Kamchatka

Kamchatka is a peninsula in northeast Asia. It belongs to the Kamchatka region in the Far East Federal District of the Russian Federation.

Since 1987/88 the peninsula has been the eponym for the mineral Kamchatkit, which was first discovered there. In 1996, the volcanic region of Kamchatka, which is largely designated as a nature park, was declared a World Natural Heritage Site by UNESCO.

In 1649, the Russian Mikhail Staduchin built the first fortified fort in this area, Anadyrskj, on the Anadyr River north of today's Kamchatka region. From there he went further south to the river Penzhina, which flows into the Sea of Okhotsk. His reports about sea otters and sables living there reached the court of the tsars. Finally, in 1679 a second fort, Aklanski, was built in the mouth of the Penzhina River. Further exploration and settlement campaigns followed, often against the resistance of the Chukchi indigenous population. Even the Cossacks who entered the region of Kamchatka in 1695 did not succeed in getting hold of large quantities of the furs from the Chukchi, which were so sought after by the tsar's court. Only a well-armed team led by Vladimir Atlasov was finally able to force more than 3,000 sable skins from the natives between 1697 and 1699 and have them brought to the tsar's court. Tsar Peter the Great, who was enthusiastic about this, subsequently decided to conquer Kamchatka.

In 1698 the first fort (Russian Ostrog) named Verchne-Kamchatski was built on the peninsula near the present-day settlement of Milkovo, followed by the Ostrog Nitchne-Kamchatski near the present-day town of Klyuci. All this happened against the fierce resistance of the indigenous population, which, however, had little to oppose the superior armament of the Cossacks. The last uprisings of the Itenmenen took place in 1740, those of the Korjaks in 1756.

In 1724 Peter the Great issued a decree for a large-scale Kamchatka expedition, the leadership of which was transferred to the Dane Vitus Bering and which was carried out from 1725 to 1730. However, this first Kamchatka expedition was disappointing, so that two years later the second Kamchatka expedition was launched, also under the leadership of Bering. This expedition, also known as "The Great Nordic Expedition" from 1733 to 1743 was a great success. In the course of this expedition, twelve expedition members erected a number of accommodation facilities for officers in the north of Avacha Bay, as several overwinterings were planned there. This eventually developed into the city of Petropavlovsk, whose name is derived from the names of the two expedition ships St. Peter and St. Paul.

With approximately 370,000 km², about 5% larger than Germany, Kamchatka is the largest peninsula in East Asia and is located between the Bering Sea and the North Pacific in the east and the Sea of Okhotsk in the west. It stretches from East Siberia to the south; its continuation towards Japan is the chain of Kuril Islands. The most important city of Kamchatka, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, is located on the Avacha Bay, which is one of the largest natural harbours in the world.

Earth historically, the west of the country is older than the east. In the west, rocks from the Oligocene (33-23 million years) are found. The Pacific plate is pushing from the east in a broad front at a speed of eight to ten centimetres per year under the edge of the western part of the North American plate. As a result, new volcanic ridges continue to form in the east, colliding with the older ones in the west, as happened most recently about 5-7 million years ago. This is how Kamchatka was formed and is changing.

The peninsula is 1200 km long and up to 450 km wide. The geographical latitude is 51° to 62° N, the longitude 160° E. There are 29 active volcanoes (of more than 160 in total) and many geysers on it. On average six of the volcanoes erupt every year. Ash clouds affect air traffic and can also lead to ash rain 45 km away.

The highest elevation is the volcano Kljutschewskaja Sopka with 4750 m, but it lies outside the Sredinny ridge, the main mountain range that crosses the peninsula from north to south. Other known volcanoes are Tolbachik, Kambalny, Avachinskaya Sopka, Shiveluch, Besymyanny, Ichinskaya Sopka and Mashkovtsev.

Besides volcanic activity, frequent earthquakes are also related to the location of the peninsula. The most devastating to date, with a magnitude of 9.0, occurred off the southeast coast on 4 November 1952. The tsunami that followed completely destroyed the small town of Severo- Kurilsk on the neighbouring Kuril Island of Paramushir.

The largest river is the 758 km long Kamchatka, which flows into the northern Pacific Ocean east of the Sredinny Ridge, where it also has its source, and north of the Vostochny Ridge (East Ridge).