The Geologic Oddity in Australia; Ball's Pyramid

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Off the coast of eastern Australia is a towering monolith which reaches more than 550 meters or 1800 feet above the ocean surface. Being taller than it is wide, this feature is known as Ball's Pyramid. It represents an ancient volcanic neck from what used to be a fairly large and lush green shield volcano and island. This video will discuss how Ball's Pyramid formed, its relationship to Lord Howe Island, and how both islands are related to a mantle plume.
Thumbnail Photo Credit: This work "BallsPyramid7", is a derivative of a photo (resized, cropped, brightess increased, contrast increased, text overlay, overlaid with GeologyHub made graphics (and border)) from "Approaching Balls Pyramid from the north", by: John Game, 1965, Posted on Flickr, Flickr account link: www.flickr.com..., Photo link: www.flickr.com..., CC BY 2.0. "BallsPyramid7" is used & licensed under CC BY 2.0 by / geologyhub
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Google Earth imagery used in this video: ©Google & Data Providers
Various licenses used in sections of this video (not the entire video, this video as a whole does not completely fall under one of these licenses) and/or in this video's thumbnail image:
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Sources/Citations:
[1] (Hansma J and Tohver E (2020) Southward Drift of Eastern Australian Hotspots in the Paleomagnetic Reference Frame Is Consistent With Global True Polar Wander Estimates. Front. Earth Sci. 8:544496. doi:10.3389/feart.2020.544496), CC BY 4.0. This source was used to loosely map the hotspot chains (now all extinct in my opinion) which existed in relatively close proximity to Australia in the last 100 million years.
[2] NOAA
[3] U.S. Geological Survey
0:00 Ball's Pyramid
0:54 Lord Howe Hotspot
1:35 Lord Howe Island
2:59 Volcanic Neck & Erosion
3:54 Conclusion
This video is protected under "fair use". If you see an image and/or video which is your own in this video, and/or think my discussion of a scientific paper (and/or discussion/mentioning of the data/information within a scientific paper) does not fall under the fair use doctrine, and wish for it to be censored or removed, contact me by email at geologyhubyt@gmail.com and I will make the necessary changes.

Опубликовано:

14 авг 2024

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Комментарии : 241

@riverresident4769 Год назад

Ball’s Pyramid is also home to the Lord Howe Island stick insect, which is one of the rarest insects on Earth.

@avo616 Год назад

🤓Ackshually the most “known” rarest insect

@PaxAmericana76 Год назад

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryococelus_australis

@maxcelcat Год назад

Ha. Came here to say the same thing! Go the bug!

@thureintun1687 Год назад

balls+ stick= dick

@jaybazza248 Год назад

Glad to see an educated fellow acknowledging the endangered treasure of the LH Stick Insect

@TyphoonVstrom Год назад

I've seen both Ball's pyramid and Lord Howe island in person. Both are quite spectacular.

@clebmedia Год назад

Did u go with Capt. Jack S?

@jordannedkov Год назад

Can you climb them?

@Ligma-Balls-69 Год назад

@@jordannedkov not my balls...

@Beer4Breakfast Год назад

@@jordannedkov you can climb anything if you put your mind to it

@strikerbowls791 Год назад

I'm going to Lord Howe Island soon

@StuffandThings_ Год назад

Its quite interesting to think that in the entire time than a volcanic island grew, rose above the waves, died, and eroded into a sea stack, Mt Cameroon has been erupting as it always has for the past 30 million years. The timespan of volcanoes is so weird.

@budawang77 Год назад

That is impressive. I climbed Mt Cameroon some 25 years ago. It was a tough climb as it rises from sea level to over 4,000 metres much like the volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii.

@jimsmith3715 Год назад

It's also really weird when you start thinking about how all the volcanos are kind of connected

@StuffandThings_ Год назад

@@jimsmith3715 If you mean hundreds of kilometers down in the mantle that all volcanoes derive their magma from (well, even then that's a bit of a stretch considering deep mantle plumes originating from the core mantle boundary) then I suppose, yes, they are all kind of connected to roughly the same origin of magma. If you're talking about that wacky pseudoscience quackery that some channels like to peddle... then absolutely not.

