Kermadec Islands

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Kermadec Islands
Rangitāhua
LocationKermadecIslands.PNG
Location (in green rectangle) in the Pacific Ocean
Karta NZ Kermadec isl.PNG
Geography
Coordinates 29°16′37″S177°55′24″W / 29.27694°S 177.92333°W / -29.27694; -177.92333
Total islandsaround 16
Area33.6 km2 (13.0 sq mi)
Highest elevation516 m (1693 ft)
Administration
Demographics
Population0 [1] (2006)

The Kermadec Islands ( /ˈkɜːrmədɛk/ KUR-mə-dek; Māori : Rangitāhua) [2] are a subtropical island arc in the South Pacific Ocean 800–1,000 km (500–620 mi) northeast of New Zealand's North Island, and a similar distance southwest of Tonga. The islands are part of New Zealand. They are 33.6 km2 (13.0 sq mi) [3] in total area and uninhabited, except for the permanently staffed Raoul Island Station, the northernmost outpost of New Zealand.

Contents

The islands are listed with the New Zealand outlying islands. The islands are an immediate part of New Zealand, but not part of any region or district, but instead an Area Outside Territorial Authority.

Toponymy

The islands were named after the Breton captain Jean-Michel Huon de Kermadec, who visited the islands as part of the d'Entrecasteaux expedition in the 1790s. The topographic particle "Kermadec" is of Breton origin and is a lieu-dit in Pencran in Finistère where ker means village, residence and madec a proper name derived from mad (which means 'good') with the suffix -ec , used to form adjectives indicating a property.

The Māori name is Rangitāhua which is also used for Raoul island.

History

As indicated by their name for the islands, Rangitāhua (lit.'the stopping-off place'), Polynesian people "stopped off" on the Kermadec islands in around the 14th century (and perhaps previously in the 10th century). [4] Their arrival is also evident in the presence of introduced taro and candlenut growing wild in certain areas of Raoul Island supported by its relatively warm climate. [5] However, the first Europeans to reach the area arriving on board the Lady Penrhyn in May 1788 found no inhabitants on these volcanic islands since.

British, American and Australian whaling vessels cruised offshore in the 19th century and often visited the islands in search of water, wood and food. The first such vessel on record was the whaler Fanny that visited Raoul Island in 1823. [6]

On 1 August 1886, HMS Diamond annexed the islands for the United Kingdom. [7] European settlers have lived on the island for varying lengths of time, from the early nineteenth century until 1937, growing food for the whalers. [8] The Thomas Bell family settled on the island from 1878 to 1914. One of the Bell daughters, Bessie Dyke, recounted the family's experience to writer Elsie K. Morton who published their story in 1957 as Crusoes of Sunday Island. [9]

The islands were annexed to New Zealand in 1887 according to one source. [10] However the Encyclopaedia of New Zealand states the annexation happened in 1886. [8]

Raoul Island Station

Raoul Island from space Raoul Island, New Zealand (STS008-36-1403, cropped rotated).jpg
Raoul Island from space

The Raoul Island Station consists of a government meteorological and radio station, and a hostel for Department of Conservation officers and volunteers, that has been maintained since 1937. [11] It lies on the northern terraces of Raoul Island, at an elevation of about 50 m (160 ft), above the cliffs of Fleetwood Bluff. It is the northernmost inhabited outpost of New Zealand.

Nuclear testing proposals

In 1955, the British Government required a large site remote from population centres to test the new thermonuclear devices it was developing. Various islands in the South Pacific and Southern Oceans were considered, along with Antarctica. [12] In May 1955, the Minister for Defence, Selwyn Lloyd, on advice from the Admiralty report, concluded that the Kermadec Islands would be suitable. As the island group was part of New Zealand, Anthony Eden, who had recently become the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, wrote to the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Sidney Holland, to ask for permission to use the islands. Holland refused, fearing an adverse public reaction in the upcoming 1957 general election. Despite reassurances and pressure from the British government, Holland remained firm. [13]

Geography

The islands lie within 29° to 31.5° south latitude and 178° to 179° west longitude, 800–1,000 km (500–620 mi) northeast of New Zealand's North Island, and a similar distance southwest of Tonga. The total area of the islands is 33.6 km2 (12.97 sq mi).

Climate

The climate of the islands is subtropical, with a mean monthly temperature of 22.4 °C (72.3 °F) in February and 16.0 °C (60.8 °F) in August. Rainfall is approximately 1,500 mm (60 in) annually, with lower rainfall from October to January.

