Berkner Island

The Berkner Island is a completely ice-covered island which is over 320 km long and 135 kilometers wide. With an area of ​​43873.1 km ², it is ranked 30 on the list of the biggest islands in the world. It is named after the Alexander I Island, the second largest island of Antarctica and has a height of 869 meters ( according to other sources 975 meters). It separates the Filchner Ice Shelf from the Ronne Ice Shelf. The Berkner Island is the southernmost island in the world. It extends further south than the Ross Island, which is sometimes referred to incorrectly as the southernmost island. It is, however - unlike the Ross Island - not reachable by sea, since it is completely surrounded by ice shelf. The northernmost point of the island is still around 17 km from the open sea.

The surface shape is characterized by two peaks, the Reinwarthhöhe in the north ( 698 m, 78 ° 19 ' S, 46 ° 20' W 78.316666666667 - 46.333333333333698 ), and the Thyssen height in the south ( 869 m, 79 ° 34 ' S, 45 ° 42 ' W -79.566666666667-45.7869). Are located on the east side three indentations, from north to south: McCarthy Inlet, Roberts Inlet, and Spilhouse Inlet. Gould Bay is located in the north.

The BerknerInsel is about 150 km west of the Luitpold Coast ( Coats Land ), the closest mainland of Ostantarktika. 17 km off the north -west corner is inhibiting ice rise. The island is uninhabited. From February 1995 to January 2006 was at the height Thyssen an automatic weather station. The nearest permanently manned station is the Argentine General Belgrano II Station, which is 210 km to the east of the northeast of Berkner Island on the north west coast of Coats Land.

The island was discovered on December 12, 1947 from the air by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition. In the summer of 1957/58 was explored by scientists at the U.S. Ellsworth Station, headed by Finn Ronne up close and initially named Hubley - Iceland by the U.S. glaciologist Richard Charles Hubley. Your final name, according to the American physicist Lloyd Berkner Much, received the island in 1960 by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names.

Since 1990, the Berkner Island was the starting point for several major polar expeditions.

1994/1995 led the British Antarctic Survey, the Alfred Wegener Institute and the Centre for Research in Physical Glaciology the Westfälische Wilhelms -Universität in Münster together by ice cores.