The Juan Fernández Islands () are a sparsely inhabited series of islands in the South Pacific Ocean, reliant on tourism and fishing. Situated off the coast of

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

, they are composed of three main

volcanic A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often fo ...

islands:

Robinson Crusoe ''Robinson Crusoe'' ( ) is an English adventure novel by Daniel Defoe, first published on 25 April 1719. Written with a combination of Epistolary novel, epistolary, Confessional writing, confessional, and Didacticism, didactic forms, the ...

, Alejandro Selkirk, and Santa Clara. The group is part of Insular Chile. The islands are primarily known for having been the home to the marooned sailor Alexander Selkirk for more than four years from 1704, which may have inspired English writer

Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe (; born Daniel Foe; 1660 – 24 April 1731) was an English writer, merchant and spy. He is most famous for his novel ''Robinson Crusoe'', published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its number of translati ...

's ''

''. Most of the

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

's present-day inhabitants reside on Robinson Crusoe Island, and mainly in the capital, San Juan Bautista, located at Cumberland Bay on the island's north coast.The islands' area and population data retrieved from the 2012 census. The group of islands is part of Chile's Valparaíso Region (which also includes

Easter Island Easter Island (, ; , ) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is renowned for its nearly 1,000 extant monumental statues, ...

) and, along with the Desventuradas Islands, forms one of the nine communes of Valparaíso Province. The islands are named after Juan Fernández, the explorer who discovered them in the 1570s.

Geography

Robinson Crusoe Island Robinson Crusoe Island (, ) is the second largest of the Juan Fernández Islands, situated 670 km (362 nmi; 416 mi) west of San Antonio, Chile, San Antonio, Chile, in the South Pacific Ocean. It is the more populous of the inhabit ...

(), also known as Isla Más a Tierra, is located closest to the mainland of continental South America, and is surrounded by a number of islets, including Juanango, Viñilla, Los Chamelos, Los Claveles and El Verdugo. ** Santa Clara (), lying southwest of Robinson Crusoe. * Alejandro Selkirk Island (), also known as Isla Más Afuera, is located farther west. Alejandro Selkirk is the largest of the Juan Fernández Islands at , and its highest peak, Cerro de Los Inocentes, is also the highest point of the archipelago at . The island's population was 57 in 2012. Robinson Crusoe is the second-largest island in the

at ; its highest peak, El Yunque, is . The population of Robinson Crusoe was 843 in 2012. Santa Clara is in area and reaches a height of . Santa Clara is uninhabited. The maximum elevations of Juan Fernández, for Robinson Crusoe and for Alejandro Selkirk, respectively, are high enough to cause the phenomenon known as Kármán vortex street, which can be seen from space. The islands are

in origin, produced by the movement of the

Nazca Plate The Nazca plate or Nasca plate, named after the Nazca region of southern Peru, is an oceanic list of tectonic plates, tectonic plate in the eastern Pacific Ocean basin off the west coast of South America. The ongoing subduction, along the Peru– ...

over the Juan Fernández hotspot. As the plate moved eastward over the hot spot, volcanic eruptions formed the Juan Fernández Ridge before being subducted under the South American continent at the Peru–Chile Trench. The islands occur where the peaks of the submarine ridge have protruded above sea level.

Radiometric dating Radiometric dating, radioactive dating or radioisotope dating is a technique which is used to Chronological dating, date materials such as Rock (geology), rocks or carbon, in which trace radioactive impurity, impurities were selectively incorporat ...

indicates that Santa Clara is the oldest of the islands, at 5.8 million years old, followed by Robinson Crusoe, 3.8 – 4.2 million years old, and Alexander Selkirk, 1.0 – 2.4 million years old. The seafloor around Juan Fernández Islands is rich in Manganese–Iron nodules, which might be of potential economic interest. Some consider the islands to be one of the easternmost points of

Oceania Oceania ( , ) is a region, geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Outside of the English-speaking world, Oceania is generally considered a continent, while Mainland Australia is regarded as its co ...

, rather than an outlying region of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

. In their book ''Shore Fishes of Easter Island'', authors John E. Randall and Alfredo Cea Egana claim that the Juan Fernández Islands have "great similarity in ichthyofauna with Oceania more so than with the nearing South America."

Climate

The archipelago is very diverse in climate taking into account its size, this is due to factors such as its topography which causes the temperature and precipitation regime to change depending on the area of an island. In the Archipelago according to Trewartha's climate classification the windward slopes have a subtropical climate, while areas such as the eastern tip of Robinson Crusoe Island have a

Semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of se ...

and the western and leeward areas have a

Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...

