Clipperton Island
Thursday, 9th April 2009 by Alex Steinberger
Clipperton Island, one of the most remote land masses on earth, is an uninhabited coral atoll under French authority, located in the Eastern Pacific Ocean approximately 1,120 kilometres south west of Mexico.
The island was named for John Clipperton, an English pirate who visited the island briefly in the 18th century and may have used it to hide treasure... which so far has never been found!1
12 kilometres in diameter, the ring-shaped island completely encloses a stagnant freshwater lagoon with many deep basins. One of these, known as "the bottomless hole," contains an extremely high concentration of sulphuric acid, making Clipperton a less than desirable vacation destination.
Add to that a severe lack of fresh water and an abundance of poisonous land crabs – and Clipperton Island shapes up to be the perfect location for an evil super-villain's island fortress of doom!
Though uninhabited today, at its peak around 1914 Clipperton was home to a group of 100 men, women and children, and was the site of a booming guano-mining2 operation.
Only three years later, only 10 women and children remained - thanks to a lack of supplies and a homicidal lighthouse keeper. Since then the island has only been visited periodically by French military patrols and the occasional scientific expedition.
poisonous land crabs?
By that I meant “fatal if ingested” …. but you get the idea.
I wanted some sort of Lime Green Spotted Snake/Crab Nuclear enduced hybrids =[
Now THAT would be awesome.
That’s what defines a poison, it’s something you ingest. I’d guess that Keith was mixing up poisonous and venomous
Note: I’m not a smartass, it just happened to be mentioned on an episode of QI the other week.
If, as you say, poison is ingested and venom is injected, then what do you call the toxin worn on the sleeves of the self-unfulfilled pseudo-intellectuals that can’t stand the contributions of others? I’d like to see people on these sights that don’t dis on each other to make themselves look good, at least in their own eyes….. feel free to correct my english…lol >>Beware I’ll defend the syntax and the main idea… that you are an idiot. ps. I like QI, too… I don’t drop it in conversation to tell people I’m smart; if they can’t tell…. well, I love all people and except them for who they are.
BTW – Love this sight and pics but research has shown the crabs to be neither poisonous if injested nor venomous. They’re just the uncontrolled ridder of all plant life on the island, excepting coco palms.:)
L’eau c’est la vie, a part une couche superficiel d’eau légèrement salée flottant a la surface du lagon, dans le fond c’est plutôt sulfuré, il faut vraiment avoir la passion pour vivre au bout du bout du monde.