The Volcano
Mount Erebus is the second highest volcano in Antarctica (after Mount Sidley) and the southernmost
active volcano on earth. It is the 6th highest ultra mountain on an island. With a summit elevation of
3,794 meters (12,448 ft), it is located on Ross Island, which is also home to three inactive volcanoes,
Mount Terror, Mount Bird, and Mount Terra Nova.
The volcano has been observed to be continuously active since 1972 and is the site of the Mount
Erebus Volcano Observatory run by the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.
Geology &
Volcanology
Volcanology
Mount Erebus is currently the most active volcano in Antarctica and is the current eruptive zone
of the Erebus hotspot. The summit contains a persistent convecting phonolitic lava lake, one of five
long-lasting lava lakes on Earth. 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.
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.
Mount Erebus is classified as a polygenetic stratovolcano. The bottom half of the volcano is a shield
and the top half is a stratocone. The composition of the current eruptive products of Erebus is phono-
lite and anorthoclase-porphyritic tephritic phonolite, which constitute the bulk of exposed lava flow
on the volcano. The oldest eruptive products consist of relatively undifferentiated and non-viscous
basanite lavas that form the low, broad platform shield of Erebus. 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 Erebus. Today, it is the only erupting phonolite volcano.
Lava flows of more viscous phonotephrite and trachyte erupted after the basanite. A conspicuous
break in slope at approximately 3,200 metres calls attention to a summit plateau representing a cald-
era less than one hundred millennia 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 known
as Erebus Crystals. Within this summit cone the lava lake continuously degasses.
Discovery & Naming
Mount Erebus was discovered on January 27, 1841 (and observed to be in eruption) by polar explorer
Sir James Clark Ross who named it and its companion, Mount Terror, after his ships, Erebus and
Terror (which were later used by Sir John Franklin on his disastrous Arctic expedition). Erebus was
a primordial Greek god of darkness, the son of Chaos.
Below, a panorama of the summit captured by a contemporary expedition.
Historic Sites
The mountain was surveyed in December 1912 by a science party from Scott's Terra Nova Expedition,
which also collected geological samples. Two of the camp sites they used have been recognized
for their historic significance: Upper "Summit Camp" site consists of part of a circle of rocks, which
were probably used to weight the tent valances. Lower "Camp E" site consists of a slightly elev-
ated area of gravel as well as some aligned rocks, which may have been used to weight the tent
valances. They have been designated Historic Sites or Monuments following a proposal by the
United Kingdom, New Zealand and the United States to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting.
Climbing
Mount Erebus' summit crater rim was first achieved by members of Sir Ernest Shackleton's party;
Professor Edgeworth David, Sir Douglas Mawson, Dr Alister Mackay, Jameson Adams, Dr Eric Marshall
and Phillip Brocklehurst (who did not make the summit), in 1908. Its first known solo ascent and the
first winter ascent was accomplished by British mountaineer Roger Mear in March 1985, a member
of Robert Swan's "In the Footsteps of Scott" expedition. On January 19-20, 1991, Charles J. Blackmer,
an iron-worker for many years at McMurdo Station and the South Pole, accomplished a solo ascent
in approximately seventeen hours via snow mobile.
Robotic Exploration
In 1992 the inside of the volcano was explored by Dante I, an eight legged tethered robotic explorer.
Dante was designed to acquire gas samples from the magma lake inside the inner crater of Mount
Erebus in order to understand the chemistry better through the use of the on-board gas chromato-
graph as well as measuring the temperature inside the volcano and the radioactivity of the materials
present in such volcanoes. Dante successfully scaled a significant portion of the crater before tech-
nical difficulties emerged with the fibre-optic cable used for communications between the walker
and base station. Unfortunately, Dante I had not yet reached the bottom of the crater.
Air New Zealand Flight 901
Air New Zealand Flight 901 was a scheduled sightseeing service from Auckland Airport in New
Zealand to Antarctica. The Air New Zealand flyover service, for the purposes of Antarctic sight-seeing, was operated with McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 aircraft and began in February 1977. The flight crash-
ed 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 reveals debris from the crash; it is plainly visible from the air.
