Cape Shirreff

Location of Ioannes Paulus II Peninsula on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands.

Cape Shirreff is a prominent cape at the north end of the rocky peninsula which separates Hero Bay and Barclay Bay on the north coast of Livingston Island, in the South Shetland Islands. Situated on a small, 3.22 square kilometres (1.24 sq mi) ice-free peninsula forming the north extremity of Ioannes Paulus II Peninsula, which is protected by the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources Ecosystem Monitoring Programme and requires a permit to enter.. It serves as a breeding location for the Antarctic Fur Seal and penguin colonies.

The cape was named by Edward Bransfield in 1820 after Captain William H. Shirreff, the British commanding officer in the Pacific at that time.

Location

Cape Shirreff is located at 62°27′32″S 60°47′19″W which is 24.16 km northeast of Essex Point, 33.63 km west by south of Williams Point and 20.58 km northwest of Siddons Point. Lyung also 809.4 km south-southeast of Cape Horn, Cape Shirreff is the locality in the Antarctic Treaty area that is closest to a non-Antarctic territory (British mapping in 1920, 1922, 1931 and 1968, American in 1821, Spanish in 1861, Argentine in 1953, 1957 and 1980, Chilean in 1971 and detailed mapping in 2004. Bulgarian mapping in 2005 and 2009).

See also

• Shirreff Base

Maps

• Chart of South Shetland including Coronation Island, &c. from the exploration of the sloop Dove in the years 1821 and 1822 by George Powell Commander of the same. Scale ca. 1:200000. London: Laurie, 1822.
• L.L. Ivanov et al. Antarctica: Livingston Island and Greenwich Island, South Shetland Islands. Scale 1:100000 topographic map. Sofia: Antarctic Place-names Commission of Bulgaria, 2005.

References

• SCAR Composite Antarctic Gazetteer.
•  This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Geological Survey document "Shirreff, Cape" (content from the Geographic Names Information System).