Kerguelen Islands

The Kerguelen Islands ( /ˈkɜrɡəlɛn/ or /ˈkɜrɡələn/;^[2] in French commonly Îles Kerguelen or Archipel de Kerguelen but officially Archipel des Kerguelen or Archipel Kerguelen, pronounced: [kɛʁɡeˈlɛn]), also known as the Desolation Islands, are a group of islands in the southern Indian Ocean constituting the emerged part of the otherwise submerged Kerguelen Plateau. The islands, along with Adélie Land, the Crozet Islands and the Amsterdam and Saint Paul Islands are part of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands and are administered as a separate district. There are no indigenous inhabitants, but France maintains a permanent presence of 50 to 100 scientists, engineers and researchers.^[3]

The main island, Grande Terre, is 6,675 km² (2,577 sq mi) in area and is surrounded by a further 300 smaller islands and islets, forming an archipelago of 7,215 km² (2,786 sq mi). The climate is raw and chilly with frequent high winds throughout the year, but not severely cold compared to areas such as the outer Aleutian Islands of Alaska which has a similar latitude (49° S vs. 51°–53° N). While the surrounding seas are generally rough, they remain ice-free year-round. Since there is no airport on the islands, all travel and transport from the outside world is conducted by ship.

History

The islands were discovered by the Breton-French navigator Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen de Trémarec on 12 February 1772. The next day Charles de Boisguehenneuc landed and claimed the island for the French crown. ^[4]

Soon after their discovery, the archipelago was regularly visited by whalers and sealers (mostly British, American and Norwegian) who hunted the resident populations of whales and seals to the point of near extinction, including fur seals in the 18th century and elephant seals in the 19th century. Since the end of the whaling and sealing era, most of the islands' species have been able to increase their population again.^[5] From 1825-1827, the British sealer John Nunn and three crew members were shipwrecked on Kerguelen.^[6]

In the past, a number of expeditions briefly visited the islands, including that of Captain James Cook in 1776. In 1874–1875, British, German and U.S. expeditions visited Kerguelen to observe the transit of Venus.^[7]

In 1877 the French started a coal mining operation, however this was abandoned soon after.^[8]

The Kerguelen Islands, along with the islands of Amsterdam and St. Paul, and the Crozet archipelago were officially annexed by France in 1893, and were included as possessions in the French constitution in 1924 (in addition to that portion of Antarctica claimed by France and known as Adélie Land; as with all Antarctic territorial claims, France's possession on the continent is held in abeyance until a new international treaty is ratified that defines each claimant's rights and obligations).

The German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis called at Kerguelen during December 1940. During their stay the crew performed maintenance and replenished their water supplies. This ship's first fatality of the war occurred when a sailor, Bernhard Herrmann, fell while painting the funnel. He is buried in what is sometimes referred to as "the most southerly German war grave" of World War II.

Kerguelen has been continually occupied since 1950 by scientific research teams, with a population of 50 to 100 frequently present.^[3] There is also a French satellite tracking station.

Until 1955, the Kerguelen Islands were part of the French colony of Madagascar. That same year they collectively became known as Les Terres australes et antarctiques françaises (French Southern and Antarctic Lands) and were administratively part of the French Départment d`outre-mer de la Réunion. In 2004 they were permanently transformed into their own entity (keeping the same name) but having inherited another group of five very remote tropical islands, les îles Éparses, which are also owned by France and are dispersed widely throughout the southern Indian Ocean.

Grande Terre

The main island of the archipelago is called La Grande Terre. It measures 150 km east to west and 120 km north to south.

The main base, the so-called "capital" of the islands, is located along the eastern shore of the Gulf of Morbihan on Grande Terre island at , and it is known as Port-aux-Français. Facilities there include scientific-research buildings, a satellite tracking station, dormitories, a hospital, a library, a gymnasium, a pub, and the chapel of Notre-Dame des Vents.

The highest point is the Galliéni Massif (Pic du Grand-Ross), which lies along the southern coast of the island and has an elevation of 1,850 meters. The Cook Glacier, France`s largest glacier with an area of approximately 403 km², lies on the west-central part of the island. Overall, the glaciers of the Kerguelen Islands cover just over 500 km². Grande Terre has numerous bays, inlets, fjords, and coves, as well as several peninsulas and promontories. The most important ones are listed below:

• Courbet Peninsula
• Péninsule Rallier du Baty
• Péninsule Gallieni
• Péninsule Loranchet
• Presqu'île Jeanne d'Arc
• Presqu'île Ronarc'h
• Presqu'île de la Société de Géographie
• Presqu'île Joffre
• Presqu'île du Prince de Galles
• Presqu'île du Gauss
• Presqu'île Bouquet de la Grye
• Presqu'île d'Entrecasteaux
• Presqu'île du Bougainville
• Presqu'île Hoche

