Ball's Pyramid

Ball's Pyramid is an uninhabited rocky island that lies about 600 kilometers east of the Australian mainland in the Tasman Sea. It belongs to the Australian Lord Howe Island Group and is located approximately 20 kilometers southeast of Lord Howe Island, the main island of the group.

Geology

The nearly 1100 × 300 meters measured island consists mainly of an imposing, 562 m high rock in the form of a pyramid. Ball's Pyramid is the remains of about seven million year old shield volcano; the island and some smaller, they immediately surrounding islands ( approximately Observatory Rock and Wheatsheaf Islet South East Rock ) are part of the marine reserve Iceland Lord Howe Marine Park.

History

The rock island was discovered in 1788 by the British naval officer Henry Lidgbird ball during the screening of the much larger neighboring Lord Howe Island. The first ascent of the Rock on 14 February 1965, by Australian rope team from Sydney. Since 1982, the climbing is prohibited on Ball's Pyramid. In Ball's Pyramid was on an expedition in the years 2000/2001 a big, long considered extinct species of stick insects, the so-called tree lobster, rediscovered.