The Kuril Islands (Кури́льские острова́,Kuril'skie ostrova) in the Sakhalin Oblast region of the Russian Federation is a chain of over 50 major islands spanning about 1,300 km (700 miles) northeast from Hokkaidō, Japan, to Kamchatka, Russia, bordered by the Sea of Okhotsk to the west and the Pacific Ocean to the east.
The Kuril Islands are known in Japanese as theChishimaIslands (千島列島 / Chishima rettō, literally, Thousand Islands Archipelago), also known as theKuriruIslands (クリル列島 / Kuriru rettō, literally, Kuril Archipelago). The name Kuril originates from the autonym of the aboriginal Ainu: "kur", meaning man. It may also be related to names for other islands that have traditionally been inhabited by the Ainu people, such as Kuyi or Kuye for Sakhalin and Kai forHokkaidō(Wikipedia 2007).
presentationof Kuril Island geology by Bre MacInnes (5/26/06)
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