Heard and McDonald Islands - (World Heritage Natural Site in Australia)

Heard and McDonald Islands - Australia

Short Report

Heard Island and McDonald islands are located in the Southern Ocean, approximately 1700 km of the Antarctic continent and 4,100 km south-west of Perth. As the only volcanically active subantarctic islands they 'open a window on the world', thus providing the opportunity to current geomorphic processes and dynamics. The striking conservation value of Heard Island and McDonald - one of the world's rare unspoilt island ecosystems - is located in the complete absence of foreign plants and animals, as well as the human consequences.

Wonderful Universal Importance

Brief synthesis

Heard Island and McDonald islands are sub-Antarctic volcanic islands situated in the southern part of the Indian Ocean about halfway between Australia and South Africa and slightly more than 1600 km of Antarctica. The property covers a total area of 658,903 ha of which approximately 37,000 hectares is terrestrial, and the rest marine. The islands are a unique wilderness, which excellent examples of biological and physical processes continuously in a practical not be disturbed by people.

Heard Island is dominated by Big Ben (an active volcano rises to a height of 2,745 meters), and is largely covered by snow and glaciers. McDonald Island is much smaller, because the only 100 hectares at the time of inclusion and is surrounded by several smaller rocks and islands. The only active sub-Antarctic volcanoes are located on the islands, with the volcano on McDonald Island of inscription and doubling the size of the island. The archipelago the physical processes provide valuable indicators of the role of crustal plates in the formation of ocean basins and continents, of dynamic glacial changes in the coastal and aquatic environment and atmospheric and oceanic warming of the earth. The large populations seabirds and marine mammals, combined with a virtual absence of introduced species, make for a unique arena for the conservation of biological and evolutionary processes.

The islands are excellent examples of important current geological processes that occur in an essentially peaceful surroundings, in particular physical processes which provide insight into the role of crustal plates in the formation of ocean basins and continents, atmospheric and oceanic warming of the earth. The islands are characteristic under oceanic islands would be based on a large submarine plateau that in this case bends Antarctic circumpolar region is divided into north, with striking consequences for geomorphological processes. They also offer an active example of plume volcanism, offers a direct geological evidence of the action of the longest operational plume system known in the world. This includes information on plume interaction with overlying crustal plates, as well as understanding of mantle plume composition as a result of the widest possible range of isotopic composition of strontium, neodymium, lead and helium known of oceanic island volcano system. Big Ben on Heard Island is the only known continuously active volcano on a sub-Antarctic island, while the volcano on MacDonald Island was recently active again after a 75,000 year dormancy, have increased substantially since inscription. Heard Island relatively shallow and fast-flowing glaciers rapidly respond to climate change, faster than any other glaciers elsewhere, making them of particular interest in the monitoring of climate change. They fluctuated in recent decades and have retreated significantly.

The islands also provide crucial, alien free habitat for large populations seabirds and marine mammals, such as large breeding populations of seals, white-chinned petrels, albatrosses which dive and penguins. Endemic species show current evolutionary processes include the Heard cormorant, the endemic subspecies of the Heard sheathbill, and a number of endemic invertebrates (some endemic Heard Island and McDonald islands and some persistent problems in the Heard and McDonald Islands-Kerguelen region).

Wide Report

The Australian external territory of Heard Island and Mcdonald Islands is located in a secluded and stormy part of the world, at the meeting point of Antarctica and temperate waters of the ocean in the Indian Ocean, the Southern Ocean about 1,500 km north of Antarctica and 4,000 km south-west of Australia. The islands were unknown to humanity until the 19th century. As the only volcanically active subantarctic islands they 'open a window on the World', thus providing the opportunity to current geomorphic processes and dynamics. The striking conservation value of Heard Island and McDonald - one of the world's rare unspoilt island ecosystems - is located in the complete absence of foreign plants and animals.

Heard Island is the main island of the property. Mawson Peak at 2,745 m, is the summit of the Big Ben, an active, towering volcano dominates the group, with a thick mantle of snow and ice cream contrasting black volcanic rocks in a surprising range of models and forms. The last major eruption on the Big Ben was in 1992, but it is clear from other observations continuous activity of small steam and smoke. The western wind above the Southern Ocean in these latitudes unique weather patterns when faced with the enormous bulk of the Big Ben, including spectacular cloud formations around the top and incredibly rapid changes in wind, clouds, and precipitation. McDonald Island, 43.5 km west of Heard Island, the largest island in the McDonald Islands group, which also consists of Flat Island and Meyer Rock. The Island, also volcanic origin and, as Heard, is a undisturbed habitat subantarctic for plants and animals and consists of two distinct parts connected by a narrow isthmus central.

Through the years the islands is a wide range of animals, seals, flying birds, penguins, including 2 million pairs of macaroni penguin represent 16% of the world's population. The other exceptional landforms on the islands are: the whistling of Cape Pillar on McDonald Island and the solitary pinnacle of Meyer Rock; The caves and other lava formations of the northern Heard peninsulas; the smoking caldera of Mawson Peak above the palaeocaldera Big Ben; the western sea cliffs of McDonald Island; the sand drifts of the Nullarbor Plain; and the extensive, dynamic spit.

It is the only subantarctic island group to contain no known species directly by the human rights, making it valuable that within one location, an intact set of interrelated ecosystems; terrestrial and freshwater, coastal and marine, in which the further development of plants and animals in nature. The remains of the gangs who occupied heard after the first landing in 1855 to 1929 can be found on the island.

Source:whc/unesco