Avacha Bay

Petropavlovsk and Koryaksky Volcano, as seen from Avacha Bay

Adam Johann von Krusenstern in Avacha Bay by Friedrich Georg Weitsch, c. 1806, National Museum in Warsaw

Avacha Bay (Russian: Авачинская губа, Авачинская бухта) is a Pacific Ocean bay on the southeastern coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula. It is 24 km (15 mi) long and 3 km (2 mi) wide (at the mouth), with a maximum depth of 26 m (85 ft).^[1]

The Avacha River flows into the bay. The port city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and the closed town of Vilyuchinsk lie on the coast of the bay. It is the main transport gateway to the Kamchatka region. The bay freezes in the winter.

It was first discovered by Vitus Bering in 1729. It was surveyed and mapped by Captain Mikhail Tebenkov of the Imperial Russian Navy in the 1830s.^[2]

Avacha Bay was the scene of a massive die-off of benthic marine organisms in September–October 2020.^[3][4][5]

Description

The Avacha Bay is unique in that it is among the largest bays in the world able to fit any ship in the world.^{[citation needed]} It is an internal part of Avacha Gulf. Its total area is 215 square kilometers, and it is up to 26 meters deep. The main rivers flowing into the bay are the Avacha and Paratunka. It is the home base of the Russian Pacific fleet.

See also

• Tri Brata – "Three brothers", a major landmark in the bay
• Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky
• Nikolskaya sopka

References

1. "Avachinskaya Guba". Mapcarta. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
2. "Karta Kamchatskago Berega". Alaska's Digital Archives. Archived from the original on 12 November 2013. Retrieved 12 November 2013.
3. Environmental disaster in Kamchatka, Russia
4. Russia’s Environmental Disasters in 2020, October
5. Bondur, V. G.; Zamshin, V. V.; Chvertkova, O. I. (2021). "Space Study of a Red Tide-Related Environmental Disaster near Kamchatka Peninsula in September–October 2020". Doklady Earth Sciences. 497 (1): 255–260. Bibcode:2021DokES.497..255B. doi:10.1134/S1028334X21030016.

52°56′N 158°36′E