Iturup Island
| Disputed island Other names: Russian: Итуру́п; Japanese: 択捉島; Ainu:エﾂﾟヲロプシㇼ |
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NASA picture of Iturup's southern end with volcano Berutarube and small clouds
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| Geography | |
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| Location | Sea of Okhotsk |
| Coordinates | 45°02′N 147°37′E / 45.033°N 147.617°ECoordinates: 45°02′N 147°37′E / 45.033°N 147.617°E |
| Archipelago | Kuril Islands |
| Area | 3,139 square kilometres (776,000 acres) |
| Length | 200 kilometres (120 mi) |
| Width | 27 kilometres (17 mi) |
| Highest point |
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| Administered by | |
| Russia | |
| Oblast | Sakhalin |
| Capital city | Tokyo |
| Claimed by | |
| Japan | |
| Prefecture | Hokkaido |
| Largest city | (13,617,445) |
| Russia | |
| Oblast | Sakhalin |
| Demographics | |
| Population | 7,500 (as of 2003) |
Iturup (Russian: Итуру́п and Oстров Итуру́п, Ostrov Iturup; Ainu: エﾂﾟヲロプシㇼ, Etuworop-sir; Japanese: 択捉島, Etorofu-tō) is one of the Kuril Islands. It was formerly known as Staten Island. It is the largest and northernmost island in the southern Kurils, which are disputed between Japan and Russia.
The island was Japanese territory until the end of the Second World War in 1945, when Soviet forces took possession of all the Kurils and forced out Japanese residents. The island is still claimed by Japan (see Kuril Islands dispute). Japan considers a site on Iturup to be its northernmost point.
Iturup is located near the southern end of the Kuril chain, between Kunashiri (19 km to the SW) and Urup (37 km to the NE). The town of Kurilsk, administrative center of Kurilsky District, is located roughly midway along its western shore.
The strait between Iturup and Urup is known as the Vries Strait, after Dutch explorer Maarten Gerritsz Vries, the first recorded European to explore the area.
Iturup consists of volcanic massifs and mountain ridges. A series of a dozen volcanoes running NE to SW form the backbone of the island, the highest being Stokap (1,634 m) in the central part of Iturup. The shores of the island are high and abrupt. The vegetation mostly consists of spruce, larch, pine, fir, and mixed deciduous forests with alder, lianas and Kuril bamboo underbrush. The mountains are covered with birch and Siberian Dwarf Pine scrub, herbaceous flowers (including Fragaria iturupensis, the Iturup strawberry) or bare rocks.
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