. The weather is moderated by the cold Humboldt Current, which flows northward to the east of the islands, and the southeast trade winds. Temperatures range from to , with an annual mean of . Higher elevations are generally cooler, with occasional frosts on Robinson Crusoe. Average annual precipitation is , varying from to year to year. Much of the variability in rainfall depends on the El Niño-Southern Oscillation. Rainfall is higher in the winter months, and varies with elevation and exposure; elevations above experience almost daily rainfall, while the western,

leeward In geography and seamanship, windward () and leeward () are directions relative to the wind. Windward is ''upwind'' from the point of reference, i.e., towards the direction from which the wind is coming; leeward is ''downwind'' from the point o ...

side of Robinson Crusoe and Santa Clara are quite dry.

Biota and ecology

The Juan Fernández islands are home to a high percentage of rare and

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

plants and animals, and are recognized as a distinct

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) is an ecological and geographic area that exists on multiple different levels, defined by type, quality, and quantity of environmental resources. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and c ...

. The volcanic origin and remote location of the islands meant that the islands' flora and fauna had to reach the

from far across the sea; as a result, the island is home to relatively few plant species and very few animal species. The closest relatives of the

's plants and animals are found in the

Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest is a temperate climate terrestrial habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature, with broadleaf tree ecoregions, and with conifer and broadleaf tree mixed coniferous forest ecoregions. These ...

ecoregions of southern South America, including the

Valdivian temperate rain forests The Valdivian temperate forests (NT0404) is an terrestrial ecoregion, ecoregion on the west coast of southern South America, in Chile and Argentina. It is part of the Neotropical realm. The forests are named after the city of Valdivia, Chile, Val ...

Magellanic subpolar forests The Magellanic subpolar forests () are a terrestrial ecoregion of southernmost South America, covering parts of southern Chile and Argentina, and are part of the Neotropical realm. It is a temperate broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion, and ...

, and Desventuradas Islands.

Flora

The Juan Fernández Islands are renowned for their unique and diverse flora, characterized by a high degree of

endemism Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

. The archipelago comprises approximately 361 species of vascular plants, including 53 ferns, 65 monocots, and 243 dicots, spanning 73 families and 219 genera. Notably, there is one endemic family ( Lactoridaceae), 12 endemic genera, and 126 endemic species, resulting in an endemism rate of 11% at the generic level and 60% at the species level. Vegetation zones on the islands generally correspond to elevation. Grassy slopes with native and introduced species cover much of the lower altitudes of

(Isla Más a Tierra) and Alejandro Selkirk Island (Isla Más Afuera), as well as nearly all of Santa Clara Island. Tall lowland forests are dominated by the largest trees in the archipelago, including Drimys confertifolia, Myrceugenia fernandeziana (on Robinson Crusoe Island), and

Myrceugenia schulzei ''Myrceugenia schulzei'' is a species of plant in the family Myrtaceae. It is Endemism, endemic to Alejandro Selkirk Island, of the Juan Fernández Islands archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, territory of the Republic of Chile. It is threatened by ...

(on Alejandro Selkirk Island). All three of these species are endemic to the

and considered vulnerable. In the

montane Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...

forests of Robinson Crusoe Island, the understory is notably composed of tree ferns such as Thyrsopteris elegans, which form dense forests at elevations around 700 to 750 meters. These forests also include species like Dicksonia berteroana and various Blechnum species. The dominant tree species in these montane forests include endemic genera such as Cuminia, Fagara, and Rhaphithamnus. The flora of the Juan Fernández Islands has been significantly impacted by invasive plant species. On Robinson Crusoe Island, invasive species such as wild blackberry (''

Rubus ulmifolius ''Rubus ulmifolius'' is a species of wild blackberry known by the English common name elmleaf blackberry or thornless blackberry and the Spanish common name ''zarzamora''. It is native to Europe and North Africa, and has also become naturalize ...

'') and maqui ('' Aristotelia chilensis'') have colonized 80–90% of the native forest, exerting tremendous pressure on the remaining tracts of forest and the animals that depend on it. File:Rob-cru.png, Map of Robinson Crusoe Island (including Santa Clara Island) File:Isla mas Afuera Juan Fernandez (Chili).jpg, Map of Alejandro Selkirk Island File:Juan fernandez 1927.jpg, Map of both islands File:Robinson Crusoe.JPG, Satellite images of Juan Fernández Islands (Alejandro Selkirk Island, inset left) File:CL Pacific islands.PNG, overview map

Fauna

The Juan Fernández Islands have a very limited fauna, with no native land

mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...

reptile Reptiles, as commonly defined, are a group of tetrapods with an ectothermic metabolism and Amniotic egg, amniotic development. Living traditional reptiles comprise four Order (biology), orders: Testudines, Crocodilia, Squamata, and Rhynchocepha ...

s, or amphibians. Seventeen land and sea-bird species breed on the islands. The island has three endemic bird species, and three endemic subspecies. Introduced fauna by humans include

rat Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus ''Rattus''. Other rat genera include '' Neotoma'' (pack rats), '' Bandicota'' (bandicoo ...

s and

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a species of Caprinae, goat-antelope that is mostly kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the ...

is home to an endemic and endangered

hummingbird Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the Family (biology), biological family Trochilidae. With approximately 366 species and 113 genus, genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but most species are found in Cen ...

