Charcot Island

The Charcot Island ( also Charcotland ) is an island 100 km west of Alexander I Island in the Bellingshausen Sea in Antarctica.

Geography

The 48 km long and 40 km wide island is covered with the exception of Marion nunataks, a 12 km long and on average 600 m high mountain range on the north coast with ice. The height of the summit of Mount Martine at the western end of the mountain range and Mount Monique at the eastern end is 750 m to 1000 m above sea level.

A partially ice-free area around the Marion - nunataks with an area of 9.2 km from north to south and 19.2 km in the east-west direction than Specially protected area of ​​Antarctica No. 170 ( Antarctic Specially Protected Area No. 170) reported according to the protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty.

2009 broke on the last connection to the Wilkins Ice Shelf. Current radar image of the area between the Charcot Island and the Wilkins Ice Shelf shows powered by ESA ' Webcam ' from Space (see links).

Research

On his second Antarctic expedition with the specially built as a research vessel three-master " Pourquoi Pas? " Discovered Jean -Baptiste Charcot on January 11, 1910, a field that he, on the recommendation of Edwin Swift Balch ( 1856-1927 ) in honor of his father, neurologist Jean -Martin Charcot, Charcotland called. The island character of Charcotland was found by Hubert Wilkins on a sightseeing flight over the area on 29 December 1929.

The destroyer of the United States Navy USS Brownson (DD -868 ) embarked on 10 February 1947 as part of Operation High Jump an unsuccessful attempt to land on the north coast of the island.

The Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition ( RARE ) made ​​on aerial photographs of parts of the island and led on 23 December 1947, a first air landing. A runway and a provisional 30 m² large hut built near Mount Martine in 1982 by the Chilean Antarctic Expedition and the Chilean Air Force. Geologists and biologists from the British Antarctic Survey conducted from 1975 to today, about ten short research visits to the island by Charcot.