Crozet Islands

{{Short description|Archipelago in the subantarctic French territories}} {{Infobox country | conventional_long_name = Crozet Islands | native_name = {{native name|fr|Îles Crozet}} | image_flag = Flag of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands.svg | flag_caption = Flag of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands | flag_size = 130 | alt_flag = Flag of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands | image_coat = Armoiries Terres australes et antarctiques françaises.svg | coa_size = 85 | symbol_type = {{illm|Coat of arms of French Southern and Antarctic Lands|fr|Armoiries des Terres australes et antarctiques françaises|lt=Coat of arms}} | alt_coat = Coat of arms of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands | status = District of French Southern and Antarctic Lands | national_motto = {{native phrase|fr|"Liberté, égalité, fraternité"|italics=off}} ({{Langx|en|"Liberty, equality, fraternity"}}) | national_anthem = {{lang|fr|La Marseillaise}} {{Small|("The Marseillaise")}} {{Center|File:La Marseillaise.ogg}} | image_map = Orthographic projection centred over the Iles Crozet.png | map_caption = Orthographic projection centred over the ''Îles Crozet''. | leader_title2 = Administrator | leader_name2 = Pascal Bolot<ref name="Official organisational chart">[https://web.archive.org/web/20190509200311/http://www.taaf.fr/IMG/pdf/organigramme_suite_reorg_v29_octobre_2012_avec_districts.pdf Official organisational chart]</ref> | leader_title3 = Head of District | leader_name3 = François Zablot<ref name="Official organisational chart"/> }} {{Infobox islands | name = | image_name = Crozet.sized.jpg | image_caption = One of the Crozet Islands | image_size = | map = Indian Ocean | label = Crozet Islands | native_name = | native_name_link = French language | nickname = | location = Indian Ocean | coordinates = {{Coord|46|22|48|S|51|40|12|E|region:FR-TF_type:isle_scale:1000000|display=inline,title}}<ref>[{{geonameslink|gnid=936339|name=archipel-des-crozet}} Archipel des Crozet] in [{{geonamesabout}} Geonames.org (cc-by)]</ref> | archipelago = Crozet Islands | total_islands = 6 | major_islands = 3 | area_km2 = 352 | highest_mount = Mont Marion-Dufresne | elevation_m = 1090 | country = {{FRA}} | country_admin_divisions_title = Overseas Territory | country_admin_divisions = French Southern and Antarctic Lands | country_admin_divisions_title_1 = District | country_admin_divisions_1 = Crozet Islands | population = 18 (winter) 30 (summer) | population_as_of = | density_km2 = | ethnic_groups = | additional_info = | footnotes = {{Infobox UNESCO World Heritage Site |child = yes |Part_of = French Austral Lands and Seas |ID = 1603bis-001 |Year = 2019 |Criteria = Natural: vii, ix, x }} }}

The '''Crozet Islands''' ({{langx|fr|Îles Crozet}} {{IPA|fr|il kʁozɛ}}; or, officially, ''Archipel Crozet'' {{IPA|fr|aʁʃipɛl -|}}) are a sub-Antarctic archipelago of small islands in the southern Indian Ocean. They form one of the five administrative districts of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands.

==History== === Discovery and early history === The Crozet Islands were discovered on 24 January 1772, by the expedition of French explorer Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne, aboard ''Le Mascarin''. His second-in-command, Julien-Marie Crozet, landed on Île de la Possession, claiming the archipelago for France.<ref name="mills">{{cite book |last=Mills |first=William J |title=Exploring Polar Frontiers: A Historical Encyclopedia, Volume 1 |year=2003 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |pages=166–167 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PYdBH4dOOM4C&pg=PA166 |access-date=26 September 2016 |isbn=9781576074220}}</ref> In 1776, Crozet met James Cook at Cape Town, at the start of Cook's third voyage.<ref name="cook">{{Cite book |last=Hough |first=Richard |url=https://archive.org/details/captainjamescook00rich/page/259 |title=Captain James Cook: A Biography |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |year=1995 |isbn=978-0393315196 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/captainjamescook00rich/page/259 259–260] |url-access=registration}}</ref> Crozet shared the charts of his ill-fated expedition, and as Cook sailed eastward, he stopped at the islands, naming the western group ''Marion'' and the eastern group ''Crozet''.<ref name="mills"/> In the following years, sealers visiting the islands referred to both the eastern and western groups as the Crozet Islands, and Marion Island became the name of the larger of the two Prince Edward Islands, which had been discovered by Captain Marion on the same expedition.<ref name="mills"/>

