Pelseneer Island
Pelseneer Island is a small ice-covered island in the south-central portion of Wilhelmina Bay, off the west coast of Graham Land on the Antarctic Peninsula.
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Location | South-central Wilhelmina Bay, off the west coast of Graham Land; 3.7 km west of Brooklyn Island6 |
| Size | 3.7 km (2 nmi) long and 1.9 km (1 nmi) wide, with three rocky peaks through the icecap6 |
| Coordinates | 64°39′S 62°13′W; the Australian Antarctic gazetteer lists 64°40′S 62°12′W1 |
| Discovery | Belgian Antarctic Expedition, 1897–996 |
| Naming | Named by Adrien de Gerlache for P. Pelseneer, member of the Belgica Commission6 |
| Variant name | Pic Luigi de Savoie2 |
Discovery and naming
The island was discovered by the Belgian Antarctic Expedition of 1897–99 and named by the expedition leader, Adrien de Gerlache, for P. Pelseneer, a member of the Belgica Commission and writer of some of the expedition's zoological reports.6 A Belgian polar heritage publication identifies him as a zoologist and professor at the École Normale Supérieure in Ghent.3 The same publication describes the island as 4 km long and 2 km wide, lying 4 km west of Brooklyn Island, slightly larger figures than the 3.7 km by 1.9 km dimensions in the United States Geological Survey-derived description.3
The United States Geological Survey's 1989 Gazetteer of Antarctica records "Pic Luigi de Savoie" as a variant name for the island.2 Published positions differ slightly among authorities: 64°39′S 62°13′W in the USGS-derived record, 64°40′S 62°12′W in the Australian Antarctic Data Centre gazetteer, and 64°40′S 62°11′W for the Chilean form "Pelseneer, Isla".1
Setting in Wilhelmina Bay
Wilhelmina Bay is a bay about 15 nautical miles (28 km) wide between the Reclus Peninsula and Cape Anna along the west coast of Graham Land.
Geology
Pelseneer Island has served as a sample locality for studies of the Trinity Peninsula Group, the sedimentary sequence exposed along the Nordenskjöld Coast of Graham Land. In a K-Ar and Sm-Nr geochronology study of schists from that coast, Sm-Nd analyses of detrital orange garnets from Trinity Peninsula Group sandstones at Pelseneer Island plotted on the same isochron that dates the metamorphism of Silurian plutons in eastern Graham Land, giving a provenance age for the sediment rather than a depositional age; the Trinity Peninsula Group itself is overlain unconformably by the Lower Jurassic Botany Bay Group and younger volcanic strata.4 A British Antarctic Survey geophysical report lists gravity observations at the island at 64°40.7′S 62°11.7′W.5
References
- Antarctic Names Gazetteer, Australian Antarctic Data Centre
- Gazetteer of Antarctica, 1989, U.S. Geological Survey
- Belgian Antarctic place names poster, Belgian Science Policy (BePoles)
- Smellie, J.L. and Millar, I.L., New K-Ar isotopic ages of schists from Nordenskjöld Coast, Antarctic Peninsula
- Geophysical investigation of the Scotia Arc, BAS Scientific Report No. 46
- Gazetteer - AADC, data.aad.gov.au
Topic: Encyclopedia › Places and geography › Landforms and terrestrial features › Islands and dry-land coastal features › Arctic and Antarctic islands and subpolar island geography › Antarctic Peninsula islands › West coast islands
Initially written Oct 21, 2026 · Edited: Oct 25, 2026
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