Mount Erebus is a stratovolcano which is also the highest and most active volcano of Antarctica. It belongs to the McMurdo Volcanic Group which is located in the Terror Rift, a part of the West Antarctic Rift System.
It is also the most southern active volcano. Mount Erebus measures 3,795 metres. It features a 1,700-degree Fahrenheit lava lake, a swirling pool of magma that may be many miles deep. It produces up to 6 strombolian eruptions per day. This lava lake has been present since 1972. There are only five such lakes exist in the world.
Quick Facts: –
- The most recent eruption of Mount Erebus began in 1972 and stopped after 20 years, in 1992.
- This volcano was discovered in 1841 by polar explorer Sir James Clark Ross. It was erupting at that time.
- It has a large and stable magma system and the composition of lava has remained constant for the past 17,000 years.
- It is one of the Volcanic Seven Summits and also the largest of 4 volcanoes that form the roughly triangular Ross Island.
- The temperature of its summit averages between -20°C to -50°C and it is covered by glaciers.
- The magma source beneath this volcano is sometimes described as a plume rising from the upper mantle at velocities of around 6 centimetres per year.
- This stratovolcano has undergone at least one or two caldera formations.
- It is one of only a few consistently active volcanoes in the world.
