Macquarie Island

March 11, 2023

Tasmania (Australia) has planned to give greater protection to Macquarie Island (also declared a World Heritage Area).
Macquarie Island is an oceanic island in the Southern Ocean, lying south-east of Tasmania.
Several seabird species, including penguins and albatross, have been recorded on Macquarie Island.
It is the only place on earth where rocks from earth’s mantle are being actively exposed above sea-level.
- These unique exposures include excellent examples of pillow basalts and other extrusive rocks.
Island is exposed crest of undersea Macquarie Ridge, raised to its present position where Indo-Australian tectonic plate meets Pacific plate.
- Macquarie Ridge impedes the eastward flow of a current called Antarctic Circumpolar Circulation.