Zolotov Island lies 1 km south of

Hawker Island Hawker Island is an irregularly shaped island about long, lying some 7 km south-west of Davis Station between Mule Island and Mule Peninsula, Vestfold Hills, in the eastern part of Prydz Bay, Antarctica. It was mapped by Norwegian cartograp ...

and 0.5 km west of the

Mule Peninsula Mule Peninsula is an irregularly shaped rocky peninsula between Ellis Fjord and Krok Fjord in the southern part of the Vestfold Hills of Princess Elizabeth Land, Antarctica. It was mapped from aerial photographs taken by the Lars Christensen Exp ...

, in

Prydz Bay Prydz Bay is a deep embayment of Antarctica between the Lars Christensen Coast and Ingrid Christensen Coast. The Bay is at the downstream end of a giant glacial drainage system that originates in the East Antarctic interior. The Lambert Glacie ...

on the

Ingrid Christensen Coast The Ingrid Christensen Coast is that portion of the coast of Antarctica lying between Jennings Promontory, in 72°33′E, and the western end of the West Ice Shelf in 81°24′E. It is located in the western half of Princess Elizabeth Land, just e ...

Princess Elizabeth Land Princess Elizabeth Land is the sector of Antarctica between longitude 73° east and Cape Penck (at 87°43' east). The sector is claimed by Australia as part of the Australian Antarctic Territory, although this claim is not widely recognized. ...

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 ...

. The nearest permanent research station is Australia's

Davis Davis may refer to: Places Antarctica * Mount Davis (Antarctica) * Davis Island (Palmer Archipelago) * Davis Valley, Queen Elizabeth Land Canada * Davis, Saskatchewan, an unincorporated community * Davis Strait, between Nunavut and Gre ...

, some 10 km to the north-east on Broad Peninsula,

Vestfold Hills The Vestfold Hills are rounded, rocky, coastal hills, in extent, on the north side of Sorsdal Glacier on the Ingrid Christensen Coast of Princess Elizabeth Land, Antarctica. The hills are subdivided by three west-trending peninsulas bounded by n ...

. Several small lakes are present on the island.

Discovery and naming

The island was mapped from aerial photographs taken by the

Lars Christensen Expedition Lars is a common male name in Scandinavian countries. Origin ''Lars'' means "from the city of Laurentum". Lars is derived from the Latin name Laurentius, which means "from Laurentum" or "crowned with laurel". A homonymous Etruscan name was bo ...

(1936–37) and also photographed by the

USN The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

’s Operation Highjump (1946–47), the

Soviet Antarctic Expedition The Soviet Antarctic Expedition (SAE or SovAE) (russian: Советская антарктическая экспедиция, САЭ, ''Sovetskaya antarkticheskaya ekspeditsiya'') was part of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute of the S ...

of 1956, and by

ANARE The Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions (ANARE ) is the historical name for the Australian Antarctic Program (AAp) administered for Australia by the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD). History Australia has had a long involv ...

in 1957 and 1958. It was named ''Ostrov Zolotova'' by the Soviet Expedition after A.H. Zolotov, a hydrologist who died in Antarctica.

Important Bird Area

A 167 ha site, which comprises all of Zolotov Island, neighbouring

Kazak Island Kazak Island lies 1 km south of Hawker Island and 0.5 km west of the Mule Peninsula, in Prydz Bay on the Ingrid Christensen Coast of Princess Elizabeth Land, Antarctica. The nearest permanent research station is Australia's Davis Stati ...

and the intervening marine area, has been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports about 23,000 breeding pairs of Adélie penguins, based on estimates made in 1981/82.

References

Important Bird Areas of Antarctica Penguin colonies Islands of Princess Elizabeth Land {{PrincessElizabethLand-geo-stub