments were engaged in the study of the Laptev Sea:
On June 30, 1735, at the head of the Lena-Yenisei detachment, Vasily Pronchishchev set off from Yakutsk down the Lena on the dubel-boat Yakutsk with a crew of more than 40 people. He explored East Coast Lena delta, putting it on the map, stopped for the winter at the mouth of the Olenyok River. Despite the difficulties, in 1736 he managed to advance by oars to the north beyond the 77th latitude, almost to Cape Chelyuskin - the extreme northern point mainland. However, due to poor visibility, travelers were unable to see the land.
On the way back, Pronchishchev himself and his wife, Tatyana Pronchishcheva, died: on August 29, Pronchishchev went on reconnaissance on a boat and broke his leg. Returning to the ship, he lost consciousness and soon died of a fat embolism. The wife (her participation in the expedition was unofficial) survived her husband by only 14 days and died on September 12 (23), 1736. The bay of Maria Pronchishcheva (“Maria” - due to an error made in the preparation of the publication of maps) in the Laptev Sea was named after her.
In December 1737, Khariton Laptev was appointed the new leader of the detachment. Under his leadership, the detachment again reached Taimyr, transferred the wintering to Khatanga, and after the ship was crushed by ice, continued to describe the coast of Taimyr from land. One of the groups of this detachment, under the leadership of Semyon Chelyuskin, managed to get by land to the northern tip of the peninsula, which now bears his name.
At the head of the Lena-Kolyma detachment, Dmitry Laptev (who replaced P. Lassineus, who died during the winter in 1736), on the Irkutsk boat described the sea coast from the Lena delta to the strait into the East Siberian Sea, later named after him.

A detailed mapping of the coast of the Laptev Sea was carried out by Peter Anzhu, who in 1821-1823 traveled about 14,000 km across this territory on sledges and boats, in search of Sannikov Land and thus demonstrating that large-scale coastal exploration can be carried out without ships. The Anjou Islands were named after him ( Northern part Novosibirsk Islands). In 1875, Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld was the first to sail across the entire Laptev Sea on the steamship Vega.
In 1892-1894 and again in 1900-1902, Baron Eduard Toll explored the Laptev Sea on two separate expeditions. He conducted geological and geographical research on the ship "Zarya" on behalf of the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. During his second expedition, Toll went missing somewhere on the New Siberian Islands under unclear circumstances. He managed to note large, economically significant accumulations of perfectly preserved mammoth bone on the beaches, in reservoirs, river terraces and riverbeds of the New Siberian Islands. More recent scientific studies have shown that these clusters formed over a period of about 200,000 years.

Name etymology
Historical names: Tatar, Lena (on the maps of the XVI-XVII centuries), Siberian, Arctic (XVIII-XIX centuries). In 1883, the polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen named the sea after the Nordenskjöld.
In 1913, at the suggestion of the oceanographer Yu. M. Shokalsky, the Russian Geographical Society approved the current name - in honor of the cousins ​​\u200b\u200bof Dmitry and Khariton Laptev, but it was officially fixed only by a decision of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR of June 27, 1935.

camp in the Olenyok Bay Laptev Sea

Pyasina, Upper and Lower Taimyr, Khatanga.

The southern shores of Severnaya Zemlya are only 55 kilometers from the northern tip of Asia - Cape Chelyuskin - and on a clear day they are visible. Now it is well known that Russian navigators quite early, at the end of the 16th - beginning of the 17th century, in the Laptev Sea by the Strait separating Severnaya Zemlya from the mainland. Perhaps these brave sailors had to see a high, bizarre mountainous country, and we owe the first information about it to them. True, in the old geographical maps this country has fantastic outlines. But what's in it! After all, the continents had no less fantastic forms on the world maps of the 15th and 16th centuries; Greenland had no less bizarre outlines on maps of the 16th and even 18th centuries, despite the fact that it became known to Europeans in the 9th, 10th, and especially in the 11th and 12th centuries.

is a Russian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. Administratively, it is part of the Taimyr (Dolgano-Nenets) municipal district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory.
The area of ​​the archipelago is about 37 thousand km². Uninhabited.
On Severnaya Zemlya there is the northernmost island point of Asia - the Arctic Cape on Komsomolets Island.

Story
The archipelago was discovered on September 4, 1913 by a hydrographic expedition of 1910-1915 by Boris Vilkitsky. First named by the expedition members the word "Taiwai" (according to the first syllables of the expeditionary icebreakers "Taimyr" and "Vaigach"). The archipelago received the official name "Land of Emperor Nicholas II" in honor of the then reigning Russian emperor on January 10 (23), 1914, when it was announced by order No. 14 of the naval minister. Disputes continue about who was the initiator of this name. It is known that Boris Vilkitsky was his supporter both before the appearance of Order No. 14 and two decades later. Initially it was assumed that the archipelago is a single island.

January 11, 1926 Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee By his decree, he renamed the Land of Emperor Nicholas II into Severnaya Zemlya. The island of Tsesarevich Alexei was renamed the island of Little Taimyr. Subsequently, in 1931-1933, the islands forming the archipelago were discovered, which received from the Soviet discoverers (Nikolai Urvantsev and Georgy Ushakov) the names Pioneer, Komsomolets, Bolshevik, October Revolution, Schmidt.

December 1, 2006 by the Duma of the Taimyr (Dolgano-Nenets) autonomous region a resolution was adopted that proposed the former name of the Land of Emperor Nicholas II, as well as to rename the island of Little Taimyr to the island of Tsesarevich Alexei, the island of the October Revolution - to the island of St. Alexandra, Bolshevik island - to the island of St. Olga, Komsomolets island - to the island of St. Pioneer - to the island of St. Tatiana and Domashny Island - to the island of St. Anastasia.

However, after the unification of the Krasnoyarsk Territory and the Taimyr (Dolgano-Nenets) Autonomous Okrug, the Legislative Assembly of the Krasnoyarsk Territory did not support this initiative.

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SOURCE OF INFORMATION AND PHOTO:
Team Nomads
Shamraev Yu. I., Shishkina L. A. Oceanology. L.: Gidrometeoizdat, 1980
http://tapemark.narod.ru/more/14.html
Ust-Lensky State Nature Reserve
M. I. Belov In the footsteps of polar expeditions. Part II. On archipelagos and islands
Lyakhov Ivan, Great Soviet Encyclopedia
http://znayuvse.ru/geografiya/zagadka-zemli-sannikova
Dmitry Laptev, Khariton Laptev, Great Soviet Encyclopedia
Vize V. Yu. Laptev Sea // Seas of the Soviet Arctic: Essays on the history of research. - 2nd ed. - L .: Publishing House of the Glavsevmorput, 1939. - S. 180-217. — 568 p. - (Polar Library). — 10,000 copies.
History of the discovery and development of the Northern Sea Route: In 4 volumes / Ed. Ya. Ya. Gakkelya, A. P. Okladnikova, M. B. Chernenko. - M.-L., 1956-1969.
Belov M. I. Scientific and economic development of the Soviet North in 1933-1945. - L .: Hydrometeorological Publishing House, 1969. - T. IV. — 617 p. — 2,000 copies.
http://www.photosight.ru/
photo E. Gusev, S. Anisimov, L. Schwartz.

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