Lost in the Ocean: Small Islands of the Kara and Laptev Seas

The paper reviews environmental changes on small islands of the Kara Sea (Vize, Ushakov, Uedineniya, Izvestiya TsIK, and Sverdrup) and the Laptev Sea (Preobrazheniya). The history of their discovery and studies is reviewed, as well as current data on their geological structure and topography and new data on environmental dynamics. Field works of 1992–2024 revealed previously unknown relief details. First of all, the changes in coastal contours and thermal denudation processes are analyzed. All available data on subsurface ice are collected. Data on the age of reindeer of Wiese Isl. are analyzed for the first time. The “reindeer time” there lasted longer and began and ended earlier than on Franz Josef Land.