It emerges from the surface of the sea right where Seno Almirantazgo terminates, poking its back like an oversized whale coming out to breathe. It’s the protagonist at the end of the road that terminates in Caleta Maria, with Sierra la Paciencia and Nodernsköld as background.
Light comes through these mountain ranges, landing in this small island that provided a home for thousands of black-browed albatrosses, who year after year nest and reproduce at its faces.
This landscape transits between distant and hidden, landmark at the end of the road towards Caleta María.
Georeading
Nothing in nature is isolated, processes are mingling and interacting all around us. Massive fractures run parallel to the border between tectonic plates, like an echo of deformation propatating across the strong rock. After the action of glaciers and waves, this small island remains in the middle of Seno Almirantazgo providing shelter to birds and sealions.
How was this small island made? The rocks that form it were strengthened and recrystallized thanks to heat and pressure while they were still in the depths of the Earth; it was then uplifted while mountains were building and finally shaped by glacial flow. These actions altogether placed this small island there for birds to nest, plus likely more processes that remain beyond our imagination.
The asymmetric shape of this island testifies of the recent flow of glaciers and remains monument of its direction. The lighter slope to the west (left) indicates where the slow river of ice was flowing upwards, encountering stronger resistance from the higher altitude of the rocks.
The ice pressed harder until finally managing to extract a piece of rock, leaving the abrupt slope to the east (right). The morphology of Islote Albatros provides evidence of the last glacial flow direction: from West to East, leaving behind these Roche Moutonee that like a flock of sheep orient their backs towards the hostility of the elements.