Cook Island is the central and largest island of the

Southern Thule Southern Thule is a collection of the three southernmost islands in the South Sandwich Islands: Bellingshausen, Cook, and Thule (Morrell). The island group is barren, windswept, bitterly cold, and uninhabited. It has an extensive exclusive ...

island group, part of the

South Sandwich Islands ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = , song = , image_map = South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in United Kingdom.svg , map_caption = Location of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in the southern Atlantic Oce ...

in the far south

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

. Southern Thule was discovered by a British expedition under Captain

James Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean an ...

in 1775. Cook Island was named for Cook by a Russian expedition under

Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen Fabian Gottlieb Thaddeus von Bellingshausen (russian: Фадде́й Фадде́евич Беллинсга́узен, translit=Faddéy Faddéevich Bellinsgáuzen; – ) was a Russian naval officer, cartographer and explorer, who ultimately ...

, which explored the South Sandwich Islands in 1819–1820. The island was surveyed in 1930 by

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, wh ...

(DI) personnel on ''

Discovery II ''Discovery II'', built in 1971, is the second of three Discovery sternwheel riverboats operated by the Riverboat Discovery company. ''Discovery II'' is still in use as a tour vessel on the Chena and Tanana rivers near Fairbanks, Alaska. Hist ...

'', who charted and named many of its features. Other names were later applied by the

United Kingdom 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 ...

(UK-APC).

Geography

Cook Island measures about wide. It is heavily glaciated and uninhabited. Its highest peak,

Mount Harmer Mount Harmer () is an ice-covered peak, high, in the north-central portion of Cook Island, in the South Sandwich Islands. It was charted in 1930 by Discovery Investigations personnel on the '' Discovery II'', who named it for Sir Sidney F. Harm ...

, rises to .

Mount Holdgate Mount Holdgate () is a prominent mountain, 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 T ...

rises at the southeast end of the island. Working clockwise from the northwest, the following points are found on the island's coast. All were named by DI personnel unless otherwise specified. Resolution Point is a point on the northwest side of the island, named for Cook's vessel, . Tilbrook Point is a conspicuous cliff forming the northwest point of Cook Island. Named by UK-APC for Peter J. Tilbrook, zoologist of the survey of the South Sandwich Islands from in 1964. Reef Point is a point bounded by a small reef forming the west end of Cook Island, named descriptively. Jeffries Point is on the central part of the south side of the island, named for Miss M.E. Jeffries, an assistant to the staff of the

Discovery Committee The Discovery Committee was a popular name for the Interdepartmental Committee for the Dependencies of the Falkland Islands established by the British Government to carry out scientific investigations (which became known as ‘Discovery Investigati ...

. Longton Point is a feature of sheer high rock cliffs alternating with steep icefalls, forming the southeast corner of the island. It was named by UK-APC for Royce E. Longton, botanist of the 1964 ''Protector'' survey. It is the southernmost piece of land of the South Sandwich Islands and the southernmost landmass worldwide north of the

60th parallel south The 60th parallel south is a circle of latitude that is 60 degrees south of Earth's equatorial plane. No land lies on the parallel—it crosses nothing but ocean. The closest land is a group of rocks north of Coronation Island (Melson Rocks or ...

and therefore the southernmost landmass outside of the

Antarctic Treaty System russian: link=no, Договор об Антарктике es, link=no, Tratado Antártico , name = Antarctic Treaty System , image = Flag of the Antarctic Treaty.svgborder , image_width = 180px , caption ...

. Swell Point is a small, narrow point on the island's east coast, near its southeast extremity, south of Resolution Point. It was named descriptively.

Nearby islands

Cook Island is separated from

Thule Island 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 ...

to the west by

Douglas Strait 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 ...

. Tiny

Bellingshausen Island 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, Baltic German-Russian Antarctic explorer ...

is to the east, separated by

Maurice Channel Maurice Channel () is a strait 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 ...

Geography

Nearby islands

See also

References

Further reading