Petermann Island

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Petermann Island
Petermann Island
Petermann Island
Waters French passage
Archipelago Wilhelm Archipelago
Geographical location 65 ° 10 ′ 5 "  S , 64 ° 8 ′ 32"  W Coordinates: 65 ° 10 ′ 5 "  S , 64 ° 8 ′ 32"  W
Petermann Island (Antarctic Peninsula)
Petermann Island
length 1.5 km
width 1 km
Highest elevation Clayton Hill
125  m
Residents uninhabited
Adelie penguins on Petermann Island
Adelie penguins on Petermann Island

The Petermann Island is an uninhabited island in the Antarctic . It is located in the Wilhelm Archipelago , south of the Palmer Archipelago and north of the Argentine Islands around 1,600 meters off the Graham Coast of the Antarctic Peninsula . The island was discovered in January 1874 by the German whaler Eduard Dallmann and named after the geographer August Petermann .

The highest point of the approximately 1.5 km long island reaches 150 m. According to other information, the highest point on the island, Clayton Hill , is between 125  m and 135  m high. The island is not completely glaciated , but its northwestern part has a small ice cap . Petermann Island is located at the southern end of the narrow, scenic Lemaire Channel, lined with high, sharp cliffs . It is the southernmost point of many cruises to Antarctica.

There are breeding colonies of donkey and Adelie penguins on the island . A breeding pair of chinstrap penguins was also observed in 2010/11 . Furthermore breed here Antarctic skuas , Wilson petrels , White sheathbills and Blauaugenscharben . The entire island is therefore designated by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (AQ089). As for seals, there are leopard seals and crab eaters . The vegetation is sparse and consists of mosses and lichens . Snow algae are often widespread and give the snowfields a pink tint.

Jean-Baptiste Charcot wintered from February 3rd, 1909 to November 26th, 1909 with his ship Pourquoi-Pas? on Petermann Island in a small bay, which he, because on January 1, 1909 the day of the circumcision of Christ , was found Port Circumcision called. On Megalestris Hill opposite the old anchorage of the Pourquoi Pas? a stone man and a copy of a historical plaque remind of the Charcot expedition. Both are historical sites and monuments under the protection of the Antarctic Treaty . There is an Argentine refuge on Petermann Island from the 1950s, which is maintained by the crew of the Ukrainian research station Vernadski on Galíndez Island . A cross commemorates three men from Faraday Station in the UK who died in the winter of 1982 while marching back from a climbing tour.

Web links

Commons : Petermann-Insel  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ John Stewart: Antarctica - An Encyclopedia . 2nd Edition. tape 2 . McFarland & Co., Jefferson and London 2011, ISBN 978-0-7864-3590-6 , pp. 1206 (English).
  2. ^ A b c Ron Naveen, Heather Lynch: Antarctic Peninsula Compendium . 3. Edition. Oceanites, Inc., Chevy Chase 2011, p. 175–177 (English, PDF; 37.5 MB ).
  3. ^ John Stewart: Antarctica - An Encyclopedia . 2nd Edition. tape 1 . McFarland & Co., Jefferson and London 2011, ISBN 978-0-7864-3590-6 , pp. 330 (English).
  4. ↑ Petermann Island (AQ089) in the Data Zone at BirdLife International, accessed on July 22, 2018 (English).
  5. ↑ HSM 27: Charcot's cairn 1909 in the Antarctic Protected Areas Database on the website of the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat (English, Spanish, French, Russian), accessed on November 16, 2019
  6. ^ The Wernadski station was until 1996 under the name Faraday station a British Antarctic station.