Top 10 remote islands in the world - Travel at Destination

Crozet Islands:

Crozet Islands are a remote archipelago, located in the southern Indian Ocean. This Sub-Antarctic archipelago is one of the five administrative territories of French southern and Antarctic territories. Here are some important details about Crozet Islands.

Early History and Discovery of Crozet Islands:

Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne and his second-in-command, Julien-Marie Crozet, French explorer, discover the Crozet Island on 24 January 1772 by the expedition aboard the ship Le Mascarin. Julien-Marie Crozet, landed on Ile de la Possession, claiming the Islands for France.
The ship continued eastward and anchor in New Zealand, where Captain Marion and many of his crew members were very badly killed and eaten my Maori. Second-in-command, crozet survived the disaster and bring back the remaining survivors to their base in Mauritius successfully.
During the third voyage of James Cook in 1776, Crozet met with him at Cape Town and share his ill-fated expedition experiences. Cook stopped his ship at the island and gave name the easter group Crozet and the western group Marion.
Subsequently, expeditors sailed their vessels at the islands and referred to both the wester and eastern groups as the Crozet Islands.

Shipwrecked while Whaling:

153 vessels sailed at the Crozet Islands for seals between 1804 to 1911 and seven of them wrecked on the coast.
In the following years, whaling became the main activity around the archipelago largely my whalers from Massachusetts. At ones, a dozen of whaleships was be sighted around the islands.

Geography and Human Being:

The archipelago is consisted of 9 islands with three major and six small.
The total land mass is 352 km² with highest elevation 1090 meters of Mont Marion-Dufresne.
The expeditors vary significantly with the seasons: 30 people during summer and 18 people during winter.

Natural Beauty and Climate:

The climate of the islands is sub-Antarctic, characterized by strong winds and cold temperatures.
Due to the effect of the cold climate, here plant life is mainly limited to lichens, grasses and mosses.
This sub-Antarctic Archipelago offer a unique blend of natural beauty, wildlife and marine life, and historically important in their remote sub-Antarctic location.
The archipelago is home to various seabirds like petrels and albatrosses.
The islands offer diverse marine life, including seals, whales and other species.

This rugged and remote archipelago occupies a unique stand in history. It also thrives expeditors despite the challenging harsh environment.

Minamitorishima or Marcus Island:

Minamitorishima remote island is also know as Marcus Island. It is an isolated Japanese’s overseas coral atoll located in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. It is situated approximately 1848 km southeast of Tokyo and 1267 km east of the nearest Japanese island, South Iwo Jima of the Ogasawara Islands. The Minamitorishima Island is almost on a straight line between mainland Tokeyo city and Wake Island, that is 1415 km far to the east-southeast. The nearest island to the Marcus Island is East Island in the Mariana Islands with a distance of 1015 km to the west-southwest. Let’s dig into more details about this captivating island:

Geography and Geology:

Minamitorishima is very remote island because there is no landmass or island within 1000 km in any direction.
The island has a saucer like profile and a shape of triangular with a raised outer rim featuring which stands between 5 to 9 meters above sea level.
Interestingly, the middle area of the island is 1 meter below sea level.
The island is surrounded by fringing reefs of 50 to 300 m in width. Both sides of southern and northeastern have with a shallow lagoon connected to the open ocean by narrow passages.

Novaya Zemlya:

Novaya Zemlya, a mysterious archipelago is located in the Arctic Ocean. This archipelago is consisted of two main islands: Yuzhny (southern part) and Severny (northen part) along with several smaller islands. This Islands are part of Russia and known to world for its rugged, stark landscapes, soviet-eara nuclear testing and extreme arctic weather conditions.

Geography: Northern part of this archipelago, Severny Island is separated by the Matochkin Strait from Yuzhny Island. Landscapes of Severny Island is mountainous with glaciers, while Yuzhny is flatter with tundra landscapes.
History: since the soviet-era nuclear testing, the archipelago is very significant historically. The largest nuclear weapon ever detonated; the infamous Tsar Bomba was tested here in 1961.
Climate: Here the climate is very severe with long and harsh winters but summers is very short and cool. Due to severe weather conditions, vegetation is very scarce. It is polar desert with minimal vegetation.
Wildlife: Despite the harsh weather conditions, variety of Arctic wildlife including Arctic foxes, famous polar bears and numerous seabirds are sighted here.

There human population is very limited. Especially military personnels and scientists are present there.

Spitsbergen Island:

The largest island of Svalbard archipelago is Spitsbergen Island, is located in the Arctic Ocean. It approximately is 950 km north of the mainland of Norway, covering an area of 37673 square km, making it the 36^th largest island in the world and largest island of Norway.

History: the history of Spitsbergen is very rich because of exploration and whaling. It is also an important site for scientific research, particularly in the fields of glaciology, geology and Arctic biology.
Geography: the geographical features of the island is rugged mountains, fjords, glaciers and vast tundra landscapes. It is an island of stunning natural beauty with dramatic scenery.
Climate: it is belonged in arctic climate with cold temperatures, long polar nights and short summers with the midnight sun but summer is also very cold.
Wildlife: It is a home of diverse arctic wildlife. There, reindeer, polar bears, arctic foxes and various seabirds are sighted. The surrounding waters of Spitsbergen are inhabited by walruses, seals and whales.
Tourism and human presence: Spitsbergen is a popular travel destination for adventure travellers, offering activities like snowmobiling, hiking, wildlife watching and dog sledding. It has human presence consisting of students, tourists and researchers.

