Top 10 Volcanoes in Antarctica
Antarctica is more volcanic than most people imagine. Beneath the ice sit at least 138 known volcanoes, some of them subglacial cones recently mapped by radar surveys. Above the ice, Mount Erebus has a permanent lava lake. The continent's volcanism is tied to the West Antarctic Rift system that thins the crust beneath the ice sheet.
1. Mount Erebus
The southernmost active volcano on Earth, on Ross Island. Erebus holds a long-lived phonolitic lava lake in its summit crater — one of only a handful in the world. Researchers from McMurdo Station regularly study it on summer expeditions.
2. Deception Island
A horseshoe-shaped caldera in the South Shetland Islands, whose flooded centre offers a rare sheltered harbour. Eruptions in 1967, 1969 and 1970 destroyed parts of the British and Argentinian research bases. Now a popular cruise-ship stop.
3. Mount Melbourne
A symmetrical young stratovolcano in northern Victoria Land. It has fumaroles at the summit warm enough to support a tiny patch of moss — Antarctica's smallest "tropical" ecosystem.
4. Mount Berlin
A large stratovolcano in West Antarctica, evidenced by ash layers in ice cores far away. It is dormant on human timescales but clearly capable of larger eruptions in the past.
5. Mount Takahe
A broad shield volcano in West Antarctica whose eruption around 17,700 years ago may have contributed to climate shifts at the end of the last glacial period — by injecting halogens into the stratosphere.
6. Mount Sidley
The highest volcano in Antarctica at 4,285 metres, in the Executive Committee Range. A dormant caldera with snow-filled crater. Climbed by a handful of mountaineers.
7. Mount Discovery
A symmetrical volcano southwest of McMurdo, an icon of the Ross Sea region. Visible from Scott Base and the McMurdo airfield on clear days.
8. Mount Hampton
An ice-covered shield in the West Antarctic Marie Byrd Land volcanic province. Like much of the province, it shapes ice flow above it — a feedback between geology and glaciology.
9. Subglacial cones (Pine Island Glacier)
Radar surveys have identified subglacial volcanic cones beneath the rapidly thinning Pine Island Glacier. Their heat may contribute to the basal melt that accelerates ice loss; how much is still being debated.
10. Heard Island (subantarctic)
Mawson Peak on Heard Island, in the Southern Indian Ocean, is technically subantarctic. It is one of only two active Australian volcanoes. Persistent thermal anomalies visible from satellites.
How to plan an Antarctic volcano visit
Deception Island is the only one a typical cruise visitor will see — a stop on most peninsula itineraries. Erebus and the Ross Sea volcanoes are visible from Antarctic operator vessels in the Ross Sea sector, but landing is limited. Most of the continent's volcanism is mapped by remote sensing.
See them on the map
Open the map and find Antarctica's volcanic provinces: Marie Byrd Land in West Antarctica, the Antarctic Peninsula and South Shetland Islands, and the Ross Sea around Erebus.