62-625: Deception Island is in the South Shetland Islands close to the Antarctic Peninsula with a large and usually "safe" natural harbor, which is occasionally affected by the underlying active volcano. This island is the caldera of an active volcano , which seriously damaged local scientific stations in 1967 and 1969. The island previously held a whaling station. It is now a tourist destination with over 15,000 visitors per year. Two research stations are operated by Argentina and Spain during
124-460: A German supply base. In 1942, an Argentine party aboard the Primero de Mayo visited and left signs and painted flags declaring the site Argentine territory; the following year, a British party with HMS Carnarvon Castle returned to remove the signs. In 1944, a British expedition under Lieutenant James Marr established a short-lived base on Deception Island as part of Operation Tabarin , which
186-522: A large seal population, it was a perfect natural harbour, mostly free from ice and winds, and a convenient rendezvous point. Some men likely lived ashore in tents or shacks for short periods during the summer, though no archaeological or documentary evidence survives to confirm this. Massive overhunting meant that the fur seals neared extinction in the South Shetlands within a few years, and the sealing industry collapsed as quickly as it had begun. Deception
248-460: A memorial to 10 more presumed drowned. These were not the only constructions; as the factory ships of the period were only able to strip the blubber from whales and could not use the carcasses, a permanent on-shore station was established by the Norwegian company Hvalfangerselskabet Hektor A/S in 1912 – up to an estimated 40% of the available oil was being wasted by the ship-based system. This
310-508: A normal island, when the narrow entrance of Neptune's Bellows revealed it rather to be a ring around a flooded caldera. Palmer was part of an American sealing fleet from Stonington, Connecticut , under the command of Benjamin Pendleton, consisting of 6 ships. Port Fisher was used as their operational base from 1820 to 1821. Palmer met Bellingshausen close to the island in Jan. 1821, during
372-594: A party of Royal Marines on Deception Island to destroy an Argentinian and a Chilean military base; an action known as the Deception Island incident . In 1961, Argentina 's president Arturo Frondizi visited the island to show his country's interest. Regular visits were made by other countries operating in the Antarctic, including the 1964 visit of the US Coast Guard icebreaker Eastwind , which ran aground inside
434-561: A popular tourist stop in Antarctica because of its several colonies of chinstrap penguins , as well as the possibility of making a warm bath by digging into the sands of the beach. After the Norwegian Coastal Cruise Liner MS ; Nordkapp ran aground off the coast of Deception Island on 30 January 2007, fuel from the ship washed into a bay. Ecological damage has not yet been determined. On 4 February 2007,
496-434: A slipway could tow aboard entire whales for processing, meant that whaling companies were no longer tied to sheltered anchorages. A boom in pelagic Antarctic whaling followed, with companies now free to ignore quotas and escape the costs of licences. This rapidly led to overproduction of oil and a collapse in the market, and the less profitable and more heavily regulated shore-based companies had trouble competing. In early 1931,
558-417: A very large breeding colony of chinstrap penguins (100,000 pairs). The 78 ha (190-acre) IBA comprises the ice-free headland and about 800 metres (0.50 mi) of beach on either side of it. Other birds known to nest at the site include brown skuas , Cape petrels , and snowy sheathbills . South Shetland Islands The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands located in
620-515: A violent volcanic eruption. The remains of the refuge structure can still be seen on the beach where it was located. In early 1944, a party of men from Operation Tabarin , a British expedition, established a permanent scientific base named Station B. This was occupied until 5 December 1967, when an eruption forced a temporary withdrawal. It was used again between 4 December 1968 and 23 February 1969, when further volcanic activity caused it to be abandoned. Deception Island has become
682-399: Is a basin with a flat floor up to 170 m (560 ft) deep with several small submarine cones and domes . The port is rimmed by a shallow coastal shelf with sandy- gravelly beaches. The outer coast of the island is characterized by 30–70 m (98–230 ft) cliffs of rock or ice. Raven's Rock, a navigation hazard, lies 2.5 m (8.2 ft) below the water in the middle of
