Cockburn Island
| Cockburn Island | |
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| Location: | 56°50’28"S, 64°12’2"W |
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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
- Gazetteer and Map of The British Antarctic Territory: Cockburn Island
References
- ↑ Francis, Jane E.; Pirrie, Duncan; Crame, J. Alistair: 'Cretaceous-tertiary High-latitude Palaeoenvironments: James Ross Basin, Antarctica' (Geological Society of London, 2006) ISBN 978-1-86239-197-0 page 79
- ↑ Hooker, Sir Joseph Dalton (1847). Botany of the Antarctic voyage of H. M. discovery ships, Erebus and Terror: under the command of Captain Sir J.C. Ross, 1839-43. p. 535. https://books.google.com/books?id=FBJQAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA535.
- ↑ Zalasiewicz, Jan; Williams, Mark (22 March 2012). The Goldilocks Planet: The 4 billion year story of Earth's climate. Oxford University Press. p. 147. ISBN 978-0-19-163402-4. https://books.google.com/books?id=58UxjDCAB24C&pg=PA147.
- ↑ Richards, Horace (December 2007). Annotated Bibliography of Quaternary Shorelines: Supplement 1965-1969. Academy of Natural Sciences. p. 225. ISBN 978-1-4223-1779-2. https://books.google.com/books?id=bu-zsc7aQdkC&pg=PA225.
- ↑ Cockburn Island IBA: BirdLife International
- ↑ Putzke, Jair; Pereira, Antônio Batista (2001). The Antarctic Mosses: With Special Reference to the South Shetland Islands. Editora da ULBRA. p. 23. ISBN 978-85-7528-008-9. https://books.google.com/books?id=fS3udPTALCYC&pg=PA23.