Paulet Island

Paulet Iceland is a small, almost circular uninhabited volcanic island at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula in the south polar Weddell Sea.

Geography

Paulet Iceland has a 353 m high volcanic cone. It is 2.2 km long and up to 1.5 km wide and is located 5.2 km south-east of Dundee Iceland at the northeastern end of the Antarctic. The island consists of solidified lava with a cinder cone and a small central crater as a conclusion. Geothermal heat ensures that parts of the island remain ice-free. This heat suggests that the last activity of the volcano must have taken place within the last thousand years.

History

Paulet Iceland was discovered by a British expedition of the years 1839 to 1843 under James Clark Ross. This named the island after the later admiral in the Royal Navy, Lord George Paulet ( 1803-1879 ). The island was known mainly by the Swedish Antarctic expedition of Otto Nordenskjold, whose ship Antarctic was destroyed at 25 miles distance from the pack ice and sank. After a 14 - day walk across the ice to the team captain Carl Anton Larsen reached on February 28, 1903 had the island where the men built a stone hut and winter ten months. They were later rescued by the Argentine corvette Uruguay. The ruins of the cottage still stands today and is a popular destination for cruises to Antarctica. As a historic site HSM -41 it is under the protection of the Antarctic Treaty.

Fauna

Paulet Iceland is home to about 200,000 Adelie penguins. 2007, about 465 breeding pairs of Blauaugenscharbe were found in the penguin colony. The island is also breeding place of the snow petrel, the Kelp Gull and the White sheathbills beak. Paulet Iceland is therefore reported by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area ( Ant034 ).