Kodiak

Kodiak

an island in S Alaska, in the Gulf of Alaska: site of the first European settlement in Alaska, made by Russians in 1784. Pop.: 13 466 (2004 est.). Area: 8974 sq. km (3465 sq. miles)

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Kodiak 

(Kadiak), a town in the northeast part of Kodiak Island, off the shores of Alaska. Kodiak was one of the first Russian settlements in America, founded in 1784 by G. I. Shelikhov. Population, 3,800 (1970). It is the island’s key fishing port, and the trade center for a cattle-raising and fur-trading region. Kodiak has fish canneries.

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Kodiak 

(Kadiak; Eskimo, Kikhtak), an island off the southern coast of Alaska in the USA, separated from the maainland by Shelikof Strait. Area, 9, 300 sq km. The shores are steep and cut by fjords. The surface is hilly (elevations, up to 1, 353 m) and extensively blanketed with volcanic ash (up to 6 m thick) blown over from the Alaskan Peninsula in 1912 when Mount Katmai erupted. The climate is temperate and humid (up to 1, 600 mm of precipitation annually). Vegetation is mostly tall-grass meadows. The coastal waters abound with fish (sockeye and herring). The island has fish canneries.

Kodiak was discovered in 1763 by the Russian seafarer Stepan Glotov. Its largest inhabited area is the town of Kodiak.