Southern Kuril Research Articles

ЗАПИСЬ ИЗМЕНЕНИЙ ПРИРОДНОЙ СРЕДЫ В ОЗЕРНО-БОЛОТНЫХ ОТЛОЖЕНИЯХ ГОРНОЙ ЧАСТИ ОСТРОВА ИТУРУП С ПОЗДНЕЛЕДНИКОВЬЯ

We received a unique material on the natural environment development for the last 12 400 cal. yr. BP in the central part of Iturup Island. The high-resolution paleoreconstructions were based on multi-proxy study of the paleolake sediments found on the plateau (height 400–420 m) located northwest of the Baransky Volcano. For the first time, a record of paleogeographic events was obtained for the Late Glacial and the early Holocene. The age model is based on 9 radiocarbon dates. Diatom analysis allowed us to distinguish 11 stages of lake-swamp evolution. The paleolake reached its maximum depth at ~9 890–7 900 cal. yr. BP and became extinct at 1 400 cal. yr. BP. The stages of vegetation development and the factors determining the change of landscapes have been restored. The Younger Dryas cooling recorded in Iturup was characterized by humidity changes. The role of forest vegetation abruptly increased at the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary of ~11 470 cal. yr. BP) under warmer climatic conditions. Distribution of shrub pine as an indicator of stable snow cover was analyzed. Dark-coniferous forests existed in the mountainous part of the island since the Late Glacial and were most widely developed in the early Holocene. The onset of birch forest expansion at 6 200 cal. yr. BP was associated with the intensification of volcanic activity and frequent ash falls. A number of cold events were identified, whose manifestations were enhanced by the weakening of the Soya warm current. The intensive transfer of allochthonous pollen from the southern Kuril Islands and the Japanese Islands at 3 540 cal. yr. BP is a sign of cyclogenesis intensification in the Kuril Islands. Manifestations of the Holocene climatic rhythms in the landscape development of the Iturup mountainous part, as well as the influence of warm and cold currents and other regional factors, were analyzed.

Cross-Border Cooperation vs “Territorial Issue”: Kuril Islands in the Period of Market Transformations

The article shows the specifics of interaction between the Kuril districts of the Sakhalin Oblast and foreign business at the initial stage of Russian market reforms. In the analysis, the author relies on the characterization of the behavior lines of the participants and the event series from the point of view of historical regionalism. It is concluded that the development of cross-border cooperation in the Kuril sub-region was strongly negatively affected by the counteraction policy of the Japanese authorities, who considered the returning the southern Kuril Islands under their jurisdiction a matter of the nearest future. The reaction of the Russian leadership to this challenge was uncertain and contradictory. All this has put the southern Kuril Islands in a situation of uncertainty about their future political fate. As a result, a model of foreign economic relations was formed here, which was almost completely reduced to the legal and illegal export of marine bioresources and only point interactions in the onshore economy, being a brake on the development of island territories and not contributing to their recovery from the permanent crisis of the 1990s.

A Kuril Ainu Glossary by Captain V. M. Golovnin (1811)

Abstract This paper presents a newly discovered glossary (230 items) of Northern and Southern Kuril Ainu recorded by the captain Vasily Mikhaylovich Golovnin in 1811 and stored at the Russian National Archive of the Navy in St. Petersburg. Based on this new document we argue that Southern Kuril has a much closer lexical resemblance to Northeastern Hokkaido Ainu than Northern Kuril. On the other hand, we reaffirm that both Southern and Northern Kuril Ainu constitute a really separate Kuril group because they show a number of lexical, phonological and grammatical features, which are different from Hokkaido Ainu.

