Hornos Island is a Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

an island at the southern tip of South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

. The island is mostly known for being the location of Cape Horn

Cape Horn

Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...

. It is generally considered South America's southernmost island, but the Diego Ramírez Islands

Diego Ramírez Islands

The Diego Ramírez Islands are a small group of lesser islands located in the southernmost extreme of Chile about south-west of Cape Horn and south-south-east of Ildefonso Islands, stretching north-south . Their land area is little more than...

 are farther south. The island is one of the Hermite Islands

Hermite Islands

The Hermite Islands are a group of Chilean islands in the archipelago of Tierra del Fuego. They form part of the Commune of Cabo de Hornos in Antártica Chilena Province of Magallanes y Antártica Chilena Region, at the southernmost end of South America...

, part of the Tierra del Fuego

Tierra del Fuego

Tierra del Fuego is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of a main island Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego divided between Chile and Argentina with an area of , and a group of smaller islands including Cape...

 archipelago.

The Chilean Navy

Chilean Navy

-Independence Wars of Chile and Peru :The Chilean Navy dates back to 1817. A year before, following the Battle of Chacabuco, General Bernardo O'Higgins prophetically declared "this victory and another hundred shall be of no significance if we do not gain control of the sea".This led to the...

 maintains a station on the island, consisting of a residence, utility building, chapel, and lighthouse. A short distance from the main station is a memorial, including a large sculpture featuring the silhouette of an albatross

Albatross

Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds allied to the procellariids, storm-petrels and diving-petrels in the order Procellariiformes . They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Pacific...

, in honour of the sailors who died while attempting to "round the Horn".

The island is within the Cabo de Hornos National Park

Cabo de Hornos National Park

Cabo de Hornos National Park is located in the Cape Horn Archipelago, which belongs to the Commune of Cabo de Hornos, in the Antártica Chilena Province of Magallanes y Antártica Chilena Region. It was created in 1945 and includes the Wollaston Archipelago and the Hermite Islands. The park covers...

.

Geology

The composition of the island is mainly of Cretaceous

Cretaceous

The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...

 granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

 with Jurassic

Jurassic

The Jurassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about Mya to  Mya, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic era, also known as the age of reptiles. The start of the period is marked by...

 volcanic rock

Volcanic rock

Volcanic rock is a rock formed from magma erupted from a volcano. In other words, it is an igneous rock of volcanic origin...

s in the northwest. The lower areas of the island are filled with peat moss.

Climate

Mean Temperature: 5.3° Celsius

Maximum Temperature: 20.5° Celsius (February 1996)

Minimum Temperature: -14.5° Celsius (June 1992)

Mean Relative humidity: 86.4 %

Mean Wind Direction: 264°

Mean Wind Speed: 84 knots

Maximum Wind Speed: 119 knots (August 1995)

Rainfall (yearly mean): 697.5 mm.

Maximum Rainfall: 1263.2 (1990)