Islands

View from Raoul Island Nugent Meyer Dayrell Islands.jpg
View from Raoul Island

The group includes four main islands as well as some isolated rocks. These are:

Seamounts north and south of the Kermadec Islands are an extension of the ridge running from Tonga to New Zealand (see Geology). Star of Bengal Bank, 103 km (64 mi) south-southwest of L'Esperance Rock, has a least depth of 48 metres (157 ft).

Geology

Bathymetry of the Kermadec volcanic island arc and surrounding areas Kermadec Arc.jpg
Bathymetry of the Kermadec volcanic island arc and surrounding areas

The islands are a volcanic island arc, formed at the convergent boundary where the Pacific Plate subducts under the Indo-Australian Plate. The subducting Pacific Plate created the Kermadec Trench, an 8 km deep submarine trench, to the east of the islands. The islands lie along the undersea Kermadec Ridge, which runs southwest from the islands towards the North Island of New Zealand and northeast towards Tonga (Kermadec-Tonga Arc).

The four main islands are the peaks of volcanoes that rise high enough from the seabed to project above sea level. There are several other volcanoes in the chain that do not reach sea level, but form seamounts with between 65 and 1500 m of water above their peaks. Monowai Seamount, with a depth of 120 m over its peak, is midway between Raoul Island and Tonga. 100 km south of L'Esperance Rock is the little-explored Star of Bengal Bank, probably with submarine volcanoes.

Further south are the South Kermadec Ridge Seamounts, the southernmost of which, Rumble IV Seamount, is just 150 km North of the North Island of New Zealand. The ridge eventually connects to White Island in New Zealand's Bay of Plenty, at the northern end of the Taupo Volcanic Zone. The islands experience many earthquakes from plate movement and volcanism.

Raoul and Curtis are both active volcanoes. The volcanoes on the other islands are currently inactive, and the smaller islands are the eroded remnants of extinct volcanoes.

From 18 to 21 July 2012, Havre Seamount (near Havre Rock) erupted, breaching the ocean surface from a depth of more than 1100 m and producing a large raft of pumice floating northwest of the volcano. The eruption was not directly observed, but it was located using earthquake and remote sensing data after the pumice raft was spotted by aircraft and encountered by HMNZS Canterbury. [15] [16]

The islands are seismically active. An 8.1 magnitude earthquake occurred in the early hours of 5 March 2021, leading to several strong aftershocks and a tsunami advisory on the North Coast of North Island and other Pacific islands, including Norfolk Island, Australia. Other magnitude 8 earthquakes have struck near the islands in 1917 [17] and 1976. [18]

Environment

Flora

The islands are recognised by the World Wildlife Fund as a distinct ecoregion, the Kermadec Islands subtropical moist forests. [19] It is a tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests ecoregion, part of the Oceanian realm. [20] The forests are dominated by the red-flowering Kermadec pōhutukawa, related to the pōhutukawa of New Zealand. [21] The islands are home to 113 native species of vascular plants, of which 23 are endemic, along with mosses (52 native species), lichens and fungi (89 native species). [21] [22] [23] Most of the plant species are derived from New Zealand, with others having travelled over the Pacific. [24] 152 human-introduced species of plants have become established on the islands. [21]

Dense subtropical forests cover most of Raoul, and formerly covered Macauley. [21] [25] Metrosideros kermadecensis is the dominant forest tree, forming a 10 – 15-metre (30 – 50-foot) high canopy. A native nīkau palm ( Rhopalostylis baueri ) is another important canopy tree. The forests have an understory of smaller trees, shrubs, ferns, and herbs, including Myrsine kermadecensis ; Lobelia anceps , Poa polyphylla , Coprosma acutifolia , and Coriaria arborea . [21] Two endemic tree ferns, Alsophila milnei and the rare and endangered Alsophila kermadecensis , are also found in the forests. [26]

Areas near the seashore and exposed to salt spray are covered by a distinct community of shrubs and ferns, notably Myoporum obscurum , Coprosma petiolata , Asplenium obtusatum , Cyperus ustulatus , Disphyma australe , and Ficinia nodosa . [21] [27]

Fauna

The Kermadec scalyfin - part of the rich marine biota of the Kermadecs Parma kermadecensis (Kermadec scalyfin).jpg
The Kermadec scalyfin – part of the rich marine biota of the Kermadecs

