Prince Edward Island (South Africa)
| Prince Edward Island | |
|---|---|
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| Waters | Indian Ocean |
| Archipelago | Prince Edward Islands |
| Geographical location | 46 ° 39 ′ S , 37 ° 57 ′ E |
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| length | 11 km |
| width | 6 km |
| surface | 45 km² |
| Highest elevation | Van Zinderen Bakker Peak 672 m |
| Residents | uninhabited |
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The Prince Edward Island ( English Prince Edward Island ) is the smaller and more northerly of the two Prince Edward Islands in the southern Indian Ocean . Politically it belongs to South Africa and there to the Western Cape Province .
geography
The uninhabited island is 1750 km from the city of Port Elizabeth , i.e. from the mainland, 21 km northeast of Marion Island and, in contrast to this, is not glaciated. It is almost 11 km long in an east-west direction, up to 6 km wide in a north-south direction and has an area of 45 km². It consists of a former shield volcano with numerous side craters and reaches a height of 672 m above sea level in Van Zinderen Bakker Peak . The south coast of Prince Edward Island is characterized by cliffs up to 490 m high . In front of the island in the north, with the Ross Rocks and the Ship Rock, are small cliffs.
history
The island was discovered by chance on March 4, 1663 by the Dutch navigator Barend Barendszoon Lam . However, he determined the position of the island incorrectly, so that it was "discovered" again on January 13, 1772 by the French Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne . In December 1776, James Cook also sighted the island and named it, like the entire archipelago, after Prince Edward , the fourth son of King George III.
Web links
- Prince Edward Island in the Global Volcanism Program of the Smithsonian Institution (English)