Khvostof
Facts
- Official Name: Khvostof Island
- Seismically Monitored: No
- Color Code:
- Alert Level:
- Elevation: 259m (849ft)
- Latitude: 51.9793
- Longitude: 178.2756
- Smithsonian VNum:
- Pronunciation:
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Nearby Towns:
- Shemya Station 183 mi (295 km) NW
- Adak 217 mi (350 km) SE
- Attu Station 222 mi (358 km) NW
- Atka 320 mi (514 km) NE
- Nikolski 545 mi (876 km) NE
Distance from Anchorage: 1350 mi (2172 km)
Description
From Wood and Kienle (1990) [1] : "Davidof, Khvostof, and nearby small islands Pyramid and Lopy rise 100 m above a submarine platform as the remnants of a collapsed caldera. This 'Aleutian Krakatoa' is thought to have formed during the late Tertiary, but the volcano is essentially unstudied. The islands are covered by vegetation; however lava flows can be recognized on aerial photographs. Lavas and pyroclastic layers form the islands, and rocks on the northern part of Davidof and Lopy Island are intensely hydrothermally altered."Name Origin
"Khvostof Island" was probably a Russian name given by Admiral von Krusenstern (1827), as "Khwostov," for Nikolai Alexandrovich Khwostov, a Russian naval officer who explored Alaska in 1802-04 with G.I. Davidof. Captain Lutke (1836) applied the name "Khvostoff ile" to the entire group of islands that includes Khvostof Island (Orth, 1971).