Feklistova Island

Feklistova or Feklistov Island (Остров Феклистова; Ostrov Feklistova) is one of the Shantar Islands in Sea of Okhotsk. With an area of 372 square kilometres (144 square miles), it is the second largest in the archipelago.^[1]

Feklistova Остров Феклистова
Island
Map of the Shantar Islands.
Feklistova
Coordinates: 55°0′N 136°57′E
Country	Russian Federation
Federal subject	Far Eastern Federal District
Krai	Khabarovsk Krai
Area
• Total	372 km2 (144 sq mi)
Elevation	415 m (1,362 ft)

Geography

Feklistova is 24 kilometres (15 miles) west to east and 19.3 km (12 mi) north to south.^[2] It lies about 20 kilometres (12+1⁄2 miles) west of Bolshoy Shantar Island, the main island in the group. Feklistov Island is covered with taiga forest and has a 3-kilometre-long (2-mile) lake on its northern shore separated from the sea by a spit of land.^[3]

Administratively this island belongs to the Khabarovsk Krai of the Russian Federation.

This island is part of the "Kondyor-Feklistov metallogenic belt" (KD) owing to the presence of placers ^[4] which include minerals like "blacksand platinum".^[5] The "Kondyor-Feklistov metallogenic belt" is one of the major metallogenic belts of Northeast Asia. It is assumed that it formed by an oblique subduction of the oceanic crust of the Mongol-Okhotsk paleoocean under the southern margin of the Siberian continent.

History

Between 1852 and 1889, American whaleships cruised for bowhead whales off Feklistova Island.^[6][7] They also anchored in Lebyazhya Bay on the south side of the island to stow down^[8] or boil oil,^[9] flense whales,^[10] and obtain wood and water^[11] or shelter from storms.^[12] They referred to the anchorage itself as Feklistova Harbor.^[13] As many as forty-two ships could be anchored in Lebyazhya Bay at one time.^[14]