In the early 19th century, the islands were often visited by sealers, and the seals had been nearly exterminated by 1835. Between 1804 and 1911, 153 vessels visited the island for seals, seven of which wrecked on the coast.<ref>R.K. Headland, ''Historical Antarctic Sealing Industry'', Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, 2018, p.166.</ref> Subsequently, whaling was the main activity around the islands, especially by the whalers from Massachusetts. In 1841, there were a dozen whaleships around the islands. Within a couple of years, this had increased to twenty from the United States alone. Such exploitation was short-lived, and the islands were rarely visited for the rest of the century. The islands were uninhabited during the late 19th century.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mayes |first=Samuel |url=https://onesearch.slq.qld.gov.au/permalink/61SLQ_INST/tqqf2h/alma99230073402061 |title=Samuel Mayes Diary 1883-1884 |year=1884 |location=Brisbane, Queensland, Australia |pages=27}}</ref>

There were many shipwrecks on the Crozet Islands. The British sealer, ''Princess of Wales'', sank in 1821, and the survivors spent two years on the islands. A castaway wrote 'The land affords no shelter whatever, there being neither tree nor shrub, and the weather is at most times extremely wet, and snow frequently on the ground'.<ref name="goodridge">{{Cite book |first=George Medyett |last=Goodridge |year=1837 | title=Narrative of a voyage to the South Seas |url-access=registration |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/48507/48507-h/48507-h.htm}}</ref> In 1825 the ''Aventure'' was wrecked and 7 men survived.<ref>[http://crozetvv.free.fr/histoire_naufrages2.php Le naufrage de l’Aventure (1825)]</ref> The ''Strathmore'' was wrecked in 1875 and 44 people survived on a small island for 7 months. In 1887, the French ''Tamaris'' was wrecked and her crew stranded on Île des Cochons. They tied a note to the leg of an albatross, which was found seven months later in Fremantle, Western Australia, but the crew was never recovered.<ref>[http://crozetvv.free.fr/histoire_naufrages4.php Le naufrage du Tamaris (1887)]</ref> For some time, the Royal Navy dispatched a ship every few years to look for stranded survivors. The steamship ''Australasian'' also checked for survivors en route to Australia.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article208527244 |title=THE CROZET ISLANDS. |newspaper=The Express and Telegraph |volume=XXVI |issue=7,584 |location=South Australia |date=21 March 1889 |access-date=4 May 2016 |page=3 (Second Edition.) |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>

=== Recent history === Between 1924 and 1955, France administered the islands as a dependency of Madagascar. In 1938, the Crozet Islands were declared a nature reserve. The Crozet Islands became part of the French Southern Territories in 1955. In 1961, a first research station was set up, but it was not until 1963 that the permanent station Alfred Faure opened at Port Alfred on Île de la Possession (both named after the first leader of the station). The station is staffed by 18 to 30 people (varying by season). They perform meteorological, biological, and geological research, and maintain a seismograph and a geomagnetic observatory (IAGA code: CZT). The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization has listening equipment on the island and it was disclosed that two of its stations, the other being on Ascension Island, detected what is believed to be an underwater, non-nuclear explosion off the coast of Argentina and believed to be the fatal accident of the {{ship|ARA|San Juan|S-42|6}} submarine in 2017.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-42100620 |title='Explosion' dashes sub crew survival hopes |work=BBC News |date=23 November 2017 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Submarino ARA San Juan: cómo se detectó la explosión y qué podría significar |url=http://www.lanacion.com.ar/2084967-submarino-ara-san-juan-como-se-detecto-la-explosion-y-que-podria-significar |access-date=23 November 2017 |work=La Nacion |date=23 November 2017 |archive-date=23 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171123202307/http://www.lanacion.com.ar/2084967-submarino-ara-san-juan-como-se-detecto-la-explosion-y-que-podria-significar |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Geology== The islands lie on the Antarctic Plate, roughly between the Kerguelen hotspot and Madagascar and southern Africa. The oldest island, Île de l'Est, formed roughly 9 million years ago from a hotspot,<ref name="Meyzen2016">{{cite journal |last1=Marie Meyzen |first1=Christine |last2=Marzoli |first2=Andrea |last3=Bellieni |first3=Giuliano |last4=Levresse |first4=Gilles |title=Magmatic Activity on a Motionless Plate: the Case of East Island, Crozet Archipelago (Indian Ocean) |journal=Journal of Petrology |date=July 2016 |volume=57 |issue=7 |pages=1409–1436 |doi=10.1093/petrology/egw045 |bibcode=2016JPet...57.1409M |doi-access=free}}</ref> which has continued forming islands to the west until, ostensibly, the present.<ref name="Quilty2007">{{cite journal |last1=Quilty |first1=Patrick G. |title=ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF THE SUB-ANTARCTIC ISLANDS: THE FOUNDATION |journal=Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania |date=2007 |volume=141 |issue=1 |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/33322688.pdf |access-date=25 March 2019}}</ref> Despite this apparently young age, no volcanic activity has been observed to date on any of the islands.

