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The development of science and technology has not only shortened the distance between people, but also brought the distance between countries and continents closer and closer, and the once huge earth has now become a "global village".
But no matter how small this "village" becomes, there is always one place that cannot be integrated into the global village, which is a "lonely island" where no figure can be seen within a radius of 3,000 kilometers.
It was as if it had been sealed by a magician, floating alone in an ocean. But it is such an island that makes countless countries salivate for it!
What's so special about it? Let's talk about the isolated island - Kerguelen!
Location of Kerguelen Island
In the vast southern Indian Ocean, between 48°30′-49°30′ south latitude and 68°42′-70°35′ east longitude, there is a dusty island of ice and snow. The island is located 1,400 kilometers from Antarctica and about 4,000 kilometers from Africa and Australia.
What is this concept?
Although Antarctica is large, it is sparsely populated. Although Africa and Australia are inhabited, they are very far from Kerguelen Island, with Kerguelen Island as the center, and it is almost deserted within a radius of 3,000 kilometers.
Maybe many friends have a globe at home, and they will turn it a few times when they are fine, but there must be very few friends who can notice the island of Kerguelen.
No one could have imagined that such an island would exist in this area full of blue. Like most oceanic islands, Kerguelen was formed by volcanic eruptions and covers an area of 6,675 square kilometers.
What is this concept?
Nanjing, as the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties and the capital of the Ten Dynasties, has an area of only 6,587 square kilometers, which is smaller than the island of Kerguelen. As an island, Kerguelen is already very vast.
In addition, there are many mountains and plateaus on the island of Kerguelen, the highest peak of which is called Mount Ross, which reaches an altitude of 1850 meters, and there are many lakes and streams at the foot of the mountain.
From this point of view, the fresh water resources on the island of Kerguelen are very rich, and fresh water is a necessary condition for human survival after all. So is the island of Kerguelen, with its mountains and water and no forests, suitable for human habitation?
A desert land in the Devil's Zephyr Belt
In meteorology, there is a "famous name", which is called the Devil's Zephyr Belt. The Devil's Westerly Belt is located between the subtropical high pressure zone and the subpolar low pressure zone.
This sea area has a distinctive feature, that is, it is windy and westerly winds all year round. Driven by the westerly wind, the sea water forms the world's most powerful ocean current - the westerly drift!
There is no vast continent in this sea, so the westerly wind is subject to little frictional resistance, which causes the sea to flow faster and faster, and the westerly wind to blow stronger and stronger.
When God is in a good mood, the wind is about 7~8, and most of the time it is a 10~12 level wind. Unfortunately, Kerguelen Island is located in the Devil's Zephyr Belt, where the wind blows 300 days a year, almost every day.
Such a huge wind, combined with the proximity to the South Pole, doomed the temperature of Kerguelen Island to be very low. The average annual temperature is only 4°C, and even in the summer season, the temperature does not exceed 15 degrees.
Think about it, would you be willing to live in a place where the wind is fierce and snowy every day? Such islands are destined to be unexploitable and unsuitable for human survival.
In addition, the vegetation on the island of Kerguelen is also very monolithic, without tall trees and shrubs. There is only one edible plant called wild kale.
The plant survives on the island of Kerguelen because it does not require insect pollination, but relies on wind-borne pollination.
Since we talk about insects, we must mention the "strange people" on Kerguelen Island, because Kerguelen Island is covered by strong winds all year round, so the insects on the island have abandoned their wings when they evolved.
Butterflies without wings, flies without wings, can be found everywhere on the island. For these small insects, this is also a helpless thing. Flying in the ten-level wind of Kergueiran Island is also too difficult for a fly.
The origin and belonging of the island of Kerguelen
On the world map, the presence of Kerguelen Island is very low. For many years, it was as if it had been sealed, and no one knew of its existence.
It was not until 1772 that the island of Kerguelen welcomed a group of visitors who changed their fate. In 1771, King Louis XV of France ordered a navigator named Kerguelen to go to the Southern Ocean in search of the legendary rich continent.
Subsequently, Kelgueiran set off with the ships "Destiny" and "Hurricane". After a year at sea, Kelguelen reached a land that had never been seen on a map.
I saw vicious waves on the sea around the land, and howling winds. However, Kerguelen ordered the crew to land at the risk of death, and then declared French possession of the land.
