When the sailboats Erebus and Terror approached the solid strip of ice, the members of the expedition saw a tall white cone far to the south, above which clouds of smoke rose. Captain James Ross was confident that he had found Antarctica, but it was still only a volcanic island.

The southernmost and most active volcano in Antarctica

Erebus is the second tallest and most active volcano Antarctica. Above - only extinct Sidley (4285 m) on the Land of Mary Byrd.

Erebus is not located on the continental part of Antarctica, but on the large (2460 km 2) Ross Island, and this is not the only volcano on it. The island is generally lucky with volcanoes: in addition to Erebus, there is an extinct shield Terror (3230 m), about a million years old, and a pair of lower volcanoes - Terra Nova (2130 m) and Bird (1765 m).

Erebus volcano is an intraplate volcano, belongs to the McMurdo volcanic group - part of the West Antarctic rift system. Magma beneath Erebus rises from the upper mantle at a rate of about 6 cm / year.

The volcano is based on volcanic rocks: basalt, trachyte, phonolite and tuff. From above, they are covered with glaciers that descend to the ocean. Most big tongue- from 50 to 300 m thick. Approaching the shore, it sinks into the water and stays on its surface: in this place it is quite deep. In summer, the ice thaws, the broken off parts of the glacier form icebergs. Also, waves break through caves in the glacier, where the temperature is around 0 ° C, and the humidity is 100%, which contributes to the formation of huge icicles, similar to stalactites, and large ice crystals.

The most famous of these ice cavities has earned its own name - Warren Cave, created by vapor from a volcano. Its bottom is wet, soft soil and rocks, and its walls are ice. Researchers say that in its depths there is pitch darkness, and when the flashlights are turned on, the black walls turn into a multi-colored kaleidoscope of flying sparks.

The crater of the volcano is a caldera about a kilometer in diameter, in which there are permanent fumaroles and geysers. At its bottom is a crater with a smaller diameter, about a kilometer deep, and in it is a lake of molten lava. Erebus is one of several volcanoes on Earth, whose lake of molten kenite (a type of phonolite) has existed for quite a long time - several decades. Erebus is the only active volcano on Earth that spews out kenite magma with a temperature of + 900 ° C, this rock in a solid state is also found in the mountains of Kenya (hence the name).

The underground source of magma, feeding it into the crater of the Erebus volcano, was common to all other volcanoes of the island, which are now extinct. It is a magma lake with a diameter of up to 300 km, located at a depth of about 200 km. Below it takes the form of a vertical channel descending to a depth of 400 km.

By the nature of the eruption, Erebus belongs to the "Strombolian" type, named after the volcano in the Tyren Sea. This means that a sluggish eruption lasts continuously, the volcano remains constantly ready for a stronger, but shorter eruption. The last one was observed in 2011.

During eruptions, clouds of vapor are observed, accompanied by rare outbursts of ash and volcanic bombs up to 10 m in diameter, which fall around Erebus within a radius of one and a half kilometers. At moments of eruption, gushing geysers also manifest themselves. In this case, the ejection of lava from the lake or one of several holes within the inner crater of the volcano occurs, and the lava remains inside the caldera and does not splash out beyond its limits.

Erebus is located at the intersection of faults in the earth's crust, from which, according to volcanologists, periodically there are powerful emissions of deep gases, including hydrogen and methane. Reaching the stratosphere, they destroy the ozone layer, which is why its minimum thickness is observed precisely over where the Erebus volcano is located.

These bright natural disasters look very picturesque against the backdrop of the ice shell of Antarctica. And the colony of half a million Adélie penguins living on the ice of Ross Island is not in the least frightening.

A thorough study of the unique volcano is facilitated by its relative proximity to the main Antarctic research stations of the United States (McMurdo) and New Zealand (Scott Base), which are at a distance of about 35 km from it.

Volcano discovery

"A stunning volcano in an extremely active state," - this is how the ship's doctor of the expedition, James Ross, described it. Subsequently, it turned out that Erebus is capable of not only arousing delight, but also inspiring terror.

For the first time, this volcano appeared to human eyes on January 27, 1841, when two sailing ships approached the shores of the island on which it is located (this was the last long-distance polar expedition exclusively sailing ships) an English expedition led by James Clark Ross (1800-1862). Ross commanded the Erebus, Officer Francis Crozier (1796-1848) the Terror. This was the famous British Antarctic Expedition of 1839-1843.

