Dikson Island
Template:Other uses Template:Short description Template:Infobox islands
Dikson Island (Template:Langx), initially Dickson, is an island in Taymyrsky Dolgano-Nenetsky District (Template:Langx), Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, situated in the Kara Sea near the mouth of the Yenisei River. A nearby urban-type settlement of Dikson, which functions as a port and hydrometeorological centre, is located on the mainland across from the island. It is served by the Dikson Airport.
History
Dikson Island and its adjoining urban settlement have been named after Swedish Arctic pioneer Baron Oscar Dickson.<ref name="ruchan">The Darkness of Dikson Island Template:Webarchive, Author unknown, russia-channel.com</ref> In the 17th century the island was known as Template:Lang ("long") island, or Template:Lang, after its Pomor discoverer.<ref name="ruchan"/> In 1875, the Finnish explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld renamed it after the wealthy Swedish merchant and philanthropist of Scottish origin Oskar Dickson.<ref name="ruchan"/> The name was soon Russified, by dropping the "c".<ref name="ruchan"/> Dikson has been the official name of the island since 1884.<ref name="ruchan"/> Oscar Dickson, along with Aleksandr Mikhaylovich Sibiryakov, had been the patron of a number of early Arctic expeditions, including Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld's Russian Arctic explorations.
In 1915 the island became the site of the first Russian radio station in the Arctic. The seaport on the mainland was built in 1935, and in 1957 the two settlements were merged into one.<ref name="ruchan"/>
During World War II the town was bombarded by the Template:Ship in August 1942 during Operation Wunderland.
Dikson Island was one of the transfer destinations for 1949 March deportation from Latvia.<ref>Map of transfer destinations from Latvia in 1949. https://visc.gov.lv/vispizglitiba/saturs/dokumenti/metmat/vesture_6_9/kartes4.shtml</ref>
Climate
Dikson has an arctic tundra climate (Köppen climate classification ET) — yet interestingly, it has four almost equally-divided "seasons": The sun does not rise from about mid-November through early February, and does not set from the beginning of May until mid-August. In between, there is a "spring" during which the amount of daylight steadily increases, and an "autumn" during which the amount of daylight steadily decreases — but due to the "seasonal lag" factor, February is actually the coldest month, while August is the warmest month.
See also
References
External sources
- Location Template:Webarchive
- Edwards, Rob (September 9, 1995). Northern exposure. New Scientist. Template:Subscription required
- William Barr, The Last Journey of Peter Tessem and Paul Knutsen, 1919.
- Picture
- Russian-Soviet polar stations and their role in the Arctic Seas exploration