The Northern Fleet's hydrographic service made a series of geographic discoveries during the Arctic expedition of the ship Senezh, Sergei Starotitorov, commander of the service's geophysical detachment, told a news conference, Interfax reports.

"Nine new islands and islets, five straits, seven capes, and four bays have been discovered," he said. "Most of them were located with high precision."

The largest discovered island was found in the Borzov Bay and is 2.6 km long.

Scientists said the melting and movement of ice in the Bays of Sedov, Krivoshein and Glazov made the discoveries possible.

The Senezh embarked on its expedition towards the Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya archipelagos on August 18. During the trip, which ended on September 27, the Northern Fleet's hydrographers made about 20 geographic discoveries.