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#1732848168797744-486: Is still under investigation, but several larger eruptions happened in the last 10,000 years. Deception Island is the exposed portion of an active shield volcano 30 km in diameter. The island is associated with Bransfield Basin seafloor spreading that includes a volcanic ridge and seamounts dating back to the Pleistocene . Deception Island volcanic ash layers have been found on other South Shetland Islands,
806-615: The Chanticleer during the visit may be the first image made of the island. A subsequent visit by the American elephant-sealer Ohio in 1842 reported the first recorded volcanic activity, with the southern shore "in flames". The second phase of human activity at Deception began in the early 20th century. In 1904, an active whaling industry was established at South Georgia, taking advantage of new technology and an almost untouched population of whales to make rapid profits. It spread south into
868-679: The Drake Passage with a total area of 3,687 km (1,424 sq mi). They lie about 120 kilometres (65 nautical miles) north of the Antarctic Peninsula , and between 430 and 900 km (230 and 485 nmi) southwest of the nearest point of the South Orkney Islands . By the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, the islands' sovereignty is neither recognized nor disputed by the signatories and they are free for use by any signatory for non-military purposes. The islands have been claimed by
930-575: The Equator ; the Scottish Shetland Islands are 60°N, and warmed by the Gulf Stream , but the South Shetlands at 62°S are much colder. Seal hunting and whaling were conducted on the islands during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The sealing era lasted from 1820 to 1908 during which time 197 vessels are recorded as having visiting the islands. Twelve of those vessels were wrecked. Relics of
992-537: The Falkland Islands by the American brig Hersilia , commanded by Captain James Sheffield (with second mate Nathaniel Palmer ), the first US sealer in the South Shetlands. The first wintering over in Antarctica took place on the South Shetlands, when at the end of the 1820–1821 summer season, 11 British men from the ship Lord Melville failed to leave King George Island, and survived the winter to be rescued at
1054-495: The First Russian Antarctic Expedition . A lighthouse named Surgidero Iquique was built on the island to guide vessels into Deception Station . Over the next few years, Deception became a focal point of the short-lived fur-sealing industry in the South Shetlands. The industry began with a handful of ships in the 1819–1820 summer season, rising to nearly a hundred in 1821–1822. While the island did not have
1116-581: The Gobernador Bories . Other whalers followed, with several hundred men resident at Deception during the Antarctic summers and as many as 13 ships operating in peak years. In 1908, the British government formally declared the island to be part of the Falkland Islands Dependencies , thus under British control, establishing postal services and appointing a magistrate and customs officer for
1178-577: The Royal Air Force , was recovered in 2004. Plans to restore the airplane and return it to the island have been made. The Russian cruise ship MV Lyubov Orlova ran aground at Deception Island on 27 November 2006. She was towed off by the Spanish Navy icebreaker Las Palmas and made her own way to Ushuaia , Tierra del Fuego . She later became a ghost ship in the North Atlantic after
1240-504: The archipelago before Smith, historical evidence is insufficient to sustain such assertions. Smith's discovery, by contrast, was well documented and had wider historical implications beyond its geographic significance. Chilean scientists have claimed that Amerinds visited the islands, due to stone artifacts recovered from bottom-sampling operations in Admiralty Bay , King George Island , and Discovery Bay, Greenwich Island ; however,
1302-555: The volcanic rock and tephra is of basalt or basaltic andesite . An exception is the tephra of Deception Island, which is of trachyte and basaltic trachyandesite , richer in potassium and sodium . Quaternary volcanic products of the islands tend to have less potassium and sodium at a given silica range, and lower Nb / Y ratios, than those associated with the Larsen Rift on the Antarctic Peninisula. The islands are
