The Yamal Peninsula () is located in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug of northwest Siberia, Russia. It extends roughly 700 km (435 mi) and is bordered principally by the Kara Sea and its Baydaratskaya Bay on the west, and by the Gulf of Ob on the east. At the northern end of this peninsula lie the Malygina Strait and, beyond it, Bely Island. Across Ob estuary lies the Gyda Peninsula. In the Nenets languages of the Yamal Peninsula's indigenous inhabitants, the Nenets people, Yamal means "End of the Land".
The Yamal peninsula is inhabited by a multitude of migratory bird species.
Climate research
Ancient wildlife
In the summer of 2007 reindeer herder Yuri Khudi found the well-preserved remains of a 37,000-year-old mammoth calf, dubbed "Lyuba", on the peninsula. The female calf was determined to be one month old
at the time of death.
Dendrochronology
The Yamal Peninsula is important for the study of climatic history. Dendrochronology is one method used to see how environment has changed.
Dendrochronological research:
-
Paper: A continuous multimillennial ring-width chronology in Yamal, northwestern Siberia.
[Hantemirov and Shiyatov 2002]
-
Paper: An 8768-year Yamal Tree-ring Chronology as a Tool for Paleoecological Reconstructions.
[Hantemirov, R. & Shiyatov, S. & Gorlanova, Ludmila & Kukarskikh, Vladimir & Surkov, A. & Hamzin, Ildar & Fonti, Patrick & Wacker, L.. (2021). An 8768-year Yamal Tree-ring Chronology as a Tool for Paleoecological Reconstructions. Russian Journal of Ecology. 52. 419-427. 10.1134/S1067413621050088.]
Geography
The
peninsula consists mostly of
permafrost ground and there are numerous lakes of
thermokarst origin, the biggest of which are
Neito and
Yambuto in the central part.
[Google Earth]
Many hydrocarbon fields have been discovered on the Yamal Peninsula, including large gas fields. The main hydrocarbon resources are concentrated in the permeable Aptian-Cenomanian complex.
Economy
Reindeer husbandry
According to anthropologist
Sven Haakanson, the Yamal peninsula is the place within the Russian Federation where traditional large-scale
reindeer husbandry is best preserved.
and
Khanty people reindeer herders hold about half a million domestic reindeer.
Industry
The area is largely undeveloped, but work is ongoing with several large infrastructure projects, including a gas pipeline and several bridges.
Yamal holds Russia's biggest
natural gas reserves.
The 572 km Obskaya–Bovanenkovo railway, completed in 2011, is the northernmost railway in the world.
Russian gas monopolist
Gazprom had planned to develop the Yurkharovskoye gas field by 2011–2012. The peninsula's gas reserves are estimated to be 55 trillion
cubic meters (tcm).
Russia's largest energy project in history, known as the
Yamal project, puts the future of nomadic reindeer herding at considerable risk.
Yamal craters
In 2014, Yamal was the discovery site of a distinct
sinkhole, dubbed , which quickly drew the attention of world media.
The sinkhole appeared to be the result of a huge explosion and several hypotheses were suggested to explain the formation of the crater, including a hit by a meteorite or a UFO, or the collapse of an underground gas facility.
A spokesperson for the Yamal branch of the Emergencies Ministry said, "We can definitely say that it’s not a meteorite.".
The 60-meter (66-yard) crater is believed by a senior researcher from the Scientific Research Center of the Arctic, Andrei Plekhanov, in remarks to the Associated Press, to be likely the result of a "buildup of excessive pressure" underground because of warming regional temperatures in that portion of Siberia.
The destabilization of gas hydrates containing huge amounts of methane gas is believed to have caused the craters on the Yamal Peninsula.
As of 2015, the Yamal peninsula had at least five similar craters.
Offshore methane leaks
According to researchers at Norway's (CAGE), through a process called geothermal heat flux, the Siberian
permafrost, which extends to the seabed of the
Kara Sea, a section of the
Arctic Ocean between the Yamal Peninsula and
Novaya Zemlya, is thawing. According to a CAGE researcher, Aleksei Portnov:
Methane is leaking in an area of at least 7500 m2. In some areas gas flares extend up to . Prior to their research it was proposed that methane was tightly sealed into the permafrost by water depths up to . Close to the shore however, where the permafrost seal tapers to a depth of as little as , there are significant amounts of gas leakage.
See also
External links