The islands have no native land mammals. An endemic bird subspecies is the Kermadec red-crowned parakeet. The group has been identified as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because of its significance as a breeding site for several species of seabirds, including white-necked and black-winged petrels, wedge-tailed and little shearwaters, sooty terns and blue noddies. [28] The area also hosts rich habitats for cetaceans. [29] In recent years, increased presences of humpback whales indicate Kermadec Islands functioning as migratory corridors, and varieties of baleen (not in great numbers) and toothed whales including minke whales, [30] sperm whales, less known beaked whales, killer whales, and dolphins frequent in adjacent waters. [31] [32] In late September 2015, satellite tags were attached to 25 humpback whales around Raoul Island, which were tracked to feeding grounds in Antarctica and across to the Antarctic Peninsula. [33] Vast numbers of southern right whales were historically seen in southwestern areas although only a handful of recent confirmations exist around Raoul Island. [34] The deep sea hydrothermal vents along the Kermadec ridge support diverse extremophile communities including the New Zealand blind vent crab. [35] Three new records of tropical reef fishes were recorded from the Kermadec Islands Marine Reserve in 2015 after researchers examined hundreds of hours of unused documentary film footage, [36] [37] and in 2016, a red velvet whalefish and an angler fish ( Ceratias tentaculatus ) were found around the waters of the Kermadec Islands by a research partnership between Ngāti Kurī, University of Auckland, Massey University, NIWA, Manaaki Whenua, and the University of Waikato. [38]

In 2016, Koha, a hawksbill turtle, which was originally found injured near Dargaville in September 2014, was released around the waters of Raoul Island and nursed back to health at Kelly Tarlton's Sea Life Aquarium. The release was from the deck of the RV Tangaroa, with land in sight to enable Koha to orientate itself to prevent the risk of getting lost in the open ocean. [39] [40]

Conservation

The introduction of cats, rats, and goats devastated the forests and seabirds. [41] [42] Overgrazing by goats eliminated the forests of Macauley Island, leaving open grasslands, and altered the understory of Raoul Island. Predation by rats and cats reduced the seabird colonies on the main islands from millions of birds to tens of thousands. The New Zealand government has been working for the last few decades to restore the islands. New Zealand declared the islands a nature reserve in 1937, and the sea around them a marine reserve in 1990. [43] The marine reserve surrounds each of the islands and is one of New Zealand's largest at a total area of 7,480 km2 (2,890 sq mi). [44]

Goats were removed from Macauley in 1970 and from Raoul in 1984, and the forests have begun to recover. The islands are still known for their bird life, and seabird colonies presently inhabit offshore islets, which are safe from introduced rats and cats. Efforts are currently underway to remove the rats and cats from the islands, as well as some of the invasive exotic plants.

Visits to the islands are restricted by the Department of Conservation. The department allows visits to Raoul by volunteers assisting in environmental restoration or monitoring projects, and other visitors engaged in nature study. Visits to the other islands are generally restricted to those engaged in scientific study of the islands.

On 29 September 2015, the New Zealand Prime Minister John Key announced the creation of the Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary, a 620,000 km2 (239,383 sq mi) protected area in the Kermadec Islands region. [45] However, subsequently, fishing companies and iwi bodies filed legal action opposing it, and a coalition deal with the New Zealand First Party [46] has led to the Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill [47] not passing its second reading as of 2019. [48] In late March 2024, the Government halted work on the Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill. [49]

In October–November 2016, a collaborative team of researchers from Auckland Museum, University of Auckland, Massey University, NIWA and Te Papa undertook research around Kermadec Islands aboard RV Tangaroa. The multi-disciplinary team investigated the biodiversity of organisms living on the ocean floor and at midwater. The marine mammal populations were examined to determine what animal and plant species are shared between mainland New Zealand and the Kermadec region. [50]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Auckland Islands</span> Volcanic archipelago in New Zealand

The Auckland Islands are an archipelago of New Zealand, lying 465 km (289 mi) south of the South Island. The main Auckland Island, occupying 460 km2 (180 sq mi), is surrounded by smaller Adams Island, Enderby Island, Disappointment Island, Ewing Island, Rose Island, Dundas Island, and Green Island, with a combined area of 570 km2 (220 sq mi). The islands have no permanent human inhabitants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seamount</span> Mountain rising from the ocean seafloor that does not reach to the waters surface

