Chatham Islands: New Zealand's most remote group of inhabited islands
The Chatham Islands are a New Zealand archipelago in the Pacific Ocean.
They are about 800 kilometres (500 mi) east of the South Island of New Zealand. The archipelago is a cluster of about ten islands in 60-kilometre (37 mi) radius. The largest are Chatham Island and Pitt Island.
Native name:
| |
|---|---|
 The two largest islands: Chatham and Pitt Island, to the southeast | |
.svg) Location of the Chatham Islands | |
| Geography | |
| Location | Southern Pacific Ocean |
| Coordinates | 44°02′S 176°26′W / 44.033°S 176.433°W |
| Total islands | 10 |
| Major islands |
|
| Area | 966 km2 (373 sq mi) |
| Highest elevation | 299 m (981 ft) |
| Administration | |
| Largest settlement | Waitangi |
| Demographics | |
| Population | 600 (2013 census) |
| Additional information | |
| Time zone |
|
| • Summer (DST) |
|
Some of these islands are now nature reserves to protect the unique flora and fauna. As of 2013[update] the islands had a resident population of 600. The local economy depends largely on conservation, tourism, farming, and fishing.
The Chatham Islands became part of the Colony of New Zealand in 1842.
Geology
The Chatham Islands are part of the now largely submerged continent of Zealandia.
They are the only part of the Chatham Rise above sea level. This means the Chatham Islands are far from the Australian-Pacific plate boundary which causes New Zealand's geology.
The rocks are a Mesozoic schist basement covered by marine sedimentary rocks. The rocks show sections of basalt from a series of eruptions. Volcanic activity has occurred multiple times since the Cretaceous. At present there is no active volcanism near the Chatham Rise.
References
This article uses material from the Wikipedia Simple English article Chatham Islands, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license ("CC BY-SA 3.0"); additional terms may apply (view authors). Content is available under CC BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
®Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wiki Foundation, Inc. Wiki Simple English (DUHOCTRUNGQUOC.VN) is an independent company and has no affiliation with Wiki Foundation.