| South Sandwich Islands |
The southern eight islands of the Sandwich Islands Group were discovered by James Cook in 1775; the northern three by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen in 1819. They were named "Sandwich Land" by Cook after the 4th Earl of Sandwich, 1st Lord of the Admiralty. The word "South" was added to distinguish them from the "Sandwich Islands", now known as "Hawaii".
The United Kingdom claimed South Georgia in 1775 and formally annexed both South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in 1908, grouping them with other British-held territory in Antarctica as the Falkland Islands Dependencies. Argentina later claimed the islands in dispute with the UK.
Argentina challenged British sovereignty in the Islands on several occasions. From January 25, 1955 through summer of 1956 Argentina maintained the summer station Teniente Esquivel at Ferguson Bay on the Southeastern coast of Thule Island.
From 1976 to 1982, Argentina maintained a naval base named Corbeta Uruguay, at Port Faraday, in the lee (southern East coast) of the same island. Although the British discovered the presence of the Argentine base in 1978, no effort was made to remove them until after the Falklands War. The base was eventually removed on June 20, 1982. |
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| Climate |
| Variable, with mostly westerly winds throughout the year interspersed with periods of calm; nearly all precipitation falls as snow. The South Sandwich Islands have prevailing weather conditions that generally make them difficult to approach by ship. |
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| Geography |
The South Sandwich Islands consist of 11 islands (from north to south): Zavodovski, Leskov (the smallest), Visokoi, Candlemas, Vindication, Saunders, Montagu (the largest), Bristol, Bellingshausen, Cook and Thule.
The South Sandwich Islands are 760km south east of South Georgia, and cover 310 sq m. Mt Belinda, the highest point, rises up to 1375m and can be found on Montagu Island.
Thule, Cook, Bristol, Montagu, Visokoi, Saunders and Candlemas are almost 80% covered by glaciers, and the remaining four have hardly any at all. Even though these islands are more northerly than the South Shetlands (or even the South Orkneys), they have a much colder climate (due to the cold ocean current coming from the Weddell Sea).
The South Sandwich Islands are a volcanic island arc caused by the subduction of the South American Plate beneath the South Sandwich Plate. The South Sandwich plate is one of the smallest geologic plates and is created at the South Sandwich spreading center. This small plate is less than 8 million years old and moves to the east at about 7 cm per year. The volcanic arc is younger than 5 million years. |
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| Thule Islands |
| Thule Island |
Thule Island, also called Morrell Island, is one of the southermost of the South Sandwich Islands, part of the grouping known as Southern Thule. It is named, on account of its remote location, after the mythical land of Thule, said by ancient geographers to lie at the extreme end of the earth, (the alternative name Morell Island is after Benjamin Morrell, US explorer and whaling captain).
Thule Island lies at 59°27′S 27°18′W, close to Cook Island and Bellingshausen Island. It is thought that Thule and Cook may have been a larger single island in the past, and there is evidence for a submerged crater between the two.
Steam from the summit crater lake and ash on the flank was reported in 1962. Volcanic heat keeps the crater on Thule Island free from ice.
The peak elevation is 3,525 feet (1,075m). In 1962, steam was rising from the water in Thule's summit crater and ash was noted on the island's southwest flank.
Argentina, in order to assert its claim over the South Sandwich Islands, established a research base on Thule Island called Corbeta Uruguay in the late 1970s. The base was occupied by British Forces in the aftermath of the Falklands War in 1982.
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| Bellingshausen Island |
Bellingshausen Island (59°25′S 027°03′W) is one of the most southerly of the South Sandwich Islands, close to Thule Island and Cook Island, and forming part of the Southern Thule group. It is named after its discoverer, Russian Antarctic explorer Fabian von Bellingshausen (1778-1852).[clarification needed]
The island is a basaltic-andesite stratovolcano, and the latest crater, about 500 feet (150 metres) across and 200 feet (60 metres) deep, formed explosively some time between 1968 and 1984. Bellingshausen is a small youthful andesite cone with active fumaroles but no historic eruptions. |
| Cook Island |
Cook Island (59°27′S 027°10′W) is the central island of Southern Thule, in the South Sandwich Islands. Southern Thule was discovered by a British expedition under Captain James Cook in 1775. The island was named for Cook by a Russian expedition under Bellingshausen, which explored the South Sandwich Islands in 1819-20.
