Deception Island
After our first couple of exciting days in Antarctica, what could possibly top the experience? Well, how about taking the ship into an active volcano? The captain did just that as we visited Deception Island, which contains very old cultural history but also paradoxically some of the youngest rocks in the world.
The center of the island collapsed or was blown out several hundred thousand years ago. The deceiving part of the name comes from the fact that the entrance is narrow and was always known to ship captains. Once found, it was a great harbor from the furious storms of the South Shetland Islands. Whaling bases and scientific bases were set up over the past 150 years or so along the inner rim of Port Foster. In the late 1960’s there were eruptions of small amounts of rock and ash that were still voluminous enough to affect the bases by melting the ice and snow of the island and creating large muddy destructive walls of debris that destroyed the buildings on the island.
Our enjoyment today came in the form of wallowing or swimming where the littoral edge has been heated by the snow melt filtering through the rocks and being sent back up the beach in the form of very hot water which quickly mixes with the freezing sea water.
It was a calm gray day, enjoyed by swimmers and watchers alike, and a few bewildered penguins wondering what the strange creatures were doing making the only noise in this silent and still place.
After our first couple of exciting days in Antarctica, what could possibly top the experience? Well, how about taking the ship into an active volcano? The captain did just that as we visited Deception Island, which contains very old cultural history but also paradoxically some of the youngest rocks in the world.
The center of the island collapsed or was blown out several hundred thousand years ago. The deceiving part of the name comes from the fact that the entrance is narrow and was always known to ship captains. Once found, it was a great harbor from the furious storms of the South Shetland Islands. Whaling bases and scientific bases were set up over the past 150 years or so along the inner rim of Port Foster. In the late 1960’s there were eruptions of small amounts of rock and ash that were still voluminous enough to affect the bases by melting the ice and snow of the island and creating large muddy destructive walls of debris that destroyed the buildings on the island.
Our enjoyment today came in the form of wallowing or swimming where the littoral edge has been heated by the snow melt filtering through the rocks and being sent back up the beach in the form of very hot water which quickly mixes with the freezing sea water.
It was a calm gray day, enjoyed by swimmers and watchers alike, and a few bewildered penguins wondering what the strange creatures were doing making the only noise in this silent and still place.
