Beagle Island is an
island
An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...
lying northeast of
Darwin Island
Darwin Island (Spanish: ''Isla Darwin'') is among the smallest in the Galápagos Archipelago with an area of just . It is named in honour of English scientist Charles Darwin. With no dry landing sites, Darwin Island's main attractions are fo ...
in the
Danger Islands off the east end of
Joinville Island. It was named by the
UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee
The UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee (or UK-APC) is a United Kingdom government committee, part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, responsible for recommending names of geographical locations within the British Antarctic Territory (BAT) and ...
in 1963 after ''
HMS Beagle'' (Captain
Robert FitzRoy), due to its proximity to Darwin Island.
Wildlife
Beagle Island has hundreds of thousands of
Adélie penguin
The Adélie penguin (''Pygoscelis adeliae'') is a species of penguin common along the entire coast of the Antarctic continent, which is the only place where it is found. It is the most widespread penguin species, and, along with the emperor p ...
s nesting during each summer. There are dozens of
sheathbills,
skua
The skuas are a group of predatory seabirds with seven species forming the genus ''Stercorarius'', the only genus in the family Stercorariidae. The three smaller skuas, the long-tailed skua, the Arctic skua, and the pomarine skua are called jae ...
s, and
pintados seen on every shoreline. There are
leopard seals often seen in the water.
Geology
Beagle Island consists of Mesozoic diorite related to the subduction complex ranging from Antarctica to Alaska during the Cretaceous Period (80-120 million years ago).
[Joseph Holliday, Earth Science Department, El Camino College]
See also
*
List of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands
References
*
Islands of the Joinville Island group
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