Simushir (russian: Симушир, ja, 新知島, translit=Shimushiru-tō, ain, シムシㇼ, translit=Simusir), meaning ''Large Island'' in Ainu, 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 ...

near the center 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 ...

. It was formerly known as Marikan.

History

At the time of European contact, Simushir was inhabited by the Ainu. 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. Russian explorer

Gerasim Izmailov Gerasim Grigoryevich Izmaylov (russian: Герасим Григорьевич Измайлов; ''circa'' 1745 - ''after'' 1795) was a Russian navigator involved in the Russian colonization of the Americas and in the establishment of the colonies ...

was

marooned Marooned may refer to: * Marooning Marooning is the intentional act of abandoning someone in an uninhabited area, such as a desert island, or more generally (usually in passive voice) to be marooned is to be in a place from which one cannot escape ...

on Simushir in the early 1770s. He spent a full year subsisting on "scallops, grass, and roots".

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 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 Constitution of Japan, 1947 constitu ...

per the Treaty of Saint Petersburg along with the rest of the Kuril islands. The island was formerly administered as part of Shimushiru 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. Settlers on the island were engaged in fishing, and the raising of

Arctic fox The Arctic fox (''Vulpes lagopus''), also known as the white fox, polar fox, or snow fox, is a small fox native to the Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and common throughout the Arctic tundra biome. It is well adapted to living in ...

and

reindeer Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 sub ...

. 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 opposing ...

, the civilian population was evacuated to the

Japanese home islands The Japanese archipelago (Japanese: 日本列島, ''Nihon rettō'') is a group of 6,852 islands that form the country of Japan, as well as the Russian island of Sakhalin. It extends over from the Sea of Okhotsk in the northeast to the East Chin ...

and Simushir was garrisoned by a detachment from the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

. It was surrendered to Soviet forces during the Battle of the Kuril Islands without resistance. Under 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, ...

, Brouton Bay was used by the Soviet Navy as a secret submarine base between 1987 and 1994, and had a population of approximately 3000 people. The remains of the base can be seen clearly on satellite images. Today the island is uninhabited. It 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 ...

Geology

Simushir is highly elongated, consisting of a series of stratovolcanos. The island has a length of with a width of , and an area of . At the north end of the island is a half-submerged caldera, Brouton Bay, with an entrance only 2.5 meters deep, plunging to 240 meters in the center. * Urataman (russian: Уратаман, ja, 三日月山, ''Mikazuki Yama''), high and overlooking Brouton Bay, is the northernmost stratovolcano of the island. Further south are: * Prevo (russian: влк. Прево, ja, 新知富士, ''Shimushiru Fuji''), with a height of . The peak erupted in the early 19th century, forming a symmetrical cone with a resemblance to Mount Fuji. On the summit is a 450 × 600 meter wide summit crater with a small caldera lake on its floor. Lava flows from the summit reach both coasts of central Simushir. Only two eruptions are known from Prevo Peak in historical times. The largest of these, during the 1760s, produced

pyroclastic flow A pyroclastic flow (also known as a pyroclastic density current or a pyroclastic cloud) is a fast-moving current of hot gas and volcanic matter (collectively known as tephra) that flows along the ground away from a volcano at average speeds of b ...

s that destroyed all vegetation at the foot of the volcano. Weak explosive activity occurred during the most recent eruption, in the early 19th century. * Zavaritzki (russian: Вулкан Заварицкого, ja, 緑湖カルデラ, ''Midoriko Karudera''), with a height of , and a 2 × 3 kilometer fresh water caldera lake.. Several young cones and lava domes are located near the margins the lake. A lava dome created in the 1916 and 1931 eruptions formed a small island in the northern part of the lake. In 1957, a new 350 meter wide, 40 meter high lava dome was created following explosive eruptions, decreasing the size of the lake. *

Milna Milna is a village and municipality on the western side of the island of Brač, Split-Dalmatia County, Croatia. The village has a population of 833. It is situated in a deep bay oriented towards the island of Mrduja and Split Channel, on the ...

