Jonassen Island is one of several Antarctic islands around the peninsula known as

Graham Land Graham Land is the portion of the Antarctic Peninsula that lies north of a line joining Cape Jeremy and Cape Agassiz. This description of Graham Land is consistent with the 1964 agreement between the British Antarctic Place-names Committee and ...

, which is closer to South America than any other part of that continent. It is volcanic in origin and part of the James Ross Island Volcanic Group. It is said to be a particularly rocky island, long. It is located north of Andersson Island. It was first named Irizar Island by

Otto Nordenskiöld Otto is a masculine German given name and a surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants ''Audo'', ''Odo'', ''Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity". The name is recorded fro ...

in honor of the Argentine captain whose ship ''

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

'' rescued the Swedish Antarctic Expedition in 1903 after their ship ''

Antarctic The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other ...

'' had been crushed by ice. A year later, another island elsewhere in the Antarctic was named Irizar and, because that was a larger island and the name was in broad use for the location, the smaller island was renamed for Ole Jonassen, who accompanied Nordenskiöld on his two major sledge journeys in 1902–3.Oceanites
The main life form on the island are

gentoo penguin The gentoo penguin ( ) (''Pygoscelis papua'') is a penguin species (or possibly a species complex) in the genus ''Pygoscelis'', most closely related to the Adélie penguin (''P. adeliae'') and the chinstrap penguin (''P. antarcticus''). The ear ...

s and kelp gulls. Both species have established breeding colonies on the island. Adélie and chinstrap penguins as well as pintado and snow petrels have been observed around or flying about the island. A 1901 observation listed the Adélie as having nested on the island; the claim has not been substantiated in modern surveys.

References

Islands of the Joinville Island group Volcanic islands {{JoinvilleIsland-geo-stub

See also

References