large island in the Bellingshausen Sea, separated from the Antarctica mainland by the George VI Sound. An extremely rugged region with peaks up to 9,800 feet (2,987 m) above sea level, it is 270 miles (435 km) long and up to 125 miles (200 km) wide and has an area of about 16,700 square miles (43,250 square km). The Russian explorers Bellingshausen and Lazarev discovered the land in 1821 and named it after the Russian tsar. It was believed to be part of the mainland until 1940, when a U.S. expedition proved it to be an island, connected to the continent by a 20-mile-wide floating ice shelf. Alexander Island has been claimed by Britain (since 1908), by Chile (1940), and by Argentina (1942). It also has been the site of a British research station.