HERITAGE RECORD · 629

Macquarie Island

麦夸里岛

The official record, selection criteria and sourced cultural context.

World Heritage record

Macquarie Island (34 km long x 5 km wide) is an oceanic island in the Southern Ocean, lying 1,500 km south-east of Tasmania and approximately halfway between Australia and the Antarctic continent. The island is the exposed crest of the undersea Macquarie Ridge, raised to its present position where the Indo-Australian tectonic plate meets the Pacific plate. It is a site of major geoconservation significance, being the only place on earth where rocks from the earth’s mantle (6 km below the ocean floor) are being actively exposed above sea-level. These unique exposures include excellent examples of pillow basalts and other extrusive rocks.

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Selection criteria

This property was inscribed under the following World Heritage Convention criteria.

(vii)Superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance.

(viii)An outstanding record of Earth’s history, geological processes or significant landforms.

Cultural archive

Record lead

UNESCO record lead

Brief synthesis Macquarie Island lies almost 1,500 kilometres to the southeast of Tasmania, about half-way between Australia and Antarctica.

Source-led archive lead · 86%Source ↗

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