Petermann Island is a small island just off the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula of Antarctica, located at 65°10′S 64°10′W / 65.167°S 64.167°W / -65.167; -64.167, just a short distance south of Booth Island and the Lemaire Channel. Just 2 km (1.2 mi) long, the low rounded island is home to the world's southernmost colony of Gentoo Penguins, and also hosts a number of Adelie Penguins.
The island was discovered by a German expedition of 1873-74, who named it after geographer August Petermann. The French Antarctic Expedition of 1908-10 wintered over aboard ship in a cove on the southeast side of the island, named Port Circumcision because it was spotted 1 January 1909, the traditional day for the Feast of the Circumcision.
Huts built by the expedition are gone, although a cairn remains, along with a refuge hut built by Argentina in 1955, and a cross commemorating three members of the British Antarctic Survey who died in a 1982 attempt to cross the sea ice from Faraday Station to Petermann.
Famous quotes containing the word island:
“The island dreams under the dawn
And great boughs drop tranquillity;
The peahens dance on a smooth lawn,
A parrot sways upon a tree,
Raging at his own image in the enamelled sea.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)