Notable localities

There are also a number of notable localities, all on Grande Terre (see also the main map):

• Anse Betsy [Betsy Cove] (a former geomagnetic station at ), on Baie Accessible [Accessible Bay], on the north coast of the Courbet Peninsula. On this site an astronomical and geomagnetic observatory was erected on 26 October 1874 by a German research expedition led by Georg Gustav Freiherr von Schleinitz. The primary goal of this station was the 1874 observation of the transit of Venus.
• Armor (Base Armor), established in 1983 forty kilometers west of Port-aux-Français at the bottom of Morbihan Gulf, for the acclimatization of salmon to the Kerguelen islands.^[9]
• Baie de l'Observatoire [Observatory Bay] (a former geomagnetic observation station at ), just west of Port-Aux-Français, on the eastern fringe of the Central Plateau, along the northern shore of the Golfe du Morbihan.

For the 1874 transit of Venus, George Biddell Airy at the Royal Observatory of the U.K. organised and equipped five expeditions to different parts of the world. Three of these were sent to the Kerguelen Islands. The Reverend Stephen Joseph Perry led the British expeditions to the Kerguelen Islands. He set up his main observation station at Observatory Bay and two auxiliary stations, one at Thumb Peak [49°31'11.8"S, 70°10'18.1"E] led by Sommerville Goodridge, and the second at Supply Bay [49°30'47.3"S, 69°46'13.2"E] led by Cyril Corbet. Observatory Bay was also used by the German Antarctic Expedition led by Erich Dagobert von Drygalski in 1902–03. In January 2007, an archaeological excavation of this site was carried out.

• Cabane Port-Raymond (scientific camp at ), at the head of a fjord cutting into the Courbet Peninsula from the south.
• Cap Ratmanoff (geomagnetic station at ), the eastmost point of the Kerguelens.
• La Montjoie (scientific camp at ), on the south shore of Baie Rocheuse, along the northwestern coast of the archipelago.
• Molloy (Pointe Molloy), a former observatory ten kilometers west of the present-day Port-Aux-Français, along the south coast of the Courbet Peninsula, or northern shore of the Golfe du Morbihan (Kerguelen), at . An American expedition led by G. P. Ryan erected a station at this site on 7 September 1874. That station was also established to observe the 1874 transit of Venus.
• Port Bizet (seismographic station at ), on the northeastern coast of Île Longue. This also serves as the principal sheep farm for the island's resident flock of Bizet sheep.
• Port Christmas (a former geomagnetic station at ), on Baie de l'Oiseau, in the extreme northwest of the Loranchet Peninsula. This place was so named by Captain James Cook, who re-discovered the islands and who anchored there on Christmas Day, 1776. This is also the place where Captain Cook coined the name "Desolation Islands" in reference to what he saw as a sterile landscape.
• Port Couvreux (a former whaling station, experimental sheep farm, and geomagnetic station, at ), on Baie du Hillsborough, on the southeast coast of Presqu'île Bouquet de la Grye. Starting in 1912, sheep were raised here to create an economic base for future settlement, however, the attempt failed and the last inhabitants had to be evacuated, and the station abandoned, in 1931. The huts remain as well as a graveyard with five anonymous graves. These are those of the settlers who were unable to survive in the harsh environment.
• Port Curieuse (a harbor on the west coast across Île de l'Ouest ). The site was named after the ship La Curieuse, which was used by Raymond Rallier du Baty on his second visit to the islands (1913–14).
• Port Douzième (literally Twelfth Port, a hut and former geomagnetic station at ), on the north coast of Presqu'île Ronarch, southern shore of the Golfe du Morbihan.
• Port Jeanne d'Arc (a former whaling station founded by a Norwegian whaling company in 1908, and a former geomagnetic station at ), in the northwestern corner of Presqu'île Jeanne d'Arc, looking across the Buenos Aires passage to Île Longue (4 km northeast). The derelict settlement consists of four residential buildings with wooden walls and tin roofs, and a barn. One of the buildings was restored in 1977, and another in 2007.