Ross happened to arrive at the shores of the island on that rather rare day when Erebus erupted. Seeing two huge ice mountains, Ross did not think long about what names to give them, naming them after their battered Antarctic waves, but faithfully served ships. And he entered on the map the names of the volcanoes Erebus and Terror.

James Ross considered the island to be part of the mainland due to the continuous ice cover. Therefore, he depicted it on a map connecting to the continental area - Victoria Land. Only in 1901, the English explorer Robert Scott (1868-1912) established that this is an island. He also named the sea off the coast of Antarctica and the island after the discoverer - James Ross.

The first ascent to Erebus was made by members of the British expedition of Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922), the purpose of which was to achieve a geographical South Pole... Shackleton did not reach the Pole: the expedition was poorly prepared, and he was forced to turn, not reaching the goal, only 180 km. But even before that, he decided to conquer the top of the volcano before the beginning of the polar night. Shackleton himself did not climb Erebus, six of his people went, who had no experience of climbing mountains. Surprisingly, but true: in a few days they reached the summit, spent four hours on it, and made some scientific measurements. We descended quickly: people simply glided down the icy slopes, like from a children's slide. The adventure was a success: everyone survived, although they were barely alive from hunger and frostbite. How much it all resembled a miracle is evidenced by the fact that the first solo ascent of Erebus was made only in 1985.

From the point of view of science, the Erebus volcano has a number of advantages for scientists: due to the fact that it is relatively low and has been showing constant activity since 1972, it is possible to engage in long-term seismological studies near the crater. Every year from November to January, scientists climb to the top for active field work.

There is life in the caldera of Erebus itself. The slopes of the volcano are covered with fumaroles, which in Antarctic conditions take the form of ice pipes about 20 m high, sticking out here and there over the entire surface of the crater. The internal heat of the mountain melts snow and ice, forming a "chimney", and the steam escaping from there freezes on contact with air. Here, on the smooth surface of solidified lava, covered with ice from frost, there is a relic biocenosis: moss and algae with microorganisms. "Chimneys" are specially protected areas, only scientists are allowed here.

On November 28, 1979, the silence of Ross Island was not disturbed by a volcanic explosion. New Zealand Airlines Flight 901 flew passengers exploring the beauty of Antarctica, including Erebus. These flights have been in operation for two years now. This time, in foggy conditions, the DC-10 plane crashed into the slope of the volcano. The disaster killed 257 people. Unidentified remains of the victims are buried at the Weikumete Memorial Cemetery in West Oakland ( New Zealand). When the short Antarctic summer sets in, wrecks of an aircraft emerge from under the snow ...

general information

Location : Ross Island, Ross Sea, west Antarctica.
Coordinates: 77 ° 32'00 ″ S sh. 167 ° 17'00 "in. d. / 77.533333 ° S sh. 167.283333 ° E etc.
A type: stratovolcano.
Status: valid.
Open: 1841
First ascent : 1908
The last eruption : 2011
Nearest Antarctic stations : McMurdo (USA), Scott Base (New Zealand).

Numbers

Height: 3794 m.
Crater: diameter - 805 m, depth - 274 m.
Age: 1.3 million years.

Climate and weather

Antarctic marine.
Average January temperature : -3 ° C.
Average temperature in July : -27 ° C.
Average annual rainfall : about 100 mm.
Average annual relative humidity : 60-80%.

sights

Natural

• Volcanoes Terror, Terra Nova and Bird
• Glaciers and ice caves
• Caldera
• Lava lake
• Fumaroles - "chimneys"
• Adelie Penguin Colony

Historical

• Robert Scott's Hut (Cape Evans, 1910-1913)
• Memorial Cross to the Deceased Members of the British Imperial Transantarctic Expedition (Cape Evans, 1916)

Curious facts

Ross's ship was named after Erebus, the ancient Greek god, son of Chaos and the personification of Eternal Darkness. From Erebus himself went the gods of Death (Thanatos), Retribution (Nemesis), Razdorov (Eris), as well as Charon - the transporter of the souls of dead people to Hades through the River of Oblivion (Letu). The name of the second ship "Terror" in translation from Latin means fear or horror. By naming their ships, sailors defied the elements. In the case of these two ships, the elements prevailed. In 1845, while making an expedition in search of the Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, both ships went missing, and with them the participant in the discovery of Erebus, Captain Crozier. The remains of the ship "Erebus" were found only in 2014, and "Terror" - in 2016.

