TheLarsen Islands are a small group ofislands north-west ofMoreton Point, the western extremity ofCoronation Island, in theSouth Orkney Islands ofAntarctica. They were discovered by CaptainsGeorge Powell andNathaniel Palmer on the occasion of their joint cruise in December 1821. The islands were named onPetter Sørlle's chart, based upon his survey of the South Orkney Islands in 1912–1913, in honour ofCarl Anton Larsen.[1]
The islands were recharted in 1933 byDiscovery Investigations (DI) personnel on theDiscovery II, who used the name Larsen Islands for the group and named the largest island Larsen Island. This scheme was found to be confusing, so Larsen Island was renamed in 1954 by theUK Antarctic Place-names Committee (UK-APC) for the sloopJames Monroe, which was commanded by Captain Palmer at the time of discovery and anchored in this vicinity in December 1821.[2]
The largest island of the group, Monroe Island, lies about 10 km from Coronation.[2] Veitch Point is a point situated centrally along the northeast end of the island. Sphinx Rock lies immediately off the southwest end of Monroe Island. Both features were charted and named by DI personnel.[3][4]
The Larsen Islands, together with neighbouringMoreton Point and an adjacent area of ice-free land to the west, have been identified as a 1580 haImportant Bird Area (IBA) byBirdLife International because it supports largebreeding colonies ofseabirds, including some 125,000 pairs ofchinstrap penguins and 125,000 pairs ofsouthern fulmars.Snow petrels also nest there in smaller numbers.[5]
This article incorporatespublic domain material from websites or documents of theUnited States Geological Survey.
60°36′S46°04′W / 60.600°S 46.067°W /-60.600; -46.067
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