Kola Bay

Kola Bay (Russian: Кольский залив) or Murmansk Fjord is a 57-km-long fjord of the Barents Sea that cuts into the northern part of the Kola Peninsula. It is up to 7 km wide and has a depth of 200 to 300 metres. The Tuloma and Kola Rivers discharge into the bay.

The eastern shore is craggy and precipitous, the western one is comparatively level. The ports of Murmansk and Severomorsk sit on the east side. Polyarny, the main base of Russia's Northern Fleet, is on the west side of the bay.

Semidiurnal tides in the Murmansk Fjord are as high as 4 metres. In winter, the southern part of the bay may be covered in ice. The Kola Bay Bridge spans the Kola Bay near its southern end.

View of Kola Bay in Murmansk

View of Kola Bay in Murmansk

Severomorsk Harbor

Severomorsk Harbor

A tugboat in Kola Bay on a winter day

A tugboat in Kola Bay on a winter day

Notes

Coordinates: 69°05′52″N 33°23′48″E / 69.09778°N 33.39667°E / 69.09778; 33.39667

Murmansk

Murmansk (Russian: Му́рманск; IPA: [ˈmurmənsk]; Kildin Sami: Мурман ланнҍ; Northern Sami: Murmánska; Skolt Sami: Muurman; Finnish: Murmansk; Norwegian: Murmansk) is a port city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast, Russia, located in the extreme northwest part of Russia, on the Kola Bay, an inlet of the Barents Sea on the northern shore of the Kola Peninsula, close to the Russia's borders with Norway and Finland.

Despite its extreme northern location above the Arctic Circle, Murmansk tends to be nearly the same as any other Russian city of its size, featuring highway and railway access to the rest of Europe, a railway station, and the northernmost trolleybus system on Earth.

Although Murmansk's population is in decline—299,148 (2014 est.);307,257 (2010 Census);336,137 (2002 Census);468,039 (1989 Census)— it remains the largest city north of the Arctic Circle.

History

Murmansk was the last city founded in the Russian Empire. In 1915, World War I needs led to the construction of the railroad from Petrozavodsk to an ice-free location on the Murman Coast in the Russian Arctic, to which Russia's allies shipped military supplies. The terminus became known as the Murman station and soon boasted a port, a naval base, and an adjacent settlement with a population which quickly grew in size and soon surpassed the nearby towns of Alexandrovsk and Kola.

North Pole

Coordinates: 90°N 0°W / 90°N -0°E / 90; -0

The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is (subject to the caveats explained below) defined as the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It should not be confused with the North Magnetic Pole.

The North Pole is the northernmost point on the Earth, lying diametrically opposite the South Pole. It defines geodetic latitude 90° North, as well as the direction of true north. At the North Pole all directions point south; all lines of longitude converge there, so its longitude can be defined as any degree value. Along tight latitude circles, counterclockwise is east and clockwise is west.

While the South Pole lies on a continental land mass, the North Pole is located in the middle of the Arctic Ocean amid waters that are almost permanently covered with constantly shifting sea ice. This makes it impractical to construct a permanent station at the North Pole (unlike the South Pole). However, the Soviet Union, and later Russia, constructed a number of manned drifting stations on a generally annual basis since 1937, some of which have passed over or very close to the Pole. Since 2002, the Russians have also annually established a base, Barneo, close to the Pole. This operates for a few weeks during early spring. Studies in the 2000s predicted that the North Pole may become seasonally ice-free because of Arctic ice shrinkage, with timescales varying from 2016 to the late 21st century or later.

Franz Josef Land

Franz Josef Land, Franz Joseph Land or Francis Joseph's Land (Russian: Земля́ Фра́нца-Ио́сифа, tr. Zemlya Frantsa-Iosifa) is an archipelago inhabited only by Russian military base personnel located in the Arctic Ocean, Barents Sea and Kara Sea, constituting the northernmost part of Arkhangelsk Oblast in Russia. It consists of 191 islands, which cover an area of 16,134 square kilometers (6,229 sq mi), stretching 375 kilometers (233 mi) from east to west and 234 kilometers (145 mi) from north to south. The islands are categorized in three groups, a western, central and eastern, separated by the British Channel and the Austrian Strait. The central group is further divided into a northern and southern section by the Markham Strait. The largest island is George Land, which measures 2,741 square kilometers (1,058 sq mi), followed by Wilczek Land, Graham Bell Island and Alexandra Land.

Eighty-five percent of the archipelago is glaciated, with large unglaciated areas being located on the largest islands and many of the smallest islands. The islands have a combined coastline of 4,425 kilometers (2,750 mi). Compared to other Arctic archipelagos, Franz Joseph Land has a high dissection rate of 3.6 square kilometers per coastline kilometer. Cape Fligely on Rudolf Island is the northernmost point of the Eastern Hemisphere. The highest elevations are found in the eastern group, with the highest point located on Wilczek Land, 670 meters (2,200 ft) above mean sea level.

Franz Joseph I of Austria

Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I (German: Franz Joseph I., Hungarian: I. Ferenc József, Croatian: Franjo Josip I., Czech: František Josef I., Slovene: Franc Jožef I., Romanian: Franț Iosif 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia. From 1 May 1850 until 24 August 1866 he was President of the German Confederation.

In December 1848, Emperor Ferdinand abdicated the throne as part of Ministerpräsident Felix zu Schwarzenberg's plan to end the Revolutions of 1848 in Austria, which allowed Ferdinand's nephew Franz Joseph to ascend to the throne. The event took place in the Moravian city of Olomouc. Largely considered to be a reactionary, Franz Joseph spent his early reign resisting constitutionalism in his domains. The Austrian Empire was forced to cede most of its claim to Lombardy–Venetia to the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia following the conclusion of the Second Italian War of Independence in 1859, and the Third Italian War of Independence in 1866. Although Franz Joseph ceded no territory to the Kingdom of Prussia after the Austrian defeat in the Austro-Prussian War, the Peace of Prague (23 August 1866) settled the German question in favour of Prussia, which prevented the unification of Germany under the House of Habsburg (Großdeutsche Lösung).