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Information about Mount Erebus

Mount Erebus

Mt. Erebus, 1972
Elevation3,794 metres (12448 ft)
LocationRoss Island, Antarctica
Prominence3,794 m
Coordinates
TypeStratovolcano
Age of rock1 million years
Last eruption2007 (continuing)
First ascent1908 from a party led by T.W.E. David
Easiest routebasic snow/ice climb


Mount Erebus in Antarctica is the southernmost active volcano on Earth. 3,794 metres (12448 ft) high, it is located on Ross Island, which is also home to three inactive volcanoes, notably Mt. Terror. Mount Erebus is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, which includes over 160 active volcanoes.

The volcano has been observed to be continuously active since 1972 and is the site of the Mt. Erebus Volcano Observatory run by New Mexico Tech.

Enlarge picture
Mount Erebus, on Ross Island in Antarctica, is the largest volcano by volume, and second only to Mount Sidley in altitude. This is a view from McMurdo Station.


Mount Erebus was discovered on January 27, 1841 (and observed to be in eruption)[1] by polar explorer Sir James Clark Ross who named it and Mount Terror after his ships, Erebus and Terror (which were also used by Sir John Franklin on his disastrous Arctic expedition). It was first climbed (to the rim) by members of Sir Ernest Shackleton's party in 1908. Erebus was a primordial Greek god, the son of Chaos.

The first known solo ascent of Mount Erebus was accomplished by Charles J. Blackmer on January 19-20, 1991. Blackmer, an ironworker for many years at McMurdo Station and the South Pole, accomplished this in a twenty-four hour period. The ascent took approximately seventeen hours. This event has been cited in two books about Antarctic experiences, Terra Incognita by Sara Wheeler and Big Dead Place by Nicholas Johnson.

Geology and volcanology

Enlarge picture
View of the Mount Erebus Lava Lake from the crater rim. The lava lake is approximately 50 m in diameter.


Mount Erebus is currently the most active volcano in Antarctica. The summit contains a persistent convecting phonolitic lava lake, one of a very few long-lived lava lakes in the world. Characteristic eruptive activity consists of Strombolian eruptions from the lava lake or from one of several subsidiary vents, all lying within the volcano's inner crater.[2][3] The volcano is scientifically remarkable in that its relatively low-level and unusually persistent eruptive activity enables long-term volcanological study of a Strombolian eruptive system very close (hundreds of metres) to the active vents, a characteristic shared with only a few volcanos worldwide, such as Stromboli in Italy. Scientific study of the volcano is also facilitated by the proximity (35 km) of McMurdo Station (US) and Scott Base (NZ), both sited on Ross Island.

Mount Erebus is classified as a polygenetic stratovolcano. The bottom half of the volcano is a shield and the top half is a stratocone (Mount Etna is like this as well). The composition of the current eruptive products of Erebus is anorthoclase-porphyric tephritic phonolite and phonolite, which constitute the bulk of exposed lava flow on the volcano. The oldest eruptive products consist of relatively undifferentiated and non-viscous basanitic lavas that form the low, broad platform shield of the Erebus edifice. Slightly younger basanite and phonotephrite lavas crop out on Fang Ridge, an eroded remnant of an early Erebus volcano and at other isolated locations on the flanks of the Erebus edifice.

Lava flows of more viscous phonotephrite, tephriphonolite and trachyte were erupted after the basanite. The upper slopes of Mount Erebus are dominated by steeply dipping (~30°) tephritic phonolite lava flows with large scale flow levees. A conspicuous break in slope at approximately 3200 meters is a summit plateau representing a caldera less than 100,000 years old. The summit caldera itself is filled with small volume tephritic phonolite and phonolite lava flows. In the center of the summit caldera is a small, steep-sided cone composed primarily of decomposed lava bombs and a large deposit of anorthoclase crystals. It is within this summit cone that the active lava lake continuously degasses.

Air disaster

Main article: Air New Zealand Flight 901


Air New Zealand Flight 901 was a scheduled passenger transport service from Auckland International Airport in New Zealand to Antarctica and return, without an intermediate stop. The Air New Zealand flyover service, for the purposes of Antarctic sightseeing, was operated with McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 aircraft and began in February 1977. The flight crashed into Mount Erebus in whiteout conditions on November 28, 1979, killing all 257 people aboard. Air New Zealand discontinued the service after the crash.

During the Antarctic summer, snow melt on the flanks of Mount Erebus continually brings debris from the crash to the surface of the snow; it is plainly visible from the air.

Gallery


Topographic map of Ross Island (1:250,000 scale) from USGS Ross Island.

Satellite picture of Mount Erebus showing glow from its persistent lava lake.


