Desventuradas Islands
Native name: Islas Desventuradas | |
|---|---|
UTC-3) | |
| NGA UFI= -900077 "San Ambrosio" -883263 "Gonzáles" -900282 "San Félix" |
The Desventuradas Islands (
.Due to their isolation and difficulty of access there are no civilian settlements on these islands, but a detachment of the Chilean Navy is stationed on Isla San Félix, which also hosts the 2,000-metre (6,600 ft) Isla San Felix Airport.
History
Prehistory
No signs of prehistoric human activity by Polynesians or Indigenous peoples of the Americas have ever been found on the islands, or on the neighboring Juan Fernández Islands.[5] Michael Levinson's 1973 book The Settlement of Polynesia states, "the Juan Fernández Islands and San Felix and San Ambrosio were apparently unoccupied in pre-Columbian times and were not discovered by the Spanish until between 1563 and 1574. There is no evidence available to suggest that they were visited for fishing or other reasons by Amerindians before this."[6]
Discovery
The islands were possibly discovered by
It is, probably, one of these islands that Captain John Davis struck one night in 1686. He was able to continue his voyage but erroneously reported the position of the incident.[10]San Felix played a part in the Falklands War. In May 1982, the Chilean government allowed an RAF Nimrod R1 to fly signals reconnaissance sorties from the island, gathering information on Argentine Air Force movements.[11][12]
Ecology
Vegetation of the larger islands is a miniature mosaic of matorral, barren rock, various sizes of trees, and shrubs mixed with ferns and perennial herbs. Sonchus laceratus is an endemic shrub species. The large islands, San Félix and San Ambrosio, are home to a critical WWF recognized temperate forest biome.
The marine fauna shares close affinities with the south Pacific and the central Pacific, more so than with the nearing South America. This is partly due to the Humboldt Current, which helps create a powerful biogeographic barrier between these islands and South America.[13]
There are no permanent sources of fresh water on any of the islands. Vertebrates inhabiting both of the largest islands are limited to birds. Ten
List of islands and location
The Desventuradas Islands, from east to west:
| Island/Rock | Area (km2) |
Peak Elevation (m) |
Geographical Coordinates | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Ambrosio | 3.1 | 479 | 26°20′37″S 79°53′28″W / 26.34361°S 79.89111°W | |||||
| San Felix group | ||||||||
| Islote González | 0.25 | 173 | 26°18′36″S 80°05′06″W / 26.31000°S 80.08500°W | |||||
| San Félix | 2 | Cerro Amarillo, 193 | 26°17′30″S 80°05′42″W / 26.29167°S 80.09500°W | |||||
| Roca Catedral | 0.01 | 53 | 26°16′25″S 80°07′15″W / 26.27361°S 80.12083°W | |||||
| Total | 5.36 | 479 | ||||||
See also
References
- ^ a b "Time Zone & Clock Changes in Desventuradas Islands, Chile". timeanddate.com. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
- OCLC 606934180.
- ^ ADM - Records of the Admiralty, Naval Forces, Royal Marines, Coastguard, and related bodies; Pacific Ocean: South America, W Coast: Chile: Islas de los Desventurados and Islas Juan Fernandez;
- ^ "San Félix-San Ambrosio Islands temperate forests". Terrestrial Ecoregions. World Wildlife Fund.
- JSTOR j.ctt24h8gp.20.
- ^ https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/114825/2/b13217963.pdf [bare URL PDF]
- S2CID 245223594.
- JSTOR 1781535.
- ^ Brand, Donald D. The Pacific Basin: A History of its Geographical Explorations The American Geographical Society, New York, 1967, p.127.
- ^ Jacques Julien Houtou de Labillardière (1800). Relation du voyage à la recherche de La Pérouse ... 1791, 1792, et pendant la Ière et la 2de année de la République françoise. 2 tom. [and] Atlas.
- ^ "Chile". Archived from the original on 2012-04-30. Retrieved 2008-08-26.
- ^ Alexander, Harriet (7 July 2014). "'Without Chile's help, we would have lost the Falklands'". The Telegraph. Retrieved 8 July 2014.
- ^ "Desventuradas Islands".
- ^ "Islas Desventuradas". BirdLife Data Zone. BirdLife International. 2021. Retrieved 22 January 2021.
External links
