{{Short description|Island in Antarctica}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{for|the Antarctic island formerly known as Rothschild Island|Splitwind Island}} {{Infobox islands | name = Rothschild Island | image_name = File:Rothschild Island - Alexander Group, BAT.svg | image_caption = | map = Antarctica | map_caption = Location in Antarctica | map_custom = | nickname = | location = [[Antarctica]] | coordinates = {{coord|69|36|S|72|33|W|type:isle|display=inline,title}} | archipelago = | total_islands = | major_islands = | area_km2 = 700 | area_footnotes = <br>(approximately)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/524889/1/bulletin50_09.pdf |title=The Geology of Rothschild Island, North-West Alexander Island |first1= B. W. |last1=Care |publisher=[[British Antarctic Survey ]] |access-date=9 August 2024}}</ref> | length_km = 39 | width_km = | rank = | highest_mount = | elevation_m = | population = Uninhabited | population_as_of = | density_km2 = | ethnic_groups = | country = None | treaty_system = [[Antarctic Treaty System]] }} '''Rothschild Island''' is a black, rugged island {{convert|39|km|mi}} long, mainly ice-covered but surmounted by prominent peaks of the [[Desko Mountains]] in [[Antarctica]], {{convert|8|km|mi|0}} west of the north part of [[Alexander Island]] in the north entrance to [[Wilkins Sound]].<ref name="usgs"/>
==Geography and wildlife== [[Lazarev Bay]] separates Rothschild Island from [[Alexander Island]]. There is a mountain range on Rothschild Island, the [[Desko Mountains]], which spans {{convert|20|mi|km}} from [[Bates Peak]] to [[Overton Peak]] and rises to about {{convert|1,000|m}} at [[Enigma Peak]], [[Fournier Ridge]]. It also contains [[Goward Peak]], [[Mirnyy Peak]], [[Morrill Peak]], [[Schenck Peak]] and [[Thuma Peak]].
There are three small [[outcrop]]s of [[volcanic rock]] on the island, with an exposed thickness of around a hundred meters.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rowley |first1=P.D. |last2=Thomson |first2=J.W. |last3=Smellie |first3=J.L. |last4=Laudon |first4=T.S. |last5=La Prade |first5=K.E. |last6=LeMasurier |first6=W.E. |last7=Hole |first7=M.J. |last8=O'Neill |first8=J.M. |last9=Kellogg |first9=K.S. |last10=Vennum |first10=W.R. |title=C. Alexander Island, Palmer Island, and Ellsworth Land |journal=Antarctic Research Series |date=1990 |volume=48 |pages=256–301 |url=https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/AR048p0256 |doi=10.1029/AR048p0256 |access-date=29 November 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
An [[emperor penguin]] [[Colony (biology)|colony]] is located in a bay between [[Alexander Island]] and Rothschild Island, averaging around 700 [[breeding pair]]s, a small number. There are four other emperor penguin colonies in the central and eastern portion of the [[Bellingshausen Sea]]; all five were discovered via satellite imagery in the 14 years prior to 2023. As of 2023, the Rothschild Island colony was the only one to have been visited by scientists in 2015–2016. It was also the only colony of the five not to have suffered total breeding failure in 2022 as a result of ice loss. On 20 November 2022, helicopters from the ship ''[[Le Commandant Charcot]]'' counted 820 chicks and 228 adults at this location.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Fretwell |first1=Peter T. |last2=Boutet |first2=Aude |last3=Ratcliffe |first3=Norman |title=Record low 2022 Antarctic sea ice led to catastrophic breeding failure of emperor penguins |journal=[[Communications Earth & Environment]] |date=24 August 2023 |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=1–6 |doi=10.1038/s43247-023-00927-x |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-023-00927-x |access-date=29 November 2023 |issn=2662-4435|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ancel |first1=André |last2=Cristofari |first2=Robin |last3=Trathan |first3=Phil N. |last4=Gilbert |first4=Caroline |last5=Fretwell |first5=Peter T. |last6=Beaulieu |first6=Michaël |title=Looking for new emperor penguin colonies? Filling the gaps |journal=Global Ecology and Conservation |date=January 2017 |volume=9 |pages=171–179 |doi=10.1016/j.gecco.2017.01.003 |url=https://hal.science/hal-01487906v1/file/1-s2.0-S2351989416301111-main.pdf}}</ref>
