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South Shetland Islands

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Location of the South Shetlands

The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands, lying about 120 kilometres north of the Antarctic Peninsula. Prior to 1961, the Islands were claimed by the United Kingdom (since 1908, as part of the Falkland Islands Dependency), Chile (since 1940), and Argentina (since 1943). After the signing of the Antarctic Treaty in 1959, the Islands' sovereignty was frozen, and they are free for use by any signatory of the treaty for non-military use.

The Islands are still claimed by the original three nations: Argentina claims the Islands as part of Argentine Antarctica, Tierra del Fuego Province; Chile claims the Islands as part of Antártica Chilena Province; and the United Kingdom maintains a claim as part of the British Antarctic Territory. According to the European Union the islands have the EU overseas countries and territories status as part of the British Antarctic Territory. The USA and Russia do not recognize these claims, and while claiming no Antarctic territories themselves, they have formally reserved their right to do so.

Several countries maintain research stations on the Islands. Most of them are situated on King George Island, benefitting from the airfield of the Chilean base Eduardo Frei.

History

Williams Point, discovered on 19 February 1819

According to some historians the Dutchman Dirck Gerritsz in 1599, or the Spaniard Gabriel de Castilla in 1603 may have been the first to see any Antarctic lands, both of them supposedly sailing south of the Drake Passage in the South Shetland Islands area. In 1818 Juan Pedro de Aguirre obtained permission from the Buenos Aires authorities to install an establishment for sealing on "some of the uninhabited islands near the South Pole" [1].

Captain William Smith in the British merchant brig Williams, while sailing to Valparaiso, Chile in 1819 deviated from his route south of Cape Horn, and on 19 February sighted Williams Point, the northeast extremity of Livingston Island. 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 sunk in September 1819 while trying to go through the Drake Passage. Parts of her supposed wreckage were found months later by sealers on the north coast of Livingston Island.

In December 1819 - January 1820 the islands were surveyed and mapped by Lieutenant Edward Bransfield onboard the Williams, with the ship chartered by the Royal Navy.

Already on 15 November 1819 the American agent in Valparaíso, Jeremy Robinson informed the US Secretary of State John Quincy Adams of Smith’s discovery and Bransfield’s forthcoming mission, and suggested the dispatch of a US government 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 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 the Falkland Islands by the American brig Hersilia commanded by Captain James Sheffield (with second mate Nathaniel Palmer), the first American sealer in the South Shetlands.

Norwegian whaling boat, Half Moon Island

The first overwintering in Antarctica took place on the South Shetlands, when at the end of the 1820/21 summer season eleven British men from the ship Lord Melville failed to leave King George Island, and successfully survived throughout the austral winter to be rescued at the beginning of the next season.

Having circumnavigated the Antarctic continent, the Russian Antarctic expedition of Fabian von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev arrived to the South Shetlands in January 1821. The Russians surveyed the islands and gave them Russian names, landing on both King George Island and Elephant Island. While sailing between Deception and Livingston islands, Bellingshausen 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 off the northern coast of Scotland). The name South Shetland Islands is now established in international usage.

Seal hunting and whaling took place on the islands in the 19th and early 20th century, but the islands have only been occupied since the establishment of a scientific research station in 1944. The archipelago, together with the nearby Antarctic Peninsula and South Georgia, is an increasingly popular tourist destination during the austral summer.

Geography

As a group of islands, the South Shetland Islands are located at 62°00′S 058°00′W / 62.000°S 58.000°W / -62.000; -58.000. They fall within the region 61° 00'–63° 37' South, 53° 83'–62° 83' West. The South Shetlands consist of 11 major islands and several minor ones, totalling 3687 square kilometres of land area. Between 80 and 90 percent of the land area is permanently glaciated. The highest point on the island chain is Mount Foster on Smith Island at 2105 metres above sea level.

The South Shetland Islands extend about 280 miles from Smith Island and Snow Island in the west-southwest to Elephant Island and Clarence Island in the east-northeast.

Islands

Renier Point

From north to south the main and some minor islands of the South Shetlands are:

Warm volcanic bath at Port Foster, Deception Island

(The Russian names above are historical, and no longer the official Russian names of the relevant islands.)

Research Stations

File:Ohridski.jpg
St. Kliment Ohridski

Several nations maintain research stations on the Islands:

Field Camps

Ongal Peak, Tangra Mountains

See also

Look up south shetland islands in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Maps

A map of the South Shetland Islands

References

  • A.G.E. Jones, Captain William Smith and the Discovery of New South Shetland, Geographical Journal, Vol. 141, No. 3 (Nov., 1975), pp. 445-461
  • Alan Gurney, Below the Convergence: Voyages Toward Antarctica, 1699-1839, Penguin Books, New York, 1998
  • R.J. Campbell ed., The Discovery of the South Shetland Islands: The Voyage of the Brig Williams, 1819-1820 and the Journal of Midshipman C.W. Poynter, The Hakluyt Society, London, 2000
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