Bellingshausen Island
United Kingdom · Europe
About
Bellingshausen Island is a small, uninhabited volcanic island in the Southern Thule group of the South Sandwich Islands, in the South Atlantic Ocean. It lies approximately 7.6 kilometres (4.7 mi) northeast of Cook Island and 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) east of Thule Island. The island is a youthful stratovolcano composed of basaltic andesite, rising to 255 metres (837 ft) at Basilisk Peak. Its most recent crater, approximately 150 metres (490 ft) wide and 60 metres (200 ft) deep, formed during an explosive eruption between 1968 and 1984.
The island was first sighted by James Cook's expedition in 1775, but was not distinguished as a separate island until the First Russian Antarctic Expedition of 1819–1821, led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, after whom it is named. The island was more accurately charted in 1930 by the Discovery Investigations team aboard RRS Discovery II.
Bellingshausen Island is part of the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and is also claimed by Argentina as part of Tierra del Fuego. The island is uninhabited and rarely visited, with no permanent infrastructure.
Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.