Matochkin Shar

a strait between the northern and southern islands of Novaia Zemlia. It joins the Barents and Kara seas. The shores are high and precipitous in places. Length, approximately 100 km; width, about 0.6 km (at its narrowest point); depth, about 12m. It is covered with ice for most of the year. Along its shores are the hunting and fishing settlements of Matochkin Shar and Stolbovoi.