@mnbalfour1985 Год назад

Balls Pyramid is the last refuge of the Lord Howe island stick insect. The stick insect is endemic to Balls Pyramid and Lord Howe island, it was extirpated by introduced feral predators on Lord Howe island but survives on Balls Pyramid. I think there's a breeding program ongoing.

@LukeDurheim Год назад

Been around the pyramid on a boat a couple times, its an absolutely amazing sight. Also a great spot for diving as well!

@dougfairbanks8055 Год назад

Been there!!!....or at least sailed past on an Australian Navy Patrol Boat, HMAS Ardent.....an impressive sight indeed! Thank you for this episode Sir!

@budawang77 Год назад

I sailed to Lord Howe Island from Port Stephens on the mainland and anchored 10 days in the Lord Howe Island lagoon. Took us 3 days and we had to navigate around some of the underwater seamounts. The seamounts rise close to the surface and have a reputation for producing rough/confused seas due to the way they interact with the ocean currents. One day we did a day sail around the base of Ball's Pyramid. Both islands are magnificent.

@sopwithpuppy Год назад

I sailed to Lord Howe Island from Auckland NZ , then Norfolk Island, then Lord Howe Island, then Sydney on the Bounty replica (the one from Mel Gibson movie). It was the first time the Bounty had visited Norfolk Island since the original, and we were treated as royalty. I went scuba diving there with Fletcher Christian's Great Grandson. We visited Ball's Pyramid in the ship's Zodiak.

@caerdwyn7467 Год назад

I love seeing these geological oddities, as they make excellent inspiration for fantasy-gaming interesting settings (and proof that such a thing can exist purely naturally). On a more mundane scale, I'd be interested in learning about the state of volcanism giving rise to the many hot springs up and down the Sierra Nevada of California and the Great Basin. Mammoth Lakes and the Long Valley caldera are of course well-covered here already, but there are many, many more indicators of geothermal activity along the eastern face of the Sierra Nevada and points farther eastward within Nevada. I'd love to know how all of this ties together and whether these hot springs are just a remnant, or an indIcator of ongoing activity. Thanks!

@S-T-E-V-E Год назад

There's a fantastic video of Jeb Corliss doing a Wingsuit Fly by of Balls Pyramid, it is truly amazing and gives the best possible view of this magnificent feature! - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-cqQrWWpcT0I.html

@Dragrath1 Год назад

I recommend looking up the Sierra Nevada Microplate and or the Sierra Nevada Great valley block(different names for the same thing). In essence the block is a region of crust which unlike the rest of California south of the Cascades and or the Basin and Range is deforming as a rigid body under the clockwise rotation. As a consequence this block bordered by the Garlock fault to the south the San Andreas to the west and the Walker lane region with the prominent volcanoes of the Mono-Inyo chain Mammoth mountain and Long Valley Caldera all along its eastern border where it's getting torn off of North America much like the San Andreas was millions of years ago. Given that the ongoing clockwise plate rotation movement relative to North America suggests the rate of separation continues to grow throughout this region this definitely doesn't look to be a remnant but rather an ongoing sustained process. You might want to check out Nick Zentner's A to Z Baja BC controversy as some of that is relevant to understanding what is going on in California.

@pip-pip5029 Месяц назад

Great comment ❤

@johanroyce6324 Год назад

Fun fact: the pyramid was the last refuge of the Howe stick insect

@relwalretep Год назад

So glad it got saved, what an amazing looking beastie!

@foowashere Год назад

Oh, that sent me off to Wikipedia. Quite amazing. Thanks for sharing!

@budawang77 Год назад

The islanders recently exterminated all the rats from Lord Howe Island and I believe they're going to reintroduce them there.

@Diponty Год назад

@@budawang77 Reintroduce the rats?

@JonS Год назад

They feature in an episode of the kid's cartoon, Octonauts.

@marlies220 Год назад

Well explained with all of the comparisons you've made. Thank you :)

@S-T-E-V-E Год назад

Thanks for doing my request for a video! 👍

@PunaSquirrel Год назад

I ❤️ this stack. Just to see it would be amazing🤙🏼🌴

@taleandclawrock2606 Год назад

I saw a very large green meteor(??) fall towards Balls Pyramid, at dusk from a friends little sailboat, it was a spectacular experience.

