Basalt Island or Fo Shek Chau () is an

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

of Hong Kong and administratively part of

Sai Kung District Sai Kung District is one of the districts of Hong Kong, 18 districts of Hong Kong. The district comprises the southern half of the Sai Kung Peninsula, the Clear Water Bay Peninsula in the New Territories and a strip of land to the east of Ko ...

. Together with Wang Chau and Bluff Island, it forms the Ung Kong () Group and is part of Hong Kong Global Geopark.

Geography

Basalt Island is located south of Town Island and Wang Chau, east of Bluff Island and north of the

Ninepin Group The Ninepin Group () or Kwo Chau Islands () is a group of 29 islands in the easternmost waters of Hong Kong. The Ninepin Group falls under the jurisdiction of Sai Kung District of Hong Kong. Islands The islands of the group include: * East ...

. Its highest elevation is 174 m. Notably, despite its name is “Basalt Island”, the rocks that forms the island are indeed rhyolitic

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock co ...

History

On 21December 1948, Basalt Island was the site of the first commercial airliner crash in Hong Kong, in which all 28 passengers, including five women, one child and seven crew, were killed. CNAC flight XT-104 from

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

Kai Tak Airport Kai Tak Airport was an international airport of Hong Kong from 1925 until 1998. Officially known as Hong Kong International Airport from 1954 to 6 July 1998, it is often referred to as Hong Kong International Airport, Kai Tak, or simply K ...

was operated by a

C-54 Skymaster The Douglas C-54 Skymaster is a four-engined transport aircraft used by the United States Army Air Forces in World War II and the Korean War. Like the Douglas C-47 Skytrain derived from the DC-3, the C-54 Skymaster was derived from a civilian ...

. Fog over the island was the official cause of the crash. Quentin Roosevelt II, the grandson of American president

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...

and then Senior Vice President of

China National Aviation Corporation The China National Aviation Corporation () was a Chinese airline which was nationalized after the Chinese Communist Party took control in 1949, and merged into the People's Aviation Company of China () in 1952. It was a major airline under the ...

(CNAC), and Paul Yung, elder brother of Rong Yiren who was later to become Vice-President of the People's Republic of China, were among the casualties. Debris remains near the site of the crash.

Conservation

The island was zoned as a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

in 1979. The Ung Kong Group Special Area () covers 176.8 hectares and was designated in 2011. It consists of Basalt Island, Bluff Island, Wang Chau, their surrounding islets, and Kam Chung Ngam () in the southern part of Jin Island. The geology of the area is characterised by

volcanic rock Volcanic rocks (often shortened to volcanics in scientific contexts) are rocks formed from lava erupted from a volcano. Like all rock types, the concept of volcanic rock is artificial, and in nature volcanic rocks grade into hypabyssal and me ...

s of the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

periods.

References

External links

(archive) Uninhabited islands of Hong Kong Sai Kung District Hong Kong UNESCO Global Geopark Geology of Hong Kong {{SaiKung-geo-stub

Geography

History

Conservation

See also

References

Further reading

External links