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 Kamchatka
Kamchatka Oblast (Russian: Камча́тская о́бласть, Kamchatskaya oblast) was (until being incorporated into Kamchatka Krai on July 1, 2007) a federal subject of Russia (an oblast).
To the north, it bordered Magadan Oblast and Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. Koryak Autonomous Okrug was located in the northern part of the oblast. Including Koryakia, the total area of the oblast was 472,300 km², encompassing the southern half of the Kamchatka Peninsula. The climate is cold and humid.
Kamchatka's natural resources include coal, gold, mica, pyrites, and natural gas, although the region’s lack of infrastructure, remoteness and high energy costs and disruptions to fuel supplies hinders regional development.
Most of the inhabitants live in the administrative center, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The main employment sectors are fishing, forestry, tourism (a growing industry), and the Russian military. There is still a large military presence on the peninsula; the home base of Russia's Pacific submarine fleet is across Avacha Bay from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky at the Rybachy base. There are also several air force bases and radar sites in Kamchatka.
As of the 2002 All-Russian Population Census, the majority of the 358,801 population is Russian (290,108), largest minorities are Ukrainian (20,870) and Koryak (7,328). The northern part of the peninsula is occupied by Koryak Autonomous Okrug, where around 6,700 Koryaks live. A small number of Evens also live here.
Kamchatka Peninsula (Russian: полуо́стров Камча́тка) including the Volcanoes of Kamchatka, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a 1,250-kilometer long peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of 472,300 km². It lies between the Pacific Ocean to the east and the Sea of Okhotsk to the west.
Immediately offshore along the Pacific coast of the peninsula runs the 10,500 meter deep Kuril-Kamchatka Trench.
The Kamchatka Peninsula, the Commander Islands, and Karaginsky Island constitute the Kamchatka Krai of the Russian Federation. The majority of the inhabitants are Russians, but there are also about 13,000 indigenous Koryak. More than half of the population lives in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (198,028 people) and Yelizovo (41,533).
The Kamchatka River and the surrounding central valley are flanked by large volcanic belts containing around 160 volcanoes, 29 of them still active.
The peninsula has a high density of volcanoes, with 19 active volcanoes being included in the six UNESCO World Heritage List sites in the Volcanoes of Kamchatka group, most of them on the Kamchatka Peninsula.
The highest volcano is Klyuchevskaya Sopka (4,750 m or 15,584 ft), while the most striking is Kronotsky. Somewhat more accessible are the three volcanoes visible from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky: Koryaksky, Avachinsky, and Kozelsky.
In the centre of Kamchatka is Eurasia's world famous Geyser Valley which was partly destroyed by a massive mudslide in June 2007.
Owing to the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench, deep-focus seismic events and tsunamis are fairly common. A pair of megathrust earthquakes occurred off the coast on October 16, 1737, and on November 4, 1952, in the magnitude of ~9.3 and 8.2 respectively. A chain of more shallow earthquakes were recorded as recently as April 2006.
Kamchatka receives up to 2,700 millimeters (110 in) of precipitation per year. The summers are moderately cool, and the winters tend to be rather stormy with rare amounts of lightning.
The southernmost point of Kamchatka Peninsula is Cape Lopatka. |
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