From 1968 to 1981, just east of Port-aux-Français was a launching site for sounding rockets, some for French (Dragon rockets), American (Arcas) or French-Soviet (Eridans) surveys, but at the end mainly for a Soviet program (M-100).^[10]

The islands

The following list the most important adjacent islands:

• Île Foch in the north of the archipelago, at , is the largest satellite island with an area of 206.20 km². Its highest point, at 687 m, is called La Pyramide Mexicaine.
• Île Howe which lies less than one kilometre off the northern coast of Ile Foch is, at ~54.00 km², the second most important offlier in the Kerguelens .
• Île Saint-Lanne Gramont, is to the west of Île Foch in the Golfe Choiseul. It has an area of 45.80 km². Its highest point reaches 480 m ().
• Île du Port, also in the north in the Golfe des Baleiniers at , is the third largest satellite island with an area of 43.00 km², near its centre it reaches an altitude of 340 m.
• Île de l'Ouest (west coast, about 40.00 km², )
• Île Longue (southeast, about 40.00 km² )
• Îles Nuageuses (northwest, including île de Croÿ, île du Roland, îles Ternay, îles d'Après, )
• Île de Castries ()
• Îles Leygues (north, including île de Castries, île Dauphine, )
• Île Violette ()
• Île aux Rennes [also known as Reindeer Island or Australia Island] (western part of the Golfe du Morbihan, area 36.70 km², altitude 199 m, )
• Île Haute (western part of the Golfe du Morbihan, altitude 321 m, )
• Île Mayès ()

Economy

Principal activities on the Kerguelen Islands focus on scientific research – mostly earth sciences and biology.

The former sounding rocket range to the east of Port-aux-Français is currently the site of a SuperDARN radar.

Since 1992, the French Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) has operated a satellite and rocket tracking station which is located four kilometers east of Port-aux-Français. There was a need for a tracking station in the Southern Hemisphere, and the French government required that it be located on French territory, rather than in a populated, foreign place like Australia or New Zealand.

Agricultural activities are limited to raising sheep (approximately 3,500 Bizet sheep — an endangered sheep breed in mainland France) on Longue Island for consumption by the occupants of the base, as well as small quantities of vegetables in a greenhouse within the immediate vicinity of the main French base. There are also feral rabbits and sheep that can be hunted plus wild birds.

There are also some fishing boats and vessels, owned by fishermen on Réunion Island — a department of France — who are licensed to fish within the archipelago's Exclusive Economic Zone.

Geology

The Kerguelen islands form an emerged part of the submerged Kerguelen Plateau, which has a total area nearing 2.2 million square kilometres. The plateau was built by volcanic eruptions associated with the Kerguelen hotspot, and now lies on the Antarctic plate.^[11]

The major part of the volcanic formations visible on the islands are characteristic of an effusive volcanism, which caused a trap rock formation to start emerging above the level of the ocean 35 million years ago. The accumulation is of a considerable amount; basalt flows, each with a thickness of three to ten metres, stack on top of each other, sometimes up to a depth of 1,200 metres. This form of volcanism creates a monumental relief shaped as stairs of pyramids.

Other forms of volcanism are present locally, such as the strombolian volcano Mont Ross, and the volcano-plutonic complex on the Rallier du Baty peninsula. Various veins and extrusions of lava such as trachytes, trachyphonolites and phonolites are common all over the islands.

No eruptive activity has been recorded in historic times, but some fumaroles are still active in the South-West of the Grande-Terre island.

A few lignite strata, trapped in basalt flows, reveal fossilised araucarian fragments, dated at about 14 million years of age.

Glaciation caused the depression and tipping phenomena which created the gulfs at the north and east of the archipelago. Erosion caused by the glacial and fluvial activity carved out the valleys and fjords; erosion also created conglomerate detrital complexes, and the plain of the Courbet Peninsula.

The islands are part of a submerged microcontinent called the Kerguelen sub-continent.^[12] The microcontinent emerged substantially above sea level for three periods between 100 million years ago and 20 million years ago. The so-called Kerguelen sub-continent may have had tropical flora and fauna about 50 million years ago. The Kerguelen sub-continent finally sank 20 million years ago and is now one to two kilometers below sea level. Kerguelen's sedimentary rocks are similar to ones found in Australia and India, indicating they were all once connected. Scientists hope that studying the Kerguelen sub-continent will help them discover how Australia, India, and Antarctica broke apart.^[13]

Climate

Flora and fauna

The islands are part of the Southern Indian Ocean Islands tundra ecoregion that includes several subantarctic islands. In this cold climate plant life is mainly limited to grasses, mosses and lichens, although the islands are also known for the indigenous, edible Kerguelen cabbage, a good source of vitamin C to ancient mariners. It was frequently served with corned beef. The main indigenous animals are insects along with large populations of ocean-going seabirds, seals and penguins.^[15]

The wildlife is particularly vulnerable to introduced species and one particular problem has been cats. The main island is the home of a well-established feral cat population, descended from ships' cats.^[16] They survive on sea birds and the feral rabbits that were introduced to the islands. There are also populations of feral sheep and reindeer.

