 Map of Livingston Island | |
  Livingston Location in the South Shetland Islands Show map of South Shetland Islands Livingston Location in Antarctica Show map of Antarctica | |
| Geography | |
|---|---|
| Location | Antarctica |
| Coordinates | 62°36′S60°30′W / 62.600°S 60.500°W /-62.600; -60.500 |
| Archipelago | South Shetland Islands |
| Area | 798 km2 (308 sq mi) |
| Length | 73 km (45.4 mi) |
| Width | 36 km (22.4 mi) |
| Highest elevation | 1,700.2 m (5578.1 ft) |
| Highest point | Mt Friesland |
| Administration | |
| Administered under theAntarctic Treaty System | |
| Demographics | |
| Population | ca. 80 (summer only) |
| Pop. density | 0.1/km2 (0.3/sq mi) |
| Ethnic groups | Spaniards,Bulgarians,Chileans,Americans andArgentines |
| Highest elevation entry refers to the maximum value recorded, which is subject to possible variation as the island's highest summits are ice-covered. | |
Livingston Island (Russian nameSmolensk,[1][a]62°36′S60°30′W / 62.600°S 60.500°W /-62.600; -60.500) is anAntarctic island in theSouthern Ocean, part of theSouth Shetlands Archipelago, a group ofAntarctic islands north of theAntarctic Peninsula. It was the first land discovered south of 60° south latitude in 1819, a historic event that marked the end of a centuries-long pursuit of the mythicalTerra Australis Incognita and the beginning of the exploration and utilization of real Antarctica. The name Livingston, although of unknown derivation, has been well established in international usage since the early 1820s.
Livingston Island is situated inWest Antarctica, 110 km (68 mi) northwest ofCape Roquemaurel on the Antarctic mainland, 809 km (503 mi) south-southeast ofCape Horn inSouth America, 796 km (495 mi) southeast of theDiego Ramírez Islands (the southernmost land ofSouth America), 1,063 km (661 mi) due south of theFalkland Islands, 1,571 km (976 mi) southwest ofSouth Georgia Islands, and 3,040 km (1,889 mi) from theSouth Pole.[2]
The island is part of the South Shetlands archipelago, an islands chain extending 510 km (317 mi) in east-northeast to west-southwest direction, and separated from the nearbyAntarctic Peninsula byBransfield Strait, and fromSouth America by theDrake Passage. The South Shetlands cover a total land area of 3,687 km2 or 1,424 sq mi (late 20th-century estimate; the current figure might be somewhat less than that due to coastal change), comprising (from east to west) the eleven principal islands ofClarence,Elephant,King George,Nelson,Robert,Greenwich, Livingston,Deception,Snow,Low andSmith, and a number of minor islands, islets and rocks.
Livingston is separated from neighbouring Greenwich Island to the east by the 3.3 km-wide (2.1 mi)McFarlane Strait, and from Snow Island to the west-southwest by the 5.9 km-wide (3.7 mi)Morton Strait. Deception Island, situated inBransfield Strait barely 18 km (11.2 mi) southwest of Livingston'sBarnard Point, is an active volcano last erupting in 1967, 1969 and 1970[3] whose floodedcaldera forms the 9.8 km (6 mi) by 6.8 km (4 mi) sheltered harbour ofPort Foster entered by a single 540 metres (590 yards) wide passage known asNeptune's Bellows. There are several extinct volcanoes on Livingston Island itself that were active in theQuaternary, such asRezen Knoll,Gleaner Heights,Edinburgh Hill andInott Point.[4]
.jpg)
The island extends 73 km (45 mi) fromStart Point in the west toRenier Point in the east, its width varying from 5 km (3.1 mi) at the neck betweenSouth Bay andHero Bay to 36 km (22 mi) betweenBotev Point to the south andWilliams Point to the north. Livingston is the second largest island in the archipelago after King George, with surface area of 798 km2 or 308 sq mi (early 21st-century estimate; the current figure might be somewhat smaller due to coastal change).[5][6]
The coastline is irregular, with major indentations such asSouth Bay,False Bay,Moon Bay,Hero,Barclay,New Plymouth,Osogovo andWalker, and peninsulas such asHurd (10 km or 6.2 mi long),Rozhen (9 km or 5.6 mi),Burgas (10.5 km or 6.5 mi),Varna (13 km or 8.1 mi),Ioannes Paulus II (12.8 km or 8.0 mi) andByers (15 km or 9.3 mi).[2] There are many islets and rocks lying in the surrounding waters, particularly off the north coast. More sizable among the adjacent minor islands areRugged Island off Byers Peninsula,Half Moon Island inMoon Bay,Desolation Island inHero Bay, andZed Islands off Williams Point.
