Ball's Pyramid is an erosional
remnant of a shield volcano and caldera that formed about 6.4 million years
ago. Ball’s Pyramid is a sea stack, a great jagged spire rising from the Tasman
Sea. It lies 20 kilometers southeast of
Lord Howe Island in the Pacific Ocean. The massive Ball’s Pyramid is one of the
surviving above-ground discovered in 1788. It is 562 meters high, while
measuring only 1,100 meters in length and 300 meters across, making it the
tallest volcanic stack in the world. Ball's Pyramid is part of the Lord Howe
Island Marine Park in Australia.
Ball's Pyramid is positioned in
the center of a submarine shelf. The barren, rocky spire was believed to be
devoid of life until 2001 when a group of researchers discovered what may be
the world’s rarest insect. The world’s tallest sea stack of Australia’s is most
remarkable diving can be found exploring the caves and waters surrounding the
basalt spearhead, divers come face-to-face with a mass of spectacular sea
creatures.
Ball’s Pyramid looks like a place
where nothing could survive, but isn’t devoid of life. It is home to the rarest
insect in the world, the Lord Howe stick insect, famous for being big as a
human hand. The researchers found a colony of the huge Lord Howe Island stick
insects living under a single bush, a hundred feet up the else entirely
infertile rock.
The Lord Howe Island stick insect
“Dryococelus australis” known as “land lobsters” or “walking sausages,” the
six-inch long insects were once common on the neighboring Lord Howe Island, but
were assumed to have been eaten into extinction by the black rats introduced to
the island when a supply ship ran aground on its shores in 1918. In some way a
few of the wingless insects escaped and managed–by means still unidentified–to
traverse over 14 miles of Open Ocean, land on Ball’s Pyramid, and survive
there. Just 27 of the insects have been found on the rocky spire. So, currently
they’re being bred in captivity.
From huge schools of Violet Sweep, Rainbow
Runners and Amberjack, to Marlin, Dolphin, Turtles and Wahoo, the underwater
world will astound. Many rare species, like Spanish Dancers and Galapagos Whalers
also make these waters their home. Ball’s Pyramid is a widespread spot for
fishing charters and is the only known place where the Ballina Angelfish can be
sighted scuba diving. You could be forgiven for thinking it is the infamous
headquarters of the Thunderbirds. In 1990, the policy was relaxed to allow some
climb. The Ball’s Pyramid is protected as part of the Lord Howe Island World
Heritage area and people can no longer climb the mountain without permission.
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