Falkland Sound

Water, Ruggles Bay (East Falkland)

3 Geology

The Falkland Sound, here in November 1999, is the large strait

running between the two larger islands.

The Falkland Sound (Spanish: Estrecho de San Carlos)

is a sea strait in the Falkland Islands. Running southwest-
northeast, it separates West and East Falkland.

Folding of West Falkland - the Sound is parallel to the folds and

would occupy the front left-hand corner of the diagram.
1 Name
The sound was named by John Strong in 1690 for
Viscount Falkland, the name only later being applied to
the archipelago and its two largest islands. The Spanish
name Estrecho de San Carlos refers to the ship San Car-
los which visited in 1768; confusingly the English name
"San Carlos Water" is a much smaller inlet on East Falk-
land - and gives its name to San Carlos, Port San Carlos
and the San Carlos River.
Captain John Strong of the Welfare made the rst
recorded landing on either of the main islands (West and
East Falkland) on 29 January 1690, at Bold Cove (near
Port Howard) just o Falkland Sound.

2 Geography
Islands in the Falkland Sound include Narrows Island, Folding of East Falkland Island - the Sound is at right angles to
Great Island, the Tyssen Islands and the Swan Islands. the folds and would occupy the front right-hand corner of the
Eddystone Rock is at the northern end of the Sound; the diagram.
Arch Islands are at the southern end.
About 400 million years ago the land that became the
Settlements on it include Ajax Bay, Port San Carlos and Falkland Islands and Antarcticas Ellsworth Mountains,
San Carlos on East Falkland and Port Howard and Fox which had been part of Gondwana, broke from what is
Bay on West Falkland. now Africa and drifted westwards relative to Africa.[1]
Inlets and bays on the Sound include: Fox Bay, Port During the mid-Jurassic period[2] (about 170 million
Howard (West Falkland); Grantham Sound, San Carlos years ago) the land fragment that was to become East

1
2 4 REFERENCES

Falkland and the land fragment that was to become West

Falkland rotated about 120 relative to each other. As a
result, the fold lines in West Falkland run almost south-
west to north-east, parallel to the Sound. Those in the
northern part of East Falkland run east-west, forming the
eastern part of northern entrance to the Sound and bor-
dering on the northern banks of San Carlos Water. The
boundary between these two land fragments, the Falkland
Sound Fault, lies close to and parallel with the western
shore of the Sound. Lafonia (the southern half of East
Falkland), which is a much newer formation, has no folds.
It is believed that at times during the Pleistocene era,
the seabed was some 46 metres (151 ft) lower than the
present timesucient for the sound to be bridged.[3]

4 References
[1] Otley H, Munro G, Clausen A & Ingham B (2008).
Falkland Islands - State of the Environment Report
(PDF). Falkland Islands Government and Falklands Con-
servation, Stanley. Archived from the original (PDF) on
2011-07-20. Retrieved 2010-06-05.

[2] P Stone; PC Richards; GS Kimbell; RP Esser & D Reeves

(2008). Cretaceous dykes discovered in the Falkland Is-
lands: implications for regional tectonics in the South At-
lantic. Journal of the Geological Society. 165 (1): 14.
doi:10.1144/0016-76492007-072.

[3] Adie, Raymond J (1953). New Evidence of Sea-level

Changes in the Falkland Islands. Falkland Island Depen-
dency Survey, Colonial Oce. Introduction. Scientic
Report No 9. Archived from the original on 17 May 2013.
Retrieved 17 May 2013.

Southby-Tailyour, Ewen - Falkland Island Shores

Coordinates: 5148S 5930W / 51.800S 59.500W

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5 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

5.1 Text
Falkland Sound Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falkland_Sound?oldid=757204286 Contributors: Warofdreams, Michael Glass,
Icairns, Thomasgraz, Darwinek, Jonathunder, Grutness, Kelisi, DaveTheRed, Rjwilmsi, MacRusgail, Valentinian, RobotE, Mix321,
Hmains, TCY, Epf, J 1982, Robosh, Jetman, PamD, Kahastok, Escarbot, The Anomebot2, Idioma-bot, Funandtrvl, John Carter, SieBot,
Addbot, Lightbot, Zorrobot, Gvnn, Vitek, Luckas-bot, 4ing, GrouchoBot, Martinvl, Tom.Reding, RjwilmsiBot, WikitanvirBot, ZroBot,
Haymouse, InternetArchiveBot and Anonymous: 4

5.2 Images
File:FK2LMB.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/FK2LMB.jpg License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors:
Transferred from es.wikipedia to Commons. Original artist: The original uploader was Lmb at Spanish Wikipedia
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Transferred from es.wikipedia to Commons. Original artist: The original uploader was Lmb at Spanish Wikipedia
File:Satellite_image_of_Falkland_Islands_in_November_1999.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/
Satellite_image_of_Falkland_Islands_in_November_1999.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: ? Original artist: ?

5.3 Content license

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