Renaud Island is an ice-covered

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

in the

Biscoe Islands Biscoe Islands is a series of islands, of which the principal ones are Renaud, Lavoisier (named ''Serrano'' by Chile and ''Mitre'' by Argentina), Watkins, Krogh, Pickwick and Rabot, lying parallel to the west coast of Graham Land and extending ...

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 cont ...

, long and from (average ) wide, lying between the

Pitt Islands The Pitt Islands are a group of small islands lying immediately off the north extremity of Renaud Island, at the north end of the Biscoe Islands. The name "Pitt's Island," after William Pitt the Younger, the British Prime Minister, was applied by ...

and

Rabot Island Rabot Island is an island long and wide, lying south of Renaud Island in the Biscoe Islands. First charted by the French Antarctic Expedition, 1903–05, under Jean-Baptiste Charcot, who named it for Charles Rabot. Originally discovered by Jo ...

. It is separated from the Pitt Islands to the northeast by Mraka Sound, and from Lavoisier Island to the southwest by Pendleton Strait.

History

The Biscoe Islands were discovered in 1832 by a British expedition under

John Biscoe John Biscoe (28 April 1794 – 1843) was an English mariner and explorer who commanded the first expedition known to have sighted the areas named Enderby Land and Graham Land along the coast of Antarctica. The expedition also found a number of is ...

and were first roughly surveyed by the

French Antarctic Expedition The French Antarctic Expedition is any of several French expeditions in Antarctica. First expedition In 1772, Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen-Trémarec and the naturalist Jean Guillaume Bruguière sailed to the Antarctic region in search of the fabl ...

under

Jean-Baptiste Charcot Jean-Baptiste-Étienne-Auguste Charcot (15 July 1867 – 16 September 1936), born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, was a French scientist, medical doctor and polar scientist. His father was the neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot (1825–1893). Life Jean- ...

, 1903–05 and 1908–10. It was on this second expedition that Renaud Island was first charted and named. Renaud Island was again roughly surveyed in 1935-36 by the British Graham Land Expedition (BGLE). A number of the island's geographical features have been individually charted and named. The majority, except where noted below, were first accurately charted on an Argentine government chart of 1957, and named by the

United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee The UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee (or UK-APC) is a United Kingdom government committee, part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, responsible for recommending names of geographical locations within the British Antarctic Territory (BAT) an ...

(UK-APC) during the 1950s.

Geography

Weaver Point forms the northernmost end of the island. It was named for American professor of geography John C. Weaver. to the east is Tula Point, the island's northeast extremity. Alino Island lies 1 km south-southeast of Tula Point. The point was named for the '' Tula'', one of the two vessels from Biscoe's expedition. Zubov Bay is a bay 2.5 miles (4.0 km) wide, indenting the east side of Renaud Island. It was named for Soviet

oceanographer Oceanography (), also known as oceanology and ocean science, is the scientific study of the oceans. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics, including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynamic ...

Nikolay Nikolaevich Zubov. Jurva Point is the extremity of a small peninsula forming the southeast end of the island. It was named for

Risto Jurva Risto ( sr, Ристо) is a masculine given name, found in Finnish, Estonian and South Slavic. In South Slavic, it is a hypocorism derived from '' Hristofor'' or ''Hristivoje''. It may refer to: Estonia *Risto Järv (born 1971), folklorist * ...

, a Finnish pioneer in sea ice studies. Lively Point forms the southern extremity of Renaud Island. The point was named for the cutter ''Lively'', Biscoe's other vessel. Armstrong Reef extends for from the south-west end of Renaud Island. Malmgren Bay indents the west side of the island, immediately north of Speerschneider Point on nearby Belogushev Island. It was named for Swedish meteorologist

Finn Malmgren Finn Adolf Erik Johan Malmgren (9 January 1895 – ) was a Swedish meteorologist and Arctic explorer. Biography Malmgren studied in Göteborg, Sundsvall, and Stockholm. In 1912, he began his studies at Uppsala University where he recei ...

. Maurstad Point lies midway along the west side of the island, north-northeast of Speerschneider Point. It was named for Norwegian geographer Alf Maurstad. Kusunoki Point is on the northwest coast of the island. It was mapped from air photos by Hunting Aerosurveys, 1956–57, and was named by the

UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee The UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee (or UK-APC) is a United Kingdom government committee, part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, responsible for recommending names of geographical locations within the British Antarctic Territory (BAT) and ...

for Kou Kusunoki, a Japanese sea ice specialist.

References

Islands of the Biscoe Islands {{Biscoes-geo-stub

History

Geography

See also

References