==Geography== Not including minor islets or rock reefs etc., the Crozet group consists of six islands. From west to east:

{| class="wikitable" |- ! No. || Island or Group (''English'') || Area || Highest Peak || Location |- | colspan="5" style="text-align:center; background:#ccc;"|'''L'Occidental (''Western Group'')''' |- | style="text-align:center;"| 1 || Île aux Cochons (''Pig Island'') || style="text-align:center;"| {{cvt|67|km2|sqmi|0|}} || Mont Richard-Foy, {{cvt|853|m|ft|0|}} || {{coord|46|06|09|S|50|13|54|E|region:FR-TF_type:isle|display=inline|name=Pig Island}} |- | style="text-align:center;"| 2 || Île des Pingouins (''Penguin Island'', literally ''Auk Island'') || style="text-align:center;"| {{cvt|3|km2|sqmi|1|}} || Mont des Manchots {{cvt|340|m|ft|0|}} || {{coord|46|25|01|S|50|24|10|E|region:FR-TF_type:isle|display=inline|name=Penguin Island}} |- | style="text-align:center;"| 3 || Îlots des Apôtres (''Apostle Islets'')(1) || style="text-align:center;"| {{cvt|2|km2|sqmi|1|}} || Mont Pierre, {{cvt|289|m|ft|0|}} || {{coord|45|57|18|S|50|25|30|E|region:FR-TF_type:isle|display=inline|name=Îlots des Apôtres}} |- | colspan="5" style="text-align:center; background:#ccc;"|'''L'Oriental (''Eastern Group'')''' |- | style="text-align:center;"| 4 || Île de la Possession (''Possession Island'') || style="text-align:center;"| {{cvt|150|km2|sqmi|0|}}|| Pic du Mascarin, {{cvt|934|m|ft|0|}} || {{coord|46|24|27|S|51|45|27|E|region:FR-TF_type:isle_scale:200000|display=inline|name=Possession Island}} |- | style="text-align:center;"| 5 || Île de l'Est (''East Island'') || style="text-align:center;"| {{cvt|130|km2|sqmi|0|}} || Mont Marion-Dufresne, {{cvt|1090|m|ft|0|}} || {{coord|46|25|48|S|52|12|27|E|region:FR-TF_type:isle_scale:200000|display=inline|name=East Island}} |- style="background:#ccc;" |   || '''Îles Crozet (Crozet Islands''') || style="text-align:center;"| {{cvt|352|km2|sqmi|0|}} || Mont Marion-Dufresne, {{cvt|1090|m|ft|0|}} || 45°57' to 46°29'S 50°10' to 52°19'E |}

right|350px|thumb|Map of the Crozet Islands

(1) Group of two major islands (Grande Île—Big Island, and Petite Île—Little Island) and about 20 pinnacle rocks.

The Eastern and Western Groups are {{cvt|94.5|km|nmi|frac=4|abbr=off}} apart (from Île des Pingouins to Île de la Possession).

The Crozet Islands are uninhabited except for the research station Alfred Faure (Port Alfred) on the east side of Île de la Possession, which has been continuously staffed since 1963. Previous scientific stations included La Grande Manchotière and La Petite Manchotière.

===Climate=== The Crozet Islands have a maritime-influenced tundra climate (Köppen climate classification, ET). Monthly temperatures average around {{cvt|2.9|°C|0}} and {{cvt|7.9|°C|0}} in winter and summer, respectively.<ref name=WWF/> Precipitation is high, with over {{cvt|2000|mm|in|1}} per year. It rains on average 300 days a year, and winds exceeding {{cvt|100|km/h|mph|0}} occur on 100 days a year. The temperatures may rise to {{cvt|18|°C|°F|1}} in summer and rarely go below {{cvt|-5|°C|°F}}, even in winter.

