YAKUTSK, August 8. /TASS/. Scientists discovered periodically emerging smoke plumes near the Bennett Island in the East Siberian Sea, which may point to an active volcano and a tsunami threat to Yakutia's Arctic settlements, polar explorer and biologist Nikolay Nakhodkin told TASS.
In 2022, participants in the first expedition on inflatable catamarans sailed along the Bolshoy and Maly Lyakhovsky Islands, the Anzhu Islands. They covered more than 1,000 km in the Laptev Sea and the East Siberian Sea. The modern researchers repeated the route of Lieutenant Alexander Kolchak, who in 1903 reached the Bennett Island in search for the missing expedition of Baron Eduard von Toll.
"We have observed that at times huge plumes of smoke come out near the Bennett Island. Satellite images show that they reach Canada, Alaska. This gives reason to suppose there's an active volcano in [the north of] Yakutia," he said.
In his opinion, there is every reason for Yakutia's Academy of Sciences to conduct intensive research there. "Firstly, we have proved that at a distance of 1,000 km from the coast, from Tiksi, the ocean is getting free from ice. If the open water occurs at the time of a volcanic eruption, there will be a tsunami threat. In the tundra, all settlements, except for Tiksi, are located on low tundra shores. They may be washed away, and then no development of the Arctic would be possible. Therefore, we need to develop a network of seismic observations and tsunami warnings, like it has been done in some Far Eastern regions," the researcher said.
Fish resources studies
He pointed to another lacking research in that sector of the Arctic - that of fish resources. "Along the route, on the echo sounder, we found fishing stocks there. We know countries that live off fishing. The regional budget could have additional income. Yakutia needs a scientific research vessel to conduct systematic studies of the sea shelf and of the islands. It's a huge area for studies by biologists, paleontologists and seismologists. The territory has not been systematically studied," he said, adding the Sever (North) Scientific and Educational Center had expressed interest in studying the island.
The Bennett Island is among most poorly studied and inaccessible islands. It is part of the De Long Islands in the East Siberian Sea. The island was named after James Gordon Bennett Jr., who sponsored the polar expedition of George De Long, an American navigator. In 1881, having left the ice-trapped Jeannette vessel, the navigator and his crew were searching for the mainland when they discovered the island. Three months later, De Long died in the Lena River area.
Later on, the Bennett Island was known as part of the Sannikov Land - an "oasis" amid the ice, a "ghost island" in the Arctic Ocean, which some researchers allegedly saw north of the New Siberian Islands. The mythical island was named after a Russian merchant and explorer, Yakov Sannikov, who in 1810 was the first to announce land in the North to where birds migrate in spring to return with their offspring in autumn.