The 'Kerguelen Islands' or the 'Kerguelen Archipelago' (
French: commonly ''ÃŽles Kerguelen'' or ''Archipel de Kerguelen'' but officially ''Archipel des Kerguelen'' or ''Archipel Kerguelen''), also known as 'Desolation Island', is a group of
islands in the southern
Indian Ocean. It is a territory of
France.
The Kerguelen Islands are located at , which is antipodal to the area where
Alberta,
Saskatchewan, and
Montana meet in
North America. The main island, 'Grande Terre', is
6,675 km² and it is surrounded by another 300 smaller islands and islets, forming an
archipelago of 7,215 km². The climate is raw and chilly but not severely cold throughout the year — much like that of the outer
Aleutian Islands of
Alaska — with frequent high winds; and while the surrounding seas are generally rough, they remain free of ice year-round.
History
The islands are one of five districts in the
French Southern and Antarctic Lands and were discovered by
Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen-Trémarec in February 1772.
The archipelago was exploited for its seal population until their destruction, including
fur seals in the 18th century and
elephant seals in the 19th century. A number of expeditions have briefly visited the islands, including that of
James Cook in 1776.
During Christmas 1940, the
German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis was at Kerguelen Island. During their stay the complement performed maintenance and replenished their water supplies. The ship's first fatality of the war came when a sailor fell while painting the funnel. He was buried in what is sometimes referred to as "the most southerly German soldier's grave".
Kerguelen has been used by a small number of science teams since 1949, with a population of fifty to one hundred always present. There is also a satellite tracking station. The main island is home to a well-established
feral cat population descended from ships' cats. They survive on sea birds and non-indigenous rabbits introduced to the islands. The islands are also known for the indigenous, edible
Kerguelen cabbage.
The main base, the "capital" of the district, is located at the eastern end of the ''Golfe du Morbihan'' on Grande Terre at and is known as '
Port-aux-Français'. Facilities include a bar, gym, hospital, library, and the chapel of ''Notre-Dame des Vents''.
In 2000, one of the over-winterers was shot and killed in a tragic accident,
an event written about by a British journalist who was staying there,
Matthew Parris.
Grande Terre
The Rallier du Baty peninsula
''Grande Terre'', the main island, measures 150 km east to west and 120 km north to south. The highest peak is Mont Ross, which is on the west side of the island and has an elevation of 1850 m. It is covered by Cook Glacier. The island has numerous
peninsulas. The most important ones are listed below and indicated on the map by numbers:
#
Courbet Peninsula
#
Péninsule Rallier du Baty
#Péninsule Gallieni
#Péninsule Loranchet
#Presqu'île Jeanne d'Arc
#
Presqu'île Ronarc'h
#Presqu'île de la Société de Géographie
#Presqu'île Joffre
#Presqu'île du Prince de Galles
#Presqu'île du Gauss
#Presqu'île Bouquet de la Grye
#Presqu'île d'Entrecasteaux
#Presqu'île du Bougainville
#Presqu'île Hoche
Historic localities
Port Aux Français
Cook Glacier
There are also a number of historic localities, all on Grande Terre (see also the main map):
★ Anse Betsy (historic geomagnetic station at ), on Baie Accessible, on the north coast of Péninsule Courbet. At this site, an astronomic and geomagnetic observatory was erected on October 26, 1874 by a German research expedition led by
Georg Gustav Freiherr von Schleinitz.
★ Armor (Base Armor)
★ Baie de l'Observatoire (historic geomagnetic station at ), just west of Port-Aux-Français, also at the south coast of the Courbet Peninsula, northern shore of Golfe du Morbihan. A station was erected at this site by the German Antarctic Expedition led by
Erich Dagobert von Drygalski (1902 to 1903).
★ Cabane Port-Raymond (scientific camp at ), at the head of a fjord cutting off Courbet Peninsula from the south
★
Cap Ratmanoff (geomagnetic station at , the easternmost point of Kerguelen)
★ La Montjoie (scientific camp at ), on the south of Baie Rocheuse, northern west coast
★ Molloy (Pointe Molloy), former observatory 10 km west of later Port-Aux-Français, at the south coast of the Courbet Peninsula, northern shore of
Golfe du Morbihan. An American expedition led by G. P. Ryan erected a station at this site on September 7, 1874.
