Erebus volcano in antarctica. Erebus volcano on a map in Antarctica. Altitude, geographic coordinates, where is the most active volcano in Antarctica

Which the located on the Ross Island... The volcano is a unique combination of fire and ice in the vastness of snow-covered Antarctica. Operating since the 70s of the last century, at the moment it is in a state of volcanic activity. Its last eruption was in 1978. Erebus volcano height is more than 3,000 meters, and it is located as close as possible to the South Pole. It was discovered in 1842 by English forwarders, who also gave him the name of the famous god of disorder and chaos - Erebus.

Ice towers on the Erebus volcano, Antarctica.

The surface of the Erebus volcano is strewn with large ice towers which were formed as a result of steam emission. The Ice Tower is the main attraction of the volcano and Antarctica in general. Due to volcanic activity, the towers gradually change their size, they increase and expand. The most incredible and breathtaking phenomenon appears to a person's gaze. Sometimes it seems that nothing can be more beautiful and majestic than these ice towers in Antarctica. This is the union of two powerful elements and the most incredible natural geological wonder of the world.

Icebergs, thick layers of ice, permanent snow, penguins and polar bears are all associated with Antarctica. There, where is Erebus, always snowy and cold. The presence of fire and heat at the same time in Antarctica is simply impossible to imagine. Nevertheless, this phenomenon exists, and it can rightfully be called one of the wonders of the world. Volcanic activity causes the appearance of steam on the surface of the volcano, the low air temperature in Antarctica forces this vapor to freeze without rising high in the air, and freeze to the walls of already high cylindrical ice floes. This is how high ice towers are formed, from which quite large clouds of steam periodically appear. The maximum height of Erebus attractions can reach 20 meters. From some ice towers, steam goes without stopping at all.

Temperature difference erebus volcano and the environment in Antarctica is also the reason for the emergence of many ice caves. At times, these caves release gas vapors containing methane and hydrogen in their chemical composition. These substances have a detrimental effect on the atmosphere, therefore, the thinnest ozone layer is observed in this area of ​​the globe.

Given how cold it is Antarctica, Erebus volcano seems impossible and unbelievable on her. This phenomenon is the only one on our planet, similar ice towers can be found only on such planets as Mars, Neptune, Jupiter, as well as on their satellites. In the crater of the Erebus volcano, there is a large lava lake that is as unique as the entire volcano. The phenomenon of an ice volcano is so unusual and interesting that it involuntarily attracts the attention of both scientists and ordinary amateurs. beautiful places... The American Institute of Mining and Technology of the State of New Mexico has established a station to observe the volcano in Antarctica, they study its behavior and control the danger of an eruption.

Also unpleasant incidents are associated with the Erebus volcano. On November 28, 1979, a New Zealand passenger Boeing collided with one of the slopes of the volcano and crashed. There were 257 people on board the plane at that moment, all of them died in the crash.

Travelers who made expeditions to the Erebus volcano in Antarctica, as well as polar explorers who observe the volcano from airplanes, report that “flames are flying out of the volcano,” and the plume of smoke turns purple at night.

The exact coordinates of the Erebus volcano in Antarctica- 72 degrees, 32 minutes south latitude; 162 degrees, 17 minutes east. By the way, there are three more volcanoes on the territory of Ross Island, but they, unlike erebus volcano from his ice towers are not valid.

Active volcano. It is located on Ross Island. Erebus volcano is the southernmost and one of the most active on our planet. Erebus is the highest active volcano on Earth (its height is 3794 m) and, perhaps, the most unusual. Near the Erebus volcano there are three more, already extinct of its brothers.
The volcano Erebus was discovered on January 28, 1841, by an English expedition led by polar explorer Sir James Clark Ross. The expedition owned two ships: "Erebus" and "Terror". The volcano got its name after one of the ships. To the east, a smaller, already extinct volcano is called Terror.

The first ascent to the top of the formidable volcano Erebus took place on March 10, 1908. These were the six people of Ernst Shackleton's expedition.