Ross Island and, accordingly, the Erebus volcano located on it are part of the Ross territory, which is being claimed by New Zealand. The "Dependent Ross Territory" is a sector of Antarctica that was transferred by Great Britain to the Kingdom of New Zealand in 1923. The Queen of New Zealand is Elizabeth II, but the "kingdom" itself has a purely symbolic status, designed to emphasize the historical and spiritual closeness of the metropolis and former colony... In 1961, the Antarctic Treaty signed by New Zealand entered into force, according to which the country formally renounced claims to this sector. Among the countries that have reserved the right to make such claims are Peru, Russia, the United States and South Africa.

The ships of the expedition of James Ross belonged to the class of the so-called "bombarding": during their construction, the main attention was paid to strength, so that the recoil when firing from heavy mortar-bombers did not loosen the ship's fastenings. Such a design of the ship helped to withstand the strongest pressure of pack ice, but the side was still reinforced with an additional layer of "ice" plating.

On the same Ross Island, where Erebus is located, the Church of the Snows was built in 1956: non-denominational Christian church... Its condition is looked after by the staff of the American Antarctic station McMurdo. And today it remains the southernmost religious building in the world. Catholic masses are sent by a visiting prelate from New Zealand, Protestant services are conducted by a chaplain of the US National Guard Air Force. In the same building, rituals of Mormons, Buddhists, Baha'is, etc. are held.

In the southern sector of the map of Antarctica, the stratovolcano Erebus is indicated - the second highest on Earth. The British pioneers named it after the Greek god - the symbol of darkness generated by Chaos.

The planet's South Pole has many extinct, dormant and active volcanoes. The thickness of the ice in the central part of the continent is so huge that under its weight the land was bent by almost 1 km. Only along the perimeter, as well as on the adjacent islands, underground forces were able to break through the ice sheet and splash out in the form of volcanoes, hot geysers, fumaroles.

The Erebus volcano on the map is surrounded by 3 cooled brethren on the South Antarctic Ross Island in the sea of ​​the same name, near Victoria Land.

Description of the volcano: height, diameter and depth of the crater, age

Erebus belongs to stratovolcanoes, which are characterized by stratification from many explosive eruptions. Over the course of 1.3 million, magma flows solidifying one after another are accumulating. To them is added tephra - emissions deposited from the air in the form of bombs and ash, which over time are cemented into a light porous rock tuff.

The study of the structure of layering also revealed:

• basalt;
• phonolite and its variety kenit;
• trachyte.

Today the height active volcano reached a zone of rarefied air at a level of 3704 m. Above, only extinct, turned into a mountain, Sidley on the Antarctic Land of Mary Byrd. With a crater depth of 274 m, the diameter of Erebus is slightly less than 1 km (805 m).

Volcanic eruption history

The stratovolcano belongs to the West Antarctic Rift System - the McMurdo group, named after the strait that goes into the Ross Sea. Erebus is fueled by a fiery liquid mass from the geosphere between the core and crust of the Earth, that is, from the upper mantle. According to the conclusion of scientists, magmatic deposits at a depth of 200 km have a diameter of about 300 km.

Erebus volcano is the second highest on Earth. The first is Mauna Loa in Hawaii.

A vertical channel goes down 400 km from the main massif. The magma level rises to the vent at 6 cm / year. On the narrowing bottom of the inner caldera (cauldron) of Erebus, there is a permanent lake of hot lava. A sluggish eruption with clouds of steam, ash, periodic spread of 10-meter bombs for one and a half kilometers is supported by a constant inflow.

When the pressure accumulated from below becomes critical, a short powerful explosion occurs.

Over the next 100 years, 8 explosive eruptions were recorded, the strongest in 1972, the last in 2011. Glowing fireworks of hot stones, crimson smoke reach the height of an 8-storey building. Bursting through the rifts in earth crust gases - hydrogen, methane - invade and thin the ozone layer of the stratosphere.

As a result, a huge ozone hole is formed over the Ross Sea, over Antarctica, the contour of which repeats the configuration of the earth's faults. The outflow of lava from the lake, holes in the slopes are connected with geyser (water) fountains, steam-smoke columns from fumaroles. At the same time, the volcanic apocalypse does not completely deplete the magma reserves at the bottom.

