[2] The islands are andesite rocks with the tip being a larger submerged stratovolcano,[3] roughly equivalent in size to Mount Taranaki.

[11] The islands are geographically forbidding and weather conditions often confound the approach of ships, dissuading attempts at permanent habitation.

The men – four Europeans and one Australian Aboriginal – were marooned there between 1808 and 1813, representing the longest continuous period of habitation on the islands.

In 1810, sealing moved to Macquarie Island, farther to the west, and they were effectively abandoned.

[12] The islands are remnants of an isolated extinct trachyandesite and andesite Pleistocene volcano whose volcanics have geochemical affinities with modern adakites.

[13] The Solander Basin Mesozoic continental basement rock consists of diorite and subordinate gabbro overlaid by Oligocene to Pliocene sediment.

The southern, and nominate, subspecies of Buller's albatross (Thalassarche b. bulleri) breeds only on the Solanders and the Snares.

[18] The Solander group has been identified as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because of its significance as a breeding site for Buller's albatrosses (with about 5000 pairs) and common diving petrels.