La Ronciere Island (russian: Остров Ла-Ронсьер, translit=Ostrov La-Ronsier, also known as Ronser Island, is an island in

Franz Josef Land Franz Josef Land, Frantz Iosef Land, Franz Joseph Land or Francis Joseph's Land ( rus, Земля́ Фра́нца-Ио́сифа, r=Zemlya Frantsa-Iosifa, no, Fridtjof Nansen Land) is a Russian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. It is inhabited on ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

History

This island was named by the

Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition The Austro-Hungarian North Pole expedition was an Arctic expedition to find the North-East Passage that ran from 1872 to 1874 under the leadership of Julius Payer and Karl Weyprecht. The expedition discovered and partially explored Franz Josef La ...

after Captain La Ronciere Le Noury, a French courier for Austro-Hungarian

Emperor Franz Joseph Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I (german: Franz Joseph Karl, hu, Ferenc József Károly, 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the other states of the Habsburg monarchy from 2 December 1848 until his ...

. On some maps La Ronciere Island appears as "Whitney Island", after American Arctic financier

William Collins Whitney William Collins Whitney (July 5, 1841February 2, 1904) was an American political leader and financier and a prominent descendant of the John Whitney family. He served as Secretary of the Navy in the first administration of President Grover Cle ...

. This name was given by the American explorer Evelyn Briggs Baldwin, but the Austro-Hungarian explorers who discovered Franz Josef land had named this island first.Peter Joseph Capelotti. 1999. ''The Greatest Show in the Arctic: The American Exploration of Franz Josef Land, 1898–1905''. University of Oklahoma Press, 2016
p. 185

Geography

La Ronciere Island's area is . Its latitude is 81° N and its longitude 61° E. The highest point of the island is . It is almost completely glaciarized except for two small points by the shore in the northeast and in the west. La Ronciere Island lies north of

Wilczek Land Wilczek Land (russian: Земля Вильчека; , german: Wilczek-Land), is an island in the Arctic Ocean at . It is the second-largest island in Franz Josef Land, in Arctic Russia. This island should not be confused with the small Wilczek I ...

, separated from it by an wide sound.

Adjacent islands

Geddes Island

southwest of La Ronciere Island and north of Wilczek Land's northwestern cape, at , lies a small island called ''Ostrov Geidzh'' (Остров Гейдж) or Geddes Island. This barely island was named after Scottish polar scientist Sir

Patrick Geddes Sir Patrick Geddes (2 October 1854 – 17 April 1932) was a British biologist, sociologist, Comtean positivist, geographer, philanthropist and pioneering town planner. He is known for his innovative thinking in the fields of urban planning ...

. This same island was named Hayden Island (Остров Гайдана; Ostrov Gaydana), after pioneering American geologist

Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden (September 7, 1829 – December 22, 1887) was an American geologist noted for his pioneering surveying expeditions of the Rocky Mountains in the late 19th century. He was also a physician who served with the Union Ar ...

, by the Ziegler-Fiala expedition.

References

External links