World Heritage Identification Number: 629
World Heritage since: 1997
Category: Natural Heritage
Transboundary Heritage: No
Endangered Heritage: No
Country: 🇦🇺 Australia
Continent: Oceania
UNESCO World Region: Asia and the Pacific
Map
Geological Marvel and Biodiversity Haven: An Overview of Macquarie Island
Geological Marvel and Biodiversity Haven: An Overview of Macquarie Island
More to come…UNESCO Description of the World Heritage Site
Macquarie Island (34 km long x 5 km wide) is an oceanic island in the Southern Ocean, lying 1,500 km south-east of Tasmania and approximately halfway between Australia and the Antarctic continent. 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. These unique exposures include excellent examples of pillow basalts and other extrusive rocks.
UNESCO Justification of the World Heritage Site
The Committee decided that the site provides an unique example of exposure of the ocean crust above the sea level and of geological evidence for sea-floor spreading, and is an exposure of the oceanic plate boundary between the Pacific and Australian/Indian plates, exposed with active faults and ongoing tectonic movements.
Encyclopedia Record: Macquarie Island
Macquarie Island is a subantarctic island in the south-western Pacific Ocean, about halfway between New Zealand and Antarctica. It has been governed as a part of Tasmania, Australia, since 1880. It became a Tasmanian State Reserve in 1978 and was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.Additional Site Details
Area: 557,280 hectares
(viii) — Outstanding example representing major earth stages
Coordinates: -54.59472222 , 158.8955556
Image
M. Murphy, Public domain
