Péninsule Jeanne d'Arc, also known as Presqu'île Jeanne d'Arc, (Joan of Arc Peninsula in English) is a peninsula of Grande Terre, the main island of the

subantarctic The sub-Antarctic zone is a region in the Southern Hemisphere, located immediately north of the Antarctic region. This translates roughly to a latitude of between 46° and 60° south of the Equator. The subantarctic region includes many islands ...

Kerguelen The Kerguelen Islands ( or ; in French commonly ' but officially ', ), also known as the Desolation Islands (' in French), are a group of islands in the sub-Antarctic constituting one of the two exposed parts of the Kerguelen Plateau, a large ...

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Arc ...

in the southern

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t ...

Description

The peninsula occupies the south-eastern corner of Grande Terre, to which it is connected by the narrow, wide Haulage des Swains

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 isthmus ...

at its north-west end, and by the similarly narrow Haulage des Naufragés isthmus to Presqu'île Ronarc'h towards the eastern end of its north coast. It is about long from west to east and wide. Port Jeanne d'Arc is the site of an abandoned Norwegian

whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industr ...

station at the western end of the peninsula's north coast that is subject to a cultural heritage conservation program.

Important Bird Area

The southern coast of the peninsula has been identified as a Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because of its breeding

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same enviro ...

s. It consists largely of cliffs that rise steeply from the shore to a height of over . To the east, a large

glacial valley U-shaped valleys, also called trough valleys or glacial troughs, are formed by the process of glaciation. They are characteristic of mountain glaciation in particular. They have a characteristic U shape in cross-section, with steep, straight s ...

opens into the Baie de l’Antarctique. With the exception of the Canyon des Sourcils Noirs, at the eastern end of the site, which is regularly visited by scientists monitoring a study population of

black-browed albatross The black-browed albatross (''Thalassarche melanophris''), also known as the black-browed mollymawk,Robertson, C. J. R. (2003) is a large seabird of the albatross family Diomedeidae; it is the most widespread and common member of its family. T ...

es, human presence is rare.BirdLife International. (2012). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Southern coast of Péninsule Jeanne d'Arc. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 201201-18. At least 21 species breed in the IBA. Some 3,000 pairs of

southern rockhopper penguin The southern rockhopper penguin group (''Eudyptes chrysocome''), is a species of rockhopper penguin, that is sometimes considered distinct from the northern rockhopper penguin. It occurs in subantarctic waters of the western Pacific and Indian ...

s nest along the base of the cliffs, with about 2,500 pairs of gentoos and 130,000 pairs of macaronis. Kerguelen's only population of

sooty albatross The sooty albatross, dark-mantled sooty albatross or dark-mantled albatross,BirdLife International (2008b) (''Phoebetria fusca''), is a species of bird in the albatross family. They breed on sub-Antarctic islands and range at sea across the S ...

es is found at the Canyon des Sourcils Noirs, together with the 1,300 pairs of black-brows. Other birds breeding in the site include

northern giant petrel The northern giant petrel (''Macronectes halli''), also known as Hall's giant petrel, is a large predatory seabird of the southern oceans. Its distribution overlaps broadly, but is slightly north of, the similar southern giant petrel (''Macrone ...

s, Kerguelen terns

light-mantled albatross The light-mantled albatross (''Phoebetria palpebrata'') also known as the grey-mantled albatross or the light-mantled sooty albatross, is a small albatross in the genus ''Phoebetria'', which it shares with the sooty albatross. The light-mantled a ...

es,

white-chinned petrel The white-chinned petrel (''Procellaria aequinoctialis'') also known as the Cape hen and shoemaker, is a large shearwater in the family Procellariidae. It ranges around the Southern Ocean as far north as southern Australia, Peru and Namibia, and ...

s and

Kerguelen shag The Kerguelen shag (''Leucocarbo verrucosus'') is a species of cormorant endemic to the Kerguelen Islands in the southern Indian Ocean, one of the most isolated places on Earth. Many authorities consider it a subspecies of the imperial shag. R ...

References

Landforms of the Kerguelen Islands Important Bird Areas of Kerguelen

Jeanne d'Arc Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= �an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronati ...

Peninsulas of France {{FrenchSouthernTerritories-geo-stub