Candlemas Island

Candlemas Island
NASA image of the Candlemas Islands; Candlemas Island on the right
Waters	Scotia Sea ( South Atlantic )
Archipelago	South Sandwich Islands
Geographical location	57 ° 5 '33 "  S , 26 ° 42' 55"  W Coordinates: 57 ° 5 '33 "  S , 26 ° 42' 55"  W.
length	5.4 km
width	2.5 km
surface	14 km²
Highest elevation	Mount Andromeda 550  m
Residents	uninhabited

Candlemas Iceland (dt. Also Candlemas Island ) is a small, uninhabited island of the southern Atlantic Ocean lying British overseas territory " South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands southwest to" the km with only 4.5, by the Nelson Channel separated from it neighboring island Vindication forms the group of Candlemas Islands in the South Sandwich Islands .

geography

Candlemas Island has a length of about 5.4 km and a width of 2.5 km and consists of two volcanoes formed at different times , which were probably only connected by flat land bridges in historical times . The southern part of the island, which is largely covered by an ice cap all year round, is the remnant of an old, long-extinct volcano, whose former main crater is believed to be east of today's island. The two highest peaks of the island, the 550 meter high Mount Andromeda in the south and the Mount Perseus (455 m) to the north of it, with the ridge connecting them, represent the presumed western edge of this assumed crater.

The smaller northern part of the island consists of the geologically very young stratovolcano Lucifer Hill , which reaches a height of about 230 meters, and several lava flows emanating from it . Lucifer Hill has been active until recently; the last known eruptions occurred in 1823 and 1911. Observations of a glowing lava flow in 1954 and the fumaroles and steam emissions recorded in 1964 suggest at least one further eruption in the middle of the 20th century. The volcanic warmth of the ground prevents the formation of permanent ice and snow cover in the northern part of Candlemas .

While the southern part of Candlemas Island, like most of the South Sandwich Islands, was formed from basaltic lava, the northern part consists entirely of andesite and dacite .

history

The archipelago Candlemas Islands was on February 2, 1775, the feast day Candlemas (English candlemas ), on the second South Sea Expedition of James Cook discovered and named after the date of discovery. The name originally used for the entire archipelago was transferred to the main island of the group by participants in the British Discovery Investigations , who were active in 1930 with the RRS Discovery II in the area of ​​the South Sandwich Islands.

literature

• Martin Wyatt Holdgate , Peter Edward Baker: The South Sandwich Islands: I. General description (=  British Antarctic Survey Scientific Reports . No. 91 ). Natural Environment Research Council - British Antarctic Survey , Cambridge 1979, ISBN 0-85665-046-3 , IV. South Sandwich Islands - D. Candlemas Island, p. 28–34 (English, online , PDF; 12.77 MB).
• John Frederick Tomblin: The South Sandwich Islands: II. The geology of Candlemas Island (=  British Antarctic Survey Scientific Reports . No. 92 ). Natural Environment Research Council - British Antarctic Survey , Cambridge 1979, ISBN 0-85665-047-1 (English, online , PDF; 5.39 MB).

Web links

• Candlemas Island in the Global Volcanism Program of the Smithsonian Institution (English).
• Candlemas Island ( Memento from November 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) in the island encyclopedia oceandots.com (English).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Matthew R. Patrick, John L. Smellie, Synthesis A spaceborne inventory of volcanic activity in Antarctica and southern oceans, 2000-10 . In: Antarctic Science . tape 25 , no. August 4 , 2013, ISSN  0954-1020 , South Sandwich Islands: Candlemas Island, p. 485 , doi : 10.1017 / S0954102013000436 (English).
2. ^ Peter Edward Baker: The South Sandwich Islands: III. Petrology of the volcanic rocks (=  British Antarctic Survey Scientific Reports . No. 93 ). Natural Environment Research Council - British Antarctic Survey , Cambridge 1978, ISBN 0-85665-045-5 , III. Petrography - 4. Candlemas Island, S. 11 (English, online , PDF; 4.67MB).
3. ↑
   • Johann Reinhold Forster 's [...] trip around the world between 1772 and 1775 in the ship the Resolution [...] led by Captain Cook . Described and edited by his son and travel companion George Forster . Second volume. Berlin by Haude and Spener. 1780. pp. 419 f. deutschestextarchiv
   • Forster, Therese: Georg Forster's all writings. Johann Reinhold Forster's and Georg Forster's journey around the world in the years 1772 to 1775. Volume 2. Leipzig 1843. P. 410 books.google
   • Johann Reinhold Forster's [...] remarks [...] collected on his trip around the world. Translated and with additional notes by his son and travel companion Georg Forster. Berlin Haude and Spener 1783, p. 19 books.google ; Transcription at projekt-gutenberg.org
   • Dietmar Henze: Encyclopedia of the explorers and explorers of the earth. Volume 1. Graz 1978, p. 694.
4. ↑ Antarctica Detail - Candlemas Island. In: Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey , accessed December 22, 2016 .