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#17328481687971364-816: The Bransfield Strait, the Scotia Sea and in South Pole ice cores . Volcanic tremors are common, originating from depths less than 10 km. Historical eruptions occurred in 1839–1842, 1967, 1969, and 1970. Stratigraphy of the island is characterized by the pre- caldera Port Foster Group and the post-caldera Mount Pond Group, both within the Deception Island Volcanic Complex. The Port Foster Group's principal outcrops are located at South Point, Cathedral Crags near Entrance Point and north of Punta de la Descubierta forming spectacular coastal cliffs along
1426-470: The Hektor factory finally ceased operation, ending commercial whaling at the island entirely. On 16 November 1928, Hubert Wilkins made the first Antarctic flight from a Whalers Bay ash runway. Deception remained uninhabited for a decade, but was revisited in 1941 by the British auxiliary warship HMS Queen of Bermuda , which destroyed the oil tanks and some remaining supplies to ensure it could not be used as
1488-526: The South Shetland Islands, where the lack of shore-based infrastructure meant that the whales had to be towed to moored factory ships for processing; these needed a sheltered anchorage and a plentiful supply of fresh water, both of which could be found at Deception. In 1906, the Norwegian - Chilean whaling company Sociedad Ballenera de Magallanes started using Whalers Bay as a base for a single ship,
1550-530: The Spanish Gabriel de Castilla Base and the Argentine Decepción Station . Remains of previous structures at Whalers Bay include rusting boilers and tanks, an aircraft hangar , and the British scientific station house (Biscoe House), with the middle torn out by the 1969 mudflows. A bright orange derelict airplane fuselage , which is that of a de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter that belonged to
1612-708: The Spanish Gabriel de Castilla research station on Deception Island reported that water and sand tests were clean, and that they had not found signs of the oil, estimated as 500 to 750 L of light diesel (130 to 200 US gal ; 110 to 160 imp gal ). Deception Island exhibits some wildly varying microclimates . Near volcanic areas, the air can be as hot as 40 °C (104 °F), and water temperature can reach 70 °C (158 °F). Eleven terrestrial sites have been collectively designated as an Antarctic specially protected area (ASPA 140), primarily for their botanic and ecological values, because
1674-570: The Stonethrow Ridge Formation consisting of tuff cone and maar deposits. The caldera collapsed as either a hydrovolcanic eruption of the Outer Coast Tuff Formation, releasing about 30 cubic kilometers of magma , or passively due to regional tectonics , since the island is at the intersection of the Bransfield Strait rift and the orthogonal Hero Fracture Zone . The first authenticated sighting of Deception Island
1736-612: The United Kingdom since 1908 and as part of the British Antarctic Territory since 1962. They are also claimed by the governments of Chile (since 1940, as part of the Antártica Chilena province), and by Argentina (since 1943, as part of Argentine Antarctica , Tierra del Fuego Province ). Several countries maintain research stations on the islands. Most of them are situated on King George Island , benefitting from
1798-656: The United States agent in Valparaíso, Jeremy Robinson, informed the United States Secretary of State John Quincy Adams of Smith's discovery and Bransfield's forthcoming mission, and suggested dispatching a United States Navy ship to explore the islands, where "new sources of wealth, power, and happiness would be disclosed and science itself be benefited thereby". The discovery of the islands attracted British and American sealers. The first sealing ship to operate in
1860-547: The airfield of the Chilean base Eduardo Frei . Sixteen research stations are in different parts of the islands, with Chilean stations being the greatest in number. The islands were discovered by British mariner William Smith , in William , in 1819. Although Dutch mariner Dirck Gerritsz in 1599 or Spanish Admiral Gabriel de Castilla in 1603 might have sighted the South Shetlands, or North or South American sealers might have visited
1922-576: The area was the brig Espirito Santo , chartered by British merchants in Buenos Aires . The ship arrived at Rugged Island off Livingston Island, where its British crew landed on Christmas Day 1819, and claimed the islands for King George III. A narrative of the events was published by the brig's master, Joseph Herring, in the July 1820 edition of the Imperial Magazine . The Espirito Santo was followed from