@budawang77 Год назад

That's amazing. Such a spectacular structure. I was sailing from French Polynesia to Samoa last year in a very remote part of the Pacific when I popped my head up from down below and saw a very intense meteor light up the sky for a few seconds. An eerie experience as we were hundreds of miles from any land.

@taleandclawrock2606 Год назад

Thats awesome, and what a fabulous sail that would have been!

@josephf-p9668 Год назад

Lol balls pyramid

@cmw184 Год назад

Ballz

@zk8738 Год назад

@@AB-tc8lxdeez nuts

@jjMcCartan9686 Год назад

Big balls island.🌴🌴

@yeetandskeet Год назад

This made me laugh unnecessary long

@avo616 Год назад

@@AB-tc8lx balls balls balls BALLS OF STEEL

@susanjacquier5358 Год назад

Oh wow...im Australian, but I've never heard of this island. Learn something new everyday ❤

@all3ykat79 Год назад

i'm glad u added the final note. I saw a video recently that talked about NZ and active volcanoes where it included the two in the south island. I wrote a comment on it saying they were extinct, and someone replied saying no they were dormant. I had to add that as they hadn't erupted in more than 10 and 16 milliion years, and otago was really unrecognisable as a volcano, they were actually extinct.

@ingehoffman7313 Год назад

Have you by any chance done a video about the volcano at Coonabarabran in New South Wales ? Thank you

@mhansl Год назад

Sailing by Balls Pyramid has been on my bucket list for decades. Surreal place.

@predomalpha5596 Год назад

A very interesting video, I never really considered the history of this sea stack. Could you do a video on Volcán Barú? It’s a 3500m tall volcano in Panamá and it has had some massive landslides from the shape. It erupted a few hundred years ago and I’d like to know what you think about it’s risks

@OzGeologyOfficial Год назад

Great video mate! Love this place!

@Myne1001 Год назад

Fun little fact about Ball's Pyramid: it was a safe haven for the Lord Howe Island Stick Insect. The species was believed to have gone extinct on the main island in the 1920's, but in 2001 they found a population living on the pyramid. There's now a plan to reintroduce them to Lord Howe Island. Also some future Australian geology video ideas: - The Warrumbungles, an eroded shield volcano that has left behind some cool structures - Finke River, often claimed to be the oldest river in the world - Devil's Marbles, large balancing boulders - The Pinnacles Desert, a small desert of limestone peaks that are so mysterious even local Indigenous tribes didn't know they existed

@markcunneen8525 Год назад

I would like you to take a look at nearby 'Mount Warning' located on the NSW / Queensland boarder and explan its origins. Was this once related to the same hotspot?

@bobbafeit8389 Год назад

Camped up there 30 years ago. First point to see the sun . What a great memory. The natural arch is incredible too. Same all the way up thru Hawaiian islands chain. It's all volcanic plates

@onemanfunkband5545 Год назад

@@bobbafeit8389 Hold that memory, it's shut to all visitors now. I used to climb Mt Warning barefoot every time I was in the area. I love that spot too. It's super magical. The crystal core from the top My Warning spreads underneath Byron Bay as a crystal. Sheet.

@bobbafeit8389 Год назад

@@onemanfunkband5545 walking on trails that are hidden behind cascading waterfalls. It is a magical area my fellow barefoot friend

@iselfidentifyah64eapache Год назад

Hi. This makes me wonder about some islands at Manila Bay's entrance, La Monja Island and El Fraile Island. These from part of the chain of volcanoes at Bataan, with Corregidor and Carballo Island being the tops of a now submerged volcano. I wonder if La Monja and El Fraile Islands are similar to Ball's Pyramid. El Fraile has since been ground down to become the "unsinkable battleship" Fort Drum. Old photos of El Fraile show that it was like La Monja. La Monja itself was also planned to be turned into a similar fortification but that didn't pan out. Could you cover the chain of volcanoes along the Bataan Peninsula? I have always been intrigued about that chain of volcanoes and if it has any relation to Pinatubo as the northern end of that chain. Great video as always!

