Red Island (Heard and McDonald Islands)

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Red Island
Map of Heard and the McDonald Islands with Red Island (top center)
Map of Heard and the McDonald Islands with Red Island (top center)
Waters Indian Ocean
Archipelago Heard and McDonald Islands
Geographical location 52 ° 57 '52 "  S , 73 ° 18' 23"  O Coordinates: 52 ° 57 '52 "  S , 73 ° 18' 23"  O
Red Island (Heard and McDonald Islands) (Indian Ocean)
Red Island (Heard and McDonald Islands)
length 550 m
width 450 m
Highest elevation 95  m
Residents uninhabited

Red Iceland ( English for Red Island is) an up to 95  m high island from "dark red lava " in the archipelago Heard and McDonald Islands in the southern Indian Ocean . It is located 800 m north of the Laurens Peninsula from Heard , with which it is connected by a sandy, low and narrow isthmus , a so-called tombolo . This in turn is characterized by the centrally located Roman lagoon .

The island consists of an ash cone and an adjoining lava field . Only the eastern flank of the cone, consisting of a 2 m thick layer of trachyte , which in turn is covered by a 30 m thick layer of ash and breccia , has been preserved. The western part, on the other hand, has been washed away by the sea. In the longitudinal section through the cliffs close to the lake on the north side, five to six lava flows are included; an older lava flow already covered with vegetation runs east and south.

On Red Island there is a colony of about 30 pairs of the Heard endemic Heard shark ( Phalacrocorax nivalis ).

It received its descriptive name from the American seal hunters who operated in the waters around the archipelago from 1855. The island is "easily distinguishable by its color."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sir Clements Robert Markham : The Voyage of the Challenger . In: The Geographical Magazine , Volume 1, Trübner & Company, 1874, p. 289. Retrieved from Google Books on July 4, 2018 (English): “ […] dark red Lava […] ”.
  2. ↑ Kevin Kiernan, Anne McConnell: Geomorphology of the Sub-Antarctic Australian Territory of Heard Island-McDonald Island. In: Australian Geographer . Volume 30, No. 2, 1999, pp. 159–195, here p. 181. Retrieved from Taylor & Francis Online on July 5, 2018 (English).
  3. ↑ Patrick G. Quilty, Graeme Wheller: Heard Island and the McDonald Islands: a window into the Kerguelen Plateau (PDF; 486 kB). In: Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania . Volume 133, No. 2, 2000, p. 8. Retrieved from core.ac.uk on July 4, 2018 (English).
  4. ↑ Eric Woehler, Heidi Auman, Martin Riddle: Heard Island's seabirds under scrutiny . In: Australian Antarctic Magazine . Volume 1, 2001, pp. 12-14 (English).
  5. ^ Alexander George Findlay: A Directory for the Navigation of the Indian Ocean. 3rd Edition, Richard Holmes Laurie, London, 1876, p. 309. Retrieved from Google Books on July 5, 2018 (English): “ […] readily distinguished by its color ”.