Unpredictability – 7. The pattern of known activity at Erebus is spectacular, but monotonous – with an occasional, but long-lived, lava lake and spectacular bubble bursts deep within the current crater.ĭevastation Potential – 231. Erebus is spectacular, with wonderful views into the active crater and beyond, but it has to be one of the most remote monitored volcanoes in the world. A well known gas geochemist, Werner Giggenbach, burnt some of his socks some years ago when he was caught unware by a small explosion but, outside the times when scientists live and work near the summit during summer field campaigns, Erebus poses little threat to humans. Erebus is one of the tallest ‘free standing’ mountains in the world, and the second highest volcano in Antarctica, after Mount Sibley.ĭeadliness. Pops and bubbles are the order of the day in Erebus’ lava pond. So it is one of those volcanoes classified as in continuing eruption.Įxplosivity (Volcanic Explosivity Index) – 2.
Last known eruption: Erebus has an active lava lake, which has occasional explosions. The historical record of activity is only very short: Erebus was first seen in 1841, and first climbed in 1908. The scores on the cards are based on what we know about the past and continuing activity of Erebus. How does Erebus stack up as a Top Trumps Volcano? Geologically, the erupted products – alkali rich lavas called phonolites – are similar to those erupted at Mt Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania. It is one of several volcanoes in West Antarctica that are likely to be fed from a deep-seated hot upwelling, or plume, inside the Earth.
Erebus is not associated with a tectonic plate boundary – instead, it is an intra-plate volcano that lies in a rift, where the Earth’s crust has been thinned by slowly being stretched. For at least the past 40 years, there has been a lava lake bubbling in the summit crater, and feeding a continuous plume of gases across the Antarctic continent.Įrebus is a stratovolcano, and one of four volcanoes on Ross island the others being called Mts.
It is the most southerly active volcano in the world, located on Ross island in Antarctica. Image of Mt Erebus, Antarctica, showing the distinctive gas and aerosol plume rising off the summit crater.
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