For Bellingshausen Station in King George Island, see Bellingshausen Station

Bellingshausen Station

thumb|right|Bellingshausen is one of Antarctica's most polluted places. Old vehicles, rusting barrels and other refuse litter the shorelinethumb|right|Muddy scene around the base. On the hilltop an orthodox church was built in 2004...

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Bellingshausen Island is one of the most southerly of the South Sandwich Islands, close to Thule Island

Thule Island

Thule Island, also called Morrell Island, is one of the southernmost of the South Sandwich Islands, part of the grouping known as Southern Thule. It is named, on account of its remote location, after the mythical land of Thule, said by ancient geographers to lie at the extreme end of the earth...

 and Cook Island

Cook Island, South Sandwich Islands

Cook Island is the central and largest island of Southern Thule, part of the South Sandwich Islands in the far south Atlantic Ocean. Southern Thule was discovered by a British expedition under Captain James Cook in 1775. The island was named for Cook by a Russian expedition under Bellingshausen,...

, and forming part of the Southern Thule

Southern Thule

Southern Thule is a collection of the three southernmost islands in the South Sandwich Islands: Bellingshausen, Cook, and Thule . Southern Thule is British territory, though claimed by Argentina. The island group is barren, windswept, bitterly cold, and uninhabited. It has an extenzive EEZ rich...

 group. It is named after its discoverer, Baltic German-Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n Antarctic explorer Fabian von Bellingshausen (1778–1852).

The island is a basaltic andesite

Basaltic andesite

Basaltic andesite is a black volcanic rock containing about 55% silica. Minerals in basaltic andesite include olivine, augite and plagioclase. Basaltic andesite can be found in volcanoes around the world, including in Central America and the Andes of South America. Basaltic andesite is common in...

 stratovolcano

Stratovolcano

A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a tall, conical volcano built up by many layers of hardened lava, tephra, pumice, and volcanic ash. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile and periodic, explosive eruptions...

, and the latest crater, about 500 feet (152 m) across and 200 feet (61 m) deep, formed explosively some time between 1968 and 1984.