Thompson Island (South Atlantic)

Last updated

53°56′S5°30′E / 53.933°S 5.500°E / -53.933; 5.500

Contents

1898 German map of Bouvet Island, with Thompson I. Bouvet-Gruppe Karte 1898.jpg
1898 German map of Bouvet Island, with Thompson I.
Atlantic Ocean laea location map.svg
Gold pog.svg
Thompson
Island
Supposed location of Thompson Island on a map of the Atlantic Ocean.

Thompson Island was a phantom island in the South Atlantic. It was thought to be about 70 km (43  mi ; 38  nmi ) north-northeast of Bouvet Island, a small Norwegian dependency between South Africa and Antarctica.

History

The island was first reported and named by whaling ship captain George Norris in 1825, supposedly the same day as sighting and landing on Bouvet Island, erroneously thinking the island to be undiscovered and naming it Liverpool Island. The last reported sighting was in 1893. When, however, the German survey ship Valdivia fixed the position of Bouvet in 1898, it then looked for Thompson, but did not find it. If Thompson ever existed, it is probable that it disappeared in a volcanic eruption sometime in the 1890s, [1] although in 1997 it was reported that the sea depth at the supposed location is greater than 2,400 metres (7,900 ft; 1.5 mi), rendering the existence of a submarine volcano all but impossible.

Thompson Island continued to appear on maps published as late as 1943. [2]

In fiction

See also

Notes

  1. P.E. Baker (1967). "Historical & Geological Notes on Bouvetoya" (PDF). British Antarctic Survey Bulletin (13): 71–84. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-16.
  2. A. R. H. and N. A. M. (1943). "Review: A New Chart of the Antarctic". The Geographical Journal. 102 (1): 29–34. doi:10.2307/1789367. JSTOR   1789367.
  3. Geoffrey Jenkins (1962). A Grue of Ice. Fontana. ISBN   0-00-613269-3.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antarctic</span> Polar region around Earths South Pole

The Antarctic is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter I Island</span> Island in Antarctica

Peter I Island is an uninhabited volcanic island in the Bellingshausen Sea, 450 kilometres (240 nmi) from continental Antarctica. It is claimed as a dependency of Norway and, along with Bouvet Island and Queen Maud Land, composes one of the three Norwegian dependent territories in the Antarctic and Subantarctic. The island measures approximately 11 by 19 kilometres, with an area of 156 km2 (60 sq mi); its highest point is the ultra-prominent, 1,640-metre-tall (5,380 ft) Lars Christensen Peak. Nearly all the island is covered by a glacier, and it is surrounded most of the year by pack ice, making it inaccessible during these times. There is little vertebrate animal life on the island, apart from some seabirds and seals.

Drygalski Island is an ice-capped island that is 20.4 kilometres (11 nmi) long and rises to 325 m (1,066 ft) in the Davis Sea of the Southern Ocean, about 85 km (53 mi) north of the coast of Queen Mary Land and 45 km (28 mi) north-northeast of Cape Filchner. The island has an area of 220 km2 (85 sq mi).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Signy Island</span> Island of Antarctica

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.

RRS <i>Discovery</i> Wooden barque museum ship built (1901) for Antarctic research

The RRS Discovery is a barque-rigged auxiliary steamship built in Dundee, Scotland for Antarctic research. Launched in 1901, she was the last traditional wooden three-masted ship to be built in the United Kingdom. Her first mission was the British National Antarctic Expedition, carrying Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton on their first, and highly successful, journey to the Antarctic, known as the Discovery Expedition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Shetland Islands</span> Group of islands north of the Antarctic Peninsula

The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands with a total area of 3,687 km2 (1,424 sq mi). They lie about 120 kilometres north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and between 430 and 900 km southwest of the nearest point of the South Orkney Islands. By the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, the islands' sovereignty is neither recognized nor disputed by the signatories and they are free for use by any signatory for non-military purposes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Orkney Islands</span> Group of islands in the Southern Ocean north-east of the Antarctic Peninsula

The South Orkney Islands are a group of islands in the Southern Ocean, about 604 km (375 mi) north-east of the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula and 844 km (524 mi) south-west of South Georgia Island. They have a total area of about 620 km2 (240 sq mi). The islands are claimed both by Britain, and by Argentina as part of Argentine Antarctica. Under the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, sovereignty claims are held in abeyance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aurora Islands</span> Phantom islands in the South Atlantic

