Novaya Zemlya, << NOH vuh yuh `zehm` lee AH >>, is a group of islands in the Arctic Ocean that separate the Barents Sea from the Kara Sea. The islands are part of Russia. The Russian name means new land and commonly refers to the two largest islands. The northern large island covers about 20,000 square miles (52,000 square kilometers). Glaciers blanket much of it. The southern large island has an area of about 15,000 square miles (38,800 square kilometers), most of which is a treeless plain. Both islands have large deposits of coal and some copper, lead, and zinc.
Early Russians first discovered Novaya Zemlya between the 1000’s and 1100’s. However, the islands remained uninhabited until 1877, when an Arctic people called the Nenets established the first permanent settlements.
A small colony of Russians and Nenets people live on the southern island. Islanders raise reindeer, trap and hunt animals, and collect eider down (the feathers of eider ducks). The Soviet Union tested nuclear bombs on the northern island in the 1950’s. Today, the island shows harmful levels of radiation.
See also Nuclear testing.
