Onekotan
- ISS004-E-11693
- 12 May 2002
- 20:16 UTC
With an area of 425 km², and measuring 43 km in length with a width of between 7 and 15 km, Onekotan (Остров Онекотан) is the second largest of the Northern Kuril Islands. The island is located 54 km southwest from Paramushir and 15 km northeast from Kharimkotan (at the left in the image above).
Located at the southern end of the island is the 7.5 km wide Tao-Rusyr caldera, which is filled by the waters of the Kal'tsevoe lake — lying at an altitude of 400 m above sea level. In this image (taken in mid-May) the lake is completely frozen and snow covered. By contrast Lake Chernoye's dark blue waters remain ice-free and are clearly visible at the northern end of the island. Emerging form within the Tao-Rusyr crater is the Krenitzyn volcano — creating a rare island-within-an-island formation. Vulkan Krenitzyn, measuring 4 km across, rises out of the caldera to a height of 1,324 m and contains at its summit a crater of some 100 m in depth and 350 m across. It was last active in 1952.
Lake Chernoye, mentioned above, occupies the western side of a much larger and older caldera than that of Tao-Rusyr in the south. With a more complex, and eroded, structure that occupies the entire northern end of the island, its outline is best observed in the large size image. At its centre sits the 1,018 m high Nemo Peak, whose last eruptions were recorded in the 1700's.
image: earth sciences and image analysis laboratory, nasa johnson space center
Location Map
