Cook Island is the central and largest island of the

Southern Thule Southern Thule is a group of the three southernmost islands in the South Sandwich Islands in the southern Atlantic Ocean: Bellingshausen, Cook, and Thule (Morrell). It is a largely submerged volcano of which only the three islands emerge above ...

island group, part of the

South Sandwich Islands The South Sandwich Islands () are a chain of uninhabited volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. They are administered as part of the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The chain lies in the sub-A ...

in the far south

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

. Southern Thule was discovered by a British expedition under Captain

James Cook Captain (Royal Navy), Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 176 ...

in 1775. Cook Island was named for Cook by a Russian expedition under

Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen Faddey Faddeyevich Bellingshausen or Fabian Gottlieb Benjamin von Bellingshausen ( – ) was a Russian cartographer, explorer, and naval officer of Baltic German descent, who attained the rank of admiral. He participated in the first Russi ...

, which explored the South Sandwich islands in 1819–1820. The island was surveyed in 1930 by

Discovery Investigations The Discovery Investigations were a series of scientific cruises and shore-based investigations into the biology of whales in the Southern Ocean. They were funded by the British Colonial Office and organised by the Discovery Committee in London, ...

(DI) personnel on ''

Discovery II ''Discovery II'', built in 1971, is the second of three Discovery sternwheel riverboats operated by the Riverboat Discovery company. ''Discovery II'' is still in use as a tour vessel on the Chena and Tanana rivers near Fairbanks, Alaska. Hist ...

'', who charted and named many of its features. Other names were later applied by the

United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee The UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee (or UK-APC) is a United Kingdom government committee, part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, responsible for recommending names of geographical locations within the British Antarctic Territory (BAT) and ...

(UK-APC).

Geography

Cook Island measures about wide. It is heavily glaciated and uninhabited. Its highest peak,

Mount Harmer Mount Harmer () is an ice-covered peak, high, in the north-central portion of Cook Island, South Sandwich Islands, Cook Island, in the South Sandwich Islands. It was charted in 1930 by Discovery Investigations personnel on the ''RRS Discovery II ...

, rises to . Mount Holdgate rises at the southeast end of the island. Working clockwise from the northwest, the following points are found on the island's coast. All were named by DI personnel unless otherwise specified. Resolution Point is a point on the northwest side of the island, named for Cook's vessel, . Tilbrook Point is a conspicuous cliff forming the northwest point of Cook Island. Named by UK-APC for Peter J. Tilbrook, zoologist of the survey of the South Sandwich Islands from in 1964. Reef Point is a point bounded by a small reef forming the west end of Cook Island, named descriptively. Jeffries Point is on the central part of the south side of the island, named for Miss M. E. Jeffries, an assistant to the staff of the

Discovery Committee The Discovery Committee was a popular name for the Interdepartmental Committee for the Dependencies of the Falkland Islands established by the British Government to carry out scientific investigations (which became known as ‘Discovery Investigati ...

. Longton Point is a feature of sheer high rock cliffs alternating with steep icefalls, forming the southeast corner of the island. It was named by UK-APC for

Royce E. Longton Royce may refer to: Places Physical geography * Royce Brook, a creek in New Jersey, USA * Royce Peak, a mountain in California, USA Settlements * Royce, Alberta, Canada; an inhabited locality Facilities and structures * Royce Hall, on the camp ...

, botanist of the 1964 ''Protector'' survey. It is the southernmost piece of land of the South Sandwich Islands and the southernmost landmass worldwide north of the

60th parallel south The 60th parallel south is a circle of latitude that is 60 degrees south of Earth's equatorial plane. No land lies on the parallel—it crosses nothing but ocean. The closest land is a group of rocks north of Coronation Island (Melson Rocks o ...

and therefore the southernmost landmass outside of the

Antarctic Treaty System The Antarctic Treaty and related agreements, collectively known as the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), regulate international relations with respect to Antarctica, Earth's only continent without a native human population. It was the first arms ...

. Swell Point is a small, narrow point on the island's east coast, near its southeast extremity, south of Resolution Point. It was named descriptively.

Nearby islands

Cook Island is separated from

Thule Island Thule Island, also called Morrell Island, is one of the southernmost of the South Sandwich Islands, part of the grouping known as Southern Thule. It is named, on account of its remote location, after the mythical land of Thule, said by ancient ...

to the west by Douglas Strait, and from

Bellingshausen Island Bellingshausen Island is one of the most southerly islands of the South Sandwich Islands, close to Thule Island and Cook Island, and forming part of the Southern Thule group. It is named after its discoverer, Russian Antarctic explorer Fabia ...

to the east by Maurice Channel.

Geography

Nearby islands

See also

References

Further reading