Antarctica's volatile 'Deception Island'

Antarctica's volatile 'Deception Island' Antony Baxter/Alamy Not only is Deception Island littered with lore and history, it's also one of the only places on the planet where ships can sail directly into the centre of a submerged caldera. Mark Johanson Large digesters from the Norwegian Aktieselskabet Hektor whaling station still lie on the steaming beach at Whalers Bay Deception Island soon revealed itself to be something of a time capsule of Antarctica's two centuries of human history, holding tales of explorers and whalers, scientists and dreamers. In 1912, Norwegians built Antarctica's only land-based commercial whaling station on Deception Island, which operated here until 1931 when some species, including the blue whale, were hunted almost to extinction. South Shetlands is the heart of the chinstrap population throughout the globe Baily Head is home to anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 breeding pairs of chinstrap penguins, explained Milius' wife, Antarctic naturalist Wendy Hare, as birds with thin black neck bands waddled down "highways" linking a vast black-sand beach with rocky interior nesting sites.