★ Port Bizet (seismographic station at ), on the north coast of ÃŽle Longue)
★ Port Christmas (historic geomagnetic station at ), on Baie de l'Oiseau, Péninsule Loranchet, extreme northwest. The place was named by
James Cook, who discovered the islands and who anchored there on Christmas Day, 1776.
★ Port Couvreux (formerly a whaling station, an experimental sheep farm and a geomagnetic station, at ), on Baie du Hillsborough, on the southeast coast of Presqu'île Bouquet de la Grye. From 1912 sheep were bred to create an economic basis for settlement, but the attempt had to be abandoned in 1931.
★ Port Curieuse (harbor on the West coast at ), on the west coast across ÃŽle du l'Ouest. The site was named after ship Curieuse used by
Raymond Rallier du Baty on his second visit the islands in 1913 to 1914.
★ Port Douzième (literally ''Twelfth Port'', hut and geomagnetic station at ), on the north coast of Presqu'île Ronarch, southern shore of Golfe du Morbihan
★
Port Jeanne d'Arc (former whaling station founded by Norwegian whalers in 1908, and historic geomagnetic station at ), in the northwestern corner of
Presqu'île Jeanne d'Arc, looking across Passe de Buenos Aires to Île Longue (4 km northeast). The derelict settlement consists of four residential buildings with wooden walls and tin roofs and a barn. One of the buildings was restored in 1977.
Since 1963, just east of Port-aux-Français is a launch site for
sounding rockets (mainly
Arcas,
Dragon and
Eridan).
The islands
Following is a list of the most important of the satellite islands:
★ '
Île Foch' in the north is the largest, with an area of 206.2 km². The highest point is 687 m at ''Pyramide Mexicaine''.
★ '
Île Saint-Lanne Gramont', also in the north, is the second largest, with an area of 45.8 km². It is 480 m at the highest point and is located at ).
★ 'ÃŽle du Port', also in the north in the Golfe des Baliniers, is the third largest with an area of 43.0 km², with a highest altitude of 340 m.
★ 'ÃŽle de l'Ouest' (west, about 40 km²)
★ 'ÃŽle Longue' (southeast, about 40 km² )
★ 'ÃŽles Nuageuses' (northwest)
★ 'ÃŽle de Castries'
★ 'ÃŽle Leygues' (north)
★ '
ÃŽle Howe' (north)
★ 'ÃŽle Violette'
★ 'ÃŽle aux Rennes' (southeast, area 36.7 km², altitude 199 m,)
Economy
The main activity on Kerguelen Islands is scientific research, mostly
earth science and
biology.
Since
1992, the
Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) operates a
satellite tracking station located 4km away from
Port-aux-Français.
Agriculture is limited to raising some 3500
sheep for local consumption.
Geology
Simplified geological map of the Kerguelen Islands
The Kerguelen islands form an emerged part of the submerged Kerguelen-Heard tectonic plate, which has a surface area nearing 2.2 million square kilometers.
[1]
The major part of the volcanic formations visible on the islands are characteristic of an effusive volcanism, which caused a
trap rock formation to start emerging above the level of the ocean 35 million years ago. The accumulation is of a considerable amount,
Basalt flows, each with a thickness of three to ten meters, stack on top of each other, sometimes up to a depth of 1,200 meters. This form of volcanism creates a monumental relief shaped as stairs of pyramids.
Other forms of volcanism are present locally, such as the strombolic volcano
Mont Ross, and the volcano-plutonic complex on the Rallier du Baty peninsular. Various veins and extrusions of lava such as
trachytes, trachy-phonolites and
phonolites are frequent all over the islands.
No eruptive activity has been recorded in historic times, but some
fumaroles are still active in the South-West of the Grande-Terre island.
A few
lignite strata, trapped in basalt flows, reveal fossilised
Araucariaceae fragments, dated at about 14 million years of age.
