Monday, January 26, 2009

Three Continents in one picture....

Europa anchored in Yankee harbour, Antarctica. The place was used as a base for sealers... a rusty tripod is still there.

Antarctic Landscape

The South Shetland Islands were first discovered by an expedition led by the Russian explorer van Bellinghausen on his ships "Vostov" and "Mirnyi" in 1920Panoramic view from the top of Barrientos Island
Barrientos Island is part of the Aitcho Archipelago.... the name is not Japanese, but comes from HO, the shortcut for the British Hydrological Office....

Antarctic Landscape (2)

Between Livingston and Greenwhich Islands....

Traces of volcanism

Edinburgh Hill is a basalt cone on Livingston Island.... the remainder of an ancient volcano
The lava cools down in octagonal columns - a kind of organ pipe structure....
Similar structures can be seen close by: one of the nicest examples is "Der Grosse Parkstein", a basalt cone in Parkstein, a little village in northern Bavaria, Germany. Once it was carrying a medieval fortress, of which only a little church is left
The 4023 m Mount Erebus, first climbed by a party of six from Shackleton's Nimrod expedition in 1908, is still an active volcano. More might be hidden under the ice