Gold Harbour

Gold Harbour (Spanish: Puerto de Oro) (54°37′S 35°56′W) is a small bay 5 miles (8 km) south-southwest of Cape Charlotte, with Bertrab Glacier at its head, along the east end of South Georgia. During the early 1900s, the feature was variously called "Anna's Bay", "Gold-Hafen" or "Sandwich Bay"; the latter name has also been used for Iris Bay. The approved name appears to have taken root through common usage by sealers and whalers and is now well established.[1]

This article is about the bay on the island of South Georgia, which is east of the southern tip of South America. For the former mining town in the Queen Charlotte Islands of British Columbia, Canada, see Gold Harbour, British Columbia.

Penguins at Gold Harbour in December
Gold Harbour and Bertrab Glacier

Gold Harbour is so called because the sun's rays make the cliffs yellow with their light in the morning and evening. There is no particular historical or geological reason to give Gold Harbour its mineral name, which was in common use among the early sealers. Perhaps they were inspired by the sunsets.

Wildlife

The area is a breeding ground for penguins, including King penguins and Gentoo penguins; Southern elephant seals also breed here, especially at the west end of the beach, where a glacial stream flows. Light-mantled albatrosses breed here as well.

See also

References
  1. "Gold Harbor". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
  • Child, Jack. Antarctica and South American Geopolitics: Frozen Lebensraum. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1988, 13–14, 27–28.
  • Lonely Planet, Antarctica: a Lonely Planet Travel Survival Kit, Oakland, CA: Lonely Planet Publications, 1996, pp. 275–281.
  • U.S. National Science Foundation, Geographic Names of the Antarctic, Fred G. Alberts, ed. Washington: NSF, 1980.

Public Domain This article incorporates public domain material from "Gold Harbor". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey.


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