The island lies 1,700 km (1,100 mi) north of the Princess Astrid Coast of Queen Maud Land, Antarctica, 1,870 km (1,160 mi) east of the South Sandwich Islands, 1,845 km (1,146 mi) south of Gough Island, and 2,520 km (1,570 mi) south-southwest of the coast of South Africa. It has an area of 49 km2 (19 sq mi), 93 percent of which is covered by a glacier. The centre of the island is the ice-filled crater of an inactive volcano. Some skerries and one smaller island, Larsøya, lie along its coast. Nyrøysa, created by a rock slide in the late 1950s, is the only easy place to land and is the location of a weather station.

The island from space: