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Heard Island and McDonald Islands in the Southern Ocean A map of Heard Island and McDonald Islands. Heard Island, by far the largest of the group, is a 368-square-kilometre (142 sq mi) mountainous island covered by 41 glaciers [22] (the island is 80% covered with ice [2]) and dominated by the Big Ben massif.
Meteorological records at Heard Island are incomplete, but there is evidence that the local climate is changing. Observations at Atlas Cove indicate an increase in average annual air temperature of almost 1 °C between the periods 1948-1954 and 1997–2001. [ 13 ]
The physical landscape and biota communities of Heard Island and McDonald Islands are constantly changing due to volcanism, strong winds and waves, and climate change. Volcanic activity has been observed in this area since the mid-1980s, with fresh lava flows on the southwest flanks of Heard Island.
The Heard Island glaciers covered 79 percent of Heard Island itself, in 1947, covering 288 km 2; by 1988, this had decreased by 11 percent to 257 km 2. [1] The glaciers fall under the Antarctic Environmental Gradient, which spans 30 degrees of latitude and includes a range of macro-climatic zones from cool temperate islands to the frigid and arid Antarctic continent. [2]
"The Brown Glacier, Heard Island: its morphology, dynamics, mass balance and climate setting". Antarctic CRC Research Report No. 24 . Hobart, Tasmania: Cooperative Research Centre for the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Environment, University of Tasmania. pp. 1–27. {{ cite book }} : CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list ( link )
"The Brown Glacier, Heard Island: its morphology, dynamics, mass balance and climate setting". Antarctic CRC Research Report No. 24 . Hobart, Tasmania: Cooperative Research Centre for the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Environment, University of Tasmania. pp. 1–27. {{ cite book }} : CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list ( link )
Allison Glacier) is an ice stream on the west side of Heard Island in the southern Indian Allison Glacier flows from Big Ben massif down to the sea to the south of Cape Gazert . [ 6 ] To the north of Allison Glacier is Vahsel Glacier , whose terminus is at South West Bay , between Erratic Point and Cape Gazert.
Big Ben is the large massif to the bottom right (southeast) of this image of Heard Island, from NASA WorldWind. Big Ben formed about one million years ago. [5] Volcanic activity at the cone has been known since 1881. An eruption occurred in 1993. [6] Satellite images detected eruptions during 2000.