South Georgia ( es, Isla San Pedro) is an island in the
South Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...
that is part of the
British Overseas Territory
The British Overseas Territories (BOTs), also known as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs), are fourteen territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom. They are the last remnants of the former Br ...
of
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
)
, anthem = " God Save the King"
, song_type =
, song =
, image_map = South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in United Kingdom.svg
, map_caption = Location of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in the southern Atlantic Oc ...
. It lies around east of the
Falkland Islands
The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubouze ...
. Stretching in the east–west direction, South Georgia is around long and has a maximum width of . The terrain is mountainous, with the central ridge rising to at
Mount Paget. The northern coast is indented with numerous bays and fjords, serving as good
harbours
A harbor (American English), harbour (British English; see spelling differences), or haven is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be docked. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with '' port'', which is ...
.
Discovered by Europeans in 1675, South Georgia had no indigenous population due to its harsh climate and remoteness. Captain
James Cook
James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and ...
in made the first landing, survey and mapping of the island, and on 17 January 1775 he claimed it a British possession, naming it "Isle of Georgia" after
King George III
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great B ...
. Through its
history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
, it served as a
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 ...
and
seal hunting
Seal hunting, or sealing, is the personal or commercial hunting of seals. Seal hunting is currently practiced in ten countries: United States (above the Arctic Circle in Alaska), Canada, Namibia, Denmark (in self-governing Greenland only), Ice ...
base, with intermittent population scattered in several whaling bases, the most important historically being
Grytviken
Grytviken ( ) is a settlement on South Georgia in the South Atlantic and formerly a whaling station and the largest settlement on the island. It is located at the head of King Edward Cove within the larger Cumberland East Bay, considered the best ...
. The main settlement and the capital today is
King Edward Point
King Edward Point (also known as KEP) is a permanent British Antarctic Survey research station on South Georgia island and is the capital of the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It is situated in Cumber ...
near Grytviken, a
British Antarctic Survey
The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) is the United Kingdom's national polar research institute. It has a dual purpose, to conduct polar science, enabling better understanding of global issues, and to provide an active presence in the Antarctic on ...
research station, with a population of about 20 people.
History
The island of South Georgia was probably discovered in 1675 by
Anthony de la Roché
Anthony de la Roché (spelled also ''Antoine de la Roché'', ''Antonio de la Roché'' or ''Antonio de la Roca'' in some sources) was a 17th-century English merchant born in London to a French Huguenot father and an English mother. During a c ...
,
[L. Ivanov and N. Ivanova. Roché Island / South Georgia. In]
''The World of Antarctica''.
Generis Publishing, 2022. pp. 68-70. a London merchant, and was named ''Roche Island'' on a number of early maps. It was sighted by a commercial Spanish ship named ''León'' operating out of
Saint-Malo
Saint-Malo (, , ; Gallo: ; ) is a historic French port in Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany, on the English Channel coast.
The walled city had a long history of piracy, earning much wealth from local extortion and overseas adventures. In 1944, the All ...
on 28 June or 29 June 1756. According to Argentine historians, it was explored on 29 June 1756,
St Peter's Day
The Feast of Saints Peter and Paul or Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul is a liturgical feast in honor, of the martyrdom in Rome of the apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul, which is observed on 29 June. The celebration is of ancient Christia ...
, hence its Spanish name ''Isla San Pedro'', literally "St Peter's Island".
The mariner Captain
James Cook
James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and ...
in made the first landing, survey and mapping of South Georgia. As mandated by the
Admiralty
Admiralty most often refers to:
*Admiralty, Hong Kong
*Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964
*The rank of admiral
*Admiralty law
Admiralty can also refer to:
Buildings
* Admiralty, Traf ...
, on 17 January 1775 he took possession for Britain and renamed the island 'Isle of Georgia' for
King George III
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great B ...
.