The goal of this expedition was to conquer the South Pole. The members of the expedition reached the top of the fire-breathing mountain in three days and examined all three of its craters. The largest of them was 805 m in diameter and 274 m deep.

Lava, fire and smoke erupt from several holes of the volcano, and at the bottom there is a lake of molten lava. This lava lake is not frozen even today.

It should be noted that the lava lake of Erebus is the rarest phenomenon in the world of volcanoes. Erebus is one of three volcanoes on Earth with "non-healing" lava lakes. In addition to the Antarctic giant, long-lived lakes of liquid lava are found only in the crater of the Kilauea volcano in the Hawaiian Islands and in the crater of the Nyiragongo volcano in Africa. However, the lake of fire among eternal snow and ice makes, without a doubt, a stronger impression.
The Erebus volcano is characterized by constant activity. There are hardly a dozen volcanoes around the world that continue to be active in between eruptions. Starting to erupt, the volcano ejects from itself "volcanic bombs", which reach a diameter of six or more meters.

The lava of this amazing volcano has a unique composition. The rocks of which the mountains of Kenya are composed, the so-called Kenites, have the same composition, only in a molten state. Erebus is the only active volcano on Earth that spews such magma.

The slopes of the mountain of the same name with the volcano Erebus are heated by the hot breath of the earth's interior and, in some places, it almost bursts out. Ice above such areas melts from below and forms caves, and warm moist air exits them through ice pipes. The steam coming out of them, in contact with the thirty-forty-degree frost prevailing outside, condenses and the walls of these "chimneys" are constantly growing. The height of such "icy chimneys" on the slopes of Erebus reaches twenty or more meters.

Dripping water and condensing steam form the unique icy beauty of the caves. The temperature in these ice caves is kept around 0 ° C, and the air humidity reaches 100%. The ceiling of these fabulous ice caves, in contrast to ordinary stone ones, shines through in places.

On smooth boulders of solidified lava, protected by an ice dome from external frosts, in some places there are moss and algae with the due complex of living creatures. The local relict biocenosis is very sensitive, and the caves belong to specially protected areas, and some of them are generally prohibited for third-party visits. Probably, this explains the fact that it was not possible to find photographs on this topic.
Everyone who had a chance to observe the volcano: James Ross and his companions in 1841, Captain Scott and his comrades sixty years later, members of the Ernest Shackleton expedition, who were the first to climb Erebus in 1908, and members of Scott's second expedition, who climbed it in 1912 year and, finally, the current polar explorers who observed the volcano from airplanes and helicopters reported that “flames were flying out of the volcano,” or that a plume of smoke was drawn from the volcano and turned purple at night.

But this region of Antarctica attracts researchers from all over the world not only with the active volcano Erebus, the glow above which turned it into a kind of beacon for everyone who swims in the Ross Sea, but also by the fact that nearby, in Victoria Land, was the Earth's South Magnetic Pole. ... Now its location has shifted to the north, and now the point of the South Pole is in the ocean, near the coast of Antarctica.

In the southern sector of the map of Antarctica, the stratovolcano Erebus is indicated - the second highest on Earth. The British pioneers named it after the Greek god - the symbol of darkness generated by Chaos.

The planet's South Pole has many extinct, dormant and active volcanoes. The thickness of the ice in the central part of the continent is so huge that under its weight the land was bent by almost 1 km. Only along the perimeter, as well as on the adjacent islands, underground forces were able to break through the ice sheet and splash out in the form of volcanoes, hot geysers, fumaroles.

The Erebus volcano on the map is surrounded by 3 cooled brethren on the South Antarctic Ross Island in the sea of ​​the same name, near Victoria Land.

Description of the volcano: height, diameter and depth of the crater, age

Erebus belongs to stratovolcanoes, which are characterized by stratification from many explosive eruptions. Over the course of 1.3 million, magma flows solidifying one after another are accumulating. To them is added tephra - emissions deposited from the air in the form of bombs and ash, which over time are cemented into a light porous rock tuff.

The study of the structure of layering also revealed:

• basalt;
• phonolite and its variety kenit;
• trachyte.

