Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago

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Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago
Native name: Arquipélago de São Pedro e São Paulo

Brazilian Navy scientific station and lighthouse of the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago.
Geography
Location Atlantic Ocean
Coordinates 00°55′1″N 29°20′7″W / 0.91694°N 29.33528°W / 0.91694; -29.33528Coordinates: 00°55′1″N 29°20′7″W / 0.91694°N 29.33528°W / 0.91694; -29.33528
Archipelago Arquipélago de São Pedro e São Paulo
Total islands 15[1]
Major islands Belmonte, Challenger (Sudeste), Nordeste, Cabral, South (Sul)
Area 15,000 square metres (160,000 sq ft)[1]
Country
 Brazil
Region Northeast
State Pernambuco
Demographics
Population 4[2]
Official Website
Map of the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago

The Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago (Portuguese: Arquipélago de São Pedro e São Paulo) is a group of 15 small islands and rocks in the North Equatorial Atlantic Ocean, belonging to the Brazilian State of Pernambuco (despite being closer to the state of Rio Grande do Norte[3]). It lies in the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), a region of severe storms. It is approximately 510 nmi (940 km; 590 mi) from the northeastern coastal town of Touros, 625 km (388 mi) northeast of the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, and 990 km (620 mi) from the city of Natal. The islets expose serpentinized mantle peridotite and kaesurtite mylonite on the top of the second-largest megamullion in the world, and they are the only location on Earth where the abyssal mantle is exposed above sea level.[4] All of the islets and rocks are designated as an environmentally protected area. The main economic activity around the islets is tuna fishing.

Contents

[edit] Geography

The Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago is situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, 100 km (62 mi) from the Equator and is the only group of Brazilian oceanic islands in the Northern Hemisphere. The nearest point to the Brazilian coast, in Cabo do Calcanhar, Rio Grande do Norte State, is approximately 510 nmi (940 km; 590 mi). The total emerged area is about 4.2 acres (1.7 ha) and the maximum land elevation is 18 m (59 ft), on Nordeste Island. The archipelago is composed of five small rocky islets and four larger islets: [4][5]

  • Belmonte Island (Sudoeste, Southwest): 5,380 m²
  • Challenger Island (São Paulo, Sudeste, Southeast): 3,000 m²
  • Nordeste Island (São Pedro, Northeast): 1,440 m²
  • Cabral Islet (Noroeste, Northwest): 1,170 m²
  • South Islet (Sul): 943 m².

Their base is over 3,650 metres (12,000 feet) below at the bottom of the ocean.

No islet has permanent fresh water.[4]

[edit] Biology

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Only the largest of the islets, Southwest Rock, 80 m (262 ft) by 40 m (131 ft), is vegetated with mosses and grasses. The other rocks are mostly barren, except for algae and fungi that can tolerate the salt spray. The rocks are inhabited by seabirds, including the Brown Booby (Sula leucogaster), Brown Noddy (Anous stolidus), and Black Noddy (Anous minutus), as well as crabs (Grapsus grapsus), insects and spiders.

[edit] Scientific station

The Brazilian Navy maintains a permanently staffed research facility on the island, which was inaugurated on June 25, 1998. The lighthouse, (ARLHS: SPP-001), was built in 1995, replacing the one from 1930.[4][6] The "Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago Scientific Station" (Portuguese: Estação Científica do Arquipélago de São Pedro e São Paulo) is composed of the main building of 40 m2 (430 sq ft), a reverse osmosis salt water desalination system, a photovoltaics system, a satellite communications system, deposits and a mooring dock.[7] The station is staffed with 4 military researchers, who are substituted every 15 days.[8] By maintaining permanent occupation on the archipelago, the Brazilian Navy strategically extends Brazil's Exclusive Economic Zone and airspace into the North Equatorial Atlantic Ocean.[9]

[edit] History

 This section needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2009)

On April 20, 1511, a Portuguese armada composed of six caravels under the command of Capitão-mor D. Garcia de Noronha discovered the islets by accident while on their journey to India. That day, while navigating in open sea at late night, the Saint Peter caravel (under the command of the captain Manuel de Castro Alcoforado) crashed against the islets.[4]

