Visokoi Island is an uninhabited island in the

Traversay Islands The Traversay Islands ( es, Archipiélago Marqués de Traverse) are a group of three islands— Zavodovski, Leskov and Visokoi—at the northern end of the South Sandwich Islands. History The group was discovered in November 1819 by a Russian ...

group of the

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. It was discovered in 1819 by a Russian expedition under Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, who initially named the island Thorson Island in honor of Lieutenant , though the tsarist government later renamed the island Visokoi ("high"), after its conspicuous height, in response to Thorson's participation in the Decembrist revolt. The island was surveyed in 1930 by Discovery Investigations (DI) personnel, who charted and named many of its features. Several of the names given by DI were changed in 1953 by the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee (UK-APC) to avoid redundancy with nearby features.

Geography

The island is long and wide, capped by

Mount Hodson Mount Hodson is an ice-covered stratovolcano and the highest point on Visokoi Island, South Sandwich Islands. It might have erupted in 1830 and 1930, and the summit usually steams. Named after Sir Arnold Wienholt Hodson (1881-1944), Governor of ...

, a volcanic peak (). The peak is named after Sir

Arnold Weinholt Hodson Sir Arnold Wienholt Hodson (12 February 1881 – 26 May 1944)"Sir Arnold Hodson"
Geni.com. ...

, a governor of the Falkland Islands. The island has a strong smell of

sulphur Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formula ...

ous fumes. The island is surrounded by an underwater

shelf Shelf ( : shelves) may refer to: * Shelf (storage), a flat horizontal surface used for display and storage Geology * Continental shelf, the extended perimeter of a continent, usually covered by shallow seas * Ice shelf, a thick platform of ice f ...

that extends out approximately , at a depth of approximately . Finger Point marks the island's northern tip. It was named descriptively by DI in 1930. Wordie Point is the south-west point of the island. DI personnel named it for Scottish geologist and polar explorer James Wordie. north of it is Sulphur Point, whose reddish ground is streaked with sulphur. Originally called West Bluff by DI personnel, it was renamed by UK-APC to avoid confusion with West Bluff on nearby

Zavodovski Island Zavodovski Island is an uninhabited volcanic island in the Traversay Islands subgroup of the South Sandwich Islands. It lies southeast of South Georgia Island. It is the northernmost of the South Sandwich Islands and the nearest to South Geor ...

. Irving Point, first discovered by von Bellingshausen's expedition, forms the eastern extremity of the island. DI personnel named it "Penguin Point," but UK-APC changed it to avoid redundancy with other similarly named locations. Irving Point was chosen for Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander

J. Irving ''J. The Jewish News of Northern California'', formerly known as ''Jweekly'', is a weekly print newspaper in Northern California, with its online edition updated daily. It is owned and operated by San Francisco Jewish Community Publications In ...

, who sketched the South Sandwich Islands from the ''

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 ...

''. northwest of Irving Point lies Saddle Bluff, named by DI personnel. Nearby Shamrock Hill, a prominent volcanic cone, was named by the survey party from because they occupied this feature as a survey station on Saint Patrick's Day, 1964. Mikhaylov Point is a small promontory marking the island's southern extremity. It was named "Low Point" by DI personnel, but the name was changed by UK-APC to avoid duplication with Low Point on nearby Vindication Island. The name "Mikhaylov Point" was recommended for

Pavel N. Mikhaylov Pavel (Bulgarian, Russian, Serbian and Macedonian: Павел, Czech, Slovene, Romanian: Pavel, Polish: Paweł, Ukrainian: Павло, Pavlo) is a male given name. It is a Slavic cognate of the name Paul (derived from the Greek Pavlos). Pavel ...

, artist aboard the '' Vostok'' during the Russian expedition under von Bellingshausen.

Geography

See also

References

Further reading