![]() ![]() ![]() There is even a webcam on the rim of the crater! Satellites monitor CO2, SO2 and other gasses emitted by Erebus, which influence the Antarctic atmosphere, which is of particular importance to global climate. Erebus Volcano Observatory (MEVO), run by New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and the National Science Foundation, operates regular field surveys and measurements from McMurdo Station. There are only a handful long-lived lava lakes in the world: at Erta Ale volcano (Ethiopia), Nyiragongo (DRCongo), Ambrym (Vanuatu), often on Kilauea volcano on Hawai'i, and only occasionally on other volcanoes.Īlthough Erebus is perhaps in among the most inhospitable and remote location of any active volcano in the world, it is relatively well monitored. Heat supply is provided by rising magmatic gasses from the magma chamber through a liquid-filled conduit, and is counterbalanced by intense heat lost at the surface of the lava lake. Persistant lava lakes are very rare, and require a delicate equilibrium between heat supply and heat loss. The current activity at the lava lake includes spattering and sometime strombolian explosions, that can eject bombs outside the crater. Mt Erebus volcano's lava lake is connected to a long-lived, open and stable magma plumbing system, which might have been in place for the past 17,000 years. ![]() Mount Erebus is noted for its active anorthoclase-feldspar phonolite lava lake, which has been in continuous activity since at least 1972, but probably much longer. The summit consists of the elliptical 500 x 600 m wide, 110-m-deep crater, which contains the famous active lava lake, contained within a 250-m-wide, 100-m-deep inner crater. It contains a summit plateau at about 3200-m, marking the rim of the youngest caldera, which formed during the late-Pleistocene and within which the modern cone was constructed. The Erebus stratovolcano has undergone at least one or two caldera formations. The magma source beneath Erebus is sometimes described as a plume rising from the upper mantle at velocities of around 6 cm per year. This area is a rift zone where extension takes place and has thinned the crust to 20 km and allows magma to rise. Erebus volcano is an intraplate volcano and belongs to the McMurdo Volcanic Group, located in the so-called Terror Rift, which is part of the West Antarctic Rift System. View recent quakes Sfondo Geologic setting ![]()
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