Depot Island () is a small granite island lying northwest of Cape Ross, off the coast of Victoria Land, Antarctica.
It was discovered by the South Magnetic Pole Party of the
British Antarctic Expedition, 1907–09
The ''Nimrod'' Expedition of 1907–1909, otherwise known as the British Antarctic Expedition, was the first of three expeditions to the Antarctic led by Ernest Shackleton and his second time to the Continent. Its main target, among a range of ...
and so named by them because they put a depot of rock specimens on this island.
Location
Depot Island is a triangular ice-free island that os off the coast of
Evans Piedmont Glacier, in southern
Victoria Land
Victoria Land is a region in eastern Antarctica which fronts the western side of the Ross Sea and the Ross Ice Shelf, extending southward from about 70°30'S to 78th parallel south, 78°00'S, and westward from the Ross Sea to the edge of the Ant ...
,
Antarctica
Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...
.
It lies about 4 km north of
Cape Ross
Evans Piedmont Glacier () is a broad ice sheet occupying the low-lying coastal platform between Tripp Island and Cape Archer in Victoria Land, Antarctica.
Exploration and naming
Evans Piedmont Glacier was circumnavigated in 1957 by the New Zeal ...
and 10 km south-east of
Tripp Island. T
he whole island has been designated an
Important Bird Area
An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations.
IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...
(IBA) by
BirdLife International
BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...
because it supports a small colony of
south polar skua
The south polar skua (''Stercorarius maccormicki'') is a large seabird in the skua family, Stercorariidae. An older name for the bird is MacCormick's skua, after explorer and naval surgeon Robert McCormick, who first collected the type specime ...
s.
[ ]
See also
*
List of Antarctic and Subantarctic islands
This is a list of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands.
* Antarctic islands are, in the strict sense, the islands around mainland Antarctica, situated on the Antarctic Plate, and south of the Antarctic Convergence. According to the terms of the A ...
References
Sources
*
Important Bird Areas of Antarctica
Seabird colonies
Islands of Victoria Land
{{VictoriaLand-geo-stub