Nepedia
Back to Discover
Fluent Reader
🗺️

Yuzhny Island

geography Maturity 11-13 Next article →

Yuzhny Island is a very large piece of land. It is the southern island of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. This group of islands sits in Russia. It is located far north of the mainland. The island is quite huge. It is one of the largest islands in the whole world.

Four different seas surround this island. The Barents Sea lies to the west. To the north is the cold Arctic Ocean. The Kara Sea is found to the east. The Pechora Sea sits to the south. A narrow strip of water splits the land. This is the Matochkin Strait. It separates Yuzhny from Severny Island.

The water in the strait is very cold. It stays covered with ice most of the year. This ice makes the area quite different from other places. The land itself is mostly tundra. Tundra is a type of ground with low plants. This island is a famous home for many seabirds. A large population of these birds lives here.

People have a long history with this place. The Nenets people lived on the island originally. Later, things changed for the people there. In the 1950s, most people had to leave. This was to make room for nuclear weapons testing. The island became a place for these tests.

Today, the island is a nature reserve. This means the land is kept safe for nature. It is part of the Arkhangelsk Oblast region. You can find it near the Kara Sea. It remains a very special part of the Russian north. The island stays quiet for its plants and animals.

263 words

Where will your curiosity go next?

Keep exploring at your chosen reading level.

More to explore

🔬 Go deeper

More advanced topics to explore

🪜 Step back

Simpler topics to build understanding

What is Nepedia?

A free, ad-free encyclopedia for children. Every article is written at five reading levels, so the same page works for a five-year-old and a fifteen-year-old — use the level switcher above to see this one change. No account needed to read.