Matochkin Strait
{{Short description|Strait between the Severny and Yuzhny Islands of Novaya Zemlya}}
Matochkin Strait or Matochkin Shar ({{langx|ru|Ма́точкин Шар}}) is a {{convert|323|km2|sqmi|abbr=on}} strait, structurally a fjord, between the Severny and Yuzhny Islands of Novaya Zemlya. It connects the Barents Sea and the Kara Sea.
Geography
The Matochkin Strait is one of the largest fjords in the world.Alexander P. Lisitzin, Sea-Ice and Iceberg Sedimentation in the Ocean: Recent and Past, p. 449 {{doi|10.1017/S0954102003221726}}
The banks along the strait are high and steep. Its length is approximately {{convert|100|km|mi|-1}} and its width in its narrowest part is approximately
{{convert|600|m|yd}}. The strait is covered with ice for most of the year. There are abandoned fishing settlements along the strait (Matochkin Shar, Stolbovoy).{{Citation needed|date=February 2021}}
History
The Tsar Bomba was detonated in October 1961, in the vicinity of Matochkin Strait, over the Novaya Zemlya archipelago.{{Cite web |title=Tsar Bomba {{!}} History, Location, Megatons, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tsar-Bomba |access-date=2022-09-20 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}
It is also the site where, from 1963 to 1990, about 39 underground nuclear tests took place in a vast array of tunnels and shafts under Mount Lazarev and other massifs. After 2000, Russia started to reactivate the test site by enlarging old tunnels and starting construction work. Each summer since then various subcritical hydronuclear experiments have taken place. In 2004, Rosatom reportedly performed a series of subcritical hydronuclear experiments with up to {{convert|100|g|oz}} of weapon-grade plutonium each.{{cite web|url=http://www.nti.org/db/nisprofs/russia/weafacl/othernuc/novayaze.htm |title=Russia: Central Test Site, Novaya Zemlya |date=2003-07-30 |publisher=Nuclear Threat Initiative |access-date=2006-10-14 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20061029023406/http://www.nti.org/db/nisprofs/russia/weafacl/othernuc/novayaze.htm |archivedate=October 29, 2006 }}
See also
References
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{{Coord|73|23|19|N|55|12|56|E|display=title}}
Category:Bodies of water of the Barents Sea
Category:Bodies of water of the Kara Sea
Category:Bodies of water of Arkhangelsk Oblast
Category:Straits of the Arctic Ocean
Category:Russian nuclear test sites
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