It is divided into four groups, from north to south: The Traversay, Candlemas and Central Islands (Saunders, Montagu, and Bristol), and Southern Thule.

The Traversay Islands (Zavodovski, Leskov and Visokoi) were discovered by the Imperial Russian Navy expedition of Bellingshausen and Lazarev in the ships Vostok and Mirny in 1819.

From 1976 to 1982, Argentina maintained a naval base named Corbeta Uruguay in the lee (southern east coast) of the same island.

Although the British discovered the presence of the Argentine base in 1976, protested, and tried to resolve the issue by diplomatic means, no effort was made to remove them by force until after the Falklands War.

On 10 February 2008, an earthquake of magnitude 6.5 on the Richter Scale had its epicenter 205 km (127 mi) south-southeast of Bristol Island.

The fourth highest peak, Mount Michael (990 m or 3,248 ft) on Saunders Island has a persistent lava lake, known to occur at only eight volcanoes in the world.