Alger Island, Russia : Geography, History Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alger Island, Russia

Island in Franz Josef Land, Russia

80°23′N 56°00′E / 80.383°N 56.000°E / 80.383; 56.000ArchipelagoFranz Josef ArchipelagoLength10 km (6 mi)Width4.7 km (2.92 mi)Highest elevation429 m (1407 ft)Highest pointKupol Vostok PervyyAdministration

Russia

DemographicsPopulation0

Alger Island (Russian: Остров Алджер; Ostrov Aldzher) is an island in Franz Josef Land, Russia. Lat 80° 22′ N, long 56° 03′ E.

Geography

The length of Alger Island is 10 km (6.2 mi) and its maximum width 4.7 km (2.9 mi). Its highest point is the 429 m (1,407 ft) high summit of the Kupol Vostok Pervyy (Купол Восток Первый) ice dome that covers part of the island.^[1] There are wide unglaciated areas on the northern and the southwestern shores.

Alger Island is located north of McClintock Island, separated from it by a 2 km (1.2 mi) narrow sound.

Off Alger Island's southwestern shores lies Ostrov Matil'dy (Остров Матильды), a very small, barely 1 km (0.62 mi) long, island.

80°23′N 56°00′E / 80.383°N 56.000°E / 80.383; 56.000

History

The island was discovered in 1899 by Walter Wellman on board the Capella. He named it after U.S. Secretary of War Russell A. Alger who had donated $250 to Wellman's expedition.^[2]

The wintering site of the 1901 failed American Baldwin-Ziegler North Pole Expedition was on Alger Island.^[3]

References

^ Kupol Vostok Pervyy: Russia
^ Capelotti, Peter Joseph; Forsberg, Magnus (2015). "The place names of Zemlya Frantsa-Iosifa: the Wellman polar expedition, 1898–1899". Polar Record. 51 (261): 624–636. doi:10.1017/S0032247414000801. p. 630
^ Capelotti, Peter Joseph (2016). The greatest show in the Arctic: the American exploration of Franz Josef Land, 1898-1905. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 257. ISBN 978-0-8061-5222-6.