Unlike most of the South Sandwich Islands, where most volcanoes are made of basalt, part of Cook Island is composed of andesite and dacite. |
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| The Candlemas Islands |
The Candlemas Islands are a group of small uninhabited islands lying at the northern end of the South Sandwich Islands, 23 miles (37 km) southeast of Visokoi Island. They consist of Candlemas Island itself (57°05′S 26°39′W / 57.083°S 26.65°W / -57.083; -26.65), Vindication Island (57°06′S 26°47′W / 57.1°S 26.783°W / -57.1; -26.783) and numerous rock
s.The Candlemas Islands were discovered on February 2, 1775 by a British expedition under James Cook, who named them to commemorate the day of their discovery. |
| Candlemas Island |
Candlemas Island is a small uninhabited island of the Candlemas Islands in the South Sandwich Islands. It lies about 2 miles (3.2 km) from Vindication Island, separated by the Nelson Channel.
On the northwest flank of the island is an active stratovolcano, Lucifer Hill, that showed signs of activity in 1911 and glowing lava flows during 1953–1954. Mount Andromeda and Mount Perseus are both glacier-covered peaks on the island. Mount Andromeda is the island's highest point, with an elevation of 550 metres (1,804 ft).
Candlemas Island is the setting of a novel by Ian Cameron, The White Ship (1975), which tells of a disastrous expedition to the island in 1975 where members of the expedition must contend with ghosts of Spaniards shipwrecked on the island in 1818. |
| Vindication Island |
Vindication Island is a small uninhabited island in the South Sandwich Islands. It lies about 2 miles (3.2 km) from Candlemas Island, separated by the Nelson Channel.
Although Vindication has a volcano, there has been no sign of activity for over 10,000 years. The island's highest point is Quadrant Peak (430 m/1,411 ft). The island is mostly ice free. |
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| Central Islands |
| Bristol Island |
Bristol Island is an 8 km (5-mile) long island lying midway between Montagu Island and Thule Island in the South Sandwich Islands. It was discovered by a British expedition under James Cook in 1775 and named in honour of naval officer Augustus Hervey, 3rd Earl of Bristol. The first recorded landing was made by Carl Anton Larsen in 1908.
Bristol Island is composed of several active volcanoes with eruptions reported in 1823, 1935, 1936, 1950 and 1956. |
| Montagu Island |
Montagu Island is the largest of the South Sandwich Islands, located in the Weddell Sea off the coast of Antarctica.
The desolate, uninhabited island measures approximately 12 by 10 kilometres (7.5 by 6.2 miles), with over 90% of its surface permanently covered in ice.
The volcano Mount Belinda is its most notable geographic feature, rising to 1,370 metres (4,495 ft) above sea level. Mount Belinda was believed to be inactive prior to the sighting of low-level ash emission and suspected lava effusion in 2002 by the British Antarctic Survey.
The island was first sighted by James Cook in 1775, and named after John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich and the First Lord of the British Admiralty at the time of its discovery. The first recorded landing was made by Carl Anton Larsen in 1908.
In November 2005, satellite images revealed that an eruption of Mount Belinda had created a 90-metre (295 ft) wide molten river flowing to the northern shoreline of the island. The event has expanded the area of the island by 0.2 square kilometres (0.077 sq mi), and provided some of the first scientific observations of volcanic eruptions taking place underneath an ice sheet.
