Bouvet Island

I have something of a love affair with a place called Bouvet Island. It’s a lonely hunk of ice covered rock in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and it’s quite possibly the coolest place around…

It’s loneliest place on earth. No-one lives there. In fact, the only man-made structures on the island are an automated weather station and a research station that got buried under ice. The nearest dry land is Queen Maud Land in Antarctica, 1,600 km south. The nearest inhabited land is Tristan da Cunha, 2,260 km away. Tristan da Cunha is, itself, the most isolated inhabited island on the planet…

It’s pretty damned small Encyclopaedia Britannica claims it’s only 59km² in area. Mind you, Wiki and the CIA World Factbook say it’s only 49km² in area. Either way, it’s smaller than Manhattan.

It has no ports or harbours. If you want to visit, you have to anchor well off-shore and then take a helicopter to the island itself. Every now and again someone tries to get ashore by motorboat. They normally give up.

It’s 93% ice. One exception is a lava shelf that appeared some time between 1955 and 1958. At some point in that three year window, the volcanic core of the island spewed out lava, and no-one noticed. The volcano is currently classed as inactive.

It’s ringed by ice cliffs. The sea constantly pounds the ice, leaving sheer cliffs of ice up to 500m high. The highest point on the island is Olav’s Peak, at 935m. Unless it’s actually 780m tall – take your pick…

It has it’s own top level domain. For unknown reasons, it was given the bv tld. Norway maintains the domain, but says that it will never be used.

History

Bouvet was discovered on January 1, 1739, by Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier. Strangely, Bouvet didn’t circumnavigate the island, and wasn’t sure it it was an island or part of a continent.

In 1772, Captain Cook tried to find the island but found the location Bouvet de Lozier had recorded was empty. Cook assumed that Bouvet had mistakenly recorded an iceberg as an island and gave up looking.

In 1808 the island was rediscovered when James Lindsay’s whaler “Snow Swan” sighted it. They didn’t land on the island, but they did get a valid fix on it. Since it was a long way from Bouvet Island’s supposed location, they assumed it was a new discovery and named it Lindsay Island.

On December 10, 1825, Captain Norris, master of the Enderby Company whalers Sprightly and Lively, discovered the island for the third time. He claimed it for the British Crown and named it Liverpool Island. He also reported sighting a second island nearby, which he named Thompson Island. The island can no longer be found.

In 1898, the German Valdivia expedition of Carl Chun visited the island but didn’t bother making land.

In 1927 the crew of the Norwegian ship “Norvegia” visited the island to set up shelters and stores for shipwrecked sailors. They ended up staying on the Island for about a month and claimed the island for Norway. When the Norvegia returned to the island both their shelters had vanished.

December 1, 1927 the island was annexed by Norway, and by a Royal Norwegian Decree of January 23, 1928, Bouvetøya became a Norwegian Territory.

In 1928 the United Kingdom waived its claim in favour of Norway.

Some time between 1955 and 1958, a spur of lava was created during volcanic activity.

In the 1950s and 1960s, there was some interest from South Africa to establish a weather station, but conditions were deemed to be too hostile.

In 1964, an abandoned lifeboat was discovered on the island, along with various supplies. The lifeboat’s passengers were never found.

In 1971, Bouvet Island and the adjacent territorial waters were designated a nature reserve, and became protected as such under Norwegian law.

In 1977 the Norwegian government set up an automated weather station.

On September 22, 1979, a Vela satellite recorded a flash of light in a stretch of the southern Indian Ocean between Bouvet Island and Prince Edward Islands. The flash has been interpreted as either a nuclear test or a meteor collision, but is still unexplained. The event is commonly given the Ludlam-esque name of the Vela Incident.

In 1994, a research station was built on the island.

On October 19, 2007, the Norwegian Polar Institute announced that satellite photos no longer show the research station built on the island in 1994. Later investigations indicate that a landslide or ice avalanche swept the building off its foundations.