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Macquarie Island (14 photos)
Macquarie Island - one of the most remote is not the Australian mainland. It is located in the Pacific Ocean and a half thousand kilometers to the southeast of the island of Tasmania. Macquarie equidistant from New Zealand and Antarctica.
The island is small - 128 km? .. At length he stretched 34 km, width - 5 km. It is an above-water part of the volcanic plateau Macquarie. The highest point of the island - 410 m (Hamilton Mountain and Fletcher).
Frederick Hasselboro Island opened in 1810 and named in honor of the Governor-General of New South Wales Lachlan Macquarie. The first map of the island in 1820 was Thaddeus Bellingshausen.
Macquarie Island was formed by the collision of the Indo-Australian and Pacific tectonic plates. On the island you can see the ancient volcanic rocks, have risen after a collision with a depth of 6-7 km from the Earth's mantle. The area is seismically active.
Macquarie is under the jurisdiction of the Australian state of Tasmania. Permanent population of the island is not. Basically, it is visited by scientists who work for established research station Macquarie Island.
Typical weather for Macquarie Island - windy, wet with drizzle or fog.
The annual precipitation - about 1000 mm. Frequent strong hurricane winds.
In 1997, Macquarie Island was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
The vegetation of the island is exceptional grass (sedge, tussok, Macquarie cabbage, brown algae).
The fauna is rich in many representatives of fauna - penguins (Royal, donkey, Gentoo Penguin Macquarie Adelie Imperial), whales, numerous birds, parrots, albatrosses, seals.
Penguin Macquarie (Schlegel) - medium-sized penguin. Adult growth reach 70 cm and weight of approximately 6 kg. This type of penguin breeds only on Macquarie Island, in which he was named. However, the adult penguins spend most of their time in the ocean far from the island, where they feed on krill, small fish, zooplankton.
On the island of penguins usually form colonies of up to 500 thousand individuals, but sometimes there are small colonies of up to 200 pairs.
Here is found the New Zealand fur seal. Outside the mating season, the New Zealand fur seals are traveling and are also found in other places. First of all Macquarie Island year-round full of young males who are not yet able to lay claim to its own territory.
In 2000, Macquarie Island, in the South Pacific, were exterminated all cats. And today this territorrii is on the verge of ecological precipice. Incredibly bred rabbits, which no one else to restrain actively destroy the flora of the island: vegetation Macquarie is so thinned that negative changes are visible even from outer space.
Text: www.citypicture.ru
Photo: www.flickr.com
Source:
The island is small - 128 km? .. At length he stretched 34 km, width - 5 km. It is an above-water part of the volcanic plateau Macquarie. The highest point of the island - 410 m (Hamilton Mountain and Fletcher).
Frederick Hasselboro Island opened in 1810 and named in honor of the Governor-General of New South Wales Lachlan Macquarie. The first map of the island in 1820 was Thaddeus Bellingshausen.
Macquarie Island was formed by the collision of the Indo-Australian and Pacific tectonic plates. On the island you can see the ancient volcanic rocks, have risen after a collision with a depth of 6-7 km from the Earth's mantle. The area is seismically active.
Macquarie is under the jurisdiction of the Australian state of Tasmania. Permanent population of the island is not. Basically, it is visited by scientists who work for established research station Macquarie Island.
Typical weather for Macquarie Island - windy, wet with drizzle or fog.
The annual precipitation - about 1000 mm. Frequent strong hurricane winds.
In 1997, Macquarie Island was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
The vegetation of the island is exceptional grass (sedge, tussok, Macquarie cabbage, brown algae).
The fauna is rich in many representatives of fauna - penguins (Royal, donkey, Gentoo Penguin Macquarie Adelie Imperial), whales, numerous birds, parrots, albatrosses, seals.
Penguin Macquarie (Schlegel) - medium-sized penguin. Adult growth reach 70 cm and weight of approximately 6 kg. This type of penguin breeds only on Macquarie Island, in which he was named. However, the adult penguins spend most of their time in the ocean far from the island, where they feed on krill, small fish, zooplankton.
On the island of penguins usually form colonies of up to 500 thousand individuals, but sometimes there are small colonies of up to 200 pairs.
Here is found the New Zealand fur seal. Outside the mating season, the New Zealand fur seals are traveling and are also found in other places. First of all Macquarie Island year-round full of young males who are not yet able to lay claim to its own territory.
In 2000, Macquarie Island, in the South Pacific, were exterminated all cats. And today this territorrii is on the verge of ecological precipice. Incredibly bred rabbits, which no one else to restrain actively destroy the flora of the island: vegetation Macquarie is so thinned that negative changes are visible even from outer space.
Text: www.citypicture.ru
Photo: www.flickr.com
Source: