Yankicha--Kuril
Islands, Russia
Earth's Natural Wonders in
Asia
Diameter of Yankicha: 6,561 feet
(2,000 meters)
Height of Yankicha: 1,263 feet (388
meters)
Tiny Yankicha, the
emergent tip of an extinct volcano,
is stunning. The steep-walled caldera
is broken to the south and so is flooded
by the sea. it forms a tranquil lagoon
where harlequins and sea otters swim.
The inner grassy slopes rise to the
rocky rim where fulmars nest and the
cliffs are covered with kittiwakes.
Near the lip of the lagoon a srape
in the beach fills with thermal waters;
no natural hot spring bath can have
a more spectacular setting..[1]
On your way to Yankicha
you scout for whales and sea otters,
Laysan albatross may be gliding in
our wake, and with luck, you may spot
the exceedingly rare short-tailed
albatross. At Yankicha a sinking volcanic
caldera offers access during high
tides. Inside the magnificent lagoon,
you witness the ongoing volcanic activity.
Grassy and rocky slopes are nesting
grounds for crested auklets, and common
and thick-billed murres make their
home in the ledges of the vertical
cliffs. Whiskered auklets feed offshore
in the mingling tides, creating a
virtual auklet haze as they return
to their nests in spectacular swarms.[2]
The Kuril Islands form
part of the ring of tectonic instability
encircling the Pacific ocean referred
to as the Ring of Fire. The islands
themselves are summits of stratovolcanoes
that are a direct result of the subduction
of the Pacific Plate under the Okhotsk
Plate, which forms the Kuril Trench
some 200 km east of the islands. The
chain has around 100 volcanoes, some
40 of which are active, and many hot
springs and fumaroles. There is frequent
seismic activity, including an earthquake
of magnitude 8.3 recorded on November
15, 2006, which resulted in tsunami
waves up to 5 ft reaching the California
coast.
The climate on the islands
is generally severe, with long, cold,
stormy winters and short and notoriously
foggy summers. The average annual
precipitation is 30–40 inches
(760–1,000 mm), most of which
falls as snow.
The chain ranges from
temperate to sub-Arctic climate types,
and the vegetative cover consequently
ranges from tundra in the north to
dense spruce and larch forests on
the larger southern islands. The highest
elevations on the island are Alaid
volcano (highest point 2339 m) on
Atlasov Island at the northern end
of the chain and Tyatya volcano (1819
m) on Kunashir Island at the southern
end.
Landscape types and
habitats on the island include many
kinds of beach and rocky shores, cliffs,
wide rivers and fast gravelly streams,
forests, grasslands, alpine tundra,
crater lakes and peat bogs. The soils
are generally productive, owing to
the periodic influxes of volcanic
ash and, in certain places, owing
to significant enrichment by seabird
guano. However, many of the steep,
unconsolidated slopes are susceptible
to landslides and newer volcanic activity
can entirely denude a landscape.[3]
