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The South Orkney Islands are a group of islands in the Southern Ocean, about north-east of the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.〔(''Antarctica: Secrets of the Southern Continent'' p. 122 ), David McGonigal, 2009〕 They have a total area of about . The islands are claimed both by Britain (as part of the British Antarctic Territory since 1962, previously as a Falkland Islands Dependency), and by Argentina as part of Argentine Antarctica. Under the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, sovereignty claims are held in abeyance. Britain and Argentina both maintain bases on the islands. The Argentinian base, Orcadas, established 1904, is sited on Laurie Island. The 11 buildings of the Argentinian station house up to 45 people during the summer, and an average of 14 during winter. The British Antarctic Survey base, Signy Research Station, is located on Signy Island and was established in 1947. Apart from personnel at the bases, there are no inhabitants on the islands. ==History== The South Orkney Islands were discovered in 1821 by two sealers, the American Nathaniel Brown Palmer and the British George Powell. The Islands were originally named ''Powell's Group'', with the main island named Coronation Island as it was the year of the coronation of King George IV. In 1823, James Weddell visited the Islands, gave the archipelago its present name (after the Orkney Islands, Scotland) and also renamed some of the islands. The South Orkney Islands are located at roughly the same latitude south as the Orkney Islands are north (60°S vs 59°N), although it is not known if this was a factor behind the naming of the islands. Subsequently, the islands were frequently visited by sealers and whalers, but no thorough survey was done until the expedition of William Speirs Bruce on the ''Scotia'' in 1903, which overwintered at Laurie Island. Bruce surveyed the islands, reverted some of Weddell's name changes, and established a meteorological station, which was sold to the Argentinian Government upon his departure in 1904. This base, renamed ''Orcadas'' in 1951, is still in operation and is thus the oldest research station continuously staffed in the Antarctic. In 1908, the United Kingdom declared sovereignty over various Antarctic and South American territories "to the south of the 50th parallel of south latitude, and lying between the 20th and the 80th degrees of west longitude", including the South Orkney Islands.〔(''International law for Antarctica'' p. 652 ), Francesco Francioni and Tullio Scovazzi, 1996〕 The Islands were subsequently administered as part of the Falkland Islands Dependencies. A biological research station on Signy Island was built in 1947 by the British Antarctic Survey. In 1962, the islands became part of the newly established British Antarctic Territory. The Argentinian claim to the islands dates from 1925. It was originally justified by the Argentinian occupation of the Laurie Island base and later subsumed into a wider territorial claim.〔(''Exploring polar frontiers: a historical encyclopedia'', Volume 2, pp. 34–35 ), William James Mills, 2003〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「South Orkney Islands」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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