If you look into the salted cauldron, it shines through in the cracks of the cooling black crust. Erebus volcano on the map of Antarctica is a seismically calm area. Tectonic movements are generally not characteristic of the South Pole, and volcanism is not accompanied by frequent earthquakes, as on other continents.

Climate and weather

The climatic conditions of Ross Island are polar sea, which do not differ from the Antarctic zone as a whole, since there is a constant circulation of continental air. The main features are - frosty winter, cold summer. Moreover, the change in the temperature front is peculiar: the lowest rates are in August, the highest for these places - in January.

Key weather marks, ° С:

average annual temperature on the northwest coast of the island	-26
the same in the southeast	-36
average temperature in January	-2 – +6
the same in July	-27
lowest figure in August	-62
average annual temperature sea ​​water on the surface	-1.8 °
maximum heating of the upper layer of water in summer	+ 2 °

The sky is mostly covered with clouds, the proximity of the sea creates humidity up to 80% in the form of fog. Continuous strong winds blow from the east over Ross Island. The average annual precipitation is insignificant - only 100 mm. Here, as over the entire South Pole, the highest solar radiation on the planet.

Natural attractions

On the map, Antarctica is represented by an inexpressive blank spot; in fact, there are many unusual natural objects here. The slopes of the same volcano Erebus are stuck high towers from which smoke is constantly coming out. One gets the impression that inside the mountain someone is heating the stoves. These are fumaroles.

When the volcano calms down, the temperature of the escaping vapors and gases decreases, steam condensate settles around the crack or hole, gradually freezing up to a height of 20 m and more.

The ice towers are taking on the most fantastic shapes. New Zealand scientists describe the fumaroles as follows: the largest is similar to the figure of an astronaut, followed by the procession of likenesses of people and animals. One fumarole resembled a lion.

From volcanic vapors in the thickness of the ice, caves of extraordinary beauty are formed: with translucent blue vaults, white stalactites, arches of various shapes, bizarre "stucco" on the walls, huge ice curls. One of the most impressive is Warren Cave, 12 m deep. The bottom of the cavity was exposed: somewhere soft moist soil appeared, somewhere - hard rock.

Thick ice walls do not let light through, but their crystalline surface creates a unique effect: if you turn on the lanterns in pitch darkness, diamond sparks flare up, shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow.

The volcano itself has its own phenomenon: despite the fiery lake at the bottom, the edges of the cauldron are covered with ice. During the eruption, the ice evaporates, but as soon as vigorous activity stops, the perimeter and slopes become snow-white again.

It is impossible to imagine, but bacteria live in permafrost conditions. They are found in Antarctic oases, such as the Taylor Valley in Victoria Land. In it, under a 400-meter layer of ice, there is an anti-freeze very salt Lake... Its water seeps over the horizon for several kilometers, flows down into the lowland, forming a cascading ice "waterfall" of blood-red color.

The frightening color is given by the vital activity of lake microorganisms. Deprived of the opportunity to obtain energy through solar photosynthesis, they switched to chemical.

Scientists have identified 3 stages:

• Sulfuric acid salts of the lake - sulfates - are transformed by bacteria into sulfites.
• Sulfites are oxidized by 3-valent iron ions from the bottom soil.
• After obtaining the energy necessary for life, 2-vale iron remains in the water. Oxidized with oxygen when the lake water comes out to the surface, Fe 2 O 3 paints it red.

Researchers believe that a deep, darkened ecosystem has existed since the time of the ancient planet, and its microorganisms develop according to fundamentally different evolutionary mechanisms. Modern instruments can detect bacteria that survive in the incinerating temperatures of the volcano.

Since most microbes die in laboratory conditions, they learned to describe them by DNA. Thus, it was confirmed that microorganisms inhabit the hot talus of Erebus. A new task was set - on the basis of samples from caves and the slopes of the volcano, to prove that frozen bacteria lived in hot lava.

When asked about the most arid places on the planet, most will name deserts. But the correct answer is the Dry Antarctic Valleys. Almost 8000 km² of Victoria Lands are squeezed by winds with a speed unique for the planet - 320 km / h, so in some oases neither snow nor ice lingers.

Historical landmarks

The hut of Captain R. Scott, an Englishman, polar explorer, still stands at Cape Evans on Ross Island. He led a transantarctic expedition of 5 people. and safely brought it to the middle of January 1912 to the South Pole.

