South Tasman Rise

The rise forms a northern extension from the Macquarie-Balleny Ridge which extends to the subantarctic Balleny Islands.

It supports the idea that Laurentia and eastern Australia, including the South Tasman Rise were once joined to each other during the time of the Rodinia supercontinent.

[6] Bottle green coloured microtectites were found in borehole 1169 at around early Pliocene age, 202.14 meters below the seabed.

The principal species of fish sought after are the Orange Roughy and Oreo Dory using deepwater demersal trawlers.

[11] Orange Roughy (Hoplostethus atlanticus) is an important fish found between 1 and 2 km deep on the South Tasman Rise.

Diplomatic pressure from Australia caused the Belize government to deregister its vessel and for the South Africans to withdraw their boats.

[1] The reserve seeks to protect unique environments for marine life which are of significant scientific interest.

Topographic map of Zealandia that includes the eastern most portion of the South Tasman Rise unlabelled on the map, at the far left of the map, just above the latitude of the label for the Campbell Plateau. North of the South Tasman Rise is the East Tasman Plateau and Cascade Seamount both south east of Tasmania which are also unlabelled.