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Most of the world's tropical and sub-tropical oceanic islands were settled by man, and their floras and faunas modified by his activities, some centuries before the development of any scientific interest in them. The original vegetation and fauna of islands like Ascension, the Azores, Bermuda, St Helena or Mauritius cannot now be described with any degree of certainty, while the native communities of many others have been markedly changed. Consequently the few remaining undisturbed oceanic islands are of great scientific importance, and many of these lie in the southern temperate and sub-Antarctic zones.

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An extensive pumice raft was encountered by H.M.S. Protector in the area of the South Sandwich Islands on the 14th March, 1962. Evidence is presented which suggests that this material was ejected on the 5th March, 1962, from a submarine eruptive centre 35 miles to the north-west of the existing islands but on the axis of the South Sandwich Arc.