Wiencke Island
| Wiencke Island | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Waters | Gerlache Street | |
| Geographical location | 64 ° 50 ′ S , 63 ° 23 ′ W | |
|
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| length | 26 km | |
| width | 8 kilometers | |
| surface | 67 km² | |
| Highest elevation |
Luigi Peak 1415 m |
|
| Residents | uninhabited | |
| main place | Port Lockroy | |
The Wiencke Island ( French Île Wiencke ) is an island in the southeast of the Palmer Archipelago west of the Antarctic Peninsula .
topography
Wiencke Island is separated from Anvers Island in the northeast by the Neumayer Canal . It measures approx. 26 kilometers in a southwest-northeast direction and is between 3 and 8 kilometers wide. The island is mountainous, the highest mountain range is the Sierra DuFief in the southwest. Here is the 1415 m high Luigi Peak, the highest point on the island.
history
The island was discovered by the Belgica expedition (1897–1899) under Adrien de Gerlache de Gomery and named after a Norwegian sailor, Carl-August Wiencke (1877–1898), who died on this voyage. During the Fourth French Antarctic Expedition (1904-1907) it was charted by Jean-Baptiste Charcot . In 1929 and 1930 Hubert Wilkins took off from Port Lockroy in the north-west of the island on two flights over the Antarctic Peninsula and to Deception Island .
During World War II , the island played a strategic role in the British military operation, Operation Tabarin . The Port Lockroy base (Station A) was built on the north-west bank on Goudier Island in 1944 and was used as a research station until 1962. From 1950 on, the main focus here was on exploring the ionosphere . The hut built there was named Bransfield House , after the captain of the Royal Navy Edward Bransfield , who was the first to map part of the Antarctic mainland in the years 1819-1820. Since 1962, research has been carried out on British Station F on the Argentine Islands .
Since the Antarctic summer 1996, the island has been frequented by cruise ships, tourist attractions include the former research station operated as a museum by the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust and the island's penguins .
Individual evidence
- ^ Wiencke Island. US Board on Geographic Names, accessed November 20, 2008 .
- ^ William James Mills: Exploring Polar Frontiers - A Historical Encyclopedia , Vol. 2, ABC-CLIO, 2003, pp. 699-700. ISBN 1-57607-422-6 (English)
- ↑ antarctica.ac.uk/about_bas
- ↑ Visiting Port Lockroy. Retrieved June 29, 2016 .
