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This is a list of active, dormant and extinct volcanoes in Australia and its island territories. Note that the term volcano is used loosely as it can include groups of related volcanoes and vents that erupted at similar times with lava of related origin. The lists provided below are mainly volcanoes of Cenozoic aged, with some notable older (Mesozoic and Paleozoic aged), volcanoes included. There are no volcanoes on the Australian mainland that have erupted since European settlement, but some volcanoes in Victoria, South Australia and North Queensland could have been witnessed by Aboriginal people several thousand years ago. There are active volcanoes in the Heard and McDonald Islands.
South Australia's volcanoes are the youngest in Australia, and erupted within the memory of local Indigenous peoples. They are all in the Limestone Coast region, in the Mount Burr Range. They are considered dormant rather than extinct.
Name | Elevation | Location | Last eruption | |
---|---|---|---|---|
metres | feet | Coordinates | ||
Mount Burr | 187 | 614 | 37°33′S140°28′E / 37.55°S 140.46°E | 4,750 years ago |
Mount Gambier | 190 | 623 | 37°50′S140°47′E / 37.84°S 140.78°E | 4,500 years ago |
Mount Schank | 158 | 518 | 37°56′S140°44′E / 37.94°S 140.74°E | 5,000 years ago |
Mount Muirhead | 130 | 427 | 37°34′S140°25′E / 37.56°S 140.41°E | 5,000 years ago |
There are no active or dormant volcanoes in Western Australia, although there are a number of extinct ones, and geological evidence of others. There are nineteen small extinct volcanoes in the valley of the Fitzroy River in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The Kimberley also has a number of groups of hot springs, which may be connected with the volcanic activity that produced the extinct volcanoes (but since these volcanic formations are Proterozoic in age – i.e. maybe a billion years old, this would be very unlikely). There are also deposits of basalt at Bunbury and Cape Gosselin.
Name | Elevation | Location | Last eruption | |
---|---|---|---|---|
metres | feet | Coordinates | ||
Argyle diamond mine | — | — | 16°36′S128°18′E / 16.6°S 128.3°E | 1.58 million years ago |
Name | Elevation | Location | Last eruption | |
---|---|---|---|---|
metres | feet | Coordinates | ||
Table Cape | 181 | 594 | 40°57′S145°44′E / 40.95°S 145.73°E | 12 million years ago |
The Nut | 143 | 469 | 40°46′S145°18′E / 40.76°S 145.3°E | 25-70 million years ago |
Hillwood Volcano | 2880 | 9448 | 41°13′S146°57′E / 41.21°S 146.95°E | 250 million years ago |
Lune River | — | — | 43°15′S146°32′E / 43.25°S 146.54°E | 180 million years ago |
Mount Charter | 514 | 1686 | 41°37′21″S145°40′32″E / 41.62250°S 145.67556°E | 500 million years ago |
Mount Tor | 1105 | 3625 | 41°25′53″S145°53′34″E / 41.43139°S 145.89278°E | 500 million years ago |
Mount Julia | 843 | 2766 | 41°53′3″S145°33′50″E / 41.88417°S 145.56389°E | 500 million years ago |
Mount Cripps | 943 | 3,094 | 41°34′49″S145°45′59″E / 41.58028°S 145.76639°E | 500 million years ago |
Mount Read Volcanics | 1.123 | 3.684 | 41°30′S145°19′E / 41.50°S 145.32°E | 500 million years ago |
Name | Elevation | Location | Last eruption | |
---|---|---|---|---|
metres | feet | Coordinates | ||
Mount Stromlo | 770 | 2,530 | 35°19′0″S149°1′0″E / 35.31667°S 149.01667°E | Silurian period |
Name | Elevation | Location | Last eruption | |
---|---|---|---|---|
metres | feet | Coordinates | ||
Anzac Peak | 715 | 2,346 | 52°59′32″S73°17′58″E / 52.99222°S 73.29944°E | — |
Big Ben (Mawson Peak) | 2,745 | 9,006 | 53°6′0″S73°31′0″E / 53.10000°S 73.51667°E | 2004/2019 |
Mount Dixon | 715 | 2,346 | 53°0′S73°17′E / 53.000°S 73.283°E | — |
McDonald Islands | 230 | 755 | 53°02′S72°36′E / 53.03°S 72.60°E | 2005 |
Name | Elevation | Location | Last eruption | |
---|---|---|---|---|
metres | feet | Coordinates | ||
Ball's Pyramid | 562 | 1,844 | 31°45′07″S159°15′05″E / 31.75194°S 159.25139°E | — |
Mount Gower | 875 | 2,870 | 31°34′51″S159°04′54″E / 31.58083°S 159.08167°E | — |