, the Juan Fernández firecrown (''Sephanoides fernandensis''). This large

, about long, is thought to number only about 500 individuals. The other endemic bird species are the Juan Fernández tit-tyrant ('' Anairetes fernandezianus'') of Robinson Crusoe Island, and the Masafuera rayadito (''Aphrastura masafuerae'') of Alejandro Selkirk Island. The islands support the entire known breeding populations of two petrel species
Stejneger's Petrel
''Pterodroma longirostris''
IUCN
status VU) and th
Juan Fernandez Petrel
''Pterodroma externa''
IUCN
status VU). In addition, the Juan Fernandez Islands may still support a third breeding petrel species
De Filippi's Petrel
''Pterodroma defilippiana''
IUCN
status VU), whose only other known breeding grounds are on the Desventuradas Islands. The

Magellanic penguin The Magellanic penguin (''Spheniscus magellanicus'') is a South American penguin, breeding in coastal Patagonia, including Argentina, Chile, and the Falkland Islands, with some bird migration, migrating to Brazil and Uruguay, where they are occas ...

breeds on Robinson Crusoe Island within the

. All three islands of the Juan Fernandez archipelago have been recognised as

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 ...

s (IBAs) 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 i ...

. The endemic Juan-Fernandez spiny lobster (without claws) lives in the marine waters ('' Jasus frontalis''). The Juan Fernández fur seal (''Arctophoca philippii'') also lives on the islands. This species was nearly exterminated in the sixteenth to nineteenth century, but it was rediscovered in 1965. A census in 1970 found about 750

fur seal Fur seals are any of nine species of pinnipeds belonging to the subfamily Arctocephalinae in the family Otariidae. They are much more closely related to sea lions than Earless seal, true seals, and share with them external ears (Pinna (anatomy ...

s living there. Only two were sighted on the Desventuradas Islands, located some to the north. The actual population of the Desventuradas may be higher, because the species tends to hide in sea caves. There seems to be a yearly population increase of 16–17 percent.

History

Prehistory

A 2008 report by archaeologists from the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

states that, "a combination of palaeoecology and archaeology in the Juan Fernández Islands showed it was unlikely there had been human activity in the islands before Europeans arrived." Ichthyologists Ingo Hahn and Uwe Römer wrote in 2002, "the geographically isolated Juan Fernández Islands were probably untouched by man until their discovery by European sailors in 1574. It is unknown if

Polynesians Polynesians are an ethnolinguistic group comprising closely related ethnic groups native to Polynesia, which encompasses the islands within the Polynesian Triangle in the Pacific Ocean. They trace their early prehistoric origins to Island Sout ...

, or if native Americans from South America, reached or settled it at any point."

Discovery

The

was discovered on 22 November 1574, by the Spanish sailor Juan Fernández, who was sailing south between

Callao Callao () is a Peruvian seaside city and Regions of Peru, region on the Pacific Ocean in the Lima metropolitan area. Callao is Peru's chief seaport and home to its main airport, Jorge Chávez International Airport. Callao municipality consists ...

and

Valparaíso Valparaíso () is a major city, Communes of Chile, commune, Port, seaport, and naval base facility in the Valparaíso Region of Chile. Valparaíso was originally named after Valparaíso de Arriba, in Castilla–La Mancha, Castile-La Mancha, Spain ...

along a route which he also discovered, hundreds of miles west of the coast of

, which avoided the northerly Humboldt current. He called the islands Más Afuera, Más a Tierra, and Santa Clara. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the islands were used as a hideout for

pirate Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...

s and became the location of a

penal colony A penal colony or exile colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general population by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory. Although the term can be used to refer ...

. It was during this period that Alexander Selkirk became marooned on the islands. In the 1740s, they were visited by Commodore Anson's flotilla during his ill-fated venture to the South Seas. The location of the

was fixed by Alessandro Malaspina in 1790; previous charts had differed on the location. British and American

whaling Whaling is the hunting of whales for their products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that was important in the Industrial Revolution. Whaling was practiced as an organized industry as early as 875 AD. By the 16t ...

vessels were regular visitors to the islands, starting with the ''London'' (Captain Joshua Coffin) in 1795. During the maritime fur trade era of the early 19th century the islands were a source of

skins, and the Juan Fernández fur seal was nearly driven to extinction. In his book ''

Two Years Before the Mast ''Two Years Before the Mast'' is a memoir by the American author Richard Henry Dana Jr., published in 1840, having been written after a two-year sea voyage from Boston to California on a merchant ship starting in 1834. A Two Years Before the Mast ...

