Rothschild Island
  Location in Antarctica | |
| Geography | |
|---|---|
| Location | Antarctica |
| Coordinates | 69°36′S 72°33′W / 69.600°S 72.550°WCoordinates: 69°36′S 72°33′W / 69.600°S 72.550°W |
| Length | 39 km (24.2 mi) |
| Country | |
|
None | |
| Demographics | |
| Population | Uninhabited |
| Additional information | |
| Administered under the Antarctic Treaty System | |
Rothschild Island is an island 39 kilometres (24 mi) long, mainly ice covered but surmounted by prominent peaks of Desko Mountains in Antarctica, 8 kilometres (5 mi) west of the north part of Alexander Island in the north entrance to Wilkins Sound.
The island was sighted from a distance by the French Antarctic Expedition, 1908-1910, and named by Charcot in honor of Baron Edouard de Rothschild (1868-1949), head of the Rothschild banking family of France and president of de Rothschild Frères. In subsequent exploration by the British Graham Land Expedition (BGLE), 1934-1937, the feature was believed to be a mountain connected to Alexander Island, but its insularity was reaffirmed by the United States Antarctic Service (USAS), 1939-1941, who photographed and roughly mapped the island from the air. It was mapped in detail from air photos taken by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition (RARE), 1947-1948, by Searle of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS) in 1960, and from U.S. satellite imagery taken in 1974.
See also
- Larsen Ice Shelf
- Composite Antarctic Gazetteer
- List of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands
- List of Antarctic islands south of 60° S
- SCAR
- Territorial claims in Antarctica
- List of Antarctic ice shelves
- Wilkins Sound
This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Geological Survey document "Rothschild Island" (content from the Geographic Names Information System).