The jubilation of the discoverers was overshadowed by the sight of a tent with a Norwegian flag, which Amundsen's expedition left a year ago. On the way back, the exhausted, disappointed polar explorers were finished off by frost and physical exhaustion.

Not far from the hut in 1916, a cross was erected on a high foundation made of stones in memory of the lost expedition of R. Scott.

The diary of D. Levik, a doctor, zoologist, and photographer from R. Scott's group, discovered in the Antarctic snows in 2013, is an interesting historical finding. New Zealand Antarctic heritage specialists have restored pages soaked under the melting snow and put the information on digital media.

The diary was shipped to Cape Evans for inclusion in a collection of 11,000 artifacts associated with British polar explorers. The exposition contains photographs taken by D. Levik on the way to the South Pole.

D. Ross arrived with a crew in Antarctica on 2 ships - Erebus and Terror. On the first day, the travelers witnessed a volcanic eruption. Shocked by the enchanting sight, D. Ross marked a fire-breathing mountain named Erebus in the map. In the company of her, a cold, low shield volcano, 30 km away, was called Terror.

Researchers have discovered in the composition of the stratovolcano's lava a unique mineral kenite - a glassy mass with plate or needle interspersing of potassium feldspars, aegirine, olivine. The latter is abundant in the structure of some asteroids. Olivine is also a close relative of the precious yellow-green chrysolites. Kenite is found in breeds ancient mountains Kenya.

In a liquid state heated to 900 °, only Erebus erupts it. For geologists, volcanologists of the world, this fact is of considerable interest.

The Erebus volcano on the Ross Island map is adjacent to the Church of the Snows (1956). The polar cult building is under the supervision of the Americans from the McMurdo polar station. Catholics, Protestants, Mormons, Buddhists, Baha'is and other religious movements that have the opportunity to fly to the South Pole conduct services in the church.

The white spot of Antarctica on the world map stores a lot interesting secrets and attractions. One of them is the Erebus volcano.

Article formatting: Lozinsky Oleg

Video about the Erebus volcano

What is this volcano, what are its features:

Antarctica was not discovered by researchers until the 19th century, but several nearby island groups were known earlier. The northernmost of these islands, the South Sandwich Islands, in the South Antilles, were discovered during the voyages of Captain James Cook in 1772-1775. One of the islands of this archipelago, Zavadovsky Island, was discovered by Bellingshausen in 1819. At that moment, the top of the island emitted a cloud of black ash. In subsequent years, several more eruptions were recorded on these islands; for example, hunting ships between 1825 and 1828 documented an eruption on Deception Island, whose natural harbor is a submerged caldera that emerged from a major eruption about 10,000 years ago. In 1839, an eruption occurred on the Balleny Islands, which was noticed by whalers. Two years later, the eruption of Erebus, the most active volcano in the region, was noted for the first time. In addition, Erebus is one of the few volcanoes with a permanent lava lake in its crater.

For the next 60 years, there was no serious study of Antarctica, although whaling vessels continued to operate in the region. Research and expeditions resumed in late XIX century, and the next two decades became known as the "Heroic Age" of Antarctic exploration. Further research between the world wars, during the International Geophysical Year and since the signing of the Antarctic Treaty in 1961 has greatly contributed to the study of the region, but it has become clear that historical records of volcanism in Antarctica are brief and incomplete.

Antarctica, despite its big sizes, is inferior to most volcanically active regions of the planet in terms of the number of dated eruptions. No traces of major Holocene eruptions (from 4 on the VEI scale) have been found in the region, with the possible exception of subglacial tephra deposits of 0.19-0.31 km³ in the Hudson Mountains. (English) Russian... The eruption could have occurred around 200 BC. e., judging by the information obtained as a result of studies of the ice strata. Antarctica does not have a permanent population, and the temporary population is small, as a result of which the Antarctic region is the only volcanic region where not a single eruption has been recorded that would lead to the death of people.

Geological studies of Antarctica and accurate dating of past eruptions are difficult - most of the region is covered with a thick layer of ice, Antarctic volcanoes are difficult to access, and the wood required for radiocarbon dating does not grow in extreme climates - which is why this region has the largest proportion of volcanoes with undefined status. Satellite imagery, however, helps document recent volcanic activity that would otherwise go unnoticed. Data from NASA's Terra research satellite has revealed explosive and effusive eruptions in the 21st century on an ice-covered island. Since there is no confirmed information about the past activity of the discovered volcanoes, they are not included in the presented list. In addition to these, other volcanic objects are not included, for example, the most high volcano Antarctica - Sidley, which did not show significant activity in

Active volcano found under Antarctic ice

Research confirms that its eruption will accelerate the melting of ice on the continent and raise the level of the world's oceans.