Notes and references

1. ^ Ross, Voyage to the Southern Seas, vol. i, p. 216-18
2. ^ Kyle, P. R. (Ed.), Volcanological and Environmental Studies of Mount Erebus, Antarctica, Antarctic Research Series, American Geophysical Union, Washington DC, 1994.
3. ^ Aster R., Mah, S., Kyle, P., McIntosh, W., Dunbar, N., and J. Johnson, Very long period oscillations of Mount Erebus volcano, J. Geophys. Res., 108, 2522, doi:10 .1029/2002JB002101, 2003.

See also

References

External links

summit is a point on a surface which is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. Mathematically speaking, a summit is a local maximum in elevation.
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Ross Island is an island formed by three volcanoes in the Ross Sea by Antarctica, off the coast of Victoria Land in McMurdo Sound at . Its area is 2,460 km². (950 sq mi.); only a small portion of the island is free of ice and snow.
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prominence, also known as autonomous height, relative height or shoulder drop (in America) or prime factor (in Europe), is a concept used in the categorization of hills and mountains, also known as peaks.
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geographic coordinate system enables every location on the earth to be specified by the three coordinates of a spherical coordinate system aligned with the spin axis of the Earth.
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Mountains can be characterized in several ways. Some mountains are volcanoes and can be characterized by the type of lava and eruptive history. Other mountains are shaped by glacial processes and can be characterized by their shape.
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stratovolcano, also called a composite volcano, is a tall, conical volcano composed of many layers of hardened lava, tephra, and volcanic ash. These volcanoes are characterized by a steep profile and periodic, explosive eruptions.
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The geological time scale is used by geologists and other scientists to describe the timing and relationships between events that have occurred during the history of Earth.
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Volcano:
1. Large magma chamber
2. Bedrock
3. Conduit (pipe)
4. Base
5. Sill
6. Branch pipe
7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano
8. Flank 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano
10. Throat
11. Parasitic cone
12. Lava flow
13. Vent
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In climbing, a first ascent (FA) is the first modern recorded climb to reach the top of a mountain, or the first to follow a particular climbing route. First ascents are notable because they are the climbs that entail genuine exploration; the risks are higher and the challenge
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climbing route is a path by which a climber reaches the top of a mountain, rock, or ice wall. Routes can vary dramatically in difficulty and, once committed to that ascent, can be difficult to stop or return. So, choice of route can be critically important.
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Volcano:
1. Large magma chamber
2. Bedrock
3. Conduit (pipe)
4. Base
5. Sill
6. Branch pipe
7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano
8. Flank 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano
10. Throat
11. Parasitic cone
12. Lava flow
13. Vent
14.
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1 metre =
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The metre or meter[1](symbol: m) is the fundamental unit of length in the International System of Units (SI).
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A foot (plural: feet or foot;[1] symbol or abbreviation: ft or, sometimes, ′
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Ross Island is an island formed by three volcanoes in the Ross Sea by Antarctica, off the coast of Victoria Land in McMurdo Sound at . Its area is 2,460 km². (950 sq mi.); only a small portion of the island is free of ice and snow.
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For mountains named Mount Terror, see Mount Terror.
Mount Terror is a large shield volcano that forms the eastern part of Ross Island. It has numerous cinder cones and domes on the flanks of the shield and is mostly under snow and ice.
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Pacific Ring of Fire is an area of frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions encircling the basin of the Pacific Ocean. In a 40,000 km horseshoe shape, it is associated with a nearly continuous series of oceanic trenches, volcanic arcs, and volcanic belts and/or plate
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Sir James Clark Ross (April 15, 1800 – April 3, 1862), was a British naval officer and explorer. He explored the Arctic with his uncle Sir John Ross and Sir William Parry, and later led his own expedition to Antarctica.

Ross was born in London.
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HMS Erebus was a Hecla class bomb vessel designed by Sir Henry Peake and constructed by the Royal Navy in Pembroke dockyard, Wales in 1826. The vessel was named after the dark region in Hades of Greek mythology called Erebus.
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HMS Terror was a bomb vessel designed by Sir Henry Peake and constructed by the Royal Navy in the Davy shipyard in Topsham, Devon. The ship, variously listed as being of either 326 or 340 tons, carried two mortars, one 13-inch and one 10-inch.
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John Franklin FRGS (April 15, 1786 – June 11, 1847) was a British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer who mapped almost two thirds of the northern coastline of North America. Franklin also served as governor of Tasmania for several years.
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Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton CVO, OBE (15 February 1874 – 5 January 1922) was an Irish explorer who was knighted for the success of the 1907-09 "British Antarctic Expedition" under his command.
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