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Île Amsterdam
last update: Feb 05, 2008 12:37 PM
France
Juan Sebastián de Elcano discovered the island on 18 March 1522 - he forgot to name his discovery, so in 1633 Dutchman Anthonie van Diemen had it named after his ship. Île Amsterdam is part of France's Terres Australes et Antarctiques Françaises, and is a fully unglaciated oval-shaped volcanic island. It is 85 sq km in size, and its highest point is at 867 m - the Mont de la Dives. The weather on the island is quite humid, warm, wet and windy - June is its coolest month (average 10ºC) and January is its warmest (average 15ºC). Île Amsterdam is one of the few sub-Antarctic islands with trees. The long-crested rockhopper penguin lives on the island, and rock lobsters have been commercially harvested there since 1948.
