Île Amsterdam (French pronunciation:[ilamstɛʁdam]), also known asAmsterdam Island orNew Amsterdam (French:Nouvelle-Amsterdam), is an island of theFrench Southern and Antarctic Lands in the southernIndian Ocean that together with neighbouringÎle Saint-Paul 90 kilometres (56 mi) to the south forms one of the five districts of the territory.
Theresearch station atMartin-de-Viviès, first calledCamp Heurtin and thenLa Roche Godon, is the only settlement on the island and is the seasonal home to about thirty researchers and staff studying biology, meteorology, andgeomagnetics.[3]
French marinerPierre François Péron wrote that he was marooned on the island between 1792 and 1795. Péron'sMemoires, in which he describes his experiences, were published in a limited edition, now an expensive collector's item.[6][7][8] However,Île Amsterdam andÎle Saint-Paul were often confused at the time, and Péron may have been marooned on Saint-Paul.
Amsterdam and St. Paul islands were recommended in 1786 for a convict settlement byAlexander Dalrymple, the Examiner of Sea-Journals for theEast India Company, when the British government was considering New South Wales andNorfolk Island for such a settlement.[9] An investigation of those islands was subsequently undertaken in December 1792 and January 1793 byGeorge Lord Macartney, Britain's first ambassador to China, during his voyage to that country, and he concluded that they were not suitable for settlement.[10]
Sealers are said to have landed on the island, for the first time, in 1789.[11]: 166 Between that date and 1876, 47 sealing vessels are recorded at the island, 9 of which were wrecked. Relics of the sealing era can still be found.[11]: 166
The island was a stop on the BritishMacartney Embassy on its voyage to China in 1793.[12]
On 11 October 1833, the BritishbarqueLady Munro was wrecked at the island. Of the 97 persons aboard, 21 survivors were picked up two weeks later by a US sealingschooner,General Jackson.[13]
John Balleny in command of the exploration and sealing vesselEliza Scott visited the island in November 1838 in search of seals. He returned with a few fish and reported having seen the remains of a hut and the carcass of a whale.[14]: 73–74
The islands ofÎle Amsterdam andÎle Saint-Paul were first claimed by France in June 1843. A decree of 8 June 1843 mandated the Polish captain Adam Mieroslawski to take into possession and administer in the name of France both islands. The decree as well as the ship's log fromOlympe from 1 and 3 July 1843, stating that the islands had been taken into possession by Mieroslawski, are still preserved.[15][4]
However, the French government renounced its possession of the islands in 1853.[16]
In January 1871 an attempt to settle the island was made by a party led by Heurtin, a French resident ofRéunion. After seven months, their attempts to raise cattle and grow crops were fruitless, and they returned to Réunion, abandoning the cattle on the island.[17]
In May 1880HMS Raleigh circumnavigated the island searching for missing shipKnowsley Hall. A cutter and gig were despatched to the island to search for signs of habitation. There was a flagpole on Hoskin Point and 45–65 m (50–70 yards) north were two huts, one of which had an intact roof and contained three bunks, empty casks, an iron pot and the eggshells and feathers of sea-birds. There was also an upturned serviceable boat in the other hut, believed to belong to the fishermen who visited the island.[18]
In 1892, the crew of the French sloopBourdonnais, followed by the shipL'Eure in 1893, again took possession of Saint-Paul and Amsterdam Island in the name of the French government.
The island was attached to theFrench colony of Madagascar from 21 November 1924 until 6 August 1955 when the French Southern and Antarctic Lands was formed. (Madagascar gained independence in 1958.)
The first French base onÎle Amsterdam was established in 1949, and was originally calledCamp Heurtin. It is now theMartin-de-Viviès research station, named after Paul de Martin de Viviès who, with twenty-three others, spent the winter of 1949 on the island. The station was originally named Camp Heurtin and has been in operation since 1 January 1981, superseding the first station,La Roche Godon.[3]
On 15 January 2025, a wildfire broke out on the island, forcing the evacuation of all 31 residents by boat toRéunion. Due to the island's remote location, the fire spread unchecked. By 10 February, 45% of the island's area had been affected, while water supply and telecommunications infrastructure at theMartin-de-Viviès research station was damaged.[19]
From 1987 to 1998, there were frequentamateur radio operations from Amsterdam Island. There was a resident radio amateur operator in the 1950s, usingcallsign FB8ZZ.[20]
In January 2014 Clublog listed Amsterdam and St Paul Islands as the seventh most-wantedDXCC entity.[21] On 25 January 2014 aDX-pedition landed on Amsterdam Island using MVBraveheart and began amateur radio operations from two separate locations using callsign FT5ZM. The DX-pedition remained active until 12 February and achieved over 170,000 two-way contacts with amateur radio stations worldwide.
