Nightingale Island

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Nightingale Island
The island seen from the sea
The island seen from the sea
Waters Atlantic Ocean
Archipelago Tristan da Cunha
Geographical location 37 ° 25 ′ 19 ″  S , 12 ° 28 ′ 37 ″  W Coordinates: 37 ° 25 ′ 19 ″  S , 12 ° 28 ′ 37 ″  W
Nightingale Island (South Atlantic)
Nightingale Island
length 2.5 km
width 1.5 km
surface 2.6 km²
Highest elevation 337  m
Residents uninhabited
Tristan da Cunha and Nightingale Island
Tristan da Cunha and Nightingale Island

Nightingale Island is an island in the South Atlantic that belongs to the Tristan da Cunha archipelago and thus to the British overseas territory of St. Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha . The smaller islands Middle Island and Stoltenhoff Island are in the immediate vicinity .

Nightingale Island is about 2.5 km long, 1.5 km wide and has an area of ​​about 2.6 km². The highest point is in the north of the island at 337 meters above sea level. Nightingale Island is visited by cruise ships for its fauna.

history

Nightingale was discovered by Tristão da Cunha in 1506 . In 1656 the crew of the Dutch ship t'Nachtglas landed on the island, which they called Gebroken Eyland . The island was later named after Gamaliel Nightingale , who explored the island in 1760.

On October 10, 1961, a volcanic eruption on Tristan da Cunha, which threatened the only settlement on the island, forced the entire local population to evacuate. The residents sought refuge on Nightingale Island for one night and were then taken by ship to Cape Town and from there to Great Britain, from where most of the islanders returned to their homeland in 1963.

On July 29 and 30, 2004, accompanied by swarm quakes , a submarine volcanic eruption occurred on the southeast flank of Nightingale Island. In the days that followed, larger chunks of floating phonolithic pumice stone were found southwest of Tristan da Cunha.

In March 2011, the cargo ship Oliva ran aground off the island and broke up. A larger amount of heavy oil escaped .

Flora and fauna

Blechnum palmiforme on Nightingale
Turdus eremita on Nightingale

Nightingale Island is a breeding ground for more than a million seabirds , including the great shearwater ( Puffinus gravis ), yellow-nosed albatross ( Thalassarche chlororhynchos ) and rockhopper penguin ( Eudyptes chrysocome ). The island may only be entered when accompanied by locals from Tristan da Cunha.

View of (from left to right) Nightingale Island, Middle Island, Stoltenhoff Island and Inaccessible Island

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ^ TPC R-1C South Atlantic Ocean; Tristan da Cunha group; Gough Island . In: US Defense Mapping Agency Aerospace Center (Ed.): Tactical Pilotage Charts 1: 500,000 . 1989 (English, online in the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection of the University of Texas at Austin ).
  2. Tristan da Cunha Volcanic Interlude 1961–1963. In: Tristan da Cunha website. Tristan da Cunha Government and Tristan da Cunha Association, accessed May 20, 2017 .
  3. Global Volcanism Program, 2004. Report on Nightingale Island (United Kingdom) . In: Richard Wunderman (Ed.): Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network . tape 29 , no. 8 . Smithsonian Institution , August 2004, doi : 10.5479 / si.GVP.BGVN200408-386011 (English).
  4. Tristan da Cunha MS Oliva Shipwreck. In: Tristan da Cunha website. Tristan da Cunha Government and Tristan da Cunha Association, accessed May 20, 2017 .