Today, the height of the active volcano has reached a zone of rarefied air at the level of 3704 m. Above is only extinct, turned into a mountain, Sidley on the Antarctic Land of Mary Byrd. With a crater depth of 274 m, the diameter of Erebus is slightly less than 1 km (805 m).

Volcanic eruption history

The stratovolcano belongs to the West Antarctic Rift System - the McMurdo group, named after the strait that goes into the Ross Sea. Erebus is fueled by a fiery liquid mass from the geosphere between the core and crust of the Earth, that is, from the upper mantle. According to the conclusion of scientists, magmatic deposits at a depth of 200 km have a diameter of about 300 km.

A vertical channel goes down 400 km from the main massif. The magma level rises to the vent at 6 cm / year. On the narrowing bottom of the inner caldera (cauldron) of Erebus, there is a permanent lake of hot lava. A sluggish eruption with clouds of steam, ash, periodic spread of 10-meter bombs for one and a half kilometers is supported by a constant inflow.

When the pressure accumulated from below becomes critical, a short powerful explosion occurs.

Over the next 100 years, 8 explosive eruptions were recorded, the strongest in 1972, the last in 2011. Glowing fireworks of hot stones, crimson smoke reach the height of an 8-storey building. Gases escaping through faults in the earth's crust - hydrogen, methane - invade the ozone layer of the stratosphere and thin it.

As a result, a huge ozone hole is formed over the Ross Sea, over Antarctica, the contour of which repeats the configuration of the earth's faults. The outflow of lava from the lake, holes in the slopes are connected with geyser (water) fountains, steam-smoke columns from fumaroles. At the same time, the volcanic apocalypse does not completely deplete the magma reserves at the bottom.

If you look into the salted cauldron, it shines through in the cracks of the cooling black crust. Erebus volcano on the map of Antarctica is a seismically calm area. Tectonic movements are generally not characteristic of the South Pole, and volcanism is not accompanied by frequent earthquakes, as on other continents.

Climate and weather

The climatic conditions of Ross Island are polar marine, which do not differ from the Antarctic zone as a whole, since there is a constant circulation of continental air. The main signs are frosty winters, cold summers. Moreover, the change in the temperature front is peculiar: the lowest rates are in August, the highest for these places - in January.

Key weather marks, ° С:

The sky is mostly covered with clouds, the proximity of the sea creates humidity up to 80% in the form of fog. Continuous strong winds blow from the east over Ross Island. The average annual precipitation is insignificant - only 100 mm. Here, as over the entire South Pole, the highest solar radiation on the planet.

Natural attractions

On the map, Antarctica is represented by an inexpressive blank spot; in fact, there are many unusual natural objects here. The slopes of the same volcano Erebus are studded with high towers, from which smoke constantly pours. One gets the impression that inside the mountain someone is heating the stoves. These are fumaroles.

When the volcano calms down, the temperature of the escaping vapors and gases decreases, steam condensate settles around the crack or hole, gradually freezing up to a height of 20 m and more.

The ice towers are taking on the most fantastic shapes. New Zealand scientists describe the fumaroles as follows: the largest is similar to the figure of an astronaut, followed by the procession of likenesses of people and animals. One fumarole resembled a lion.

From volcanic vapors in the thickness of the ice, caves of extraordinary beauty are formed: with translucent blue vaults, white stalactites, arches of various shapes, bizarre "stucco" on the walls, huge ice curls. One of the most impressive is Warren Cave, 12 m deep. The bottom of the cavity was exposed: somewhere soft moist soil appeared, somewhere - hard rock.

Thick ice walls do not let light through, but their crystalline surface creates a unique effect: if you turn on the lanterns in pitch darkness, diamond sparks flare up, shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow.

The volcano itself has its own phenomenon: despite the fiery lake at the bottom, the edges of the cauldron are covered with ice. During the eruption, the ice evaporates, but as soon as vigorous activity stops, the perimeter and slopes become snow-white again.

