The Crater of Mt. Erebus, Antarctica, January 2005

Mt. Erebus, Ross Island, Antarctica
A trip to the crater rim, January 2005.

Mount Erebus, elevation 3794m (12448ft), is an active volcano on Ross Island, Antarctica. It has been active continuously since it was discovered by James Clark Ross in 1841.

Part of my job is to help science projects maintain their equipment and data collection when the grantees aren't around to do it themselves. I'm a bit of a science mercenary in that respect: I go where I'm needed to support any project, usually ones related to geophysics or atmospheric sciences. The purpose of this trip was to become familiar with the seismometers, GPS receivers, and transmitting equipment used by the Mount Erebus Volcanic Observatory (MEVO) team, a group of scientists from New Mexico Tech. Shown below are just the pretty pictures; not shown are all the reference photos of hardware, transmitters, and antennas.

Click on any image for a larger view.

Approaching Erebus. The plume can be seen blowing to the southeast. Erebus is about 45km from McMurdo. The nose of the helo is at the right. In this picture, the glaciers coming off the base of the mountain disappear into low clouds. The ripples on the ice are actually large crevasses capable of swallowing whole office blocks -- or helicopters -- without so much as a burp.

Coming around the shoulder of Erebus. These pictures were taken by sticking my camera and hands out the open window of the helicopter until they were blocks of ice. Notice how the volcanic plume is initially going straight up, that's a good sign. It means there's not much wind at the top of the mountain.

Lower Erebus Hut, at about the 9000ft level. This is the primary field camp for researchers on the mountain, and my jumping-off point -- after the helicopter had landed, of course. Helos cannot land on the crater rim, it's too narrow. There was a lot of equipment I needed to see between this hut and the rim, so this was a good starting point.

Inside the main hut. All the comforts of home, except beds. People camp outside in personal tents.

Hero shot with ice axe at the crater rim. The rim itself is too narrow for a helicopter to land on, and most of the slopes below are too steep. We skidooed from the hut about halfway to the rim, parking the skidoos at a seismic station called Nausea Knob (at about the 11000 ft level). From there we hiked to the rim. This was something I have dreamed of doing since I began working in the USAP ten years ago.

Looking towards the east rim. The main caldera is steaming at the bottom.

The south rim of the crater. Steam vents dot the wall.

Bill adjusts the antenna for the crater camera.

Lava churning in the caldera.

A fumerole near Lower Erebus Hut. It leads to a short cave with openings at both ends. These fumeroles warm the air that passes through them, and the interiors are damp and almost tropical.

The inside of this fumerole was a beautiful, glowing dark blue. But I didn't have a tripod so none of the pictures looking inward came out very good. I could have spent hours crawling around inside but the helicopter was coming to pick me up and it wouldn't wait.

McMurdo from the air on the return trip. Note the melt pools on the sea ice. This was before the icebreaker had arrived, so there is not yet a channel to the ice pier (dark brown rectangle on the far left).