Rasshua (russian: Расшуа, ja, 羅処和島), is an uninhabited

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

near the center of the Kuril Islands chain in the

Sea of Okhotsk The Sea of Okhotsk ( rus, Охо́тское мо́ре, Ohótskoye móre ; ja, オホーツク海, Ohōtsuku-kai) is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. It is located between Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands ...

in the northwest

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

, from Ushishir and southwest of Matua. Its name is derived from the Ainu language for “fur coat”.

Geology

Rasshua is roughly oval, with a length of with a width of , and an area of . The island is a complex

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

with three overlapping central cones within a 6 kilometer caldera whose eastern margin is beyond the shoreline. The island has five small fresh water lakes, and numerous

hot spring A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by c ...

s. Rasshua Peak (russian: влк. Расшуа, ja, 幌茶々登山, Horochachanobori-yama), in the west of the island is the island’s highest point at . The peak has not erupted in historic times, although it emits quantities of

volcanic gas Volcanic gases are gases given off by active (or, at times, by dormant) volcanoes. These include gases trapped in cavities ( vesicles) in volcanic rocks, dissolved or dissociated gases in magma and lava, or gases emanating from lava, from volcani ...

and its sides are streaked with

sulfur Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formul ...

deposits. The easternmost cone ( ja, 長頭山, Chōtōzan; (russian: гора Циото) with a height of , violently erupted in 1846. The only other known historical eruption produced weak explosions in 1957. Active fulmaroles are found in the eastern crater and in the saddle between the two summit cones. It had a mild eruption on February 6, 2013.

Major features

Ozero Beloye Ozero (russian: О́зеро, lit. ''lake'') (full name: дачный потребительский кооператив «Озеро», Dacha consumer cooperative "Ozero") is a dacha cooperative associated with Vladimir Putin's inner circ ...

(lake) * Ozero Tikhoye (lake) * Maul (mountain) * Rasshua (volcano) * Serp (mountain) Rasshua Island

History

Rasshua was inhabited by the

Ainu Ainu or Aynu may refer to: *Ainu people, an East Asian ethnic group of Japan and the Russian Far East *Ainu languages, a family of languages **Ainu language of Hokkaido **Kuril Ainu language, extinct language of the Kuril Islands **Sakhalin Ainu la ...

, at the time of European contact, and the remains of over 40 dwellings have been discovered. The island appears on an official map showing the territories of Matsumae Domain, a feudal domain of

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional ''daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was character ...

Japan dated 1644, and these holdings were officially confirmed by the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in ...

in 1715. Subsequently, claimed by the Empire of Russia,

sovereignty Sovereignty is the defining authority within individual consciousness, social construct, or territory. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within the state, as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the perso ...

initially passed to Russia under the terms of the Treaty of Shimoda, but was returned to the

Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent for ...

per the Treaty of Saint Petersburg along with the rest of the Kuril islands. At this time, the remaining Ainu inhabitants (eight families) were forcibly relocated to Shikotan, and the island became uninhabited. The island was formerly administered as part of Shimushiru District of Nemuro Subprefecture of Hokkaidō. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the island came under the control of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, and is now administered as part of the

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

of the

Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia North Asia or Northern Asia, also referred to as Siberia, is the northern region of Asia, which is defined in geographic ...

Notes

References

External links

— Oceandots. {{Sea of Okhotsk Islands Islands of the Kuril Islands Active volcanoes Islands of the Sea of Okhotsk Islands of the Russian Far East Stratovolcanoes of Russia Uninhabited islands of Russia Calderas of Russia Volcanoes of the Kuril Islands Mountains of the Kuril Islands