- For other uses of "Kamchatka", see Kamchatka (disambiguation).
Kamchatka Peninsula (Russian: полуо́стров Камча́тка) is a 1,250-kilometer-long peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of 472,300 km². It lies between the Pacific Ocean (to the east) and the Sea of Okhotsk (to the west). Between the peninsula and the Pacific Ocean runs the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench with a depth of 10,500 m.
The central valley and the Kamchatka River are flanked by large volcanic ranges, containing around 160 volcanoes, 29 of them still active. The highest is Klyuchevskaya Sopka (4750 m or 15,584 ft), while the most striking and recognized are the 3 volcanoes seen from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky: Koryaksky, Avachinsky, and Kozelsky. In the center of Kamchatka is found Eurasia's only Geyser Valley.
Kamchatka Peninsula is a part of the Russian Kamchatka Oblast (along with a part of the continent, the Komandorskiye Islands and Karaginsky Island ). The majority of the 402,500 population is Russian, and the largest minority is Koryaks. The northern part of the peninsula is occupied by the Koryakia Autonomous District, where around 13,000 Koryaks live. During the Cold War, the Soviets tested the range and reliability of their missiles by launching them from standard sites, and using Kamchatka Peninsula as the target area.