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1984-518: The artifacts – two arrowheads – were later found to have been planted. In 1818, Juan Pedro de Aguirre obtained permission from the Buenos Aires authorities to establish a base for sealing on "some of the uninhabited islands near the South Pole". Captain William Smith in the British merchant brig Williams , while sailing to Valparaíso , Chile, in 1819, deviated from his route south of Cape Horn , and on 19 February 1819 sighted Williams Point ,
2046-575: The beginning of the next season. Having circumnavigated the Antarctic continent , the Russian Antarctic Expedition of Fabian von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev arrived at the South Shetlands in January 1821. The Russians surveyed the islands and named them, landing on both King George Island and Elephant Island . While sailing between Deception and Livingston Islands, Bellingshausen
2108-511: The channel. Just inside Neptune's Bellows lies the cove Whalers Bay , which is bordered by a large black sand beach. Several maars line the inside rim of the caldera, with some containing crater lakes (including one named Crater Lake). Others form bays within the harbour, such as the 1 km (0.6 mi) wide Whalers Bay. Other features of the island include Mount Kirkwood , Fumarole Bay , Sewing-Machine Needles , Telefon Bay , and Telefon Ridge . The linear Costa Recta spanning most of
2170-426: The east coast is hypothesised to be a scarp of a retreated submarine fault. A 2016 study on Ardley Island , 120 km (75 mi) to the northeast, examined lake guano sediments and studied penguin population dynamics over 7,000 years. Three of five population growth phases were terminated by a sudden crash, due to volcanic eruptions from the active volcano of Deception Island. The history of volcanic eruptions
2232-416: The evacuation of the base. Deception Station is an Argentine base located at Deception Island. The station was founded on 25 January 1948 and was a year-round station until December 1967, when volcanic eruptions forced the evacuation of the base. Since then, it has been inhabited only during the summer. Gabriel de Castilla Base is a Spanish research station located on Deception Island. The station
2294-585: The harbour. However, the volcano returned to activity in 1967 and 1969, destroying the existing scientific stations. Both British and Chilean stations were demolished, and the island was again abandoned for several years. The final major volcanic eruption was reported by the Russian Bellingshausen station on King George Island and the Chilean station Arturo Prat on Greenwich Island ; both stations experienced major falls of ash on 13 August 1970. In 2000, there were two summer-only scientific stations,
2356-476: The inclusion of liquid lava is unusual. The temperature of the fragments can range from cold to incandescent . If molten magma is included, volcanologists classify the event as a phreatomagmatic eruption . These eruptions occasionally create broad, low-relief craters called maars . Phreatic explosions can be accompanied by carbon dioxide or hydrogen sulfide gas-emissions. Carbon dioxide can asphyxiate at sufficient concentration; hydrogen sulfide acts as
2418-564: The island has the greatest number of rare plant species of any place in the Antarctic. This is largely due to frequent volcanic activity creating new substrates for plant colonisation: In addition, two marine sites in Port Foster have collectively been designated ASPA 145, to protect their benthic communities. Baily Head , a prominent headland forming the easternmost extremity of the island, has been identified as an important bird area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports
2480-451: The island. The magistrate was to ensure that whaling companies were paying appropriate licence fees to the Falklands government and ensuring adherence to catch quotas. A cemetery was built in 1908, a radio station in 1912, a hand-operated railway also in 1912, and a small permanent magistrate's house in 1914. The cemetery, by far the largest in Antarctica, held graves for 35 men along with
2542-526: The magma (anywhere from 500 to 1,170 °C (930 to 2,100 °F)) causes near-instantaneous evaporation of water to steam , resulting in an explosion of steam , water, ash, rock, and volcanic bombs . At Mount St. Helens in Washington state, hundreds of steam explosions preceded the 1980 Plinian eruption of the volcano . A less intense geothermal event may result in a mud volcano . Phreatic eruptions typically include steam and rock fragments;
