It is a low, flat sand and coral island about 905 nautical miles (1,041 mi; 1,676 km) northwest of Honolulu, Hawaii.

Lisianski Island is made of limestone that caps the submerged summit of an extinct shield volcano[3] that was active about 20 million years ago.

Lisianski Island is undergoing the slow process of erosion, and features a depression between two tall sand dunes, that is thought to once have been a lagoon like the one on Laysan, its nearest neighbor.

Lisyansky was the commanding officer of the Russian-American Company's merchant sloop Neva, which was on an exploration mission as part of the first Russian circumnavigation of the world when she ran aground on the island in 1805.

In 1890, the North Pacific Phosphate and Fertilizer Company acquired a twenty-year lease on the island from the Kingdom of Hawaii.

[5] Neva Shoals is a shallow reef directly southeast of Lisianski Island covering 979 square kilometers (378 sq mi),[6] more than half the size of Oahu.