Yakutsk is the capital and largest city of Sakha, Russia, located about 450 km (280 mi) south of the Arctic Circle. Fueled by the mining industry, Yakutsk has become one of Russia's most rapidly growing regional cities, with a population of 355,443 at the 2021 census.
Yakutsk has an average annual temperature of −8.0 °C (17.6 °F), winter high temperatures consistently well below −20 °C (−4 °F), and a record low of −64.4 °C (−83.9 °F) has been recorded.
Norilsk (Russian: Нори́льск, IPA: [nɐˈrʲilʲsk]) is an industrial closed city in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located south of the western Taymyr Peninsula, around 90 km east of the Yenisey River and 1,500 km north of Krasnoyarsk. Norilsk is 300 km north of the Arctic Circle and 2,400 km from the North Pole. It has a permanent population of 176,735 as of 2024, and up to 220,000 including temporary inhabitants. It is the second-largest city in the region after Krasnoyarsk. Since 2016, Norilsk's population has grown steadily. In 2017, for the first time, migration to the city exceeded outflow. In 2018, according to Krasnoyarskstat, natural population growth amounted to 1,357 people: 2,381 were born, and 1,024 died. It is the world's northernmost city with more than 180,000 inhabitants, and the second-largest city (after Murmansk) inside the Arctic Circle. Norilsk and Yakutsk are the only large cities in the continuous permafrost zone.
Norilsk is located atop some of the largest nickel deposits on Earth. Consequently, mining and smelting ore are the major industries. Norilsk is the center of a region where nickel, copper, cobalt, platinum, palladium, and coal are mined. The presence of mineral deposits in the Siberian Craton was known for two centuries before Norilsk was founded, but large-scale industrial mining only began after the Soviet Council of People's Commissars approved the construction of Norilsk Plant in 1935, which was completed by 1939. Production started with intermediary products, with the first converter matte being produced in 1942, but the Norilsk mines quickly grew to be a major source of Russia's nickel production. Prior to this, small scale coal mining existed in the region.
Moscow Time (MSK; Russian: моско́вское вре́мя, romanized: moskovskoye vremya) is the time zone for the city of Moscow, Russia, and most of western Russia, including Saint Petersburg. It is the second-westernmost of the eleven time zones of Russia, after the non-continguous Kaliningrad enclave. It has been set to UTC+03:00 without DST since 26 October 2014; before that date it had been set to UTC+04:00 year-round on 27 March 2011.
Moscow Time is used to schedule trains (until 1 August 2018), ships, etc. throughout Russia, but air transport in Russia is scheduled using local time. Since 1 August 2018, Russian railways switched to using local time. Time in Russia is often announced throughout the country's other timezones on radio stations as Moscow Time, which is also registered in telegrams, etc. Descriptions of time zones in Russia are often based on Moscow Time rather than UTC; for example, Yakutsk (UTC+09:00) is said to be MSK+6 in Russia.
View the full Wikipedia page for Moscow TimeSakha, officially the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), is a republic of Russia, and the largest federal subject of Russia by area. It is located in the Russian Far East, along the Arctic Ocean, with a population of one million. Sakha comprises half of the area of its governing Far Eastern Federal District, and is the world's largest country subdivision, covering over 3,083,523 square kilometers (1,190,555 sq mi). Yakutsk, which is the world's coldest major city, is its capital and largest city.
The republic has a reputation for an extreme and severe climate, with the second lowest temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere being recorded in Verkhoyansk and Oymyakon (second only to Summit Camp, Greenland), and regular winter averages commonly dipping below −35 °C (−31 °F) in Yakutsk. The hypercontinental tendencies also result in warm summers for much of the republic.
View the full Wikipedia page for Sakha RepublicThe Kondyor Massif (Russian: горы Кондёр) or Konder is a circular intrusion of igneous rock, about 8 kilometres (5 mi) in diameter. It is located in Khabarovsk Krai, Russia, c. 600 km (373 mi) west-southwest of Okhotsk, or c. 570 km (354 mi) south-east of Yakutsk. It is reached from Yakutsk by road via Amga. It is an important source of platinum.
The Kondyor Massif stands as a textbook example of a ring intrusion, renowned for its remarkable geometric circularity and distinct ridge-and-depression topography. It serves as a global reference site for the study of alkaline-ultramafic magmatism and associated platinum-group element mineralization.
View the full Wikipedia page for Kondyor MassifSakha, officially the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), is a republic of Russia, and the largest federal subject of Russia by area. It is located in the Russian Far East, along the Arctic Ocean, with a population of one million. Sakha comprises half of the area of its governing Far Eastern Federal District, and is the world's largest country subdivision, covering over 3,083,523 square kilometers (1,190,555 sq mi). Yakutsk, which is the world's coldest major city, is its capital and largest city. It was created in 1922.
The republic has a reputation for an extreme and severe climate, with the second lowest temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere being recorded in Verkhoyansk and Oymyakon (second only to Summit Camp, Greenland), and regular winter averages commonly dipping below −35 °C (−31 °F) in Yakutsk. The hypercontinental tendencies also result in warm summers for much of the republic.
View the full Wikipedia page for YakutiaVerkhoyansk (Russian: Верхоянск, IPA: [vʲɪrxɐˈjansk]; Yakut: Верхоянскай, romanized: Verxoyanskay) is a town in Verkhoyansky District of the Sakha Republic, Russia, located on the Yana River in the Arctic Circle, 92 kilometers (57 mi) from Batagay, the administrative center of the district, and 675 kilometers (419 mi) north of Yakutsk, the capital of the Sakha republic. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 1,311. Verkhoyansk holds the record for the hottest temperature ever recorded north of the Arctic Circle, with 38.0 °C (100.4 °F), and it also holds the record for the coldest temperature ever recorded in Asia, −67.8 °C (−90.0 °F), the largest ever temperature range recorded. The cold record is shared with Oymyakon.
View the full Wikipedia page for Verkhoyansk