Deception Island

Today we went to Deception Island. The island is formed by a volcano. This becomes very obvious as you look at in on a map.

Deception Island

The volcano is still active and therefore there is a lot less snow on the inner shores of the island. We visited two separate locations on the island, since there are some very interesting things to see.

You enter the island through a relatively small opening on the southern side of the island. The opening is very narrow with some nasty rocks beneath the ocean surface. So it takes some very fine steering skills of the captain and his crew, but we made it through. There are two research stations on the island that we could see from afar. First we visited Telefon Bay.

Morning - Telefon Bay

Deception Island - Telefon Bay

Telefon Bay has a very different landscape from what we have seen during most of our landings on Antarctica. Since this is an active volcano there is very little snow and the ground is a combination of very loose volcanic pebbles and rock. We climbed the hills for a great view over the bay. This was a very stern climb but very much worth it. From the top you could see how streams of lava formed the land. The valleys had a very telling pattern of flowing and solidifying lava.

Wide view of barren hills with spots of snow and an old solidified lava stream — The barren landscape of Telefon Bay with traces of lava streams

The empty and lifeless ground gave this place a strange atmosphere. The only life we could see were a few seals that were chilling on the beach.

A seal sleeping flat on a rocky beach — A sleeping seal on the beach of Telefon Bay

Afternoon - Whalers Bay

Deception Island - Whalers Bay

In the afternoon we went to the other side of the island called Whalers Bay. Why it is called Whalers Bay will become very obvious. But first whether we could visit this location completely depends on the weather in the Drake Passage. The ships has a certain time that it has to arrive at the dock in Ushuaia to disembark all the passengers, and reload any supplies it needs for the next journey. They only have about 12 hours for this whole ordeal. So if the Drake Passage has very rough weather or the currents work against our journey back they’ll have to depart earlier on this day. In that case we would have to skip this landing and that would have been a shame, because it has some very cool views. Luckily the Drake Passage had only mild rough conditions for the trip back, so we could spend our afternoon on the island.

Seven very rusty and abandoned silo's that once contained whale-oil on a rocky beach — Rusty and old silo's that once contained whale-oil

Whalers Bay is an historic site) that houses old buildings from 1906 till 1968. In the early days this place used to be a harbour for transforming captured whales into whale-oil for export. The old rusty silo’s and some very worn kettles are still left here. They used to drag hundreds of whales onto the beach to extract the whale-oil and just dumb the left-over carcasses. The only useful thing they could get from the whales was the oil so a lot of the poor whales was just discarded.

Old and mostly collapsed kettles that were used to extract whale-oil

After they extracted the oil they stored it in the silo’s until they could export it to mainland. This luckily this practice ended mostly around 1931, partly because demand plummeted because using electricity instead of oil for lighting and such was a lot less troublesome and safer.

From 1944 on they used this location as a base for mapping the area. They re-used the old buildings that are still standing till today.

The old remains of a wooden house, collapsed and very worn by the weather — One of the old structures that housed the whalers and mappers

Later on there was even an airstrip with hangar for flying missions build in 1962.

They learned a very harsh lesson why it is unwise to build your base in an active volcano around 1967. As the volcano erupted and everyone had to be evacuated from the island. Though stubborn as they were they just went back afterward. The next year they got a second lesson as the volcano erupted again. This time they took the hint and gathered their stuff to leave the place behind.

The old remains of a bigger group of buildings, collapsed and very worn by the weather — More of the old structures that were left behind

On the other side of whalers bay there is a point where you can view the ocean through a window in the hills. This place is known as Neptune’s Window and is a pretty sight. But even more impressive was the sea-leopard that was sleeping below it on the beach. This creature is very impressive and, as we learned, has incredible jaws filled with razor-sharp teeth. Apparently it can open its mouth about 160&degree; and is known to try to take a bit out of little boats (like our zodiacs). Luckily she was peacefully sleeping and didn’t mind us coming closer to ogle it.