Solander Islands

Coordinates: 46°34′S 166°53′E / 46.567°S 166.883°E / -46.567; 166.883
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
"Solander Island" redirects here. For the island off the west coast of Canada, see Solander Island Ecological Reserve.

Solander Islands / Hautere
Ma
↓
[1]
Arc volcano

The Solander Islands / Hautere are three uninhabited

Stewart Island / Rakiura, or 56 km (35 mi) from Codfish Island / Whenua Hou. The islands measure 1.2 km2 (0.46 sq mi).[2] Administratively, the islands form part of Southland District, making them the only uninhabited outlying island group
of New Zealand to be part of a local authority.

The islands are the tip of a larger submerged volcano, roughly equivalent in size to Mount Taranaki.[3] It was formerly believed that the volcano last erupted roughly 2 million years ago, but in 2008 radiometric dating of rock samples from the main island found that it was between 150,000 and 400,000 years old.[1] In 2013 it was discovered that Little Solander Island had been active even more recently at between 20 and 50,000 years ago.[4]

Islands

Solander Island / Hautere (also known in Māori as Te Niho a Kewa), the main island, covers around 1 km2 (0.39 sq mi), rising steeply to a peak 330 metres (1,083 ft) above sea level. It is wooded except for its northeast end, mainly a bare, white rock. A deep cave is on the east side, Sealers Cave. Little Solander Island is 1.9 km (1.2 mi) west. It reaches 148 m (486 ft) high yet covers 4 ha (9.9 acres). It has a barren appearance and is guano-covered. Pierced Rock is 250 m (273 yd) south of the main island. It rises to 54 m (177 ft) and covers 2,000 m2 (22,000 sq ft) (0.2 ha).

History

View of the Solander Islands, drawn by Herman Spöring on HMB Endeavour, 1770

The island chain was sighted by Captain

Endeavour.[5]

The islands are geographically forbidding and weather conditions often confound the approach of ships, dissuading attempts at permanent habitation. Australian sealers briefly made use of the islands during the early 19th century, likely living on small flats between the island's cliffs and its shoreline for stints of a few months.[6] Castaways would occasionally end up on the islands, and in 1813, a passing ship bound for Stewart Island found five men in need of rescue. The men – four Europeans and one Australian Aboriginal – were marooned there between 1808 and 1813, representing the longest continuous period of habitation on the islands. They are thought to have been left ashore in two groups for seal hunting (sealing), but the sea prevented the approach of any ship to recover them. In 1810, sealing moved to Macquarie Island, farther to the west, and they were effectively abandoned. When rediscovered in 1813, it is likely that they had amassed many dried seal pelts.[6]

Geology

The islands are remnants of an isolated extinct

New Zealand Outlying Islands
.

The islands are the only volcanic land in New Zealand recently related to the subduction of the Australian Plate beneath the Pacific Plate[1][9] along the Puysegur Trench, which extends southwards from the end of the Alpine Fault.[10] The current estimated rate of subduction is 35–36 mm per year.[7] The Solander Basin Mesozoic continental basement rock consists of diorite and subordinate gabbro overlaid by Oligocene to Pliocene sediment.[7] This is isotopically distinct continental crust from the Solander Islands, excluding partial melting of the lower crust as creating the volcanic magma.[8] It has been suggested that the melt that formed the islands comes from a peridotitic source enriched by the addition of a slab-derived melt with subsequent open-system fractionation, resulted in the evolved andesitic adakites.[8]

Flora and fauna

There are 53 vascular plant species, one third of which are very rare. The flora is dominated by

Snares
.

The Solander Islands were historically a well-known area for migrating whales, especially southern right and sperm whales. Sperm whales in this area were said to be exceptionally large.[11]

Bird life

The islands are home to a variety of bird life.[12]

The Solander group has been identified as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because of its significance as a breeding site for Buller's albatrosses (with about 5000 pairs) and common diving petrels.[13]

See also

References

  1. ^
    ISSN 0377-0273
    .
  2. ^ "Data Table - Protected Areas - LINZ Data Service (recorded area 120 ha)". Land Information New Zealand. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  3. ^ "Solander Island – an extinct volcano". Science Learning Hub. Retrieved 19 February 2022.
  4. ^
    S2CID 140662244
    .
  5. ^ Lee, Garry J. "Science on the Map: Places in New Zealand Named After Scientists". The Rutherford Journal. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
  6. ^
    ISBN 9781108039994
    . Retrieved 21 March 2019.
  7. ^
    doi:10.1093/petrology/egs082
    .
  8. ^
    S2CID 129879486
    .
  9. ^ Keith Lewis, Scott D. Nodder and Lionel Carter. 'Sea floor geology – Solander Island', Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Updated 21 September 2007. Retrieved 29 March 2009.
  10. ^ "Alpine Fault". www.otago.ac.nz. Department of Geology, Otago University. Retrieved 18 August 2022.
  11. ^ http://docs.niwa.co.nz/library/public/NIWAis76.pdf [bare URL PDF]
  12. ^ O'Donnell, Colin F.J. "Birds and mammals of Solander (Hautere) Island." Notornis 27: 21-44" (PDF). Notornis vol. 27). pp. 21–44.
  13. ^ BirdLife International. (2012). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Solander Islands. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 27 January 2012.
  • Wise's New Zealand guide: A gazetteer of New Zealand (4th ed.) (1969) Dunedin: H. Wise & Co. (N.Z.) Ltd.


External links

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