Inexpressible Island

Template: Infobox Island / Maintenance / height missing

Inexpressible Iceland is an uninhabited Antarctic island in the Southern Ocean.

Geographical location

Inexpressible Iceland is located in the Terra Nova Bay, a large bay of the Ross Sea, near the coast of Victoria Lands in East Antarctica. The term East Antarctica refers to the part of Antarctica, which is located on the opposite side of the great Antarctic Peninsula, see also Palmer country.

History

Inexpressible Iceland was first entered on 8 January 1912 by six British sailors. They were part of the Terra Nova expedition under the command of British Robert Falcon Scott. The men were commissioned to undertake various research tasks and should return to the base camp again with the Terra Nova then. However, the Terra Nova was because of heavy pack ice does not penetrate to them, and so the men had to spend the winter in a snow cave. The present name of the island comes from these men, with inexpressible (German inexpressible ) is a euphemism for various swear words, the men referred to the island because of their catastrophic living conditions. In April, a first rescue attempt took place, which failed, however. In the spring, on September 30, the men took to the 320 km long walk back, which was completed on 5 November.

For a more detailed description of the wintering of the group in the context of the Terra Nova expedition see here

Flora, fauna and geology

Inexpressible Iceland is a very rocky island on which the scale deposition in some places is several meters high. There are few places on the island, on which a visible layer of humus occurs. Moss covered rocks and other very small plants are the only plants that can survive on the island. Penguins and leopard seals few are the only vertebrates on the island.