Oymyakon
Encyclopedia : O : OY : OYM : Oymyakon
Oymyakon (Оймякон in Cyrillic, alternative spellings: Oimekon, Oimyakon, Oymiakon, Oimiakon, Oimjakon, Ojmiakon, Ojmjakon, Ojmyakon, Oymjakon) is a village located along the Indigirka River in the north-east of the Sakha Republic in Eastern Siberia, Russia, at .It has about 800 inhabitants.
Oymyakon is known as one of the candidates for the Northern Pole of Cold, because on January 26, 1926, a temperature of −71.2 °C (−96.16 °F) was recorded there (however, this fact is arguable, the temperature was not directly measured but obtained by extrapolation). This is the lowest recorded temperature for any permanently inhabited location on Earth. It is also the lowest temperature recorded in the Northern hemisphere. Only Antarctica has recorded lower temperatures with the lowest being −89.2 °C near the Russian station of Vostok.
Its name is Yakut language for "non-freezing water", due to the presence of a natural warm spring nearby. The ground there is permanently frozen: see permafrost.
Oxford geographer Nick Middleton's television series and accompanying book on people who live in extreme climates discusses his visit to this village, and describes ways in which inhabitants cope with the extreme cold. Middleton describes how Oymyakon lies between two mountain ranges, trapping cold air in between the entire year[link].
External links
- () [Оймякон Expedition]
Further reading
- Middleton, Nick Going to Extremes: Mud, Sweat and Frozen Tears.
- * Channel 4 books, 2001, hardcover, ISBN 0752220160
- * Pan Books - Macmillan UK, 2003, paperback, ISBN 0330493841.
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.