Champ Island

The Champ Island (Russian Чамп, Tschamp ) is an uninhabited island of belonging to Russia Arctic Franz Josef country.

Geography

The 374 km ² Champ Island is centrally located in the archipelago of Franz Josef Land. It is the southernmost of a group of islands, which are separated only by narrow, almost all year round icy straits and were first decide as a contiguous land mass, Zichy- country considered. From the northern Salisbury Island Champ Island is separated only by a few hundred meters wide Pondorff Narrows, from Luigi Island in the north- west by the Cook Strait. The Champ Island is heavily glaciated. Its coastline is more than 50 % of glacier ice edges.

A geological feature are the numerous concretions - stones, each formed around a central fossil. They are found especially on the Cape south coast, Cape Fiume and Trieste Cape. They originate from the Upper Triassic and are often of perfect spherical shape with up to three meters in diameter.

On the southern and western coast there are some colonies of seabirds. The most common breed here kittiwakes and auks.

History

The southeast coast of the island between Cape Fiume and Trieste Section 1874 of the Austria -Hungarian North Polar Expedition ( 1872-1874 ) mapped as part of the Zichy Land, the Graf Odon Zichy ( 1811-1894 ), one of the main sponsors of the expedition, was named. Only the Fiala - Ziegler expedition (1903-1905) noted the unique character of the island. Anthony Fiala (1869-1950) named it after William S. Champ, who was in distress rescued men 1905.