Ushishir
| Ushishir | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Waters | Pacific Ocean | |
| archipelago | Kuril Islands | |
| Geographical location | 47 ° 32 ' N , 152 ° 50' E | |
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| Number of islands | min. 2 | |
| Main island | Yankicha | |
| Total land area | 5 km² | |
| Residents | uninhabited | |
Ushishir (also Ushishur , Russian Острова Ушишир ; Japanese 宇 志 知 島 , Ushishiru-tō ) refers to a group of small, uninhabited islands in the Kuril archipelago . It is located in the central area of the Kuril Islands, southwest of the island of Rasschua and northeast of the island of Ketoi . Administratively, the islands belong to the Russian Sakhalin Oblast .
Ushishir is a volcano that is largely below sea level . The summit region of the volcano, which reaches a height of 401 m above sea level, forms the island of Jankitscha ( Russian Янкича , Japanese 南島 , Minamijima , "South Island"), while the former northeast flank of the volcano is the 121-meter-high island of Ryponkitscha ( Russian Рыпонкича , Japanese 北島 , Kitajima , "North Island") forms. Both islands are connected to each other by a narrow, approximately 400-meter-long isthmus , which is dry at low tide .
The archipelago was formerly used by Ainu , who lived on the neighboring island of Rasshua, to hunt ducks and eagles. Occasionally it was wintered on Ushishir. In the northern part there are remains of Ainu dwellings.
Jankitscha (other spelling: "Yankicha") has the prominent Kureta-wan crater bay . Its connection with the sea in the south can be navigated by small boats at high tide . The bay takes up large parts of the 1.6 kilometer diameter caldera of the volcano that was formed around 9400 years ago . After 1769, two new lava domes were built that form islands within the bay. Two older lava domes are connected to the southeastern shore of the bay by a sandbank. In the southeast of the caldera there is an area with fumaroles and hot springs that was considered a sacred place by the Ainu. The last known eruption of the volcano was in 1884, with smaller phreatic explosions .
A few kilometers northeast of the caldera are the Srednego Islands ( Russian Острова Среднего , Japanese 摺enden 岩 , Suride-iwa ), which also belong to Ushishir and reach a height of up to 36 m above sea level. The total land area of all islands is about 5 km².
Web links
- Ushishir in the Global Volcanism Program of the Smithsonian Institution (English)
- Ushishir on oceandots.com ( Memento from December 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b 宇 志 知 島 北島 よ り 南島 を 望 む . In: Northern Studies Collection. Hokkaidō University, accessed November 26, 2014 (Japanese).
- ↑ Hans-Adalbert Dettmer: Ainu grammar. (Part 2, A: Explanations and Register) Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1997, ISBN 3-447-03761-X , p. 144.