Zavodovski Island

Zavodovski Island

NASA image of Zavodovski Island
Zavodovski Island Location in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
Geography
Location	Southern Ocean
Coordinates	56°18′S 27°34′W / 56.300°S 27.567°WCoordinates: 56°18′S 27°34′W / 56.300°S 27.567°W
Area	14.7 km^2 (5.7 sq mi)
Length	5 km (3.1 mi)
Width	5 km (3.1 mi)
Highest elevation	551 m (1,808 ft)
Highest point	Mount Asphyxia
Administration
United Kingdom
Demographics
Population	uninhabited

Zavodovski Island is an uninhabited volcanic island in the Traversay Islands subgroup of the South Sandwich Islands. It lies 350 kilometres (217 mi) southeast of South Georgia Island. It is the northernmost of the South Sandwich Islands and the nearest to South Georgia.

The island is home to around a million pairs of breeding chinstrap penguins, making it one of the world's largest penguin colonies.

History

Zavodovski Island was discovered and named by Russian Antarctic explorer Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen on Christmas Eve, 1819. Bellingshausen named it after Lieutenant Ivan Zavodovski, who was captain of his ship, the Vostok.^[1]

A volcanic eruption was identified on the island on 2 May 2012, although the size of the eruptions is unknown.^[2] The volcano on the island erupted again in March 2016; by July, between one third and one half of the island was covered in ash, putting the penguin colonies at risk.^[3]

Geography

The island is largely unglaciated. It is approximately 5 kilometres (3.1 miles) across with a peak elevation of 551 metres (1,808 feet) above sea level. The southernmost point is Fume Point, NE of which rises Noxious Bluff and the southwestern headland is Pacific Point. The easternmost cape is Pungent Point, the northernmost Reek Point, the northwesternmost Acrid Point and the westernmost Stench Point.^[4]

Mount Asphyxia, a stratovolcano also known as Mount Curry,^[5][6] dominates the western side of the island while the eastern half is a low-lying lava plain. It is an active volcano, with fresh lava reported in 1830 and numerous indications of activity since. Approximately 50% of the island is composed of tephra.^[2]

South Sandwich Islands

View of Mount Asphyxia.

Plume from Zavodovski volcano

In popular culture

• The island was the inspiration for the track '(Something's going down on) Zavodovski Island' by London jazz ensemble Portico Quartet.
• The penguin colony was featured in the "Islands" episode of the BBC nature documentary series Planet Earth II.^[7]

See also

• List of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands
• List of volcanoes in South Sandwich Islands

References

1. Antarctic Islands - South Sandwich Archived August 20, 2006, at the Wayback Machine.
2. "Satellite Spies Smoking, Hot Sandwich: Big Pic : Discovery News". Retrieved 2012-05-03.
3. "Penguin colonies at risk from erupting volcano". phys.org. Retrieved 7 July 2016.
4. "Fume Point". Mapcarta. Retrieved 3 November 2016.
5. Siebert L, Simkin T (2002-). Volcanoes of the World: an Illustrated Catalog of Holocene Volcanoes and their Eruptions. Smithsonian Institution, Global Volcanism Program Digital Information Series, GVP-3.
6. National Geographic - Erupting Volcano May Have Destroyed Huge Penguin Colony
7. Planet Earth II: The natural world from a new angle, 2016-11-04, retrieved 2016-11-07

Sources

• LeMasurier, W. E.; Thomson, J. W., eds. (1990). Volcanoes of the Antarctic Plate and Southern Oceans. American Geophysical Union. pp. 512 pp. ISBN 0-87590-172-7.
• Zavodovski, South Sandwich Islands with images
• "Zavodovski". Global Volcanism Program. Smithsonian Institution.