An impressive spectacle of the Antarctic landscape, the summit of Mount Erebus casts a long shadow over the Ross Sea. Mount Erebus is one of the most active volcanoes in Antarctica and one of the few in the world with a permanent lake of molten lava in its crater.

And here is the opening new powerful volcano under the thick layer of the icy continent. Scientists argue that its eruption could accelerate the process of melting the ice shell of Antarctica and raising the level of the world's oceans.

The discovery of the new volcano was quite accidental. In January 2010, scientists installed a batch of seismometers (earthquake sensors) on Marie Byrd Land in the mountainous region of West Antarctica. The instruments recorded two series of very weak earthquakes ranging in magnitude from 0.8 to 2.1 - one in 2010, and the other a year later, in 2011.

The quakes have been observed at depths of about 15 to 25 miles (25 to 40 kilometers), close to the crust-mantle boundary, and much deeper than normal earthquakes occurring in the earth's crust.

The depth at which the earthquakes occurred, as well as their low frequency, indicates that these could be so-called Deep earthquakes, which are usually a consequence of the movement of volcanic masses. Most scientists believe that there is movement of magma that leads to pressure fluctuations in faults within volcanic and hydrothermal systems. In fact, there is no longer the question of whether a volcanic eruption will occur. The question is when? And what happens in this case?

The volcano is covered with more than a kilometer layer of ice, and can even such a strong eruption disrupt the surface? There is no direct answer yet. But one thing is clear that the super-high temperature of an erupting volcano could increase melting at the base of the glacier, and the melt water can act as a lubricant that will cause the underlying ice to slide into the ocean, which, even if not very much, will raise its level. Although, of course, it is not yet said that this eruption could melt the ice sheet and cause a catastrophic rise in sea level. Nevertheless, some scientists, in particular, Douglas Vance, professor of planetary Earth exploration at Washington University in St. pours ice from Antarctica into the Ross Ice Shelf.

Volcanoes of Antarctica

There are many volcanoes in Antarctica. Some of them (in particular, those located on the Antarctic islands) have erupted in the last 200 years. Due to the specificity of the climate and the low population of the southern continent, most eruptions took place without human witnesses and were recorded when volcanic activity came to an end, and sometimes in hindsight. Only on the island of Desencion, research stations are located in the zone of one of the volcanoes.

At the top of Mount Melbourne, opposite Ross Island, on the other side of McMurdo Bay, there are active fumaroles - cracks in the earth's crust that eject gas. The combination of steam and freezing temperatures gave rise to many fragile ice columns; in addition, despite the height, a unique bacterial flora has developed around the fumaroles.

In 1893, the Norwegian K.A.Larssen, traveling south on a rare route across the Weddell Sea, recorded that he saw volcanic activity at Sil-Nunatex. For many years this observation was skeptical of geologists, who said that Larsen probably saw the cloud, but recent work has found traces of active fumaroles in the region. A volcanic eruption is always memorable, but the sharp contrast of molten lava and icy snow makes Antarctic eruptions especially spectacular.

James Clark Ross and Francis Crozier, in their ships Erebus and Terror, crossed the pack ice on January 9, 1841 and found themselves in the open water of the Ross Sea. Three days later, they saw a rocky ridge, the peaks of which rose up to 2500 m; it was subsequently named by Ross the Admiralty Ridge. The ships continued to sail south, following the line of the mountains. On January 28, 1841, travelers were struck by the sight of - in the words of Robert McCormick, ship's doctor of the Erebus - "a stunning volcano in an extremely active state." Located north of Ross Island, deep in the Ross Sea, the volcano has been named Mount Erebus, and the smaller, extinct cone to the east is Mount Terror. Erebus is considered the southernmost known active volcano.

In those early days, when the science of geology was experiencing its childhood, an active volcano in the middle of the ice and snow of a frozen continent seemed extremely mysterious. Today geologists are no longer surprised by such phenomena and can easily explain the presence of volcanoes, wherever they appear - climatic conditions in this case are not essential. Volcanic rocks are common in Antarctica, although from a geological point of view they are very ancient and represent the product of volcanic activity during those times when the continent did not yet occupy its present polar position.

