Cockburn Island: Difference between revisions

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[[Category:Important Bird Areas in the British Antarctic Territory]]
[[Category:Important Bird Areas in the British Antarctic Territory]]

Latest revision as of 17:53, 6 January 2024

Cockburn Island

James Ross Island Group
(British Antarctic Territory)

Location

{{{map caption}}}

Location: 56°50’28"S, 64°12’2"W
Data

Cockburn Island is an oval island a mile and a half long, lying in the north-east entrance to Admiralty Sound, off the Trinity Peninsula which forms the tip of Graham Land in the British Antarctic Territory. The island consists of a high plateau with steep slopes surmounted on the northwest side by a pyramidal peak 1,476 feet high.

This island was discovered by a British expedition under James Clark Ross in 1839–43, who named it for Admiral George Cockburn of the Royal Navy, then senior Lord of the Admiralty.

Ross landed on the island and took formal possession for Queen Victoria on 6 January 1843. The island was resurveyed by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey from Hope Bay in 1945-47.

Geology

Geologically, the area makes up the Cockburn Island Formation, which was studied extensively in the late 1990s by H. A. Jonkers.[1] Rocks found on the island are volcanic,[2] and the island is characterized by its "precipitous cliffs".[3] A "Pecten conglomerate" from the late Pliocene or early Pleistocene period has been identified on the island, situated on a wave-cut platform at 720–820 ft.[4]

Wildlife

The island has been identified as an 'Important Bird Area' by BirdLife International because it supports a breeding colony of about 800 pairs of imperial shags. Although a large colony of Adélie penguins and snow petrel nests were reported from the island in 1901, it is not known whether they continue to breed there.[5]

J.D. Hooker made a series of botanical collections on the island in 1843.[6]

Outside links

References