Bellingshausen Island

Bellingshausen is one of the three southernmost islands in the sub-Antarctic archipelago of the South Sandwich Islands. The Cook Island and the Morrell Island it forms the group of the Southern Thule Islands.

The small, uninhabited island with an area of only 2.04 km ² is a stratovolcano; the main crater measures about 150 meters in diameter and is 60 meters deep.

From two kilometers away, in the West Cook Island Bellinghausen is separated by the Maurice Channel. In the north- east, the Bristol- island is 47 km away, separated by the Forsters Passage.

The island is named after the Russian Antarctic Mariner Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen ( 1778-1852 ). She was discovered probably already in 1775 by the British navigator James Cook who discovered almost all the South Sandwich Islands at this time.