Kara Sea

The Kara Sea is a marginal sea, separated from the Barents Sea to the west by the Kara Strait and Novaya Zemlya, and from the Laptev Sea to the east by the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago. Ultimately the Kara, Barents and Laptev Seas are all extensions of the Arctic Ocean north of Siberia.

The Kara Sea is roughly 1,450 km (900 mi) long and 970 km (600 mi) wide with an area of around 880,000 km² (339,770 sq mi) and a mean depth of 110 metres (360 ft). Its main ports are Novy Port and Dikson and it is important as a fishing ground although the sea is ice-bound for all but two months of the year.

The Kara Sea contains the East-Prinovozemelsky field (an extension of the West Siberian Oil Basin), containing significant undeveloped petroleum and natural gas. In 2014, US government sanctions resulted in Exxon having until 26 September to discontinue its operations in the Kara Sea.

Name origin

The Kara Sea gets its name from the Kara river, which flows into Baydaratskaya Bay. Even though the river isn't very important today, it was very useful when Russia explored and settled northern Siberia. The name "Kara" comes from a Nenets word that means "hummocked ice."

Geography

The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Kara Sea. On the west, it is separated from the Barents Sea by the Kara Strait and the land of Novaya Zemlya. To the north, the sea ends at a line from Cape Kohlsaat to Cape Molotov, the northern tip of Komsomolets Island in the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago.

The Kara Sea has many islands, some lying far from the coast in the open water. The biggest group of islands is the Nordenskiöld Archipelago, which has over ninety islands. Other notable islands include Bely Island, Dikson Island, and Taymyr Island. Most of these islands are not covered in ice, except for Ushakov Island at the very northern edge of the sea.

History

The Kara Sea used to be called Oceanus Scythicus or Mare Glaciale, names that appeared on maps from the 1500s. Because it is covered in ice most of the year, people did not explore it much until the late 1800s.

In 1556, an explorer named Stephen Borough tried to reach the Ob River but could not because of ice and fog. Later attempts also failed. In 1736–1737, Russian Admiral Stepan Malygin sailed into the Kara Sea and made the first fairly accurate map of parts of the Arctic coast. In 1878, explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld sailed across the Kara Sea and became the first person to travel the entire Northeast Passage.

During World War II, German ships entered the Kara Sea to attack Russian vessels, but ice and bad weather protected many of the ships. In 2010, Russia granted an oil company permission to explore for oil and gas in the Kara Sea.

Nuclear dumping

Main article: Ocean disposal of radioactive waste

There are worries about radioactive contamination from nuclear waste that the former Soviet Union placed in the sea and how it might affect the ocean. In the 1990s, a report showed that between 1965 and 1988, the Soviet Union put six nuclear submarine reactors and ten nuclear reactors into the Kara Sea. This included waste from submarines and ships, with some of it placed in shallow waters near Novaya Zemlya. Experts later said the amount released was small and mostly stayed in one area. Some of the reactors had accidents before they were dumped. One submarine, the Soviet submarine K-27, was sunk with its reactors still holding nuclear fuel.

Nature reserve

The Great Arctic State Nature Reserve is the largest nature reserve in Russia. It was created on 11 May 1993. Part of this reserve includes islands in the Kara Sea, covering an area of 4,000 km². These islands include the Sergei Kirov Archipelago, Voronina Island, Izvestiy TSIK Islands, Arctic Institute Islands, Svordrup Island, Uedineniya, and several smaller islands. This area shows the natural and biological variety of Arctic sea islands in the eastern Kara Sea.

Nearby, Franz Josef Land and Severny Island in northern Novaya Zemlya are also protected as part of the Russian Arctic National Park.