A seamount is a large submarine landform that rises from the ocean floor without reaching the water surface, and thus is not an island, islet, or cliff-rock. Seamounts are typically formed from extinct volcanoes that rise abruptly and are usually found rising from the seafloor to 1,000–4,000 m (3,300–13,100 ft) in height. They are defined by oceanographers as independent features that rise to at least 1,000 m (3,281 ft) above the seafloor, characteristically of conical form. The peaks are often found hundreds to thousands of meters below the surface, and are therefore considered to be within the deep sea. During their evolution over geologic time, the largest seamounts may reach the sea surface where wave action erodes the summit to form a flat surface. After they have subsided and sunk below the sea surface, such flat-top seamounts are called "guyots" or "tablemounts".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samoan Islands</span> Archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean

The Samoan Islands are an archipelago covering 3,030 km2 (1,170 sq mi) in the central South Pacific, forming part of Polynesia and of the wider region of Oceania. Administratively, the archipelago comprises all of the Independent State of Samoa and most of American Samoa. The land masses of the two Samoan jurisdictions are separated by 64 km (40 mi) of ocean at their closest points.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raoul Island</span> Volcano in the Kermadec Islands, New Zealand

Raoul Island is the largest and northernmost of the main Kermadec Islands, 900 km (560 mi) south south-west of 'Ata Island of Tonga and 1,100 km (680 mi) north north-east of New Zealand's North Island. It has been the source of vigorous volcanic activity during the past several thousand years that was dominated by dacitic explosive eruptions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little Barrier Island</span> Island in the Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand

Little Barrier Island, or Hauturu in Māori, lies off the northeastern coast of New Zealand's North Island. Located 80 kilometres (50 mi) to the north of Auckland, the island is separated from the mainland to the west by the Jellicoe Channel, and from the larger Great Barrier Island to the east by the Cradock Channel. The two aptly named islands shelter the Hauraki Gulf from many of the storms of the Pacific Ocean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kermadec Trench</span> Linear ocean trench in the South Pacific

The Kermadec Trench is a linear ocean trench in the south Pacific Ocean. It stretches about 1,000 km (620 mi) from the Louisville Seamount Chain in the north (26°S) to the Hikurangi Plateau in the south (37°S), north-east of New Zealand's North Island. Together with the Tonga Trench to the north, it forms the 2,000 km (1,200 mi)-long, near-linear Kermadec-Tonga subduction system, which began to evolve in the Eocene when the Pacific Plate started to subduct beneath the Australian Plate. Convergence rates along this subduction system are among the fastest on Earth, 80 mm (3.1 in)/yr in the north and 45 mm (1.8 in)/yr in the south.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pumice raft</span> Floating mass of pumice in the ocean

A pumice raft is a floating raft of pumice created by some eruptions of submarine volcanoes or coastal subaerial volcanoes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Healy Seamount</span> Submarine volcano in New Zealands Kermadec Islands

James Healy Seamount is a submarine volcano located among the South Kermadec Ridge Seamounts south of New Zealand's Kermadec Islands. It consists of a volcanic cone that reaches a depth of 1,150 metres (3,770 ft) below sea level, two 2–2.5 kilometres (1.2–1.6 mi) and 1.3 kilometres (0.81 mi) wide calderas and a parasitic cone that reaches a depth of 950 metres (3,120 ft) below sea level. The flanks of the volcano are covered with pumice and volcanic rocks, and hydrothermal venting occurs inside the caldera.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheeseman Island</span> Island in New Zealand

Cheeseman Island is a 7.6 ha (19-acre) rocky volcanic island in the southwest Pacific Ocean. It is named after Thomas Frederick Cheeseman of the Auckland Museum, who was on board the New Zealand Government steamer 'Stella' when it visited the island in 1887. It neighbours Curtis Island to the east and lies about 20 km (12 mi) south of Macauley Island. They are part of the Kermadec Islands, an outlying island group of New Zealand, located halfway between New Zealand's North Island and the nation of Tonga.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Volcanism of New Zealand</span> Volcanic activity of New Zealand

The volcanism of New Zealand has been responsible for many of the country's geographical features, especially in the North Island and the country's outlying islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kermadec–Tonga subduction zone</span> Convergent plate boundary that stretches from the North Island of New Zealand northward

The Kermadec–Tonga subduction zone is a convergent plate boundary that stretches from the North Island of New Zealand northward. The formation of the Kermadec and Tonga plates started about 4–5 million years ago. Today, the eastern boundary of the Tonga plate is one of the fastest subduction zones, with a rate up to 24 cm/year (9.4 in/year). The trench formed between the Kermadec–Tonga and Pacific plates is also home to the second deepest trench in the world, at about 10,800 m, as well as the longest chain of submerged volcanoes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">L'Esperance Rock</span> Subtropical islet in the South Pacific, administrationally part of New Zealand