Ice cliffs, often withdrawing during recent decades to uncover new coves, beaches,spits, points and minor islands, form most of the coastline. Except for the ice-free Byers Peninsula and some isolated patches, the land surface is covered by an ice cap with ice domes and plateaus in the central and western areas, and a number of valley glaciers formed by the more mountainous relief of eastern Livingston. Certain areas of the ice cap, especially near glacier termini or over steeper slopes, are densely crevassed and almost inaccessible without specialized equipment. Elsewhere, the surface is smooth, hard and comfortable for walking, skiing or snowmobiling. However, the danger of falling into some hidden crevasse masked by asnow bridge is ever-present, including in frequently visited and supposedly well-known localities. Protracted periods of warmer weather tend to make the snow bridges more unstable and hazardous.[2]
Typical of the island's glaciology are the conspicuous ash layers originating from volcanic activity on neighbouringDeception Island.[7] The island hosts also severalrock glaciers consisting of rock debris frozen in ice, such as those atNusha Hill,MacKay Peak andRenier Point.[8]
Along with the extensiveByers Peninsula (60.35 km2 or 23 sq mi) forming the west extremity of Livingston, the ice-free part of the island includes some minor coastal areas atCape Shirreff,Siddins Point,Hannah Point,Williams Point,Hurd Peninsula andRozhen Peninsula, as well as slopes in the mountain ranges, and ridges and heights in eastern Livingston that are too precipitous to keep snow. Numerous meltwater streams flow in the ice-free areas during summer, extending from hundreds of meters up to 4.5 km. Byers Peninsula alone has more than 60 such streams and as many lakes, notablyMidge Lake (587 by 112 m, or 642 by 122 yd),Limnopolar Lake andBasalt Lake.[9] Several such streams, lakes and ponds are situated in the vicinity of the Bulgarian and Spanish bases on Hurd Peninsula.
The principal mountain formations on the island compriseTangra Mountains (32 kilometres or 20 miles long and 8.5 kilometres or 5.3 miles wide, withMt Friesland rising to 1,700.2 m or 5,578 ft[10][11]),Bowles Ridge (6.5 km or 4 mi long, elevation 822 m or 2,697 ft),Vidin Heights (8 km or 5 mi, 604 m or 1,982 ft),Burdick Ridge (773 m or 2,536 ft),Melnik Ridge (696 m or 2,283 ft) andPliska Ridge (667 m or 2,188 ft) in the eastern part of the island, andOryahovo Heights (6 km or 4 mi, 340 m or 1,115 ft), andDospey Heights (6 km or 4 mi, 265 m or 869 ft).[2] The local ice relief is prone to change; in December 2016 the elevations of Mount Friesland andSt. Boris Peak were 1,693 m (5,554 ft) and 1,699 m (5,574 ft) respectively, making the latter the summit of Livingston in that season.[12] According to the American high accuracyReference Elevation Model of Antarctica (REMA), Mount Friesland is 8 m (26 ft) higher than St. Boris Peak.[13]
The first ascent of the island's Mount Friesland summit was made by the CatalansFrancesc Sàbat andJorge Enrique fromJuan Carlos I Base on 30 December 1991.[11][14] Of the other notable peaks of Tangra Mountains,Lyaskovets (1,473 m or 4,833 ft) was first summited by the BulgariansLyubomir Ivanov andDoychin Vasilev fromCamp Academia on 14 December 2004,[14][15][16]Great Needle Peak (Falsa Aguja Peak, 1,679.5 m or 5,510 ft) – by the Bulgarians Doychin Boyanov, Nikolay Petkov and Aleksander Shopov fromCamp Academia on 8 January 2015,[17]St. Boris – by Boyanov and Petkov from Camp Academia on 22 December 2016,[12] andSimeon (1,580 m or 5,184 ft) – by Boyanov, Petkov and Nedelcho Hazarbasanov fromNesebar Gap on 15 January 2017.[12]
Of the island's nature, CaptainRobert Fildes of thesealersCora andRobert (both of them shipwrecked in the South Shetlands) wrote in 1821:
