Terra Nova Islands
The Terra Nova Islands are two phantom islands off the coast of East Antarctica . Their supposed position is about 25 kilometers north of the Williamson Head headland .
On March 8, 1961, the Australian polar explorer Phillip Law claims to have sighted the two islands from aboard the research vessel Magga Dan as part of an Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition (ANARE). He named it after the research ship Terra Nova , the expedition ship of the British Antarctic Expedition (1910-1913). From aboard this ship, Lieutenant Harry Pennell of the Royal Navy had discovered and mapped various geographic objects in the area. The Antarctic Names Committee of Australia later officially recognized this naming. The Terra Nova Islands were subsequently recorded on official nautical maps of the region and included in reference works and databases such as the American Geographic Names Information System .
It wasn't until more than 20 years later that it was discovered that the islands did not exist. In 1989, the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources planned to visit and map the islands as part of the GANOVEX V research expedition . Geologists should land there in a helicopter and take rock samples.
However, the islands could not be found either from a helicopter or from the research vessel Polar Queen , which came within two nautical miles of the islands' coordinates . A further exploration flight over a larger area did not provide any further information, while other islands recorded there such as the smaller Aviator Islands and Babushkin Island were clearly recognizable. An exploration of the position with an echo sounder indicated water depths of 170 to 355 meters in this area. The later expeditions GANOVEX VII and GANOVEX VIII also confirmed the non-existence of the Terra Nova Islands.
The submarine Terra Nova Canyon was named after this group of islands in 1988.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Terra Nova Islands ( English ) In: Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey . Retrieved April 21, 2013.
- ^ A b c Norbert W. Roland: Antarktis - research in the eternal ice . Spektrum Akademischer Verlag , Heidelberg 2009, ISBN 978-3-8274-1875-3 , pp. 242–244 ( PDF; 1.5 MB [accessed April 21, 2013]).
- ↑ Terra Nova Canyon ( English ) In: Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey . Retrieved April 21, 2013.