page_title: Tristan da Cunha
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: Tristan da Cunha / Geography
caption_attribution_description: English: The island of Tristan da Cunha as seen from space. Hrvatski: Otok Tristan da Cunha viđen iz svemira
context_page_description: Tristan da Cunha, colloquially Tristan, is a remote group of volcanic islands in the south Atlantic Ocean. It is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, lying approximately 1,511 miles off the coast of Cape Town in South Africa, 1,343 miles from Saint Helena and 2,166 miles off the coast of the Falkland Islands.
  The territory consists of the inhabited island, Tristan da Cunha, which has a diameter of roughly 11 kilometres and an area of 98 square kilometres, and the wildlife reserves of Gough Island and Inaccessible Island and the smaller, uninhabited Nightingale Islands. As of October 2018, the main island has 250 permanent inhabitants who all carry British Overseas Territories citizenship. The other islands are uninhabited, except for the South African personnel of a weather station on Gough Island.
  Tristan da Cunha is a British Overseas Territory with its own constitution. There is no airstrip of any kind on the main island; the only way of travelling in and out of Tristan is by boat, a six-day trip from South Africa.
context_section_description: Tristan da Cunha is thought to have been formed by a long-lived centre of upwelling mantle called the Tristan hotspot. Tristan da Cunha is the main island of the Tristan da Cunha archipelago, which consists of the following islands:
  Tristan da Cunha, the main and largest island, area: 98 square kilometres (37.8 sq mi) (37°6′44″S 12°16′56″W)
  Inaccessible Island, area: 14 square kilometres (5.4 sq mi)
  Nightingale Islands, area: 3.4 square kilometres (1.3 sq mi)
  Nightingale Island, area: 3.2 square kilometres (1.2 sq mi)
  Middle Island, area: 0.1 square kilometres (25 acres)
  Stoltenhoff Island, area: 0.1 square kilometres (25 acres)
  Gough Island (Diego Alvarez), area: 91 square kilometres (35 sq mi)
  Inaccessible Island and the Nightingale Islands are 35 kilometres (22 mi) SW by W and SSW away from the main island, respectively, whereas Gough Island is 395 kilometres (245 mi) SSE.
  The main island is generally mountainous. The only flat area is on the north-west coast, which is the location of the only settlement, Edinburgh of the Seven Seas. The highest point is the summit of a volcano called Queen Mary's Peak at an elevation of 2,062 metres (6,765 ft), high enough to develop snow cover in winter. The other islands of the group are uninhabited, except for a weather station with a staff of six on Gough Island, which has been operated by South Africa since 1956 and has been at its present location at Transvaal Bay on the southeast coast since 1963.
caption: Tristan da Cunha on 6 February 2013, as seen from the International Space Station
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