Kharimkotan (russian: Харимкотан);

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 ...

春牟古丹島; Harimukotan-tō, alternatively Harumukotan-tō or 加林古丹島; Karinkotan-tō) 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 formed ...

located from

Onekotan Onekotan (russian: Онекотан; Japanese 温禰古丹島; Onekotan-tō, occasionally Onnekotan-tō, ain, オネコタン　or　オネコタㇴ) is an uninhabited volcanic island located near the northern end of the Kuril Islands chain in ...

near the northern end of the

Kuril Islands The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands (; rus, Кури́льские острова́, r=Kuril'skiye ostrova, p=kʊˈrʲilʲskʲɪjə ɐstrɐˈva; Japanese: or ) are a volcanic archipelago currently administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast in the ...

chain in the Sea of Okhotsk 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 contin ...

. Its name is derived from the Ainu language, from “village of many Cardiocrinum”.

Geology

Kharimkotan is roughly oval, measuring by with an area of . The landscapes of the island are quite diverse; however, a significant part of the island's surface is covered with fine yellow ash, resembling desert dunes. On the north-western cape are the ruins of an Ainu village and in the north of the island, on the shore of Severgin Bay, is the abandoned settlement of Severgino. There are a number of small freshwater lakes. Kharimkotan is separated by the Sixth Kuril Strait from

, located 15 kilometers to the northeast, and by the Severgin Strait from

Shiashkotan Shiashkotan (russian: Шиашкотан); ( ja, 捨子古丹島; Shasukotan-tō) is an uninhabited volcanic island near the center of the Kuril Islands chain in the Sea of Okhotsk in the northwest Pacific Ocean, separated from Ekarma by the E ...

, located 29 kilometers to the south-west. There are no convenient anchorage sites. The island consists of a dormant stratovolcano, Pik Severgin -(russian: влк.Севергина ;

春牟古丹岳; ''Harikotan-dake''), which rises to above sea level. The peak is marked by two horseshoe shaped

volcanic crater A volcanic crater is an approximately circular depression in the ground caused by volcanic activity. It is typically a bowl-shaped feature containing one or more vents. During volcanic eruptions, molten magma and volcanic gases rise from an und ...

s created by the collapse of the volcano's upper slopes. Other evidence of the collapse can be seen on the peninsulas to the east and northwest which were formed by the debris. The volcano has erupted occasionally from the 18th century onwards, with the last recorded eruption in 1933 sending volcanic ash as far away as

Paramushir Paramushir (russian: Парамушир, Paramushir, ja, 幌筵島, Paramushiru-tō, ain, パラムシㇼ, translit=Para=mu=sir) is a volcanic island in the northern portion of Kuril Islands chain in the Sea of Okhotsk in the northwest Pacific Oc ...

. The collapse of the cone resulted in a debris-

avalanche An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a slope, such as a hill or mountain. Avalanches can be set off spontaneously, by such factors as increased precipitation or snowpack weakening, or by external means such as humans, animals, and eart ...

which subsequently caused a

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...

, which killed two people on Pamamushir. The path on which the debris took is visible on satellite imagery.

History

Kharimkotan was inhabited by the Ainu at the time of European contact. The inhabitants subsisted by growing the edible bulbs of the Cardiocrinum, as well as fishing and hunting. The island appears on an official map showing the territories of

Matsumae Domain The was a Japanese clan that was confirmed in the possession of the area around Matsumae, Hokkaidō as a march fief in 1590 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and charged with defending it, and by extension the whole of Japan, from the Ainu "barbarians" ...

, 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 characte ...

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 during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

in 1715. However, by 1736 the Ainu adopted Russian Orthodoxy and were taxed as Russian subjects by the

Empire of Russia The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. Th ...

. In 1811, it was reported that most could speak the Russian language and had adopted Russian names. In 1855,

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 ...

under Russia was recognised by the terms of the

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 the island was transferred 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 Constitution of Japan, 1947 constitu ...

per the

Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1875) The Treaty of Saint Petersburg ( ja, 樺太・千島交換条約, Karafuto-Chishima Kōkan Jōyaku; russian: Петербургский договор) between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire was signed on 7 May 1875, and its ratif ...

along with the rest of the Kuril islands. In 1884, the Ainu on Kharimkotan were resettled by the Japanese authorities to

Shikotan ; ja, 色丹島 , location = Pacific Ocean , coordinates = , archipelago = Kuril Islands , total_islands = 1 , major_islands = , area_km2 = 225 , length = , width = , coastline ...

. The island was formerly administered as part of Shimushu District of

Nemuro Subprefecture is a subprefecture of Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan. Japan claims the southern parts of the disputed Kuril Islands (known as the Northern Territories in Japan) as part of this subprefecture. As of March 2009, the subprefecture has an estimated ...

of Hokkaidō. In January 1933, a Japanese settlement was destroyed by an eruption of the volcano, and the settlement was abandoned by the Japanese. 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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, 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 Russian ...

of the

Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

Notes

References

External links

* {{Sea of Okhotsk Islands Active volcanoes 20th-century volcanic events Islands of the Sea of Okhotsk Islands of the Russian Far East Stratovolcanoes of Russia Islands of the Kuril Islands Uninhabited islands of Russia Uninhabited islands of the Pacific Ocean Volcanoes of the Kuril Islands Mountains of the Kuril Islands

Geology

History

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links