Current imaging on Google Earth shows the volcano to be active, with a noticeable plume and lava flow. The effects on the ice sheet are visible. |
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Mt Belinda Volcano - Montagu Island |
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| Saunders Island |
Saunders Island is a crescent-shaped island 8.8 km (5.5 mi) long, lying between Candlemas Island and Montagu Island in the South Sandwich Islands. It is a volcanic island composed of an active stratovolcano, 990 metres (3,248 ft) Mount Michael. It erupted explosively in 1819, and has erupted repeatedly since 2000, most recently in 2005. The 700 m (2,297 ft) diameter summit crater may contain an active lava lake, one of only a handful in the world.
Saunders Island was discovered in 1775 by Captain James Cook, who named it for Sir Charles Saunders, First Lord of the Admiralty. It was charted in greater detail by Bellingshausen in 1819, and in 1930 by DI personnel on the Discovery II. |
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| Traversey Islands |
The Traversay Islands ) are a group of three islands – Zavodovski, Leskov and Visokoi – at the northern end of the South Sandwich Islands.
The group was discovered in 1819 by a Russian expedition under Bellingshausen, who named them for Jean-Baptiste Prevost de Sansac, Marquis de Traversay (1754–1831), a French naval officer who joined the Russian navy in 1791, at the request of an émigré Frenchman in Russian service, admiral Nassau-Siegen. He was Minister of Naval Affairs at Saint Petersburg, 1809–28, and chief promoter of Bellingshausen's Antarctic voyage. The name was previously transliterated as Traverse because it was incorrectly thought that the man commemorated was a Russian. |
| Leskov Island |
Leskov Island is a small uninhabited island in the Traversay Islands group of the South Sandwich Islands. It is less than 1.5 kilometres (0.9 mi) long, and lies 48 km (30 mi) west of Visokoi Island. It was discovered in 1819 by a Russian expedition under Bellingshausen, who named it for the third lieutenant on the expedition ship Vostok.
Leskov is located to the west of the main arc of the South Sandwich Islands, and is composed of andesitic rather than basaltic lava. The subduction zone forming the South Sandwich Trench lies to the east of the island arc. |
| Protector Shoal |
| Protector Shoal is a submarine volcano, also called seamount, which rises gently from an ocean depth of 1200 meters to about 27 m (90 ft) below sea level 56 km to the northwest of Zavodovski Island in the South Sandwich Islands chain. The last eruption occurred during March 1962. Protector Shoal is the only volcano in the arc that has erupted rhyolite pumice. |
| Visokoi Island |
Visokoi Island is an uninhabited island in the Traversay Islands group of the South Sandwich Islands. It was discovered in 1819 by a Russian expedition under Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, who named the island Visokoi ("high") because of its conspicuous height.
The island is 7.2 km (4.5 miles) long and 4.8 km (3 miles) wide, capped by Mount Hodson, a volcanic peak (1,005 m/3,297 ft). The peak is named after Sir Arnold Weinholt Hodson, a governor of the Falkland Islands.
The island's eastern tip, Point Irving, is named for the commander of a British exploratory and mapping expedition, John J. Irving. Cmdr. Irving is the father of British historian David Irving. |
| Zavodovski Island |
Zavodovski Island is about 3 miles (5 km) in diameter. Tephra makes about 50% of the island.
Fresh lava was reported on the volcano in 1819. Very active fumaroles have been reported on numerous occasions.
Explosive eruptions that produced basaltic cinders are suspected in 1823, 1830, and 1908.
Mount Curry is the stratovolcano that forms the island of Zavodovski.
On Zavodovski Island is the largest penguin colony in the world.
About two million Chinstrap Penguins come to breed on the snow-free slopes of this live volcano, though Emperor Penguins stick it out on the ice.
At the water's edge they are nervous as leopard seals patrol this border.
These seals are Antarctica's equivalent of polar bears. As winter closes in again and the ice begins to freeze, male emperor penguins trek south, away from the open sea, to spend the dark months of winter out on the ice. |
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