Kermadec Islands

The Kermadec Islands are Kermadecinseln or an island chain of several small islands in the southwest Pacific belonging to New Zealand since 1887 and there are some of the New Zealand Outlying Islands. Is named the archipelago after the French navigator Jean Michel Huon de Kermadec.

Geography and Geology

The subtropical volcanic Kermadecinseln are located approximately at 30 ° S latitude and 177 ° west longitude. 983 km northeast of New Zealand ( North Island ) they are the most northerly outpost of this country, which is a special economic zone. Their total land area is 34 km ².

East of the Kermadecinseln is the deep groove of up to 10,047 m deep Kermadecgrabens where the Pacific plate slides under the Australian Plate. This is the cause for the active volcanism of Kermadecinseln, which are the tips of geologically young and rising from the seabed volcanoes.

Population

On the main island Raoul Iceland ( 29.38 km ²), formerly called Sunday, there is a meteorological station. Otherwise, the island is now uninhabited, as well as the smaller islands Macauley, Curtis, Cheeseman and L' Esperance. Raoul has also only one of the islands through drinking water. That is why the traces of early Polynesian settlement focus on Raoul. There a European operated a whaling station in the 19th century also temporarily followed the tentative settlement attempts by Europeans. There are some reported archaeological sites on Raoul.

Environment

In November 1990, an up to twelve nautical miles into the ocean beyond excellent area for Kermadec Islands Marine Reserve, the largest marine reserve in New Zealand explains. The ocean currents around the Kermadecinseln are very important for temperature equilibration between mainland New Zealand and the tropical waters. There are scores of corals, but which have not, as otherwise formed in the Pacific usual to riffs.

Wildlife

A subspecies of goat parakeet, the Kermadec parakeet ( Cyanoramphus cyanurus novaezelandiae ) is native to the Kermadecinseln. On Raoul and the Tui occurs. Headquartered in The whole South Pacific Kermadec Petrel is named after the islands and can be observed all year round in the waters surrounding the island group. The New Zealand government has let the entrained goats ( 1984), cats ( 2002) and rats ( 2006) eradicated on the islands Raoul and Macauley. Since then, a recovery of stocks can be observed both in the sea birds as well as the goats parakeets.