Kola Peninsula
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The Kola Peninsula (Кольский полуостров, Kol'skij poluostrov in Russian) is a peninsula in the far north of Russia, part of the Murmansk Oblast. It borders upon the Barents Sea on the North and the White Sea on the East and South. The west border of the Kola Peninsula stretches along a meridian from the Kola Gulf through the Imandra Lake, Kola Lake, and the Niva River to the Kandalaksha Gulf.
The peninsula covers an area of about 100 000 square km. The north coast is steep and high, the southern is flat. In the west part of the peninsula there are two mountain ranges: the Khibiny Mountains, and the Lovozero Tundra (up to 1120 m in height). In the central part of the peninsula lies the Keyvy watershed.
Because the last ice age removed the top sediment layer of the soil, the Kola Peninsula is on the surface extremely rich in various ores and minerals, including apatites, alumina sources, iron ore, mica, ceramic raw, titanium ore, phlogopite, and vermiculite, as well as ores of less-common and colored metals. MMC Norilsk Nickel conducts mining operations on the peninsula. The Kola Superdeep Borehole which is the deepest borehole in the world, is located here also, near the Norwegian border.
Despite its northern location, the Kola Peninsula has a relatively mild climate, because of the influence of warm Atlantic currents. The average temperature in January is about -10 °C, in July about +10 °C. The peninsula is covered by Taiga in the south and tundra in the north.
The Kola Peninsula has many fast-moving rivers with rapids. The most important of them are the Ponoy River, Varzuga River, Teriberka River, Voronya River, and the Iokanga River. The major lakes are: Imandra Lake, Umbozero Lake, Lovozero Lake. The rivers of the peninsula are an important habitat for the Atlantic Salmon salmo salar, which return from Greenland and the Faroe Islands to spawn in fresh water. As a result of this a recreational fishery has been developed, with a number of remote lodges and camps hosting sport-fishermen throughout the summer months. Kola rivers become icebound during the winter.
Apart from the Russian Pomors, the peninsula is also home to the Sami (Lappish) peoples, who were forced to settle in the town of Lovozero during the Communist years, and who now herd reindeer across much of the region.
After the decline of Kola, an ancient settlement which gives its name to the peninsula, the major port of the region has been Murmansk. During the Soviet period, Murmansk was a significant submarine production center, and remains home to the Russian Northern Fleet.
The Kola Peninsula as a whole suffered major ecological damage, mostly as a result of pollution from the military (particularly naval) production, as well as from industrial mining of apatite. There are currently about 250 nuclear reactors produced by the Soviet military which are no longer in use but still generate radiation and leak radioactive waste on the peninsula. [1]
[edit] Trivia
The Kola Peninsula is one of the key locations in the book Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident, and Antony Horowitz's Skeleton Key. It is also mentioned frequently in Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising.
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