Thompson Island (South Atlantic)
- 53.9333333333335.5Koordinaten: 53 ° 56 ' S, 5 ° 30' E
The Thompsoninsel (English Thompson Iceland ) is a so-called phantom island in the southern Atlantic Ocean. She is said to have found about 150 kilometers northeast of belonging to Norway Bouvet Island.
Prehistory
On October 6, 1808 sighted Captain James Lindsay of the Swan Bouvet Island under the 54 ° 22 ' S; 4 ° 15 ' E again. Since it was not known, include first Bouvet de Loziers 1739, he kept his Inselsichtung, which was later named Lindsay Island ', for a new discovery. The next sighting of Bouvet Island was made by Captain George Norris of Sprightly on December 10, 1825 He called the -. Actually existing - Liverpool island Iceland, landed there on December 16th and took formally on behalf of the British King George IV owned by their.
The Thompson Island
Between 13 and December 16, 1825 Norris sailed the area in the northeast of Lindsay resp. Liverpool island and discovered a putative second island. She was small and low with tremendous surf. Three miles southeast of this second island he found three islets and again three miles to the south of it a solitary rock. Norris named the island in the northeast of Lindsay / Liverpool Island Thompson Iceland and the three islets according to their shape Chimneys (Eng. " chimneys "). The positions of these discoveries was a Norris in a map. Unfortunately tune the position information of the Thompson Island on this map do not match those of Norris ' logbook match. 1853 Lindsay appeared Iceland, Iceland Bouvet or Liverpool, Thompson Iceland and The Chimneys on a nautical chart of the British Admiralty. 1893 will have on the Francis Allyn wiedergesichtet the Thompsoninsel the U.S. captain Joseph J. Fuller ( 1839-1920 ).
In November 1898 as the German Valdivia expedition intended to use to calculate the exact position of the island, but just could not be found. As part of the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition ( 1928-1929 ), the Thompsoninsel by Ola Olstad and Nils Larsen was finally " non-existent " declared.
After Hubert Lamb, the island could possibly be lost as a result of a volcanic eruption 1893-1898. At the position indicated by Norris the sea is 2,400 meters deep, however.
The Thompsoninsel was spotted therefore only by Norris. J. Fuller alleged Zweitsichtung the Thompsoninsel 1893 - he describes Bouvet Island almost verbatim consistent with Norris's diary - that must be seriously questioned.
It can now be regarded as certain that it was in the Thompsoninsel, the Chimneys and the isolated individual rocks to icebergs, which had a dark color due to rock inclusions. The idea of a multi-member group of islands could arise because the relevant maritime area around 1825 was still completely unknown and thus length of dislocations, which due to inadequate methods of length determination means that have been made erroneous positions of Bouvet Island, were kept for further islands.