Deception Island, the island that disappointed its discoverer and falls in love with the world
Sailors, pirates, whalers, scientists and even the nazis have tried to conquer Deception Island , but nature has wisely expelled them without taking prisoners. Even the only existing cemetery with 45 graves he succumbed amid ash and lava. For a relatively short time, the island has been facing an enemy that it cannot defeat for the first time: mass tourism .
A little more than **600 miles south of Cape Horn **, there is a place in the Southern Ocean where a battle is brewing between the Antarctic ice and volcanic fire . The head-on clash of opposing forces of nature resulted in a volcano which humans mistakenly shaped and island name.
They called it Deception Island, but it is neither an island nor does it disappoint.
It is not an island, nor does it disappoint
The error is the fault of a failed translation of the English word disappointed , whose meaning is 'deception' and not 'deception'. He was the seal hunter and fortune hunter Nathan Palmer who baptized the island with this name, after discovering that its deceptive appearance of normal island actually hid a horseshoe-shaped volcano , a caldera flooded inside and a narrow channel through which the sea and the wind circulated freely.
"It is an active volcano located in a hot spot of the earth's crust, which emerges in the Antarctic Ocean from a depth of more than 1,500 m," he says. Jorge Rey Salgado, PhD in Marine Geology . “The apparently desolate island has a complex geological structure and has had in the past a very hectic life , in which a to thirty volcanic craters They have spewed millions of tons of lava in the last 100 years.”
Precisely its almost circular shape, so recognizable on a map, has been a too attractive magnet for ships throughout history by fulfilling wonderfully with the functions of natural shelter against storms and icebergs. “ Deception creates inside a microclimate which provides a softening of the temperature. The crests of the mountains that surround it shield the prevailing winds, generating a system of clouds that are trapped in the summits of the volcanic mountains. This own climate makes the temperature inside is three degrees Celsius higher than the prevailing temperature in these latitudes ”, says the doctor.
Mass tourism endangers the natural balance of the island
Due to these peculiar characteristics, the landscape maintains a unique flora and fauna with beaches of black sand teeming with animal life. “Deception Island has a rare but exceptional flora, with at least 18 species of mosses or lichens that have not been recorded anywhere else in Antarctica, two of which are endemic . No other area of Antarctica is comparable. Also, 9 species of seabirds breed on the island Next to the world's largest colony of chinstrap penguins located at Baily Head , on the southwest coast, where some 100,000 pairs nest”, certifies the Island Management Group on its website.
That is, Deception Island would be something like a oasis of heat where the cold freezes everything . A mirage for non-believers in the power of nature. “ If there is a strange and unique place in Antarctica, this is Deception Island ”, affirms Dr. Rey Salgado.
It is no coincidence that a place with so much diversity and diverse food sources attract seals and whales lurking in the area and, rebound, to a growing unscrupulous fishing industry . This is how the island went from being a forgotten point on the map to being the center of operations for seal and whale fishing with completely outdated quotas and licenses that almost wiped out the local marine fauna. the book of the sea of Morten A. Strøksnes points to Deception Island as the great slaughterhouse of the time where the icy wind carried the stench of blood, viscera and rot thousands of miles away.
The world's largest colony of chinstrap penguins lives together at Bally Head on Deception Island
A place of dismal memory of which only abandoned facilities, rusty boats and material without owner of a time to forget that reached the climax of its darkest history the day the nazi submarines they emerged from the depths seeking refuge during World War II.
Fortunately, the volcanic slopes, beaches with fumaroles and ash-covered glaciers they were never a fuel store for nazi submarines and the penguins were once again the only inhabitants with all the rights of the place.
Everything was peace and quiet until a new stone guest began to cross the narrow channel of "Bellows of Neptune" . In 1958 the first tourist cruise came to the island in search of its charm and recreational potential. With the starting gun of the southern summer, the whalers beach is filled with tourist cruises and private yachts thirsty to photograph one of the few places in the world where you can sail to the center of an active volcano.
And it is that the cruise that overcomes the strong Antarctic winds accesses a volcanic caldera, overlooking a snowy Martian landscape in a bathing suit. “One of the factors that can have a marked impact on this ecological balance is tourism, which constitutes one of the greatest threats faced by Decepción”, assures the doctor in Marine Geology.
The world's largest colony of chinstrap penguins lives together at Bally Head on Deception Island
The use of the island is now administered under the system of the Antarctic Treaty , which has recognized the danger and is looking for new solutions to tackle this modern problem. Among other things, it intends to regulate the entrance to the interior of the volcano , It has been forbidden to dig in the sand to take thermal baths on the volcanic beaches and any type of graffiti on the premises may be grounds for penalty.
“It has recently been reported Appearance of numerous graffiti on the walls of buildings and tanks in Balleneros Bay . Writing or drawing on these historical structures is illegal and degrades the historical value of the site”, say the Chilean conservatives on their website. "The Visitor Code of Conduct clearly states that no writing or drawing should be done on any man-made structure or natural surface."
Graffiti is prohibited on the walls of Deception Island buildings
The reality is that Deception Island has been conquered as many times as it has been abandoned. . When in the sixties Chile, Argentina, Spain and the United Kingdom disputed the territory, two volcanic eruptions expelled them all without question. It was the best way to resolve a territorial conflict to find out who had the largest national flag without counting on the star appearance of nature.
At present, several scientific stations (among them the Spanish base **Gabriel de Castilla)** are trying to decipher if the future of Deception Island lies at the bottom of the sea when the volcano erupts again sooner or later.
Aerial view of Deception Island