Kerans_Horseshoe Bay Beach, Qld, Australia

Horseshoe Bay Beach, Qld, Australia

Photographed by Andrew James Kerans

   Horseshoe Bay Beach, Magnetic Island, Queensland, Australia. Included in a group of continental islands offshore of the Queensland peninsula, Magnetic Island is located in the Coral Sea approximately 32.4 km northeast of Townsville. These islands are all granite remnants of hills that were once isolated from the mainland when the sea level rose at the end of the last ice age, some 10,000 to 6000 years ago. Great Palm Island is the tallest with an elevation at Mt. Bentley of 547 m above sea level (ASL). Magnetic Island, the second largest island, has a maximum elevation of 496 m ASL at the summit of Mt. Cook. The granite composing these islands is of Early Permian age (~298 to 270 million years old) and each island is dotted with numerous large granite tors. They are mostly covered with mid-height eucalypt forests. (Photograph was taken on January 30, 2015, by Andrew James Kerans, Nelly Bay, Queensland, Australia.)