Mount Terror

Mount Terror is a large shield volcano that forms the eastern part of Ross Island, Antarctica. It has numerous cinder cones and domes on the flanks of the shield and is mostly under snow and ice. It is the second largest of the four volcanoes which make up Ross Island and is somewhat overshadowed by its neighbor, Mount Erebus, 30 km (19 mi) to the west. Mt. Terror was named in 1841 by Sir James Clark Ross for his second ship, the HMS Terror. The captain of the Terror was Captain Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier who was a close friend of Ross.

The rocks at the summit have not been studied, but lower areas have been studied and rocks from those areas range from 0.82 to 1.75 million years old. Mount Terror shows no signs of volcanic activity more recent than that.

The first ascent of Mt. Terror was made by a New Zealand party in 1959.

Terror Point (77°41′S 168°13′E), located just below Mt. Terror, is the eastern limit of Fog Bay, 6 km (3.7 mi) WNW of Cape MacKay on Ross Island. The name was first used by members of the British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901–04, and was apparently applied in association with Mt. Terror which overlooks this point from the northeast.

Terror Saddle (77°31′S 168°5′E) is one of three prominent snow saddles on Ross Island, located c.1600 m between Mount Terra Nova and Mount Terror. Named in association with Mount Terror, which rises to 3262 m to the east of this saddle.

Terror Glacier (77°37′S 168°3′E) is a large glacier between Mount Terra Nova and Mount Terror on Ross Island, flowing south into Windless Bight. So named by A.J. Heine of the New Zealand Geological Survey Antarctic Expedition (NZGSAE), 1962–63, because of its association with Mount Terror.

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Mount Kirkpatrick

Mount Kirkpatrick is a lofty, generally ice-free mountain in Antarctica's Queen Alexandra Range. Located 8 km (5 mi) west of Mount Dickerson, Mt. Kirkpatrick is the highest point in the Queen Alexandra Range, as well as in its parent range, the Transantarctic Mountains. Discovered and named by the British Antarctic Expedition (1907–09), the mountain was named for a Glasgow businessman, who was one of the original supporters of the expedition. Mount Kilpatrick is an alternate name for this mountain.

Mount Kirkpatrick as a fossil site

Mount Kirkpatrick holds one of the most important fossil sites in Antarctica, the Mount Kirkpatrick Formation. Because Antarctica used to be warmer and supported dense conifer and cycad forest and due to the fact that all the continents were fused into a giant supercontinent called Pangaea, many ancient Antarctic wildlife share relatives elsewhere in the world. Among these creatures are tritylodonts, hebivorous mammal-like reptiles that are prevalent elsewhere at the time.

A crow-sized pterosaur has been identified. In addition to these finds, numerous dinosaur remains have been uncovered. Fossils of dinosaurs resembling Plateosaurus, Coelophysis, and Dilophosaurus were excavated. Mount Kirkpatrick holds the first dinosaur scientifically named on the continent: the large predatory Cryolophosaurus. In 2004, scientists have even found partial remains of a large sauropod plant-eating dinosaur.

Glacialisaurus hammeri, an herbivorous dinosaur thought to be around 25 feet (7.6 m) long and weighing perhaps 4-6 tons, was also identified from fossils on Mt. Kirkpatrick in 2007, the only known site of Glacialisaurus hammeri.

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Geology and volcanology of Mount Erebus

Mount Erebus is currently the most active volcano in Antarctica and is the current eruptive zone of the Erebus hotspot. The summit contains a persistent convecting phonolitic lava lake, one of five long-lasting lava lakes on Earth. Characteristic eruptive activity consists of Strombolian eruptions from the lava lake or from one of several subsidiary vents, all lying within the volcano's inner crater. The volcano is scientifically remarkable in that its relatively low-level and unusually persistent eruptive activity enables long-term volcanological study of a Strombolian eruptive system very close (hundreds of metres) to the active vents, a characteristic shared with only a few volcanos planetarily, such as Stromboli in Italy. Scientific study of the volcano is also facilitated by their proximity to McMurdo Station (U.S.) and Scott Base (N.Z.), both sited on Ross Island approximately thirty-five kilometres away.