@dayforit1750 Год назад

Awesome, thanks for the video!

@richardconway6425 Год назад

Great explanation of an epic feature. It's like seeing the inside of a volcano.

@S-T-E-V-E Год назад

@richardconway6425 Год назад

@@S-T-E-V-E I'll check it out, thanks!

@outthere9370 Год назад

Great story! Never knew such a geological structure existed.

@leonardoaraujo8364 Год назад

Amazing site!!!! And amazing geology.

@S0cialCrisis Год назад

Could you discuss the four large canyons located in Nahanni National Park within the Mackenzie Mountains in Canada’s Northwest Territories

@Earthgazer Год назад

I used to have a wallpaper showcasing Ball's Pyramid. Very cool feature

@downtoearth1950 Год назад

Very amazing we sailed past it when we left Lord Howe

@nugley Год назад

When Dick Smith was a kid his Boy Scout Troop climbed that, with the same sense of adventure that later had him flying right around the planet in his helicopter. Awesome.

@rarewhiteape Год назад

Mt Warning is a similar volcanic core, and it sits in one of those hotspot trails just behind the Gold Coast and Tweed Valley. I’d bet that the Glasshouse Mountains further north are made the same way, on that same hotspot.

@christiankirkenes5922 Год назад

I was literally there about 2 months ago. Insanely spectacular up close.

@chasemclain6235 Год назад

Hey geology hub can you do a video on the Palliser islands and explain why they are all atolls? How did they become that way also? Every single island is like that. Obviously they look like a hotspot location. I’m just curious why they are like that

@Antechynus Год назад

Middleton and Elizabeth reefs to the north of Lord Howe, are old volcanic mounts that are now beautiful diving locations. I've been lucky to visit them all.

@Youcanttouchmyhandle Год назад

Good Friday Geology Hub and crew 3:16pm April 7 2023 🐇🌎💖

@adriennefloreen Год назад

Awesome, can you do a video explaining the origin of all the giant boulders on the coast of California and Oregon and Washington. You can see examples in my video of the Tonga volcano tsunami hitting California because we were on one of the rocks and you can see others.

@ulfsam-mule-son9726 Год назад

The graphic @1:10 showing 5 concurrent mantle plume tracks is very interesting. Are hot spots random geographically, or are there patterns or some level of predictability to them? Are they cyclical, consistent, or trending over time (i.e., do their numbers & activity wax and wane over geological time frames, or are there pretty much always a similar active number at any given time in the planet's history, or are they maybe becoming less common as the Earth gradually cools)??

@ValeriePallaoro Год назад

Geologic history ... plate tectonics was 'discovered' in the 60s, took some time to get a hold, and at that time Hawaii was the only 'hot spot' recorded. It's easy to see an explanation for the Hawaiian islands if you assume the Pacific plate is moving over a 'hot spot' or mantle plume. Since then, though, many more hot spots have been recorded. The Australian ones are interesting because for some long time the land has been presumed stable and with out volcanic action. Good recording and the hot spot theory does explain the mounts that are visible, but it's a new theme. The same hot spots have previously been thought to be orogenic in nature as with subduction zones once the overlying mantle reaches the interior the melted rock rises to create a line of mountains, some volcanic. The number and type of activity depends on the thickness of the overlying rock and the strength of the underlying plume.

@ulfsam-mule-son9726 Год назад

@@ValeriePallaoro Interesting. Wonder if something like the parallel 'scratch marks' could be due to subduction of a plate that had a significant mountainous region near its edge (e.g., if far into the future the US pacific NW with the Cascade Range just a bit inland) went under another plate. There would be a bit of a 'speed bump' when that meatier part of the subducting plate went under, presumably resulting in greater T & P but also greater stress an deformation of the overlying plate as the sinking mountains 'scraped' the underside of the lithosphere above. All of which together might result in what on the surface would look like a short-term (geologically speaking) series of parallel hotspot activity that began and ended without evidence of a permanent plume in that part of the mantle... 🤔

@CronosXIIII Год назад

We also have another geological oddity in Australia that is 1800 feet below sea level. It's called Balls Deep.

