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 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 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 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 continen ...

. 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 isolate ...

for "large village”. It is the second largest island, after Paramushir, in the northern subgroup of the Kurils. It is administratively included in the

Severo-Kurilsky District Severo-Kurilsky District (russian: Се́веро-Кури́льский райо́н) is an administrative district (raion) of Sakhalin Oblast, Russia; one of the seventeen in the oblast.Law #25-ZO Municipally, it is incorporated as Severo-Kuril ...

of Sakhalin oblast,

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

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 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 per ...

s connected by a relatively flat isthmus. * Krenitsyn -(russian: Креницын ; Japanese 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 volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is ...

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

Pyotr Krenitsyn Pyotr Kuzmich Krenitsyn (russian: Пётр Кузьмич Креницын) (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 ...

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 dissolved in the wake of the February Revolution of 1917. It developed from a ...

. 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 ...

with a diameter of , called

Tao-Rusyr Caldera Tao-Rusyr Caldera (russian: Тао-Русыр) 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 a ...

. The central peak of this "island within the island" is actually the highest point on Onekotan Island * Nemo -(russian: влк Немо; Japanese 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 (russian: Пик Немо) 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 youngest c ...

rising in the southwest end of the youngest caldera and a crescent-shaped crater lake, named Lake Chernoye, partially filling the northeast part. 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 Krenitsyn Strait (Russian: ''Proliv Krenitsyna''; Japanese: ''Harumukotan Kaikyo'') is a strait that separates the islands of Onekotan to the north from Kharimkotan to the south. It is 12 km (7.5 mi) wide. The flood tidal current in the strait sets ...

. The neighboring islands are

Makanrushi Makanrushi (russian: Маканруши; 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 f ...

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

Kharimkotan Kharimkotan (russian: Харимкотан); 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 ...

, 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 which is either erupting or is likely to erupt in the future. An active volcano which is not currently erupting is known as a dormant volcano. Overview Tlocene Epoch. Most volcanoes are situated on the Pacific Ri ...

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 ...

on the island's coast. A bay on the eastern shore contains the remains of an abandoned settlement. File:Onekotan-Kurile-Islands.jpg, Mount Krenitsyn on Onekotan Island File:Onekotan Island, Kuril Islands, Russian Federation.JPG,

Snow Snow comprises 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 throughout ...

cover highlights the calderas and volcanic cones that form the northern and southern ends of Onekotan.

Climate

History

Onekotan, with a number of shallow bays and sandy beaching providing landing points, 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 ...

prior to European contact. It appears on an official map showing the territories of Matsumae Domain, a

feudal domain A demesne ( ) or domain was all the land retained and managed by a lord of the manor under the feudal system for his own use, occupation, or support. This distinguished it from land sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants. The concept or ...

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 characteriz ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

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. The island was surveyed by Russian geodesists and explorers Ivan Yevreinov and Fyodor Luzhin in 1720, and was subsequently, claimed by the Empire of Russia in 1736 after the Ainu inhabitants were converted to the

Russian Orthodox Church , native_name_lang = ru , image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg , imagewidth = , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia , abbreviation = ROC , type ...

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

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 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 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 fo ...

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 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 p ...

Hokkaidō is Japan's second largest island 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 the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The la ...

. In 1884, the Ainu inhabitants were relocated by 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 ...

. 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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, 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 Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, and is now administered as part of the Sakhalin Oblast of the

Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

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

Flora and fauna

There are

chars Chars () is a Communes of France, commune in the Val-d'Oise Departments of France, department in Île-de-France in northern France. It is located in the . Education Chars has a single preschool, école maternelle des Tournesols, and a single elem ...

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 and small rodents, with seals and sea lions on the coast. The strong winds and harsh climate limit the growth of trees to small thickets of Krummholz formations of Siberian dwarf pine with a maximum height of 2–4 meters, mostly in gullies.

Notes

External links

NASA Earth from Space: Onekotan Island

*
Onekotan - The Lost Island - A movie about 3 Athletes on the lost island Onekotan.
{{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