Smyley Island
| Smyley Island | ||
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| Waters | Bellingshausen Lake | |
| Geographical location | 72 ° 55 ′ S , 78 ° 0 ′ W | |
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| length | 68 km | |
| width | 14 to 38 km | |
| surface | approx. 1685 km² | |
| Residents | uninhabited | |
The Smyley Island ( English S myley Island , Spanish Isla Smyley ) is an ice-covered Antarctic island in the Bellingshausen Sea between Carroll Inlet and Stange Sound . It borders the Stange Ice Shelf , part of the George VI Ice Shelf , and lies off the coast of Ellsworthland .
geography
Smyley Island is approximately 91 km long and 69 km wide. The island has an estimated area of 1685 km², but sizes vary between 1000 and up to 2500 km². Depending on the actual size, the Smyley Island is the tenth to the twentieth largest island in Antarctica, probably around the 15th place. In terms of shape, Smyley Island resembles a T. rotated 150 ° to the left. The average height of the island is 291 m above sea level. NN .
The island is completely covered by ice and is mostly in an ice shelf , which is why it is very difficult to see it as an island from above. It was initially suspected and is still falsely represented on many maps as if Smyley Island was connected to Ellsworthland , i.e. the mainland.
It is located near the Antarctic Peninsula and 14 km from the Rydberg Peninsula on the mainland, which is the closest to the southwest of the island. The closest coast is the English coast , which is part of the Ellsworthland .
The 86 km of the Ronne Entrance separate the Smyley Island from the northeastern Alexander I Island , the largest island in Antarctica; Smyley Island is on the southwest side of this sea. Case Island is about 16 km to the south, and Spaatz Island , which is similar in size, is located to the southeast , 52 km away.
Smyley Island is one of the 27 larger islands in the Palmerland . The two capes Scoresby Head and Cape Marchesi are located on it . The middle part of the northern coastline is called the Trathan Coast .
Affiliation
Smyley Island is part of both the British Antarctic Territory and the Chilean Antarctic Territory and is claimed by both states. Both territorial claims are not recognized internationally.
As part of the British Antarctic Territory , Smyley Island is an overseas and dependent territory of the United Kingdom and is administered by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office . In the United Kingdom, the island is called Smyley Island .
As part of the Chilean Antarctic Territory , the Smyley Island belongs to the municipality of Antártica , the province of Antártica Chilena and finally to the Región de Magallanes y de la Antártica Chilena . In Chile the island is called Isla Smyley .
According to the Antarctic Treaty , anyone can enter the island under the laws of their own country. However, it is not built on. No state is allowed to determine this area alone.
History and naming
Smyley Island was first seen on one of the flights of the United States Antarctic Program in December 1940, which were completed from 1939 to 1942, but not identified as an island. The cape on the north-western tip of the island that is not in the ice shelf was first named Cape Ashley Snow after Ashley C. Snow. Later it was named to Cape Smyley , after William Horton Smyley (1792-1868), the captain of the Ohio sailing ship from Newport ( Rhode Island ), which 1841-1842 the South Shetland Islands ( Deception Island ), the Palmer Archipelago and maybe also explored areas further south. However, it cannot automatically be assumed that Smyley, who was also US Commercial Agent in the Falkland Islands in 1853 , came with his ship to the south of Alexander I Island . In February 1842 he found the self-measuring thermometer that Henry Foster had left in Pendulum Cove on Deception Island.
In 1852 the name Smilies Island appeared for the first time on a globe made by Gilman Joslin of Boston for a formation at about 72 ° S south of Alexander I Island. The globe can be seen today at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia .
After aerial photographs in 1965 and 1966, during which the outline of the island was drawn, the name Cape Smyley was officially adopted for the island by the US Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 1968 on an area map of the United States Geological Survey , which from then on Smyley Island was called. Later the island was incorrectly named Ashley Snow Island after the previous name for Cape Smyley.
nature
A few miles east of Scoresby Head , the northern tip of Smyley Island, is a colony of Emperor Penguins . Analysis of a satellite photo taken on November 12, 2009 revealed that it consisted of approximately 6,000 animals at the time. BirdLife International therefore designates an area of 497 hectares as an Important Bird Area (AQ204).
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://aq.geoview.info/smyley_island,6620721
- ↑ http://www.eosnap.com/tag/smyley-island/
- ↑ http://mapcarta.com/25587120
- ↑ a b Archived copy ( memento of the original from June 27, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.mapplanet.com/?do=loc&loc=20011354
- ↑ Scorseby Head, Smyley Island (AQ204) , data sheet on the BirdLife International website, accessed on July 23, 2018.