On the morning of February 16, 1832, the Rocks were visited by Charles Darwin on the first leg of his voyage on the HMS Beagle around the world. Darwin listed all the fauna he could find; noting that not a single plant or even a lichen could be found on the island. Darwin found two birds, the booby and the noddy, a large crab that stole the fish intended for baby birds, a fly that lived on the booby and a parasitic tick. He found a moth that lived on feathers, a beetle (Quedius), a woodlouse that lived on dung, and numerous spiders that he thought lived on scavengers of the waterfowl. Darwin felt that these rocks represented how life first took hold on a newly formed outcrop.[10] Darwin was correct in noting that, unusually, these small islands were not volcanic, but were instead formed by a geologic uplift.[4] Another famous person to visit the Rocks was Ernest Shackleton, on his last expedition to Antarctica (1921-1922).[4]

In 1942, during World War II, the islands were declared to be part of the Federal Territory of Fernando de Noronha (which also included Rocas Atoll).[citation needed]

In early 1960, the rocks served as the starting-point and terminus for the first submerged circumnavigation of the world by the American nuclear-powered submarine USS Triton (SSRN-586).[11]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b The Scientific Station of São Pedro and São Paulo Archipelago Alvarez, Cristina; Melo, Julio; Mello, Roberto L. Retrieved on 2009-07-14.
  2. ^ Programa Arquipélago Brazilian Navy.
  3. ^ Pesquisas começam a revelar a riqueza do Arquipélago de São Pedro e São Paulo, a 950 quilômetros do Rio Grande do Norte Veja. Retrieved on 2009-07-14. (Portuguese)
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Campos, T.F.C., Virgens Neto, J., Srivastava, N.K., Petta, R.A., Harmann, L.A., Moraes, J.F.S., Mendes, L., Silveira, S.R.M. 2005. Arquipélago de São Pedro e São Paulo e São Paulo, soeerguimento tectônico de rochas infracrustais no Oceano Atlântico. Sítios Geológicos e Paleontológicos do Brasil, SIGEP 002, UNB, 12p. in Portuguese, Access, on December 31, 2006. in English Access January 31, 2008
  5. ^ "Reef fishes of St. Paul's Rocks: new records and notes on biology and zoogeography". Aqua, Journal of Ichthyology and Aquatic Biology 7 (3): pp. 1-22. May 2003. http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/~floeter/PDFs/Feitoza%20et%20al%202003_Aqua.pdf. Retrieved on 2009-06-03. 
  6. ^ "ARLHS: SPP-001". ARLHS. 2006-06-01. http://wlol.arlhs.com/lighthouse/SPP1.html. Retrieved on 2009-06-07. 
  7. ^ The scientific station of São Pedro and São Paulo Archipelago - Brazil Alvarez, Cristina E., Melo, Julio E., Mello, Roberto L. Retrieved on June 6, 2009.
  8. ^ Nova Era no Arquipélago de São Pedro e São Paulo Brazilian Navy. Retrieved on June 6, 2009.
  9. ^ Lançamento da nova Estação Científica do Arquipélago de São Pedro e São Paulo Brazilian Navy. Retrieved on June 6, 2009.
  10. ^ Darwin's description from Voyage of the Beagle
  11. ^ Beach, Edward L. (1962). Around the world submerged: the voyage of the Triton. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. pp. 102-105, 257. ISBN 1557502153. OCLC 1292457. http://books.google.com/books?id=EPFzq8dt6E4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Around+the+world+submerged+:+the+voyage+of+the+Triton#PPP1,M1. 

