Funk Island - Geography

Geography

The island is roughly trapezoidal in shape, with a maximum length of 0.8 km and a maximum width of 0.3 km and is nearly flat, rising 14 m out of the North Atlantic. The island is composed of feldspathic granite and is traversed by two distinct fault lines which cross the island in a northwesterly direction, almost parallel to each other. The fault lines divide the island into three separate entities. The northeastern portion consists mainly of bare rock; the central portion has scattered vegetation; and the largest portion of the island, the southwestern, which occupies over half of the land surface, is covered with grasses, lichens and mosses.

Landing on the Funk Island is extremely difficult and dangerous, though in calm weather there are three points where a safe landing can be effected. Gannet Head, the southwestern corner of the island, and Landing Rock, just north of Gannet Head, are two such places. On the north side, approximately 0.17 km west of Escape Point, the easternmost tip of the island, there is a steep clift. Set in the clift is a natural shelf, called The Bench, approximately 1.2 m wide, which slopes up the clift face which allow relatively easy access to the surface.

The cold Labrador Current provides good breeding ground for cold water fish which in turn support the large breeding sea-bird population of the island. At high tide the seas break widely against the cliffs and in particularly high seas waves break over the island.

There are two large rock bunkers which lie off the southwest side of the island. The two bunkers are washed over by the sea, and provide roosting but not nesting areas for many of the sea birds, particularly the gannets. The island and the bunkers make up what is known as the "Funks."

There are no navigational aids or lighthouses on the island despite the number of shipwrecks and the loss of life which have occurred in the area.