Omega island
| Omega island | ||
|---|---|---|
| Waters | Dallmann Bay | |
| Archipelago | Melchior Islands ( Palmer Archipelago ) | |
| Geographical location | 64 ° 19 '59 " S , 62 ° 55' 59" W | |
|
||
| length | 3 km | |
| width | 1.7 km | |
| surface | 10 km² | |
| Residents | uninhabited | |
The Omega Island (formerly Melchior Island ), also called Isla Sobral , is an approximately 10 km² large, predominantly ice-covered, uninhabited island of the Melchior Islands on the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula in the Southern Ocean .
history
The largest island of the Melchior Islands in terms of area was probably discovered by the German whaler Eduard Dallmann , who was responsible for the discovery of the entire archipelago , in the Antarctic summer of 1873/74.
The current name of the island - until around 1946 it was called Melchior Island - is due to the alternative naming of the island during an Argentine Antarctic expedition in 1942 and 1943. The renaming was necessary when the entire archipelago was officially named Melchior Islands.
Others
The Omega island was and is frequently visited on Antarctic cruises . Since the area around the island is littered with broken ice, it can only be approached by inflatable boats. The main attraction is, in addition to the observation of the numerous Weddell seals , a small fjord , which ends directly at a remarkable edge of a glacier .
In the course of such Rafting crew and passengers of the discovered Bremen in February 2003, a new island , which was later officially named after the ship Bremen Island , which only by the narrow Bremen channel is separated from the east adjacent Omega Island. Up to this point it was assumed that the area of the Bremen Island was part of the Omega Island.
Web links
- Omega Island in the Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica (English)