How one plume of hot rock built two volcano chains off Australia's coast

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Add as preferred source Credit: Dylan Shaw/Unsplash Lord Howe Island sits about 600 kilometers (370 miles) off the New South Wales coast, a crescent of rainforest and sea cliffs that draws visitors to its beaches and birdlife. Few people realize they are standing on the worn-down remains of a volcano.

Lord Howe is one island in a chain of seamounts off the east coast of Australia.

It's the only island above sea level—the rest are submerged in the Tasman Sea, between southeastern Australia and New Zealand. Roughly 650 kilometers (400 miles) west runs a second chain, the Tasmantid seamounts , tracing almost the same path.