thumb|240px|Location of the De Long Islands.

Henrietta Island (; ) is the northernmost island of the De Long archipelago in the East Siberian Sea. Administratively it belongs to Yakutia of the Russian Federation.

Geography

Henrietta is roughly circular in shape with a diameter of about and area of about . Its shoreline consists of high, continuous, and rocky seacliffs.

Ice cap

Almost half of the island is covered by a central ice cap that reaches its maximum height at above sea level. The ice cap area has a surface of approximately and occupies the highest south-eastern part of the island. The southern and eastern edges of the ice cap are fringed by tall icy cliffs rising above the underlying basalt plateau.

The Ediacaran strata consist of about of volcaniclastic turbidite beds with subordinate beds of tuffaceous breccias and dacitic tuffs. They are similar to the volcaniclastic rocks observed on Jeanette Island. These turbidites are mainly fine-grained, grading from siltstones at their base to mudstones at their top. Rare beds of pebbly breccias with a sandy matrix occur at the base of the coarser turbidites. Their pebbles are composed of volcanic rocks. These strata contain several meters of red tuffs and synsedimentary slump structures. The excursion was led by George W. Melville, accompanied by William Dunbar, William Nindemann, Hans Erichsen, Walter Sharvell and James Bartlett. They landed on June 2 or 3, constructed a cairn, and placed inside it a record of their visit.

During the 1914–1915 Imperial Russian Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition led by Boris Vilkitsky, the Vaygach approached Jeannette Island with the intention of mapping Jeannette and Henrietta Islands, but heavy ice blocked the approach. In 1916 the Russian ambassador in London issued an official notice to the effect that the Imperial government considered Henrietta, along with other Arctic islands, integral parts of the Russian Empire. This territorial claim was later maintained by the Soviet Union.

A Soviet polar station was established on Henrietta Island in 1937 in an expedition by Rudolf Samoylovich, and closed in 1963. Henrietta Island served in 1979 as the starting point for a Soviet expedition to the North Pole on skis.

Some U.S. individuals assert American ownership of Henrietta Island, and others of the De Long group, based on the 1881 discovery and claim. However, according to the U.S. Department of State in 2003, the U.S. government has never claimed Henrietta Island.

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Physical description

Henrietta Island was described by the sled party from the De Long expedition in the following terms: "The island is a desolate rock, surmounted by a snow-cap, which feeds several discharging glaciers on its east face. Dovekies nesting in the face of the rock are the only signs of game. A little moss, some grass, and a handful of rock were brought back as trophies. The cliffs are inaccessible, because of their steepness."

thumb|230px|left|Henrietta Island as seen from space

thumb|360px|none|Sketch by Lt. Cmdr. George DeLong on 25 May 1881, depicting Henrietta Island, north of Siberia

References

  • Anisimov, M.A., and V.E. Tumskoy, 2002, Environmental History of the Novosibirskie Islands for the last 12 ka. 32nd International Arctic Workshop, Program and Abstracts 2002. Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado at Boulder, pp 23–25.
  • Anonymous, 1923, Wrangel Island. The Geographical Journal, Vol. 62, No. 6. pp.&nbsp;440–444 (Dec., 1923). (requires JSTOR access).
  • Headland, R.K., 1994, OSTROVA DE-LONGA ('De Long Islands'). Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge University. Lasted visited May 26, 2008.
  • Schirrmeister, L., H.-W. Hubberten, V. Rachold, and V.G. Grosse, 2005, Lost world - Late Quaternary environment of periglacial Arctic shelves and coastal lowlands in NE-Siberia. 2nd International Alfred Wegener Symposium Bremerhaven, October, 30 - November 2, 2005.