Kārewa / Gannet Island () is a small island some offshore from Kawhia on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island.
Description The island consists of the eroded remnant of a tuff ring, erupted about half a million years ago. It is considerably younger than, and compositionally distinct from, the nearby onshore Alexandra Volcanics (Mount Karioi and Mount Pirongia) and Okete Volcanics. It is located on the eastern edge of the North Taranaki Graben, rising above sea level from a base about deep.R. M. Briggs, M. D. Rosenberg, P. J. de Lange, T. Itaya, P. R. King and R. C. Price. (1997). Geology and geochemistry of Gannet (Karewa) Island, Tasman Sea: a rift-related nephelinitic tuff ring, New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics, 40, 263–272. In heavy swells the island can be washed over, so that only about has vegetation and that limited to Prasiola (algae), Tortula (moss) and Xanthoria, and Xanthoparmelia lichens.
Gannets Protected as a wildlife sanctuary, it was found to be the country's largest single breeding colony of Australasian gannets in a 1980 census.Wodzicki, K .; Robertson, C. J. R.; Thompson, H. R.; and Alderton, C. J. T. (1984). The distribution and numbers of gannets (Sula serrator) in New Zealand. Notornis 31, 232–261. Holding about 8000 breeding pairs, the island has been identified as an Important Bird Area, by BirdLife International.BirdLife International. (2012). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Gannet Island. Downloaded from on 16 February 2012.
See also
List of islands List of islands of New Zealand List of volcanoes in New Zealand Desert island
External links
2012 photo on the island
References