TECTONIC STRESS FIELD AT INTERMEDIATE DEPTHS OF THE SOUTHERN FLANK OF THE KURIL-KAMCHATKA SEISMIC ZONE

The study has been done on the orientation of the principal axes of tectonic stress field at intermediate depths of earthquakes of the southern flank of the Kuril-Kamchatka subduction system separately for the upper and lower double seismic focal zones. Use has been made of the NIED and GlobalCMT catalogue data. The computation-based results are presented on schemes of the stressed state of the investigated areas and in tables. In the context of the southern Kuril Islands, evidence has been provided for predominance of the maximum compressive stresses along the slab plane in the upper layer and minimal compressive stresses (deviation extension) in the lower layer. However, the principal axes of maximum and minimum compression are displaced in direction relative to the slab dip: by 30–40° counterclockwise for the compression axis in the upper layer, which coincides with the direction of plate movement, and clockwise for the extension axis in the lower layer. This might be caused by the right-lateral strike-slip component of the Pacific Plate subduction. Unlike the general trend, the orientation of the principal axes of the stress field beneath the central Hokkaido-related segments in the upper layer is almost identical to that in the lower layer. There have also been found the segments exposed to shear stress, with the most extensive located opposite the northern Kunashir Island and beneath the southern Hokkaido Island. The results obtained for major large groups of clusters show good accordance with those published by other authors. The discrepancies relate primarily to small groups of isolated clusters showing local stress field heterogeneities.

The Distribution of Walleye Pollock, Theragra chalcogramma, and Conditions of its Habitat off the Southern Kuril Islands

The Distribution of Walleye Pollock, Theragra chalcogramma, and Conditions of its Habitat off the Southern Kuril Islands

Na/K Diversity of Primary Basaltic Magmas Induced by the Separation of Slab-derived Supercritical Liquid: Implications from Alkali Basaltic Lavas from Rishiri Volcano, Southern Kuril Arc

Abstract Primary basaltic magmas in subduction zones exhibit chemical diversity even in individual volcanoes. In this study, we aim to elucidate the dominant factors that determine the chemical composition, especially the Na/K, of primary basaltic magmas by conducting a comparative petrological study of the high-Na/K Horyosawa lava and low-Na/K Nozuka lava from Rishiri Volcano in the southern Kuril Arc. Both lava flows are basaltic and are suitable for estimating the magma generation conditions. The whole-rock SiO2 content of the high-Na/K Horyosawa lava, the main target of this study, ranges from 51·9 to 53·4 wt%. The petrological and geochemical features of this lava indicate that the effects of magma mixing and assimilation of crustal materials were limited, and the low-SiO2 magmas were essentially derived via olivine fractionation from the primary magma. The primary magma is estimated to have been generated by ~2·4 % partial melting of the source mantle with ~0·10 wt% water at ~1300 °C and ~2·4 GPa. By comparing the results of the high-Na/K Horyosawa lavas with those published for the low-Na/K basalts (Nozuka lava), we find that (1) the slab-derived fluids involved in their formation were supercritical liquids with similar compositions, including Na/K, when released from the subducting slab, and (2) the Horyosawa primary magma was generated at a shallower level in the mantle than the Nozuka primary magma. From these observations, it is inferred that the primary magma of the Horyosawa lava was formed by the influx melting of aqueous fluid separated from the supercritical liquid at depths shallower than the critical point, whereas the Nozuka lava was generated by supercritical liquid-fluxed melting at depths deeper than the critical point. These findings show that elemental partitioning during the separation of slab-derived supercritical liquid into aqueous fluid and hydrous melt can induce chemical diversity within the primary basaltic magmas of a single volcanic system.

The ground beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae) of southern Kuril Islands, Russia.

BackgroundWe compiled a list of the ground beetles that have been confirmed to occur to date in the southern Kuril Islands, Russian Far East. The list includes 168 species, all of which are known from Kunashir Island and the species richness on the remaining islands ranges from 68 (Shikotan Island) to 21 species (Tanfil'eva Island). The species richness is shown to depend sublinearly on island area, this being unusual for island faunas (Triantis et al. 2011).New informationA large part of data is published here for the first time on the records of ground beetles in the southern Kuril Islands with precise localities. This allows not only the taxonomic composition of the faunas, but also the composition of local faunas to be discussed.

