Bellingshausen Island

Fig. 17.44 The chemical compositions of coarse tephra at different depths in the Byrd-Station core classify them as alkali-rich tra-chytes/phonolites. The points labeled 1 and 2 are volcanic rocks from Mt. Takahe and Mt. Sidley, respectively, in Marie Byrd Land. The chemical compositions of the fine tephra in the Byrd-Station core scatter widely and are not shown on this diagram. The tephra from South Pole, the Yamato Mountains, and Vostok Station are andesites that could have originated from volcanoes in the South Sandwich Islands (3 = Candlemas Island, 4 = Bellingshausen Island). Tephra from the Lewis Cliff ice tongue are composed of...

The Vostok tephra are very similar in composition to the tephra in the South-Pole core and closely resemble the andesite in Candlemas and Bellingshausen islands of the South Sandwich Islands in Fig. 17.46 (57°45 S, 026°30 W) (Tomblin 1979 Baker 1978). The distance between these islands and Vostok station is about 4,500 km (Palais et al. 1987 Kyle et al. 1984). In spite of the dispersion during transport through the atmosphere, the thickness of the tephra layer in the Vostok core is 5 cm at a depth of 101 m giving it an assigned age of 3,300 years. Therefore, the volcanic ash erupted by volcanoes in the South Sandwich Islands may have formed a large plume over East Antarctica. If so, this ash layer may be a useful stratigraphic marker in the East Antarctic ice sheet (Kyle et al. 1984). 

Fig. 17.46 The andesite volcanoes on Candlemas and Bellingshausen islands in the South Sandwich Islands are suspected of being the source of the tephra in the Yamato Mountains,...

During his return voyage, Bellingshausen sighted the ship of the American seal hunter, Nathaniel Palmer (1799-1877) off the coast of Deception Island (62°57 S, 060°38 W). The two explorers met on this... 

Peter I Island is a large shield volcano in the Bellingshausen Sea at 68°51 S and 90 35 W and about 280 km north of the coast of Ellsworth Land in West Antarctica. Its principal claim to fame is that it was discovered by Captain Thaddeus von Bellingshausen on January 10, 1821, during his circumnavigation of Antarctica. 

Fig. 16.40 Peter I Island was discovered by Capteiin Thaddeus von Bellingshausen on January 10, 1821, who circumnavigated Antarctica in two small ships named Vostok and Mirny y (Section 1.1). The island is located in the Bellingshausen Sea about 280 km north of the coast of Ellsworth Land in West Antarctica Peter I Island is a shield volcano that rises from the sea floor at 3,660 m below sea level to a summit at 1,750 m above sea level. Therefore, the island is a large volcanic mounteiin that rises 5,240m from the bottom of the ocean. AK-Ar date of 12.8 1.5 Ma reported by Bastien and Craddock (1976a) indicates that the lava flows on Peter I Island were erupted during the Miocene (Adapted from Rowley (1990) in LeMasurier tmd Thomson (1990))...

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