Melchior Islands

 archipelago, invisible

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Group of many low, ice-covered islands lying near the center of Dallmann Bay in the Palmer Archipelago. First seen but left unnamed by a German expedition under Dallmann, 1873-74. Resighted and roughly charted by the FrAE under Charcot, 1903-05. Charcot named what he believed to be the large easternmost island in the group "Ile Melchior" after Vice Admiral Melchior of the French Navy, but later surveys proved Charcot's "Ile Melchior" to be two islands, now called Eta Island and Omega Island. The name Melchior Islands has since become established for the whole island group now described, of which Eta Island and Omega Island form the eastern part. The group was roughly surveyed in 1927 by DI personnel in the Discovery, and was resurveyed by Argentine expeditions in 1942 and 1943, and again in 1948.