Alejandro Selkirk Island (), previously known as Más Afuera (Farther Out (to Sea)) and renamed after the marooned sailor Alexander Selkirk, is the largest and most westerly island in the Juan Fernández Archipelago of the

Valparaíso Region The Valparaíso Region (, ) is one of Chile's 16 Regions of Chile, first order administrative divisions.Valparaíso Region, 2006 With the country's second-highest population of 1,790,219 , and fourth-smallest area of , the region is Chile's sec ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

. It is situated west of

Robinson Crusoe Island Robinson Crusoe Island (, ) is the second largest of the Juan Fernández Islands, situated 670 km (362 nmi; 416 mi) west of San Antonio, Chile, San Antonio, Chile, in the South Pacific Ocean. It is the more populous of the inhabit ...

in the southeastern Pacific Ocean. The Archipelago was home to the marooned sailor Alexander Selkirk from 1704 to 1709, and is thought to have inspired English novelist

Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe (; born Daniel Foe; 1660 – 24 April 1731) was an English writer, merchant and spy. He is most famous for his novel ''Robinson Crusoe'', published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its number of translati ...

's fictional

Robinson Crusoe ''Robinson Crusoe'' ( ) is an English adventure novel by Daniel Defoe, first published on 25 April 1719. Written with a combination of Epistolary novel, epistolary, Confessional writing, confessional, and Didacticism, didactic forms, the ...

in his 1719 novel about the character (although the novel is explicitly set in the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

, not in the Juan Fernández Islands). This was just one of several survival stories from the period that Defoe would have been aware of. To reflect the literary lore associated with the island and attract tourists, the Chilean government renamed the place Alejandro Selkirk Island in 1966.

Geography

The island measures north–south and east–west, and has an area of . It is densely wooded and very mountainous and is marked by

ridge A ridge is a long, narrow, elevated geomorphologic landform, structural feature, or a combination of both separated from the surrounding terrain by steep sides. The sides of a ridge slope away from a narrow top, the crest or ridgecrest, wi ...

s and numerous deep

ravine A ravine is a landform that is narrower than a canyon and is often the product of streambank erosion. Ravines are typically classified as larger in scale than gullies, although smaller than valleys. Ravines may also be called a cleuch, dell, ...

s lead to a steep, rugged coast on the east side of the island off which are tremendous depths. The coastal

cliff In geography and geology, a cliff or rock face is an area of Rock (geology), rock which has a general angle defined by the vertical, or nearly vertical. Cliffs are formed by the processes of weathering and erosion, with the effect of gravity. ...

s are up to high. The south, west and north sides of the island have sandy strips of beach which extend offshore in places. The highest peak, Cerro de Los Inocentes, rises to in the southwest part of Alejandro Selkirk Island, where there is also a prominent rock with a hole through it. Landing is possible near the center of the east shore at Quebrada Sánchez (Sánchez Ravine), and at the foot of Quebrada Las Casas (La Casas Ravine) ), where there is a boat slip and buildings of the former penal colony. Anchorage can be taken about east-northeast of Quebrada Sánchez (), in depths of . The ravine is recognized by a white patch on a hill near it. Anchorage can also be taken, in depths of , with sand bottom, off Rada de la Colonia. Alejandro Selkirk Island is the emergent summit of a

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

shield volcano A shield volcano is a type of volcano named for its low profile, resembling a shield lying on the ground. It is formed by the eruption of highly fluid (low viscosity) lava, which travels farther and forms thinner flows than the more viscous lava ...

that formed during the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

epoch. Dating of rocks on the island show that it is the youngest of the Juan Fernández Islands at an age of 1–2 million years old. Due to its young age, the island shows little evidence of

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, tran ...

. According to some early reports, now disputed, about southwest of the island is the submerged Sefton Reef (), almost reaching sea level, and to northwest, Yosemite Rock (). Podesta Island, once reported to lie farther to the west, is a phantom island.

Climate

Alejandro Selkirk has a

subtropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones immediately to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Ge ...

climate, moderated by the cold

Humboldt Current The Humboldt Current, also called the Peru Current, is a cold, low-salinity ocean current that flows north along the western coast of South America.Montecino, Vivian, and Carina B. Lange. "The Humboldt Current System: Ecosystem components and pro ...

and the southeast

trade winds The trade winds or easterlies are permanent east-to-west prevailing winds that flow in the Earth's equatorial region. The trade winds blow mainly from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and from the southeast in the Southern Hemisphere ...

. Temperatures range from to , with an annual mean of . Higher elevations are generally cooler. Average annual precipitation is , varying from to year to year. Rainfall is higher in the winter months, and varies with elevation and exposure; elevations above experience almost daily rainfall.

Flora and fauna

The Juan Fernández fur seal is known to have existed during the late 17th century on the island with the population of the seals on Alejandro Selkirk Island and Robinson Crusoe Island believed to be in excess of four million by the late 17th century. A census of 1797 estimated a population 2 – 3 million fur seals. The species was hunted to near

extinction Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

by the 19th century and was thought to be extinct for 100 years until 200 were found on the island in 1965. Since then, the population has grown steadily at 15% to 20% every year. The Masafuera rayadito is endemic to Alejandro Selkirk and one of the rarest South American birds with only 140 individuals left. The Alejandro Selkirk firecrown, '' Sephanoides fernandensis leyboldi'', an endemic subspecies of the Juan Fernández firecrown, became extinct in 1908 due to

feral goat The feral goat is the domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') when it has become established in the wild. Feral goats occur in many parts of the world. Species Feral goats consist of many breeds of domestic goats, all of which stem from the wild go ...

s and other introduced animals. The island has been recognised as 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 populations of Stejneger's and Juan Fernandez petrels, as well as the Masafuera rayaditos. The flora on the island is in the Fernandezian

floristic region A phytochorion, in phytogeography, is a geographic area with a relatively uniform composition of plant species. Adjacent phytochoria do not usually have a sharp boundary, but rather a soft one, a transitional area in which many species from both re ...

, in the Antarctic floristic kingdom, but often also included within the Neotropical kingdom.

Endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

plant families include Lactoridaceae, with endemic plant

genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...

also found.

History

Throughout much of its history, the island has been uninhabited. There was formerly a penal settlement along the middle of the east coast, at . About 20 buildings can be made out on detailed satellite images. The settlement was operative from 1909. It initially housed 190 criminals, while there were as many as 160 political prisoners from 1927 to 1930. The penal colony was abandoned in 1930. Recently, the island has seen regular settlement, with 57 people living on the island as of the 2012 census. In 1966 the

an government renamed Isla Más Afuera as Alejandro Selkirk Island, with Isla Más a Tierra becoming Robinson Crusoe Island. Alexander Selkirk was a Scottish sailor who was marooned as a

castaway A castaway is a person who is cast adrift or ashore. While the situation usually happens after a shipwreck, some people voluntarily stay behind on a desert island, either to evade kidnapping, captors or the world in general. A person may also be ...

on Más a Tierra (then uninhabited) from 1704 to 1709. His story of survival likely inspired the 1719 novel ''

'' by

References

External links