Fossil ice is undergoing intensive erosion at the present time, and in some places the shore- 

 line is retreating at least half a m per year. In this relation, the Semenovskii and Vasil'evskil 

 Islands located in the Laptev Sea north of Cape Barkhaya and west of Cape Stolbovoi, are particu- 

 larly interesting. 



These islands were photographed by the Anjou Expedition (1823), by the Baigach (1912), and 

 Chronometer (1936), wherein their length (in km) has changed, as is shown in table 28. 



TABLE 28. LENGTH OF SEMENOVSKII AND VASIL'EVSKII IN KW 



Judging by the changes in the length of Semenovskii Island and also by the fact that while its 

 width in 1823 was . 9 km, in 1936 it proved to be . 6 km, it is considered that annually the length 

 of Semenovskii Island decreases, on an average, 113 m and 4 m in width, and thus by 1954 the 

 island should disappear, as happened in Vasil'evskii Island.* 



From the examples which have been given, it can be seen that in the region of the Liakhovskli 

 Island fossil ice determines the character of the shoreline and the offshore bottom. 



LITERATURE: 62, 77, 134. 



*In 1936, the Chronometer could not find this island. In its place, there was only a small 

 bank. The decrease in the size and the melting of the island, consisting of fossil ice, is one of the 

 signs of general warming in the arctic, which will be discussed in Section 160. 



137 



