Severny Island

Severny Island is the northern island of Novaya Zemlya, a Russian Arctic archipelago separated from Yuzhny Island by the Matochkin Strait.

Novaya Zemlya: A Russian Arctic archipelago consisting mainly of Severny and Yuzhny islands. Severny is the archipelago’s northern and larger main island.
Cape Zhelaniya: A headland at the northern end of Novaya Zemlya. It marks Severny Island’s northern extremity.
Tsar Bomba: A Soviet thermonuclear bomb detonated over Novaya Zemlya in 1961. Its test made the archipelago globally prominent in nuclear history.
Willem Barentsz: A Dutch navigator whose late-sixteenth-century Arctic voyages explored waters around Novaya Zemlya. His expeditions helped bring the archipelago into European geographic accounts.
Glacier retreat: The landward shrinkage of glaciers when ice loss exceeds accumulation. Measurements on Severny track how its ice cap responds to Arctic warming.
Matochkin Strait: A narrow Arctic strait separating Severny Island from Yuzhny Island. This strait divides the two principal islands of Novaya Zemlya.
Belushya Guba: A settlement and administrative center on Yuzhny Island, Novaya Zemlya. It is the archipelago’s main settlement, although not on Severny.
Nuclear testing: The detonation of nuclear weapons to assess their effects and performance. Novaya Zemlya became one of the Soviet Union’s principal test grounds.
Martin Conway: A British mountaineer and historian who led an 1896 expedition to Novaya Zemlya. His expedition contributed to modern mapping and accounts of the archipelago.
Sea ice: Frozen seawater that forms, grows, and melts on the ocean surface. Its changing extent shapes access, wildlife habitat, and local conditions around Severny.

Linked from 3 pages

Yuzhny IslandRelated: Matochkin Strait separates it from Yuzhny Island.