Siberian Shelf Siberian Shelf The Siberian Shelf, one of the Arctic Ocean coastal shelves (such as the Milne Ice Shelf), is the largest continental shelf of the Earth, a part of the continental shelf of Russia. It extends from the continent of Eurasia in the general area of North Siberia (hence the name) into the Arctic Ocean. It stretches to offshore. It is relatively shallow, with average depth of 100 m. A number of islands are within the shelf, including the Wrangel Island, Novaya Zemlya, and the New Siberian Islands. It is encompassed by the Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, and East Siberian
Severnaya Zemlya as Arctic lemming, which is present on all of the large islands and, in some places has been recorded to reach a density of 500 per km (1,300 per sq mi). The Arctic fox ("Alopex lagopus") has been known to den on the islands, with several hundred observed in the 1980s. Other mammals occasionally observed include the wolf ("Canis lupus"), the polar bear ("Ursus maritimus"), ermine ("Mustela erminea"), Arctic hare ("Lepus timidus"), and reindeer ("Rangifer tarandus"). The discovery of Severnaya Zemlya is the subject of Veniamin Kaverin's novel "The Two Captains" as well as its stage adaptation, "Nord-Ost". Severnaya Zemlya