Greater Kuril Chain (Russian: Большая Курильская гряда) - a part of the Kuril Islands - is a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean. It includes North Kurils, Iturup and Kunashir.
At its south western end, the Greater Kuril Chain is separated from the Lesser Kuril Chain by the South Kuril Strait. The maximum altitude in the Greater Kuril Chain is 2339m, on (Atlasov Island).
The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands are a volcanic archipelago administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast in the Russian Far East. The islands stretch approximately 1,300 km (810 mi) northeast from Hokkaido in Japan to Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, separating the Sea of Okhotsk from the north Pacific Ocean. There are 56 islands and many minor islets. The Kuril Islands consist of the Greater Kuril Chain and, at the southwest end, the parallel Lesser Kuril Chain. The group termed the 'South Kurils' consists of those of the Lesser Kuril Chain together with Kunashir and Iturup in the Greater Kuril Chain. The Vries Strait between Iturup and Urup forms the Miyabe Line dividing the North and South Kurils. The Kuril Islands cover an area of around 10,503.2 square kilometres (4,055.3 sq mi), with a population of roughly 20,000.
The islands have been under Russian administration since their 1945 invasion by the Soviet Union near the end of World War II. Japan claims the four southernmost islands, including two of the three largest (Iturup and Kunashir), as part of its territory, as well as Shikotan and the unpopulated Habomai islets, which has led to the ongoing Kuril Islands dispute. The disputed islands are known in Japan as the country's "Northern Territories".
The Lesser Kuril Chain (Russian: Малая Курильская гряда, Japanese: 小千島列島, Shō Chishima Rettō; Japanese pronunciation: [ɕo̞ː t͡ɕiɕima̠ ɾe̞t̚to̞ː]), is an island chain in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. The islands are administered as part of Yuzhno-Kurilsky District of Sakhalin Oblast, Russia, and many sources consider the chain to be geographically part of the Kuril Islands. However, the Japanese government claims that these islands are not part of the Kuril Islands and are instead minor islands of Hokkaido.
The Lesser Kuril Chain lies northeast of the Nemuro Peninsula in Hokkaido, near the southwestern end of the Greater Kuril Chain, from which it is separated by the South Kuril Strait. It consists of Shikotan, the Habomai Islands and several small islands lying close to the Shikotan. The chain parallels, but is much shorter than, the Greater Kuril Chain, from which the Lesser Kurils lie to the south-east.