@kanesozae Год назад

Can you please do the history of Dakataua volcano in paupa new Guinea, looks like that would have been massive.

@Foxxnioxx Год назад

Always been curious about this one.

@Lucius.Hercules Год назад

first american on the internet with more geology/geography knowledge about australian techtonics than the average australian

@bibizahidaelaheebocus444-ue4wx Год назад

Thanks..Nice video

@puruwaerea7634 Год назад

Very interesting 👍

@S-T-E-V-E Год назад

@williamlloyd3769 Год назад

Spectacular video! Well worth a viewing. Thanks for recommendation.

@S-T-E-V-E Год назад

@@williamlloyd3769 Yeah, I know people who love Geology will be fascinated by it! I feel like I'm evangelising it sometimes! 😂The first time I saw it it blew me away, the music is amazing too!

@lipslide101 Год назад

I can only imagine what it must feel like seeing this huge 550 meter spike in the distance when sailing between NZ and AUS on a clear day. To put this into perspective, Ball's Pyramid is over 1.5 times higher than the eiffel tower!

@jimcrawford5039 Год назад

It is not directly between NZ & AU. It is 600 km due east of Port Macquarie, whist is about 600 km north of Sydney. That is a long way from NZ.

@philiplindsay225 Год назад

I climbed Balls Pyramid in 1976 collecting plant specimens for the National Herbarium and searching for Phasmyds for Australian museum😊.

@yodaddy82daddy70 Год назад

I really wish time travel happened. I really would love to watch these type of things evolve

@jimsmith3715 Год назад

572m above sea level is insane! That's a tall rock. Pictures near it don't do justice.

@1fat66 Год назад

It looks even more unusual when viewed from the side because it's so thin

@pip-pip5029 Месяц назад

Would love to see it irl some time ❤

@TheRichard991 Год назад

Mt Fox North-Queensland Australia is a good one, cinder cone. Quite explosive eruptions

@Patrick-nl4zp Год назад

Rad. I knew about the other hotspots on the mainland but never knew about this one

@philipwilkie3239 Год назад

While politically part of Australia, from a geological perspective I would suggest Lord Howe and Balls Pyramid are properly located as part of Zealandia.

@melodiefrances3898 Год назад

Wow, the volcanic neck!!

@Margoth195 Год назад

Would you be willing to do a vid on New Zealand's Bounty Islands?

@charliekezza Год назад

One of my fav subjects Australian volcanos

@robthetraveler1099 Год назад

Do one on the Peña de Bernal in Mexico!

@allisonhaar4421 Год назад

Near Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, there are 3 volcanoes that can be seen that we call the 3 dead sisters. I would love to know the history of those.

@classifiedtopsecret4664 Год назад

How have i not heard of this balls pyramid before??

@jakegargiulo5101 Год назад

I wanna go to that place so much.

@koharumi1 Год назад

Why were there so many matle plumes/hotspots all nearby to each other?

@VG-or1nu Год назад

most have had some interesting island fauna

@johnwalters1341 Год назад

You might note that Nihoa is in the Hawaiian Islands, west of Kauai and Ni'ihau.

@ElonMuckX Год назад

It's like Devils Tower, but on the sea!

@juliennapoli2843 Год назад

can you do a video about the appenine mountains

@brentritchie6199 Год назад

Vey interesting thank you

@Florahitman Год назад

I wonder though. Is that Magma chamber now a solid mass? Or is it empty/hollow.

@jonathanellsworth21 Год назад

So what happened to the hot spot? There doesn’t seem to be any more new islands in that chain, like Hawaii

@2xstuffedoreos210 Год назад

My grandpa was a part of the first expedition to climb it there’s a photo of him with a tripod and recording equipment on the side of a cliff

@florinadrian5174 Год назад

So would there be a vertical hollow tube inside the pyramid where the lava used to climb through?