Mount Erebus is classified as a polygenetic stratovolcano. The bottom half of the volcano is a shield and the top half is a stratocone (Mount Etna is like this as well). The composition of the current eruptive products of Erebus is anorthoclase-porphyric tephritic phonolite and phonolite, which constitute the bulk of exposed lava flow on the volcano. The oldest eruptive products consist of relatively undifferentiated and non-viscous basanitic lavas that form the low, broad platform shield of the Erebus edifice. Slightly younger basanite and phonotephrite lavas crop out on Fang Ridge — an eroded remnant of an early Erebus volcano — and at other isolated locations on the flanks of the Erebus edifice.

Lava flows of more viscous phonotephrite, tephriphonolite and trachyte erupted after the basanite. The upper slopes of Mount Erebus are dominated by steeply dipping (−30°) tephritic phonolite lava flows with large scale flow levees. A conspicuous break in slope at approximately 3,200 metres calls attention to a summit plateau representing a caldera less than one hundred millennia old. The summit caldera itself is filled with small volume tephritic phonolite and phonolite lava flows. In the center of the summit caldera is a small, steep-sided cone composed primarily of decomposed lava bombs and a large deposit of anorthoclase crystals known as Erebus Crystals. It is within this summit cone that the active lava lake continuously degasses.

Researchers spent more than three months during the 2007-08 field season installing an array of seismometers around Mount Erebus to listen to waves of energy generated by small, controlled blasts from explosives they buried along its flanks and perimeter. Seismometers measure and record the size and force of underground energy, or seismic, waves. By studying the refracted and reflected seismic waves, the scientists attempted to map the interior of the volcano, much as a CT scan images the inside of an object using X-rays, to understand its deep "plumbing" and how the magma rises to the lava lake.

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Robotic Exploration of Mount Erebus

In 1992 the inside of the volcano was explored by Dante I, an eight legged tethered robotic explorer. Dante was designed to acquire gas samples from the magma lake inside the inner crater of Mount Erebus in order to better understand the chemistry through the use of the on-board gas chromatograph as well as measuring the temperature inside the volcano and the radioactivity of the materials present in such volcanoes. Dante successfully scaled a significant portion of the crater before technical difficulties emerged with the fibre-optic cable used for communications between the walker and base station. Unfortunately, Dante I had not reached the bottom of the crater and as such the mission was cancelled with no data of volcanic significance recorded. However, the expedition proved to be highly successful in terms of robotic and computer science, and was possibly the first ever expedition by a robotic platform to Antarctica.

Air disaster

Air New Zealand Flight 901 was a scheduled sightseeing service from Auckland Airport in New Zealand to Antarctica and return, without an intermediate stop. The Air New Zealand flyover service, for the purposes of Antarctic sightseeing, was operated with McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 aircraft and began in February 1977. The flight crashed into Mount Erebus in sector whiteout conditions on November 28, 1979, killing all 257 people aboard. Air New Zealand discontinued the service after the crash.

During the Antarctic summer, snow melt on the flanks of Mount Erebus continually brings debris from the crash to the surface of the snow; it is plainly visible from the air.

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Mount Erebus

Mount Erebus in Antarctica is the southernmost historically active volcano on Earth, the second highest volcano in Antarctica (after Mount Sidley), and 6th highest ultra mountain on an island. With a summit elevation of 3,794 metres (12,448 ft), it is located on Ross Island, which is also home to three inactive volcanoes, notably Mount Terror. Mount Erebus is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, which includes over 160 active volcanoes.

The volcano has been observed to be continuously active since 1972 and is the site of the Mount Erebus Volcano Observatory run by the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.

Discovery and naming

Mount Erebus was discovered on January 27, 1841 (and observed to be in eruption) by polar explorer Sir James Clark Ross who named it Mount Erebus after his ships, Erebus and Terror (which were also used by Sir John Franklin on his disastrous Arctic expedition). Erebus was a primordial Greek god of darkness, the son of Chaos.

Climbing

Mount Erebus was first climbed (to the rim) by members of Sir Ernest Shackleton's party in 1908. Its first known solo ascent and the first winter ascent was accomplished by British mountaineer Roger Mear in March 1985, a member of Robert Swan's "In the Footsteps of Scott" expedition. On January 19–20, 1991, Charles J. Blackmer, an iron-worker for many years at McMurdo Station and the South Pole, accomplished a solo ascent in approximately seventeen hours via snow mobile.

