Wrangel Island (Russian: Остров Врангеля Ostrov Vrangelya) is an island in the Arctic Ocean, between the Chukchi and East Siberian Seas, and belonging to the Russian Federation. Wrangel Island lies across the 180° meridian. The International date line is displaced eastwards at this latitude to avoid the island as well as Chukotka on the Russian mainland. The island is about 125 kilometers (78 miles) wide and 7300 square kilometers (2800 square miles) in area. The highest point on the island is Sovetskaya Mountain (1096 meters, or 3596 feet). This article is about the Alaskan island. ... Wrangel Island, Russia Created from other Wikipedia Russia maps File links The following pages link to this file: Wrangel Island Categories: GFDL images ... Chukchi Sea (Russian: Чуко́тское мо́ре) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, between Chukotka and Alaska. ... East Siberian Sea (Russian: ) is a marginal sea in the Arctic Ocean. ... On the earth, a meridian is a north-south line between the North Pole and the South Pole. ... The International Date Line around 180° The International Date Line is an imaginary line on the surface of the Earth, which offsets the hours that are added or subtracted as one travels east or west through successive time zones. ... Chukotka Autonomous District (Russian: , tr. ...

Nature

Rocky, barren and frozen, the island has a weather station and a single permanent settlement. The island is a breeding ground for polar bears (having the highest density of their dens in the world), seals and lemmings. During the summer it is visited by many types of birds. Find more information on Weather by searching Wikipedias sister projects: Dictionary definitions from Wiktionary Textbooks from Wikibooks Quotations from Wikiquote Source texts from Wikisource Images and media from Commons News stories from Wikinews Weather is an all-encompassing term used to describe all of the many and varied phenomena... Binomial name Ursus maritimus Phipps, 1774 The Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus), aka white bear aka northern bear aka sea bear, is a large bear native to the Arctic. ... Families Odobenidae Otariidae Phocidae Pinnipeds (fin-feet, lit. ... Genera Dicrostonyx Lemmus Synaptomys Myopus  * Incomplete listing: see vole Lemmings are small rodents, usually found in or near the Arctic. ... Summer is a season, defined by convention in meteorology as the whole months of June, July, and August, in the Northern hemisphere, and the whole months of December, January, and February, in the Southern hemisphere. ... Orders Many - see section below. ...

During the last ice age, mammoths lived on Wrangel Island. It has been shown that mammoths survived on Wrangel Island until 1700 B.C. which is the most recent survival of any known mammoth population. However, due to limited food supply, they were much smaller than the typical mammoth. Variations in CO2, temperature and dust from the Vostok ice core over the last 400 000 years For the animated movie, see Ice Age (movie). ... Species Mammuthus columbi  Columbian mammoth Mammuthus exilis  Pygmy mammoth Mammuthus jeffersonii  Jeffersonian mammoth Mammuthus meridionalis Mammuthus primigenius  Woolly mammoth Mammuthus lamarmorae  Sardinian Dwarf Mammoth A mammoth is any of a number of an extinct genus of elephant, often with long curved tusks and, in northern species, a covering of long...

Its flora includes 417 species of plants, 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. Site #86: Memphis and its Necropolis, including the Pyramids of Giza (Egypt). ... It has been designated the: International Year of Rice (by the United Nations) International Year to Commemorate the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO) 2004 World Health Day topic was Road Safety (by World Health Organization) Year of the Monkey (by the Chinese calendar) See the world in...

History

True colour MODIS photograph of Wrangel Island, taken in 2001

The island is named for Baron Ferdinand Wrangel (1797–1870) who, after hearing of stories of an island at Wrangel Island's coordinates from some Chukchi, set off on an expedition (1820–1824) to discover the island, with no success. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2000x1500, 541 KB)True colour photograph of Wrangel Island taken by MODIS on June 5, 2001. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2000x1500, 541 KB)True colour photograph of Wrangel Island taken by MODIS on June 5, 2001. ... Ash plumes on Kamchatka Peninsula, eastern Russia MODIS (Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) is a payload scientific instrument launched into Earth orbit by NASA in 1999 on board the Terra (EOS AM) Satellite, and in 2002 on board the Aqua (EOS PM) satellite. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... Wrangel, Ferdinand Petrovich (Врангель, Фердинанд Петрович in Russian) (12. ... 1797 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... 1870 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... See Cartesian coordinate system or Coordinates (elementary mathematics) for a more elementary introduction to this topic. ... Chukchi, or Chukchee (Russian: чукчи (plural), chukcha, чукча (singular)) are an indigenous people inhabiting the northeasternmost portion of the Russian Federation on the shores of the Arctic Ocean and Bering Sea. ... 1820 was a leap year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1824 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...