Île Amsterdam vent, crater and caldera structures. Click on map to enlarge it where upon mouse over is enabled so selected structures can be identified. Zoom out accesses approximate surface projections of nearby submarine structures.
No historical eruptions are known, although the fresh morphology of the latest volcanism at Dumas Craters on the northeastern flank suggests it may have occurred as recently as the late 19th century.[2][23] All the rocks aretholeiitic basalt and the oldest basalt sampled is no more than 720,000 years old.[24]: 181
There are two stratovolcanoes beingMont De La Dives which dominates and is younger and Le Mount du Fernand. Vents manifest as either cones or craters include Cratere Antonelli, Le Brulot, Le Chaudron, Le Cyclope, Crateres Dumas, Le Forneau, Cratere Inferieur, Grande Marmite, Cratere Hebert, Museau De Tanche, Cratere de l'Olympe, Cratere Superieur, Crateres Venus, and Cratere Vulcain (see map on this page).[2]
The island is located on the mainly undersea Amsterdam–Saint Paul Plateau which is ofvolcanic hotspot origin.[25]: 128 There is a magma chamber located at between 20–36 km (12–22 mi) depth below Amsterdam Island.[26] The plateau which extends north west towards the Nieuw Amsterdam Fracture Zone (Amsterdam Fracture Zone) and south to beyond the island of St Paul with its presently known active area being delimited by the St. Paul Fracture Zone,[27] is a 250 by 200 km (160 by 120 mi) feature of the sea floor near theSoutheast Indian Ridge, which is an activespreading center between the Antarctic plate that the island lies on, and theAustralian Plate.[24]: 180 Helium isotopic compositional studies are consistent with its formation from the combined effects of accretion at themid-ocean ridge ridge and mantle plume activity of a hot spot.[24]: 180 This is either theKerguelen hotspot or a potentially separateAmsterdam-Saint Paul hotspot but resolution of this issue is complicated by the recent volcanism on the island due to it being adjacent to the Southeast Indian Ridge.[28]: 1177 [29]: 128 Recent authors have favoured a separate Amsterdam and St. Paul hotspot.[27] There has been evidence atBoomerang Seamount to the north east of the island that Kerguelen-type source mantle exists beneath the Amsterdam and St. Paul Plateau.[30]: 257 Which ever hot spot is responsible is moving south as Île Amsterdam rocks are older than St. Paul rocks.[24]: 181 The Amsterdam–St. Paul Plateau while formed in the last 10 million years, started this formation beneath the Australian Plate so the island is built on the components of two tectonic plates.[31]
Phylica arborea trees occur on Amsterdam, which is the only place where they form a low forest, although the trees are also found onTristan da Cunha andGough Island. It was called theGreat Forest (Grand Bois), which covered the lowlands of the island until forest fires set by sealers cleared much of it in 1825. Only eight fragments remain.[contradictory] Sailors fromHMS Raleigh, who visited the island on 27 May 1880, described the vegetation as:[18]
Rough ground, grass several feet high,myrtle 10–15 feet [3–5 m] high in sheltered ravines, sedge, ferns (principallypolypodium) and cabbages, grown into bushes with stumps several inches thick in the garden [...].
A distinct breed of wild cattle,Amsterdam Island cattle, also inhabited the island from 1871 to 2010. They originated from the introduction of five animals by Heurtin during his brief attempt at settlement of the island in 1871[38] and by 1988 had increased to an estimated 2,000. Following recognition that the cattle were damaging the island ecosystems, a fence was built restricting them to the northern part of the island.[37] In 2007 it was decided to eradicate the population of cattle entirely, resulting in the slaughter of the cattle between 2008 and 2010.[40]
^Nougier, Jacques (1982). "Volcanism of St-Paul and Amsterdam islands; some aspects of volcanism along plate margins".IIIth Symp. Antarct. Geol. Madison:755–765.
^abcdDoucet, S.; Weis, D.; Scoates, J.S.; Debaille, V.; Giret, A. (2004). "Geochemical and Hf–Pb–Sr–Nd isotopic constraints on the origin of the Amsterdam–St. Paul (Indian Ocean) hotspot basalts".Earth and Planetary Science Letters.218 (1–2):179–195.Bibcode:2004E&PSL.218..179D.doi:10.1016/S0012-821X(03)00636-8.
^"Nouvelle Amsterdam (984)"(PDF).Fiche Climatologique: Statistiques 1981–2010 et records (in French). Meteo France. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 26 February 2018. Retrieved26 February 2018.
