This suggests the lava lake has been there since at least the early 1900s, said Philip Kyle, professor emeritus at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and co-author of the new study. Scientists discovered the lake in the early 1970s, but early Antarctic expeditioners noticed Erebus had a red glow around its summit. Lava lakes are rare enough, but Erebus’s lava lake is even more intriguing because it’s been around for so long. Peters hoped the prototype generator he installed would help power the camera during the long polar night. Nial Peters behind the thermal camera set up to take infrared images of Erebus’s lava lake. It’s a unique natural laboratory for studying volcanoes because there’s an open lava lake at its summit, one of only a handful on Earth. “It doesn't solve all of your power problems for monitoring volcanoes, but it certainly has potential to be a very useful tool.” A unique laboratoryĮrebus is the most active volcano in Antarctica and the southernmost active volcano on Earth. “It’s quite a cool piece of technology that's fun to use,” said Nial Peters, an engineer at University College London and lead author of a recent study describing the prototype generator. The technology could be used at other Antarctic volcanoes and be applied to other types of scientific instruments that require little power, according to the researchers. An array of generators like this could keep more power-intensive equipment running throughout the winter, allowing scientists to monitor the volcano’s open lava lake year-round – something that has never been possible at Erebus before. The prototype produces a tiny amount of energy – less than a smartphone flashlight – but it’s enough to fuel low-powered volcanic sensors. They’ve developed a prototype generator that pulls heat from the ground at the volcano’s summit and provides just enough energy to keep batteries alive during the long, cold Antarctic winter. Researchers have found a way to harness the heat from the magma underneath Erebus and turn it into electricity that can power scientific instruments. Part of the instrument sits below grade to pull heat from the ground. Geological Survey and ICESat-2 data from the National Snow & Ice Center.The prototype thermal generator installed at Mt. NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using Landsat data from the U.S. Both the HMS Terror and HMS Erebus were part of numerous polar voyages, including three expeditions into Antarctic waters between 18. Instead, it was named in 1841 by Sir James Clark Ross after his ship, the HMS Terror. Mount Terror’s name is unrelated to any of its physical attributes. From afar, the island’s two tallest volcanoes provide a scenic backdrop for scientists working on the island’s southern tip at McMurdo Station and Scott Base. Even Mount Erebus, the taller of the two peaks at 3,794 meters (12,448 feet) above sea level, attracts a fair number of climbers. Mount Terror is not tall enough to prevent people from climbing its peak and skiing its slopes. For reference, the satellite’s orbital path is laid over a natural-color image acquired on November 8, 2021, by the Operational Land Imager-2 (OLI-2) on Landsat 9. This is because the Ross Ice Shelf stands higher above the sea surface than the sea ice. Notice that the left side of the profile (south of the island) is slightly higher than the right side (north of the island). Data for the elevation profile were acquired on June 17, 2021, with the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) on NASA’s Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 ( ICESat-2). The profile above depicts the mountain’s surface elevation along a path near its peak. Standing 3,262 meters (10,702 feet) above sea level, the scale of Mount Terror might be daunting to some people. In contrast, the neighboring Mount Erebus-thought to be the southernmost active volcano in the world-contains a churning lava lake within its caldera. Additionally, the mountain’s youngest igneous rocks are almost 1 million years old. The last known eruption occurred in the Pleistocene, the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago. However, the volcano is now extinct-meaning that scientists consider it unlikely to erupt again. Located on the eastern side of Ross Island, it is a shield volcano that consists of numerous pyroclastic cones and lava domes. But this Antarctic volcano is not as terrifying as its name implies.įrom a geological perspective, the mountain itself is relatively benign. Mount Terror might sound like a place to avoid.
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