In 1849, Henry Kellett, captain of HMS Herald, landed on and named Herald Island, and thought he saw another island to the west; thereafter it was indicated on British Admiralty charts as "Kellett Land". 1849 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...

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." 1867 (MDCCCLXVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... The crew of the oceanographic research vessel Princesse Alice, of Albert Grimaldi (later Prince Albert I of Monaco) pose while flensing a catch Whaling is the hunting and killing of Whales. ...

In 1879, George W. DeLong, commanding USS Jeanette led an expedition 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 eastward within sight of Wrangel before being crushed and sunk. The first known landing on Wrangel Island took place on August 12, 1881, by a party from the USRC Corwin. The expedition, under the command of Calvin L. Hooper, was seeking the Jeannette and two missing whalers in addition to general exploration. It included naturalist John Muir, who published the first description of Wrangel Island. 1879 (MDCCCLXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... George Washington DeLong (August 22, 1844 – October 31, 1881) was a United States Navy officer and ill-fated explorer. ... USS Jeannette was originally HMS Pandora, a gunboat in the Royal Navy and was purchased in 1875 by Sir Allan Young for his arctic voyages. ... The North Pole is the northernmost point on the Earth. ... An icebreaker navigates through young (1 year) sea ice Sea ice is formed from ocean water that freezes. ... August 12 is the 224th day of the year (225th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1881 (MDCCCLXXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... The United States Revenue Cutter Service was established by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton in 1790 as an armed maritime law enforcement service. ... Natural history is an umbrella term for what are now usually viewed as several distinct scientific disciplines. ... John Muir (April 21, 1838 – December 24, 1914) was a Scottish-American polymath: environmentalist, naturalist, explorer, writer, inventor, engineer, machinist and geologist. ...

In 1911, a group of Russians made a landing on the island and in 1914, the survivors of the ill-equipped Canadian Arctic Expedition, organised by Vilhjalmur Stefansson, were marooned there for nine months after their ship, the Karluk, was crushed in the ice pack. The survivors were rescued after Captain Robert Bartlett walked to Siberia to summon help. 1911 (MCMXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ... Vilhjalmur Stefansson (November 3, 1879 – August 26, 1962) was an Icelandic Arctic explorer and ethnologist. ... The Karluk was a ship used for an expedition to the Arctic in 1913 led by Vilhjalmur Stefansson and captained by Robert Bartlett. ... Captain Robert Bartlett Captain Robert Bartlett Captain Robert Abram Bartlett was a notable ice navigator and Arctic explorer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. ...

In 1921, Vilhjalmur Stefansson sent 5 settlers (1 Canadian, 3 American, and 1 Inuit) in a speculative attempt to claim the island for Canada. In 1923 the sole survivor of this expedition, the Inuit Ada Blackjack, was rescued. The rescue ship left another party of 13 (American Charles Wells and 12 Inuits). In 1924 the Soviet Union removed the members of this settlement and established the settlement that survives to this day on the island. 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Vilhjalmur Stefansson (November 3, 1879 – August 26, 1962) was an Icelandic Arctic explorer and ethnologist. ... Inuit (Inuktitut syllabics: ᐃᓄᐃᑦ, singular Inuk or Inuq / ᐃᓄᒃ) is a general term for a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic coasts of Siberia, Alaska, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Quebec, Labrador and Greenland. ... 1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Trivia

In the 1930s the Wrangel island became a scene of a bizarre criminal story when it got under arbitrary rule of its appointed governor Konstantin Semenchuk who controlled the local populace and his own staff by open extortion and murder. He forbade the local Eskimos to hunt walruses which put them at stake of hunger while collecting proviant for himself. He then got involved in some mysterious deaths of his opponents, i.e. the local doctor. The subsequent Moscow trial in June 1936 sentenced Semenchuk to death for "banditry" and violation of Soviet law[1]. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Inuit (ᐃᓄᐃᑦ, singular Inuk or Inuq / ᐃᓄᒃ) is a general term for a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples of the Arctic who descended from the Thule. ... Binomial name Odobenus rosmarus (Linnaeus, 1758) Subspecies Walruses are large semi-aquatic mammals that live in the cold Arctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. ... 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

External links

• UNESCO Link to Wrangel Island page at World Heritage site
• The Cruise of the Corwin John Muir's description of the 1881 exploration of Wrangel Island
• The Ice Master and Ada BlackjackJennifer Niven's non-fiction works on Wrangel Island
• Adventure Associates Icebreaker journey to Wrangel Island
• Run For Wrangel Tourist's account
• Isolation, Desolation and Tragedy Historical overview by Roderick Eime
• Radiocarbon Dating Evidence for Mammoths on Wrangel Island
• Status of Wrangel and Other Arctic Islands U.S. Department of State Fact Sheet on Wrangel Island