[edit] Further reading

  • Andrade, F.G.G., Simões, L.S.A., Campos, T.F.C., Silva, A.J.C.A. 2007. Padrão estrutural da foliação milonígica do Arquipélago de São Pedro e São Paulo. Anais do 11º Simpósio Nacional de Estudos Tectônicos, 5th International Symposium of Tectonics of the SBG. Natal, 233. (in Portuguese)
  • Beach, Edward L. November 1960 (Vol. 118, No. 5). "Triton Follows Magellan's Wake" National Geographic Magazine. 585-615
  • Bonatti, E. 1990. Subcontinental mantle exposed in the Atlantic Ocean on St Peter-Paul islets. Nature, 345, 800-802.
  • Campos, T.F.C., Virgens Neto, J., Amorim, V.A., Hartmann, L.A., Petta, R.A. 2003. Modificações metassomáticas das rochas milonitizadas do complexo ultramáfico do Arquipélago de São Pedro e São Paulo, Atlântico Equatorial. Geochimica Brasiliensis, 17-2, 81-90. (in Portuguese)
  • Campos, T.F.C., Virgens Neto, J., Costa, L.S., Petta, R.A., Sousa, L.C., Silva, F.O. 2007. Sistema de diaclasamento do Arquipélago de São Pedro e São Paulo (Atlântico Equatorial) como indicador de movimentação destral associado à falha transformante de São Paulo. Anais do 11º Simpósio Nacional de Estudos Tectônicos, 5th International Symposium of Tectonics of the SBG. Natal, 238. (in Portuguese)
  • Hékinian, R., Juteau, T., Gracia, E., Udintsev, G., Sichler, B., Sichel, S.E., Apprioual, R. 2000. Submersible observations of Equatorial Atlantic Mantle: The St. Paul Frature Zone region. Marine Geophysical Research, 21, 529-560.
  • Melson, W.G., Jarosewich, E., Bowen, V.T., Thompsonm G. 1967. St. Peter and St. Paul rocks: a high-temperature mentle-derived intrusion. Science, 155. 1532-1535.
  • Moraes, J.F.S., Linden, E.M., Moraes, F.A.B. 1997. Planta topográfica do Arquipélago de São Pedro e São Paulo, escala 1:500. CPRM - Serviço Geológico do Brasil.
  • Motoki, A., Sichel, S.E., Baptista Neto, J.A., Szatmari, P., Soares, R., Melo, R.C., Petrakis, G.H. 2007. Características geomorfológicas do Arquipélago de São Pedro e São Paulo, Oceano Atlântico Equatorial, e sua relação com a história de soerguimento. Revista Brasileira de Geomorfologia. (in Portuguese, in submission)
  • O'Brian, Patrick: H.M.S. Surprise, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 1973, Chapter 5, page 117.
  • Savi, D.C., Sichel, S.E. Possibilidade de catástrofe no Arquipélago de São Pedro e São Paulo e suas implicações sobre a soberania do mar Brasileiro. Pesquisa Naval, 19. (in Portuguese, in press)
  • Sichel, S.E., Motoki, A., Esperança, S., Maia, M., Mello, S.L.M., Horan, M.F. 2007. Geophysical and geochemical indications for existence of cold upper mantle beneath the Equatorial Atlantic Ocean. Revista de Sociedade Brasileira de Geofísica. (in Portuguese, in submission)
  • Souza, José Eduardo Borges de: O arquipélago de São Pedro e São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Revista do Clube Naval, Ano 115, N° 340, Out/Nov/Dez 2006. p. 70-72, ISSN 0102-0382.
  • Thompson, Geoffrey: St. Peter and St. Paul's Rocks (Equatorial Atlantic) and the Surrounding Sea Floor, Woods Hole, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1981 (Technical Report) (Woods Hole Oceanog. Inst. Tech. Rept. WHOI-81 -98) [1]
  • Tressler, Willis L.: Rochedos São Pedro e São Paulo (St. Peter and St. Paul Rocks), Washington, U. S. Navy Hydrographic Office, 1956 (Technical Report, TR-31).
  • Virgens Neto, J., Campos, T.F.C. 2007. A influência da zona de fratura São Paulo no contexto estrutural do Arquipélago de São Pedro e São Paulo - Atlântico Equatorial. Anais do 11º. Simpósio Nacional de Estudos Tectônicos, 5th International Symposium of Tectonics of the SBG. Natal, 294-295. (in Portuguese)
  • Wiseman, J. D. H. 1966. St Paul's Rocks and the Problem of the Upper Mantle. Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, 11, 519-525. (in Portuguese)

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Peter_and_Saint_Paul_Archipelago"
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