South Orkney Islands

Geography
Location	Antarctica
Coordinates	60°35′S 45°30′W
Area	620 km2 (240 sq mi)
Highest elevation	4,153 ft (1265.8 m)
Administration
Antarctica
Demographics
Population	0

The South Orkney Islands are a group of islands in the Southern Ocean, about 604 kilometres (375 mi) north-east of the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. They have a total area of about 620 square kilometres (240 sq mi).

The islands have been part of the British Antarctic Territory since 1962 (previously they were a Falkland Islands Dependency), and the British Antarctic Survey operates a base on Signy Island. The islands are also claimed by Argentina as part of the province of Tierra del Fuego, and the Argentine Navy has maintained a permanent base on Laurie Island since 1904. Apart from base personnel, there are no inhabitants. Under the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, the Islands' sovereignty is neither recognized nor disputed by the signatories and they are open to any signatory for non-military use.

History

Signy Island base

The South Orkney Islands were discovered in 1821 by two sealers, Nathaniel Brown Palmer and George Powell. The Islands were originally named Powell's Group, with the main island named Coronation Island as it was the year of the coronation of King George IV. In 1823, James Weddell visited the Islands, gave the archipelago its present name (after the Orkney Islands, Scotland) and also renamed some of the islands. The South Orkney Islands are located at roughly the same latitude south as the Orkney Islands are north (60°S vs 59°N), although it is not known if this was a factor behind the naming of the islands.

Subsequently, the Islands were frequently visited by sealers and whalers, but no thorough survey was done until the expedition of William Speirs Bruce on the Scotia in 1903, which overwintered at Laurie Island. Bruce surveyed the islands, reverted some of Weddell's name changes, and established a meteorological station, which was sold to the Argentinian Government upon his departure in 1904. This base, renamed Orcadas in 1951, is still in operation today and is thus the oldest research station continuously staffed in the Antarctic.

A 1944 stamp of the Falkland Islands overprinted for use in the South Orkneys.

In 1908, the United Kingdom declared sovereignty over various Antarctic and South American territories "to the south of the 50th parallel of south latitude, and lying between the 20th and the 80th degrees of west longitude", including the South Orkney Islands. The Islands were subsequently administered as part of the Falkland Islands Dependencies. A biological research station on Signy Island was built in 1947 by the British Antarctic Survey. In 1962, the islands became part of the newly established British Antarctic Territory.

The Argentinian claim to the islands dates from 1925. It was originally justified by the Argentinian occupation of the Laurie Island base and later subsumed into a wider territorial claim.

Geography and climate

The Islands are situated at latitudes about 60°30' to 60°47' S, and longitudes 44°25' to 46°25' W in the Southern Ocean. As a group of islands, the South Orkney Islands are located at approximately 60°35′S 045°30′W.

The archipelago comprises four main islands. Coronation Island is the largest island, measuring about 30 miles (48 km) long; its highest point is Mount Nivea which rises to 4,153 feet (1,266 m) above sea level. Laurie Island is the easternmost of the islands. The other two main islands are Powell Island and Signy Island. Smaller islands in the group include Robertson Island, the Saddle Islands, and Acuna Island. The total area of the archipelago is about 240 square miles (620 km²), of which about 90 percent is glaciated.

The Inaccessible Islands about 15 nmi (17 mi; 28 km) to the west are also considered part of the South Orkneys.

The climate of the South Orkneys is generally cold, wet, and windy. Summers are short and cold (December to March) when the average temperatures reach about 2 °C (36 °F) and fall to about −10 °C (14 °F) in winter (i.e., in July). The extrema reach about 12 and −44 °C (53.6 and −47.2 °F) respectively. The seas around the islands are ice-covered from late April to November.

Despite the harsh conditions the islands do support vegetation and are part of the Scotia Sea Islands tundra ecoregion, along with South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, the South Shetland Islands and Bouvet Island. All these islands lie in the cold seas below the Antarctic convergence. These areas support tundra vegetation consisting of mosses, lichens and algae, while seabirds, penguins and seals feed in the surrounding waters.

South Orkney Trough (60°0′S 45°0′W) is an undersea trough named in association with the South Orkney Islands and approved 10/77 (ACUF 177).

Research stations

The two claimant nations maintain research stations on the Islands.

• Argentina Orcadas Base (since 1904 – bought as a meteorological station from Scottish scientist William Speirs Bruce in 1904)
• United Kingdom Signy Island (since 1947)

See also

• Acuña Island
• Antarctica
• Composite Antarctic Gazetteer
• List of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands
• List of Antarctic islands south of 60° S
• SCAR
• Territorial claims in Antarctica
• Norway Bight
• Orwell Bight
• Brisbane Heights
• Iceberg Bay
• Marshall Bay
• Lynch Island
• Moe Island
• Scotia Sea
• Wave Peak
• Scotia Ridge

External links

• Description of Bruce's expedition
• Images
• Argentine Government Website with a map of the South Orkney Islands