After making a foot crossing of the island with
Tom Crean and
Frank Worsley
Frank Arthur Worsley (22 February 1872 – 1 February 1943) was a New Zealand sailor and explorer who served on Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1916, as captain of '' Endurance''. He also served in the Roya ...
,
Ernest Shackleton
Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (15 February 1874 – 5 January 1922) was an Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic. He was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age o ...
organised the rescue of his party from
Elephant Island
Elephant Island is an ice-covered, mountainous island off the coast of Antarctica in the outer reaches of the South Shetland Islands, in the Southern Ocean. The island is situated north-northeast of the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, west-so ...
following the disaster that befell the 1916
Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition
The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917 is considered to be the last major expedition of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Conceived by Sir Ernest Shackleton, the expedition was an attempt to make the first land crossing ...
, which he led.
He is buried in the cemetery at
Grytviken
Grytviken ( ) is a settlement on South Georgia in the South Atlantic and formerly a whaling station and the largest settlement on the island. It is located at the head of King Edward Cove within the larger Cumberland East Bay, considered the best ...
alongside
Frank Wild.
Commercial
sealing was conducted on the island between 1786 and 1913. During that period 131 sealing visits are recorded, eight of which ended when the vessel was wrecked. Modern industrial sealing associated with whaling stations was carried out between 1909 and 1964. Sealing era relics include iron
try pots, hut ruins, graves and inscriptions, and the
South Georgia Museum was established on the island in 1992.
Surveying by Carse
The island was surveyed by explorer
Duncan Carse. He organised and led the
South Georgia Survey
The South Georgia Survey was a series of expeditions to survey and map the island of South Georgia, led by Duncan Carse between 1951 and 1957.
Although South Georgia had been commercially exploited as a whaling station during the first half of ...
of 1951–57, surveying much of the interior of the island.
Mount Carse and
Carse Point Carse Point () is the western extremity of a rock massif with four peaks, the highest at , standing at the south side of the mouth of Riley Glacier, Palmer Land, and fronting on George VI Sound. It lies separated from Mount Dixey to the northeast ...
are named after him.
In 1961 he lived as a
hermit
A hermit, also known as an eremite ( adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions.
Description
In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a C ...
in a remote part of South Georgia. Carse built a house at
Ducloz Head on the southern coast of the island, intending to live there through the winter. However, in May, three months into the experiment, surge waves destroyed his camp. He managed to salvage enough gear to survive the winter until making contact with a ship 116 days later.
His knowledge and mapping proved helpful to the British during the Falklands conflicts.
Argentine occupation
On 19 March 1982, a group of Argentinians arrived at
Leith Harbour
Leith Harbour (), also known as Port Leith, was a whaling station on the northeast coast of South Georgia, established and operated by Christian Salvesen Ltd, Edinburgh. The station was in operation from 1909 until 1965. It was the largest o ...
and raised the
Argentine flag on the island. On 3 April, the second day of the
Falklands War
The Falklands War ( es, link=no, Guerra de las Malvinas) was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and its territorial ...
, Argentine naval forces occupied the island. South Georgia was retaken by British forces on 25 April during
Operation Paraquet
Operation Paraquet was the code name for the British military operation to recapture the island of South Georgia from Argentine military control in April 1982 at the start of the Falklands War.
The operation, a subsidiary of the main Operation ...
.
Geography and fauna
The island's climate is classified as an ET or polar tundra climate on the
Köppen-Geiger classification system. It has no tree cover, and there is generally snow on the island during the winter months (April–November). The terrain is mountainous, with a central ridge and many fjords and bays along the coast. South Georgia is a breeding ground for
elephant seal
Elephant seals are very large, oceangoing earless seals in the genus ''Mirounga''. Both species, the northern elephant seal (''M. angustirostris'') and the southern elephant seal (''M. leonina''), were hunted to the brink of extinction for oi ...
s,
fur seal
Fur seals are any of nine species of pinnipeds belonging to the subfamily Arctocephalinae in the family '' Otariidae''. They are much more closely related to sea lions than true seals, and share with them external ears (pinnae), relatively l ...