@glike2 Год назад

It looks like a great geologically stable foundation rock to build a super tall structure on top of life like a space elevator tether

@yanntrokhymenko9775 Год назад

Please please do the Avon Gorge in Bristol England

@charlesrovira5707 Год назад

Since *_hot spots-* are relatively immobile, being fixed over locations in the upper core where heat is dissipated upward, I would prefer seeing the motion of the crust rather than a line of volcanoes which punctuate the lithosphere and the crust, as if the crust was fixed.

@DemirSezer Год назад

Is this a similar case with the pillars found in the island of 'Ua Pou? or is that a different case. From the explanation, the pillars in 'ua pou looks like they are in the stage where the island is eroding and the hard volcanic rock is appearing.

@robshannon6637 Год назад

Australia is often left out so thank you for doing these videos!

@vocabpope Год назад

When you say the hotspot chain is "extinct" do we know if that means that the extra hot bit of the mantle has cooled or subsided in some way?

@fostersstubbyasmr9557 Год назад

How haven’t I known of this

@jimmyohara2601 Год назад

Ignorance has NO boundaries 🤐

@kanesozae Год назад

In regard to your ending note, mt gambier in south Australia is believed to have last erupted only about 6000 years ago.

@johnyoung1128 Год назад

The ending note specified off the eastern coast rather than on the mainland.

@bleachcheeks4837 Год назад

You know it might be a stretch but it seems like that hotspot flare up almost looks like a failed flood basalt

@johnnyllooddte3415 Год назад

how deep is the water there.. how deep is the surrounding area of the old island

@terryblack4385 Год назад

How about looking into a geologic oddity Called Ringing Rocks. There are several sites around the world that they can be found.

@baumgartnerwm Год назад

Driving from San Luis Obispo north to Moro Bay there's a whole line of volcanic neck remnents.

@Tinyflydeposit Год назад

Thanks

@75blackviking Год назад

"Suddenly appeared 28 million years ago".... lol. Just sounds a little funny.

@TimJBenham Год назад

It's lesser known oceanic cousin is the trench known as "Ball's Deep".

@simix6915 Год назад

Are those four hotspots related in a certain way to the series of ~30 million year-old impact craters?

@vt4784 Год назад

I went there. Was cool.

@Dragrath1 Год назад

Is there a reason you keep referring to the Indo Australian plate despite the evidence that the Indo Australian plate finished fragmenting apart around a million years ago due to the strain of the Himalayas?

@YouTube_user3333 Год назад

I flew over it in a plane in 2016. Didn’t know what it was until I landed and googled it. When I saw it I was like, “wtf is that! It’s in the middle of the no where!” 😂

@nortyfiner Год назад

The evolution of Ball's Pyramid into its present form may be compared to the better known islands of the Hawaiian chain; their evolution is very similar. Someday, some of the Hawaiian islands probably will look much like Ball's Pyramid does now, the former shield volcanoes stripped down to their cores; Puhahonu is a present example. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gardner_Pinnacles

@TheSpaceEnthusiast-vl6wx Год назад

I remember that particular shield volcano was designated as being larger than Mauna Loa.

@nortyfiner Год назад

@@TheSpaceEnthusiast-vl6wx Yes. That's talked about in the article I linked.

@harrimat100 Год назад

Ah hah, I knew this name sounded familiar. This is the island where they found the Lord Howe stick insect, a species that was thought to be extinct.

@baystated Год назад

That's some hard rock. How do different types of volcanic rocks' hardness stack up against each other? (pun totally intended)

@demisexgodfromhell Год назад

I've flown over it👍

@Horus2Osiris Год назад

Pulling it all out of your imagination... were you there? Pure conjecture

@TheSpaceEnthusiast-vl6wx Год назад

I am fascinated by how tall it is. Considering its size, it could make a good photo for r/megalophobia!

@budawang77 Год назад

It's the tallest sea stack in the world.

@markodonoghue9526 Год назад

Friends of mine who are next level professional rock climbers, climbed it back in the day before the Fun Police became involved

@brianedwards7142 Год назад

Ball's Pyramid was the last natural refuge of the Lord Howe Island Stick Insect aka tree lobster because there are no rats there which have obliterated other populations on the island proper. I say "was" not because they are now gone but because they are being captively bred to go back into areas where rats have been eradicated.