New Siberian Islands Islands (228 km²) lie to the north-east of Novaya Sibir. The New Siberian Islands are low-lying. Their highest point is located on Bennett island, with an elevation of 426 m. The New Siberian Islands once formed major hills within the Great Arctic Plain that covered the northern part of Late Pleistocene "Beringia" between Siberia and Alaska during the Last Glacial Maximum (Late Weichselian Epoch). These islands represent the remains of about 1.6 million square kilometers of the formerly subaerial Great Arctic Plain that now lies submerged below parts of the Arctic Ocean, East Siberian Sea, and Laptev Sea. At this
Siberian Shelf Sea, and respectively subdivided into the Kara Shelf, the Laptov Shelf and the East Siberian Shelf. Eastwards it merges into the Chukchi Shelf (of the Chukchi Sea) shared by Eurasia and North America (i.e., by Russia and the United States). Westwards it merges into the Barents Shelf of the Barents Sea. Also, the New Siberian Islands and the New Siberian Rift Basin define the 'New Siberian Shelf.' According to the split of the high Arctic by the Lomonosov mid-ocean ridge into the Eurasian Basin and Amerasian Basin, the Siberian Shelf is split between the Eurasian Shelf and the Amerasian Shelf.