Ushishir

Uschischir ( Uschi Churchill, Russian Острова Ушишир; jap宇 志 知 岛, Ushishiru -tō ) refers to a group of small, uninhabited islands in the archipelago of the Kuril Islands. It is located in the central area of the Kuril Islands southeast of the island Rasschua and northeast of the island Ketoi. Administratively, the islands belong to Russia's Sakhalin Oblast.

Uschischir is a lying mainly below sea volcano. The summit region of the volcano, which reaches a height of 401 m above the sea, the island Jankitscha forms (Russian Янкича ), while the former northeast flank of the volcano, the 121 meter high island Ryponkitscha forms (Russian Рыпонкича ). Both islands are connected by a narrow isthmus about 400 meters long with each other, which is dry at low tide.

The archipelago was formerly used by Ainu, who lived on the neighboring island Rasshua to duck and eagle hunting. Occasionally, wintered in Uschischir. In the northern part there are remains of Ainu dwellings.

Jankitscha has the distinctive volcanic bay Kureta -wan. Your connection with the sea in the south can be driven at high tide by small boats. The bay occupies a large part of the 1.6 km by measuring before and around 9400 years resulting caldera of the volcano. After 1769 created two new lava domes that form islands within the bay. Two older lava domes are connected by a sandbar to the south-eastern shore of the bay. In the southeast of the caldera there is an area with fumaroles and hot springs, which was considered the Ainu as a holy place. The last known eruption of the volcano was in 1884, while there were small phreatic explosions.

A few kilometers northeast of the caldera are the counting also to Uschischir Srednego Islands (Russian Острова Среднего ) which reach a height of up to 36 meters above the sea. The total land area of ​​all islands is about 5 km ².