The Kermadec Islands are located in the South Pacific Ocean around 800-1000 km northeast of New Zealand. The islands sit above the deep Kermadec Trench, one of the deepest oceanic trenches on Earth. As the Kermadec Islands fall along the Pacific Ring of Fire, a zone of volcanic activity around the Pacific Ocean basin, they frequently experience earthquakes. Scientists are the primary inhabitants of the otherwise unpopulated islands.