Inexpressible Island is a small, rocky island in

Terra Nova Bay Terra Nova Bay is a bay which is often ice free, about long, lying between Cape Washington and the Drygalski Ice Tongue along the coast of Victoria Land, Antarctica. It was discovered by the British National Antarctic Expedition (known as the ...

Victoria Land Victoria Land is a region in eastern Antarctica which fronts the western side of the Ross Sea and the Ross Ice Shelf, extending southward from about 70°30'S to 78°00'S, and westward from the Ross Sea to the edge of the Antarctic Plateau. It ...

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 ...

Description

The island is bounded in the east by Evans Cove and the Hells Gate Moraine, and in the west by the

Nansen Ice Sheet Nansen Ice Sheet (), or Nansen Ice Shelf, is a by ice shelf. It is nourished by the Priestley and Reeves Glaciers and abutting the north side of the Drygalski Ice Tongue, along the coast of Victoria Land, Antarctica. This feature was explored ...

. The eastern side is relatively flat with a few low hills, while a 110 m high ridge marks the western side. Several lakes are present.

History

Robert Falcon Scott Captain Robert Falcon Scott, , (6 June 1868 – c. 29 March 1912) was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the ''Discovery'' expedition of 1901–1904 and the ill-fated ''Terra Nov ...

Terra Nova Expedition The ''Terra Nova'' Expedition, officially the British Antarctic Expedition, was an expedition to Antarctica which took place between 1910 and 1913. Led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott, the expedition had various scientific and geographical objec ...

(1910–1913) comprised several groups. One of these, the Northern Party, led by Victor Campbell, did not accompany Scott into the interior but wintered at Cape Adare. In 1912, that group (composed of six men in total), began the long journey homewards and began making their way to

Cape Evans Cape Evans is a rocky cape on the west side of Ross Island, Antarctica, forming the north side of the entrance to Erebus Bay. History The cape was discovered by the British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901–04, under Robert Falcon Scott, ...

(via

Hut Point A hut is a small dwelling, which may be constructed of various local materials. Huts are a type of vernacular architecture because they are built of readily available materials such as wood, snow, ice, stone, grass, palm leaves, branches, hid ...

). However, they were dropped at Evans Coves with sledging provisions for six weeks with the intention of completing geological work. After the work was done they were left with rations for about four weeks, as it was not anticipated the ship would have trouble picking them up later in February. But the ''Terra Nova'' could not reach them due to heavy

pack ice Drift ice, also called brash ice, is sea ice that is not attached to the shoreline or any other fixed object (shoals, grounded icebergs, etc.).Leppäranta, M. 2011. The Drift of Sea Ice. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. Unlike fast ice, which is "fasten ...

.Apsley Cherry-Garrard, ''

The Worst Journey in the World ''The Worst Journey in the World'' is a 1922 memoir by Apsley Cherry-Garrard of Robert Falcon Scott's ''Terra Nova'' expedition to the South Pole in 1910–1913. It has earned wide praise for its frank treatment of the difficulties of the exped ...

'', Carrol & Graf, 1922. Unable to connect with their ship, the Northern Party was forced to winter in Antarctica again. In March 1912 the party excavated a small ice cave in a snow drift they nicknamed "Inexpressible Island" where they spent the winter in miserable conditions, supplementing their rations by killing scarce seal and penguins for meat. The Northern Party had previously built a supply depot at Hells Gate Moraine (74° 52'S, 163° 50'E) on Inexpressible Island as a form of security should the ''Terra Nova'' be unable to collect them. The depot primarily consisted of a sledge loaded with supplies and equipment. Despite the fact that this depot had been built, the winter spent in the ice cave and a partially constructed rock shelter on Inexpressible Island was miserable. The men suffered frostbite, hunger, dysentery, and the abominable winds on the island. As ship doctor

George Murray Levick George Murray Levick (3 July 1876 – 30 May 1956) was a British Antarctic explorer, naval surgeon and founder of the Public Schools Exploring Society. Early life Levick was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, the son of civil engineer George L ...

said: The men started home for

on September 30, 1912, some two hundred miles down the coast, which would include the crossing of the

Drygalski Ice Tongue The Drygalski Ice Tongue, Drygalski Barrier, or Drygalski Glacier Tongue is a glacier in Antarctica, on the Scott Coast, in the northern McMurdo Sound of Ross Dependency, north of Ross Island. The Drygalski Ice Tongue is stable by the standar ...

. Browning was very ill and Dickason almost crippled by dysentery. They reached

on November 5. , a research station on the southern edge of the island is under construction by the People's Republic of China. The

Center for Strategic and International Studies The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. CSIS was founded as the Center for Strategic and International Studies of Georgetown University in 1962. The center conducts polic ...

, an American

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...

, reported that the station was expected to include an observatory with a satellite ground station, and that the equipment could be used to collect

signals intelligence Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly used in communication ( ...

and for tracking rockets launched from the

Arnhem Space Centre The Arnhem Space Centre (ASC) is Australia's first and only commercial spaceport, located near Nhulunbuy, in Arnhem Land, Australia. It is owned and operated by Equatorial Launch Australia (ELA), and it is the site of NASA's first non-orbi ...

in Australia. China rejected claims that the station would be used for espionage.

Historic site

The site of the ice cave where Victor Campbell's Northern Party wintered has been designated a Historic Site or Monument (HSM 14), following a proposal by New Zealand to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting. A wooden sign, a

plaque Plaque may refer to: Commemorations or awards * Commemorative plaque, a plate or tablet fixed to a wall to mark an event, person, etc. * Memorial Plaque (medallion), issued to next-of-kin of dead British military personnel after World War I * Pla ...

and seal bones remain at the site.

Important Bird Area

A site comprising ice-free ground on the eastern shore of the island has been designated 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 ...

, because it supports about 24,000 breeding pairs of

Adélie penguins Adelie or Adélie may refer to: * Adélie Land, a claimed territory on the continent of Antarctica * Adelie Land meteorite, a meteorite discovered on December 5, 1912, in Antarctica by Francis Howard Bickerton * Adélie penguin The Adélie pen ...

and some 60 pairs of

south polar skua The south polar skua (''Stercorarius maccormicki'') is a large seabird in the skua family, Stercorariidae. An older name for the bird is MacCormick's skua, after explorer and naval surgeon Robert McCormick, who first collected the type specimen. ...

s which breed in the vicinity of the penguin colony.

Weddell seal The Weddell seal (''Leptonychotes weddellii'') is a relatively large and abundant true seal with a circumpolar distribution surrounding Antarctica. The Weddell seal was discovered and named in the 1820s during expeditions led by British sealing ...

s have been seen on sea ice near the island.

References

External links