Onekotan (;

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

温禰古丹島; Onekotan-tō, occasionally Onnekotan-tō, ) is an uninhabited

volcanic island Geologically, a volcanic island is an island of volcanic origin. The term high island can be used to distinguish such islands from low islands, which are formed from sedimentation or the uplifting of coral reefs (which have often formed ...

located near the northern end of the

Kuril Islands The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands are a volcanic archipelago administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast in the Russian Far East. The islands stretch approximately northeast from Hokkaido in Japan to Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, separating the ...

chain in the

Sea of Okhotsk The Sea of Okhotsk; Historically also known as , or as ; ) is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. It is located between Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands on the southeast, Japan's island of Hokkaido on the sou ...

in the northwest

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

. Its name is derived from the

Ainu language Ainu (, ), or more precisely Hokkaido Ainu (), is a language spoken by a few elderly members of the Ainu people on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. It is a member of the Ainu language family, itself considered a language family isola ...

for "large village”. It is the second largest island, after

Paramushir Paramushir (, , ) is a volcanic island in the northern portion of the Kuril Islands chain in the Sea of Okhotsk in the northwest Pacific Ocean. It is separated from Shumshu by the very narrow Second Kuril Strait in the northeast , from Antsifer ...

, in the northern subgroup of the Kurils. It is administratively included in the

Severo-Kurilsky District Severo-Kurilsky District () is one of the seventeen administrative districts (raion) of Sakhalin Oblast in Russia. It is a part of the northern Kuril Islands, located to the east of the Island of Sakhalin and southwest of the Kamchatka Peninsula ...

Sakhalin oblast Sakhalin Oblast ( rus, Сахали́нская о́бласть, r=Sakhalinskaya oblastʹ, p=səxɐˈlʲinskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast) comprising the island of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands in the Russian ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Geography and geology

Onekotan is roughly rectangular, with a length of , and a width ranging from . It has an area of

The island consists of two

stratovolcano A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a typically conical volcano built up by many alternating layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with ...

s connected by a relatively flat isthmus. * Krenitsyn -(;

黒石山; ''Kuroishiyama'') with a height of is the prominent

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcanic eruption. An eruption that ejects large volumes of magma over a short period of time can cause significant detriment to the str ...

at the southern end of the island. This volcano was named after Captain

Pyotr Krenitsyn Pyotr Kuzmich Krenitsyn () (1728 – July 4, 1770), spelt "Krenitzin" in the United States, was a Russian explorer and Captain/Lieutenant of the Imperial Russian Navy. Following Vitus Bering's 1741 tragic venture he was the first to conduct an ex ...

of the

Imperial Russian Navy The Imperial Russian Navy () operated as the navy of the Russian Tsardom and later the Russian Empire from 1696 to 1917. Formally established in 1696, it lasted until being dissolved in the wake of the February Revolution and the declaration of ...

. The mountain rises from a depth of from , and contains a deep () central

caldera lake A volcanic crater lake is a lake in a crater that was formed by explosive activity or a collapse during a volcanic eruption. Formation Lakes in calderas fill large craters formed by the collapse of a volcano during an eruption. Lakes in maars ...

(Koltsevoe Lake) with a diameter of , called

Tao-Rusyr Caldera Tao-Rusyr Caldera () is a stratovolcano located at the southern end of Onekotan Island, Kuril Islands, Russia. It has 7.5 km wide caldera formed during a catastrophic eruption less than 10,000 years ago (reported ages range from 5,550 to ...

. The central peak of this "island within the island" is actually the highest point on Onekotan Island. * Nemo -(;

根茂山; ''Nemoyama'') with a height of is the peak to the north. It has two nested subsidiary calderas, with the cone of

Nemo Peak Nemo Peak (; Japanese 根茂山; ''Nemoyama'') is a stratovolcano located at the northern end of Onekotan Island, Kuril Islands, Russia. It is truncated by two nested calderas, with the cone of Nemo Peak itself rising in the southwest end of the ...

rising in the southwest end of the youngest caldera and a crescent-shaped

crater lake Crater Lake ( Klamath: ) is a volcanic crater lake in south-central Oregon in the Western United States. It is the main feature of Crater Lake National Park and is a tourist attraction for its deep blue color and water clarity. T ...

