Nightingale Island is an active volcanic island in the South Atlantic Ocean, in area, part of the Tristan da Cunha group of islands. They are administered by the United Kingdom as part of the overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.

Nightingale Island is part of the Nightingale Islands, which also includes islets Middle Island and Stoltenhoff Island. All three of these islands are uninhabited, but are regularly visited for scientific purposes and research. It is one of the only stops for birds in the Atlantic and millions of them visit it annually.

Geography

thumb|upright=1.35|Nightingale IslandNightingale has two peaks. One is High Ridge (sometimes mentioned as High Peak) at around high while the other is around high. The rest of the island is ringed by cliffs. However, these cliffs are not nearly as high as those surrounding Nightingale's neighbour Inaccessible Island, which is approximately 16 km away and has cliffs approximately 300 m high. Thus human access is much easier on Nightingale than on Inaccessible. The island is a volcano, composed of early and late stage ash deposits. Massive trachytic lava flows have been extruded in the past. Before 2004, the last eruption may have been over 39,000 years ago.

The two nearby islets are called Stoltenhoff () and Middle ().

On the lower Western half of the island there are four water ponds, sometimes called the Molly Ponds, with the deepest being the Second, maximum depth of which is around .

Large amounts of kelp surround the island, which makes it difficult to anchor ships in bad weather.

Climate

Nightingale Island has a cool temperate oceanic climate similar to the other Tristan da Cunha islands.

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History

The island, like its neighbours, is of volcanic origin and is estimated to be around 18 million years old, 15 million years older than Inaccessible Island. The island was later renamed after British captain Gamaliel Nightingale, who explored the island in 1760.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Dutch and French governments as well as the British East India Company considered taking possession of Nightingale (as well as Tristan and Inaccessible), but decided against it due to lack of landing space.

Nightingale has been said to contain pirate loot. Captain John Thomas, on an expedition to the South Atlantic, supposedly left a fortune of Spanish doubloons and pieces-of-eight in caves on Nightingale for safekeeping. However, no recovery of this treasure (if it is there) has ever been confirmed.

In 1811, the American pirate Jonathan Lambert laid claim to Tristan and its neighbouring islands. He wanted to call Inaccessible 'Pinsard Island', and Nightingale 'Lavel Island'. He was successful in his claim, but he died less than one year later.

In 1961, the high shield volcano on Tristan da Cunha erupted and forced the inhabitants of Tristan da Cunha to evacuate to Nightingale. They eventually moved to the United Kingdom, returning to Tristan in 1963.

Wildlife conservation efforts are ongoing on Nightingale. The previous conservation workers' sheds were severely damaged during a storm produced by an extratropical cyclone in 2001 that reportedly included winds up to 120 mph. Repair is ongoing, but to continue carrying out the conservation work, all of the damaged shacks on the island need to be repaired. The United Kingdom established funding for a conservation effort on Nightingale for 2004–06.

2004 eruption

A six-hour-long earthquake swarm occurred on Nightingale Island on 29 July 2004, followed by sightings of floating phonolitic pumice; the event came from a submarine flank of the island.

2011 oil spill

Before daybreak on 16 March 2011, the Maltese-registered MS Oliva cargo carrier ran aground at Spinners Point on the island's northwestern shore. The resulting oil spill, which spread around the island, was expected to have a significant impact on the seabird colonies of Nightingale and Middle Island. The ship contained 1,500 metric tons of crude oil and a cargo of 60,000 metric tons of soya beans. As many as 20,000 penguins were threatened, and there was a risk that rats from the ship could make it ashore to eventually prey on the chicks and eggs of native seabirds. Nightingale Island has no fresh water, so the penguins were transported to Tristan da Cunha for cleaning. The Greek captain and his 21 Filipino crew stayed in Edinburgh of the Seven Seas and assisted the islanders in their work.

One of the lifeboats from MS Oliva subsequently washed ashore in February 2013 near the Murray Mouth, South Australia.

Flora and fauna

Fauna

thumb|Albatrosses nesting in fernbrush on Nightingale Island

Nightingale Island is known as a breeding ground for various types of seabirds; over a million birds are estimated to breed on the island, with great shearwaters being among the most abundant, their total population estimated to be around 2.5 million, half of their presence in the archipelago. The number of birds which come to the island for nesting has been said to be from 4 million

Other notable bird species occupying the Island include Broad-billed prion, White-faced storm petrel and Soft-plumaged petrel. Endangered species like Atlantic yellow-nosed albatross (at 3000—4000 pairs) and Sooty albatross (200 pairs) are also present.

There are four wetland areas on the island which each contain hundreds of Atlantic yellow-nosed albatrosses. As with Inaccessible Island, Nightingale also has a breeding colony of northern rockhopper penguins, now an endangered species, with a fraction of the 1950s population remaining. Many of the penguin colonies are hidden behind grass, but their number of pairs was estimated to be 22,000–28,000 pairs on Nightingale, with additional 80,000–85,000 pairs at Middle (Alex) Island. The island is part of the Nightingale Islands group Important Bird Area (IBA), identified as such by BirdLife International as a breeding site for seabirds and endemic landbirds.

Flora

There are a few species of vegetation present on the island:

  • Tussock grassland, specifically Spartina arundinacea and other species (Hypolepis rugosula, Histiopteris incisa, Scirpus bicolor), which covers most of the island. Space between tussock bases is occupied by great shearwaters nests. Most of the disturbed open areas were taken over by newly introduced species like Holcus lanatu and Poa annua.
  • Fern bush (Phylica arborea), growing in the area near the four Molly Ponds.
  • Floating mats of grass-like Scirpus sulcatus, found on the Ponds themselves, leaving little open water left.

In 1992 it was estimated that out of 43 species, only 7 were alien, with 16 endemic and 20 native ones.