It is impossible to imagine, but bacteria live in permafrost conditions. They are found in Antarctic oases, such as the Taylor Valley in Victoria Land. There is a very salty non-freezing lake under a 400-meter layer of ice. Its water seeps over the horizon for several kilometers, flows down into the lowland, forming a cascading ice "waterfall" of blood-red color.

The frightening color is given by the vital activity of lake microorganisms. Deprived of the opportunity to obtain energy through solar photosynthesis, they switched to chemical.

Scientists have identified 3 stages:

• Sulfuric acid salts of the lake - sulfates - are transformed by bacteria into sulfites.
• Sulfites are oxidized by 3-valent iron ions from the bottom soil.
• After obtaining the energy necessary for life, 2-vale iron remains in the water. Oxidized with oxygen when the lake water comes out to the surface, Fe 2 O 3 paints it red.

Researchers believe that a deep, darkened ecosystem has existed since the time of the ancient planet, and its microorganisms develop according to fundamentally different evolutionary mechanisms. Modern instruments can detect bacteria that survive in the incinerating temperatures of the volcano.

Since most microbes die in laboratory conditions, they learned to describe them by DNA. Thus, it was confirmed that microorganisms inhabit the hot talus of Erebus. A new task was set - on the basis of samples from caves and the slopes of the volcano, to prove that frozen bacteria lived in hot lava.

When asked about the most arid places on the planet, most will name deserts. But the correct answer is the Dry Antarctic Valleys. Almost 8000 km² of Victoria Lands are squeezed by winds with a speed unique for the planet - 320 km / h, so neither snow nor ice lingers in some oases.

Historical landmarks

The hut of Captain R. Scott, an Englishman, polar explorer, still stands at Cape Evans on Ross Island. He led a transantarctic expedition of 5 people. and safely brought it to the middle of January 1912 to the South Pole.

The jubilation of the discoverers was overshadowed by the sight of a tent with a Norwegian flag, which Amundsen's expedition left a year ago. On the way back, the exhausted, disappointed polar explorers were finished off by frost and physical exhaustion.

Not far from the hut in 1916, a cross was erected on a high foundation made of stones in memory of the lost expedition of R. Scott.

The diary of D. Levick, a doctor, zoologist, and photographer from R. Scott's group, discovered in the Antarctic snows in 2013, is an interesting historical finding. New Zealand Antarctic heritage specialists have restored pages soaked under the melting snow and put the information on digital media.

The diary was shipped to Cape Evans for inclusion in a collection of 11,000 artifacts associated with British polar explorers. The exposition contains photographs taken by D. Levik on the way to the South Pole.

D. Ross arrived with a crew in Antarctica on 2 ships - Erebus and Terror. On the first day, the travelers witnessed a volcanic eruption. Shocked by the enchanting sight, D. Ross marked a fire-breathing mountain named Erebus in the map. In the company of her, a cold, low shield volcano, 30 km away, was called Terror.

Researchers have discovered in the composition of the stratovolcano's lava a unique mineral kenite - a glassy mass with plate or needle interspersing of potassium feldspars, aegirine, olivine. The latter is abundant in the structure of some asteroids. Olivine is also a close relative of the precious yellow-green chrysolites. Kenite is found in breeds ancient mountains Kenya.

In a liquid state heated to 900 °, only Erebus erupts it. For geologists, volcanologists of the world, this fact is of considerable interest.

The Erebus volcano on the Ross Island map is adjacent to the Church of the Snows (1956). The polar cult building is under the supervision of the Americans from the McMurdo polar station. Catholics, Protestants, Mormons, Buddhists, Baha'is and other religious movements that have the opportunity to fly to the South Pole conduct services in the church.

The white spot of Antarctica on the world map keeps many interesting secrets and attractions. One of them is the Erebus volcano.

Article formatting: Lozinsky Oleg

Video about the Erebus volcano

What is this volcano, what are its features:

When the sailboats Erebus and Terror approached the solid strip of ice, the members of the expedition saw a tall white cone far to the south, above which clouds of smoke rose. Captain James Ross was confident that he had found Antarctica, but it was still only a volcanic island.

The southernmost and most active volcano in Antarctica

Erebus is the second tallest and most active volcano Antarctica. Above - only extinct Sidley (4285 m) on the Land of Mary Byrd.

