Danger Islands
| Danger Islands | ||
|---|---|---|
| Waters | Weddell Sea | |
| Geographical location | 63 ° 25 ′ S , 54 ° 42 ′ W | |
|
||
| Number of islands | 7th | |
| Main island | Darwin Island | |
| Residents | uninhabited | |
The Danger Islands ( English Danger Islands , Spanish islotes Peligro ) are a group of seven islands on the eastern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula .
geography
The archipelago is located about 20 kilometers southeast of Joinville Island and extends from northeast to southwest. The closest neighbor is Brash Island, halfway between the Danger Islands and Joinville Island . The largest island in the group is Darwin Island . It is roughly circular, one kilometer in diameter and surrounded by steep cliffs up to 80 m high. The smallest island is Dixey Rock , a 25 m high isolated rock needle. The island group also includes the Heroína Island , the northeasternmost of the Danger Islands, which was named by the Argentine Antarctic Expedition of 1948/49 after its expedition ship Heroína , Peine Island (also known as Comb Island), Beagle Island , Platter Island (also Plato -Island) and in the very south-west of Earle Island .
history
James Clark Ross discovered the archipelago on December 28, 1842 on his third voyage with the ships Erebus and Terror (1839 to 1843). Because they remained hidden between the pack ice until he almost struck them, he named them Danger Islands, remembering the danger he had overcome.
Wildlife
The Danger Islands are known for their large breeding colonies of Adelie penguins . A 1996 estimate showed a population of around 300,000 couples for Heroina Island alone. In a 2017/2018 study based on direct soil counts and automated counts using unmanned aerial vehicles , 751,527 breeding pairs were counted for the entire archipelago. Older studies show the distribution over the individual islands. The colony on Beagle Island is the largest with around 97,000 pairs, followed by Heroina with 51,000, Platter with 28,000 and Earle with 24,000 pairs. Chinstrap and gentoo penguins are found in smaller numbers . More on the islands of native seabirds are the Cape Petrel , the snowy sheathbill that Kelp , the Brown Skua , the Wilson's Storm Petrel , and the Antarctic Tern .
BirdLife International identifies the Danger Islands as an Important Bird Area (AQ062), and Earle Island as AQ064.
Web links
- RD Hamer, G. Hyden: The geochemistry and age of the Danger Islands pluton, Antarctic Peninsula ( Memento from July 6, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 4.93 MB). In: British Antarctic Survey Bulletin 64, 1984, pp. 1-19 (with a map of the archipelago).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Danger Islands in the Australian Antarctic Data Center (English)
- ↑ Ron Naveen, Steven C. Forrest, Rosemary G. Dagit, Louise K. Blight, Wayne C. Trivelpeace, Susan G. Trivelpeace: Censuses of penguin, blue-eyed shag, and southern giant petrel populations in the Antarctic Peninsula region, 1994 –2000 ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 3.8 MB). In: Polar Record 36, 2000, pp. 323-334
- ↑ Alex Borowicz et al. : Multi-modal survey of Adélie penguin mega-colonies reveals the Danger Islands as a seabird hotspot. In: Nature Scientific Reports. Volume 8, article number 3926. doi : 10.1038 / s41598-018-22313-w (English)
- ↑ CM Harris et al .: Important Bird Areas in Antarctica 2015 , BirdLife International and Environmental Research & Assessment Ltd., Cambridge 2015.
- ↑ Danger Islands (AQ062) , datasheet on the BirdLife International website, accessed July 23, 2018.
- ↑ Earle Island, Danger Islands (AQ064) , datasheet on the BirdLife International website, accessed July 23, 2018.