'' (Chapter VII),

Richard Henry Dana Jr. Richard Henry Dana Jr. (August 1, 1815 – January 6, 1882) was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts, a descendant of a colonial family, who gained renown as the author of the classic American memoir ''Two Years Before the Mast'' a ...

described the islands as he found them circa 1834. At this time the main island was being used as a

. However, when Dr John Coulter visited it in the early 1840s, he reported the island deserted after the approximately 1000 convicts had risen up, killing the soldiers and Governor who had held them captive. The prisoners fled to mainland

, where "great numbers" were later hunted down and shot. The story appears in Coulter's book ''Adventures in the Pacific'' (1845). On 6 May 1846, a ship carrying Mormon missionaries visited the archipelago, re-stocking before travelling onward. During their stop, they buried the body of a pregnant woman, Laura Graham, who had died during a storm. In 1908, the islands were visited by the Swedish Magellanic Expedition and Carl Skottsberg is believed to have been the last to have seen the '' Santalum fernandezianum'' tree alive. SMS Dresden before scuttling

Late in 1914 the islands were the rendezvous for Admiral Maximilian von Spee's East Asia Squadron as he gathered his ships together before defeating the British under Admiral Christopher Cradock at the Battle of Coronel. Following the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

's win at the

Battle of the Falkland Islands The Battle of the Falkland Islands was a First World War naval action between the British Royal Navy and Imperial German Navy on 8 December 1914 in the South Atlantic. The British, after their defeat at the Battle of Coronel on 1 November, ...

a month later, the only surviving German cruiser, , was hunted down and cornered illegally at Más a Tierra early in 1915, although she was in Chilean territorial waters, where it was scuttled after a brief battle with British cruisers. In 1966 the Chilean government renamed Más Afuera as Alejandro Selkirk Island and Más a Tierra as Robinson Crusoe Island, in order to promote tourism. Incidentally, Selkirk never set foot on Más Afuera, only on Más a Tierra. On 30 July 2007, a constitutional reform gave the Juan Fernández Islands and Easter Island the status of "special territories" of Chile. Pending the enactment of a charter the

will continue to be governed as a commune of the Valparaíso Region. On 27 February 2010, a

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from , ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and underwater explosions (including detonations, ...

following the 8.8 magnitude earthquake off Maule, Chile struck the islands causing at least 8 deaths.Harrell, Eben (2 March 2010)
"Chile's President: Why Did Tsunami Warnings Fail?"
''Time Magazine''. Retrieved 4 March 2010. Eleven people were reported as missing. Some early reports described the tsunami as being high, but later reports measured it at . Most of the town of San Juan Bautista on Robinson Crusoe Island was destroyed."Forty-Meter Tsunami Wave Hits Juan Fernández Island"
Newsolio (27 February 2010). Retrieved 27 February 2010

Government

As a commune, the Juan Fernández Islands are a third-level

administrative division of Chile The administrative division or territorial organization of Chile exemplifies characteristics of a unitary state. State administration is functionally and geographically decentralized, as appropriate for each authority in accordance with the law ...

governed by a

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough cou ...

, headed by a mayor () who is directly elected every four years. The mayor for the term 2021–2024 was Pablo Andrés Manríquez Angulo.

Women's rights

Advocacy for women in the islands is led by the Juan Fernandez Women's Group.

Religion

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...

church was established in the islands in the 1980s.

Travel

The islands are served by Robinson Crusoe Airfield, located on Robinson Crusoe Island.

References

External links

Commune Juan Fernández
official government website (in Spanish)

by W. Schipper in Travel Images
"Map of Chili"
by S. Augustus Mitchell (1860) from the

World Digital Library The World Digital Library (WDL) is an international digital library operated by UNESCO and the United States Library of Congress. The WDL has stated that its mission is to promote international and intercultural understanding, expand the volume ...

"Menaces et perspectives pour la préservation de la biodiversité de l'Archipel Juan Fernández (Chili)"
by J. Vanhulst (2009) on preserving the islands' biodiversity (in French)
The Natural history of Juan Fernandez and Easter Island By Skottsberg, Carl
in three volumes from 1920 to 1956. {{DEFAULTSORT:Juan Fernandez Islands Archipelagoes of Chile Archipelagoes of the Pacific Ocean Communes of Chile Ecoregions of Chile Populated places in Valparaíso Province Islands of Valparaíso Region 1895 establishments in Chile Important Bird Areas of the Juan Fernández Islands Seabird colonies Island restoration Temperate South America