A tour of the Museum starts with the Geography Hall. Here exhibits outline the location and boundaries of the region, its relief, climate, mineral resources, and its first explorers, and there is also information on the unique wild life of the area.

The region consists of about fifty islands, of which Sakhalin is the largest, situated in the northern Pacific Ocean, stretching from Japan to the Kamchatka Peninsula. On the geographical map in the centre of the display to the left of the entrance you can see that Sakhalin stretches for 948 kilometres north-south, near the eastern coast of the continent of Eurasia. Separated by the Okhotsk Sea, the arc of the Kurile Islands extends 1200 kilometres across the ocean.

The climate of the region is influenced by the sea. The climatic map (on the wall, above the relief model) shows the movements of winter cold air masses from the continent. Their low temperatures are softened a little with the warmth that the ocean accumulates during summer, and with warm sea currents from the south. In summer the opposite occurs, and the ocean, after accumulating cold during the winter, drives mist and drizzle to the island. In June, cold currents bring drift-ice to the eastern coasts of Sakhalin. On the whole the climate is temperate, transitional from subcontinental to maritime.

The relief map (in the centre, above the sample of coal) shows how the extensive West and East Sakhalin mountain ridges protect the inner valleys of Sakhalin - Susunayskaya and Tym-Poronaiska - from continental and ocean winds. The Kurile Islands themselves are the peaks of a huge underwater ridge. The highest peak of the Sakhalin region, the volcano Alaid (2339 m.) is their northern extremity. With some exceptions, each of the Kurile Islands is an independent volcano, or a group of connected volcanoes. In all, there are about 40 active volcanoes in the Kurile Islands. The exhibition on volcanoes, on the wall opposite the entrance, has photos of the most well-known and active volcanoes, their eruptions and post-volcanic processes. One can see specimens of the products and minerals of volcanic activity in the show cases on the right.

The geological transition zone from continent to ocean is typified by such natural phenomena as volcanoes and earthquakes, and their aftereffects, the huge waves called tsunami. The charts, tables and maps of the display on the right of the entrance describe this. The first seismograph in the country for charting tsunami stands at the exit.