Heard Island, Antarctica, Australian Territory

3D Model

Heard Island is a remarkable place on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Along with the nearby McDonald Islands, 43km to the west, it is part of the Australian territories in the southern Indian Ocean near Antarctica and lies some 4092km from the mainland. It is rarely visited by humans, inhospitable and shrouded in cloud for around 360 days of the year. The island is dominated by the active ‘Big Ben’ volcano which rises to 2813 metres and is Australia’s tallest mountain and largest volcano. The volcano is clad in glaciers which stretch to the sea. The island acts as a barometer of global warming and climate change because the glaciers are shallow and fast flowing, so they respond quickly to increases in temperature. As the glaciers retreat new areas for wildlife habitat open up and Heard Island is the only subantarctic island virtually free of introduced species.

SRTM 30 metre elevation data from Open Topgraphy Sentinel-2B L1C satellite imagery overlay dated 10-12-18