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The Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago ((ポルトガル語:Arquipélago de São Pedro e São Paulo)) is a group of 15 small islets and rocks in the central equatorial Atlantic Ocean.〔(The scientific station of São Pedro and São Paulo Archipelago - Brazil ) Alvarez, Cristina E., Melo, Julio E., Mello, Roberto L. Retrieved on June 6, 2009.〕 It lies in the Intertropical Convergence Zone, a region of the Atlantic characterized by low average winds punctuated with local thunderstorms. It is a special municipality of the Brazilian state of Pernambuco and lies approximately from the Brazilian northeastern coastal town of Touros, northeast of the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, from the city of Natal, and from the western coast of Africa. The islets expose serpentinized abyssal mantle peridotite and kaersutite-bearing ultramafic mylonite on the top of the second-largest megamullion in the world (after the Parece Vela megamullion under Okinotorishima in the Pacific) and the highest one of the world. It is the only location on the Atlantic Ocean where the abyssal mantle is exposed above sea level.〔 In 1986, the archipelago was designated as an environmentally protected area.〔(Decree 92755 of 5 June 1986 ) Library of Congress. Retrieved on 2009-07-16.〕 Since 1998, the Brazilian Navy has maintained a permanently manned research facility on the islands.〔(Programa Arquipélago ) Brazilian Navy. Retrieved on 2009-07-16. 〕 The main economic activity around the islets is tuna fishing. ==History== On April 20, 1511, a Portuguese Navy fleet composed of six caravels under the command of Captain Garcia de Noronha discovered the islets by accident while on their journey to India. While navigating in open sea at late night, the ''Saint Peter'' caravel, under the command of Captain Manuel de Castro Alcoforado, crashed against the islets. The crew was rescued by the ''Saint Paul'' caravel, forming the name given to the islets.〔(Saint Peter and Saint Paul’s Archipelago ) Campos, T.F.C.; Virgens Neto, J.; Srivastava, N.K.; Petta, R.A.; Harmann, L.A.; Moraes, J.F.S.; Mendes, L.; Silveira, S.R.M. Retrieved on 2006-12-31.〕 On the morning of February 16, 1832, the rocks were visited by Charles Darwin on the first leg of his voyage on HMS ''Beagle'' around the world. Darwin listed all the fauna he could find; noting that not a single plant or even a lichen could be found on the island. Darwin found two birds, a booby and a noddy, a large crab that stole the fish intended for baby birds, a fly that lived on the booby and a parasitic tick. He found a moth that lived on feathers, a beetle, a woodlouse that lived on dung, and numerous spiders that he thought lived on scavengers of the waterfowl. Darwin felt that these rocks represented how life first took hold on a newly formed outcrop.〔(Darwin's description from Voyage of the Beagle ) Retrieved on 2009-07-16.〕 Darwin was correct in noting that, unusually, these small islands were not volcanic, but were instead formed by a geologic uplift.〔 Darwin's account formed the basis of a fictionalized episode in Patrick O'Brian's historical novel ''HMS. Surprise'', when the naturalist Stephen Maturin is briefly marooned and survives by drinking fouled rainwater and the blood of boobies.〔 *O'Brian, Patrick: ''H.M.S. Surprise'', W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 1973, Chapter 5, page 117.〕 Another famous person to visit the rocks was Ernest Shackleton, on his last expedition to Antarctica (1921-1922).〔 In 1942, during World War II, the islets were declared to be part of the Federal Territory of Fernando de Noronha (which also included the Rocas Atoll). In early 1960, the rocks served as the starting-point and terminus for the first submerged circumnavigation of the world by the American nuclear-powered submarine . 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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