Îles Kerguelen
The Îles Kerguelen
(Kerguelen Archipelago, Kerguelen Islands) are located in the subantarctic regions of the far southern Indian Ocean, lying
around 1,340 km east from the Crozet Islands and 5,310 km southeast from South Africa. The nearest
islands to Kerguelen are the Australian owned Heard & MacDonald Islands located 440 km to the south.
The islands are a French territory — forming part of the Terres Australes et Antarctiques Françaises (French
Southern and Antarctic Territories), which also includes Terre Adélie (French claims in Antarctica), the Crozet Islands
and the small islands of Amsterdam and St. Paul.
The Îles Kerguelen are dominated by the main island of Grande Terre (often simply kown as Kerguelen) with an area of 6,675 km². Off its coasts are several hundred smaller islands (usually quoted at 300 in number), islets and emergent rocks with a total area of some 540 km², bringing the overall land area of the group to 7,215 km². The largest of the minor islands is Île Foch at 206 km². Most islets lie close to the mainland shore, although several groups lie at farther distances — these include the Îles Nuageuses in the northwest, the Îles Swain in the northeast and Île Ronde in the south. The vast majority of the minor islets however, can be found off the east coast of Grande Terre, where the highly indented and fractured coast is split by the two large bays of Baie du Morbihan and Baie des Baleiniers.
The main island of Grande Terre itself, measuring 120 km by 140 km, consists of a central region from which extend several great peninsulas — Loranchet in the north, Joffre in the northeast, Courbet in the east, Ronarc'h and Jeanne d'Arc in the southeast, Gallieni in the south and Rallier du Baty in the southwest. These large peninsulas themselves spawn further elongated peninsulas separated by deep fjord like channels, giving the island a highly indented and irregular coastline. The interior of the island is composed of a rugged terrain of high mountains, hills, valleys and plains — much of the landscape is devoid of vegetation giving the island a barren appearance — rising to a height of 1,850 m at Mt. Ross on the southern side of the Gallieni Peninsula, where the flanks of the mountain rise steeply from the sea. Much of the central region of the island is blanketed by the Cook Ice Cap (Calotte Glaciaire Cook), covering an area of around 700 km² — all that remains of the ice sheet that once covered the entire island. Glaciers are also located on the mountains that line the eastern side of the Rallier du Baty Peninsula as well as upon Mt. Ross.
Although the islands are treeless and contain extensive barren areas, lower lying regions can contain a subantarctic flora of low shrubs, tussock grasslands, mosses, and lichens. A number of species — such as the grass Poa cookii, and the Kerguelen Cabbage (Pringlea antiscorbutica) are endemic to the southern islands of the Indian Ocean. Wildlife on the islands includes 30 species of breeding seabird including major populations of threatened or endangered species such as the Wandering Albatross (Diomedea exulans), Sooty Albatross (Phoebetria fusca), Northern Giant Petrel (Macronectes halli) and Kerguelen Tern (Sterna virgata). The islands are also home to significant numbers of penguin species, including: Rockhopper (Eudyptes chrysocome), Macaroni (E. chrysolophus), Gentoo (Pygoscelis papua) and King Penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus). Mammalian species include the Kerguelen or Antarctic Fur Seal (Arctocephalus gazella) and the Southern Elephant Seal (Mirounga leonina).
Climatically the islands experience a cold, overcast and windy oceanic climate. The weather is dominated by near constant westerly winds (averaging over 100 kph) that bring rain or snow on over 300 days of the year.