The South Orkney Islands lie about 600 miles south-west of South Georgia Island and about 400 miles north-east of the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. While they do not have large penguin populations, the landscape is spectacular, with massive icebergs from the Weddell Sea, both floating free and run aground. An interesting iceberg phenomenon is the “tabular iceberg,” which is a massive iceberg, flat on the top and often as large as a small American state. These icebergs are formed on land, of fresh water, and they are set free after breaking off from massive ice shelves on land. To understand the size of some of these huge icebergs, note that the South Orkneys total about 600 square miles, while these massive icebergs have been measured at over 12,000 square miles, about the size of the State of Maryland.
The penguins one does see provide wonderful photo opportunities for “Adelie Penguins on ice.”