Heard & Mcdonald Islands:
The US President imposed a 10% tariff on imports from the Heard and McDonald Islands, despite the islands having no known exports to the US.
- The Heard and McDonald Islands are a remote sub-Antarctic volcanic island group, located in the southern Indian Ocean, about 4,100 km southwest of Perth (Australia) and 1,600 km north of Antarctica.
- They are one of Australia’s seven external territories and are governed directly by the Australian government.
- The islands are volcanic in origin, with Big Ben volcano on Heard Island reaching 2,745 meters (Mawson Peak), making it Australia’s highest mountain outside mainland and Tasmania.
- McDonald Island is much smaller but has shown recent volcanic activity, with eruptions in the late 1990s and 2000s doubling its size.
- They are the only volcanically active sub-Antarctic islands, making them a natural laboratory for studying earth’s crustal processes, oceanic and atmospheric warming, and glacial dynamics.
- The islands are part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site (since 1997) due to their pristine sub-Antarctic ecosystem, managed as a strict nature reserve (IUCN Category Ia).
- They support large populations of marine birds and mammals, including penguins, elephant seals, and seabirds.
- Importantly, the islands are free of invasive species, making them ideal for biodiversity and evolutionary studies.
