Agattu is an island

Island

An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

 in the Near Islands

Near Islands

The Near Islands or Sasignan Islands are the smallest and westernmost group of the Aleutian Islands in southwestern Alaska.-Geography:The largest of the Near Islands are Attu and Agattu...

 in the western end of the Aleutian Islands. With a land area of 221.593 km² (85.558 sq mi) Agattu is one of the largest uninhabited islands in the Aleutians. It is the second largest of the Near Islands, after Attu Island

Attu Island

Attu is the westernmost and largest island in the Near Islands group of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, making it the westernmost point of land relative to Alaska and the United States. It was the site of the only World War II land battle fought on the incorporated territory of the United States ,...

. It is volcanic and considerably mountainous. The treeless island has a tundra

Tundra

In physical geography, tundra is a biome where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons. The term tundra comes through Russian тундра from the Kildin Sami word tūndâr "uplands," "treeless mountain tract." There are three types of tundra: Arctic tundra, alpine...

-like terrain which reaches a peak of 632 meters above sea level.

Agattu has 7 large seabird colonies, and an estimated population of 66,000 birds. About 1% of the global population of Red-faced Cormorant

Red-faced Cormorant

The Red-faced Cormorant, Red-faced Shag or Violet Shag, Phalacrocorax urile, is a species of cormorant that is found in the far north of the Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea, from the eastern tip of Hokkaidō in Japan, via the Kuril Islands, the southern tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Aleutian...

s and Tufted Puffin

Tufted Puffin

The Tufted Puffin also known as Crested Puffin, is a relatively abundant medium-sized pelagic seabird in the auk family found throughout the North Pacific Ocean....

s nest on the island. Other inhabitants include Rock Sandpiper

Rock Sandpiper

The Rock Sandpiper is a small shorebird.Adults have short yellow legs and a medium thin dark bill. The body is dark on top with a slight purplish gloss and mainly white underneath. The breast is smeared with grey and the rump is black...

, Red-necked Phalarope

Red-necked Phalarope

The Red-necked Phalarope, Phalaropus lobatus, is a small wader. This phalarope breeds in the Arctic regions of North America and Eurasia. It is migratory, and, unusually for a wader, winters at sea on tropical oceans....

, Gray-crowned Rosy Finch

Gray-crowned Rosy Finch

The Gray-crowned Rosy Finch, or Gray-crowned Rosy-finch, is a species of passerine bird in the family Fringillidae native to Alaska, western Canada, and the north-western United States. Due to its remote and rocky alpine habitat it is rarely seen. There are currently six recognized subspecies...

 and Snow Bunting

Snow Bunting

The Snow Bunting , sometimes colloquially called a snowflake, is a passerine bird in the longspur family Calcariidae. It is an arctic specialist, with a circumpolar Arctic breeding range throughout the northern hemisphere...

. Aleutian Cackling Geese were reintroduced to the island after foxes were eliminated from the island in the 1970s. The elimination of the foxes on the island also made it possible for conservationists to reintroduce the Evermann's rock ptarmigan. In 2006 there were reports of at least 25 breeding pairs of the ptarmigan on the island.

Inhabitants

Archeological excavations have discovered evidence and remains of Aleuts living on Agattu Island more than 2000 years ago. After Russian contact with the Aleutians in 1751, the population on Agattu declined precipitously. By the 1760s, all Near Islanders had moved into a single village on Attu Island. During World War II, the villagers of Attu were interred in Japan and at war's end the survivors were resettled on Atka Island.

Geology

Agattu is unique among the volcanic Aleutian Islands in being composed almost entirely of well-bedded sedimentary rocks. These rocks were clearly deposited in water and are composed chiefly of amorphous silica and fine detritus derived from a volcanic terrain. Igneous rocks are sparsely represented by intrusions of porphyry, diabase, and trap. The entire island has been heavily glaciated.

External links

• Agattu Island Photos Photos from Agattu Island, July 2008