On advancing from the northward toward Livingston's or the Main Island, the land will appear in mountains of a vast height, and covered entirely with snow; the base of them terminating inperpendicular ice cliffs. The whole has an awfully grand, though terrific and desolate, appearance; the snowy mountains showing themselves, one over another, far above the clouds, and exciting in the mind a devotional reverence on the wonders of the Almighty: and even if surrounded on all sides with rocks and breakers, the mind is forced into pious contemplation on the grandeur of the scene.[18]
The climate of Livingston ispolar tundra under theKöppen-Geiger climate classification system. Climatic conditions are influenced by the following specific factors: the island's location in the narrowest part of theSouthern Ocean (less than 600 km between theAntarctic Convergence and theAntarctic Peninsula); the relatively small amplitude of water temperatures in the surrounding sea; the local relief includingTangra Mountains, one of the highest mountain ranges in the archipelago that contributes to shaping the local atmospheric circulation; and the ice cap of the island.[19] Surface air temperature decreases with increasing altitudes, which in the interior of eastern Livingston Island reach 550 m at the centrally locatedWörner Gap and over 1400 m at the crest of Tangra Mountains.
The local variety of theAntarctic Peninsula weather is particularly changeable, windy, humid and sunless. Says Australian mountaineerDamien Gildea who climbed in the area: ‘Livingston got just about the worst weather in the world’.[20] A US seasonal field camp on Byers Peninsula was wrecked by storm and emergency evacuated in February 2009.[21] Whiteouts are common, and blizzards can occur at any time of the year. Temperatures are rather constant, withdiurnal temperature variations seldom exceeding a few degrees. Wind chill temperatures could be up to 5 to 10 °C (9 to 18 °F) lower than actual ones. The highest daily temperature recorded on the island is 19.9 °C or 67.8 °F (measured at theChilean Base), and the lowest is −22.4 °C or −8.3 °F (at theSpanish base).
Following a period of warming during the second half of the 20th century, the Antarctic Peninsula region has experienced a period of cooling in the early 21st century. For Livingston Island this cooling has reached 0.8 °C (1.4 °F) over the 12-year period 2004–2016, and 1 °C (1.8 °F) for the summer average temperatures over the same period. That has resulted in a longer snow cover duration in the coastal ice-free areas,[22] which could be exemplified by comparing the January snow line configurations shown on the 1996 and 2016 maps of the Bulgarian base.[23]
It can rain or snow on Livingston Island at any time of the year, although in the winter most precipitation occurs in the form of snow.[24]
| Climate data for Juan Carlos I Antarctic Base (12 m AMSL), 1988–2007 | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 15.5 (59.9) | 11.0 (51.8) | 9.4 (48.9) | 8.7 (47.7) | 5.5 (41.9) | 5.9 (42.6) | 5.0 (41.0) | 6.9 (44.4) | 10.8 (51.4) | 10.6 (51.1) | 10.2 (50.4) | 15.0 (59.0) | 15.5 (59.9) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 2.6 (36.7) | 2.3 (36.1) | 1.3 (34.3) | −0.3 (31.5) | −1.5 (29.3) | −3.8 (25.2) | −4.6 (23.7) | −4.4 (24.1) | −3.4 (25.9) | −2.3 (27.9) | 0.3 (32.5) | 1.4 (34.5) | −1.0 (30.2) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −3.2 (26.2) | −4.7 (23.5) | −10.9 (12.4) | −10.7 (12.7) | −12.8 (9.0) | −18.0 (−0.4) | −22.4 (−8.3) | −18.9 (−2.0) | −16.9 (1.6) | −15.0 (5.0) | −8.9 (16.0) | −7.0 (19.4) | −22.4 (−8.3) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 44.8 (1.76) | 58.5 (2.30) | 47.3 (1.86) | 43.0 (1.69) | 29.3 (1.15) | 10.1 (0.40) | 4.0 (0.16) | 7.7 (0.30) | 17.6 (0.69) | 45.3 (1.78) | 30.8 (1.21) | 38.8 (1.53) | 377.2 (14.85) |
