Penguin Island

The 1.4 x 1.7 km Penguin Island is located off the SE coast of King George Island in Antarctica's South Shetland Islands, west of the axis of the Bransfield Rift. The most prominent feature is Deacon Peak, a basaltic scoria cone with a 350-m-wide summit crater on the SW side of the island. A small plug of basaltic lava occupies the 75-m-deep crater. Petrel Crater, a 300-m-wide maar, is located near the east coast. The formation of Deacon Peak was dated by lichenometry at about 300 years ago, and the younger Petrel Crater maar was dated at about 100 years (Birkenmajer, 1979). Some reports of fumarolic activity on nearby Bridgeman Island are attributed to the more youthful Penguin Island.