(russian: Мильна, ja, 新知岳, ''Shimushiru Dake''), with a height of , is the highest point on the island. This volcano erupted in 1881 and in 1914. The outer flanks of the steep-sided mountain are dissected by deep gullies, with lava flows extending to the sea. The three kilometer wide caldera was breached to the south due to glaciations. * Goriaschaia Sopka (russian: Горящая Сопка, ja, 焼山; ''Yake Yama''), with a height of , is on the southwest end of the island. This volcano erupted in 1881 and in 1914.

Climate

In spite of its temperate latitude, the powerful

Oyashio Current , also known as Oya Siwo, Okhotsk or the Kurile current, is a cold subarctic ocean current that flows south and circulates counterclockwise in the western North Pacific Ocean. The waters of the Oyashio Current originate in the Arctic Ocean an ...

on the western flank of the

Aleutian Low The Aleutian Low is a semi-permanent low-pressure system located near the Aleutian Islands in the Bering Sea during the Northern Hemisphere winter. It is a climatic feature centered near the Aleutian Islands measured based on mean sea-level press ...

gives Simushir a chilly and very wet subarctic climate (

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...

''Dfc'') that amazingly almost qualifies as a polar climate (''ET''), which in low-lying areas would be expected only at latitudes about 20 degrees or further north. Unlike typical subarctic or polar climates, however, the winters are only moderately severe and there is no permafrost since the mean annual temperature is around , whilst temperatures have never fallen below . However, the extreme winds, which in winter average as much as , make it feel much colder.OSTROV SIMUSHIR, RUSSIA
/ref> Summers are mild, but extraordinarily cloudy with fogs occurring on six-sevenths of all days in summer and annual sunshine hours less than 1,100 per year, which is comparable to

Reykjavík Reykjavík ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08' N, making it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. With a po ...

or the extremely foggy

Sichuan Basin The Sichuan Basin (), formerly transliterated as the Szechwan Basin, sometimes called the Red Basin, is a lowland region in southwestern China. It is surrounded by mountains on all sides and is drained by the upper Yangtze River and its tributa ...

. Sunshine is actually most likely in the wettest months of September and October when the heavy rain removes the low-level fog, but clear days are extremely rare at any time of year.

Fauna

In the spring crested and

least auklet The least auklet (''Aethia pusilla'') is a seabird and the smallest species of auk. It is the most abundant seabird in North America, and one of the most abundant in the world, with a population of around nine million birds. They breed on the isl ...

, Leach's storm petrel, and

Japanese cormorant The Japanese cormorant (''Phalacrocorax capillatus''), also known as Temminck's cormorant, is a cormorant native to the east Palearctic. It lives from Taiwan, north through Korea and Japan, to the Russian Far East. The Japanese cormorant has a b ...

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.

Notes

References

* Gorshkov, G. S. ''Volcanism and the Upper Mantle Investigations in the Kurile Island Arc''. Monographs in geoscience. New York: Plenum Press, 1970. * Krasheninnikov, Stepan Petrovich, and James Greive. The History of Kamtschatka and the Kurilski Islands, with the Countries Adjacent. Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1963. * Rees, David. ''The Soviet Seizure of the Kuriles''. New York: Praeger, 1985. * Takahashi, Hideki, and Masahiro Ōhara. ''Biodiversity and Biogeography of the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin''. Bulletin of the Hokkaido University Museum, no. 2-. Sapporo, Japan: Hokkaido University Museum, 2004. *

External links

* * * * *
Simushir submarine base
{{Authority control Islands of the Sea of Okhotsk Islands of the Russian Far East Stratovolcanoes of Russia Islands of the Kuril Islands Volcanoes of the Kuril Islands Uninhabited islands of Russia Uninhabited islands of the Pacific Ocean Calderas of Russia Mountains of the Kuril Islands Russian and Soviet Navy submarine bases