| Average precipitation days | 16 | 17 | 15 | 16 | 11 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 12 | 17 | 13 | 15 | 148 |
| Averagerelative humidity (%) | 81 | 83 | 80 | 82 | 82 | 82 | 83 | 83 | 84 | 78 | 80 | 79 | 81.4 |
| Source:IPY[24] | |||||||||||||
Charles Darwin, 23 years old as he started his biological research in neighbouringPatagonia,Tierra del Fuego and theFalklands in 1832, noted (with some inaccuracy in his distances):
The South Shetland Islands, in the same latitude as the southern half of Norway, possess only some lichens, moss, and a little grass withfrozen under-soil within 360 miles of theforest-cladislands nearCape Horn.[25]
The coastal areas of Livingston Island are home to a selection of vegetation and animal life typical for the northernAntarctic Peninsula region, includingfur,elephant,Weddell, andleopard seals, andchinstrap,gentoo,Adélie andmacaroni penguins. Several other seabirds, includingskuas,southern giant petrel andAntarctic terns, nest on the island during the summer months.
Spanish biological research has identified 110 species oflichens and 50 ofmosses on a territory of just 3 km2 (1.2 sq mi) at theSpanish base onHurd Peninsula, the highest species diversity recorded from any single Antarctic locality.[26]
It was only during the nineteenth century that any land was discovered in what is now the ‘political’ territory of Antarctica, and that land happened to be Livingston Island. The English merchantWilliam Smith in his brigWilliam, while sailing toValparaíso in early 1819, strayed from his route south ofCape Horn and on 19 February sightedWilliams Point, the northeast extremity of Livingston. That was the first land ever discovered south of 60° south latitude, in what is now theAntarctic Treaty area.[27]
Russian explorervon Bellingshausen commented on Smith's discovery:
It is noteworthy that navigation roundFire Land spanned over two hundred years, yet no one saw the coasts of New Shetland. In 1616 the Dutch marinersLemaire andSchouten found a strait between Fire Land andStaten Land named after Lemaire. Having sailed that strait and rounded Fire Land, they were the first to enter theGreat Ocean by that route. Since that time ships rounding Fire Land not infrequently encountered prolonged and strong northwesterly headwinds and storms, and probably were carried close to the South Shetland, and some, perhaps, lost their life at its coasts, but it was not until February 1819 that these islands were accidentally discovered by Smith, the captain of an English merchant brig.[28]
Several months later Smith revisited theSouth Shetlands, landed onKing George Island on 16 October 1819 and claimed possession forBritain. In the meantime, a Spanishman-of-war had been damaged by severe weather in theDrake Passage and sank off the north coast of Livingston on 4 September 1819. The 74-gun shipSan Telmo commanded by Captain Joaquín Toledo was the flagship of a Spanish naval squadron en route toCallao to fight the independence movement inSpanish America.[29] The officers, soldiers and sailors on board the ship, including the squadron'sPeruvian-born leader BrigadierRosendo Porlier, are the first recorded people to die in Antarctica. While no one survived, some of her spars and her anchor-stock were found subsequently by sealers onHalf Moon Beach at Cape Shirreff.[30][27]
During December 1819William Smith was back with his ship to the South Shetlands. This time he was chartered by CaptainWilliam Shirreff, British commanding officer in thePacific stationed inChile, and accompanied by LieutenantEdward Bransfield who was tasked to survey and map the new lands. On 30 January 1820 they sighted the mountains of theAntarctic Peninsula, unaware that three days earlier the continent had already been discovered by the Russian Antarctic expedition ofFabian Gottlieb Thaddeus von Bellingshausen andMihail Lazarev.