Glukhoye Lake: Middle to Late Holocene environments of Kunashir Island (Kuril Archipelago, Russian Far East)

A multiproxy analysis of a sediment core from Glukhoye Lake in the southern Kuril Islands indicates that the basin originated c. 8.2 cal. ka BP as a brackish lagoon with the subsequent development of a freshwater lake (c. 4.0 to 3.3 cal. ka BP), a bog (c. 3.3 to 2.4 cal. ka BP) and a second lake (c. 2.4 cal. ka BP to present). The basin history primarily reflects local coastal dynamics and is not related to proposed Archipelago‐wide changes in sea level. Between c. 8.2 and 8.0 cal. ka BP, the vegetation of southern Kunashir Island was characterized by Betula–Quercus forest with a secondary component of temperate broadleaf trees. Quercus broadleaf forest established c. 8.0 to 6.5 cal. ka BP and represents the Holocene thermal maximum. The remainder of the record shows a gradual decrease in temperate and an increase in conifer taxa, indicating a gradual cooling from the Holocene thermal maximum to c. 2.3 cal. ka BP. Maxima in Picea and Abies pollen between c. 2.3 and 1.1 cal. ka BP suggest conditions that were slightly cooler than present. Palaeovegetation changes in the Kuril Islands as inferred from lake and section data differ in the timing and/or composition of the vegetation communities, although results from the two types of sites become more similar as the number of sections increases. The lake results do not support a previous conceptual model developed for the southern Russian Far East, which linked changes in sea levels to Holocene climate fluctuations. Rather the depositional environments in the lake cores seem more related to coastal dynamics that are independent of fluctuations in sea levels or climate. The difficulty in developing accurate age models for sites with multiple depositional environments may be the most important obstacle for documenting and understanding the Archipelago’s vegetation and climate histories.

New Records of Rare Psychrolutid Fishes (Psychrolutidae) in the Sea of Okhotsk

Two rare species of psychrolutid fish (Psychrolutidae) were found in the Sea of Okhotsk. Psychrolutes dolganovi was found at a depth of 142 m near Urup Island (southern Kuril Islands); earlier the species was known only from the holotype collected off the Pacific coast of Iturup Island. This species is recorded in the Sea of Okhotsk for the first time. P. pustulosus was collected at depths of 205–400 m along central part of Kuril Islands and in the northwestern part of the Sea of Okhotsk at depths of 240–294 m. A key to the species of the genus Psychrolutes inhabiting the northern Pacific Ocean is presented.

Distribution and habitat conditions of walleye pollock Theragra chalcogramma at southern Kuril Islands

Data on spatial distribution and habitat conditions are presented for walleye pollock Theragra chalcogramma at southern Kuril Islands in spawning season (spring 2015) and feeding season (summer 2016). In spring, walleye pollock are distributed over the entire shelf and continental slope down to 900 m depth and occupy the upper layer on the shelf and intermediate layer at the slope with water temperature 0.1–1.5 o C. In summer, they aggregate at the depth of 200–270 m beyond the shelf in the intermediate water at the Pacific slope of Iturup Island, under the temperature of 1.3–2.9 o C. Both spatial and bathymetric migrations of pollock are minimal at the Pacific side of Iturup, but they migrate for spawning westward and southwestward to the Okhotsk Sea and slope of Small Kuril Ridge where concentrate at the benthic front between the tidal mixing zone and the Intermediate water. Seasonal redistribution of walleye pollock is accompanied with changes of size-age structure in the main aggregations.

«Курильский вопрос»: политико-правовые модели решения в аспекте конституционных преобразований

Introduction. The fate of the Southern Kuril Islands remains a stumbling block to the conclusion of a peace treaty between Russia and Japan, as well as the further development of trade, economic, environmental, political, diplomatic, and other relations between the two states. At the same time, the constitutional changes that took place in Russia in 2020 and the need to ensure national interests dictate the need to find alternative ways to solve the problem, taking into account the political and legal experience of resolving similar territorial disputes. Methods and materials. The methodological basis of the research includes dialectical, general logical, theoretical (abstraction, historical method), empirical (description, comparison, experiment) methods, as well as a special formal legal and applied interdisciplinary method of event analysis. Analysis. Based on the study of domestic and foreign scientific researches devoted to constitutional transformations in Russia and Japan, problems of Russian-Japanese relations over the Southern Kuril Islands dispute, and political and legal models of resolving territorial disputes, legislation and international documents, potential models of resolving the “Kuril dispute” are analyzed and compared, and an attempt is made to find an acceptable solution of the territorial dispute between Russia and Japan over the ownership of the Southern Kurils. Result. The authors conclude that each of the considered political and legal models of resolving territorial disputes (“Aland”, “Hong Kong”, “Amur”, “Peace Park model” and other variants) has its own specifics due to the individual characteristics of a particular territorial dispute, so it cannot be applied to the resolution of the models of resolving the “Kuril dispute” in its pure form.

