The South Orkney Islands were discovered in 1821 by two sealers, the American Nathaniel Brown Palmer and the Briton George Powell.

Bruce surveyed the islands, reverted some of Weddell's name changes, and established a meteorological station, which was sold to the Argentine Government upon his departure in 1904.

This base, renamed Orcadas in 1951, is still in operation today[update] and is thus the oldest research station continuously staffed in the Antarctic.

It was originally justified by the Argentine occupation of the Laurie Island base and later subsumed into a wider territorial claim.

Coronation Island is the largest, measuring about 30 mi (48 km) long; its highest point is Mount Nivea which rises to 4,153 ft (1,266 m) above sea level.

[1] The Inaccessible Islands about 15 nmi (17 mi; 28 km) to the west are considered part of the South Orkneys.

Summers are short and cold (December to March) when the average temperatures reach about 3.5 °C (38.3 °F) and fall to about −12.8 °C (9 °F) in July.

These areas support tundra vegetation consisting of mosses, lichens and algae, while seabirds, penguins and seals feed in the surrounding waters.

With increasing water depth, life becomes more varied: starfish appear beyond 2–3 metres along with sponges, urchins, and ascidians.

[13] On Signy Island a parthenogenetic flightless midge originally from South Georgia, Eretmoptera murphyi, was accidentally introduced during a botany experiment in the 1960s.