One year later, the Russians had circumnavigated Antarctica and arrived in the South Shetlands region. On 6 February 1821 they approached Livingston Island and observed eight British and American ships off Byers Peninsula. While sailing betweenDeception and Livingston, Bellingshausen met with American sealerNathaniel Palmer, yet another pioneer of Antarctic exploration who is alleged to have sighted the mainland himself during the previous November. Palmer informed the Russians thatseal hunting in the area was going at full steam, with Smith alone having taken 60,000seal skins.[28] The Antarctic sealing industry south of 60°S was initiated in the 1819/20 summer season by the early voyage of Joseph Herring (ship's mate during Smith's first visit) who stepped ashore inHersilia Cove,Rugged Island on Christmas Day of 1819, followed by James Sheffield (with second mate, a 20-year-old Nathaniel Palmer),James Weddell, and possibly Carlos Timblón from Buenos Aires.
American historianEdouard Stackpole wrote of the early 19th century sealers:
While the indiscriminate slaughter of the seals in the South Shetlands was a sad feature of an otherwise thrilling story of maritime adventure, it is not the whole story. Despite their brutal trade, which made them realists in its fullest sense, the captains, officers and men were not all reckless, cynical and dissolute. True, they lived a hard life of necessity, but their fragmentary records reveal them as resourceful mariners, fully aware of their danger but willing to risk their lives in their hazardous calling.[31]
As the seals were killed onshore the hunters used to spend protracted periods of time there, seeking refuge from the elements in purpose-built stone huts, tent bivouacs or natural caves. Livingston Island became the most populous place in Antarctica for a time, its dwellers exceeding 200 in number during the 1820–23South Shetlands sealing rush.[32][2] The principal sealer ‘settlements’ on the island were situated onByers Peninsula, as well as atCape Shirreff andElephant Point.[33] Argentine archaeological research has identified 26 human-built shelter structures on Byers Peninsula alone.[34] There were some women among the early inhabitants of the island, as evidenced by a 1985 discovery of the grave of a 21-year-old woman of mixed European and Native American descent atYamana Beach on Cape Shirreff, dated to the early 19th century.[35] Remains ofhuts and sealer artefacts are still found on Livingston, which possesses the second greatest concentration of historical sites in Antarctica (afterSouth Georgia). The memory of that epoch survives, other than in archaeological finds, also in a dozen preserved ship logs and as many memoirs, such as the candid story published in 1844 by oneThomas Smith who sailed to Livingston in the sealerHetty under Captain Ralph Bond during the 1820/21 season.[36]
Sealing was replaced by another rush of unsustainable commercial exploitation during the 20th century – Antarcticwhaling. This time Livingston Island was not directly involved, although the southernmostHektor Whaling Station was operated by Norway on nearby Deception Island from 1912 to 1931.[3] Whaling likewise depleted its resource and gave way at the turn of the 1970s to modern Antarcticfishing industry pioneered by the fishing fleets of theSoviet Union,Poland,East Germany andBulgaria.[37]
A significant milestone in Livingston Island's history was theAntarctic Treaty signed in 1959 and entered into force in 1961, which effectively placed the region south of 60° south latitude under the joint governance of the consultative (voting) parties to the treaty, providing in particular for the freedom of scientific exploration. The treaty left the personnel of the Antarctic bases under their respective home countries’ jurisdiction, and essentially froze the existing sovereignty claims. (Livingston, in particular, was claimed by Britain in 1820 withletters patent of annexation promulgated in 1908, by Chile in 1940 and by Argentina in 1942 — claims not recognized, among others, by the US and Russia, which have formally reserved their rights to claim Antarctic territories.[38]) Since then, the evolvingAntarctic Treaty System has been providing an increasingly comprehensive legal framework for all Antarctic-related activities, includingenvironmental protection andexploitation of marine living resources, and has proved an example of uniquely successful international cooperation.