Tristan da Cunha island:

Tristan da Cunha is one of the most remote human presence islands on the earth. It is situated in the South Atlantic Ocean, approximately 1500 miles away from the nearest inhabited islands, Saint Helena. It is a part of a volcanic archipelago that also includes, Gough Island, Inaccessible Island and Nightingale Island.

Geography: It is a volcanic island with rugged landscape and the highest elevate point is 2062 meters of Queen Mary’s Peak.
Wildlife: this island is home of various wild species, including beautiful northern rockhopper penguins and Tristan albatross.
Economy: The island’s community rely on fishing, farming and the sale of postage stamps and coin collections.

Despite its isolation, Tristan da cunha has a rich and remarkable history and the tight-knit community that always welcome the tourist with open arms. It is truly a unique place.

Galpagos Islands:

The Galapagos Islands are a truly remote archipelago situated in the Pacific Ocean. It is 1000 km away from the coast of Ecuador. Here are few interesting aspects of the Galapagos archipelago:

Biodiversity: The islands are well known across the world because of Charles Darwin’s theory of the natural selection and the unique and diverse wildlife, much of which are “Endemic Species”, means they are not found nowhere else on the earth. The famous species are Galapagos tortoise, virous finches and marine iguana.
Marine Reserve: the surrounding waters area of the islands are protected as Galapagos Marine Reserve. The reserve water area is the home of an abundance of marine life, including variety of fish species, rays and sharks.
Conservation Efforts: The Galapagos Islands are a protected archipelago to conserve diverse but unique wildlife and its habitat. Its national park and marine reserve work to maintain the ecological equilibrium and prevent the invasive species.

Kerguelen Islands:

The Kerguelen Islands, also know as the desolation archipelago, are a very remote islands in the southern Indian ocean. Here are some highlights about this fascinating islands.

Location: The archipelago is located about 3300 km away from the southern part of the Madagascar and is a part of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands.
Geography: Grande terre, the mainland of the islands, is the third largest French island and most of its covered by heavily glaciated. Relief features of the landscape is very rugged with 1850 meters high pick and active glacier.
Climate: The climate of the islands is very harsh and cold. The islands experience frequently strong winds, marine climate, relatively low temperature and moderate precipitation though out the years.
Flora and fauna: The islands are home of unique plant species adapted in harsh environment, as well as penguins, seals and numerous seabirds. The surrounding water reserve are rich of numerous fish species.

Azores Islands:

Azores, archipelago of Portugal, is a group of islands, composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atlantic Ocean. Those islands are classified into three groups: the eastern group includes Sao Miguel, Santa Maria and the Formigas Islets; the central group includes Faial, SaoJorge, Pico, Graciosa and Terceira; and the northwestern group includes Corvo and Flores. The capital of Azores is Ponta Delgada on Sao Miguel Island.

It is 1600 km west of mainland of Portugal but the nearest continental land is Cabo da Roca, Portugal. These islands are located on where Eurasian Plate, North American Plate and Nubian Plate meet together.

Due to the influences of Gulf Stream and distance from continents, the climate of Azores is very mild or subtropical with high humidity. The major activities for livelihood are agriculture, livestock, dairy farming, fishing and tourism. An abundant flora of European and Mediterranean origins is sighted there and islands hillsides still cover with the mixed forests. The archipelago served as refuelling waypoint between Europe and North America in the 20^th century and forward to 21^st.

Saint Helena:

Saint Helena is popularly known for being second exile place of Napoleon Bonaparte, following his final defeat in 1815, is a remote British overseas island. It is one of the three constituent islands of Saint Helena, Tristan da Cunha and Ascension. It is named after Helena; mother of Constantine I.

The island is situated around 1875 km west of south-western coast of Africa in the South Atlantic Ocean and geographically closest nations are Angola and Namibia. It is originated from volcanic eruption in tropical region. Until 2018, the RMS St Helena (a cargo and post-delivery vessel that also ferried visitors) was only primary communication vehicle of reaching St Helena Island. The cargo that also ferried visitors, routinely sails 3140 km within six days from cape town, south Africa. Until the opening of Suez Canal, it was a very important stopover for ships from Europe to Asia and back.

Due to the influence of Benguela current, the climate of Saint Helena is tropical tempered and trade winds blows continuously through the year. Annual rainfall ranges vary from sea level to island’s centre 200 mm to more than 760 mm consecutively.

Bermuda:

Bermuda is a British Overseas Territory in the North Atlantic Ocean, east of South Carolina (US). South Carolina is the closest outside continental territory, around 1035 km to the west-northwest. The Bermuda archipelago is a collection of 181 islands, islets and rocks to form one landmass and looks like fishhook. All the major islands are connected by Bridge to make communication easy. The total landmass is 54 sq km with 103 km coastline, comparative area is about one-third the size of Washington, DC.

Bermuda is belonged in the area of sub-tropical climate where warm summers, mild winters, gales, strong winds and oceanic features climate exhibited. Bermuda also experiences severe weather because the archipelago lies in Hurricane Alley.

But no rivers and freshwater lake is sighted there. Total population is 72576 (2023 est) with languages English and Portuguese. and relatively even population distribution throughout. The natural resources are mainly pleasant climate fostering tourism and limestone.