Desventuradas Islands

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Desventuradas Islands

The Desventuradas Islands are relatively small oceanic islands located approximately 870 km off the coast of Chile

Chile

Chile, officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long and narrow coastal strip wedged between the Andes mountains and the Pacific Ocean....
; they are part of the Valparaíso

Valparaíso

Valpara?so is a major city in Chile and one of that country's most important seaports and an increasingly vital cultural center in the hemisphere's Pacific Southwest....
municipality

Municipality

A municipality is an administrative entity composed of a clearly defined territory and its population and commonly denotes a city, town, or village, or a small grouping of them....
.

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Desventuradas Islands'

Start a new discussion about 'Desventuradas Islands'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

The Desventuradas Islands are relatively small oceanic islands located approximately 870 km off the coast of Chile

Chile

Valparaíso

Valpara?so is a major city in Chile and one of that country's most important seaports and an increasingly vital cultural center in the hemisphere's Pacific Southwest....
municipality

Municipality

A municipality is an administrative entity composed of a clearly defined territory and its population and commonly denotes a city, town, or village, or a small grouping of them....
. The Desventuradas Islands consist of the two main islands Isla San Félix and Isla San Ambrosio and several rocks and stack

Stack (geology)

A stack is a Geology landform consisting of a steep and often vertical column or columns of rock in the sea near a coast. Stacks are formed when part of a headlands and bays is erosion by hydraulic action, which is the force of the sea or water crashing against the rock....
s: Islote González or Isla González, a small islet that is located southeast of Isla San Félix and Roca Catedral which is located north of Isla San Félix. Together, the Desventuradas Islands have a surface area of only 3.9 km². The topography is very rugged, with peak elevations of 193 m on Isla San Félix, 479 m on Isla (de) San Ambrosio, 173 m on Islote/Isla Gonzalez and 53 m on Roca Catedral.

Both islands are of volcanic

Volcano

A volcano is an opening, or rupture, in a planet's surface or Crust , which allows hot, molten rock, ash, and gases to escape from below the surface....
origin, and the flora and fauna are of great scientific interest, though there is little known about it. Isla (de) San Ambrosio rises from the sea as sheer cliffs on almost all sides, is 4 km long by 850 m wide, and primarily basalt

Basalt

Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually gray to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet....
ic. Isla San Félix is slightly smaller and has two small peaks, reaching 193 m, which are denuded by high winds. The vegetation is a miniature mosaic of matorral, barren rock, various size trees, and shrubs mixed with ferns and perennial herbs. There is a single-runway military airfield in San Félix (ICAO code: SCFX).

There are no permanent sources of fresh water on the islands. Vertebrates inhabiting both islands are exclusively limited to birds. Ten species of marine birds and one land bird species, some of them endangered, make their nests on or visit the islands.

Because of their isolation and difficulty of access, there are no human settlements on these islands, but a detachment of the Chilean Navy

Chilean Navy

The Chilean Navy is the naval force of Chile....
is stationed on Isla San Félix, which also hosts a 2,000 meter runway.

History

The islands were sighted by Juan Fernández

Juan Fernández

Juan Fern?ndez was a Spain explorer and navigator. Probably between 1563 and 1574 he discovered the Juan Fern?ndez Islands west of Valpara?so, Chile....
in 1574, and perhaps earlier by Ferdinand Magellan

Ferdinand Magellan

Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese people List of maritime explorers who, while in the service of the Spanish Crown, tried to find a westward route to the Spice Islands of Indonesia....
in 1520. Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa

Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa

Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa was a Spain explorer, author, historian, astronomer, scientist, and humanist. His birthplace is not certain and may have been Pontevedra, in Galicia , where his paternal family originated or Alcal? de Henares in Castile, where he later is known to have studied ....
wrote in 1579 that "they are now called after St Felix and St Ambor (i.e. Felix and Nabor)". However, by linguistic corruption, the name of the martyr

Martyr

The term martyr is most commonly used today to describe an individual who sacrifices his or her life in order to further a cause or belief for many....
Ambor (Nabor) became confused with that of the more famous bishop Saint Ambrose (San Ambrosio).

List of islands and location

Desventuradas Islands ('Unfortunate Islands'), from east to west:

Island/Rock	Area (km²)	Peak Elevation (m)	Geographical Coordinates
San Ambrosio	2.2	479
San Felix group
Islote González	0.25	173
San Félix	1.4	Cerro Amarillo, 193
Roca Catedral	0.01	53
Desventuradas	3.9	479

Desventuradas Islands

History

List of islands and location

External links