South Georgia in the context of "Elephant seal"

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (SGSSI) is a British Overseas Territory in the southern Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote and inhospitable collection of islands, consisting of South Georgia and a chain of smaller islands known as the South Sandwich Islands. South Georgia is 165 kilometres (103 mi) long and 35 kilometres (22 mi) wide and is by far the largest island in the territory. The South Sandwich Islands lie about 700 kilometres (430 mi) southeast of South Georgia. The territory's total land area is 3,903 km (1,507 sq mi). The Falkland Islands are about 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) west from its nearest point.

The South Sandwich Islands are uninhabited, and a very small non-permanent population resides on South Georgia. There are no scheduled passenger flights or ferries to or from the territory, although visits by cruise liners to South Georgia are increasingly popular, with several thousand visitors each summer.

The invasion of South Georgia, also known as the Battle of Grytviken or Operation Georgias, took place on 3 April 1982, when Argentine Navy forces seized control of the east coast of South Georgia after overpowering a small group of Royal Marines at Grytviken. Though outnumbered, the Royal Marines shot down a helicopter and hit the Argentine corvette ARA Guerrico several times before being forced to surrender. It was one of the first episodes of the Falklands War, immediately succeeding the invasion on the Falkland Islands the day before.

The operation had been prepared on 19 March, when a group of Argentine civilian scrap metal workers arrived at Leith Harbour on board the transport ship ARA Bahía Buen Suceso without the required landing clearance and then raised the Argentine flag. The scrap workers had been infiltrated by Argentine marines posing as civilian scientists.

The South Sandwich Islands (Spanish: Islas Sandwich del Sur) are a chain of uninhabited volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. They are administered as part of the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The chain lies in the sub-Antarctic region, about 700 kilometres (430 mi) southeast of South Georgia and 1,700 kilometres (1,100 mi) northeast from the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.

The archipelago comprises 11 main islands forming an island arc running north–south, the largest being Montagu at 110 square kilometres (42 sq mi). It is divided into four groups, from north to south: The Traversay, Candlemas and Central Islands (Saunders, Montagu, and Bristol), and Southern Thule.

Grytviken (/ˈɡrɪtviːkən/ GRIT-vee-kən Norwegian: [ˈɡɾŷːtviːkn̩]) is a hamlet on South Georgia in the South Atlantic. Formerly a whaling station, it was the largest settlement on the island. Grytviken is located at the head of King Edward Cove within the larger Cumberland East Bay, considered the best harbour on the island. The location's name, meaning "pot bay", was coined in 1902 by the Swedish Antarctic Expedition and documented by the surveyor Johan Gunnar Andersson, after the expedition found old English try pots used to render seal oil at the site. Settlement was re-established on 16 November 1904 by Norwegian Antarctic explorer Carl Anton Larsen on the long-used site of former whaling settlements.

Grytviken is built on a substantial area of sheltered, flat land and has a good supply of fresh water. Although it was the largest settlement on South Georgia, the island's administration was based at the nearby British Antarctic Survey research station at King Edward Point. The whaling station closed in December 1966 when dwindling whale stocks made it financially unviable.

Mount Paget is a summit of Allardyce Range on the South Atlantic/Antarctic island of South Georgia. At 9,629 feet (2,935 m) above the sea level, it is the highest peak on the island, and the highest peak in any territory under the sovereignty of the United Kingdom (excluding the British Antarctic Territory, where British sovereignty is unrecognised by most countries, where Mount Hope is the highest peak). Mount Paget is more than twice the height of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain on the island of Great Britain and is ranked 23rd by topographic isolation.

It is a saddle-shaped mountain, marking the highest point of the Allardyce Range in the central part of South Georgia. This feature was known to early sealers and whalers at South Georgia, and the name has long been established through general usage. It is clearly visible from Grytviken and King Edward Point.