On 15 September 1976, aLockheed SP-2E Neptune (0644/2-P-103) of theArgentine Air Force disappeared on a flight fromRío Grande after making radio contact at 12:15. The plane was found crashed into Monte Bernard here eight days later, with all 11 occupants killed.[39]
The names of many geographical features on the island refer to its early history. Among the commemorated are ship captains such as the Americans James Sheffield, Christopher Burdick,Charles Barnard, Chester, Robert Johnson, Donald MacKay, Robert Inott, David Leslie, Benjamin Brunow, Robert Macy, Prince Moores, William Napier and Daniel Clark (first mate), the BritonsWilliam Shirreff, M’Kean, John Walker, Ralph Bond, Christopher MacGregor, T. Binn andWilliam Bowles, the AustralianRichard Siddins, people like the New York shipownerJames Byers, the American whaling merchantsWilliam and Francis Rotch, British Admiralty hydrographerThomas Hurd, andJohn Miers, publisher of the first chart of the South Shetland Islands based on the work ofWilliam Smith, or sealing vessels likeHuron,Williams (William Smith's brig),Hersilia,Samuel,Gleaner,Huntress,Charity,Hannah,Henry,John,Hero (Nathaniel Palmer's sloop),Cora,Hetty,Essex andMercury.
Some of the place names given by the nineteenth century sealers are descriptive, such asDevils Point,Hell Gates andNeck or Nothing Passage, hazardous places where ships and people were lost;False Bay, sometimes confused in thick weather with neighbouringSouth Bay;Needle Peak;Black Point; or theRobbery Beaches where American sealers were robbed of their sealskins by the British. However, names like Livingston,Mount Friesland,Ereby Point andRenier Point that also became established during the first few seasons after the discovery of the island remain of unknown origin.
Livingston was the third name of the island, introduced in 1821 by the British sealer Robert Fildes (as quoted above), replacing the popular early nameFriesland Island (variously spelled also as Frieseland, Freesland, Freeseland, Frezeland, Freezland, Frezland and Freezeland[40]) and the nameSmolensk given by Bellingshausen in commemoration of one of the great battles of theNapoleonic Wars. The toponyms Friesland and Smolensk are now preserved as Mount Friesland andSmolensk Strait respectively. While the nameLivingston is sometimes misspelt asLivingstone, it has nothing to do with the ScotsmanDavid Livingstone, an 8-year-old boy in 1821 who was yet to become a cotton mill worker and still later amissionary and famous explorer ofAfrica.[6]
Some place names on the island are given by Argentina and Chile, such asCharrúa Ridge,Scesa Point,Arroyo Point,Bruix Cove,Ocoa Point,Dreyfus Point,Mansa Cove,Agüero Point etc. Several Argentine names commemorate crewmen of theArgentine NavyLockheed Neptune aircraft that crashed in poor weather on the then uninhabited island on 15 September 1976, killing 10 aircrew and a civilian television cameraman.[2] Features likePoint Smellie andWillan Nunatak are named after British scientists who have carried out field work on the island. Other names reflect the Spanish and Bulgarian exploration and mapping in the area, such asEspañola Cove,Mount Reina Sofía,San Telmo Island,Ballester Point andCastellvi Peak (after Antonio Ballester andJosefina Castellví, doyens of the Spanish Antarctic programme),Quiroga Ridge,Dañobeitia Crag,Ojeda Beach,Enrique Hill,Sàbat Hill,Casanovas Peak,Bulgarian Beach,Krum Rock (or Krumov Kamak),Pimpirev Beach (afterChristo Pimpirev, doyen and leader of the Bulgarian Antarctic programme),Vergilov Ridge,Kuzman Knoll,Dimov Gate,Gurev Gap,Yankov Gap etc.Hespérides Point is named afterBIOHespérides, aSpanish Navyoceanographic vessel serving in particular as a resupply ship for the Spanish and Bulgarian bases for many years.Rongel Point andLas Palmas Cove are also named after modern Antarctic ships.
