Kamchatka Peninsula

Geographical location

Kamchatka (Russian Камчатка ) is a peninsula in East Asian part of Russia. It belongs to the region of Kamchatka Federal District Far East.

In 1996, the volcanic region of Kamchatka, which is mostly designated as a nature reserve, declared by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

Geography

With 370,000 km ², about 5 % larger than Germany, Kamchatka is the largest peninsula in East Asia and is located between the Bering Sea and the North Pacific Ocean to the east and the Sea of ​​Okhotsk to the west. It extends from eastern Siberia to the south; continued in the direction of Japan, the island chain of the Kuril Islands. The most important city of Kamchatka, Petropavlovsk -Kamchatsky, is located on the Awatscha Bay, which is one of the largest natural harbors in the world.

Measured in geological time periods is Kamchatka a very young country. Tremendous forces have been here for about two million years ago at work. The Pacific tectonic plate slides into a broad front with a speed of eight to ten centimeters per year under the edge of the Eurasian plate. The peninsula has been pushed up.

The peninsula is 1200 km long and up to 450 km wide. The latitude is 51 ° to 62 ° N, the length of 160 ° E. On it are 29 active volcanoes ( more than 160 total) and many geysers. Every year break on average of six volcanoes. The highest peak is the volcano Klyuchevskaya Sopka with 4750 m, however outside the Sredinny - ridge, of the peninsula from north to south by pulling the main mountain range is located. Other known volcanoes are Awatschinskaja Sopka, Shiveluch, Besymjanny and Itschinskaja Sopka.

In addition to the volcanic activity associated with the location of the peninsula also frequent earthquake-related. The most devastating so far with magnitude 9.0 occurred on November 4, 1952 off the southeast coast. From the ensuing tsunami, the small town of Severo- Kurilsk was completely destroyed on the adjacent Kuril island Paramushir.

The largest river is the 758 km long Kamchatka, the east of the Sredinny - ridge in which it arises also, and north of Chrebet Vostochny (East ridge ) opens into the northern Pacific.

Population

Today, about 380,000 people live in Kamchatka. The peninsula is relatively sparsely populated. About 65 percent of the population live in the largest city of Petropavlovsk -Kamchatsky, the capital of the Kamchatka region and economic center of the peninsula.

The majority of the population consists of Russians. Only about 2.5 percent are descended from the original indigenous people who live here and are among the ethnic groups of the Koryak, Itelmens and Evens.

History

The Kamchatka Peninsula was discovered by Cossacks on their expeditions to the East of Russia in 1697. Since it mainly was a lot of sable here, the area was annexed shortly thereafter by Russia. The indigenous people living there, the Koryak, Itelmens, Evens, Chukchi and Aleutian Islands ( Unangan ) were subjected to bloody and almost exterminated.

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

Only since 1990, the Kamchatka Peninsula is accessible for tourists. For over 50 years she was a closed military zone. Soviet citizens needed a special permit if they wanted to travel to Kamchatka or live there. During a tense period of the Cold War in 1983, a commercial airliner of Korean Airlines, which had penetrated deep into Soviet airspace in Kamchatka and had not responded to contact attempts recording, shot down by a interceptor. All 269 passengers lost their lives because the Soviet military kept the machine for a cloaked U.S. spy plane.

Attractions

A main attraction in Kamchatka is the Valley of Geysers with about 90 geysers. Hot water fountains obtained up to 40 meters in height, its clouds of steam in some cases more than 200 meters. The valley was declared in 1996, along with other areas of the peninsula by the UNESCO World Heritage Site Volcanoes of Kamchatka. Another part of the World Heritage area is the Bystrinski Nature Park with the Itschinskaja Sopka in the central part of Kamchatka.

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

Thanks to 30 active volcanoes in a relatively small area, so on a global scale particularly high volcano density, Kamchatka is known as the " land of volcanoes ". The volcano Mutnovsky fed hot springs, which produce up to 500 m long snow tunnel, and provides heat for a small geothermal power plant.