It is named, on account of its remote location, after the mythical land of Thule, said by ancient geographers to lie at the extreme end of the Earth.

Steep slopes ascend to a 1.5-by-2-kilometre (1 by 1+1⁄4 mi) summit caldera with the peak of Mount Larsen at 710 m (2,329 ft) above sea level.

Discovered by a Russian expedition under Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen in 1820, it was charted in 1930 by DI personnel on the British ship Discovery II.

Argentina, in order to assert its claim over the South Sandwich Islands, established the summer station "Teniente Esquivel" (es) at Ferguson Bay on the southeastern coast on January 25, 1955.

The British discovered the presence of the Argentine base the same year but chose to pursue a diplomatic solution to the issue until the breakout of the Falklands War in 1982.