What is special about Bouvet Island?
Bouvet Island is a good place to see penguins and fur seals, particularly chinstrap penguins and macaroni penguins. The macaroni penguin is one of the most prevalent penguin species in the world, easily recognizable due to its distinctive orange plumes.
Is there anything on Bouvet Island?
There is none. Being so far from anything in sight, nothing can be called the Bouvet Island population. Being a secured natural reserve, tourism is banned and no one other than scientific research expeditions is allowed to set foot on the island.
Does anyone live on Bouvet Island?
Located towards the bottom of the South Atlantic Ocean, it’s generally windswept, frequently fog-shrouded, and mostly covered by a glacier. A dependency of Norway and declared a nature reserve in the 1970s, no-one lives there, and it’s visited only infrequently by Norwegian polar expeditions.
Why does Norway want Bouvet Island?
Bouvet Island was discovered in 1739 by the French navigator Jean-Baptiste-Charles Bouvet de Lozier (1705–86), for whom it is named. It was rediscovered by a German expedition in 1898, and Norwegian expeditions to the Antarctic in the 1920s claimed it for Norway as a potential whaling station.
How did Bouvet Island form?
Located near the junction between the South American, African, and Antarctic tectonic plates, the island is mostly formed from a shield volcano—a broad, gently sloping cone formed by thin, fluid lavas—that is almost entirely covered by glaciers.
Is Bouvet Island a volcano?
The solitary ice-covered shield volcano of Bouvet Island is located just off the Southwest Indian Ridge, east of the triple junction between the African, South American, and Antarctic plates.
What is the history of Bouvet Island?
The South African government, with Norway’s permission, was investigating the construction of a manned station on the island, and in the 1950s set out to see if there was enough flat land space on Bouvet Island to meet their needs. They determined that the terraform did not suit their needs.
Can you land a boat on Bouvet Island?
Only the most adventurous travelers visit Bouvet Island and only a very unfortunate soul would wind up there in a lifeboat unless it was a landing craft. Most modern expeditions onto the island are made by helicopter because landing a boat on on this island is difficult under the best conditions and impossible under average conditions.
Why a weather tower on Bouvet Island?
West coast of Bouvet Island. Image: François Guerraz . Because of its location, weather researchers have long thought it a great place to put a weather tower. On 2 April 1964, the Royal Navy’s Antarctic ice vessel HMS Protector was sent to the island to investigate a new area of the land created by lava flow ten years prior to the expedition.
Is Bouvet Island the most isolated place on Earth?
Deep beneath the South Atlantic, Bouvet Island is described as one of the most isolated locations on the Earth, of which the nearest landmass is Antarctica. If there is a middle of nowhere, this nineteen square mile piece of land in the Atlantic ocean, uninhabited and covered by glacial ice, is undoubtedly that.