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The Turret
The Turret () is a conspicuous rocky headland, 460 m high, at the south side of the entrance to Gibbon Bay on the east coast of Coronation Island, in the South Orkney Islands. Probably first sighted by Captain George Powell and Captain Nathaniel Palmer Nathaniel Brown Palmer (August 8, 1799June 21, 1877) was an American seal hunter, explorer, sailing captain, and ship designer. He gave his name to Palmer Land, Antarctica, which he explored in 1820 on his sloop ''Hero''. He was born in Stonin ... who discovered these islands in December 1821. Charted and given this descriptive name by DI personnel on the '' Discovery II'' in 1933. Headlands of the South Orkney Islands {{SouthOrkneys-geo-stub ...
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Headland
A headland, also known as a head, is a coastal landform, a point of land usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends into a body of water. It is a type of promontory. A headland of considerable size often is called a cape.Whittow, John (1984). ''Dictionary of Physical Geography''. London: Penguin, 1984, pp. 80, 246. . Headlands are characterised by high, breaking waves, rocky shores, intense erosion, and steep sea cliff. Headlands and bays are often found on the same coastline. A bay is flanked by land on three sides, whereas a headland is flanked by water on three sides. Headlands and bays form on discordant coastlines, where bands of rock of alternating resistance run perpendicular to the coast. Bays form when weak (less resistant) rocks (such as sands and clays) are eroded, leaving bands of stronger (more resistant) rocks (such as chalk, limestone, and granite) forming a headland, or peninsula. Through the deposition of sediment within the bay and the erosion ...
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Gibbon Bay
Gibbon Bay is a bay long and wide, entered between Rayner Point and The Turret along the east coast of Coronation Island, in the South Orkney Islands of Antarctica. The bay was first seen in December 1821 by Captain George Powell and Captain Nathaniel Palmer, but was more accurately delineated on a 1912 chart by Captain Petter Sorlle. It was recharted in 1933 by Discovery Investigations personnel on the ''Discovery II'' and named for the ship's surgeon, Dr G.M. Gibbon. Important Bird Area The bay has been identified as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports a large breeding colony of about 13,000 pairs of chinstrap penguins as well as being a nesting site for snow petrel The snow petrel (''Pagodroma nivea'') is the only member of the genus ''Pagodroma.'' It is one of only three birds that has been seen at the Geographic South Pole, along with the Antarctic petrel and the south polar skua, which have the most s ...s. References ...
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Coronation Island
Coronation Island is the largest of the South Orkney Islands, long and from wide. The island extends in a general east–west direction, is mainly ice-covered and comprises numerous bays, glaciers and peaks, the highest rising to . History The island was discovered in December 1821, in the course of the joint cruise by Captain Nathaniel Palmer, an American sealer, and Captain George Powell, a British sealer. Powell named the island in honour of the coronation of George IV, who had become king of the United Kingdom in 1820. Antarctic Specially Protected Area An area of some 92 km2 of north-central Coronation Island has been designated an Antarctic Specially Protected Area (ASPA 114), mainly for use as a relatively pristine reference site for use in comparative studies with more heavily impacted sites. It extends northwards from Brisbane Heights and Wave Peak in the central mountains to the coast between Conception Point in the west to Foul Point in the east. Most of ...
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South Orkney Islands
The South Orkney Islands are a group of islands in the Southern Ocean, about north-east of the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula''Antarctica: Secrets of the Southern Continent'' p. 122
David McGonigal, 2009
and south-west of South Georgia Island. They have a total area of about . The islands are claimed both by Britain (as part of the British Antarctic Territory since 1962, previously as a Falkland Islands Dependency), and by Argentina as pa ...
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George Powell (mariner)
George Powell (1794–1824) was an English sealer, explorer and amateur naturalist. He captained three sealing expeditions to the Antarctic Ocean between 1818 and 1822. Powell was born in London. During his first expedition, in 1818 and 1819, he captained the sloop ''Dove'' and visited South Georgia and Kerguelen Islands. His second expedition, captaining ''Eliza'', lasted from 1819 until 1821, during which time he visited the Falkland Islands and the South Shetland Islands. In 1821 and 1822 he took both ''Dove'', which he captained, and ''Eliza'', captained by John Wright, on another sealing expedition to the South Shetland Islands, for which he produced a very fine chartL. Ivanov and N. Ivanova. Sealing period. In''The World of Antarctica''.Generis Publishing, 2022. pp. 78-84. based on his own observations of the north coast of the group and the observations of others for the southern coast. On 6 December 1821, he co-discovered the South Orkney Islands along with American Na ...
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Nathaniel Palmer
Nathaniel Brown Palmer (August 8, 1799June 21, 1877) was an American seal hunter, explorer, sailing captain, and ship designer. He gave his name to Palmer Land, Antarctica, which he explored in 1820 on his sloop ''Hero''. He was born in Stonington, Connecticut, and was a descendant of Walter Palmer, one of the town's founders. Sealing career and Antarctic exploration During the 1810s the hides of Antarctic Ocean seals were highly valued as items for trade with China. Palmer served as second mate on board s first voyage, during which she became the first American vessel known to reach the South Shetland Islands. As a skilled and fearless seal hunter, Palmer achieved his first command at the early age of 21. His vessel, a diminutive sloop named , was only in length. Palmer steered southward in ''Hero'' at the beginning of the Antarctic summer of 1820–1821. Aggressively searching for new seal rookeries south of Cape Horn, on November 17, 1820, Palmer and his men became ...
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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, which was formed in 1918. They were intended to provide the scientific background to stock management of the commercial Antarctic whale fishery. The work of the Investigations contributed hugely to our knowledge of the whales, the krill they fed on, and the oceanography of their habitat, while charting the local topography, including Atherton Peak. The investigations continued until 1951, with the final report being published in 1980. Laboratory Shore-based work on South Georgia took place in the marine laboratory, Discovery House, built in 1925 at King Edward Point and occupied until 1931. The scientists lived and worked in the building, travelling half a mile or so across King Edward Cove to the whaling station at Grytviken to work on ...
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RRS Discovery II
RRS ''Discovery II'' was a British Royal Research Ship which, during her operational lifetime of about 30 years, carried out considerable hydrographical and marine biological survey work in Antarctic waters and the Southern Ocean in the course of the Discovery Investigations research program. Built in Port Glasgow, launched in 1928 and completed in 1929, she was the first purpose-built oceanographic research vessel and was named after Robert Falcon Scott's 1901 ship, RRS ''Discovery''. Career The ship's maiden voyage took place from December 1929 to May 1931 and consisted of a hydrographic survey of the South Sandwich Islands. From October 1932 until May 1933 she operated in the Antarctic, calling at South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Similar voyages took place from 1934 to 1939 during which she supplied the British Graham Land expedition. Her last voyage before the onset of war was from September 1937 to May 1939. In December 1935 and January 1936 the ship was i ...
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