Ketoy

Ketoy

Native name: Кетой 計吐夷島
NASA picture of Ketoy Island
Geography
Location	Sea of Okhotsk
Coordinates
Archipelago	Kuril Islands
Area
Highest elevation	1,172 m (3,845 ft)
Highest point	Ketoy
Country
Russia
Demographics
Population	0
Ethnic groups	Ainu (formerly)

Ketoy (or Ketoi) (Russian: Кетой; Japanese 計吐夷島; Ketoi-tō) is an uninhabited volcanic island located in the centre of the Kuril Islands chain in the Sea of Okhotsk in the northwest Pacific Ocean.

Geology

Ketoy is roughly circular with an area of 73 km² and a diameter of 10 km. Its name is derived from the Ainu language for "skeleton" or "bad".

The island is a complex stratovolcano lined with steep cliffs ranging from 30 metres to 60 metres on the east and south sides with the west and north being taller. The beaches on the island consist of boulders and stones. In the centre of the island is a 1.5 km wide caldera filled by a freshwater caldera lake. The terrain is undulating and steep with numerous hills, rising to two main peaks:

• Ketoy -(Russian: влк Кетой; Japanese 計吐夷岳; Ketoidake) with a height of 1,172 meters to the east of the central caldera lake
• Pallas -(Russian: влк Палласа; Japanese 白烟山; Shirokemuriyama) with a height of 993 meters in the center of the island. Pallas also has a caldera lake, with diameters of approximately 550 meters.

Ketoy is still an active volcano. A major eruption occurred from 1846 to 1847, with the last known eruption in 1960, and August 9, 2013.

History

Ketoy had no permanent habitation prior to European contact, but was visited in summer by the Ainu tribes from Rasshua for hunting. Claimed by the Empire of Russia, sovereignty was passed to the Empire of Japan per the Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1875) along with the rest of the Kuril islands. The island was formerly administered as part of Shimushiro District of Nemuro Subprefecture of Hokkaidō. After World War II, the island came under the control of the Soviet Union, and is now administered as part of the Sakhalin Oblast of the Russian Federation.

See also

• List of volcanoes in Russia

References

• Global Volcanism Program

External links

• Sakhalin Oblast

Further reading

• Gorshkov, G. S. Volcanism and the Upper Mantle Investigations in the Kurile Island Arc. Monographs in geoscience. New York: Plenum Press, 1970. ISBN 0-306-30407-4
• 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. ISBN 0-03-002552-4
• 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.