==History== [[File:Alexander Island Survey Control.pdf|thumb|A survey work from 1975-6 showing Rothschild Island]] The island was first sighted in 1825 by [[Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen]], who described three peaks. It was also seen by the [[French Antarctic Expedition]] (1908–1910), and named Rothschild Island ("Île E. de Rothschild") by [[Jean-Baptiste Charcot]], in honour of [[Édouard Alphonse James de Rothschild]] (1868–1949), head of the [[Rothschild banking family of France]] and president of [[de Rothschild Frères]].<ref name="usgs">{{cite web |title=Antarctica Detail |url=https://geonames.usgs.gov/apex/f?p=gnispq:5:0::NO::P5_ANTAR_ID:12943 |website=[[United States Geological Survey]] |access-date=29 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200619203034/https://geonames.usgs.gov/apex/f?p=gnispq:5:0::NO::P5_ANTAR_ID:12943 |archive-date=19 June 2020}}</ref><ref name="bwc">{{cite journal |last1=Care |first1=B. W. |title=The geology of Rothschild Island, north-west Alexander Island |journal=British Antarctic Survey Bulletin |date=1980 |volume=50 |pages=87–112 |url=https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/524889/1/bulletin50_09.pdf |access-date=29 November 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240301025017/https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/524889/1/bulletin50_09.pdf|archive-date=1 March 2024}}</ref>
In the subsequent explorations of the area by the [[British Graham Land Expedition]] (c. 1934–1937), the feature was believed to be a mountain connected to Alexander Island.<ref name="usgs"/> Geologically, this might be true, but it has not been proven by any means due to a lack of anything like a complete geological survey of the region.{{cn|date=November 2023}}
However, Rothschild Island's insularity was reaffirmed in November 1940 by the [[United States Antarctic Service Expedition]], which photographed and roughly mapped the island from the air and discovered a strait.<ref name="usgs"/><ref name="bwc"/>
Rothschild Island was mapped in detail from air photos taken by the [[Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition]] (1946–1948) and by Searle of the [[Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey]] in 1960, and from US governmental satellite imagery taken in 1974.<ref name="usgs"/><ref name="bwc"/>
In January 1976, a [[British Antarctic Survey]] team consisting of surveyor Richard Barrett and general assistant Mike Chantry became the first to visit Rothschild Island. During five weeks in 1976–1977, B. W. Care, together with a general assistant, [[Geological map|mapped the geology]] of the island.<ref name="bwc"/> In 1985, researcher Malcolm Hole became the second to visit the island; a part of it, the Hole peninsula, was named in his honour in 2021.<ref>{{cite news |title=Antarctic peninsula named in recognition of Aberdeen geologist’s work |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/28/antarctic-peninsula-named-in-recognition-of-aberdeen-geologists-work |access-date=29 November 2023 |work=[[The Guardian]] |agency=[[PA Media]] |date=28 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324150701/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/28/antarctic-peninsula-named-in-recognition-of-aberdeen-geologists-work|archive-date=24 March 2023}}</ref>
==Threats and preservation== Although this very remote part of the world has never been inhabited and is protected by the [[Antarctic Treaty System]], which bans industrial development, waste disposal, and nuclear testing, these fragile ecosystems still face threats from increasing tourism, primarily on cruises across the [[Southern Ocean]] from the port of [[Ushuaia]], [[Argentina]].{{cn|date=November 2023}}
==See also== {{Portal|Geography|Islands}} * [[Larsen Ice Shelf]] * [[Composite Antarctic Gazetteer]] * [[List of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands]] * [[List of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands#List of Antarctic islands south of 60° S|List of Antarctic islands south of 60° S]] * [[Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research|SCAR]] * [[Territorial claims in Antarctica]] * [[List of Antarctic ice shelves]] * [[Wilkins Sound]]
==References== {{usgs-gazetteer}} {{reflist}}
==Further reading== * Defense Mapping Agency 1992, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=sgSnbMOD_VsC&pg=PA443 Sailing Directions (planning Guide) and (enroute) for Antarctica]'', P 379
==External links== * [https://geonames.usgs.gov/apex/f?p=gnispq:5:::NO::P5_ANTAR_ID:12943 Rothschild Island] on [[USGS]] website * [https://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/gaz/scar/search_names_action.cfm?search_text=12398&feature_type_code=0&country_id=0&relic_options=include_relics&north=-45.0&south=-90.0&west=-180.0&east=180.0&search_near=&radius=0.5&gazetteers=SCAR Rothschild Island] on [[Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research|SCAR]] website
{{West Antarctica}}
[[Category:Islands of Palmer Land]] [[Category:Rothschild family|*]]
{{PalmerLand-geo-stub}}