Antarctic Peninsula

File:Ant-pen.gif

Antarctic Peninsula map

Booth Island and Mount Scott flank the narrow Lemaire Channel on the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula.

Antarctic Peninsula (69°30′S 065°00′W) is the northernmost part of the mainland of Antarctica, and the only part of that continent that extends outside the Antarctic Circle. It lies in the Western Hemisphere, facing South America. It extends from a line between Cape Adams (Weddell Sea) and a point on the mainland south of Eklund Islands, to Prime Head (63º13'S).

The first sighting of Antarctic Peninsula is contested but it apparently occurred in the 1820s. Agreement on this name by the US-ACAN and UK-APC in 1964 resolved a long-standing difference involving use of the American name, Palmer Peninsula, and the British name, Graham Land, for this feature. Graham Land is now restricted to that part of Antarctic Peninsula northward of a line between Cape Jeremy and Cape Agassiz; Palmer Land to the part southward of that line. In Chile, it is officially referred as O´Higgins Land, after the Chilean patriot and Antarctic visionary. The other Spanish countries call it "Península Antártica", among them is Argentina: it has got more bases and people there than any other nation.

The peninsula is highly mountainous, its highest peaks rising to approximately 2,800 metres (9,186 feet). These mountains are considered to be a continuation of the Andes of South America, with a submarine spine connecting the two.

Since the peninsula has the mildest climate in Antarctica, the highest concentration of research stations on the continent can be found there, or on the many nearby islands.

Hope Bay, at 63°23′S 057°00′W, is near to the northernmost extremity of the peninsula, which is Prime Head, at 63º13'S.

External link

• "Of Ice and Men" Account of a tourist visit to the Antarctic Peninsula by Roderick Eime
• Biodiversity at Ardley Island, South Shetland archipelago, Antarctic Peninsula