November 07, 2024

Vanished Land


Vanished Land
Franz Josef Land, Russia. Franz Josef Land, Russia. Wikimedia Commons.

On November 1, the Russian Geographical Society announced Russia had lost land, but not due to the war in Ukraine. An island of the Franz Josef Land archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, part of Arkhangelsk Oblast, has sunk due to climate change. 

The disappearance of Mesyatsev Island was detected through satellite imagery. Students and researchers from RISKAT, an interregional project to find changes in the Earth from space under the direction of Moscow Aviation Institute associate professor Alexey Kucheiko, discovered the phenomenon.

Said Kucheiko, "In the zone of the Eva-Liv island of the archipelago of the Franz Josef Land in the Arctic, an ice formation called the Mesyatsev Island has disappeared. We have followed this [phenomenon] from 2020 to 2022. Now, the island has completely melted, which will require a correction in navigation maps."

The Mesyatsev island was formed in a peninsula of the same name as a result of a glacier melting in the Eva-Liv island before 1995. The creation of the island was detected through satellite images.

In August 2015, Mesyatsev Island had a surface area of 53 hectares (about 150 acres). By August 2024, the island had shrunk to only three hectares (about eight acres). A month later, it had completely disappeared from satellite images.

The Russian Geographical Society published on its website, " The [research] group put forward the following hypothesis: in the Arctic regions climate change leads to the melting of glaciers and rising sea levels. This causes an erosion of the coastline and, as a result, the disappearance of some landforms." The report also notes that additional research is needed to confirm the disappearance of Mesyatsev island and identify possible changes in the seabed.

According to Carbon Brief, Russia is the fourth-largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world. Its oil and gas industry fuels the country's carbon emissions. Despite promises from President Vladimir Putin that the country would move towards carbon neutrality, Russia's emissions have risen in recent years

As its land melts, Russia has cracked down on climate justice activists, designating 38 organizations as "foreign agents" and banning Greenpeace.

You Might Also Like

Greenpeace Declared
  • May 21, 2023

Greenpeace Declared "Undesirable"

The Russian General Procurator announced Greenpeace has been declared an "undesirable organization," banning it in Russia.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

The Latchkey Murders

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...
A Taste of Russia

A Taste of Russia

The definitive modern cookbook on Russian cuisine has been totally updated and redesigned in a 30th Anniversary Edition. Layering superbly researched recipes with informative essays on the dishes' rich historical and cultural context, A Taste of Russia includes over 200 recipes on everything from borshch to blini, from Salmon Coulibiac to Beef Stew with Rum, from Marinated Mushrooms to Walnut-honey Filled Pies. A Taste of Russia shows off the best that Russian cooking has to offer. Full of great quotes from Russian literature about Russian food and designed in a convenient wide format that stays open during use.
Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.
A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.
Murder and the Muse

Murder and the Muse

KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
Russian Rules

Russian Rules

From the shores of the White Sea to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus, Russian Rules is a high-speed thriller based on actual events, terrifying possibilities, and some really stupid decisions.
The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.
Okudzhava Bilingual

Okudzhava Bilingual

Poems, songs and autobiographical sketches by Bulat Okudzhava, the king of the Russian bards. 

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955