Heard Island and McDonald Islands
Heard Island and McDonald (English: Heard and McDonald Islands Iceland ) are an Australian external territory in the southern Indian Ocean. The area has the official name of the Territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands Iceland (abbreviation: HIMI ).
Originally claimed by Great Britain island region in 1947 Australia passed. Are administered the islands from the Australian Antarctic Division Department of Sustainability in, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, Canberra.
- 2.1 discovery
- 2.2 Exploration
Geography
The territory is located 1668 km north of Ostantarktika, 3843 km south-west of Western Australia and 4205 km south-east of Africa. The next country, the Kerguelen Islands, 445 km to the northwest.
It consists of the Heard Island Shag with the neighboring island as well as the 43 km west of it located McDonald Islands, from a large number of small rocky islands and the sea area around the islands. The area has a total area of about 6500 km ², of which only about 370 km ² land area, however, are. Heard Island has an area of 368 km ², the McDonald Islands are only about 2 km ² in size.
On the island Heard is the 2745 m high active volcano Mawson Peak, also known as "Big Ben", the highest mountain in Australia. It is 517 meters higher than Mount Kosciuszko on the Australian mainland.
The Islands Heard and McDonald consist of volcanic rock and limestone. You are on the Kerguelenplateau, an undersea mountain range, which extends 3700 m above the sea floor. The islands are two of the three courses ( with the Kerguelen Islands), where the Kerguelenplateau or greater Gaussberg - Kerguelen seamounts protrude above the surface of the water addition.
Environment
The archipelago is a protected nature reserve, home to seals and birds.
On the Heard Island is one of seven breeding areas of king penguin.
On the islands there are no foreign species, an almost unique worldwide event. Australia allows a maximum of 400 visitors per year, more than 60 at a time to enter. In 1997, the archipelago was declared a marine reserve, the Heard and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve Iceland by the UNESCO World Heritage Site and in 2002 by Australia.
Geology
The Heard Island has an east- west distance of 40 km and a north- south extent of 26 km. The topography is dominated by Mawson Peak. The Big Ben has a circumference of 21 km, the mountain has been climbed several times.
Until 1992, the Big Ben was the only active volcano in Australia. Since this year it came to 75,000 years resting phase to a chain of eruptions on the neighboring island of McDonald, whose surface has since nearly doubled by the magma flows.
Heard Island is both karstic and volcanic. About 80 % of the island surface is covered with ice. On Big Ben can count fourteen glaciers that are up to 7 km long and 10 km ². The individual glaciers (listed from north clockwise ) are: Downes, Ealey, Compton, Brown, Stephenson, Winston, Fiftyone, Deacock, Gotley, song, Abbotsmith, Allison, Schmidt and Baudissin. The development of the glaciers is an indicator of global warming, 1947, she submitted yet to the sea, now they end up several hundred meters inland.
History
Discovery
The American Captain John Heard, go down with his ship Oriental, sighted the island on November 25, 1853, during a trip from Boston to Melbourne. He reported the discovery officially on December 24. A little later, on 4 January 1854 discovered Captain William McDonald aboard the ship Samarang the island McDonald near Heard Island. Scattered reports of previous discoveries are doubtful.
Captain Erasmus Darwin Rogers landed for the first time in March 1855 on the island. Between 1855 and 1880 spent some American sealers a year or more on the island. 1880, the seal population was almost completely wiped out and the sealers left the island.
Research
1874 gathered scientists from the HMS Challenger geological and botanical material. Between 1900 and 1929, several frustrating attempts whaling took place. 1902 visited Baron Erich von Drygalski, head of the German South Polar Expedition, with the ship Gauss the island and introduced the first comprehensive scientific material together on the geology, flora and fauna of the island.
In 1929 the French geologist Aubert de la Rue in some studies when he came up with a whaler to the island. In the same year Sir Douglas Mawson, leader of the British, Australian and New Zealand Expedition ( BANZARE ) visited the island Heard for a week when he was on the way to Antarctica. A shelter was built, the castaways would serve as a shelter. Remnants of the cabin still stand today.
The first Australian Antarctic Research Expedition ( ANARE ) built a station at Atlas Cove on the western end of the island in December 1947. Overall, there were 10 to 15 employees on the permanently manned station, which was closed in 1955.
Research teams from the U.S. were also stationed at Atlas Cove for a year, where they built their own huts. More cabins were built 1970-1971 by French and Australian researchers. The last ANARE expedition stayed for a year and took advantage of a base at the Spit Bay.
Others
The islands have, although they are uninhabited, with. Hm their own top -level domain.