Volcanic rocks are an important indicator of the movement of continents, useful for determining the routes of ancient movements of continents across the surface of the globe. The geologically young McMurdo Volcanic Region in the Ross Sea region and the associated volcanoes of Mary Byrd Land simply indicate recent continental shifts in Antarctica.

Erebus Volcano - guarding the path to the South Pole - serves as a beacon for all travelers. Climbing the mountain inevitably became one of the goals of early explorers and climbers. During the expedition of Ernest Shackleton on the "Nimrod" in 1907-1909. a group of six, led by 50-year-old Professor Edgeworth David, climbed the legendary mountain. On March 10, 1908, they reached a summit with a height of 3794 m and found there a crater with a diameter of 805 m and a depth of 274 m, at the bottom of which there was a pool of molten lava. This lake still exists today, and Erebus is one of three volcanoes showing long-term lava lakes.

In the 1974-1975 season. a geological team from New Zealand descended into the main crater and camped there, but the volcanic activity prevented them from descending into the inner crater. On September 17, 1984, the volcano began to erupt again, throwing out liquefied fire "bombs". Currently, Erebus is still the subject of intensive geological research, but it attracts more than just geologists. From transport ships and planes bound for American McMurdo Station, and ships bound for the historic Scott and Shackleton homes, to good weather magnificent views open. Naturalists, travelers and simply risk-takers cannot resist the urge to photograph a volcano mountain, and in the old days the romantic conquerors of the South Pole felt the need to capture what they saw in the picture. Some of best works belonged to the brush of Edward Wilson, a doctor and naturalist who participated in both of Scott's expeditions. Botanists are particularly interested in the Tram Ridge, located high on the slopes of the mountain, where rich vegetation has developed in the area of ​​fumaroles on warm soil.

This text is an introductory fragment. From the book In the mountains and glaciers of Antarctica the author Bardin Vladimir Igorevich

Map of Antarctica Gradually, the contours of the maps created by our detachment begin to appear more and more clearly. But not all parts of the mountainous country can be reached by plane. Where the surface of the ice is covered with cracks, heaped up with boulders, the plane cannot land. Helps out the situation

From the book The Future of Capitalism by Throw Leicester

CHAPTER 12 SOCIAL VOLCANOES: RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM AND ETHNIC SEPARATISM RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM The rise of religious fundamentalism is the eruption of a social volcano. Its connection to economics is simple. People who are losing in economic life or falling into

From the book Results No. 32 (2012) author Results Magazine

Antarctica Resorts / Society and Science / Telegraph Antarctica Resorts / Society and Science / Telegraph If people lived on Earth 50-55 million years ago, they could easily spend their holidays on the shores of Antarctica. During the early Eocene, the continent was

From the book of 100 famous mysteries of nature the author Syadro Vladimir Vladimirovich

VOLCANOES ARE OUR DREAMING AND UNPredictable Neighbors On the globe there are tens of thousands of volcanoes, both on continents and in oceans. However, there are, fortunately, few among them - less than 1000. “Fire-breathing mountains” are located in seismically active zones, where

From the book of 1000 wonders from around the world the author Gurnakova Elena Nikolaevna

The most famous volcanoes in the world

From the book of 200 mysterious and mysterious places planets the author Kostina-Kassanelli Natalia Nikolaevna

Volcanoes of the Hawaiian Islands The Hawaiian islands are known not so much for their tropical nature as for their volcanic activity. They are located in the northern part The Pacific, stretching for almost 2,500 km between 19 ° and 29 ° north latitude from the Kure and the Midway Islands on

From the author's book

Volcanoes of Japan Japan is said to sit "in the cradle of Mother Earth", and more than 500 volcanoes located on large islands, confirm this. Ancient Precambrian rocks and strata of sedimentary rocks above them, having formed folds in the course of mountain building processes,

From the author's book

Mud volcanoes of the Kerch Peninsula The vast expanses of the Kerch hills abound with original landforms associated with volcanic activity. Some of the active mud hills are curious natural phenomena, as if

From the author's book

Dry valleys of Antarctica Without water, millions of years Antarctica, in the minds of many, is eternal cold, snow, frost and huge ice caps, that is, in fact, reserves of life-giving moisture. However, not everyone knows that Antarctica has its own deserts, and it is these