Are there any volcanoes in Antartica or in the north pole?
Bret
Hi Bret,
Yes, there are volcanoes in Antartica. They are not really in the middle of the
continent, but instead, kind of around the coastline. There are also some
islands way down in the southern ocean that are not physically or geologically
part of Antartica, but they are usually included in lists of Antartic volcanoes.
The most active Antarctic volcano is Mt. Erebus, which is very near McMurdo
base. Mt. Erebus was the first place that NASA went to test out it's robot
explorer named Dante (it didn't work). The other truly Antartic volcano is
Deception island, which is a beautiful crescent-shaped island. It formed when
caldera collapse took place, and the ocean has managed to break through the ring
to form the crescent.
Other volcanoes in this southern region that are not really part of Antartica
are Zavodovski, Visokoi, and Bristol Islands, in the South Sandwich island
group, as well as Marion Island and Herd Island, in the southern Indian Ocean.
I noticed that your e-mail address is from a public library, so you should take
a look at a couple of books that have good maps of the area. The first is
"Volcanoes of the World", 2nd edition, by Tom Simkin and Lee Seibert. The
second is "Volcanoes of the Antarctic Plate and Southern Oceans" edited by W.E.
LeMasurier and J.W. Thomson. I also did a little bit of www-searching, and
there are a number of sites that deal with Antarctica. I didn't look at any of
them in detail, but you might if you're interested.
As for the north pole, the most northerly volcano above sea level is Beerenberg
Volcano on Jan Mayen island, north of Iceland at 71.08 degrees N, 8.17 degrees
W. It last erupted in 1985. There has been reported volcanic activity on the
sea floor about 200 km from the north pole (at 88.27N, 65.60W), but according to
"Volcanoes of the World" it is "somewhat suspect".
Hopefully this will be some useful information.
Sincerely,
Scott Rowland, University of Hawaii
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