Images of

ANTARCTICA

Mount Erebus

Photos © 2002 Seth White

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Mount Erebus is one of the very few active Antarctic volcanoes. And on a volcano scale, it's pretty big. Although you can't see it directly from McMurdo, it absolutely dominates Ross Island. Mount Terror, Mount Terra Nova, and Mount Bird are three other extinct volcanos on the island, but they are nothing compared to Erebus. There is often a plume rising from the crater, as Erebus is a continually active volcano with a lava lake inside the crater. The group from New Mexico Tech (whose seismic project I support as part of my job) has done a large amount of work on this volcano, and I am told by Bill McIntosh that the last time it really blew its top was about 37,000 years ago (if I recall correctly). With the lava exposed, it just belches and pops now and then instead of building up pressure inside. Occasionally it will send out bombs a few thousand feet past the crater rim, but this is rare. The summit is about 25 miles from McMurdo. This is a view of Erebus and Castle Rock from Second Crater, at Arrival Heights.

Another view of Erebus and Castle Rock. These clouds were fantastic. I have seen more unusual clouds here in 3 months than the all the other places I've been combined.
More of Erebus from Second Crater.
While driving around the sea ice testing the repairs we had just done on the seal sled (a portable scale on a sled, used to weigh seals - it was a poorly designed pain in the ass to work on), my friend Huck and I stopped for some pics. So here is Erebus as seen from about 5 miles North of McMurdo. Some very strange clouds around the mountain.
Huck with the hero shot.
Unlike McMurdo, Scott Base has a view of Erebus. And this is it.
A panorama of Erebus, Terra Nova, and Terror from Scott Base.
On the way up to Arrival Heights, I can see Erebus. Or at least it's theoretically visible. Problem is, the weather has been perpetually bad here. It's January 26 as I write this, and I have only seen Erebus from Arrival Heights 3 or 4 times in the past 2 months, literally. And I go up there nearly every day. The weather this season has really sucked compared to previous years. I am told that it's an El Nino thing. Well whatever it is, it has been a cold stormy year here. Last year at this time we had record highs (~ 50 F). This year, if it's not storming it seems to be drab and overcast, and always windy. But then again, it causes you not to take the scenery here for granted. When the clouds lift, I am still stunned by the views here. This particular day, there were some wispy lenticular clouds in the skies over Erebus.
The view on the way to Windless Bight. I drove out there last week with a few other people to have an end-of-season look at the infrasound station. Great views that day. Right after I wrote the note for the above picture, the weather cleared right up and it's been very nice for the past 5 days or so.
And here's how the mountain looks from Windless Bight, about 15 miles N/NE of Scott Base on the Ross Ice Shelf. The fog has lifted a little in this view, showing the rugged, crevassed areas of glaciers on the lower slopes.
On the way out to Windless Bight, this weird low cloud formed, sticking straight out from the lower part of Erebus.
Another picture of the low clouds.
The Misty Mountain. With a good plume and some lenticular clouds. Taken on a day in Fall with soft, low light.
Lately, with the sun going down, Erebus has appeared less and less distinct. It looks more like a painting than a real mountain these days.
Another twilight picture of the mountain, with the Cape Evans area. Taken from Arrival Heights while working late one night.
Here are three awesome pics of Erebus and Erebus Bay. I took these while I was out checking on some equipment and cables at Arrival Heights. I hiked up to a nice overlook point and saw this. It was unreal. I just stood there with my mouth hanging open for a few minutes.
Pic #2 of my favorite all-time view of Erebus.
Pic #3.
I don't remember what day it was, but on the day of the last sunset visible from the McMurdo area, all of the Science Support group came up to Arrival Heights to watch it. Because of the hills, you can't actually see the last sunset from McMurdo Station. But you can from Arrival Heights. And from Pegasus too - in fact some people went out there to watch it. We stayed around watching for the sun, and for about 2-3 minutes, you could just see a little sliver of it over the lower slopes of Erebus. So that was the last actual sun I'd see for 4-5 months. On the way back, I took this picture of Erebus and it's neat-o plume, illuminated by the dying sun.
Here is the mountain on June 23 - middle of the day during the middle of winter. It was a nice scene - with the small amount of available light, you could make out a long plume.
Here is Erebus again (surprise). This is how Ross Island looks from Pegasus Runway, in the middle of winter. This was about 2 pm, and there was just enough light to make out the north/west profile of the island. Mount Terror isn't visible, but Erebus just towers over everything. This was actually the first time I had seen Erebus from out here...the other times I had been here it was too cloudy to see the whole mountain. The two stations are just little glowing lights in the distance.
In late August, I went out to hike around Arrival Heights to inspect the riometer arrays and VLF antenna. A few people from station came along as well, since it's nice to have company for this. This is how Erebus looked that day from the foot of Second Crater.
Here's me, with full polar garb! Actually it wasn't that cold, and I was wearing regular shoes with heavy socks. But I brought along this face mask for the hike to try out a new attachment I got at Winfly. Before I came down, I was on the phone to CU Boulder's loan department to sort out auto-payment plans. The woman on the phone remarked that her son had come up with a novel face mask for cold weather, and that she'd ask him to send me one to try out down here. It's a neat device - the mask has an insert of dessicant-coated plastic inside, which traps the heat and humitidy as you breathe out. When you breathe in, you get warm humid air instead of cold dry air! This thing has worked well, so I sent an email to the guy letting him know my "expert analysis" of the mask. Basically, I said it works great except (like most masks) it tends to direct your breath upward and your glasses fog very easily. I wondered if there was a little clip or something to secure the area around your nose that he could market to help this problem. As it turns out, they'd just come up with this little foam insert which occupies the void in between your nose and the mask...and he sent one down for Winfly. This didn't really help out the fogging of my glasses, since the breath still makes it up pretty easily. But with the goggles (which make more of a seal in this area), the addition worked very nicely. So anyhoo - this is me with the mask, goggles, parka, and green/white zipper pull...with Mt. Erebus in the background.
Another hero shot of me, looking out over Erebus Bay.