Editing Geography of Russia (section)

====Icecaps====
{{Further|Arctic}}

[[Image:800px-Map-Tundra.png|thumb|upright=1.25|Map of arctic tundra.]]
[[Image:Laptev Sea map.png|thumb|upright=1.25|Map of the Russian Arctic.]]

The Russian Arctic stretches for close to {{convert|7000|km|mi}} west to east, from [[Karelia]] and the [[Kola Peninsula]] to [[Nenetsia]], the [[Gulf of Ob]], the [[Taymyr Peninsula]] and the [[Chukchi Peninsula]] ([[Kolyma]], [[Anadyr River]], [[Cape Dezhnev]]). Russian islands and archipelagos in the [[Arctic Sea]] include [[Novaya Zemlya]], [[Severnaya Zemlya]], and the [[New Siberian Islands]].

About 10 percent of Russia is [[tundra]]<ref>https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/climate2030_russia.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=March 2022}}</ref>—a treeless, marshy plain. The tundra is Russia's northernmost zone, stretching from the Finnish border in the west to the [[Bering Strait]] in the east, then running south along the Pacific coast to the northern [[Kamchatka Peninsula]]. The zone is known for its herds of wild [[reindeer]], for so-called [[White night (astronomy)|white nights]] (dusk at midnight, dawn shortly thereafter) in summer, and for days of total darkness in winter. The long, harsh winters and lack of sunshine allow only [[moss]]es, [[lichen]]s, and [[Dwarf Willow|dwarf willows]] and shrubs to sprout low above the barren [[permafrost]]. Although several powerful Siberian rivers traverse this zone as they flow northward to the Arctic Ocean, partial and intermittent thawing hamper drainage of the numerous lakes, ponds, and swamps of the tundra. Frost weathering is the most important physical process here, gradually shaping a landscape that was severely modified by [[glaciation]] in the [[Quaternary glaciation|last ice age]]. Less than one percent of Russia's population lives in this zone. The fishing and port industries of the northwestern Kola Peninsula and the huge [[petroleum|oil]] and [[natural gas|gas]] fields of northwestern Siberia are the largest employers in the tundra. With a population of 180,000, the industrial frontier city of [[Norilsk]] is third in population to [[Murmansk]]  and [[Arkhangelsk]] among Russia's settlements above the Arctic Circle. From here you can also see the auroras ([[Aurora (astronomy)|northern lights]]).