South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (SGSSI) is a British Overseas Territory in the southern Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote and inhospitable collection of islands, consisting of South Georgia and a chain of smaller islands known as the South Sandwich Islands. South Georgia is 165 kilometres (103 mi) long and 35 kilometres (22 mi) wide and is by far the largest island in the territory. The South Sandwich Islands lie about 700 kilometres (430 mi) southeast of South Georgia. The territory's total land area is 3,903 km2 (1,507 sq mi). The Falkland Islands are about 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) west from its nearest point.
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-Antarctic region, about 700 kilometres (430 mi) southeast of South Georgia and 1,700 kilometres (1,100 mi) northeast from the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.
Signy Island is a small subantarctic island in the South Orkney Islands of Antarctica. It was named by the Norwegian whaler Petter Sørlle (1884–1933) after his wife, Signy Therese.
Bellingshausen Island is one of the most southerly 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 Fabian von Bellingshausen (1778–1852).
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 geographers to lie at the extreme end of the Earth. The alternative name Morrell Island is after Benjamin Morrell, an American explorer and whaling captain. It was espied by James Cook and his Resolution crew on 31 January 1775 during his attempt to find Terra Australis.
Vindication Island is a small uninhabited island of the Candlemas Islands in the South Sandwich Islands. It is one of about a dozen islands that make up the South Sandwich island arc, a chain of volcanoes in the Southern Ocean that was discovered in 1775 by James Cook. The volcanism is caused by the subduction of the South American Plate beneath the Sandwich Plate.
Adelaide Island is a large, mainly ice-covered island, 139 kilometres (75 nmi) long and 37 kilometres (20 nmi) wide, lying at the north side of Marguerite Bay off the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. The Ginger Islands lie off the southern end. Mount Bodys is the easternmost mountain on Adelaide Island, rising to over 1,220 m. The island lies within the Argentine, British and Chilean Antarctic claims.
Annenkov Island is an island in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, to the west of the main island of South Georgia. The Pickersgill Islands are to its southeast. It is irregularly shaped and 4 miles (6.4 km) long and 650 m (2,130 ft) high, lying 8 miles (13 km) off the south-central coast of South Georgia.
Thatcher Peninsula is a mountainous peninsula in north-central South Georgia. Its total area is approximately 5,640 hectares, with roughly 1,620 ha covered in vegetation. It terminates to the north in Mai Point, rising between Cumberland West Bay to the west, and Cumberland East Bay and Moraine Fjord to the east. It is bounded to the southwest and south by Lyell Glacier and Hamberg Glacier. King Edward Cove on the east side of the peninsula is the site of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) Grytviken station and the disused whaling station of the same name.
The Bay of Isles is a bay 9 miles (14 km) wide and receding 3 miles (5 km), lying between Cape Buller and Cape Wilson along the north coast of South Georgia. It was discovered in 1775 by a British expedition under James Cook and so named by him because numerous islands lie in the bay. Of South Georgia's 31 breeding bird species, 17 are found here.
Wasp Point is a projecting point in the middle of the southwest coast of Thule Island, South Sandwich Islands. It was named by United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee (UK-APC) in 1971 after the American sealing vessel in which Captain Benjamin Morrell of Stonington, CT, visited the island in 1823. Next to Longton Point on Cook Island, it is the southernmost landmass of the South Sandwich Islands and the southernmost landmass worldwide north of the 60th parallel south and therefore the southernmost landmass outside of the Antarctic Treaty System.
Douglas Strait is a strait 2 nautical miles (4 km) wide between Thule Island and Cook Island, in the South Sandwich Islands. The existence of this strait was first noted by a Russian expedition under Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen in 1820. It was charted in 1930 by Discovery Investigations personnel on the Discovery II and named for Vice-Admiral Sir Percy Douglas, a member of the Discovery Committee.
Maurice Channel is a strait 1.5 nautical miles (3 km) wide between Bellingshausen Island and Cook Island, in the South Sandwich Islands off Antarctica. In 1820, Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen indirectly indicated the existence of the strait by describing Southern Thule as consisting of one high rock and three small islands. The strait was charted in 1930 by Discovery Investigations personnel on the Discovery II and named for Henry Gascoyne Maurice, a member of the Discovery Committee.
Salamander Point is the northern point of Bellingshausen Island, South Sandwich Islands. This feature was named North Point during the survey of the island from RRS Discovery II in 1930, but the name was changed by United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee (UK-APC) in 1971 to avoid duplication. The new name is in association with nearby Basilisk Peak; Salamander is an animal mythically supposed to live in fire.
Mount Holdgate is a prominent mountain, 960 metres (3,150 ft) high, with steep icefalls and rock buttresses which provides a clear landmark at the southeast end of Cook Island in the South Sandwich Islands. It was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee for Martin W. Holdgate, organizer and senior scientist of the survey of the South Sandwich Islands from HMS Protector in 1964.
Leskov Island is an island in the South Sandwich Islands named after Russian sailor Arcady Leskov. It is a semicircular 190 metres (620 ft) high eroded volcano with a large bay on its eastern side. Leskov Island is almost entirely surrounded by cliffs and has a surface area of 0.55 by 0.93 kilometres. Volcanic rocks form tuffs and lava and consist almost entirely of andesite.
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 sea level. Between Cook and Thule, and south of Bellingshausen, lie two submerged calderas; a third caldera is located on Thule. Cook Island is inactive and largely glaciated, while Bellingshausen and Thule feature active craters with fumarolic activity, and there is evidence of eruptions in the 20th century.
Zavodovski Island is an uninhabited volcanic island in the Traversay Islands subgroup of the South Sandwich Islands, which are located southeast of South Georgia in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is the northernmost of the South Sandwich Islands and consists of one major stratovolcano, Mount Curry, which is surrounded to the east by a plain formed by lava flows. Mount Curry has a fumarolically active crater on the southwestern side, which also bears traces of a sector collapse. An eruption occurred in 2016.
Visokoi Island is an uninhabited volcanic island in the Traversay Islands subgroup of the South Sandwich Islands, which are located southeast of South Georgia. It consists of one major volcano, Mount Hodson whose height is usually given as 1,005 metres (3,297 ft). The mountain is mostly covered by glaciers, except for several low areas on the coast like the northern Finger Point and eastern Irving Point. Several parasitic vents are found especially on the eastern side, and one vent close to Finger Point is still hot. Eruptions were reported in 1830, 1927 and 1930.
Bristol Island is an uninhabited island in the South Sandwich Islands. The island is almost entirely surrounded by ice cliffs and largely covered with ice. It features both the oldest rocks of this archipelago and an active volcano that last erupted in 2016.