Differentiation of the frog sculpin Myoxocephalus stelleri Tilesius, 1811 (Actinopterygii, Cottidae) based on mtDNA and karyotype analyses.

A molecular genetic and karyological study of the frog sculpin Myoxocephalus stelleri Tilesius, 1811 was carried out on an extensive sample from a large area of the species’ range. A total of 42 specimens was sampled from the Sea of Japan, Sea of Okhotsk, and coastal waters off the southern Kuril Islands, which makes this sampling scheme the most comprehensive to date. The level of mtDNA polymorphism was found to be low. The haplotypes of the species formed three phylogenetic groups. The unique M. stelleri haplotype from the coast of Shikotan Island linked all the studied groups, indicating that it is likely ancestral. Robertsonian polymorphism was identified in the species. In all five cytotypes (I – 2n = 44, II – 2n = 43, III – 2n = 42, IV – 2n = 41, V – 2n = 40; NF = 44+2) were identified, all of which were present in the Sea of Japan. Only one (cytotype I) was found in the Sea of Okhotsk, which is probably the closest to the ancestral karyotype. The significant chromosomal polymorphism and the presence of common haplotypes in the studied samples indicate their recent origin from a common ancestor and/or relatively recent contacts within the range. The discrepancies between mtDNA and karyotypes in assigning the ancestral M. stelleri to the coastal waters off Shikotan Island (southern Kuril Islands) and the Sea of Okhotsk, respectively, can be explained by the different inheritance mechanisms and the rates of evolution of molecular genetic and karyological traits.

Development of Foreign Policy Relations Between Japan and Russia: a Retrospective Analysis

The article provides a retrospective analysis of the development of political relations between Japan and Russia from the middle of the XIX century to the present. The international relations have a nearly three-hundred-year history that reflects various periods of recession and recovery, stability and tension. There was and is a diplomatic struggle of states for financial strength, influence on the world stage, standing up for the national interests in the territorial issue, etc. But despite such moments, these relations did not go beyond the boundaries of “peaceful”. Russia and Japan, as strong players in the Pacific region, have always understood the need for cooperation and have looked for it in political, economic and cultural formats. At the present stage relations between Japan and Russia include different areas: security, economy, culture, science. But the unsigned amicable agreement, which has been delayed for more than 70 years, does not provide ample opportunities for further development of productive mutually beneficial relations. Through the “prehistory” of modern bilateral relations between Russia and Japan, the sequence and nature of relations between the countries is determined. The key aspect that determines the sequence and nature of relations between countries is the historical connection. The material of the article is ranked by time periods (stages), the factors that influenced each of the stages are investigated, and the main problems of the relationships are determined. Special emphasis is placed on the problems of our times, in particular the territorial issue of the Southern Kuril Islands, which were formed historically. Today the relations are based on solving common problems in the economy, security and energy. Within the framework of common interests Japan and Russia are seeking to resolve a long-running dispute. Thus, the article consistently reveals the “prehistory” and the nature of modern bilateral relations. The stages and factors that influenced each of the stages are studied, the corresponding conclusions and forecasts are made.

The historical and contemporary status of the sea otter Enhydra lutris population on Urup Island, southern Kuril Islands

AbstractWe describe the population of the Еndangered sea otter Enhydra lutris on Urup Island, one of the main wildlife refuges in the southern Kuril Islands of Russia. We reviewed historical and local reports of the sea otter, identified its habitat around the island, and surveyed the coastal waters of the island in 2019. Sea otters were numerous on Urup Island in the past but were hunted excessively and almost exterminated by the 1950s. Since then, sea otter populations have increased, and as the island is almost uninhabited we expected otters to be numerous. This was not the case, and we estimated the total population to be 363 ± SE 126 individuals. Our observation of two skinned carcasses on the shore suggests the low numbers are a result of poaching for the illegal fur trade. The case of Urup Island demonstrates that sea otters require active conservation, as even on a remote island they remain threatened. Establishment of protected areas would be an effective conservation measure for this species, although the suppression of demand for sea otter fur is of the greatest importance.

