Information About

Aleutian Islands

Quick Facts

Open in The Map Aleutian Islands on The Map

Aleutian Islands in Detail.

About

Island chain separating the Bering Sea from the Pacific Ocean, extending in a arc from the Alaska Peninsula WSW approximately 1100 mi to and including Attu Island approximately 600 mi E of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, Soviet Union.

History

Admiral Adam Johann von Krusenstern, Imperial Russian Navy (IRN), (1770-1846) first proposed that the name "Aleutian" (1827, v. 2, p. 78), used to designate the native people living on the islands, be applied to the whole archipelago; linguistic origin and meaning of the name is unknown. The chain includes five major groups; Andreanof Islands, Fox Islands, Islands of Four Mountains, Near Islands, and Rat Islands.