The Lord Howe Rise is an underwater plateau that extends from southwest of New Caledonia to the Challenger Plateau, west of New Zealand. To its west is the Tasman Basin and to the east is the New Caledonia Basin. Lord Howe Rise has a total area of about 1,500,000 square km, and generally lies about 1500 to 2500 metres under water. It is part of Zealandia, a much larger continent that is now mostly submerged, and so is composed of continental crust. It was rifted away from Eastern Australia by a mid-ocean ridge that was active from 80 to 60 million years ago, and now lies 800 kilometres offshore from mainland Australia.
Lord Howe Island and Ball's Pyramid cap a seamount towards the central east of the rise in an area known as the Lord Howe platform.
Further north is the Elizabeth and Middleton part of the Coral Sea Islands, considered to be the most southern platform reefs on Earth.
The Lord Howe Rise contains a line of seamounts called the Lord Howe seamount chain which formed during the Miocene period when this part of Zealandia existed over the Lord Howe hotspot.
Much of the basin remains unexplored in relation to oil and gas reserves.
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