Home » Antarctica » Volcanoes, Whaling, and Polar Swimming, January 8, 2004

The deception of Deception Island is that, from the outside, the sheer cliffs conceal the best-protected place for ships on the Antarctic Peninsula. A ship's captain had to be persistent and continue all around to find the one small entryway into the bay. The further deception is that it isn't a real island -- it's a caldera, a collapsed volcano, which filled with water. That creates a nearly circular "island," like a donut with a small bite out of it.

Volcanoes, Whaling, and Polar Swimming, January 8, 2004

Ttrealtravels
2005-12-25 00:04:27

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The deception of Deception Island is that, from the outside, the sheer cliffs conceal the best-protected place for ships on the Antarctic Peninsula. A ship's captain had to be persistent and continue all around to find the one small entryway into the bay. The further deception is that it isn't a real island -- it's a caldera, a collapsed volcano, which filled with water. That creates a nearly circular "island," like a donut with a small bite out of it.

The entry is called Neptune's Bellows. This passageway is 230 meters wide, which should easily be enough to steer a 60-meter wide ship like the Orlova through. However, at the center of the passage is a submerged rock and to the left of that is shallow and treacherous. Many ships have run aground there, and the wreck of a small wood keel was still visible on the bank. As a result, only 100 meters is clear for ships. Of course, the Orlova's captain is highly skilled and made it through without incident.

Deception Island is the only volcano in the world that is navigable by ship. There is no wildlife to speak of, but the rock and ice formations were spectacular. At Telefon Bay, the zodiacs landed on a shallow, black-sand beach that slowly inclined to a vast crater surrounded by volcanic peaks.

To the Moon

The landscape is startlingly like Hawaii's Big Island -- except blisteringly cold and windy instead of hot and humid. But the caldera was the same.

It's another moonscape. Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano is equally barren. Remove Deception's snow, and it would be much the same. The black ground dotted with sulfur pots (although smaller ones here), rocks cracked open to reveal rich red and orange striations. Hawaii's volcanic caldera has more varieties of rocks, and everything steams and reeks of sulfur. Antarctica's caldera and craters are bleakly layered with ice and ...