Erebus is not located on the continental part of Antarctica, but on the large (2460 km 2) Ross Island, and this is not the only volcano on it. The island is generally lucky with volcanoes: in addition to Erebus, there is an extinct shield Terror (3230 m), about a million years old, and a pair of lower volcanoes - Terra Nova (2130 m) and Bird (1765 m).

Erebus volcano is an intraplate volcano, belongs to the McMurdo volcanic group - part of the West Antarctic rift system. Magma beneath Erebus rises from the upper mantle at a rate of about 6 cm / year.

The volcano is based on volcanic rocks: basalt, trachyte, phonolite and tuff. From above, they are covered with glaciers that descend to the ocean. The largest tongue is from 50 to 300 m thick. Approaching the shore, it sinks into the water and stays on its surface: it is quite deep in this place. In summer, the ice thaws, the broken off parts of the glacier form icebergs. Also, waves break through caves in the glacier, where the temperature is around 0 ° C, and the humidity is 100%, which contributes to the formation of huge icicles, similar to stalactites, and large ice crystals.

The most famous of these ice cavities has earned its own name - Warren Cave, created by vapor from a volcano. Its bottom is wet, soft soil and rocks, and its walls are ice. Researchers say that in its depths there is pitch darkness, and when the flashlights are turned on, the black walls turn into a multi-colored kaleidoscope of flying sparks.

The crater of the volcano is a caldera about a kilometer in diameter, in which there are permanent fumaroles and geysers. At its bottom is a crater with a smaller diameter, about a kilometer deep, and in it is a lake of molten lava. Erebus is one of several volcanoes on Earth, whose lake of molten kenite (a type of phonolite) has existed for quite a long time - several decades. Erebus is the only active volcano on Earth that spews out kenite magma with a temperature of + 900 ° C, this rock in a solid state is also found in the mountains of Kenya (hence the name).

The underground source of magma, feeding it into the crater of the Erebus volcano, was common to all other volcanoes of the island, which are now extinct. It is a magma lake with a diameter of up to 300 km, located at a depth of about 200 km. Below it takes the form of a vertical channel descending to a depth of 400 km.

By the nature of the eruption, Erebus belongs to the "Strombolian" type, named after the volcano in the Tyren Sea. This means that a sluggish eruption lasts continuously, the volcano remains constantly ready for a stronger, but shorter eruption. The last one was observed in 2011.

During eruptions, clouds of vapor are observed, accompanied by rare outbursts of ash and volcanic bombs up to 10 m in diameter, which fall around Erebus within a radius of one and a half kilometers. At moments of eruption, gushing geysers also manifest themselves. In this case, the ejection of lava from the lake or one of several holes within the inner crater of the volcano occurs, and the lava remains inside the caldera and does not splash out beyond its limits.

Erebus is located at the intersection of faults in the earth's crust, from which, according to volcanologists, periodically there are powerful emissions of deep gases, including hydrogen and methane. Reaching the stratosphere, they destroy the ozone layer, which is why its minimum thickness is observed precisely over where the Erebus volcano is located.

These bright natural disasters look very picturesque against the backdrop of the ice shell of Antarctica. And the colony of half a million Adélie penguins living on the ice of Ross Island is not in the least frightening.

A thorough study of the unique volcano is facilitated by its relative proximity to the main Antarctic research stations of the United States (McMurdo) and New Zealand (Scott Base), which are at a distance of about 35 km from it.

Volcano discovery

"A stunning volcano in an extremely active state," - this is how the ship's doctor of the expedition, James Ross, described it. Subsequently, it turned out that Erebus is capable of not only arousing delight, but also inspiring terror.

For the first time, this volcano appeared to human eyes on January 27, 1841, when two sailing ships approached the shores of the island on which it is located (this was the last long-distance polar expedition on exclusively sailing ships) of the English expedition led by James Clark Ross (1800-1862). ). Ross commanded the Erebus, Officer Francis Crozier (1796-1848) the Terror. This was the famous British Antarctic Expedition of 1839-1843.

