The Sea of Okhotsk Coast (or Okhotsk Coast) is split into natural major parts according to the delineation of the Sea of Okhotsk: its northwestern part, which is part of the mainland of Eastern Siberia (Russian Far East), the west coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula (Russia), the coasts of the Kuril Islands (Russia; some are disputed by Japan), the northeastern coast of Hokkaido (Japan), the north and east coasts of Sakhalin (Russia), [1] [2] [3] as well as the coasts of the inner islands.
The continental part of the Okhotsk coast has a complicated shape, with many headlands and peninsulas, as well as gulfs and bays, most significant being the Sakhalin Gulf between Sakhalin and continental Siberia and Shelikhov Gulf, the northernost part of the sea. [1] The (complete) shoreline is broken by a number of straits, most important being Nevelskoy Strait (within the Strait of Tartary), La Pérouse Strait, Lindholm Strait, Severnyy Strait, Severo-Vostochnyy Strait, .
Of islands of the Sea of Okhotsk the most significant are:
The total area of the basins of rivers draining into the sea is estimated 2.5. million km2. [3]
There are settlements of the ancient Koryak culture along the coast and on some islands. [4] [5] There are also traces of ancient Yupik culture. [6]
Evens, who, in particular, live in Magadan Oblast and Kamchatka, migrated out of central China around 10,000 years ago. [7]
The Okhotsk culture is an archaeological coastal fishing and hunter-gatherer culture that developed around the southern coastal regions of the Sea of Okhotsk, including Sakhalin, northeastern Hokkaido, and the Kuril Islands during the last half of the first millennium to the early part of the second. The Okhotsk are often associated to be the ancestors of the Nivkhs, [8] while others argue them to be identified with early Ainu-speakers. [9] It is suggested that the bear cult, a practice shared by various Northern Eurasian peoples, the Ainu and the Nivkhs, was an important element of the Okhotsk culture but was uncommon in Jomon period Japan. [10] Archaeological evidence indicates that the Okhotsk culture proper originated in the 5th century AD from the Susuya culture of southern Sakhalin and northwestern Hokkaido. [11]
Negidals are considered to descend from Evenks that settled in the Amgun basin during the Iron Age. After branching off from the main Tungusic ethnic family and reaching the Okhotsk Coast, Negidals became geographically isolated. [12]
The first information for Europeans about the Sea of Okhotsk was delivered by the expedition led by Vassili Poyarkov, who came to the Okhotsk coast in 1639 by the mouth of Ulya river. Six years later, in 1645, an expedition led by Ivan Moskvitin travelled by the Amur River down to its mouth. [3] In 1647 an expedition led by Semyon Shelkovnokov (Семен Шелковников, Семейка Шелковник) traveled from Yakutsk to the mouth of Ulya and further to the mouth of Okhota River, where he built a fortified winter quarters (zimovye) in defense from the militant local population, in which place the modern Okhotsk was built. [13]
Media related to Sea of Okhotsk at Wikimedia Commons
The Sea of Okhotsk is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. It is located between Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands on the southeast, Japan's island of Hokkaido on the south, the island of Sakhalin along the west, and a stretch of eastern Siberian coast along the west and north. The northeast corner is the Shelikhov Gulf. The sea is named for the port of Okhotsk, itself named for the Okhota River.
Sakhalin is an elongated island in Northeast Asia, located just 6.5 km (4.0 mi) off the southeastern coast of Khabarovsk Krai in Russia, and 40 kilometres (25 mi) north of Japan's Hokkaido. A marginal island of the West Pacific, Sakhalin divides the Sea of Okhotsk to its east from the Sea of Japan to its southwest. It is administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast and is the largest island of Russia, with an area of 72,492 square kilometres (27,989 sq mi). The island has a population of roughly 500,000, the majority of whom are Russians. The indigenous peoples of the island are the Ainu, Oroks, and Nivkhs, who are now present in very small numbers.
The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands are a volcanic archipelago administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast in the Russian Far East. The islands stretch approximately 1,300 km (810 mi) northeast from Hokkaido in Japan to Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, separating the Sea of Okhotsk from the north Pacific Ocean. There are 56 islands and many minor islets. The Kuril Islands consist of the Greater Kuril Chain and, at the southwest end, the parallel Lesser Kuril Chain. They cover an area of around 10,503.2 square kilometres (4,055.3 sq mi), with a population of roughly 20,000.
