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Native name: Шиашкотан 捨子古丹島 | |
|---|---|
 Landsat view of Shiashkotan Island | |
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| Geography | |
| Location | Sea of Okhotsk |
| Coordinates | 48°49′N154°6′E / 48.817°N 154.100°E /48.817; 154.100 |
| Archipelago | Kuril Islands |
| Area | 122 km2 (47 sq mi) |
| Highest elevation | 944 m (3097 ft) |
| Highest point | Pik Sinarka |
| Administration | |
Russia | |
| Demographics | |
| Population | 0 |
| Ethnic groups | Ainu (formerly) |
Shiashkotan (Russian:Шиашкотан) (Japanese:捨子古丹島;Shasukotan-tō) is an uninhabitedvolcanic island near the center of theKuril Islands chain in theSea of Okhotsk in the northwestPacific Ocean, separated fromEkarma by theEkarma Strait. Its name is derived from theAinu language, from “Konbu village”.
Shiashkotan is roughly dumbbell-shaped, formed by two volcanic islands joined together by a narrowlandspit. The island has a total length of 25 kilometres (16 mi) with a width ranging from 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) at its widest point to 0.9 kilometres (0.56 mi) at its narrowest, and an area of 122 square kilometres (47 sq mi).[1] Both ends of the island are complexstratovolcanos, and landing is practical only on the sandy isthmus.
Shiashkotan was inhabited by theAinu, who subsisted off of hunting and fishing, at the time of European contact. The island appears on an official map dated 1644, showing thefeudal territories of theMatsumae Domain inEdo periodJapan; these holdings were confirmed by theTokugawa shogunate in 1715.
Later claimed by theEmpire of Russia,sovereignty passed to Russia under the terms of the 1855Treaty of Shimoda. During anvolcanic eruption in 1872, Russian authorities recorded that 13 inhabitants died. When the Kuril Islands were returned to theEmpire of Japan, per the 1875Treaty of Saint Petersburg, no inhabitants remained on Shiashkotan, as they moved north to Russian Kamchatka.
The Japanese administered the island as part of Shimushu District ofNemuro Subprefecture ofHokkaidō. In 1893, a settlement was attempted by nine members of the Chishima Protective Society, led byGunji Shigetada; however, when a ship called on the island a year later, five of the colonists had already died, and the remaining four were critically ill withberi-beri.
AfterWorld War II, the island came under the control of theSoviet Union, and is now administered as part of theSakhalin Oblast of theRussian Federation.
