Volcano Type:      Stratovolcano
Volcano Status:    Historical
Last Known Eruption:     2010 (continuing)
Summit Elevation:     3794 m     12,447 feet
Latitude:     77.53°S     77°32’0″S
Longitude:     167.17°E     167°10’0″E

Mount Erebus, the world’s southernmost historically active volcano, overlooks the McMurdo research station on Ross Island. The 3794-m-high Erebus is the largest of three major volcanoes forming the crudely triangular Ross Island. The summit of the dominantly phonolitic Mount Erebus has been modified by one or two generations of caldera formation. A summit plateau at about 3200-m altitude marks the rim of the youngest caldera, which formed during the late-Pleistocene and within which the modern cone was constructed. An elliptical 500 x 600 m wide, 110-m-deep crater truncates the summit and contains an active lava lake within a 250-m-wide, 100-m-deep inner crater. The glacier-covered volcano was erupting when first sighted by Captain James Ross in 1841. Continuous lava-lake activity with minor explosions, punctuated by occasional larger strombolian explosions that eject bombs onto the crater rim, has been documented since 1972, but has probably been occurring for much of the volcano’s recent history.

Mt. Erebus

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Originally posted 2010-08-09 20:22:09.