Atlasov Island, known in Russian as Ostrov Atlasova (Остров Атласова), or in Japanese as Araido (阿頼度島), 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. Other names for the island include Uyakhuzhach, Oyakoba (Ainu) and Alaid, the name of the volcano on the island.
The Nivkh, or Gilyak, are an Indigenous ethnic group inhabiting the northern half of Sakhalin Island and the lower Amur River and coast on the adjacent Russian mainland. Historically, they may have inhabited parts of Manchuria.
The KamchatkaPeninsula is a 1,250-kilometre-long (777 mi) peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about 270,000 km2 (100,000 sq mi). The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and western coastlines, respectively. Immediately offshore along the Pacific coast of the peninsula runs the 10,500-metre-deep (34,449 ft) Kuril–Kamchatka Trench.
The Okhotsk Plate is a minor tectonic plate covering the Kamchatka Peninsula, Magadan Oblast, and Sakhalin Island of Russia; Hokkaido, Kantō and Tōhoku regions of Japan; the Sea of Okhotsk, as well as the disputed Kuril Islands. It was formerly considered a part of the North American Plate, but recent studies from the 1990s onwards indicate that it is an independent plate, bounded on the north by the North American Plate. The boundary is a left-lateral moving transform fault, the Ulakhan Fault originating from a triple junction in the Chersky Range. On the east, the plate is bounded by the Pacific Plate at the Kuril–Kamchatka Trench and the Japan Trench, on the south by the Philippine Sea Plate at the Nankai Trough, on the west by the Eurasian Plate, and on the southwest by the Amurian Plate.
Paramushir is a volcanic island in the northern portion of the Kuril Islands chain in the Sea of Okhotsk in the northwest Pacific Ocean. It is separated from Shumshu by the very narrow Second Kuril Strait in the northeast 2.5 km (1.6 mi), from Antsiferov by the Luzhin Strait to the southwest, from Atlasov in the northwest by 20 km (12 mi), and from Onekotan in the south by the 40 km (25 mi) wide Fourth Kuril Strait. Its northern tip is 39 km (24 mi) from Cape Lopatka at the southern tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula. Its name is derived from the Ainu language, from “broad island” or “populous island”. Severo-Kurilsk, the administrative center of the Severo-Kurilsky district, is the only permanently populated settlement on Paramushir island.
Kharimkotan ; Japanese 春牟古丹島; Harimukotan-tō, alternatively Harumukotan-tō or 加林古丹島; Karinkotan-tō) is an uninhabited volcanic island located 15 km (9 mi) from Onekotan near the northern end of the Kuril Islands chain in the Sea of Okhotsk in the northwest Pacific Ocean. Its name is derived from the Ainu language, from “village of many Cardiocrinum”.
Shumshu is the easternmost and second-northernmost island of the Kuril Islands chain, which divides the Sea of Okhotsk from the northwest Pacific Ocean. The name of the island is derived from the Ainu language, meaning "good island". It is separated from Paramushir by the very narrow Second Kuril Strait in the northeast 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi), and its northern tip is 11 kilometres (6.8 mi), from Cape Lopatka at the southern tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula. The island has a seasonal population of around 100 inhabitants.
Ivan Yuryevich Moskvitin was a Russian explorer, presumably a native of Moscow, who led a Russian reconnaissance party to the Sea of Okhotsk, becoming the first Russian to reach the Pacific Ocean.
Yuzhno-Kurilsk is an urban locality and the administrative center of Yuzhno-Kurilsky District of Sakhalin Oblast, Russia. Population: 5,832 (2010 Census); 5,751 (2002 Census); 6,344 (1989 Census). It is the largest settlement on the Kunashir Island of the Kuril Islands.
Nemuro Strait, also called Notsuke Strait and Kunashirsky Strait, is a strait, located at 44°N 145.3°E, separating Kunashir Island of the Kuril Islands, Russia from the Shiretoko Peninsula, Hokkaidō, Japan. The strait connects the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the Izmeny Strait in the south. It is located on the southeastern borders of Sakhalin Oblast, Russia, and Nemuro Subprefecture of Japan. Along the strait runs the border between the two states.
