Nelson Strait is the 9 km long and 9.8 km wide strait lying between

Robert Island Robert Island or Mitchells Island or Polotsk Island or Roberts Island is an island long and wide, situated between Nelson Island and Greenwich Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. Robert Island is located at . Surface area . T ...

and Nelson Island in the

South Shetland Islands The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands with a total area of . They lie about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and between southwest of the nearest point of the South Orkney Islands. By the Antarctic Treaty of 195 ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

. The strait was explored by early 19th century

sealers Sealer may refer either to a person or ship engaged in seal hunting, or to a sealant; associated terms include: Seal hunting * Sealer Hill, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica * Sealers' Oven, bread oven of mud and stone built by sealers around 180 ...

and first charted by

Nathaniel Palmer Nathaniel Brown Palmer (August 8, 1799June 21, 1877) was an American seal hunter, explorer, sailing captain, and ship designer. He gave his name to Palmer Land, Antarctica, which he explored in 1820 on his sloop ''Hero''. He was born in Stoning ...

in 1821. While it had a variety of different names in the past (‘Harmony Strait’, ‘King George’s Strait’, ‘Parry’s Straits’, Davis's Straits’, ‘Détroit de Clothier’ etc.), the present name — probably taken from the adjacent Nelson Island — has become well established in international usage.

Location

The strait is centred at () (early American and British mapping in 1821, British mapping in 1968, Argentine in 1946 and 1980, Chilean in 1951 and 1971, and Bulgarian mapping of the western part in 2009).

Maps

Chart of South Shetland including Coronation Island, &c.
from the exploration of the sloop Dove in the years 1821 and 1822 by George Powell Commander of the same. Scale ca. 1:200000. London: Laurie, 1822. * L.L. Ivanov. Antarctica: Livingston Island and Greenwich, Robert, Snow and Smith Islands. Scale 1:120000 topographic map. Troyan: Manfred Wörner Foundation, 2010. (First edition 2009. )

References

Nelson Strait.
SCAR

Composite Antarctic Gazetteer The Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica (CGA) of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) is the authoritative international gazetteer containing all Antarctic toponyms published in national gazetteers, plus basic information about t ...

Straits of the South Shetland Islands Bodies of water of Robert Island {{SouthShetlandIslands-geo-stub

Location

Maps

See also

References