D'Urville Island

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D'Urville Island, Antarctica

Joinville Island Group
(British Antarctic Territory)

Location

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Location: 63°3’58"S, 56°18’58"W
Area: 176 square miles
Data

D'Urville Island is the northernmost island of the Joinville Island Group, which lies off the north-eastern tip of Graham Land in the British Antarctic Territory. D'Urville is 17 miles long, and lies immediately north of Joinville Island, from which it is separated by Larsen Channel.

The island was discovered by the French Antarctic Expedition of 1838 led by Captain Jules Dumont d'Urville but not then recognised as a separate island. The French expedition named what is now known to be an archipelago Terre Joinville after Prince François of Joinville.

The island was charted as a single island in 1902 by the Swedish Antarctic Expedition under Otto Nordenskiöld, who named it for Captain d'Urville, its unwitting discoverer. It was surveyed by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey from Hope Bay, 1946-54

References