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Dome A summit of the massive East Antarctic Ice Sheet

Dome A or Dome Argus (80°22′S 77°21′E / 80.367°S 77.35°E / -80.367; 77.35Coordinates: 80°22′S 77°21′E / 80.367°S 77.35°E / -80.367; 77.35) is an Antarctican plateau located 1200 kilometres inland. It is thought to be one of the coldest naturally occurring places on Earth, with temperatures believed to get close to −90 °C (−130 °F). It is the highest ice feature in Antarctica, comprising a dome or eminence of 4,093 meters elevation above sea level. It is located in the Australian Antarctic Territory, near the center of East Antarctica, and approximately midway between the head of Lambert Glacier and the South Pole. As a signatory to the Antarctic Treaty, Australia does not exercise sovereignty over Dome A.

Description

Dome Argus is the summit of the massive East Antarctic Ice Sheet, and is not really a mountain in the conventional sense of the word (though it should be pointed out that there is no international consensus on the exact definition of a mountain). However, the East Antarctic Ice Cap is itself considered to be part of the East Antarctica Ranges, and therefore Dome Argus is considered to be the highest point in the East Antarctica Ranges. Dome A is a plain and the elevation visually is not noticeable. Below Dome A underneath at least 2400 meters thickness of ice sheet is the Gamburtsev Mountain Range.

The name "Dome Argus" was given by the Scott Polar Research Institute from Greek mythology; Argus built the ship in which Jason and the Argonauts traveled.

This site is one of the driest locations on Earth and receives 1 – 3 cm of snow per year. Due to this, as well as calm weather, this site is an excellent location to obtain ice core samples for the research of climates in the past. Temperatures at Dome A fall below -80°C almost every winter, while in summer it rarely exceeds -10°C.

Exploration

Details of the morphology of this feature were determined by the SPRI-NSF-TUD airborne radio echo sounding program between the years 1967 and 1979.

In January 2005 a team from the Chinese National Antarctic Research Expeditions (CHINARE) traversed 1228 km from Zhongshan Station to Dome A and located the highest point of the ice sheet (4093 m above sea level) by GPS survey at 80°22’S 77°21’E on Jan 18. This point is near one end of an elongate ridge (about 60 km long and 10 km wide) which is a major ice divide and has an elevation difference along its length of only a few metres. An automatic weather station (AWS) was deployed at Dome A, and a second station was installed approximately half way between the summit and the coast at a site called Eagle (76°25'S, 77°01'E, 2830 m above sea level). These AWS are operated as part of an ongoing collaboration between China and Australia which also includes a third AWS (LGB69) at 70°50'S, 77°04'E, 1854 m above sea level which has operated since January 2002. Station at Dome A is powered by solar cells and diesel fuel and requires yearly service and refuelling.

The coldest air temperature recorded at Dome A since January 2005 thus far (28 September 2010) was in July 2005: -82.5°C. The lowest air temperature (-89.2°C) at the surface of the earth was recorded in July 1983 at Vostok, which is almost 600 m lower in elevation than Dome A. Analysis of satellite data and atmospheric models shows that the Ridge A which is located 144 km south-east from Dome A is potentially even better location to look for lowest temperatures on Earth.

Observatory

The Polar Research Institute of China deployed a robotic observatory called PLATO (PLATeau Observatory) on the dome in January 2008. PLATO was designed and built by the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia to provide a platform from which astronomical observations and site-testing could be conducted. Various institutions from Australia, US, China and the UK provided instruments that were deployed with PLATO, these instruments included CSTAR, Gattini, PreHEAT, Snodar, Nigel and the PLATO web cameras.

The Institute of Remote Sensing Applications, Chinese Academy of Sciences established a wireless network technology based observation system called DomeA-WSN on the dome in January 2008.

The Kunlun Station, China's third Station in Antarctica, was set up at the dome on January 27, 2009.[6] Thus far station is suitable as summer station but it is planned to develop it further and build an airfield next to it to ease servicing of Antarctic Kunlun Station, as it is not reachable by helicopters.

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