New Megathrust Locking Model for the Southern Kurile Subduction Zone Incorporating Viscoelastic Relaxation and Non‐Uniform Compliance of Upper Plate

AbstractDense Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) observations enable the development of megathrust interseismic locking models for the southern Kurile subduction zone where many great earthquakes have occurred. Inversion of these data assuming uniform elastic Earth has yielded slip deficit rates that are unreasonably high and/or full locking depth that is unreasonably large. Using the finite element method, here we construct a new Kurile locking model that includes interseismic viscoelastic stress relaxation and non‐uniform compliance of the elastic upper plate. Inverting the same geodetic data using the new subduction zone model alleviates the previously seen unreasonable features in inferred megathrust locking state. In the new model, full locking extends to shallower depths than the downdip limit of some large megathrust earthquakes including the 2003 Mw 8.0 Tokachi‐oki earthquake, supporting the notion of the shrinking of the locked area before the earthquakes and/or propagation of seismic rupture into creeping areas as previously predicted by friction or dynamic rupture models. By modeling the effects of a few recent M 8 earthquakes, we show that postseismic transients of recent earthquakes, although second‐order, should be addressed in deriving megathrust locking models. The locking state near the trench cannot be resolved by the land‐based GNSS data regardless of the improved model rheology and structure, although independent observations, such as slow earthquakes, may be used to speculate on the near‐trench locking state in various part of the margin in the absence of seafloor geodetic observations.

Obsidian in prehistoric complexes of the southern Kurile islands (the Russian Far East): A review of sources, their exploitation, and population movements

Obsidian provenance studies in the southern Kuriles (Kunashir and Iturup islands), part of the insular Russian Far East, are reviewed and summarized for the first time. The sites analyzed belong to the Jomon (ca. 7300–2500 BP), Epi-Jomon (ca. 2500–1400 BP), and Okhotsk (ca. 1400–800 BP) cultural complexes, with particular attention given to the well-studied Yankito 2 site. The main sources of high-quality volcanic glass for the southern Kuriles were on the neighboring Hokkaido Island—Oketo and Shirataki (ca. 140–390 km away). The presence of obsidian at an Epi-Jomon site on southern Kunashir Island originating from remote sources on the Kamchatka Peninsula ca. 1290–1440 km away is an important contribution to understanding the prehistoric contacts and population dispersals that occurred within insular Northeast Asia. This is also supported by paleoanthropological and DNA data from Epi-Jomon human remains on Iturup, showing similarities with native Kamchatkan populations. The use of boats in the southern Kuriles is evident from the beginning of colonization, ca. 7300–7100 BP given that islands were not connected after the Early Holocene due to sea level rise. It is clear that seafaring was an important part of human activities throughout the entire island chain since the Epi-Jomon, ca. 2500 BP. Because the Kurile Islands were one of the most probable migration routes between Northeast Asia (i.e., Japan) and Northeastern Siberia and North America, study of the human colonization of the Kuriles has wider implication for the northeastern part of Eurasia as a gateway to the Americas.

The Structure of the Volcanic Lake in the Urbich Caldera (Iturup Island, the Kuril Islands)

The article presents and analyzes the original data on the morphological features and the current state of a previously unexplored volcanic lake Krasivoe located in the Urbich caldera (the Southern Kuriles). The bathymetric scheme and echolocation profiles obtained with using of modern technique of digital bathymetric survey with satellite reference along the profile are considered.

