Island of Ross

The island of Ross is a volcanic island of the Mer of Ross, in the Antarctic Ocean. It faces the mounts of the Prince-Albert (chain of the Monts Transantarctiques), located between the Ground Victoria and the coast Hilary .

History

Sir James Clark Ross discovers the island in 1841, and names its two volcanos according to the name of the two ships of forwarding, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror .

The island will be renamed later on by Robert Falcon Scott in the honor of its discoverer.

The island of Ross was used as home base for several forwardings of the beginnings of the exploration of the Antarctic. It was and remains the southernmost island accessible by the sea. The shelters built by Scott and Shackleton as with the Cape Evans are still visible and are preserved as a historical testimony.

The island of Ross belongs to the Dépendance of Ross, territorial zone asserted by the New Zealand. This claim is not recognized by the majority of the other countries.

Geography

The island is separated from the continent by the Détroit of McMurdo (in the west), broad of 45 kilometers. The length of the island, in a East-West direction, is of approximately 75 km; it extends on close to 73 km of the course Bird (in north) with the course Armitage , located at the southernmost end of the peninsula of the Point of the hut (that of Scott). Surface of the island east of 2 480 km ².

The relief of the island is dominated by two volcanos, the Mont Erebus (3794 m) in the east, and the Mont Terror (3230 m) in the west.

Installations

Nowadays, the island of Ross shelters two bases close to a few kilometers, established on the coast at the southern end of the island, on both sides of the course Armitage :

the New Zealand base of Scott (80 inhabitants during the summer, a dozen during the winter)
the American base of McMurdo, the greatest base exploited in the Antarctic (1000 inhabitants during the summer, less than 200 during the winter).

Between 1987 and 1992, the island also sheltered the World Park Base , an establishment of Greenpeace.

In the east of the island, close to the course Crozier , are surfaces of reproduction of the Manchot Adelie and Emperor penquin; it is a zone especially protected (zone n° 6) by international agreement: very crossed zone, or overflight, are prohibited.

Paleontological discovery

In December 2003, of the paleontologists of the Saint Mary' S College of California discovered the skeleton of a Dinosaure théropode, that they called “Naze”. This carnivorous dinosaur measured 1,80 m for an estimated weight of 135 kg.

See too

List of the islands of the Antarctic

External bond

U.S. Geological Survey interactive Atlas of the Antarctic

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