Product Code Database
Iturup (; ), also historically known by other names, is an island in the Kuril Archipelago separating the Sea of Okhotsk from the North Pacific Ocean. The town of Kurilsk, administrative center of Kurilsky District, is located roughly midway along its western shore. Iturup is the largest and northernmost of the southern Kurils, ownership of which is disputed between Japan and Russia. It is located between Kunashiri to its southwest and Urup to its northeast. The Vries Strait between Iturup and Urup forms the Miyabe Line dividing the predominant plants of the Kurils.
The native inhabitants of the islands since at least the 14th century were the Ainu people. Various European explorers passed the area over the years but settlement varied between Russian and Japanese. The island was formally claimed as Japanese territory in 1855. Near the end of the Second World War in 1945, the Soviet Union occupied the southern Kurils and forcibly removed its Japanese residents. Japan continues to claim the islands and considers the northern edge of the island to be its own northernmost point.
The island also contains some high , such as the Ilya Muromets.
Rheniite, a rhenium sulfide mineral (ReS2), was discovered in active hot on Kudriavy volcano and first described in 2004. In the field it was originally mistaken for molybdenite.
The formation of the subaerial Vetrovoy isthmus is attributed to the accumulation of such material during powerful explosive caldera-forming eruptions in the shallow strait between neighbouring islands. Korsunskaya G V 1958 The Kurile Island Arc (Moscow: Geographgis) p 224. The present geomorphological appearance of the isthmus is a consequence of subsequent wave and aeolian pyroclastic processing, leading to the formation of marine and lagoon terraces. Afanas'ev V V, Dunaev N N, Gorbunov A O and Uba A V 2018 Manifestation of Calderaforming volcanism in the formation of the sea coast (on the example of Iturup island of the Large Kuril Arc) J. Processes in geoenvironments 3. 16 990-98.
A study by Afanas'ev et al.Afanas'ev, V. V., et al. "Vetrovoy isthmus of Iturup island-holocene strait". IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Sciences. Vol. 324. No. 1. IOP Publishing, 2019. focuses on examining the existence of the strait separating the southern and northern parts of Iturup Island in the mid-late Holocene from the perspective of coastal geomorphology. Late Pleistocene explosive volcanism is considered to have been more intense and prolonged than Early Holocene events, leading to the formation of pumice deposits in the Prostor Gulf of Iturup Island. Radiocarbon dating of the peat bog underlying the pumice-pyroclastic cover in the Vetrovoy Isthmus suggests events around 38,000–39,000 years ago. Bazanova L I, Melekestsev I V, Ponomareva V V, Dirksen O V, Dirksen V G et al 2016 Late Pleistocene and Holocene volcanic catastrophes in Kamchatka and in the Kuril Islands. Part 1. Types and classes of catastrophic eruptions as major components of volcanic catastrophism J. of volcanology and seismology 3. 151-69.
The stratigraphy, genesis and chronology of the Holocene deposits on Iturup Island are poorly studied, relying primarily on C14 dates from Kasatka Bay and Olga Bay14. Three transgressive phases of sedimentation, comparable to the Atlantic, Subboreal and Sub-Atlantic periods, with a maximum sea level rise of up to 3.5 metres above the present level in the Atlantic, have been identified at the mouth of the Kurilka River. Korotky A M et al. 2000 Sedimentation and paleolandscapes of the late Pleistocene-Holocene of the basin of the Kurilka river (Iturup island, Kuril Islands) J. Pacific Geology 5. 19 61–77.
Fieldwork conducted in 2017–2018 on the Vetrovoy isthmus revealed volcanic-tectonic dislocations with a layer of beach material, suggesting the occurrence of at least two pyroclastic outbursts in the mid-Late Holocene. Georadar surveys complemented the manual drilling results, providing insights into the geological features of the isthmus. Razzhigaeva N G and Ganzey L A 2006 Depositional environments of the island territories in the Pleistocene-Holocene (Vladivostok: Dalnauka) р 365.
The deposits of the Vetrovoy Isthmus include volcanic-tectonic dislocations, pumice pyroclastics, aeolian-ash deposits and soil-tephra formations. The morphometric parameters of the basement terrace indicate an area elevation rate during the last phase of coastal marine accumulation that could reach 4 mm/year, slightly higher than the 3.5 m/year recorded during the last 6000 thousand years. Bulgakov R F 1994 History of the southern islands of the Great Kuril Arc in the Pleistocene: autoref. Diss. of candidate of geogr. Sciences (Moscow: MSU) p 20.
In conclusion, several studies suggest that explosive volcanism in the middle Late Holocene significantly affected the morphotectonic plan of the Vetrovoy Isthmus area, possibly contributing to the obstruction of the strait. The rise of the terrace surface during the middle Holocene may be related to these volcanic events. The rate of uplift of the area during the last phase of coastal marine accumulation is thought to have been about 4 mm/year. However, there are currently no data on the age of the marine georadar facies identified as a result of research on the Vetrovoy isthmus. Razzhigaeva N G and Ganzey L A 2006 Depositional environments of the island territories in the Pleistocene-Holocene (Vladivostok: Dalnauka) р 365.
The Japanese are first recorded reaching Iturup in 1661, when Shichirobei and his company drifted there by accident. Following Bering and Spanberg's voyages under the Russian flag, a settlement was established in the late 18th century, prompting the Japanese to establish a garrison around 1800 at the site of present-day Kurilsk. Japanese rule over Iturup was formally recognized in the 1855 Treaty of Shimoda.
Shana Village was located on Iturup (Etorofu) in the Showa era, before 1945. It was the administrative capital of the Kuril islands. There was a village hospital, an Etorofu Fisheries factory, a radio tower of the post office with a radio receiving antenna. The receiver was battery-powered.
A Soviet Anti-Air Defense (PVO) airfield, Burevestnik (English language: storm-petrel), is located on the island and was until 1993 home to a number of Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 fighter jets. In 1968, Seaboard World Airlines Flight 253A was intercepted over the Kurils and forced to land at Burevestnik with 214 American troops bound for Vietnam. An older airfield, Vetrovoe, exists on the eastern part of the island and may have been used primarily by Japanese forces during World War II.
Administratively, the island belongs to the Sakhalin Oblast of the Russian Federation. Japan claims Iturup as part of Nemuro Subprefecture.
|
|
