Gough Island - Definition and Overview

Gough Island (also called Diego Alvarez) is a volcanic island rising from the South Atlantic Ocean to heights of over 900 meters above sea level. It is a remote and lonely place, about 350 km southeast of the other islands in the Tristan da Cunha group, 2700 km from Cape Town, and over 3200 km from the nearest point of South America. It is a possession of the United Kingdom, but the only inhabitants are the small crew of a weather station which South Africa has maintained continually on the island since 1956.

Gough and Inaccessible Island are a protected wildlife reserve, which has been designated a World Heritage Site by the United Nations. It has been described as one of the least disrupted ecosystems of its kind and one of the best shelters for nesting seabirds in the Atlantic.

External links

• The South Atlantic and Subantarctic Islands: Gough Island (http://www.btinternet.com/~sa_sa/gough_island/gough_island.html)
• South African weather station on Gough Island (http://home.intekom.com/gough/)
• Gough Island Wildlife Reserve (http://whc.unesco.org/sites/740.htm)