Soliton-Like Waves in the Vicinity of the Southern Kuril Islands

urpose. This paper focuses on modulated solitons detected in time series of observational data on sea level oscillations in the Sea of Okhotsk, verifying the presence of nonstationary processes within a quantitative framework of methods. Methods and Results. The paper reports an analysis of wave observation data collected using ARW-type, bottom-mounted pressure sensors in the area of the Capes Castricum, Van-der-Lind and Lovtsova in the southern Kuril Islands. The time series obtained were bandpass filtered using hardware with a passband of 20 minutes to 2.5 hours. Residual time series show the presence of wave packets generated at the beginning of the K1 (diurnal) tide, which consistently appear as a group consisting of 5–7 packets. It is shown that the synchronicity between each wave packet and the K1 wave initiation is associated with the cyclic separation of the tidal flow of the K1 oscillation at the elevation in the Urup Strait located between the islands, along with a concomitant spawning of vortices. It is speculated that the vortices generate the detected wave packets, which are each found to encase a cluster of waves with an average period of about 1.6 hours that are attributed to either edge waves or shelf seiches or a combination of both. A numerical model simulation of the detected wave packets was performed using the Korteweg – de Vries equation, confirming that the envelope of the observed wave packets is close to the modeled one and behaves like a soliton. Conclusions. It is shown that synchronous initiation of a wave packet and a K1 wave is associated with the cyclic separation of the tidal flow of the K1 oscillations at a subsurface elevation in the Urup Strait located between the islands, with a concomitant spawning of vortices. The vortices are assumed to generate the detected wave packets. Each packet contains a cluster of waves with an average period of about 1.6 hours, which is conditioned by the period of the edge wave or shelf seiche. Spectral analysis performed for the 4.5-day-long time series with and without the groups of solitons, showed that the wave energy increases in the 0.5–5.5 hour period range when solitons occur. Application of a simple amplitude-based criterion permitted the authors to identify the waves detected in the wave packets as anomalous. Transformation of the time series into normalized time and normalized amplitude coordinates show that all the examples of anomalous wave packets could be modeled using the Korteweg – de Vries time equation

Solitonopodobnyye volny v okrestnostyakh Yuzhnykh Kuril'skikh ostrovov

Purpose. The paper is aimed at studying the modulated solitons detected in the time series of the observational data on the sea level oscillations and at verifying presence of nonstationary processes within the framework of the quantitative methods. Methods and Results. The paper represents analysis of the wave observation data collected using ARW-type, bottom-mounted pressure sensors in the area of the capes Castricum, Van-der-Lind and Lovtsova in the southern Kuril Islands. The time series obtained were bandpass filtered using hardware with a passband of 20 minutes – 2.5 hours. Residual time series show presence of the wavepackets generated at the beginning of the K1 (diurnal) tide, which consistently appear as a group consisting of 5–7 packets. It is shown that the synchronicity of wavepacket and the K1 wave initiation is associated with the cyclic separation of the tidal flow of the K1 oscillation at the elevation in the Urup Strait located between the islands, along with a concomitant spawning of vortices. It is speculated that the vortices generate the detected wavepackets, each of which are found to encase a cluster of waves of average period about 1.6 hours that are attributed to edge waves or shelf seiches. A numerical model simulation of the detected wavepackets was performed using the Korteweg-de Vries equation, which confirms that the envelope of the observed wavepackets is close to the modeled one and behaves like a soliton. Conclusions. It is shown that synchronous initiation of a wavepacket and a K1 wave is associated with the cyclic separation of the tidal flow of the K1 oscillations from the elevation in the Urup Strait located between the islands with a oncomitant spawning of vortices. The vortices are assumed to generate the detected wavepackets. Each of them contains a cluster of waves, the average period of which is about 1.6 hours that is conditioned by the edge waves’ or shelf seiches’ period. Spectral analysis performed for the 4.5-day-long time series at presence and absence of the groups of solitons, showed that when solitons occur, the wave energy increased in the 0.5–5.5 hr period range. Application of a simple amplitude-based criterion permitted to identify the waves detected in the wavepackets as the anomalous ones. Transformation of the time series into the normalized time and the normalized amplitude coordinates showed that all the examples of anomalous wavepackets could be modeled using the Korteweg-de Vries time equation.

Род Elaeagnus (Elaeagnaceae) на юге Дальнего Востока России

The spread of two species of oleaster – Elaeagnus angustifolia and E. multiflora, cultivated and wild in the south of the Far East of Russia, has been clarified. Their invasive potential is assessed. Only a single case of invasion of E. multiflora into natural plant communities in vicinity of the Nevelsk in southern Sakhalin has been identified. Previously, this species was known only in culture or as wild in places of former culture in the southwest of Sakhalin and Kunashir Island (southern Kuril Islands).