What is Atlasov Island?

Atlasov / Alaid
Elevation	2,339 metres (7,674 feet)
Location	Kuril Islands, Russia
Coordinates
Type	Stratovolcano
Last eruption	1996

Atlasov Island, known in Japanese as Araido, is the northernmost island and volcano and also the highest volcano of the Kuril islands, part of the Sakhalin Oblast in Russia. The Russian name is sometimes rendered in English as Atlasova Island or Ostrov Atlasova. Other names for the island include Uyakhuzhach, Oyakoba and Alaid.

The island is named after Vladimir Atlasov, a 17th century Russian explorer who incorporated the nearby Kamchatka Peninsula into Russia. It is essentially the cone of a submarine volcano called Vulkan Alaid protruding above the Sea of Okhotsk to a height of 2,339 m (7,672 ft). The island has an area of 119 km² (46 sq mi), but is currently uninhabited.

Its near perfect shape gave rise to many legends about the volcano among the peoples of the region, such as the Itelmens and Kuril Ainu. The Russian scientist Stepan Krasheninnikov was told the story that it was once a mountain in Kamchatka, but the neighbouring mountains became jealous of its beauty and exiled it to the sea, leaving behind Lake Kuril in southern Kamchatka. Geographically, this story is not without evidence, as after the last Ice Age most of the icecaps melted, raising the world's water level, and possibly submerging a landbridge to the volcano.

Ito Osamu (1926) described it as more exquisitely shaped than Mount Fuji.

References

• Global Volcanism Program

External links

• The Russian Kuril Islands Expedition to Atlasov