Erebus

About Erebus

Mount Erebus overlooks the McMurdo research station on Ross Island and is the largest of three major volcanoes forming the roughly triangular Ross Island. The summit of the dominantly phonolitic volcano has been modified by one or two generations of caldera formation. A summit plateau at about 3,200 m elevation 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, 110-m-deep crater truncates the summit and contains an active lava lake within a 250-m-wide, 100-m-deep inner crater; other lava lakes are sometimes present. The glacier-covered volcano was erupting when first sighted by Captain James Ross in 1841. A persistent lava-lake, with minor explosions punctuated by occasional larger Strombolian explosions that eject bombs onto the crater rim, has been documented since 1972, but nearly continuous activity has probably been occurring for much longer.