Ross happened to arrive at the shores of the island on that rather rare day when Erebus erupted. Seeing two huge ice mountains, Ross did not think long about what names to give them, naming them after their battered Antarctic waves, but faithfully served ships. And he entered on the map the names of the volcanoes Erebus and Terror.

James Ross considered the island to be part of the mainland due to the continuous ice cover. Therefore, he depicted it on a map connecting to the continental area - Victoria Land. Only in 1901, the English explorer Robert Scott (1868-1912) established that this is an island. He also named the sea off the coast of Antarctica and the island after the discoverer - James Ross.

The first ascent to Erebus was made by members of the British expedition of Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922), whose goal was to reach the geographic South Pole. Shackleton did not reach the Pole: the expedition was poorly prepared, and he was forced to turn, not reaching the goal, only 180 km. But even before that, he decided to conquer the top of the volcano before the beginning of the polar night. Shackleton himself did not climb Erebus, six of his people went, who had no experience of climbing mountains. Surprisingly, but true: in a few days they reached the summit, spent four hours on it, and made some scientific measurements. We descended quickly: people simply glided down the icy slopes, like from a children's slide. The adventure was a success: everyone survived, although they were barely alive from hunger and frostbite. How much it all resembled a miracle is evidenced by the fact that the first solo ascent of Erebus was made only in 1985.

From the point of view of science, the Erebus volcano has a number of advantages for scientists: due to the fact that it is relatively low and has been showing constant activity since 1972, it is possible to engage in long-term seismological studies near the crater. Every year from November to January, scientists climb to the top for active field work.

There is life in the caldera of Erebus itself. The slopes of the volcano are covered with fumaroles, which in Antarctic conditions take the form of ice pipes about 20 m high, sticking out here and there over the entire surface of the crater. The internal heat of the mountain melts snow and ice, forming a "chimney", and the steam escaping from there freezes on contact with air. Here, on the smooth surface of solidified lava, covered with ice from frost, there is a relic biocenosis: moss and algae with microorganisms. "Chimneys" are specially protected areas, only scientists are allowed here.

On November 28, 1979, the silence of Ross Island was not disturbed by a volcanic explosion. New Zealand Airlines Flight 901 flew passengers exploring the beauty of Antarctica, including Erebus. These flights have been in operation for two years now. This time, in foggy conditions, the DC-10 plane crashed into the slope of the volcano. The disaster killed 257 people. Unidentified remains of the victims are buried at the Weikumete Memorial Cemetery in West Oakland, New Zealand. When the short Antarctic summer sets in, wrecks of an aircraft emerge from under the snow ...

general information

Numbers

Climate and weather

sights

Natural

• Volcanoes Terror, Terra Nova and Bird
• Glaciers and ice caves
• Caldera
• Lava lake
• Fumaroles - "chimneys"
• Adelie Penguin Colony

Historical

• Robert Scott's Hut (Cape Evans, 1910-1913)
• Memorial Cross to the Deceased Members of the British Imperial Transantarctic Expedition (Cape Evans, 1916)

Curious facts

Ross's ship was named after Erebus, the ancient Greek god, son of Chaos and the personification of Eternal Darkness. From Erebus himself went the gods of Death (Thanatos), Retribution (Nemesis), Razdorov (Eris), as well as Charon - the transporter of the souls of dead people to Hades through the River of Oblivion (Letu). The name of the second ship "Terror" in translation from Latin means fear or horror. By naming their ships, sailors defied the elements. In the case of these two ships, the elements prevailed. In 1845, on an expedition in search of the Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to Pacific Ocean, both ships were missing, and with them - the participant of the discovery of Erebus, Captain Crozier. The remains of the ship "Erebus" were found only in 2014, and "Terror" - in 2016.

