You likely don’t get much more remote than the South Sandwich Islands. This chain of volcanic islands sits on the boundary of the Southern and Atlantic Oceans, closer to Antarctica or the southern tip of South America than pretty much any other landmass. They are one of the few island chains in the world that weren’t populated (to our knowledge) before European explorers and merchants found them starting in the mid 17th century. Yet, in our increasingly connected world, even remote volcanoes like those that stretch across the South Sandwich Islands are worth considering.
No British territory has more volcanoes than South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, the islands’ official designation. South Georgia Island is to the northwest of the South Sandwich Islands and isn’t volcanically active, but it might be the most famous in the territory. Sir Ernest Shackleton made a truly miraculous traverse of the island in 1916 after the near-tragedy of the Endurance Antarctic Expedition. Luckily for Shackleton, he knew that there were several whaling stations on the island and crawled into Stromness with Tom Crean and Frank Worsley.
Beyond this nearby claim to fame, the South Sandwich Islands only pop up in the history books thanks to their peripheral involvement in the Falklands War. Argentina has claimed the South Sandwich Islands and South Georgia as its territory since the late 1920s. Since Argentina’s ill-fated attempt to take the closer Falkland Islands from the United Kingdom in 1982, the South Sandwich Islands have been mainly home of a small population of fisherman and scientists with their families.