s, and
king penguin
The king penguin (''Aptenodytes patagonicus'') is the second largest species of penguin, smaller, but somewhat similar in appearance to the emperor penguin. There are two subspecies: ''A. p. patagonicus'' and ''A. p. halli''; ''patagonicus'' ...
s. The island is home to the
South Georgia pintail
The South Georgia pintail (''Anas georgica georgica''), also misleadingly known as the South Georgian teal, is the nominate subspecies of the yellow-billed pintail (''Anas georgica''), a duck in the dabbling duck subfamily Anatinae. It is endemic ...
and the
South Georgia pipit
The South Georgia pipit (''Anthus antarcticus'') is a sparrow-sized bird only found on the South Georgia archipelago off the Antarctic Peninsula. It is the only songbird in Antarctica, South Georgia's only passerine, and one of the few non-seabir ...
, the only known habitat for these birds.
There are 25 native vascular
plants on South Georgia, and 76 non-native species have been recorded.
The island's topography includes a stepped sequence of flat surfaces interpreted as
wave-cut platforms formed when sea level was higher relative to the island. At sea level
strandflats have been described.
In 2013, teams of Norwegian government shooters and
Sámi
The Sámi ( ; also spelled Sami or Saami) are a Finno-Ugric-speaking people inhabiting the region of Sápmi (formerly known as Lapland), which today encompasses large northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and of the Murmansk Oblast, Ru ...
reindeer
Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subs ...
herders culled all 3,500 reindeer on the island. The animals had been introduced by Norwegian whalers in the early 20th century for food and sport hunting, but were later seen as a pest, damaging the island's flora and wider ecosystem. Karl Erik Kilander, the project manager, said the culled reindeer were frozen and taken to the Falkland Islands where they were sold to local residents and cruise ship operators.
In 2018, after a multiyear extermination effort, the island was declared free of
invasive rodent
Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are n ...
s and the number of
South Georgia pipit
The South Georgia pipit (''Anthus antarcticus'') is a sparrow-sized bird only found on the South Georgia archipelago off the Antarctic Peninsula. It is the only songbird in Antarctica, South Georgia's only passerine, and one of the few non-seabir ...
s had clearly increased.
The island lies in the path of large icebergs drifting northward from Antarctica.
Iceberg A-38 grounded off the island in 2004, resulting in indirect but severe effects on local wildlife by disturbing life on the seafloor and blocking foraging routes of seals and penguins. In 2020, the colossal
Iceberg A-68, similar in size to the island itself, was initially believed to be on a similar collision course but broke apart before collision with the island.
See also
*
List of landforms of South Georgia
South Georgia Island has been explored and charted by various List of Antarctic expeditions, Antarctic expeditions. As a result, the island has an extensive number of notable named geographical features.
Bodies of water Bays
* Antarctic Bay ...
*
Ryan Reef
Ryan Reef () is an isolated reef lying off the north coast of South Georgia
South Georgia ( es, Isla San Pedro) is an island in the South Atlantic Ocean that is part of the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Is ...
*
Storer Reef
Storer Reef () is an isolated reef lying 3 nautical miles (6 km) southeast of Aspasia Point and 1.5 nautical miles (2.8 km) off the south coast of South Georgia
South Georgia ( es, Isla San Pedro) is an island in the South Atlantic ...
*
Sutton Crag
Sutton Crag is a crag, , standing north of and connected by a long ridge to the west peak of Mount Paget in the Allardyce Range of South Georgia. Charted and unofficially named Sentinel or Sentinel Peak by the British South Georgia Expedition, 1 ...
*
Whalers Passage
Whalers Passage () is a narrow channel lying between the Welcome Islands and Sky Rock, off the north coast of South Georgia. The name appears to be first used on a 1931 British Admiralty
The Admiralty was a department of the Government of t ...
References
Further reading
*
*
{{Authority control
Islands of South Georgia
Seal hunting