Juan Fernández Islands
| Juan Fernández Islands | |
|---|---|
.jpg) |
|
| Waters | Pacific Ocean |
| Geographical location | 33 ° 40 ′ S , 78 ° 50 ′ W |
 |
|
| Number of islands | 3 |
| Main island | Robinson Crusoe |
| Total land area | 99.7 km² |
| Residents | 926 (2017) |
.jpg) |
|
The Juan Fernández Islands (also: Juan Fernandez Archipelago ) are to Chile belonging archipelago in the southern Pacific . The islands are of volcanic origin and lie between 601 km ( Isla Robinson Crusoe ) and 747 km ( Isla Alejandro Selkirk ) west of the Chilean mainland, about the width of the Chilean port city of Valparaíso .
The archipelago, which administratively belongs to the Chilean V Region ( Región de Valparaíso ), consists of the following three main islands:
- Robinson Crusoe (formerly Isla Más a Tierra ), 47.9 km² in size, is the only island in the group to be inhabited. The main settlement is San Juan Bautista with about 800 inhabitants.
- Alejandro Selkirk (formerly Isla Más Afuera ), 49.5 km² in size, is 160 kilometers west of Isla Robinson Crusoe .
- Santa Clara , 2.2 km² in size, is located a few kilometers southwest of the island of Robinson Crusoe.
history
On November 22, 1574, the Spanish navigator Juan Fernández discovered the archipelago. He named the island he found Más a Tierra ( closer to the mainland ). He discovered Isla Más Afuera ( further out ) 160 km further west. A first attempt at settlement in 1591 with 60 Indians, who were given goats and chickens, failed. The islands have been inhabited again and again for a few years, but have only been permanently settled since 1877.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, the islands were used by English pirates to attack Spanish ships and trade routes. In 1680, for example, the English pirate John Watling used the islands as a stopover to attack the city of Arica in northern Chile.
From 1704 to 1709, the Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk lived alone on Isla Más a Tierra after he had fallen out with his captain William Dampier and was dropped ashore. The writer Daniel Defoe used Selkirk's story as the basis for his novel Robinson Crusoe . The island was renamed Isla Robinson Crusoe in 1970 , while Isla Más Afuera is misleadingly called Isla Alejandro Selkirk .
At the beginning of the 19th century the islands became a prison in exile for patriotic freedom fighters in the struggle for independence against the Spaniards. They survived for several years in caves above the Bahia Cumberland. Among the exiles were the later Chilean presidents Manuel Blanco Encalada and Agustín Eyzaguirre .
The archipelago has belonged to Chile since 1818. In 1823 the English Lord Thomas Cochrane visited the islands. Cochrane was admiral of the Chilean fleet from 1817 to 1825.
In 1877 Chile began to settle the archipelago. The Bernese patrician Alfred von Rodt (1843–1905), who fought against Prussia at a young age in the Austrian army and was wounded, leased the island and settled there. He began with their development and settlement and was a co-founder of the present-day San Juan Bautista settlement. He died on July 4, 1905 and was buried on the island.
During the First World War , the German cruiser SMS Dresden placed itself under Chilean sovereignty on March 14, 1915 after an adventurous odyssey and persecution by the British cruisers Kent , Glasgow and Orama in Cumberland Bay on the island of Más a Tierra . Nevertheless, the English opened fire and the Dresden caught fire. Finally, the commander of the Dresden ordered his ship to be blown up after most of the crew, including the ship's dog and parrot, were able to save themselves on Robinson Crusoe Island. The spot in Cumberland Bay is marked today with two yellow buoys and has been declared a national monument by the Chilean government. Among the German internees was the young lieutenant Wilhelm Canaris , who was later appointed chief of the Abwehr under Adolf Hitler .
In 1998, the American industrialist Bernard Keizer came to the island with the aim of digging up a treasure that is said to have been hidden there in 1761 by Cornelius Patrick Webb. Equipped with old nautical charts and a budget of several million dollars, he dug several tunnels - but so far without success. Rumor has it that the assets of the Germans living in Mexico at the time of the First World War are on board the Dresden. The cruiser had entered Mexico in 1914 before its odyssey began.
Today about 900 people live on the archipelago, most of them from tourism and lobster fishing .
The earthquake of February 27, 2010 in central Chile triggered a tsunami that destroyed almost all buildings in the archipelago and claimed several lives.
Nature and ecology
The Juan Fernández Islands, like the Galápagos Islands , have a high proportion of endemic plant and animal species. Over 100 species of plants that are unique worldwide can be found here. Botanists have recently discovered over 100 specimens of an orchid species believed to have disappeared. Giant ferns at tree height grow on the mountain slopes. With the arrival of the first humans in the 16th century, the islands' ecosystem has changed dramatically. On the one hand, humans brought new species, some of which were invasive , and on the other hand , the vegetation was greatly changed by felling trees, especially sandalwood . As a consequence, part of Isla Robinson Crusoe has become desert-like due to severe erosion and many endemic species are threatened with extinction. These processes will continue, among other things due to the mass reproduction of European rabbits introduced in 1935 and the so-called Juan Fernández goats . The landscape now offers a sharp contrast between the desert-like barren coastline and the lush green mountain landscape with an impenetrable vegetation of trees, ferns and grasses.
In 1935 the archipelago was declared a National Park of the Archipiélago Juan Fernández . Today, the islands are protected by UNESCO as a biosphere reserve .
climate
The climate is humid and oceanic. In the annual and daily rhythm it is neither particularly hot nor particularly cold. The annual average temperature is 15 ° C, with 18.7 ° C in summer and 7.3 ° C in winter.
particularities
At 916 meters (Robinson Crusoe) and 1329 meters (Alejandro Selkirk), the islands are high enough to disrupt the airflow at great heights. This leads to noticeable Karman vortices that can be seen from space.
literature
- Carl. D. Goerdeler, Malte Sieber: Chile, Easter Island, Juan Fernandez Archipelago . Travel with insider tips. With travel atlas and phrase book Spanish. In: Marco Polo travel guide . 5th edition. MairDumont, Ostfildern 2009, ISBN 978-3-8297-0387-1 .
- Hugo Weber: Signal mate Weber. Ten years on Robinson Island, Reutlingen (Ensslin & Laiblin) around 1940
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Archipiélago Juan Fernández. Sitio prioritario para la conservación de la bioversidad global. Sistematizacion del estado actual del conocimiento. Santiago 2009 (Spanish, wordpress.com [PDF; accessed January 8, 2017]).
- ↑ a b Cuevas, JG and Van Leersum, G. (2001) Project "Conservation, Restoration, and Development of the Juan Fernández islands, Chile". Revista chilena de historia natural, 74 (4): 899-910
- ↑ Chile after the quake: grief, death and ruins ; Spiegel-Online from February 28, 2010.
- ↑ Javier Gonzalez: Phylogenetic position of the most endangered Chilean bird: the Masafuera Rayadito ( Aphrastura masafuerae ; Furnariidae). Tropical Conservation Science , 2014, 7: 677-689.
