Smolensk Strait ( bg, проток Смоленск, ' \'pro-tok smo-'lensk\) is the strait 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 1 ...

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 ...

separating

Deception Island Deception Island is an island in the South Shetland Islands close to the Antarctic Peninsula with a large and usually "safe" natural harbor, which is occasionally troubled by the underlying active volcano. This island is the caldera of an acti ...

from

Rozhen Peninsula Rozhen Peninsula ( bg, полуостров Рожен, poluostrov Rozhen, ) extends 9 km in the southwest direction towards Barnard Point, Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica, and 8.8 km wide. It is bounded by ...

Livingston Island Livingston Island (Russian name ''Smolensk'', ) is an Antarctic island in the Southern Ocean, part of the South Shetlands Archipelago, a group of Antarctic islands north of the Antarctic Peninsula. It was the first land discovered south of 60 ...

, 18.4 km wide between Macaroni Point to the southwest and

Barnard Point Barnard Point is a headland which marks the south-east side of the entrance to False Bay on the south side of Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. It is situated on Rozhen Peninsula, north-north-west of Botev Point a ...

to the northeast. The feature is so named in order to preserve the historical memory of the area. While sailing through this strait on 6 February 1821, the Russian explorer Thaddeus von Bellingshausen met with the American sealer

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 Stonin ...

, made a description of Livingston Island and named it ''Smolensk'' after the Battle of Smolensk, one of the great battles of the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

Location

Smolensk Strait is centred at .

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

mapping in 1968 and

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

in 1991.

Maps

* ''Islas Livingston y Decepción''. Mapa topográfico a escala 1:100000. Madrid: Servicio Geográfico del Ejército, 1991.
Antarctic Digital Database (ADD).
Scale 1:250000 topographic map of Antarctica. Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). Since 1993, regularly upgraded and updated.

References

Smolensk Strait

SCAR A scar (or scar tissue) is an area of fibrous tissue that replaces normal skin after an injury. Scars result from the biological process of wound repair in the skin, as well as in other organs, and tissues of the body. Thus, scarring is a n ...

Composite Antarctic Gazetteer.
Bulgarian Antarctic Gazetteer.
Antarctic Place-names Commission. (details in Bulgarian
basic data
in English)

External links

Smolensk Strait.
Copernix satellite image Straits of the South Shetland Islands Bodies of water of Livingston Island Bulgaria and the Antarctic Smolensk {{SouthShetlandIslands-geo-stub