The Aurora Islands was a group of three phantom islands first reported in 1762 by the Spanish merchant ship Aurora while sailing from Lima to Cadiz. The Aurora's officers reported sighting them again in 1774. The Spanish ship San Miguel fixed their location at 52°37'S, 47°49'W. On 20 February 1794, they were sighted again by a Spanish survey ship, the corvette Atrevida, which as part of the Alejandro Malaspina circumnavigation had been sent to confirm them. Their reported location was approximately halfway between the Falkland Islands and South Georgia at 53°S48°W. The latitude is considered perfect; the longitude was based on the meridian of the astronomical observatory, San Fernando, Cádiz. The islands were last reportedly sighted in 1856, but continued to appear on maps of the South Atlantic until the 1870s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">McMurdo Sound</span> Geographic location

McMurdo Sound, a sound in Antarctica, is the southernmost navigable body of water in the world, located approximately 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) from the South Pole.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scotia Sea</span> Sea in the Southern Ocean

The Scotia Sea is a sea located at the northern edge of the Southern Ocean at its boundary with the South Atlantic Ocean. It is bounded on the west by the Drake Passage and on the north, east, and south by the Scotia Arc, an undersea ridge and island arc system supporting various islands. The sea sits atop the Scotia Plate. It is named after the expedition ship Scotia. Many icebergs melt there.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Usarp Mountains</span> Mountain range in Antarctica

The Usarp Mountains are a major Antarctic mountain range, lying west of the Rennick Glacier and trending north to south for about 190 kilometres (118 mi). The feature is bounded to the north by Pryor Glacier and the Wilson Hills.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adelaide Island</span> Island on the north side of Marguerite Bay off the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charcot Island</span>

Charcot Island or Charcot Land is an island administered under the Antarctic Treaty System, 56 kilometres (30 nmi) long and 46 kilometres (25 nmi) wide, which is ice covered except for prominent mountains overlooking the north coast. Charcot Island lies within the Bellingshausen Sea, 102 kilometres (55 nmi) west of Alexander Island, and about 57 kilometres (31 nmi) north of Latady Island. A notable landmark of the island is its northernmost point, Cape Byrd.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Renaud Island</span>

Renaud Island is an ice-covered island in the Biscoe Islands of Antarctica, 40 km (25 mi) long and from 6.4 to 16.1 km wide, lying between the Pitt Islands and Rabot Island. It is separated from the Pitt Islands to the northeast by Mraka Sound, and from Lavoisier Island to the southwest by Pendleton Strait.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bransfield Strait</span> Strait

Bransfield Strait or Fleet Sea is a body of water about 100 kilometres (60 mi) wide extending for 300 miles (500 km) in a general northeast – southwest direction between the South Shetland Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hut Point Peninsula</span> Landform on Ross Island, Antarctica

Hut Point Peninsula is a long, narrow peninsula from 3 to 5 km wide and 24 km (15 mi) long, projecting south-west from the slopes of Mount Erebus on Ross Island, Antarctica. McMurdo Station (US) and Scott Base (NZ) are Antarctic research stations located on the Hut Point Peninsula.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bouvet Island</span> Uninhabited volcanic island and dependency of Norway in the South Atlantic Ocean

Bouvet Island is an island and dependency of Norway, and declared an uninhabited protected nature reserve. It is a subantarctic volcanic island, situated in the South Atlantic Ocean at the southern end of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, making it the world's most remote island. It is not part of the southern region covered by the Antarctic Treaty System.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern Ocean</span> Ocean around Antarctica

The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the world ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of 20,327,000 km2 (7,848,000 sq mi), it is regarded as the second-smallest of the five principal oceanic divisions: smaller than the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans but larger than the Arctic Ocean. Since the 1980s, the Southern Ocean has been subject to rapid climate change, which has led to changes in the marine ecosystem.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New South Greenland</span> Antarctic island previously believed to exist

New South Greenland, sometimes known as Morrell's Land, was an appearance of land recorded by the American captain Benjamin Morrell of the schooner Wasp in March 1823, during a sealing and exploration voyage in the Weddell Sea area of Antarctica. Morrell provided precise coordinates and a description of a coastline which he claimed to have sailed along for more than 300 miles (480 km). Because the Weddell Sea area was so little visited and hard to navigate due to ice conditions, the alleged land was never properly investigated before its existence was emphatically disproven during Antarctic expeditions in the early 20th century.

References