Akutan Island ( ale, Akutanax̂; russian: Акутан) is an inhabited

island An island or isle is a piece of subcontinental land completely surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island in a river or a lake island may be ...

in the Fox Islands group of the eastern

Aleutian Islands The Aleutian Islands ( ; ; ale, Unangam Tanangin, "land of the Aleuts"; possibly from the Chukchi ''aliat'', or "island")—also called the Aleut Islands, Aleutic Islands, or, before 1867, the Catherine Archipelago—are a chain of 14 main, ...

in the Aleutians East Borough of

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S ...

Geography

The island is approximately 18 mi (30 km) in length. The land area is 129.01 sq mi (334.13 km²). Mount Akutan volcano is located on the island, which had a major lava eruption in 1979. The island's population was 1,027 ( 2010 census). All lived in the city of Akutan, near the island's eastern end. A significant geothermal area is located on the island including the

Akutan Hot Springs Akutan Hot Springs is a system of several dozen thermal springs and a geyser in the Akutan geothermal area, Akutan Island, Alaska. Location The Akutan geothermal area is located in the Aleutian Islands; the hot springs are scattered across ...

History

Akutan is an

Aleut The Aleuts ( ; russian: Алеуты, Aleuty) are the indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands, which are located between the North Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea. Both the Aleut people and the islands are politically divided between the U ...

name reported by Capt. Pyotr Krenitsyn and Mikhail Levashev in 1768, and spelled Acootan by James Cook in 1785. This name may be from the Aleut word "hakuta" which, according to R. H. Geoghegan, means "I made a mistake." The

Akutan Zero The Akutan Zero, also known as Koga's Zero (古賀のゼロ) and the Aleutian Zero, was a type 0 model 21 Mitsubishi A6M Zero Japanese fighter aircraft that crash-landed on Akutan Island, Alaska Territory, during World War II. It was found ...

, a

Japanese Zero The Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" is a long-range carrier-based fighter aircraft formerly manufactured by Mitsubishi Aircraft Company, a part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and was operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy from 1940 to 1945. The A6M was ...

, was named for the island after it crashed there during

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 ...

and was recovered by the United States military.

Geography

History

See also

References

Further reading