Severnaya Zemlya, Arctic Circle

Inhospitable is what comes to mind when I think of Severnaya Zemlya. Just off the Taymyr Peninsula, this isolated group of islands sits between the Kara Sea to the west and the Laptev Sea to the east. It’s the last major landmass on the Russian side of the Arctic before the vast, frozen wilderness that stretches toward the North Pole. 

Severnaya Zemlya is known for its stark, icy landscape, where glaciers roll across its surface, ice caps shroud jagged mountains, and the wind sweeps over frozen plains with no mercy. There are no settlements, no airstrips, no real sign of human presence. Just ice, rock, and silence. You can understand why “inhospitable” comes to mind. 

For a long time, these islands didn’t even appear on maps. They were one of the last pieces of undiscovered land on Earth, remaining a blank space until the early 20th century. It was first discovered in 1913, but only the eastern portion of it was mapped, and even then, it was believed to be one island instead of an archipelago. A study of the 1925 National Geographic Map illustrates it under the name Lenin Land (Nicholas II Land). Only one year after the 1925 map was printed, the archipelago was renamed Severnaya Zemlya, meaning Northern Land. 

It wasn’t until the Russian expedition led by G. A. Ushakov and N. N. Urvantsev from 1930 to 1932 that the archipelago was properly charted. Even then, it remained almost untouched because it was too far, too cold, and too difficult. Very few expeditions foray into Severnaya, other than the occasional scientific team studying the effects of climate change on its rapidly retreating glaciers or monitoring polar wildlife. It is now part of the Russian Arctic National Park, and access is tightly controlled. Even high-end Arctic cruises rarely pass its icy shores, with landings virtually unheard of. For most, Severnaya Zemlya remains a name on a map.

Geographically, Severnaya consists of four main islands and a scattering of smaller ones. October Revolution Island is the largest, home to seven massive glaciers. Bolshevik Island lies to the south and is slightly more accessible, occasionally used as a base by scientific teams. Komsomolets Island, the northernmost of the group, is known for its severe weather and near-total glaciation. Pioneer Island, though smaller, is marked by steep cliffs and wind-scoured plateaus. 

The Academy of Sciences Ice Cap (it is also a glacier) on Komsomolets Island is the second largest ice cap by area in the Russian Arctic after the Filchner Ice Cap on Franz Josef Land, and the fourth largest in the Arctic region, with the largest two located in Svalbard’s archipelago. For sci-fi fans, this glacier gets its moment in the 2021 film The Tomorrow War, where the final battle plays out in a whiteout blizzard. Endless snow, ghostly peaks, and total silence become ground zero for an alien showdown, humanity’s last, desperate shot at saving the world, much like our own pursuits to halt the melting ice and reverse climate change in the hope of saving our own world.