Alejandro Selkirk Island

Alejandro Selkirk ( German Alexander Selkirk Island, Isla Alejandro Selkirk Spanish, Isla Más Afuera earlier ( " further away " ) ), is the westernmost and second largest in the Pacific Ocean situated in the Juan Fernández Islands. The group is one politically for South American country of Chile.

The uninhabited island is 10.4 km long and has an area of ​​approximately 44.6 km ². On the east coast clear the 20 buildings of the former penal colony can be seen on the satellite image yet. The settlement was in operation from 1909 to 1930. Initially, 190 convicts were housed there. From 1927 to 1930, 160 political prisoners on the island.

The whole archipelago has very little erosion, the youngest rocks dated before only 1-2 million years ago. The highest point of the island is Inocentes with 1329 m of the Cerro de Los. The island is characterized by rocky ridges and deep cuts; the coastal cliffs are up to 1000 m high.

The present name of the island dates back to the Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk, who was suspended in 1704 as mentioned on the about 160 km east of the Isla Alejandro Selkirk lying, today Robinson Crusoe island. His fate was the writer Daniel Defoe as a template for his world-famous novel " Robinson Crusoe ".

The island is home to the endemic island spiny-tailed panties ( Aphrastura masafuerae ), one in his inventory extremely endangered species of Ovenbirds. The subspecies Buteo polyosoma exsul of Rotrückenbussards breeds only on this island.

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