Name | Elevation | Location | Last eruption | |
---|---|---|---|---|
metres | feet | Coordinates | ||
Gaussberg | 370 | 1,214 | 66°48′S89°1′E / 66.800°S 89.017°E | — |
Norfolk Island and neighbouring Nepean Island and Phillip Island are mountain top remnants of an elongated shield volcano. [8]
Name | Elevation | Location | Last eruption | |
---|---|---|---|---|
metres | feet | Coordinates | ||
Bass Strait Basin | — | — | — | — |
Tasman Seamounts | — | — | — | — |
Barcoo Seamount | — | — | — | — |
Britannia Seamount | — | — | — | — |
Derwent-Hunter Seamount | — | — | — | — |
Gascoyne Seamount | — | — | — | — |
Heemskirk Seamount | — | — | — | — |
Queensland Seamount | — | — | — | — |
Soela Seamount | — | — | — | — |
Taupo Seamount | — | — | — | — |
Zeelian Seamount | — | — | — | — |
Name | Elevation | Location | Last eruption | |
---|---|---|---|---|
metres | feet | Coordinates | ||
Macquarie Island | 433 | 1,421 | 54°30′S158°57′E / 54.50°S 158.95°E | — |
Norfolk Island | 315 | 1,033 | 29°S168°E / 29°S 168°E | 2.4 million years ago |
Great Basalt Wall is a national park in Queensland, Australia, 1124 km northwest of Brisbane. This national park protects 35,200 ha of land containing the Great Basalt Wall, a geological formation of the Toomba flow. The Toomba volcano erupted approximately 20,000 years ago, covered 670 square kilometres, and flowed for 120 km. It is one of the most recent volcanic eruptions in Queensland. Due to the viscous nature of the rocky lava flows the park is not accessible to the public.
The Curtain Fig National Park is a national park on the Atherton Tableland in Far North Queensland, Australia. The National Park is located near Yungaburra. Its most valued features are its once regionally common, now endangered Mabi forests including a huge strangler fig which attracts up to 100 000 visitors per year, locally known as the Curtain Fig Tree, plus a near threatened, locally endemic tree-kangaroo species i.e. the Lumholtz's tree-kangaroo which finds refuge inside this protected area
Tweed Volcano is a partially eroded Early Miocene shield volcano located in northeastern New South Wales, which formed when this region of Australia passed over the East Australia hotspot around 23 million years ago. Mount Warning, Lamington Plateau and the Border Ranges between New South Wales and Queensland are among the remnants of this volcano that was originally over 100 kilometres (62 mi) in diameter and nearly twice the height of Mount Warning today, at 1,156 metres (3,793 ft). Despite its size, Tweed Volcano was not a supervolcano; other shield volcanoes—such as in the Hawaiian Islands—are much larger. In the 23 million years since the volcano was active, erosion has been extensive, forming a large erosion caldera around the volcanic plug of Mount Warning. Its erosion caldera is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere.
Mount Quincan is a volcanic mountain near Yungaburra on the Atherton Tableland in Far North Queensland, Australia.
Indian Head is a coastal headland on the eastern (ocean) side of Fraser Island off the coast of Queensland, Australia.
The Twin Buttes are two volcanic cinder cones located in the Cascade Mountain Range in Shasta County, California. They are part of the Bidwell Spring chain and lie within a region that was active in the Quaternary. Formed during the Pleistocene between 25,000 and 15,000 years ago, the volcanoes erupted lava flows that coursed toward the Burney Mountain lava dome. These lava flows cover an area of 3.9 square miles (10.1 km2) and are made of basalt and dacite. The volcanoes also erupted cinder and volcanic ash that reached eastward.
The Lord Howe Seamount Chain formed during the Miocene. It features many coral-capped guyots and is one of the two parallel seamount chains alongside the east coast of Australia; the Lord Howe and Tasmantid seamount chains both run north-south through parts of the Coral Sea and Tasman Sea. These chains have longitudes of approximately 159°E and 156°E respectively.