The
Glaciations caused the depression and tipping phenomena which are at the origin of the gulfs at the north and the east of the archipelago. The very pronounced erosion caused by the glacial and fluvial activity, modeled the valleys and fjords and also allowed for the creation of conglomerate
detrital complexes, and the plain of the
Courbet Peninsula.
The islands are part of a submerged
microcontinent called the
Kerguelen continent.
[2] The microcontinent existed for three periods between 100 million years ago and 20 million years ago. The so-called Kerguelen continent might have had
tropical flora and
fauna about 50 million years ago. The Kerguelen continent finally sank 20 million years ago and is now 1 - 2 km below sea level. It has
sedimentary rocks similar to the ones found in
Australia and
India, indicating they were once connected.
Scientists hope that studying the Kerguelen continent will help them figure out the break-up of
Australia,
India and
Antarctica.
[3]
Flora and fauna
:''See main article:
Flora and fauna of the Kerguelen Islands.''
The Kerguelen Islands in fiction
Satellite view of the Kerguelen Islands
★ In the seafaring novel ''
Desolation Island'', one of the
Aubrey–Maturin series by
Patrick O'Brian, the crew repairs their disabled ship on an island that strongly resembles Kerguelen, although a later book in the series asserts that it is a different Desolation Island.
★ In ''
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket'',
Edgar Allan Poe's only complete novel, the crew of the ''Jane Guy'' alights at Kerguelen Island before eventually pushing on towards the South Pole.
★ In ''Biggles' Second Case'' by
W. E. Johns,
Biggles searches for Nazi Gold during
World War II on and around Kerguelen.
★
Warbots (no. 5) ''Operation High Dragon'' involves a secret Chinese military base located on Kerguelen Island. ISBN 1-55817-159-2
★ In
Gundam - The 08th MS Team, the
Zeon Zanzibar-class cruiser used to evacuate Ginias Sakhalin's forces from their base is named ''Kerguelen''.
★ In the Danish graphic novel ''
Mikkeline på skattejagt'' (''Mikkeline's Treasure Hunt'') by draftsman and cartoonist
Claus Deleuran, Desolation Island plays a major role in the plot. In the humorous story the active volcano Mont Ross serves as a back entrance to hell as described in ''
The Divine Comedy'' by
Dante Alighieri. ISBN 87-7378-244-0
★ The novel ''
The Lost Flying Boat'' by
Alan Sillitoe is situated around Kerguelen, though the islands' geography are not accurately described.
★ The Swedish comic ''
James Hund'' by
Jonas Darnell &
Patrik Norrmann has set at least one episode on Kerguelen, where a satanic Nazi conspiracy against the world's leaders has its seat.
★ The first chapter of
Jules Verne's ''Le Sphinx des glaces'' (''
An Antarctic Mystery'') is entitled "Chapitre 1 - Les ÃŽles Kerguelen" ("Chapter 1 - The Kerguelen Islands").
★ In
Patrick Robinson's ''
Kilo Class'' (ISBN 0-06-109685-7), naval confrontations arise in the Kerguelen Islands between the Americans, the Chinese, and the Taiwanese.
In the novel An Inexplicable Story by Josef Skvorecky (publ.by Key Porter Books, Toronto,2002),a chapter "A Letter from Herr Rudolf Ceeh" is situated on Kerguelen Islands.It's a report by a German submarine sailor about his stay on the Kerguelens.
of the Kerguelens.
See also
★
French overseas departments and territories
★
Administrative divisions of France
★
Islands controlled by France in the Indian and Pacific oceans
★
Sub-antarctic islands
References
1. article by Roland Shlich (Research Manager at the CNRS)
2. UT Austin scientist plays major role in study of underwater "micro-continent". Retrieved on 2007-06-29
3. Sci/Tech 'Lost continent' discovered Retrieved on 2007-06-29
External links
★
Official site (In French)
★
Official site (In French)
★
Cartography of the Kerguelen, including a toponymy index (In French)
★
Kerguelen Archipelago
★
Southern & Antarctic Territories
★
Columns about Kerguelen from ''
The Times''
★
Personal site with a lot of pictures
★
Rocket launches on the Kerguelen Islands
★
South Atlantic & Subantarctic Islands site, Kerguelen Archipelago page
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