Verkhoturov Island
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Native name: Остров Верхотурова | |
|---|---|
 Verkhoturov Island is the small island in the top right | |
  Verkhoturov Island  Verkhoturov Island | |
| Geography | |
| Location | Karaginsky Gulf of the Bering Sea |
| Coordinates | 59°36′43″N 164°40′0″E / 59.61194°N 164.66667°E |
| Length | 3.5 km (2.17 mi) |
| Width | 0.5 km (0.31 mi) |
| Coastline | 6.4 km (3.98 mi) |
| Highest elevation | 367 m (1204 ft) |
| Administration | |
| Krai | Kamchatka Krai |
| Demographics | |
| Population | 0 |
| Additional information | |
| Time zone | |
Verkhoturov Island (Russian: остров Верхотурова, romanized: ostrov Verkhoturova), also known as Maly Karaginsky (Малый Карагинский) and Chachame (Чачамэ),[1] is a Russian island in the Karaginsky Gulf of the Bering Sea. It is located between Karaginsky Island and the Kamchatka Peninsula.
Verkhoturov Island is located in the Litke Strait 39.2 kilometers (24.4 mi) north of Cape Golenishchev on Karaginsky Island and 21 kilometers (13 mi) south of Cape Ilpinsky on the Kamchatka Peninsula. The island is 3.5 kilometers (2.2 mi) long and 0.5 kilometers (0.31 mi)[2] with a 6.4-kilometer-long (4 mi) rocky coastline.[1]
Verkhoturov Island has three mountain peaks, the highest of which reaches an elevation of 367 meters (1,204 ft). The north is low with a sandy beach. The south descends into plateau with a steep coastline at Cape Yuzhny. The island's capes have sea stacks and reefs.[2]
History
Verkhoturov Island was discovered by Russian sailors around the late 17th to early 18th centuries. The island was named after Protopopov Verkhoturov, who died in 1705 while collecting yasak from Koryak people on Karaginsky Island. The island's first recorded mention was made by Stepan Krasheninnikov and Georg Wilhelm Steller during their Great Northern Expedition of 1733 to 1743.[1]
Russian navigator Friedrich Benjamin von Lütke first surveyed Verkhoturov Island in 1828. Russian naturalist Alexander Postels, who accompanied von Lütke, recorded sighting huts and ruined yurts on the island with "traces of visits by the Alyutors and Kamchadals" ("следы посещений олютор и камчадал") who hunted silver foxes on the island. Russian Pacific walrus hunters regularly visited Verkhoturova Island during the 1920s and 1930s. Arefy Kornilovich Komarov, one such hunter from Shkotovo who died, was buried on the northwestern tip of Verkhoturova Island in 1937.[1][2]