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.
The Glass House Mountains are a cluster of thirteen hills that rise abruptly from the coastal plain on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. The highest hill is Mount Beerwah at 556 metres above sea level, but the most identifiable of all the hills is Mount Tibrogargan which from certain angles bears a resemblance to a gorilla facing east towards the ocean. The Glass House Mountains are located near Beerburrum State Forest and Steve Irwin Way. From Brisbane, the mountains can be reached by following the Bruce Highway north and taking the Glass House Mountains tourist drive turn-off onto Steve Irwin Way. The trip is about one hour from Brisbane. The Volcanic peaks of the Glass House Mountains rise dramatically from the surrounding Sunshine Coast landscape. They were formed by intrusive plugs, remnants of volcanic activity that occurred 26–27 million years ago. Molten rock filled small vents or intruded as bodies beneath the surface and solidified into land rocks. Millions of years of erosion have removed the surrounding exteriors of volcanic cores and softer sandstone rock.
The Louisville Ridge, often now referred to as the Louisville Seamount Chain, is an underwater chain of over 70 seamounts located in the Southwest portion of the Pacific Ocean. As one of the longest seamount chains on Earth it stretches some 4,300 km (2,700 mi) from the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge northwest to the Tonga-Kermadec Trench, where it subducts under the Indo-Australian Plate as part of the Pacific Plate. The chains formation is best explained by movement of the Pacific Plate over the Louisville hotspot although others had suggested by leakage of magma from the shallow mantle up through the Eltanin fracture zone, which it follows closely for some of its course.
The Louisville hotspot is a volcanic hotspot responsible for the volcanic activity that has formed the Louisville Ridge in the southern Pacific Ocean.
This timeline of volcanism on Earth includes a list of major volcanic eruptions of approximately at least magnitude 6 on the Volcanic explosivity index (VEI) or equivalent sulfur dioxide emission during the Quaternary period. Other volcanic eruptions are also listed.
The Dunedin Volcano is an extensively eroded multi-vent shield volcano that was active between 16 and 10 million years ago. It originally extended from the modern city of Dunedin, New Zealand to Aramoana about 25 km away. Extensive erosion has occurred over the last 10 million years and Otago Harbour now fills the oldest parts of the volcano. The remnants of the volcano form the hills around Otago Harbour.
The magma supply rate measures the production rate of magma at a volcano. Global magma production rates on Earth are about 20–25 cubic kilometres per year (4.8–6.0 cu mi/a).
The Udokan Plateau is a volcanic field in Transbaikalia, Russia. It covers a surface area of 3,000 square kilometres (1,200 sq mi) northeast of Lake Baikal in North Asia. Volcanism in the Udokan Plateau included both basaltic lava flows and later individual volcanic cones. Volcanism commenced in the Miocene and continued on into the Holocene.
Noronha hotspot is a hypothesized hotspot in the Atlantic Ocean. It has been proposed as the candidate source for volcanism in the Fernando de Noronha archipelago of Brazil, as well as of other volcanoes also in Brazil and even the Bahamas and the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province.
The extinct Ngatutura volcanic field that was active between 1.54 and 1.83 million years ago is one of four volcanic fields in an intraplate back arc relationship with the still active Hauraki Rift and the presently dormant Auckland volcanic field. The other volcanic fields, which are part of the Auckland Volcanic Province, are the oldest, Okete to the south near Raglan in late Pliocene times. and to the north the younger South Auckland volcanic field.
The geology of the Kimberley, a region of Western Australia, is a rock record of the early Proterozoic eon that includes tectonic plate collision, mountain-building (orogeny) and the joining (suturing) of the Kimberley and Northern Australia cratons, followed by sedimentary basin formation.
Much of the volcanic activity in the northern portions of the North Island of New Zealand is recent in geological terms and has taken place over the last 30 million years. This is primarily due to the North Island's position on the boundary between the Indo-Australian and Pacific Plates, a part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, and particularly the subduction of the Pacific Plate under the Indo-Australian Plate. The activity has included some of the world's largest eruptions in geologically recent times and has resulted in much of the surface formations of the North Island being volcanic as shown in the map.