According to the navigation practice of the time, as long as Kelguelen stuffed the gold coin representing the head of the French king with the date of discovery of land, the name of the ship he was riding, and then hung the bottle on the rock of the island or buried it in the sand, it meant that the island belonged to the country.
Simple and crude, but very effective!
After doing all this, Kergueiran led the crew to fire three shots, shouted three times long live the king, and returned to France.
In order to invite credit, after seeing Louis XV, Kerguelen began to brag.
He said that he had found a very rich continent, rich in mineral resources, and the surrounding fishery resources were also rich, and there were some dark-skinned people living on the island, and I (Kergueran) had completed the declaration of sovereignty over the island, and this continent would be our French Empire in the future!
Hearing Kyle Geiran's words, Louis XV was very happy and rewarded him heavily!
Unfortunately, paper can never contain fire. Kelgueran's lies were soon debunked, and he was jailed for cheating. It is precisely because of this that the discovery of Kerguelen Island has become no longer a concern.
Four years later, in 1776, the British navigator Captain Cook led his team to the island of Kerguelen. I have to say that Captain Cook is very kind.
After surveying the island of Kerguelen, he wrote this sentence in his nautical diary:
"It is a small island with very barren land, but in order to restore the honor of Mr. Kerguelen, I decided to name this small island after him."
As a result, this wild island in the Devil's Zephyr Belt has its own name - Kerguelen Island!
The value of the island of Kerguelen
Although the environment of Kerguelen is very harsh, undeveloped and uninhabitable, it is a necessary place to connect Europe and Australia.
At the end of the 19th century, a supply depot was built on the island of Kerguelen to replenish passing ships with coal and other fuel. Overnight, the value of the uninhabited island multiplied. To this day, Kerguelen remains one of the most important supply points in the Devil's Zephyr Belt.
In addition to its advantageous geographical location, the natural resources of Kergueiren Island are also highly sought after by scientists from all over the world. This is one of the few lands on Earth that has changed very little since it was discovered by humans.
What does that mean?
Kerguelen Island has suffered very, very little human damage and almost maintains the most pristine ecological environment, so it has also become a natural laboratory for scientists to study the original ecology.
In addition to the above two advantages, the fishery resources around Kerguelen Island are also coveted by countless countries. There are unimaginable numbers of whales, lobsters and a wide variety of marine fish.
One of the most famous is a marine fish called Légine, which is loved by Japanese and is quite expensive.
Although France declared sovereignty over Kerguelen Island in 1893, after all, the emperor is far away, and even if France has established a special management agency here, there are still many prohibited fishing boats in this area.
Compared with the fishing resources that have been fished in various countries, the waters around Kerguelen Island are simply a paradise for fishermen.
Disasters brought by rabbits and cats
Kerguelen used to be a wilderness with no human habitation, but now it has about 100 inhabitants, most of whom are scientists and skilled workers.
France has established the French Southwest Polar Administrative Region on the island of Kerguelen, which is regarded as a mecca for scientific research, and our country has also built an aviation monitoring and control station here.
With the arrival of batches of human beings on the island, the value of Kerguelen Island has also been developed little by little, but everything has advantages and disadvantages! Although the arrival of humans made Kerguelen Island brilliant, humans also brought exotic species, such as rabbits and cats.
Although there are a large number of walruses and penguins on Kerguelen Island, for the protection of the ecological environment, researchers naturally do not prey on these animals, so they brought rabbits.
Not to mention, this cute little animal is very adapted to the extreme environment of Kerguelen Island, and they do provide a steady stream of meat for the people on the island.
However, the rabbits mercilessly destroyed the already sparse vegetation on the island!
In addition to rabbits, mice also quietly followed humans to Kerguelen Island and quickly multiplied. In order to get rid of the rats on the island, people had to bring cats to the island.
As a result, cats reproduce much faster than mice, and people originally thought that a large number of cats could eliminate hordes of rats, but they found that they were very wrong.
After arriving on the island, the cats found a problem: it is too difficult to catch mice, but catching seabirds (chicks) is much easier!
So in just one summer, the island's more than 1 million chicks were preyed on by cats. Cats are cute and rabbits are cute, but they bring unimaginable disasters to Kerguelen.
In order to eliminate rabbits and cats, people tried their best, and finally chose to poison helplessly, and the birth effect was still not good. This also shows that once a pristine place has human footprints, it is impossible to restore the tranquility of the past.
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