Mount Erebus is the second-highest volcano in Antarctica and the southernmost active volcano on Earth. It is the sixth highest ultra mountain on an island. It is located on Ross Island, that lies south of Australia and New Zealand. Mostly ice covered, the land areas around the sea are home to several research bases and countless numbers of seals and penguins.
The volcano has been active since c. 1.3 million years ago and is the site of the Mount Erebus Volcano. the Mt. Erebus volcano features a 1,700-degree Fahrenheit lava lake, a swirling pool of magma that may be many miles deep: one of only five such lava lakes that exist in the world.
History of Mount Erebus
Mount Erebus was discovered on January 27, 1841, by polar explorer Sir James Clark Ross who named it and its companion. The mountain was surveyed in December 1912 by a science party from Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition who also collected geological samples.
Mount Erebus’ summit crater rim was first achieved by members of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s party. Its first known solo ascent and the first winter ascent was accomplished by British mountaineer Roger Mear on 7 June 1985, a member of the “In the Footsteps of Scott” expedition. On January 19–20, 1991, Charles J. Blackmer, an ironworker for many years at McMurdo Station and the South Pole, accomplished a solo ascent in approximately seventeen hours completely unassisted via snowmobile and on foot.
Mt. Erebus is also the site of a famous and tragic air disaster. An Air New Zealand DC-10 airliner on a sightseeing flight became lost in a whiteout and the flight crashed into Mount Erebus on November 28, 1979, killing all 237 passengers and 20 crew. Famed explorer Sir Edmund Hillary was supposed to have been on board but canceled at the last moment. During the Antarctic summer, snowmelt on the flanks of Mount Erebus continually reveals debris from the crash; it is visible from the air.