Severnaya Zemlya Severnaya Zemlya Severnaya Zemlya ( (Northern Land), ) is a archipelago in the Russian high Arctic. It lies off Siberia's Taymyr Peninsula, separated from the mainland by the Vilkitsky Strait. This archipelago separates two marginal seas of the Arctic Ocean, the Kara Sea in the west and the Laptev Sea in the east. Severnaya Zemlya was first noted in 1913 and first charted in 1930–32, making it the last sizeable archipelago on Earth to be explored. Administratively, the islands form part of Russia's Krasnoyarsk Krai federal subject. In Soviet times there were a number of research stations in different locations,
Jean Balfour Jean Balfour Jean Balfour ( née Drew, 4 November 1927) is a Scottish professional forester, landowner and conservationist. She earned her B.S. with honours from the University of Edinburgh in 1949. She married John Charles Balfour in 1950. Balfour is a partner/owner of Balbirnie Home Farms and Balbirnie Dairy Farm. The Scourie estate is also owned by her. Balfour is interested in arctic alpine vegetation and has taken part in many botanical expeditions including Greenland, Ellsemere Island, Spitzbergen, Franz Joseph Land, Novaya Zemlya, Severnaya Zemlya, and arctic Siberia to collect field data. Her data has been used in collaboration with