, named Lake Chernoye, partially filling the northeast part. The contemporary structure of the caldera basin of Koltsevoe Lake was examined by Kozlov et al.Kozlov, D. N., Degterev, A. V., & Zarochintsev, V. S. Koltsevoe caldera lake: current state and structure of the basin (Onekotan Island, Kuril Islands). through sonar survey utilizing a digital sonar and satellite positioning. The survey yielded 27 sonar profiles and a compiled bathymetric map. Presently, the lake holds the fourth position among Russia's deepest lakes, standing as the deepest in the Russian Far East and the largest in the Sakhalin region. Its significant water volume underscores its importance as a vital hydrological asset in the Far Eastern macro-region. Onekotan Island Map

There are seven rivers on the island more than five kilometers long. The largest is Ozernaya River ( long, which flows from the southern part of the caldera of the Nemo volcano to the Sea of Okhotsk. Almost the same length is the Kedrovka River, which flows from the central part of the island into the Pacific Ocean. The climate of Onekotan is characterized by short, cool summers, high humidity, frequent fogs, and especially strong winds. However, the island's climate is generally considered to be mild oceanic with an average annual temperature of about . Even in record cold winters, temperatures below were not observed. Onekotan is separated from the neighboring islands by the

Fourth Kuril Strait The Fourth Kuril Strait () is a very deep strait separating the islands of Onekotan and Paramushir in the Kuril Islands, Russia. It is 46.7 km (about 29 mi) wide. It was formerly known as the Amphitrite Strait. The flood tidal current in the strait ...

, Yevreinov Strait, and Krenitsyn Strait. The neighboring islands are

Makanrushi Makanrushi (; Japanese 磨勘留島; Makanru-tō) is an uninhabited volcanic island located near the northern end of the Kuril Islands chain in the Sea of Okhotsk in the northwest Pacific Ocean. Its name is derived from the Ainu language. G ...

, with a volcanic peak, is to the northwest of Onekotan; and

Kharimkotan Kharimkotan (); Japanese 春牟古丹島; Harimukotan-tō, alternatively Harumukotan-tō or 加林古丹島; Karinkotan-tō) is an uninhabited volcanic island located from Onekotan near the northern end of the Kuril Islands chain in the Sea of O ...

, with a high volcano, is to the southwest. Paramushir is located to the northeast. Onekotan still has an

active volcano An active volcano is a volcano that is currently erupting, or has the potential to erupt in the future. Conventionally it is applied to any that have erupted during the Holocene (the current geologic epoch that began approximately 11,700 years ...

with the most recent eruption, in 1952, forming a small

lava dome In volcanology, a lava dome is a circular, mound-shaped protrusion resulting from the slow extrusion of viscous lava from a volcano. Dome-building eruptions are common, particularly in convergent plate boundary settings. Around 6% of eruptions ...

on the coast of Krenitsyn island within the lake of Tao-Rusyr Caldera. A bay on the eastern shore contains the remains of an abandoned settlement. File:Onekotan Island, Kuril Islands, Russian Federation.JPG,

Snow Snow consists of individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water througho ...

cover highlights the calderas and volcanic cones that form the northern and southern ends of Onekotan. File:Onekotan-Kurile-Islands.jpg, View of Krenitsyn Peak from the rim of Tao-Rusyr Caldera on Onekotan Island

Climate

History

Onekotan, with a number of shallow bays and sandy beaching providing landing points, was inhabited by the Ainu prior to European contact. It appears on an official map showing the territories of

Matsumae Domain file:Matsumae Nagahiro.jpg, 270px, Matsumae Nagahiro, final daimyo of Matsumae Domain The Matsumae Domain (松前藩), a prominent domain during the Edo period, was situated in Matsumae, Matsumae Island (Ishijima), which is currently known as M ...

, a feudal domain of

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

dated 1644, and these holdings were officially confirmed by the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

in 1715. The island was surveyed by Russian geodesists and explorers

Ivan Yevreinov Ivan Mikhaylovich Yevreinov (; 1694 – 3 February O.S. 1724) was a Russian geodesist and explorer. Ivan Yevreinov was born in Poland, then brought to Russia and baptized into Orthodox Christianity. Ivan Yevreinov was first a student at the Mos ...

and

Fyodor Luzhin Fyodor Fyodorovich Luzhin (Russian: ''Федор Федорович Лужин'') (died 1727) was a Russian geodesist and cartographer. Fyodor Luzhin was first a student at the School for Mathematical and Navigational Sciences in Moscow and then ...

in 1720, and was subsequently, claimed by the

Empire of Russia The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

in 1736 after the Ainu inhabitants were converted to the

Russian Orthodox Church The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

; however Russian tax collectors encountered Japanese officials on the islands in 1744–45.

