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Traversay Islands

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Coordinates:56°36′S27°43′W / 56.600°S 27.717°W /-56.600; -27.717

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Three northernmost South Sandwich Islands

Traversay Islands
Geography
The Traversay Islands within the South Sandwich Islands
Location of the South Sandwich Islands
Coordinates	56°36′S027°43′W / 56.600°S 27.717°W /-56.600; -27.717
Archipelago	South Sandwich Islands
Administration
United Kingdom
Demographics
Population	Uninhabited

TheTraversay Islands (Spanish:Archipiélago Marqués de Traverse) are a group of three islands—Zavodovski,Leskov andVisokoi—at the northern end of theSouth Sandwich Islands in theSouth Atlantic Ocean.^[1]^[2]

History

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The group was discovered in November 1819 by a Russian expedition underBellingshausen,^[1]^[3] who named them forJean-Baptiste Prevost de Sansac, Marquis de Traversay (1754–1831), a French naval officer who joined theRussian navy in 1791, at the request of anémigré Frenchman in Russian service, admiralNassau-Siegen.^[4] He was Minister of Naval Affairs atSaint Petersburg, 1809–28, and chief promoter of Bellingshausen's Antarctic voyage. The name was previously transliterated as Traverse because it was incorrectly thought that the man commemorated was a Russian.

Geography

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Zavodovski Island (56°18′S27°34′W / 56.300°S 27.567°W /-56.300; -27.567) lies 350 kilometres (217 mi) southeast ofSouth Georgia Island. It is the northernmost of the South Sandwich Islands and the nearest to South Georgia. The island is approximately 5 kilometres (3.1 miles) across with a peak elevation of 551metres (1,808feet) above sea level.^[4] Thestratovolcano Mount Asphyxia dominates the western side of the island while the eastern half is a low-lying lava plain.

Mount Asphyxia is believed to be active with freshlava reported in 1830 and numerous indications of activity since.^[5] Approximately 50% of the island is composed oftephra. The island is home to around two million breedingchinstrap penguins,^[6] making it one of the world's largest penguin colonies.^[7] Zavodovski Island featured in the initial part ofBBC’sPlanet Earth II natural history television series, narrated byDavid Attenborough and first shown in the UK on 6 November 2016. The programme described life in the harsh environment for the 1.5 millionChinstrap penguins – the largest penguin colony in the world.

Visokoi Island (56°42′S27°12′W / 56.700°S 27.200°W /-56.700; -27.200), which lies to the southeast of Zavodovski, is 7.2 km (4.5 miles) long and 4.8 km (3 miles) wide, capped byMount Hodson, a volcanic peak (1,005 m or 3,297 ft).^[4] The peak is named after SirArnold Weinholt Hodson, a governor of theFalkland Islands. Visokoi means "high".^[8] The island's eastern tip, Point Irving, is named for the leader of a British exploratory and mapping expedition, Commander John J. Irving; the father of British writer andHolocaust denier,David Irving.

Leskov Island (56°40′S28°10′W / 56.667°S 28.167°W /-56.667; -28.167) is located to the west of the mainarc of the South Sandwich Islands and is less than 1.5 kilometres (0.9 mi) long, and lies 48 km (30 mi) west of Visokoi.^[4] It was named by Bellingshausen after the third lieutenant on the expedition shipVostok. It is composed ofandesitic rather thanbasaltic lava.^[9] Thesubduction zone forming theSouth Sandwich Trench lies to the east of the island arc.

References

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^^a ^bStonehouse, Bernard (2002).Encyclopedia of Antarctica and the southern oceans. John Wiley and Sons. p. 244.ISBN 978-0-471-98665-2. Retrieved6 January 2012.
^Scientific reports. British Antarctic Survey. 1962. Retrieved6 January 2012.
^Paine, Lincoln P. (15 November 2000).Ships of discovery and exploration. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 152.ISBN 978-0-395-98415-4. Retrieved6 January 2012.
^^a ^b ^c ^dLeMasurier, W. E.; Thomson, J. W., eds. (1990).Volcanoes of the Antarctic Plate and Southern Oceans.American Geophysical Union. p. 512 pp.ISBN 0-87590-172-7.
^G. A. French (1974).The Antarctic pilot: comprising the coasts of Antarctica and all islands southward of the usual route of vessels. Hydrographer of the Navy. p. 146. Retrieved6 January 2012.
^Encyclopedia Of The Aquatic World. Marshall Cavendish. January 2004. p. 177.ISBN 978-0-7614-7418-0. Retrieved6 January 2012.
^Laboratoire de cryptogamie (Muséum national d'histoire naturelle) (2004).Cryptogamie: Algologie. Laboratoire de cryptogamie, Muséum national d'histoire naturelle. p. 262. Retrieved6 January 2012.
^Mills, William James (2003).Exploring polar frontiers: a historical encyclopedia. A — L. ABC-CLIO. p. 680.ISBN 978-1-57607-422-0. Retrieved6 January 2012.
^Transactions of the Caribbean Geological Conference. Queens College Press. 1968. p. 165. Retrieved6 January 2012.