Kaliman Island facts for kids
Location of Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands
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 Kaliman Island
Location in Antarctica
Kaliman Island
Location in Antarctic Peninsula
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| Geography | |
|---|---|
| Location | Antarctica |
| Coordinates | 62°37′31″S 60°39′44″W / 62.62528°S 60.66222°W |
| Archipelago | South Shetland Islands |
| Administration | |
| Administered under the Antarctic Treaty System | |
| Demographics | |
| Population | uninhabited |
Kaliman Island (which is ostrov Kaliman in Bulgarian) is a small, flat, rocky island shaped like a triangle. It's located in Walker Bay on Livingston Island, which is part of Antarctica. The island stretches about 250 meters (that's like two and a half football fields!) from south to north, and it's about 80 meters wide. This cool island gets its name from a Bulgarian ruler named Czar Kaliman Asen, who lived a long time ago, from 1241 to 1246 AD.
Where is Kaliman Island Located?
Kaliman Island is found in Antarctica, a very cold continent at the bottom of the world. It's specifically located at 62°37′31″S 60°39′44″W. To give you an idea of its spot, it's about 3.9 kilometers northwest of a place called Hannah Point. It's also 9.5 kilometers northeast of Bond Point and 4.62 kilometers south of Snow Peak.
The island is connected to Livingston Island by a natural land bridge. This bridge is about 600 meters long and is called a "tombolo." A tombolo is a narrow strip of land, often made of sand or gravel, that connects an island to the mainland or to another island. This particular tombolo was formed from a "moraine," which is a pile of rocks and dirt left behind by a glacier.
How Kaliman Island Was Formed
Kaliman Island became visible because of changes in the ice. In the early 2000s, a large ice river called the Verila Glacier started to melt and shrink. As the glacier pulled back, it revealed the land that is now Kaliman Island. This process shows how much the landscape of Antarctica can change due to melting ice.
Bulgarian scientists have been mapping this area for many years. They created detailed maps of Kaliman Island and its surroundings in 2009 and again in 2017. These maps help us understand the island's exact shape and location.
Maps of the Area
- L.L. Ivanov. Antarctica: Livingston Island and Greenwich, Robert, Snow and Smith Islands. This is a topographic map from 2009, showing the area at a scale of 1:120000.
- L.L. Ivanov. Antarctica: Livingston Island and Smith Island. This is another topographic map from 2017, with a scale of 1:100000.