Coleoptera

• Carabidae
  • Oopterus soledadinus [adventive]
• Hydraenidae
  • Meropathus chuni [endemic]

Kerguelen Islands in popular culture

• In The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1838), Edgar Allan Poe's only complete novel, the crew of the Jane Guy alights at Kerguelen Island before eventually pushing on towards the South Pole.
• In Edward Page Mitchell's 1874 short story "The Tachypomp," a hollow tube through the earth connects Kerguelen's Land with its antipodes.
• In the second chapter of James De Mille's 1888 novel A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder, the protagonists pass "Desolation Island" before continuing to the Antarctic.
• In George Griffith's 1894 novel Olga Romanoff, the islands are the site of the largest submarine and airship base in the southern hemisphere.
• The first chapter of Jules Verne's 1897 novel Le Sphinx des glaces (An Antarctic Mystery) is entitled "Chapitre 1 — Les Îles Kerguelen" ("Chapter 1 — The Kerguelen Islands").
• In the 1978 seafaring novel Desolation Island, one of the Aubrey–Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian, the crew repair their disabled ship on an island that strongly resembles Kerguelen, having a sheltered anchorage with large islands and the same latitude and longitude. A later book in the series, The Thirteen Gun Salute, asserts that this was a different Desolation Island, located somewhere "farther south and east," (probably Heard Island, though this island was not confirmed to exist until the 1850s and has no bay with islands.)
• In Biggles' Second Case by W. E. Johns, Biggles searches for Nazi gold just after World War II on and around Kerguelen.
• Warbots (no. 5) Operation High Dragon involves a secret Chinese military base located on Kerguelen Island. ISBN 1-55817-159-2
• In Gundam - The 08th MS Team, the Zeon Zanzibar-class cruiser used to evacuate Ginias Sakhalin's forces from their base is named Kerguelen.
• In the Danish graphic novel Mikkeline på skattejagt (Mikkeline's Treasure Hunt) by draftsman and cartoonist Claus Deleuran, Desolation Island plays a major role in the plot. In the humorous story the active volcano Mont Ross serves as a back entrance to hell as described in The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. ISBN 87-7378-244-0
• The novel The Lost Flying Boat by Alan Sillitoe is situated around Kerguelen, though the islands' geography is not accurately described.
• The Swedish comic James Hund by Jonas Darnell & Patrik Norrmann has set at least one episode on Kerguelen, where a satanic Nazi conspiracy against the world's leaders has its seat.
• In Patrick Robinson's Kilo Class (ISBN 0-06-109685-7), naval confrontations arise in the Kerguelen Islands between the Americans, the Chinese, and the Taiwanese.
• The naval warfare simulation computer game Jane's Fleet Command by Sonalysts Inc. contains a fictitious mission 'Kerguelen surprise', featuring a carrier battle between India and France, as a result of India's intentions to annex the islands.
• The science fiction novel Rocannon's World by Ursula K. Le Guin mentions a planet called "New South Georgia", whose chief city is "Kerguelen".
• In the novel An Inexplicable Story by Josef Skvorecky, the chapter "A Letter from Herr Rudolf Ceeh" is a report by a German submariner about his stay on the Kerguelen Islands.
• In the G. A. Henty novel The Young Midshipman, Chapter XVI (Old Joe's Yarn), Joe relates being shipwrecked on the Kerguelens and spending a winter surviving on Kerguelen cabbage, melted snow and seal meat before hiking to Betsy Cove, off Hillborough Bay, and being rescued by passing whalers.
• Journalist Matthew Parris and a cameraman spent the winter of 2000 filming a documentary about life and living conditions on the island.^[17] During their stay one of the over-winterers was involved in a fatal accident with a hunting rifle.
• In the British science fiction series "Blake's Seven" the character of Kerr Avon mentions the true meaning of his full first name "Kerguelen", when asked by another, by saying: "Desolation".
• In Season 3 of Whale Wars the Steve Irwin and the Bob Barker rendezvous in the Kerguelen Islands to swap crew and exchange provisions.

See also

• Administrative divisions of France
• Crozet Islands
• Falkland Islands
• French overseas departments and territories
• Islands controlled by France in the Indian and Pacific oceans
• South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
• Sub-antarctic islands

References

External links

• Official site (In French)
• Official site (In French)
• Cartography of the Kerguelen, including a toponymy index (In French)
• Personal site with many pictures
• Rocket launches on the Kerguelen Islands
• South Atlantic & Subantarctic Islands site, Kerguelen Archipelago page