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'New Amsterdam' or 'Île Amsterdam' (meaning ''Amsterdam island'' after the Dutch capital) is a French island in the Indian Ocean located at .

Contents

Description

Flora and fauna

History

See also

Books

External links

Description

The island is volcanic but has been inactive since 1792. It has an area of 55 km² (21 mi²), measuring 21 km (13 mi) on its longest side, and reaches as high as 867 m (2844 ft) at the Mont de la Dives.
The island is part of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (''Terres australes et antarctiques françaises''; TAAF), and together with neighboring Île Saint-Paul (85 km to the South) forms one of the five districts of the territory. Its base Martin-de-Viviès, formerly called La Roche Gódon, is the capital of the territory.
Unlike most parts of TAAF, Île Amsterdam has a mild, oceanic climate, with a mean annual temperature of 13ºC (55ºF}, rainfall of 1,100 mm, persistent westerly winds and high levels of humidity.[1]
Île Amsterdam is one of only three islands which are land antipodes of the continental United States. It corresponds to an area near La Junta, Colorado. The other two antipodes are île Saint-Paul and Kerguelen Island.

Flora and fauna

The island has ''Phylica arborea'' trees, which are also found on Tristan da Cunha.
The island is home to the Amsterdam Albatross, which breeds only on the Plateau des Tourbières on Île Amsterdam.
The island is also home to other rare species, such as the Great Skua, the Antarctic Tern, the Gentoo penguin, the Subantarctic Fur Seal and the Elephant seal.
The only existing herd of completely wild Cattle also lives on the island.

History

This island was discovered by the Spanish explorer Juan Sebastián Elcano on March 18, 1522. Elcano did not name the island, however.
Having found the island unnamed, the Dutch captain Anthonie van Diemen named it Nieuw Amsterdam (Dutch for 'New Amsterdam') after his ship in 1633.
French Captain François Péron, was marooned three years on this island. Péron had been on the French ship Emélie, which wrecked on New Amsterdam Island in 1792. In 1795 he was taken to Australia by ship Ceres. His 'Memoires', in which he describes his survival alone on New Amsterdam, were published in a limited edition and are now an expensive collectors' item.
In 1871 a British frigate, HMS Megaera, was wrecked in this lonely island. Most of the 400 persons on board had to remain upwards of three months on the island.
The islands of Île Amsterdam and Île Saint-Paul were attached to Madagascar in 1924 and hence became a French colony.
The first French base in New Amsterdam was erected in 1949, and was originally called Camp Heurtin.
The Global Atmosphere Watch still has an atmospheric research station on Île Amsterdam.

See also

★ French overseas departments and territories

★ Administrative divisions of France

★ Islands controlled by France in the Indian and Pacific oceans

Books

★ PÉRON, Pierre François. ''Mémoires du Capitaine Péron, sur ses Voyages aux Côtes d’Afrique, en Arabie, a l’Île d’Amsterdam, aux Îles d’Anjouan et de Mayotte, aux Côtes Nord-Oeust de l’Amérique, aux Îles Sandwich, a la Chine, etc.'' Paris 1824

External links

★ photos of Ile Amsterdam and St.Paul (French site)

★ Ile Amsterdam visit (photos from a tourist's recent visit)

★ http://www.discoverfrance.net/Colonies/St-Paul_Amsterdam.shtml

★ French Southern and Antarctic Lands at the CIA World Factbook

★ South Atlantic & Subantarctic Islands site, Amsterdam Island page