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2604-523: The nearest point of the Antarctic continent, Graham Land . The South Shetlands consist of 11 major islands and several minor ones, totalling 3,687 km (1,424 sq mi) of land area. Between 80 and 90% of the land area is permanently glaciated . The highest point on the island chain is Mount Foster on Smith Island at 2,025 m (6,644 ft) above sea level at 2-meter spatial resolution. The South Shetland Islands extend about 500 km (270 nmi) from Smith Island and Low Island in
2666-515: The north coast of Livingston Island. The crew of San Telmo and the troops onboard, led by Brigadier Rosendo Porlier (a total of 644 men), are believed to be the first known humans to land in Antarctica. From December 1819 to January 1820, the islands were surveyed and mapped by Lieutenant Edward Bransfield on board the Williams , which had been chartered by the Royal Navy . On 15 November 1819,
2728-499: The northeast extremity of Livingston Island . Thus, Livingston Island became the first land ever discovered farther than 60° south. Smith revisited the South Shetlands, landed on King George Island on 16 October 1819, and claimed possession for Britain. Meanwhile, the Spanish Navy ship San Telmo sank in September 1819 whilst trying to go through the Drake Passage . Parts of her presumed wreckage were found months later by sealers on
2790-679: The same distance from the Equator as the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic , but their proximity to Antarctica means that they have a much colder climate. The sea around the islands is closed by ice from early April to early December, and the monthly average temperature is below 0 °C (32 °F) for eight months of the year (April to November). The islands have experienced measurable glacier retreat during recent years, but despite this, they remain more than 80% snow- and ice-covered throughout
2852-498: The sealing era include iron try pots, hut ruins, and inscriptions. Beginning in 1908, the islands were governed as part of the Falkland Islands Dependency , but they have only been permanently occupied by humans since the establishment of a scientific research station in 1944. The archipelago, together with the nearby Antarctic Peninsula and South Georgia Island , is an increasingly popular tourist destination during
2914-645: The south. Despite the harsh conditions, the islands do support vegetation and are part of the Scotia Sea Islands tundra ecoregion , along with South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands , the South Orkney Islands , and Bouvet Island . All of these islands lie in the cold seas below the Antarctic Convergence . These areas support tundra vegetation consisting of mosses , lichens , and algae , while seabirds, penguins , and seals feed in
2976-469: The southern summer. As a group of islands, the South Shetland Islands are located at 62°0′S 58°0′W / 62.000°S 58.000°W / -62.000; -58.000 . They are within the region 61° 00'–63° 37' South, 53° 83'–62° 83' West. The islands lie 940 km (510 nmi) south of the Falkland Islands , and between 93 km (50 nmi) ( Deception Island ) and 269 km (145 nmi) ( Clarence Island ) northwest and north from
3038-540: The summer season. While various countries have asserted sovereignty, it is still administered under the Antarctic Treaty System . Located within the Bransfield Strait , the island is roughly circular and horseshoe-shaped, with a maximum diameter around 15 km (9.3 mi). The highest peak, Mount Pond on the east side of the island, has an elevation of 539 m (1,768 ft), while Mount Kirkwood on
3100-491: The summer. The climate is cloudy and humid all year round, and very strong westerly winds blow at all seasons. Some of the sunniest weather is associated with outbreaks of very cold weather from the south in late winter and spring. Mean summer temperatures are only about 1.5 °C (34.7 °F) and those in winter are about −5 °C (23 °F). The effect of the ocean tends to keep summer temperatures low and prevent winter temperatures from falling as low as they do inland to
3162-618: The surrounding waters. From north to south, the main and some minor islands of the South Shetlands are: The Russian names above are historical, and no longer the official Russian names. (See the end of the article for a complete list of islands.) Several nations maintain research stations on the Islands: Hydrovolcanic eruption A phreatic eruption , also called a phreatic explosion , ultravulcanian eruption or steam-blast eruption , occurs when magma heats ground water or surface water. The extreme temperature of
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#17328481687973224-622: The towing line parted during an operation to scrap the vessel in the Dominican Republic . The first commercial cruise ship arrived in January ;1966. By 1999, over 10,000 tourists had visited the island. President Pedro Aguirre Cerda Station was a Chilean Antarctic base, located at Pendulum Cove on Deception Island in the South Shetland Islands , inaugurated in 1955. It was evacuated in December 1967 when volcanic eruptions forced
