Kamchatka

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Kamchatka
Location Kamchatka Peninsula.PNG
Location of the Kamchatka Peninsula
Geographical location
Kamchatka (Kamchatka Region)
Kamchatka
Coordinates 57 °  N , 160 °  E Coordinates: 57 °  N , 160 °  E
Waters 1 Bering Sea , Pacific Ocean
Waters 2 Sea of ​​Okhotsk
length 1 200  km
width 450 km
area 370,000 km²
Kamchatka peninsula topo.jpg
Topography of Kamchatka
Krasheninnikov volcano

Kamchatka ( Russian Камчатка ) is a peninsula in Northeast Asia . It belongs to the Kamchatka Region in the Far East Federal District of the Russian Federation .

Since 1987/88 the peninsula has given its name to the mineral kamchatkite, which was first discovered there . In 1996, the volcanic region of Kamchatka, which is largely designated as a nature park , was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO .

geography

With about 370,000 km², about 5% larger than Germany, Kamchatka is the largest peninsula in East Asia and is located between the Bering Sea and the North Pacific in the east and the Sea of ​​Okhotsk in the west. It extends from eastern Siberia to the south; its continuation towards Japan is the Kuril Islands . The most important city of Kamchatka, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky , is located on Avacha Bay , which is one of the largest natural harbors in the world.

The peninsula is 1200 km long and up to 450 km wide. The geographical latitude is 51 ° to 62 ° N, the longitude 160 ° E. There are about 29 active volcanoes (of more than 160 in total) and many geysers on Kamchatka . Every year, an average of six of the volcanoes erupt. Ash clouds affect air traffic and can also lead to ash showers up to 45 km away.

The highest point is the volcano Klyuchevskaya Sopka with 4750  m . It lies outside the Sredinny ridge , the main mountain range that runs through the peninsula from north to south. Other well-known volcanoes are Tolbachik , Kambalny , Avachinskaya Sopka , Schiwelutsch , Besymjanny , Ichinskaya Sopka and Mashkovtsev .

The largest river is the 758 km long Kamchatka . It has its source on the Sredinny ridge, flows east of it a little to the north and then to the east between the volcanoes Klyuchevskaya Sopka and Schiwelutsch into the Pacific .

geology

Geographically, the west of the country is older than the east. To the west there are rocks from the Oligocene (33–23 million years). Kamchatka lies on the so-called Okhotsk Block, a piece of plate above the subduction zone, where the Pacific plate pushes under the edge of the western part of the North American plate from the east at a speed of eight centimeters per year . The oldest volcanic ridge (Sredinny) was created as early as the Oligocene. Five to seven million years ago, two volcanic arches met here, and ever since then new volcanoes have emerged in the east.

In addition to volcanic activity and subduction, there are also frequent earthquakes . The most devastating so far, with a magnitude of 9.0, occurred on November 4, 1952 off the southeast coast. The small town of Severo-Kurilsk on the neighboring Kuril island of Paramushir was completely destroyed by the tsunami that followed .

fauna

The peninsula was one of the first focal points for fishing for king crab , also known as the "Kamchatka crab ".

climate

Kamchatka lies in the sub-arctic to cold climate zone. The climate on the peninsula is rather cold to temperate. There is a lot of rainfall. The annual average temperature is around 2 ° C. The temperature differences depend on the location. In the coastal regions influenced by the Pacific Ocean, temperatures rarely drop below −10 ° C and can rise to a mild 15 ° C in the summer months. In the center of the peninsula, the temperature differences are greater. Here fluctuations from −40 ° C in the winter months to 25 ° C in the summer months are possible.

population

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky

Today around 310,000 people live on Kamchatka. The peninsula is sparsely populated. About 65% of the population live in the largest city, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky , which is the capital of the Kamchatka region and the economic center of the peninsula.

Most of the population is made up of Russians . Only about 2.5 percent come from the original inhabitants (Kamschadals) who originally lived here and belong to the ethnic groups of the Korjak , Itelmen and Ewenen .

story

Map of Bering
Map of the Kamchatka expedition

The Kamchatka Peninsula was discovered by Cossacks on their forays into eastern Russia in 1697. Since there were a lot of sables here, the area was annexed by Russia shortly afterwards . The indigenous people living there, the Koryaks , Itelmens , Evens , Chukchi and Aleuts (Unangan), were bloodily subjugated by Russian Cossacks and almost exterminated.

The Dane Vitus Bering , after whom the strait between eastern Siberia and Alaska is named, led large expeditions to Kamchatka and north to the Bering Sea from 1725 to 1730 and 1733 to 1743 . Georg Wilhelm Steller , botanist and theologian, wrote extensive records of the second expedition. The agronomist Johann Karl Ehrenfried Kegel researched soil conditions and geology from 1841 to 1847.

