Panoramas Penguin Island

The small Pen­gu­in Island is less than two kilo­me­ters in dia­me­ter and clo­se to Tur­ret Point on King Geor­ge Island. Pen­gu­in Island was for the first time sigh­ted during Bransfield’s voya­ge in 1820. The vol­ca­nic ori­gin of the island is quite obvious. And, geo­lo­gi­cal­ly spea­king, it belongs inde­ed to the Brans­field Strait with its chain of vol­ca­noes (Decep­ti­on, Pen­gu­in, Bridge­man Islands) rather than the block of con­ti­nen­tal crust that com­pri­se the South Shet­lands pro­per (again, geo­lo­gi­cal­ly spea­king), simi­lar as Ice­land belongs to the midd­le Atlan­tic ridge in the north.

The latest pha­se of vol­ca­nic acti­vi­ty must have been quite recent, as the cra­ter appears mor­pho­lo­gi­cal­ly very fresh and not alte­red by any gla­cia­ti­on. A dome and a vent are cle­ar­ly visi­ble insi­de the cra­ter, which is cal­led Dea­con Peak and is 170 meters high.

Dea­con Peak is easi­ly rea­ched from the landing area on the north side of the island. You have bril­li­ant views of near­by King Geor­ge Island with its wide ice­caps from the­re. The landing is quite expo­sed to any wind and swell from nor­t­her­ly direc­tions and drif­ting fields of brash ice (pie­ces of gla­cier ice) can make Zodiac ope­ra­ti­ons quite tri­cky, as all know well who were pre­sent on that Novem­ber evening in 2013 when the­se pan­ora­mas were taken.

← Back