Bristol Island

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bristol Island
NASA image of Bristol Island
NASA image of Bristol Island
Waters South Atlantic
Archipelago South Sandwich Islands
Geographical location 59 ° 2 '36 "  S , 26 ° 35' 3"  W Coordinates: 59 ° 2 '36 "  S , 26 ° 35' 3"  W
Location of Bristol Island
length 10 km
width 9 km
surface 46 km²
Highest elevation Mount Darnley
1100  m
Residents uninhabited

Bristol Iceland ( Spanish Isla Blanco , also Isla Blanca ) is one of the South Atlantic located South Sandwich Islands . The island belongs politically to the British overseas territory " South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands ", but is also claimed by Argentina .

geography

The uninhabited and 98% ice-covered volcanic island is located south of Montagu Island and north of Morell Island . With an area of ​​approximately 46 km², Bristol Island is the third largest of the South Sandwich Islands after Montagu Island and Saunders .

Bristol Island essentially consists of several overlapping stratovolcanoes , some of which are still active today. The three largest are Mount Darnley (1100 m), the southernmost, then that of Havfruen Peak (365 m) and Mount Sourabaya (915 m). Eruptions were recorded in 1823, 1935, 1936, 1950, 1956 and most recently in 2016 (Mount Sourabaya).

The three cliffs Grindle Rock , Wilson Rock and Freezland Rock are in front of the island to the west. Because of the ice shelf areas that change from year to year, it is difficult to precisely measure the size of the island.

history

Bristol Island was discovered in 1775 by the English navigator James Cook and named after the British naval officer Augustus John Hervey , 3rd Earl of Bristol (1724–1779), Cape Bristol , because he believed it was the tip of a larger country. It was not until Fabian von Bellingshausen that it was an island in 1820. The first known landing on Bristol Island was in 1908 by the Norwegian whaler Carl Anton Larsen .

Web links

Commons : Bristol Island  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bristol Island ( Memento of December 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) in the island encyclopedia oceandots.com (English), accessed on June 18, 2011
  2. ^ Signs of an Eruption on Bristol Island . NASA. May 10, 2016.
  3. ^ South Sandwich Islands Volcano Monitoring Blog , accessed June 13, 2016
  4. ↑ Horst Rademacher : The lonely ice dragon spits fire . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , June 13, 2016, online edition, accessed on January 22, 2017.
  5. ^ William James Mills: Exploring Polar Frontiers - A Historical Encyclopedia , Vol. 1, ABC-CLIO, 2003, ISBN 1-57607-422-6 , p. 100 (English)