Sovereignty Sovereignty can generally be defined as supreme authority. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within a state as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the person, body or institution that has the ultimate au ...

initially passed to Russia under the terms of the 1855

Treaty of Shimoda The Treaty of Shimoda (下田条約, ''Shimoda Jouyaku'') (formally Treaty of Commerce and Navigation between Japan and Russia 日露和親条約, ''Nichi-Ro Washin Jouyaku'') of February 7, 1855, was the first treaty between the Russian Empire, a ...

, but was returned to the

Empire of Japan The Empire of Japan, also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was the Japanese nation state that existed from the Meiji Restoration on January 3, 1868, until the Constitution of Japan took effect on May 3, 1947. From Japan–Kor ...

per the Treaty of Saint Petersburg in 1875 along with the rest of the Kuril islands. The island was formerly administered as part of Shimushu District of

Nemuro Subprefecture is a Subprefectures of Hokkaido, subprefecture of Hokkaido, Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan. Japan claims the southern parts of the Kuril Islands dispute, disputed Kuril Islands (known as the Northern Territories in Japan) as part of this subprefectur ...

Hokkaidō is the second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by railway via the Seikan Tunnel. The ...

. In 1884, the Ainu inhabitants were relocated by Japanese authorities to

Shikotan Shikotan, also known as Shpanberg or Spanberg, is an island in the Kurils administered by the Russian Federation as part of Yuzhno-Kurilsky District of Sakhalin Oblast. It is claimed by Japan as the titular , organized as part of Nemuro Subpre ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the island had a small Japanese garrison, which surrendered on August 25, 1945, without a fight. After 1945, the island came under the control of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, and is now administered as part of the

Sakhalin Oblast Sakhalin Oblast ( rus, Сахали́нская о́бласть, r=Sakhalinskaya oblastʹ, p=səxɐˈlʲinskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast) comprising the island of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands in the Russian ...

of the

Russian Federation Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. A small garrison on the island was withdrawn in 2005.

Flora and fauna

There are chars in Lake Chyornoye, one of the two lakes on Onekotan, located at the northern end of the island. In the spring and summer

pigeon guillemot The pigeon guillemot (''Cepphus columba'') () is a species of bird in the auk family, Alcidae. One of three species in the genus ''Cepphus'', it is most closely related to the spectacled guillemot. There are five subspecies of the pigeon guille ...

and

Leach's storm petrel Leach's storm petrel or Leach's petrel (''Hydrobates leucorhous'') is a small seabird of the tubenose order. It is named after the British zoologist William Elford Leach. The scientific name is derived from Ancient Greek. ''Hydrobates'' is from ...

nest on the island.Kondratyev, A. Y., Litvinenko, N. M., Shibaev, Y. V., Vyatkin, P. S., & Kondratyeva, L. F. (2000)
"The breeding seabirds of the Russian Far East"
''Seabirds of the Russian Far East'', 37-81. Mammals found on the island include

foxes Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

and small rodents, with

seal Seal may refer to any of the following: Common uses * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, also called "true seal" ** Fur seal ** Eared seal * Seal ( ...

s and

sea lion Sea lions are pinnipeds characterized by external ear flaps, long foreflippers, the ability to walk on all fours, short and thick hair, and a big chest and belly. Together with the fur seals, they make up the family Otariidae, eared seals. ...

s on the coast. The strong winds and harsh climate limit the growth of trees to small thickets of

Krummholz ''Krummholz'' (, "crooked, bent, twisted" and ''Holz'', "wood") — also called ''knieholz'' ("knee timber") — is a type of stunted, deformed vegetation encountered in the subarctic and subalpine tree line landscapes, shaped by continual e ...

formations of

Siberian dwarf pine ''Pinus pumila'', commonly known as the Siberian dwarf pine, dwarf Siberian pine, dwarf stone pine, Japanese stone pine, or creeping pine, is a tree in the family Pinaceae native plant, native to northeastern Asia and the Japan, Japanese isles. ...

with a maximum height of 2–4 meters, mostly in gullies.

Notes

External links

NASA Earth from Space: Onekotan Island

* * {{Authority control Active volcanoes Islands of the Sea of Okhotsk Islands of the Russian Far East Volcanic crater lakes Stratovolcanoes of Russia Islands of the Kuril Islands Uninhabited islands of Russia Uninhabited islands of the Pacific Ocean Calderas of Russia Volcanoes of the Kuril Islands Mountains of the Kuril Islands