Sakhalin Island is 948 km long from north to south and about
160 km wide, covering 76,400 square km.
There is a lowland plain in the north, but most of the land
is mountainous, reaching an elevation of 1,609 m at Mount Lopatin. Vegetation
ranges from tundra and stunted forests of birch and willow in the north to
dense deciduous forest in
the south. Fishing, mainly of crab, herring, cod, and salmon, is the principal
economic activity around the coast. Petroleum and natural-gas extraction in the
north, coal mining, and lumbering, including paper production, are the
basis of the rest of the economy. The main agricultural activity is livestock
raising.
Geography
Sakhalin is separated from the mainland by the narrow and
shallow Strait of Tartary, which often freezes in winter in its narrower part,
and from Hokkaido, Japan, by the Soya Strait or La Pérouse Strait.
Its orography and geological structure are imperfectly
known. One theory is that Sakhalin arose from the Sakhalin Island Arc- Nearly
two-thirds of Sakhalin is mountainous. Two parallel ranges of mountains
traverse it from north to south, reaching 600–1,500 m). The Western
Sakhalin Mountains peak in Mount Ichara, 1,481 m, while the Eastern
Sakhalin Mountains's highest peak, Mount Lopatin, 1,609 m (5,279 ft),
is also the island's highest mountain. Tym-Poronaiskaya Valley separates the
two ranges. Susuanaisky and Tonino-Anivsky ranges traverse the island in the
south, while the swampy Northern-Sakhalin plain occupies most of its north.
Crystalline rocks crop out at several capes; Cretaceous
limestones containing an abundant and specific fauna of gigantic ammonites,
occur at Dui on the west coast; and Tertiary conglomerates, sandstones, marls
and clays, folded by subsequent upheavals, are found in many parts of the
island. The clays, which contain layers of good coal and abundant fossilized
vegetation, show that during the Miocene period, Sakhalin formed part of a
continent which comprised north Asia, Alaska, and Japan, and enjoyed a
comparatively warm climate. The Pliocen deposits contain a mollusc
fauna more Arctic than that which exists at the present time, indicating that
the connection between the Pacific and Arctic Oceans was probably broader
than it is now.
Climate
The Sea of
Okhotsk ensures Sakhalin has a cold and humid climate, ranging from humid continental (Koppen Dfb)
in the south to subarctic (Dfc) in the centre and north. The maritime
influence makes summers much cooler than in similar-latitude inland cities such
as Harbin or Irkutsk, but makes the winters much more snowy and a few
degrees warmer than in interior East Asian cities at the same latitude. Summers
are foggy with little sunshine.
Precipitation
is heavy, owing to the strong onshore winds in summer and the high frequency of
North Pacific storms affecting the island in the autumn. It ranges from around
500 millimetres on the northwest coast to over 1,200 millimetres in southern
mountainous regions. In contrast to interior east Asia with its
pronounced summer maximum, onshore winds ensure Sakhalin has year-round
precipitation with a peak in the autumn.
Demography
In 2010, the island's population was recorded at 497,973,
83% of whom were ethnic Russians, followed by about 30,000 Koreans (5.5%).
Smaller minorities were the Ainu, Ukranians, Tatars, Yakuts, and Evenks. The
native inhabitants consist of some 2,000 Nivkhs and 750 Oroks. The
Nivkhs in the north support themselves by fishing and hunting. In 2008 there were
6,416 births and 7,572 deaths.
The administrative center of the oblast, Yushno-Sakhalinsk,
a city of about 175,000, has a large Korean minority, typically referred to
as Sakhalin Koreans, who were forcibly brought by the Japanese during World
War to work in the coal mines. Most of the population lives in the
southern half of the island, centered mainly around Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and two
ports, Kholmsk and Korsakov (population about 40,000 each).
The 400,000 Japanese inhabitants of Sakhalin
(including the Japanized indigenous Ainu) who had not already been evacuated during
the war were deported following the invasion of the southern portion of the
island by the Soviet Union in 1945 at the end of World War II.
History
Sakhalin was first settled by Japanese fishermen along its
southern coasts. In 1853 the first Russians entered the northern
part. By an agreement of 1855, Russia and Japan shared control of the
island, but in 1875 Russia acquired all Sakhalin in exchange for the Kurils. The
island soon gained notoriety as a Russian penal colony. As a result of the Russo-Japanese
War, Japan in 1905 (Treaty of Portsmouth) gained Sakhalin south of the 50th
parallel and gave this part the Japanese name of Karafuto. After the Russian
Revolution, the Japanese occupied all of Sakhalin, but they withdrew in 1924;
in the following year White Russian forces were driven out of the north by
Soviet troops. The Soviet Union regained the southern half of the island in
1945, at the end of World War II, together with the Kurils, and Sakhalin’s
entire Japanese population eventually was repatriated.
In 1990 Muscovite governor Valentin Fyodorov vowed to create
capitalism on the island. He privatised retail trade, but most people soon
found themselves poorer. Fyodorov left, head down, in 1993. The demise of the
USSR and the influx of thousands of oil-industry internationals succeeded where
Fyodorov couldn’t, and today Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is one of the wealthiest cities
in Russia.
Population
Most of the population is Russian; there has been
considerable emigration since the 1960s. The major settlement on the island is Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk,
which is the administrative centre for Sakhalin oblast. On May 28,
1995, a major earthquake struck the island, destroying the town of
Neftegorsk and killing some 2,000 persons.
Oil projects Sakhalin-1 and Sakhalin-2
The Sakhalin-1 project is a consortium for production
of oil and gas on Sakhalin Island and immediately offshore. It
operates three fields in the Okhotsk sea: Odoptu and Arkutun-Dagi.
In 1996, the consortium completed a production-sharing
agreement between the Sakhalin-I consortium, the Russian Federation and the
Sakhalin government. The consortium is managed and operated by Exxon Neftegas
Limited (ENL).
Since 2003, when the first Sakhalin-1 well was drilled, six
of the world's 10 record-setting extended reach drillling wells have been
drilled at the fields of the project, using the Yastreb rig. It has
set multiple industry records for length, rate of penetration and directional
drilling. On 27 August 2012, Exxon Neftegas Ltd beat its previous record by
completing Z-44 Chayvo well. This ERD well reached a measured total length of
12,376 meters (40,604 ft), making it the longest well in the world.
The Sakhalin-2 project is an oil and gas development
in Sakhalin Island. It includes development of the
Piltun-Astokhskoye oil field and the Lunskoye natural gas field
offshore Sakhalin Island in the Okhotsk Sea
and associated infrastructure onshore. The project is managed and operated by
Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd.
Sakhalin-2 includes the first lliquefied natural gas
plant in Russia. The development is situated in areas previously little
touched by human activity, causing various groups to criticize the development
activities and the impact they have on the local environment.
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