A rather unique place in Antarctica is Deception Island. It was discovered by British sealers in 1820 and subsequently was used as a harbor for seal hunting and whaling.
Deception Island is actually the caldera of an intermittently active volcano, active as recently as 1970. It is one of the only places in the world where you sail directly into the center of a volcano, albeit through a narrow channel. The island has a horse-shoe shape, and its caldera is flooded as you can see below:
Last weekend's One Clue Mystery photo (shown below) was of Deception Island, including its entry point at Neptune's Bellows. Congratulations to George G, the only one who recognized where we were.
Deception Island has a diameter of up to 15 km (9.3 mi). The highest peak on the island is Mount Pond at 539 m (1,768 ft). More than half the island is covered by glaciers.
Today the island is visited by tourist ships, some of which navigate the narrow channel into its harbor. There are two research stations within the caldera open only during the summer months, one from Spain and one from Argentina. Our ship, the Octantis, did not enter the caldera. It was a windy day, and a safe landing would have been tricky at best.
Instead, we circled Deception Island before heading on our way. Below are some additional images from the outer aspect of the island.
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For additional information about my trip to Antarctica, click on this link:
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