The Kamchatka Peninsula has only been accessible to tourists since 1990. It was a restricted military area for over 50 years. Soviet citizens needed a special permit if they wanted to travel to or live in Kamchatka. In 1983, during a tense phase of the Cold War , a Korean Air Lines airliner , which was flying through closed Soviet airspace over Kamchatka, was shot down by an interceptor because the Soviet military believed the machine was a camouflaged US spy plane. All 269 inmates were killed.

At the beginning of October 2020, conservationists and local authorities reported hundreds of seals, octopus and sea urchins washed ashore on Chalatyr Beach, which is popular with tourists and surfers, and in Avacha Bay . Greenpeace spoke of the amounts of crude oil and phenol in seawater that were repeatedly above normal .

landmarks

Valley of the Geysers

A main attraction on Kamchatka is the Valley of the Geysers with around 90 geysers. Hot water fountains reach heights of up to 40 meters, their steam clouds sometimes more than 200 meters. The valley was declared a World Heritage Site Volcanoes of Kamchatka by UNESCO in 1996, along with other areas of the peninsula . Another part of the World Heritage area is the Bystrinsky Nature Park with the Ichinskaya Sopka in the central part of Kamchatka.

In June 2007, parts of the Valley of the Geysers were destroyed in a landslide and then closed to visitors.

There are about 29 active volcanoes on Kamchatka, it has the highest density of active volcanoes in the world. Kamchatka is therefore also known as the “land of volcanoes”. The subsoil at the Mutnowski volcano feeds thermal springs that create up to 500 m long snow tunnels. They provide heat for a small geothermal power plant.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kamchatka does not belong to North America , message on Spektrum.de dated May 3, 2006, accessed on Oct. 5, 2020
  2. ↑ subduction on Avachavulkan, Kamchatka
  3. ↑ Heßberg von, Andreas -Kamtschatka: To the bears and volcanoes in northeast Siberia (2017)
  4. ↑ https://www.wetterkontor.de/ (Kamtschatka)
  5. ↑ http://exkursionen.pr-naturetours.de/html/klima1.htm
  6. ↑ About the brutality and ruthlessness with which the Russian Cossacks decimated the native population to one fifteenth in the first half of the 18th century, Georg Wilhelm Steller (1709–1746) reports dispassionately but insistently , who spent three years from 1741 to 1744 how a local lived among the Kamchadals; see. Steller: Description of the land of Kamchatka, especially chap. 19-22.
  7. ↑ Animal deaths off Kamchatka: environmentalists alert orf.at, October 6, 2020, accessed October 6, 2020.
  8. ↑ Anna Kireeva, Charles Digges: A toxic brew off Kamchatka's beaches is killing marine life and puzzling environmentalists Bellona Foundation from October 9, 2020.
  9. ↑ Volcanoes of Kamchatka on the website of the UNESCO World Heritage Center ( English and French ).
  10. ↑ Landslide devastates famous Russian geyser valley. In: Spiegel Online. June 4, 2007, accessed November 30, 2014 .
  11. ↑ http://www.vulkane.net/vulkane/kamtschatka/kamtschatka.html Marc Szeglat: Kamtschatka - Volcanoes in Eastern Siberia , accessed on October 5, 2020
  12. ↑ The Russian peninsula Kamchatka is also known as the 'land of volcanoes', MSN Wissen - Welt der Wunder, picture series from December 13, 2012 [1]

literature

  • Georg Wilhelm Steller: Description of the land of Kamchatka , unchanged reprint of the works first published in Halle in 1753, in Frankfurt in 1774 and in St. Petersburg in 1793. ( Digital version , PDF (2.1 MB) of a transcribed version)
  • v. Berg: Count Benjowski's flight from Kamchatka to France , in: New General Geographical and Statistical Ephemeris, XII. Volume, Part 3, 1823, pp. 248-290. limited preview in Google Book search
  • Werner Friedrich Gülden (Ed.): Research trip to Kamtschatka - Travels and experiences of Johann Karl Ehrenfried Kegel from 1841 to 1847 , Böhlau-Verlag, 1992, ISBN 3-412-11091-4 ( PDF ; 5.9 MB)
  • Andreas von Heßberg: Kamtschatka, To the bears and volcanoes in Northeast Siberia , Trescher Verlag, 2nd, expanded and updated edition 2012, ISBN 978-3-89794-195-3
  • Vincent Munier: Kamchatka - Untouched wilderness between glaciers and geysers . Knesebeck Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 3-89660-586-0 .
  • Helga Merkelbach, Richard Seidl : Kamchatka - Adventure planned . 1st edition. Books on demand, 2012, ISBN 978-3-8482-2748-8 .

Web links

Commons : Kamchatka  - collection of images
Wikivoyage: Kamchatka  - travel guide