Coppermine Peninsula is the rugged, rocky promontory forming the northwest extremity of Alfatar Peninsula and

Robert Island Robert Island or Mitchells Island or Polotsk Island or Roberts Island is an island long and wide, situated between Nelson Island and Greenwich Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. Robert Island is located at . Surface area . ...

in the

South Shetland Islands The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands with a total area of . They lie about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and between southwest of the nearest point of the South Orkney Islands. By the Antarctic Treaty of 195 ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest co ...

. It lies between the English Strait to the west and

Carlota Cove Carlota Cove is the 1.9 km wide cove indenting for 1.14 km the northwest coast of Alfatar Peninsula, Robert Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica next east of Coppermine Peninsula, and entered between Fort William and Misn ...

to the east. It is 1.7 km long, 500 m wide and rising to 105 m. Coppermine Peninsula is linked to Alfatar Peninsula to the southeast by a narrow

isthmus An isthmus (; ; ) is a narrow piece of land connecting two larger areas across an expanse of water by which they are otherwise separated. A tombolo is an isthmus that consists of a spit or bar, and a strait is the sea counterpart of an isthm ...

bounded by

to the north and the 1 km wide and 460 m indenting ''Coppermine Cove'' () to the south. The feature is named in association with the adjacent Coppermine Cove, a descriptive name given by

sealers Sealer may refer either to a person or ship engaged in seal hunting, or to a sealant; associated terms include: Seal hunting * Sealer Hill, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica * Sealers' Oven, bread oven of mud and stone built by sealers around 180 ...

in about 1821 from the copper-coloured staining of the lavas and tuffs in the area.

Antarctic Specially Protected Area

The Coppermine Peninsula has a regime of special

environmental A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

protection under the Antarctic Treaty System. All land west of a north-south line across the isthmus between

and Coppermine Cove, has been designated an

Antarctic Specially Protected Area An Antarctic Specially Protected Area (ASPA) is an area on the continent of Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Sou ...

(ASPA 112, formerly SPA 16). The area is biologically rich, supporting a wide range of

plant communities A plant community is a collection or association of plant species within a designated geographical unit, which forms a relatively uniform patch, distinguishable from neighboring patches of different vegetation types. The components of each plant ...

with associated

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

fauna. An exceptional feature of the vegetation is a 1.5 ha closed carpet of the mosses '' Calliergon sarmentosum'', '' Calliergidium austro-stramineum'' and '' Drepanocladus uncinatus'', overlying a thick layer of wet moss

peat Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficien ...

. It is one of the largest continuous stands of moss in the Antarctic. There are large numbers of

bryophyte The Bryophyta s.l. are a proposed taxonomic division containing three groups of non-vascular land plants ( embryophytes): the liverworts, hornworts and mosses. Bryophyta s.s. consists of the mosses only. They are characteristically limited ...

s and lichens as well as Antarctic hair grass. Birds breeding at the site include chinstrap penguins,

southern giant petrel The southern giant petrel (''Macronectes giganteus''), also known as the Antarctic giant petrel, giant fulmar, stinker, and stinkpot, is a large seabird of the southern oceans. Its distribution overlaps broadly with the similar northern giant pe ...

Wilson's storm petrel Wilson's storm petrel (''Oceanites oceanicus''), also known as Wilson's petrel, is a small seabird of the austral storm petrel family Oceanitidae. It is one of the most abundant bird species in the world and has a circumpolar distribution mainl ...

Antarctic tern The Antarctic tern (''Sterna vittata'') is a seabird in the family Laridae. It ranges throughout the southern oceans and is found on small islands around Antarctica as well as on the shores of the mainland. Its diet consists primarily of small fis ...

kelp gull The kelp gull (''Larus dominicanus''), also known as the Dominican gull, is a gull that breeds on coasts and islands through much of the Southern Hemisphere. The nominate ''L. d. dominicanus'' is the subspecies found around South America, pa ...

s and

brown skua The brown skua (''Stercorarius antarcticus''), also known as the Antarctic skua, subantarctic skua, southern great skua, southern skua, or hākoakoa ( Māori), is a large seabird that breeds in the subantarctic and Antarctic zones and moves fur ...

s. The isthmus is a haul-out site for

southern elephant seal The southern elephant seal (''Mirounga leonina'') is one of two species of elephant seals. It is the largest member of the clade Pinnipedia and the order Carnivora, as well as the largest extant marine mammal that is not a cetacean. It gets it ...

Weddell seal The Weddell seal (''Leptonychotes weddellii'') is a relatively large and abundant true seal with a circumpolar distribution surrounding Antarctica. The Weddell seal was discovered and named in the 1820s during expeditions led by British seali ...

s and

Antarctic fur seal The Antarctic fur seal (''Arctocephalus gazella''), is one of eight seals in the genus '' Arctocephalus'', and one of nine fur seals in the subfamily Arctocephalinae. Despite what its name suggests, the Antarctic fur seal is mostly distributed ...

Maps

Chart of South Shetland including Coronation Island, &c.
from the exploration of the sloop Dove in the years 1821 and 1822 by George Powell Commander of the same. Scale ca. 1:200000. London: Laurie, 1822. * L.L. Ivanov. Antarctica: Livingston Island and Greenwich, Robert, Snow and Smith Islands. Scale 1:120000 topographic map. Troyan: Manfred Wörner Foundation, 2010. (First edition 2009. )

References

SCAR Composite Antarctic Gazetteer

Management Plan for Specially Protected Area No. 16 Coppermine Peninsula.
Secretariat of the Antarctic Treaty.
ASPA 112: Coppermine Peninsula, Robert Island, South Shetland Islands.
Secretariat of the Antarctic Treaty. {{coord, 62, 22, 27.2, S, 59, 42, 46.4, W, display=title Landforms of Robert Island Antarctic Specially Protected Areas Peninsulas of the South Shetland Islands Seabird colonies Penguin colonies

Antarctic Specially Protected Area

See also

Maps

References