Iturup, also historically known by other names, is an island in the Kuril Archipelago separating the Sea of Okhotsk from the North Pacific Ocean. The town of Kurilsk, administrative center of Kurilsky District, is located roughly midway along its western shore. Iturup is the largest and northernmost of the southern Kurils, ownership of which is disputed by Japan and Russia. It is located between Kunashiri to its southwest and Urup to its northeast. The Vries Strait between Iturup and Urup forms the Miyabe Line dividing the predominant plants of the Kurils. The native inhabitants of the islands since at least the 14th century were the Ainu. Various European explorers passed the area over the years but settlement varied between Russian and Japanese. The island was formally claimed as Japanese territory in 1855. Near the end of the Second World War in 1945, the Soviet Union occupied the southern Kurils and forceably removed its Japanese residents. Japan continues to claim the islands and considers the northern edge of the island to be its own northernmost point. Names The modern English name Iturup and earlier Yetorup are romanizations of the Russian name Ostrov Iturúp (, "Iturup Island"). It was previously known in English as Etrof from the Japanese name Etorofu-tō (, "Iturup Island"). Both the Russian and Japanese names come from the native Ainu Etuworop-sir (), meaning "island with many capes". Geography Iturup consists of volcanic massifs and mountain ridges. A series of a dozen calc-alkaline volcanoes running NE to SW form the backbone of the island, the highest being Stokap (1,634 m) in the central part of Iturup. The shores of the island are high and abrupt. The vegetation mostly consists of spruce, larch, pine, fir, and mixed deciduous forests with alder, lianas and Kuril bamboo underbrush. The mountains are covered with birch and Siberian Dwarf Pine scrub, herbaceous flowers (including Fragaria iturupensis, the Iturup strawberry) or bare rocks. The island also contains some high waterfalls, such as the Ilya Muromets. Rheniite, a rhenium sulfide mineral (ReS2), was discovered in active hot fumaroles on Kudriavy volcano and first described in 2004. In the field it was originally mistaken for molybdenite. History Prehistory The native inhabitants of all the Kuril islands are the Ainu. They have lived there since at least the 14th century. Edo period Europeans are first recorded visiting this part of the Kurils in 1643 when the under Maarten