Talk:Gough Island

Diego Alvarez
What is the connection here, and why is this name attached to it? --MacRusgail 17:50, 24 September 2007 (UTC)


 * That name is a historical one (origins explained in the 'History' section), no longer used, and as such probably not worth mentioning in the Introduction. Apcbg 20:43, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

Area of Gough Island
According to this website which is part of the North Dakota State University website, the area of Gough Island is 65 square kilometres. This is considerably different from the size given in the article (91 square km). Is there any authoritative evidence for the size of the island given in the article? If not, it would it be better to go with the size quoted by the university. Michael Glass (talk) 03:00, 30 May 2009 (UTC)
 * The source for the 35 square mile value is the South African science program which staffs the weather station on the island. The North Dakota website does not cite its sources and does not appear to have any connection to the island. Of the two, go with the SA program as the reliable source. Jonathunder (talk) 17:14, 3 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Also see the website of the 54th South-African expedition to Gough Island, which says: "The island is roughly 65 km2 large, 14.5 km long and up to 6.5 km wide."

Gonçalo Álvares
The only name found for Gough Island in original maps from the 15 through 18 hundreds is Gonçalo Álvares (occasionaly hispanicized to Gonzalo Alvarez). Diego Álvarez is an obviously wrong denomination that only appeared, in a very few maps, after the island had already been rechristened Gough Island, and there is no reason reference or use it as historical name. While it would be interesting, as a curiosity, to trace the origin of this mistake, the sources for its true historical name, which honors its unquestionable discoverer, are abundant. To name but a few:

Ortelius, Abraham. Typus Orbis Terrarum. Antwerp, 1570. []

Mercator, R. Orbis Terrae Compendiosa Descriptio. Amsterdam, 1587.

Vrient, Joanem Baptistam. Orbis Terrae Compendiosa Descriptio Ex peritissimorum totius orbis Gaeographorum operibus desumta. Antverpiae, 1596.

Speed, John. A New and Accurate Map of the World. London, 1626.

Visscher, Nicolaes Orbis Terrarum Nova Et Accuratissima Tabula. 1658.

Blaeu, Wilhelm. Africae nova descriptio. Amsterdam 1663.

Blaeu, Joan. Nova et accuratissima totius terrarum orbis tabula. Amsterdam, 1664?

Pitt, Moses Orbis Terrarum Nova Et Accuratissima Tabula. London, 1680.

Matthaus, Merian. Nova descriptio Africae, Antwerp, 1683

Rossacio, G. - Orbis Terrae Compendiosa Descriptio - Venice, 1713.

Zarcoen (talk) 02:01, 2 December 2009 (UTC)

Recent specific edits
I have some concerns about this set of edits. While I see no reason to disbelieve the IP only editor, some cited material has been removed. This is not my subject, so needs attention from a content expert. So I am flagging it here for further thought. Fiddle Faddle (talk) 18:52, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

Pronounced
Pronounced "Guff", no? Or is it "Goff"? There are several English pronunciations of -ough.--Wetman (talk) 16:38, 6 September 2013 (UTC)


 * The IPA pronunciation in the lead states that it's pronounced "goff" like "cough". That's unreferenced, but "goff" is certainly how I've heard it said. - htonl (talk) 17:20, 6 September 2013 (UTC)

To the Gough Overwintering Teams
You guys should be improving this article during those long stormy nights. Some of you are scientists after all! But also it would be quite nice to know a bit more about the geography of the place - you guys get to know it so intimately. I'm only jealous! ;-) Pingu7931 (talk) 19:20, 12 February 2014 (UTC)

To WikiProject World Heritage Sites
Please not that I modified the Gough and Inaccessible Islands page which was a redirect to Gough Island as a page for UNESCO WHS stuff - the term "Gough and Inaccessible Islands" ONLY relates to the UNESCO WHS.

I copied the infobox you had on ‎the old Gough Island to that page and changed the Gough Island and Inaccessible Island infoboxes to island template infoboxes which makes much more sense. It will also make the pages much more maintainable for you guys. I've included references from each island page to the WHS page. Pingu7931 (talk) 19:26, 12 February 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on Gough Island. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20121012070944/http://www.btinternet.com:80/~sa_sa/gough_island/gough_island.html to http://www.btinternet.com/~sa_sa/gough_island/gough_island.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 10:17, 9 January 2016 (UTC)

Map scale for relief map
The relief map has a scale given as 1cm = 65,000m (65km)

The island is roughly 16km long which at that scale would make it appear as only 0.25cm on the map at that scale. My guess is that the author meant that the map has a 1/65000 scale (1cm=650m) which would make more sense.

Dave Davies 16:50, 19 January 2019 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Daveayerstdavies (talk • contribs)