A concentration of place names (probably the highest in Antarctica) arising from local topographic diversity – over fifty names, mostly Chilean, occurs on the small 3.22 km2 (1.24 sq mi)[5] ice-free headland forming the northern extremity ofIoannes Paulus II Peninsula and ending in Cape Shirreff.
The first modern, 'post-sealer' habitation facility on Livingston Island was the British base campStation P that operated during the 1957/58 summer season atSouth Bay, on the east side of the small ice-free promontory ending inHannah Point.[2] The scientific bases ofJuan Carlos I (Spain) andSt. Kliment Ohridski (Bulgaria; often shortened by non-Bulgarians toOhridski Base, sometimes misspelt asOhridiski) were established in early 1988 at South Bay, on the northwest coast ofHurd Peninsula.Doctor Guillermo Mann Base (Chile) and adjoiningCape Shirreff Field Station (USA) operate onCape Shirreff since 1991 and 1996 respectively, whileCámara Base (Argentina) on the tiny nearbyHalf Moon Island is one of the early bases in the Antarctic Peninsula region established in 1953. These facilities are used also by visiting scientists from various nations; in particular, the Bulgarian base has hosted the first steps in Antarctic research by scientists from countries such as Portugal, Luxembourg, North Macedonia, Mongolia and Turkey.
All four bases are permanent settlements, although inhabited only during the summer season. Their accommodation capacity is ca. 51, 18, 11 and 12 persons respectively, making it a total of 92 persons (80 for Livingston Island proper). The number of people inhabiting the bases in any particular season is actually greater as some of them stay for part of the time and are replaced by others.[2][41]
Occasional or more permanent field camps support research in remote areas of the island.Camp Byers (Spain) operates regularly on the banks of Petreles Stream,South Beaches nearNikopol Point on Byers Peninsula; that site is also designated for use as anInternational Field Camp. The seasonalCamp Livingston (Argentina) is also situated on Byers Peninsula, whileSally Rocks Camp (Bulgaria) supported geological research on southern Hurd Peninsula.Camp Academia site situated at elevation 541 m (1,775 ft) in upperHuron Glacier,Wörner Gap area served as a base camp of theTangra 2004/05 topographic survey. It is accessible by 11–12.5 km (6.8–7.8 mi) routes from St. Kliment Ohridski and Juan Carlos I base respectively, and offers convenient overland access toTangra Mountains to the south;Bowles Ridge,Vidin Heights,Kaliakra Glacier andSaedinenie Snowfield areas to the north;Huron Glacier to the east; andPerunika Glacier andHuntress Glacier to the west. The site is named for theBulgarian Academy of Sciences in appreciation of its contribution to Antarctic exploration, and has been designated as the summer post office Tangra 1091 of theBulgarian Posts since 2004. Field work done out of Camp Academia during the 2004/05 season was noted in 2012 byDiscovery Channel, theNatural History Museum, theRoyal Collection and theBritish Antarctic Survey as a timeline event in Antarctic exploration.[42][43]
In order to protect Antarctica, theAntarctic Treaty system enforces a strict general regime regulating human presence and activities on the continent, and designates certain protected territories where access is allowed only for scientific purposes, and with special permission.
There are two suchnature reserves on Livingston Island established in 1966:Antarctic Specially Protected AreasASPA 149 Cape Shirreff and San Telmo Island, andASPA 126 Byers Peninsula. These comprise respectivelyByers Peninsula, which is the largest ice-free land area in the South Shetlands, and the small peninsula ofCape Shirreff together withGerlovo Beach, nearbySan Telmo Island and adjacent waters.
