Macquarie Island

Macquarie Island Latest News

An earthquake of magnitude 6.0 on the Richter Scale jolted the West of Macquarie Island recently.

About Macquarie Island

• It is located around 1,500 km southeast of Tasmania, Australia, in the Pacific Ocean.
• It is located about halfway between Australia and Antarctica.
• The island is about 34 kilometers (21 miles) long and 5 kilometers (3 miles) wide.
• No people live there permanently today.
• The island is the exposed crest of the undersea Macquarie Ridge, raised to its present position where the Indo-Australian tectonic plate meets the Pacific plate. 
• It is a site of major geoconservation significance, being the only place on earth where rocks from the earth’s mantle (6 km below the ocean floor) are being actively exposed above sea level. 
• Macquarie Ridge is one of only 3 such ridges that impede the Antarctic Circumpolar Circulation.
• This results in distinct differences between the west and east sides of the ridge, which are used in different ways by different species.
• Although the island is treeless, there are a variety of native vegetation types, including grasses and many species of moss. 
• There are a few small glacial lakes.
• Fauna: It is home to 4 species of penguins and 4 species of albatross, the island recorded 57 seabird species. 
• Regionally part of Oceania and politically a part of Tasmania, Australia, since 1900, it became a Tasmanian State Reserve in 1978 and was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.

Source: ZEEB

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