The Desventuradas Islands (, , "Unfortunate Islands" or ''Islas de los Desventurados'', "Islands of the Unfortunate Ones") is a group of four small

oceanic 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 ...

s located off the coast of

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

, northwest of

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

. They are considered part of

Insular Chile Insular Chile, also called ''Las islas Esporádicas'', or "the Sporadic Islands", is a scattered group of oceanic islands of volcanic origin located in the South Pacific, and which are under the sovereignty of Chile. The islands lie on the N ...

. Due to their isolation and difficulty of access there are no civilian settlements on these islands, but a detachment of the

Chilean Navy The Chilean Navy () is the naval warfare service branch of the Chilean Armed Forces. It is under the Ministry of National Defense (Chile), Ministry of National Defense. Its headquarters are at Edificio Armada de Chile, Valparaiso. History Ori ...

is stationed on Isla San Félix, which also hosts the Isla San Felix Airport.

History

Prehistory

No signs of prehistoric human activity by

Polynesians Polynesians are an ethnolinguistic group comprising closely related ethnic groups native to Polynesia, which encompasses the islands within the Polynesian Triangle in the Pacific Ocean. They trace their early prehistoric origins to Island Sout ...

Indigenous peoples of the Americas In the Americas, Indigenous peoples comprise the two continents' pre-Columbian inhabitants, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with them in the 15th century, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with the pre-Columbian population of ...

have ever been found on the islands, or on the neighboring

Juan Fernández Islands The Juan Fernández Islands () are a sparsely inhabited series of islands in the South Pacific Ocean, reliant on tourism and fishing. Situated off the coast of Chile, they are composed of three main volcanic islands: Robinson Crusoe Island, R ...

. Michael Levinson's 1973 book ''The Settlement of Polynesia'' states, "the Juan Fernández Islands and San Felix and San Ambrosio were apparently unoccupied in

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...

times and were not discovered by the Spanish until between 1563 and 1574. There is no evidence available to suggest that they were visited for fishing or other reasons by Amerindians before this."

Discovery

The islands were possibly discovered by

Ferdinand Magellan Ferdinand Magellan ( – 27 April 1521) was a Portuguese explorer best known for having planned and led the 1519–22 Spanish expedition to the East Indies. During this expedition, he also discovered the Strait of Magellan, allowing his fl ...

as early as 1521. The first confirmed sighting was by Juan Fernández on 6 November 1574 while voyaging from

Callao Callao () is a Peruvian seaside city and Regions of Peru, region on the Pacific Ocean in the Lima metropolitan area. Callao is Peru's chief seaport and home to its main airport, Jorge Chávez International Airport. Callao municipality consists ...

Valparaíso Valparaíso () is a major city, Communes of Chile, commune, Port, seaport, and naval base facility in the Valparaíso Region of Chile. Valparaíso was originally named after Valparaíso de Arriba, in Castilla–La Mancha, Castile-La Mancha, Spain ...

Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa (1532–1592) was a Spanish adventurer, author, historian, mathematician, and astronomer. He was named the governor of the Strait of Magellan by King Philip II of Spain, Philip II in 1580. His birthplace is not certain ...

wrote in 1579 that "they are now called after St. Felix and St. Ambor (i.e.

Felix and Nabor Nabor and Felix ( ) were Christianity, Christian Christian martyrdom, martyrs thought to have been killed during the Great Persecution under the Roman Empire, Roman list of Roman emperors, emperor Diocletian. A tomb in Milan is believed to contain ...

)". However, the name of the

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' Word stem, stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In ...

Ambor (Nabor) became confused with that of the more famous bishop

Saint Ambrose Ambrose of Milan (; 4 April 397), venerated as Saint Ambrose, was a theologian and statesman who served as Bishop of Milan from 374 to 397. He expressed himself prominently as a public figure, fiercely promoting Roman Christianity against Ari ...

(San Ambrosio). It is, probably, one of these islands that Captain John Davis struck one night in 1686. He was able to continue his voyage but erroneously reported the position of the incident. San Felix played a part in the

Falklands War The Falklands War () was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories, British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and Falkland Islands Dependenci ...

. In May 1982, the Chilean government allowed an RAF Nimrod R1 to fly signals reconnaissance sorties from the island, gathering information on Argentine Air Force movements.

Ecology

Vegetation Vegetation is an assemblage of plants and the ground cover they provide. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular Taxon, taxa, life forms, structure, Spatial ecology, spatial extent, or any other specific Botany, botanic ...

of the larger islands is a miniature mosaic of

matorral 300px, Springtime in Santiago.html" ;"title="Chilean matorral a few kilometers north of Santiago">Chilean matorral a few kilometers north of Santiago along the Pan-American Highway Matorral is a Spanish language, Spanish word, along with ''tomil ...

, barren rock, various sizes of trees, and shrubs mixed with ferns and perennial herbs. '' Sonchus laceratus'' is an endemic shrub species. The large islands, San Félix and San Ambrosio, are home to a critical WWF recognized temperate forest biome. The marine fauna shares close affinities with the south Pacific and the central Pacific, more so than with the nearing

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

. This is partly due to the

Humboldt Current The Humboldt Current, also called the Peru Current, is a cold, low-salinity ocean current that flows north along the western coast of South America.Montecino, Vivian, and Carina B. Lange. "The Humboldt Current System: Ecosystem components and pro ...

, which helps create a powerful biogeographic barrier between these islands and South America. There are no permanent sources of fresh water on any of the islands. Vertebrates inhabiting both of the largest islands are limited to birds. Ten

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of marine birds and one land bird species, some of them endangered, make their nests on or visit the islands. The island group has been recognised as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

because it is a breeding site for large numbers of

Masatierra petrel Masatierra petrel (''Pterodroma defilippiana'') or De Filippi's petrel, is a species of seabird in the family Procellariidae. It is endemic to Chile where it nests in the Juan Fernández Islands (including Masatierra) and Desventuradas Islands. ...

Geology

List of islands and location

The Desventuradas Islands, from east to west:

References

External links

GoogleMaps picture of San Felix island

World island information @ WorldIslandInfo.com

South America Island High Points above 1000 meters

Archipiélago de Las Desventuradas
(Spanish) *

United States Hydrographic Office The United States Hydrographic Office (USHO) prepared and published maps, charts, and nautical books required in navigation. The office was established by an act of 21 June 1866 as part of the Bureau of Navigation, Department of the Navy. It wa ...

South America Pilot
(1916) {{authority control Archipelagoes of Chile Archipelagoes of the Pacific Ocean Islands of Valparaíso Region Uninhabited islands of Chile Ecoregions of Chile Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests Neotropical ecoregions Important Bird Areas of Chile Important Bird Areas of Oceania Seabird colonies Temperate South America