Heard Island lies on the Kerguelen Plateau in the southern
Indian Ocean.
It consists of the composite cone Big Ben which rises 2745
m above sea level and has a diameter of 20 km at sea level and Mt. Dixon
(706m).
The earliest sightings of the island were in 1833, 1849 and
1853, the latter by Captain Heard.
The earliest geology was undertaken by the Challenger Expedition
in 1873.
Xenoliths indicate the volcano is underlain by limestone.
There was an active lava lake on Mawson Peak on Big Ben in
1987.
Mawson Peak sits inside an apparently largely infilled caldera
5 km in diameter.
The stamp on the cover below was first issued in Australia
on November 17th, 1954.
However, the first day of issue for Heard Island was January
23rd, 1955.
Australian Antarctic Territories did not start releasing their
"own" stamps till 1957.
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