3286-461: The west has an elevation of 452 m (1,483 ft). Over half (57%) of the island is covered by glaciers up to 10 m thick, ice-cored moraines , or ice-covered pyroclasts . The centre of the island has been flooded by the sea to form a large bay, now called Port Foster , about 10 km (6.2 mi) long and 7 km (4.3 mi) wide. The bay has a narrow entrance, just 500 m (1,640 ft) wide, called Neptune's Bellows . The port
3348-539: The west-southwest to Elephant Island and Clarence Island in the east-northeast. Various volcanoes with activity in the Quaternary exist in the islands. These volcanoes are associated with the tectonics of Bransfield Rift . From west to east, the known volcanoes are Sail Rock, Deception Island, Rezen Knoll , Gleaner Heights , Edinburgh Hill , Inott Point, Penguin Island , Melville Peak , and Bridgeman Island . Most of
3410-652: The western portion of the island. The group is composed of the Fumarole Bay Formation consisting of hydrovolcanic tephra , the Basaltic Shield Formation consisting of lavas and Strombolian scoria , and the Outer Coast Tuff Formation consisting of lapilli -tuffs. The Mount Pond Group dominates the surface geology and consists of the pyroclastic Baily Head and Pendulum Cove formations, both formed during hydrovolcanic eruptions, and
3472-786: Was abandoned again in approximately 1825. Sealing captain Robert Fildes charted Port Foster in 1820–1821, which in 1829 became the first published Antarctica nautical chart . In 1829, the British Naval Expedition to the South Atlantic under the command of Captain Henry Foster in HMS ; Chanticleer stopped at Deception. The expedition conducted a topographic survey and scientific experiments, particularly pendulum and magnetic observations. A watercolour made by Lieutenant Kendall of
3534-399: Was by the British sealers William Smith and Edward Bransfield from the brig Williams in January 1820. It was first visited and explored by the American sealer Nathaniel Palmer on the sloop Hero the following summer, on 15 November 1820. He remained for two days, exploring the central bay. Palmer named it "Deception Island" on account of its outward deceptive appearance as
3596-581: Was carried out during the Second World War to deny safe anchorages to enemy raiding vessels and to gather meteorological data for allied shipping in the South Atlantic. It also had the effect of strengthening British claims to the Falkland Island Dependencies that had begun being challenged by Argentina and Chile . Operation Tabarin would deny use of the area to the Kriegsmarine , which
3658-473: Was constructed in 1990. The Gutiérrez Vargas Refuge, named after an aviation captain who died on 30 December 1955, was located at 1 km (0.62 mi) from Aguirre Cerda Station and was inaugurated on 12 February 1956. Its purpose was to serve as a refuge for the members of the station in case of fire. On 4 December 1967 the refuge was definitively abandoned, as was the Aguirre Cerda Station, due to
3720-505: Was known to use remote islands as rendezvous points, and address a fear that Japan might attempt to seize the Falkland Islands . Following the end of the war, the research begun by Operation Tabarin continued in subsequent years, ultimately becoming the British Antarctic Survey . In February 1953, as part of a post-war British effort to exert sovereignty over its claimed Antarctic territories, HMS Snipe (U20) landed
3782-480: Was the only successful shore-based industry ever to operate in Antarctica, reaping high profits in its first years. A number of exploring expeditions visited Deception during these years, including the Wilkins-Hearst expedition of 1928, when a Lockheed Vega was flown from a beach airstrip on the first successful flights in Antarctica. The development of pelagic whaling in the 1920s, where factory ships fitted with
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#17328481687973844-516: Was visited by Nathaniel Palmer , master of the American brig Hero , who informed him of the activities of dozens of American and British sealing ships in the area. The name "New South Britain" was used briefly, but was soon changed to South Shetland Islands (in reference to the Shetland Islands in the north of Scotland ). The name South Shetland Islands is now established in international usage. The two island groups lie at similar distances from
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