Larsen Islands

The Larsen Islands are a small group of islands north-west of Moreton Point, the western extremity of Coronation Island, in the South Orkney Islands of Antarctica. The largest of the group, Monroe Island, lies about 10 km from Coronation. They were discovered by Captains George Powell and Nathaniel Palmer on the occasion of their joint cruise in December 1821. The islands were named on Petter Sørlle's chart, based upon his survey of the South Orkney Islands in 1912–1913, in honour of Carl Anton Larsen.[1]

"Monroe Island" redirects here. For the island in India, see Munroe Island.

They were recharted in 1933 by Discovery Investigations personnel on the Discovery II, who used the name Larsen Islands for the group and named the largest island Larsen Island. Because the names were found to be confusing, the island was renamed in 1954 by the UK Antarctic Place-names Committee (UK-APC) for the sloop James Monroe, which was commanded by Captain Palmer at the time of discovery and anchored in this vicinity in December 1821.[2]

Important Bird Area

The Larsen Islands, together with Moreton Point and an adjacent area of ice-free land to the west, have been identified as a 1580 ha Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports large breeding colonies of seabirds, including some 125,000 pairs of chinstrap penguins and 125,000 pairs of southern fulmars. Snow petrels also nest there in smaller numbers.[3]

See also

References
  1. "Larsen Islands". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
  2. "Monroe Island". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
  3. "Moreton Point, Monroe Island and Larsen Islands, western Coronation Island". BirdLife data zone: Important Bird Areas. BirdLife International. 2019. Retrieved 2019-05-12.

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Geological Survey.


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