Berkner Island

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Berkner Island (Hubley Island)
LIMA satellite image
LIMA satellite image
Waters Weddell Sea
Geographical location 79 ° 28 ′  S , 47 ° 14 ′  W Coordinates: 79 ° 28 ′  S , 47 ° 14 ′  W
Berkner Island (Antarctica)
Berkner Island
length 372 km
width 145 km
surface 43,873.1 km²
Highest elevation Thyssen height
869  m

The Berkner Island is 43,873 square kilometers, the largest ice cap on earth. It is located in the Antarctic Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf . Despite its name, Berkner Island is not considered an island in the true sense of the word, as the landmass that supports it is around 80 meters below sea level at its highest point. For a long time and still frequently today, however, it was and is viewed as such.

The ice dome consists entirely of ice, 378 km long and 150 km wide. The ice on the Thyssenhöhe reaches a height of 869 (according to other sources 975) meters above sea level. With an area of ​​44,810 km² (unofficially, determined using a planimeter), Berkner Island is almost seven times the size of the second largest ice dome. It separates the Filchner Ice Shelf from the Ronne Ice Shelf . It cannot be reached from the sea as it is completely surrounded by ice shelves . The northernmost point is about 17 km from the open sea.

The surface shape is characterized by two peaks, the Reinwarthhöhe in the north (698 m, 78 ° 19 ′  S , 46 ° 20 ′  W ), and the Thyssenhöhe in the south (869 m, 79 ° 34 ′  S , 45 ° 42 ′  W ) . On the east side there are three inlets, from north to south: McCarthy Inlet , Roberts Inlet and Spilhaus Inlet . The Gould Bay is in the north.

Berkner Island is about 150 km west of the Luitpold coast, the closest mainland in East Antarctica . The Hemmen Ice Dome is 17 km before the northwest corner. It is uninhabited. From February 1995 to January 2006 there was an automatic weather station on Thyssenhöhe . The closest permanently manned station is the Argentinean Belgrano II station , which is 210 km east of the northeast of Berkner Island on the northwest coast of Coatsland .

The iceberg was discovered from the air on December 12, 1947 by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition . In the summer of 1957/58 it was explored up close by scientists from the US Ellsworth Station under the direction of Finn Ronne and initially named Hubley Island after the US glaciologist Richard Charles Hubley . Its final name, after the American physicist Lloyd Viel Berkner , was given in 1960 by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names .

Since 1990 Berkner Island has been the starting point for several larger polar expeditions. In 1994/1995 the British Antarctic Survey , the Alfred Wegener Institute and the Research Center for Physical Glaciology at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster carried out ice core drilling together.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Ute Christina Herzfeld: Atlas of Antarctica: Topographic Maps from Geostatistical Analysis of Satellite Radar Altimeter Data . Springer Science & Business Media, 2012. page 233. On Google Books .
  2. ^ John C. Behrendt: Geophysical and glaciological studies in the Filchner Ice Shelf Area of ​​Antarctica . American Geophysical Union, 1962.
  3. ↑ http://www.phys.uu.nl/~wwwimau/research/ice_climate/aws/antarctica_stations.html#awsbi

Web links

Commons : Berkner-Insel  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files