Anvers Island

The Anvers Island ( also Antwerp Island ) is an island in the Subantarctic, off the coast of the northern part of the Antarctic Peninsula ( Graham Land ).

The Anvers Island is the largest island of the Palmer Archipelago. It is 74 km long, 55 km wide and occupies an area of ​​2432 km ² a. The highest mountain of the island is 2761 m high Mount Français.

Between the Anvers Island in the west and Wiencke Island in the southeast is the Neumayer Channel, a scenic strait with polar mountain sceneries and steep slope glaciers.

History

1830/32 the Anvers Island was sighted by John Biscoe. 1873/74 Eduard Dallmann explored the waters on the west coast of the island and discovered the bay Hamburg harbor and the offshore Gossler and Rosenthal Islands.

The name was given Anvers Island in 1898 by the Belgica expedition led by Adrien de Gerlache after the French name of the city of Antwerp in Belgium. Charcot's first expedition explored the southwest coast of Anvers Island in 1904.

On the Anvers Island was located from 1955 to 1958, the British station N. Upon completion of the geological survey work and the station in 1963, was leased to the U.S. Palmer Station, which is located nearby. The American researchers used the station since 1965 as a biological laboratory. During renovation work by the British Antarctic Survey ( BAS), the building burned down December 28, 1971, so that the basis for the support of air traffic accounted for. This part of the activities was to Adelaide Island (Station T of the BAS) moved in 1973 after also the landing site for aircraft became more difficult to use on skis.

In the Arctic summer of 1990 /91 still remaining debris and the debris was removed as part of the United States Antarctic Program, only remained the concrete foundations.