Ross Island and, accordingly, the Erebus volcano located on it are part of the Ross territory, which is being claimed by New Zealand. The "Dependent Ross Territory" is a sector of Antarctica that was transferred by Great Britain to the Kingdom of New Zealand in 1923. The Queen of New Zealand is Elizabeth II, but the “kingdom” itself has a purely symbolic status, designed to emphasize the historical and spiritual closeness of the metropolis and the former colony. In 1961, the Antarctic Treaty signed by New Zealand entered into force, according to which the country formally renounced claims to this sector. Among the countries that have reserved the right to make such claims are Peru, Russia, the United States and South Africa.

The ships of the expedition of James Ross belonged to the class of the so-called "bombarding": during their construction, the main attention was paid to strength, so that the recoil when firing from heavy mortar-bombers did not loosen the ship's fastenings. Such a design of the ship helped to withstand the strongest pressure of pack ice, but the side was still reinforced with an additional layer of "ice" plating.

On the same Ross Island where Erebus is located, the Church of the Snows was built in 1956: a non-denominational Christian church. Its condition is looked after by the staff of the American Antarctic station McMurdo. And today it remains the southernmost religious building in the world. Catholic masses are sent by a visiting prelate from New Zealand, Protestant services are conducted by a chaplain of the US National Guard Air Force. In the same building, rituals of Mormons, Buddhists, Baha'is, etc. are held.

The Antarctic ice sheet hides a large system of volcanoes comparable to those found in eastern Africa and North America. Over the years of studying Antarctica, scientists have discovered 47 volcanoes. Now, experts from the University of Edinburgh have discovered a cluster of 91 more volcanoes 2 km below the ice sheet of West Antarctica. They told about the opening in a publication on website Geological Society of London.

“If any of these volcanoes start to erupt, it will destabilize the glaciers in the west of Antarctica.

Anything that can cause melting of ice, and especially a volcanic eruption, will lead to the outflow of melted ice into the sea. So the main question is how active these volcanoes are.

We need to find out as soon as possible, ”says glaciologist Robert Bingham, one of the study's authors.

To detect volcanoes, researchers used radars mounted on airplanes and ground vehicles to study the continent's ice-covered surface. Then they compared the received data with satellite images and information already available in the databases.

The height of the volcanoes found by experts is from 100 to 2850 m, the diameter is from 1600 to 5400 m.All of them are covered with a layer of ice, the thickness of which reaches 4 km, and occupy an area of ​​3500 km in the west of Antarctica, from the Ross Ice Shelf to the Antarctic Peninsula ...

“We didn't expect to find something like this,” says Bingham. - Now the number of known volcanoes in Antarctica has almost tripled.

We also suspect that there are many volcanoes under the Ross Glacier. This region may have the largest concentration of volcanoes in the world. "

Researchers have not yet been able to determine if any of the new volcanoes are active. Nevertheless, they expect that their work will serve as the basis for further research, in the course of which it will be possible to find out.

They are also not inclined to believe that past volcanic activity could somehow affect the modern retreat of glaciers. However, she may play a role in their retreat in the future. So, for example, it happened in Iceland - the melting of ice was facilitated by the increased temperature due to volcanic activity. Other problems are also possible - a decrease in ice thickness per kilometer can provoke volcanic activity, which is also observed in Iceland.

On the other hand, the very presence of volcanic cones can slow down the movement of glaciers. Ice moves down until there are no obstacles in its path, and volcanoes can just become such an obstacle for it.

As the team notes, several volcanoes were discovered that may have already become a significant deterrent in the past and will serve them in the future.

Recall that a month ago in the west of Antarctica from the Larsen C glacier, a giant iceberg weighing 1 trillion tons and an area of ​​6 thousand square meters. km, which is comparable to a quarter of Wales. Scientists have been waiting for the separation of the iceberg, named A68, since 2011, when they first discovered a crack. The cleavage stretches for almost 200 km, separating an iceberg in 10% of its area from the main body of the glacier. Poe, an iceberg can last for decades.

The glacier itself collapses. Satellite images show that cracks in it are increasing. They formed even before A68 split off, and the scientists did not know along which line the separation would take place.

Now, 11 more icebergs have formed near the fault line, the length of the largest of which reaches 10 km.

Iceberg A68, meanwhile, has already moved 5 km from the glacier. Scientists are concerned that it could break into smaller pieces.

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