Mount Erebus

Mount Erebus is a mountain in Antarctica and the southernmost active volcano on Earth. With a summit elevation of 3,794 metres (12,448 ft), it is the second-highest volcano in Antarctica, after Mount Sidley.

Mount Erebus is located in the Ross Dependency on Ross Island. It has been active since about 1.3 million years ago and is currently the most active volcano in Antarctica and is the current eruptive zone of the Erebus hotspot.

Mt. Erebus is notable for its numerous ice fumaroles, ice towers that form around gases that escape from vents in the surface. The ice caves associated with its fumaroles are dark and starved in organics. Life there is sparse, mainly bacteria and fungi.

Mount Erebus was discovered 27 January 1841 by polar explorer Sir James Clark Ross. He named it and nearby Mount Terror after his ships. Mount Erebus' summit crater rim was first achieved by members of Sir Ernest Shackleton's party; Professor Edgeworth David, Sir Douglas Mawson, Dr Alister Mackay, Jameson Adams, Dr Eric Marshall, and Phillip Brocklehurst (who did not reach the summit), in 1908.

On 28 November 1979, Air New Zealand Flight 901, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 on a sightseeing tour, crashed into Mount Erebus, killing all 257 people on board.