L'Esperance Rock, formerly known as French Rock and Brind Rock,(named after William Brind) is the southernmost islet in the Kermadec Islands, to the north of New Zealand. It is 80 km (50 mi) south of Curtis Island and 600 km (370 mi) northeast of East Cape on New Zealand's North Island. The smaller L'Havre Rock lies 8 km (5 mi) to the north-west of L'Esperance; it is a reef that barely reaches the surface. L'Esperance Rock is 250 m (820 ft) in diameter with an area of 4.8 ha. It rises to a height of 70 m (230 ft).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zealandia</span> Mostly submerged continental crust area in Oceania

Zealandia, also known as Te Riu-a-Māui (Māori) or Tasmantis, is an almost entirely submerged mass of continental crust in Oceania that subsided after breaking away from Gondwana 83–79 million years ago. It has been described variously as a submerged continent, continental fragment, and microcontinent. The name and concept for Zealandia was proposed by Bruce Luyendyk in 1995, and satellite imagery shows it to be almost the size of Australia. A 2021 study suggests Zealandia is over a billion years old, about twice as old as geologists previously thought.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kermadec red-crowned parakeet</span> Subspecies of bird

The Kermadec red-crowned parakeet, also known as the Kermadec red-fronted parakeet or Kermadec parakeet, is a parrot endemic to New Zealand's Kermadec Islands in the south-west Pacific Ocean. It is a subspecies of the red-fronted parakeet, and sometimes considered a full species. It is also the first documented example of a parrot recolonising an island after the removal of invasive predators.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2012 Kermadec Islands eruption</span> Major undersea volcanic eruption in the Kermadec Islands of New Zealand

The 2012 Kermadec Islands eruption was a major undersea volcanic eruption that was produced by the previously little-known Havre Seamount near the L'Esperance and L'Havre Rocks in the Kermadec Islands of New Zealand. The large volume of low density pumice produced by the eruption accumulated as a large area of floating pumice, a pumice raft, that was originally covering a surface of 400 square kilometres, spread to a continuous float of between 19,000 and 26,000 km2 and within three months dispersed to an area of more than twice the size of New Zealand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tonga–Kermadec Ridge</span> Oceanic ridge in the south-west Pacific Ocean underlying the Tonga–Kermadec island arc

The Tonga–Kermadec Ridge is an oceanic ridge in the south-west Pacific Ocean underlying the Tonga–Kermadec island arc. It is a result of the most linear, fastest converging, and seismically active subduction boundary on Earth, the Kermadec–Tonga subduction zone, and consequently has the highest density of submarine volcanoes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monowai (seamount)</span> Volcanic seamount north of New Zealand

Monowai Seamount is a volcanic seamount to the north of New Zealand. It is formed by a large caldera and a volcanic cone just south-southeast from the caldera. The volcanic cone rises to depths of up to 100 metres (330 ft) but its depth varies with ongoing volcanic activity, including sector collapses and the growth of lava domes. The seamount and its volcanism were discovered after 1877, but only in 1980 was it named "Monowai" after a research ship of the same name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Havre Seamount</span> Volcanic seamount in the Kermadec Islands group

Havre Seamount is an active volcanic seamount lying within the Kermadec Islands group of New Zealand, in the south-west Pacific Ocean, on the Tonga-Kermadec Ridge. Its most recent eruption took place in July 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Macauley Island</span> Volcanic island in New Zealands Kermadec Islands

Macauley Island is a volcanic island in New Zealand's Kermadec Islands, approximately halfway between New Zealand's North Island and Tonga in the southwest Pacific Ocean. It is part of a larger submarine volcano that features a 10.5 by 7 kilometres wide underwater caldera northwest of Macauley Island. Two islets, Haszard Island and Newcome Rock, lie east offshore of Macauley Island. The island is mostly surrounded by high cliffs that make accessing it difficult; the inland parts are mostly gently sloping terrain covered with ferns and grasses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curtis Island (New Zealand)</span> Island in New Zealand

Curtis Island is an island in the southwest Pacific. It is a volcanic island which, together with neighbouring Cheeseman Island, belongs to the Kermadec Islands, an outlying island group of New Zealand. It is a volcanic island with a fumarolically active crater, while vegetated slopes are nested by seabirds. There are uncertain reports of eruptions and the island has been uplifted by about 18 m (59 ft) during the past 200 years.

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