Subject of protection in ASPA 126 are the fossils demonstrating thelink between Antarctica and other austral continents, a variety of abundant flora and fauna including colonies of seals and penguins that are the subject of scientific study and monitoring, as well as numerous historical monuments dating from the nineteenth century.[44] This territory has been identified also as anImportant Bird Area byBirdLife International because of itsbreeding colonies ofAntarctic terns andkelp gulls.[45] ASPA 149 features diverse plant and animal life, notably penguin and seal colonies including the largestfur seal breeding colony in the Antarctic Peninsula region.[46] No longer hunted, fur seals have successfully re-colonized their original habitats on Livingston Island and elsewhere in the Antarctic Peninsula region.
The land boundary of ASPA 126 Byers Peninsula was shifted eastwards to 60º53'45"W in 2016 to include along with Byers Peninsula also all ice-free ground and ice sheet west ofClark Nunatak andRowe Point, increasing the overall surface area of that protected territory to 84.7 km2 (32.7 sq mi). Two restricted zones of scientific importance toAntarctic microbiology have been further designated within these boundaries with greater restriction placed on access with the aim of preventing microbial or other contamination by human activity:Ray Promontory in the west, andIvanov Beach and northwesternRotch Dome in the east.[44]
There are twoHistoric Sites or Monuments of Antarctica on the island:San Telmo Cairn (HSM 59) at Cape Shirreff, which commemorates the 644Spaniards lost on board theSan Telmo in 1819, and theLame Dog Hut (HSM 91) at St. Kliment Ohridski base, which is the oldest preserved building on Livingston Island and together with its associated artefacts is considered a part of the cultural and historic heritage of the island and Antarctica. The hut hosts theLivingston Island Museum, a branch of theNational Museum of History in Sofia.[47]
Antarctic shipbornetourism was initiated in the 1957/58 season with four cruises operated by Chile and Argentina in the South Shetland Islands.[48] Since then the number of tourists visiting Antarctica has grown to several tens of thousands annually. Over 95% of them tour the South Shetlands and the nearby Antarctic Peninsula.Hannah Point on the south coast of Livingston,Half Moon Island off its east coast,Aitcho Islands just north ofGreenwich Island, andDeception Island are among the most popular destinations. Tourists arrive mainly incruise ships, and are landed byZodiac rigid inflatable boats to walk along designated trails led by tourist guides and enjoy picturesque scenery and wildlife. Zodiac boats are the preferred means of local sea transport, being particularly suitable for navigation among floating ice and landing at places lacking port facilities. Naturally, this is only possible in summer as the sea surface is partially or completely frozen in ice over one meter thick in winter.[2] Visits by yachts and extreme tourism such as kayaking have become increasingly popular, too.
_30.jpg)
Cruise ships visiting Hannah Point occasionally make a 12 km (7 mi) sightseeing detour to the Bulgarian base, where the tourists could visit theLivingston Island Museum established in October 2012, the old and newchapels of St. Ivan Rilski – the firstEastern Orthodox edifice in Antarctica consecrated in February 2003, and the Monument to theCyrillic Script erected onPesyakov Hill in March 2018.[49] Livingston Island has some particular relationship with theCyrillic alphabet as the modern system for theRomanization of Bulgarian was developed in 1995 for use in Bulgarian-related place names on the island by theAntarctic Place-names Commission,[50] and later became official for Bulgaria, UK, USA and UN.[51][52]
The northeasternmost slopes of Tangra Mountains betweenElena Peak andRenier Point together with the adjacent portion ofSopot Ice Piedmont are a popular site forbackcountry skiing andclimbing, with skiers landed by Zodiac boats from cruise ships visiting Half Moon Island's vicinity.[53][54]
Several squares and streets in Bulgarian towns and cities are named after Livingston Island, such asLivingston Island Square inSamuil andKula, andLivingston Island Street inGotse Delchev,Yambol,Petrich,Sofia,Lovech andVidin.[55][56][57][58][59]
.jpg)
%25E2%2580%2593Southern_elephant_seal_(Mirounga_leonina)_01.jpg)
.jpg)
This article incorporatespublic domain material from"Livingston Island".Geographic Names Information System.United States Geological Survey.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