{{Weather box|width=auto |location = Alfred Faure (1981–2010) |metric first = yes |single line = yes |Jan record high C = 22.4 |Feb record high C = 21.7 |Mar record high C = 21.2 |Apr record high C = 19.7 |May record high C = 16.5 |Jun record high C = 16.0 |Jul record high C = 14.9 |Aug record high C = 16.4 |Sep record high C = 15.4 |Oct record high C = 17.5 |Nov record high C = 19.7 |Dec record high C = 20.7 |year record high C = 22.4 |Jan high C = 10.4 |Feb high C = 11.0 |Mar high C = 10.1 |Apr high C = 9.1 |May high C = 7.2 |Jun high C = 6.1 |Jul high C = 6.0 |Aug high C = 5.4 |Sep high C = 5.8 |Oct high C = 6.8 |Nov high C = 7.8 |Dec high C = 9.2 |year high C = 7.9 |Jan mean C = 7.5 |Feb mean C = 8.1 |Mar mean C = 7.4 |Apr mean C = 6.5 |May mean C = 4.9 |Jun mean C = 3.8 |Jul mean C = 3.7 |Aug mean C = 3.2 |Sep mean C = 3.3 |Oct mean C = 4.1 |Nov mean C = 5.0 |Dec mean C = 6.3 |year mean C = 5.3 |Jan low C = 4.5 |Feb low C = 5.2 |Mar low C = 4.8 |Apr low C = 3.9 |May low C = 2.5 |Jun low C = 1.5 |Jul low C = 1.4 |Aug low C = 0.9 |Sep low C = 0.8 |Oct low C = 1.3 |Nov low C = 2.3 |Dec low C = 3.3 |year low C = 2.7 |Jan record low C = 0.0 |Feb record low C = 0.7 |Mar record low C = −0.4 |Apr record low C = -1.7 |May record low C = -2.5 |Jun record low C = -3.7 |Jul record low C = -5.0 |Aug record low C = -4.7 |Sep record low C = -6.6 |Oct record low C = -3.9 |Nov record low C = -2.8 |Dec record low C = −1.9 |year record low C = −6.6 |precipitation colour = green |Jan precipitation mm = 127.8 |Feb precipitation mm = 129.1 |Mar precipitation mm = 146.2 |Apr precipitation mm = 160.2 |May precipitation mm = 186.2 |Jun precipitation mm = 131.7 |Jul precipitation mm = 139.2 |Aug precipitation mm = 157.3 |Sep precipitation mm = 163.6 |Oct precipitation mm = 156.2 |Nov precipitation mm = 147.9 |Dec precipitation mm = 142.0 |year precipitation mm = 1782.5 |unit precipitation days = 1.0 mm |Jan precipitation days = 12.97 |Feb precipitation days = 11.64 |Mar precipitation days = 13.37 |Apr precipitation days = 15.89 |May precipitation days = 16.54 |Jun precipitation days = 14.85 |Jul precipitation days = 15.81 |Aug precipitation days = 16.04 |Sep precipitation days = 14.75 |Oct precipitation days = 13.86 |Nov precipitation days = 12.92 |Dec precipitation days = 14.88 |year precipitation days = 172.91 |Jan sun = 96.6 |Feb sun = 74.7 |Mar sun = 65.4 |Apr sun = 10.9 |May sun = 17.1 |Jun sun = 14.8 |Jul sun = 30.8 |Aug sun = 41.9 |Sep sun = 46.1 |Oct sun = 62.1 |Nov sun = 80.1 |Dec sun = 63.2 |year sun = 600.4 |source 1 = Meteo climat<ref name=MC1>{{cite web |url=http://meteo-climat-bzh.dyndns.org/listenormale-1981-2010-1-p216.php |title=Moyennes 1981/2010: France (Terres Australes) |publisher=Météoclimat |language=fr| access-date = June 14, 2015}}</ref><ref name=MC2>{{cite web |url=http://meteo-climat-bzh.dyndns.org/index.php?page=stati&id=73 |title=STATION Alfred Faure |publisher=Météoclimat |language=fr| access-date = June 14, 2015}}</ref> |date=June 2015 }}

===Flora and fauna=== The islands are part of the Southern Indian Ocean Islands tundra ecoregion that includes several subantarctic islands. In this cold climate, plant life is mainly limited to grasses, mosses and lichens, while the main animals are insects along with large populations of seabirds, seals and penguins.<ref name=WWF>{{WWF ecoregion|id=an1104 |name=Southern Indian Ocean Islands tundra |access-date=2012-01-10}}</ref>

The Crozet Islands are home to four species of penguins. Most abundant are the macaroni penguin, of which some 2 million pairs breed on the islands, and the king penguin, home to 700,000 breeding pairs; half the world's population.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bost |first1=Charles-André |title=King penquins face longer commute |journal=New Scientist |date=31 October 2015 |volume=228 |issue=3045 |page=17}}</ref> The eastern rockhopper penguin also can be found, and there is a small colony of gentoo penguins. There is also an endemic subspecies of the duck Eaton's pintail. Other birds include black-faced sheathbills, petrels, and albatross, including the wandering albatross.

