Talk:Aleutian Islands

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, now in the public domain.


Alaska Portal
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Alaska, an effort to create, expand, organize, and improve Alaska-related articles to a feature-quality standard.
B This article has been rated as B-class on the quality scale.
Mid This article has been rated as mid-importance on the importance scale.
WikiProject Volcanoes

This article is part of WikiProject Volcanoes, a project to systematically present information on volcanoes, volcanology, igneous petrology, and related subjects. If you would like to participate, you can choose to edit the article attached to this page (see Wikipedia:Contributing FAQ for more information), or join by visiting the project page.
B This article has been rated as B-Class on the quality scale.
Mid This article has been rated as Mid-importance to WikiProject Volcanoes on the project's importance scale.
If you have rated this article please consider adding assessment comments.

Contents

[edit] Russian

"Russian citizenship" would have been the wrong term then - try "Russian subject". PML.

Perhaps you haven't picked up on the fact that you can edit this page? - smp

In 1913 the entire chain was set aside as the Aleutian Islands Reservation, refuge for birds and native animals. The islands are now part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge

[edit] Russia

What's the name(s) of the island(s) that are Russian? --Golbez 16:32, Dec 27, 2004 (UTC)


they are the Commander Islands. But this brings up a question: altough the Commander Islands are in many ways ecologically part of the Aleutians, I think that from a mapping / geography point of view, the "Aleutian Islands" do not include the Commander Islands. In fact in the section below, the latitude/longitude range excludes the Commander Islands. It would be great if some mapping / place naming specialists could address this... tivp 01:29, 6 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Pronunciation?

Is the "T" hard or soft? A-loot-ee-an or Alooshian? --161.73.58.135 08:24, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)

In Aleutian the "T" is soft. However in Aleut referring to the native people the "T" is hard.

  • The "t" is neither hard nor soft. It is not pronounced. The adjective "Aleutian" is pronounced "Uh LOO shun". And, as the person before me indicated, when pronouncing the name of the people, the "t" is pronounced. Where most people go wrong with the word for the people, "Aleut", is trying to say it with only two syllables. It is correctly pronounced, "al ee OOT". Seriously. (I thought it was a joke at first, like someone was making an allusion to the comic strip, "Alley Oop", but no, that's how it's said.) Unschool 05:18, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] number

how many islands are there?

There are more than 200 islands containing more than 50 volcanoes.

[edit] Picture

I want to say that, first of all, the picture just added by User:Conscious is very pretty. Unfortunately, it also might provide the wrong impression of the chain.

Most Americans living Outside still tend to think of Alaska as a snow-covered domain, year round. Well, that is simply untrue of Alaska in general, and even less so of the Aleutians. While the Aleutians will get blanketed with snow in the winter, that cover will usually not last (below 1000 ft. altitude) for more that a couple of days, as the more common rains will melt the snow. This picture is beautiful, but not representative. Might someone be able to come up with a better shot? I myself do not know how to access such things. Unschool 17:55, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Island split by US and Russia?

I was listening to NPR's "Says You" and they had question about what countires border the United States. Aside from the obvious ones, Canada and Mexico, the host said that Russia was also a country that the US shares a border with due to the fact that one of the western most islands in the Aleutians is actually split between the US and Russia. He either didn't specifically say which one it was. Anyone know?

This is patently false. The closest that this comes to being true is in the middle of the Bering Strait, where there are a pair of islands known as the Diomedes. Big Diomede Island, which is Russian territory, lies approximately 2.5 miles west of Little Diomede Island, which is US territory. The international boundary, as well as the International Date Line, runs between them. On a (rare) clear day, they are easily visible from one another. Unschool 15:02, 1 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] People?

Not much on the people of these islands --Drgs100 08:07, 6 October 2006 (UTC)


I have a question about the wording used in the Demographics section: "The native people refer to themselves as Unangan, and are now generally known by most non-natives as the 'Aleut.'"

If the native people "refer to themsevles as" something, then, isn't that what they are? Shouldn't it read something like, "The native people are (called) Unangan, but they are generally (incorrectly!) called 'Aleut' by most non-natives."

Otherwise it sort of sounds like they don't know their own name.

Srmyers 15:27, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] rain in unalaska?

according to the article there is 80 inches of rain annually in Unalaska but according to http://www.alaskan.com/places/unalaska.html there is 48-50 inches per year.

[edit] The whole island chain or just the Alaskan part?

So, is this article about the Aleutian island chain (as visible on maps like Image:LA2-Bering-Sea-UTM-zones.png), or the Aleutian part of Alaska (Aleutians West/East census area/borough)? In the former (IMO more correct/NPOV) case, I think the Komandorski Islands should be listed as one of six island groups under Geography. -- Kimiko 17:15, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

The Komandorski Islands are geographically not part of the Aleutian chain. Optically and superficially the appear as a western continuation, when looking at maps or images, but they are separated by a gap of 325 km from the Aleutians, a gap much larger than found anywhere within the Aleutian chain (the largest gap within the Aleutians appears 120 km from Shemya Island to Buldir Island), and more importantly, they are geologically separated by the northernmost reaches of the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench and a corresponding depth of to 5,139 meters (some infos from German Wikipedia, others measured from images).--Ratzer (talk) 05:02, 5 May 2008 (UTC)
I'd like to see more clear proof that they are separated by part of the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench. All of the maps I see (via web search) indicate the trench staying south of the island chain, and a pretty clear continuity from the US Aleutians to the Komandorskis. See e.g. this map. That seems to endorse Kimiko's position. -- Spireguy (talk) 18:46, 5 May 2008 (UTC)
After looking deeper into the matter, I'm not at all certain whether the German Wikipedia is right here. I found or could think of three points against it: (1) Britannica mentions the islands as part of the Aleutian chain. (2) NASA Blue Marble images show the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench (or its northern reaches) between the Komandorski Islands and Kamchatka, not east of the islands. (3) The large 325 km gap does not have to mean much when it contains submarine volcanoes along the chain that do not quite reach the water surface. The NASA Blue Marble images of the area suggest the existence of such bathymetric features. (4) Here is one more point for the other side (in favor of considering the Komandorski Islands not part of the Aleutian chain): The Aleutian subgroup of the Near Islands received their name from a Russian perspective, being so called for their relative nearness to (Asian) Russia. The Komandorski Islands, however, are much nearer to Russia than the Near Islands.--Ratzer (talk) 15:40, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Map suggestions

In any case, a map showing the location of the Aleutians on a larger scale, like Image:Bering_Sea_Location.gif would be useful near the start of the article, and a more detailed map (similar to Image:Western_Aleutians.png, but larger) would be useful in the Geography section, to make it clear where the major groups of islands are. Do any of you know of such a map? — Kimiko 17:16, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Hmm. The only halfway decent maps I could find are these two: Image:Aleutian_Islands.PNG on Wikimedia Commons, and BeringSea.jpg on a .NOAA.gov website. Something like the first would be useful to show how the Komandorski Islands are part of the Aleutian archipel/island chain. The second would be more useful when describing the island groupings.
That's not a lot of choice. Any map creating wizards around? — Kimiko 18:05, 13 August 2007 (UTC)


[edit] World War II

A couple of problems.

First, the statement that Lend-Lease aircraft from the U.S. to Russia stopped along the Aleutians is disputable. See Weeks, Russia's Life-Saver: Lend-Lease Aid to the U.S.S.R. in World War II, which discusses the Siberian air bridge in detail. The main route passed through Nome, well to the north of the Aleutians.

Second, Parshall and Tully, Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway, present evidence that the Aleutians operation was no diversion, but an independent operation mounted own its own (dubious) merits for which the Midway operation provided a useful diversion.

128.165.87.144 19:21, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

You seem to have good sources, so you can edit the page accordingly. Although I must say I'm surprised the hear the claim that Midway was a "diversion"---not that I'm remotely an expert! -- Spireguy 22:17, 16 August 2007 (UTC)


A 1969 book, "Thousand-Mile War: World War II in Alaska and the Aleutians", Brian Garfiel, Classic Reprint Series (Fairbanks, Alaska), No. 4.) lays out a strong case that the Aleutian battles were a campaign of their own. While related temporally to Midway, they appear, at least to the author, to have their own objectives, that being the timber and mineral wealth of Alaska. Also told in sad detail is the fate of those Aleutians captured by the Japanse and enslaved in the tin mines. It provides a useful perpective on the competing public interests which resulted in the native internment programs. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.197.135.1 (talk) 03:05, 19 December 2007 (UTC)