King George Island (62°02′S 58°21′W) is the biggest island of South Shetlands archipelago. It covers approximately 1300km². It is located 120 km from Antarctica mainland. The Island was discovered by William Smith in 1819. More than 90% of the Island area is covered by glaciers. There are three main bays: Maxwell Bay, Admiralty Bay and King George Bay. Stations operated by 10 countries are located on the Island.
Winter Stations:
- Arctowski (Poland),
- Carlini (Argentina),
- Comandante Ferraz (Brazil),
- Frei, Marsh, Escudero (Chile),
- Great Wall (China),
- King Sejong (Republic of Korea),
- Bellingshausen (Russia),
- Artigas (Uruguay).
Summer Stations:
- Machu Pichu (Peru),
- Pieter J. Lenie Station Copacabana (USA).
Chile and Argentina have territorial claims for the Island (declared respectively in 1940 and 1943) but those claims were not acknowledged by the international community. One of the local tourist attractions is a small Russian Orthodox Church of Holy Trinity near Bellingshausen Station built in 2004. A monument was raised and a historic site was designated near resting place of Włodzimierz Puchalski, Polish photographer and documentary filmmaker who died during expedition on January 19, 1979.
Local time used on the Island is a UTC/GMT -03:00 timezone.
