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Russia ’s northernmost territorial dominion , Franz Josef Land , is an archipelago of 191 island in the northeast Barents Sea . On August 17 , 2011 , clear skies allowed the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer ( MODIS ) onNASA’sTerrasatellite this unobstructed view .

Clouds fringe this natural - colour scene , like curtains held back from a windowpane . Around the islands , sea ice forms serpentine shapes of light gray and dull white . The glaciers that cap many of the island are bright snowy . In Methedrine - loose field , body politic concealment is wan brown , typical of tundra .

Our amazing planet.

posit about 1,000 kilometer ( 625 miles ) from the North Pole , Franz Josef Land has a punishing mood . The middling summertime temperature is just 35 degree Fahrenheit ( 2 degrees Anders Celsius ) , and the intermediate wintertime temperature is -8 level Fahrenheit ( -22 degrees Celsius ) . Vegetation include lichens , moss , and Arctic flowering plants .

The archipelago is represent of marine deposits built into low - lie down island . Although some study have dated the stone to theMesozoic Era(the Age of Reptiles ) , fossils in ember deposits from the eastern reaches of Franz Josef Land suggest that the careen might be even older .

geological processes of uplift and erosion have shaped Franz Josef Land since the time of the dinosaurs . During theJurassic Periodabout 206 to 144 million years ago , the islands experienced uplift , and may have been a undivided landmass . Soon after the area was uplifted , it began to eat away . But the erosion was unevenmost acute along the archipelago ’s eastern and western security deposit , and less intense in the marrow .

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During theCretaceous Periodabout 144 to 65 million age ago , large - scale seismic activity coated part of Franz Josef Land withvolcanic rock . In more recent metre , shabu has shape the archipelago . begin about 1.8 million years ago , monolithic crank sheets advanced and retreated over the Northern Hemisphere , grind and determine the land surface . Although ice sheets have retreated , glaciers have remained , coating much of this archipelago in icy white .

A satellite photo of a giant iceberg next to an island with hundreds of smaller icebergs surrounding the pair

A satellite image of a thin wispy ring of clouds above the ocean

An astronaut photo of two islands with a silver mirror-like ocean surface caused by a sunglint

A group of penguins dives from the ice into the water

A large sponge and a cluster of anenomes are seen among other lifeforms beneath the George IV Ice Shelf.

Map of ice-free Antarctica.

Close-up of Arctic ice floating on emerald-green water.

This ichthyosaur would have been some 33 feet (10 meters) long when it lived about 180 million years ago.

Here, one of the Denisovan bones found in Denisova Cave in Siberia.

Reconstruction of the Jehol Biota and the well-preserved specimen of Caudipteryx.

The peak of Mount Everest is the highest point in the world.

Fossilized trilobites in a queue.

An image comparing the relative sizes of our solar system�s known dwarf planets, including the newly discovered 2017 OF201

an illustration showing a large disk of material around a star

a person holds a GLP-1 injector

A man with light skin and dark hair and beard leans back in a wooden boat, rowing with oars into the sea

an MRI scan of a brain

A photograph of two of Colossal�s genetically engineered wolves as pups.

An illustration of a hand that transforms into a strand of DNA