Melchior Islands

Aongst the Melchior Islands

Location of the Melchior Islands

The Melchior Islands are a group of many low, ice-covered islands lying near the centre of Dallmann Bay in the Palmer Archipelago of the British Antarctic Territory.

These islands were first seen but left unnamed by a German expedition under Eduard Dallmann, 1873–74. The islands were resighted and roughly charted by the Third French Antarctic Expedition under Jean-Baptiste Charcot, 1903–05. Charcot named what he believed to be the large easternmost island in the group "Île Melchior" after Vice Admiral Jules Melchior of the French Navy, but later surveys proved Charcot's Île Melchior to be two islands, now called Eta Island and Omega Island. The name 'Melchior Islands' has since become established for the whole island group now described, of which Eta Island and Omega Island form the eastern part, while the Sigma Islands mark the northern limit of the islands.

In the eastern part of the islands, between Omega Island and Zeta Island, runs the Alphabet Channel.

The group was roughly surveyed in 1927 by Discovery Investigations personnel in the RRS Discovery.

The semi-circular arrangement of Lambda, Epsilon, Alpha and Delta Islands forms a small harbour called Inner Harbour. Its descriptive name was probably given by Discovery Investigations personnel who roughly surveyed the harbour in 1927.

References

• Gazetteer and Map of The British Antarctic Territory: Melchior Islands