The 1952 Severo-Kurilsk earthquake struck off the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula. The 9.0 Mw earthquake triggered a major tsunami that hit Severo-Kurilsk, Kuril Islands, Sakhalin Oblast, Russian SFSR, USSR, on 5 November 1952 at 04:58 local time. This led to the destruction of many settlements in Sakhalin Oblast and Kamchatka Oblast, while the main impact struck the town of Severo-Kurilsk. It was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Russia, and the fifth most powerful earthquake ever recorded in the world since modern seismography began in 1900.
The Okhotsk culture is an archaeological coastal fishing and hunter-gatherer culture that developed around the southern coastal regions of the Sea of Okhotsk, including Sakhalin, northeastern Hokkaido, and the Kuril Islands during the last half of the first millennium to the early part of the second. The Okhotsk are often associated to be the ancestors of the Nivkhs, while others argue them to be identified with early Ainu-speakers. It is suggested that the bear cult, a practice shared by various Northern Eurasian peoples, the Ainu and the Nivkhs, was an important element of the Okhotsk culture but was uncommon in Jomon period Japan. Archaeological evidence indicates that the Okhotsk culture proper originated in the 5th century AD from the Susuya culture of southern Sakhalin and northwestern Hokkaido.
The history of fur trade by Sea of Okhotsk is an important part of the history of the Siberian fur trade. When Russians reached the Pacific coast their river boats were no longer useful. Once knowledge of ship building and navigation was slowly moved across Siberia they advanced to Alaska. The Alaska trade was controlled from the Okhotsk coast until the whole system broke up around 1860. A major problem was moving supplies over the coastal mountains. For background see Siberian River Routes.
Sakhalin Ainu is an extinct Ainu language, or perhaps several Ainu languages, that was or were spoken on the island of Sakhalin, now part of Russia.
The Japan–Russia border is the de facto maritime boundary that separates the territorial waters of the two countries. According to the Russia border agency, the border's length is 194.3 km (120.7 mi).
From 1264 to 1308, the Mongol Empire made several incursions into the island of Sakhalin off the east coast of Siberia to aid their Nivkh allies against the Ainu, who had been expanding north from Hokkaido. The Ainu put up a tenacious resistance, even launching a counter-attack on Mongol positions on the continent across the Strait of Tartary in 1297, but finally capitulated to the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China in 1308.
Notsuke Peninsula is a peninsula on the east coast of Hokkaidō, Japan, with its northwestern base in Shibetsu and southeast tip in Betsukai. The name is derived from the Ainu for jawbone, notkeu (ノッケウ), purportedly due to the landform's visual resemblance to that of a whale. The curved peninsula, the longest sandspit in the country, with a length of some 26 kilometres (16 mi) to 28 kilometres (17 mi), extends into the Nemuro Strait, which lies between Shiretoko Peninsula, Nemuro Peninsula, and the disputed island of Kunashiri in the Sea of Okhotsk; it was formed by the deposition of sand sediment carried by the currents in the strait, and itself forms and largely encloses Notsuke Bay. There remain on the peninsula traces of Satsumon culture pit dwellings, while during the Edo period samurai were stationed at a checkpoint controlling the crossing to Kunashiri. It is said that from the Edo period to the beginning of the Meiji period there was a settlement known as Kiraku (キラク) at the tip of the peninsula, with streets lined with samurai residences and even pleasure quarters, but this is not shown on contemporary maps and is poorly attested in the literature. Prominent features today include withered and eroded stretches of Sakhalin fir at Todowara and Mongolian oak at Narawara (ナラワラ), while to be found in the Notsuke Peninsula Primeval Flower Garden near Notsukezaki Lighthouse towards the eastern tip are the Kamchatka lily, Japanese iris, sea pea, Rosa rugosa, Eriophorum vaginatum, and Hemerocallis esculenta. The c.15 kilometres (9.3 mi) stretch of Hokkaido Prefectural Road Route 950 from the base of the peninsula to the nature centre is commonly known as the "Flower Road" (フラワーロード). Together with Notsuke Bay, Notsuke Peninsula has been designated a Ramsar Site, a Special Wildlife Protection Area, and an Important Bird Area, and forms part of Notsuke-Fūren Prefectural Natural Park.