Mammals living on the Crozet Islands include fur seals and southern elephant seals. Killer whales have been observed preying upon the seals. The transient killer whales of the Crozet Islands are famous for intentionally beaching (and later un-stranding) themselves while actively hunting the islands' breeding seal population. This is a very rare behaviour, most often seen in the Patagonia region of Argentina, and is thought to be a learned skill passed down through generations of individual orca families. These killer whales also seem to stay around the Crozet Islands year-round, feeding on mostly seals during the summer, and then feeding on penguins for the winter.

The Crozet Islands have been a nature reserve since 1938. Introduction of foreign species (mice, rats, and subsequently cats for pest control) has caused severe damage to the original ecosystem. The pigs that had been introduced on Île des Cochons and the goats brought to Île de la Possession—both as a food resource—have been exterminated.

Another on-going concern is overfishing of the Patagonian toothfish, as well as the albatross population, which is being monitored. The waters of the Crozet Islands are patrolled by the French government.

== In popular culture == A 2012 French film, ''Les Saveurs du Palais'', begins and ends with scenes in the Crozet Islands. The film's protagonist, a grandmotherly chef from the Périgord region of France who signed on as cook for the research station, had once been the personal chef to President François Mitterrand.

In the 1978 novel ''Desolation Island'', the fifth book in Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey–Maturin series, the fictional naval vessel HMS ''Leopard'' is severely damaged by a collision with an iceberg in the southwestern Indian Ocean. The crew attempts to make landfall for repairs on one of the Crozet Islands, but they miss the island and continue to drift towards the east, unable to reverse direction.

In Herman Melville's ''Moby-Dick'', the Pequod sails near the ‘distant Crozetts’, ’a good cruising ground for Right Whalemen’ in Chapter 52, ‘The Albatross’. See also chapter 58, ’Brit’.

''Biggles Cuts it Fine'' by Captain W. E. Johns is set mainly in the Crozet Islands, where a fictional Russian base is discovered on, what is called in the book, “Hog Island”.<ref>{{cite web |title=Roger Harris presents www.Biggles.info |url=http://www.biggles.info/ |access-date=10 December 2019}}</ref>

== Gallery == <gallery widths="250px" heights="180px"> File:Marion Dufresne - Crozet.jpg|The ''Marion Dufresne'' off the "port" of Crozet. East Island in the background. File:Crozet - Manchots.jpg|One of the penguin colonies of the islands File:Crozet Islands eastern group - STS088.jpg|The Eastern Group as seen from outer space in December 1998. File:CrozetIslands.A2005275.0620.250m.jpg|Crozet Islands causing a von Kármán vortex street to form under low clouds. </gallery>

==References== {{reflist}}

== Further reading == * {{cite book |editor-last=LeMasurier |editor-first=W. E. |editor2=Thomson, J. W. |title=Volcanoes of the Antarctic Plate and Southern Oceans |publisher=American Geophysical Union |year=1990 |isbn=0-87590-172-7}} * {{cite book |last=Church |first=Ian |title=Survival on the Crozet Islands: The Wreck of the Strathmore in 1875 |publisher=Heritage Press |location=Waikanae, New Zealand |year=1985 |isbn=0-908708-02-5}} *Jean-Yves Besselièvre, ''Voyage en terres australes - Crozet et Kerguelen'' (2022) {{ISBN|9782368333907}}

==External links== {{GeoGroup}} {{Wikivoyage}} {{Commons category}} * [http://crozetvv.free.fr/ Crozetvv.free.fr: Crozet Islands Information] {{in lang|fr}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20070302051559/http://www.btinternet.com/~sa_sa/crozet_islands/ South Atlantic and Subantarctic Islands website — Crozet Islands webpage] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20120120224633/http://www.taaf.fr/spip/spip.php?article108 TAAF.fr: French Southern and Antarctic Lands] {{in lang|fr}} * [http://www.discoverfrance.net/Colonies/Kerguelen.shtml DiscoverFrance.net: Kerguelen + Crozet Islands] * [https://www.google.com/maps/@-46.1662592,50.093992,424685m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en Google Earth view]

{{Districts of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands}} {{French overseas departments and territories}} {{Outlying territories of European countries}} {{Authority control}}

Category:Crozet Islands Category:Archipelagoes of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands Category:Archipelagoes of the Indian Ocean Category:French Southern and Antarctic Lands Category:Seal hunting Category:Subantarctic islands Category:Volcanoes of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands