Montagu Island

Montagu Iceland (Spanish Isla Jorge ) is the largest of the sub-Antarctic South Atlantic Ocean located in the South Sandwich Islands about 110 km ². The island is one politically for the British overseas territory of " South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands " is, but also claimed by Argentina.

Geography

The uninhabited volcanic island is centrally located within the island arc of the South Sandwich Islands, about 50 km south of Saunders Iceland and 50 km north of Bristol Iceland. Montagu Iceland has an area of ​​about 12 × 10 km, with over 90 % of its area is permanently covered with ice. The shield volcano Mount Belinda is with its height of 1370 m above sea level the most notable geographical aspect of the barren island.

In November 2005, revealed satellite images that the eruption of Mount Belinda had produced an approximately 90 -m-wide lava flow that moved up to the north coast of the island. This event increased the area of ​​the island by about 0.2 km ², and provided one of the first scientific observations of a volcanic eruption under an ice sheet.

History

Was discovered Montagu Iceland on 1 February 1775 by the English navigator James Cook, who named it after John Montagu, then First Lord of the Admiralty, Cape Montagu, as he supposed, it were the tip of a larger country. Only Fabian von Bellingshausen presented in January 1820 the island character. The first known landing on Montagu Iceland took place in 1908 by the Norwegian whaler Carl Anton Larsen.