Curated playlist
Geography of Northeast Asia
- Siberian River RoutesRussian Cossacks crossed Siberia to the Pacific in just 57 years. They used rivers and short portages from 1582 to 1639.
- Arctic OceanExplorers long chased the myth of an Open Polar Sea near the North Pole. They found thick ice instead.
- Kuril IslandsA 2006 earthquake in the Kuril Islands sent tsunami waves up to 5 feet high to California.
- Kamchatka PeninsulaThe American Civil War sailed past Kamchatka in May 1865. A Confederate raider hunted Union whaling ships nearby.
- Sea of OkhotskA pocket of open water inside the Sea of Okhotsk fell outside Russian control.
- ArcticThe Arctic takes its name from a bear. The Greek word arktos means bear, pointing to stars overhead.
- SakhalinSakhalin is Russia's largest island, yet most Westerners have never heard of it. Three countries have claimed it.
- Sea of JapanThe Sea of Japan behaves almost like a giant lake. Shallow straits nearly seal it off from the Pacific.
- Sakha RepublicThe Sakha Republic in Russia is larger than Argentina but has only about one million people.
- Bering StraitThe Cold War turned the Bering Strait into a hard border called the Ice Curtain.