An Active Volcano in the Coldest Place on Earth
Named after HMS Erebus, the ship that carried the expedition that discovered it erupting in 1841, Mount Erebus is a genuine paradox: a 3,794 m volcano radiating heat in a place where the air routinely drops below −60°C. It rises over Ross Island, directly above the two biggest research bases on the continent — the U.S. McMurdo Stationand New Zealand's Scott Base — which is exactly why one of the world's most remote volcanoes is also one of the best studied.
In our database, Erebus is a stratovolcano with its most recent activity recorded in 2025. Unlike the intermittent giants of the Ring of Fire, Erebus doesn't so much erupt in events as simply stay on — a continuously open, gently seething system.
The Permanent Lava Lake
The heart of Erebus is a lava lake in its summit crater — a pool of molten rock that has stayed liquid, without freezing over for long, since at least 1972. That is extraordinarily rare. A lava lake needs a perfect balance: enough heat and gas rising from below to keep replacing what cools at the surface. Only about eight volcanoes on Earth manage it for decades at a stretch.
What sets Erebus apart from every one of them is chemistry. Its lava is phonolite — a rare, silica-poor but alkali-rich magma that is far more viscous and gas-charged than the runny basalt of most lava lakes. Erebus is the only persistent phonolite lava lake known on Earth. The gas trapped in that sticky magma bursts out in small Strombolian explosionsthat lob glowing bombs — some the size of cars — over the crater rim, occasionally including unusually large single crystals of the mineral anorthoclase that have become collectors' items among geologists.
The World's Persistent Lava Lakes, Compared
At any given time only about eight volcanoes host a long-lived lava lake. Here are the best-documented, showing how Erebus stacks up — note it's the outlier on both latitude and rock type:
| Volcano | Country | Elevation | Lava |
|---|---|---|---|
| ErebusOnly phonolite lava lake on Earth; active since ~1972. | Antarctica | 3,794 m | Phonolite |
| Erta AleDanakil Depression; one or two lakes for over a century. | Ethiopia | 585 m | Basalt |
| NyiragongoFastest lava on Earth; drained catastrophically in 1977 & 2002. | DR Congo | 3,470 m | Foidite |
| KīlaueaHalemaʻumaʻu lake refills between summit eruptions. | United States | 1,222 m | Basalt |
| AmbrymTwin lakes at Benbow and Marum until a 2018 drain-out. | Vanuatu | 1,334 m | Basalt |
| MasayaMost accessible lava lake — a road runs to the crater rim. | Nicaragua | 594 m | Basalt |
Elevations and rock types from our Smithsonian GVP records. Lava lakes are transient by nature — Ambrym's drained in 2018 and Nyiragongo's has emptied catastrophically twice — so the active roster changes.
The Ice Towers: Where Fire Meets −60°C
Erebus's strangest feature isn't the lava — it's the ice. Where warm volcanic gas leaks out of vents on the flanks, it hits air far below freezing and the moisture in it instantly condenses and freezes into hollow chimneys. Over time these build into ice fumarole towers several meters tall, more than a hundred of them scattered across the mountain, each exhaling steam like a smokestack.
Beneath and inside them are ice caves warmed by the volcano, dark and humid, that host microbial life adapted to living on volcanic gas in near-total isolation. NASA-funded researchers study them as one of the best earthly stand-ins for what life might look like on Mars or on icy moons like Enceladus — a volcano doubling as an astrobiology lab.
How Scientists Study a Volcano Nobody Can Reach
Because Erebus stays permanently open, it behaves like a natural laboratory. The Mount Erebus Volcano Observatory has run instruments on the summit for decades — seismometers to track the lake's churning, infrared cameras, and gas sensors that catch the sulfur dioxide and other volatiles the lake exhales. Erebus was one of the first volcanoes where researchers used a technique called Doppler radar to film the lava-lake surface and Strombolian bursts frame by frame.
The catch is the setting. Field seasons run only during the Antarctic summer, gear has to survive −60°C and hurricane-force winds, and everything flies in from McMurdo by helicopter. That a volcano this remote is also one of the best-monitored on Earth says a lot about how much a persistent lava lake is worth to science.
Air New Zealand Flight 901
On November 28, 1979, Air New Zealand Flight 901 flew into Mount Erebus during an Antarctic sightseeing tour, killing all 257 peopleaboard. It remains New Zealand's deadliest peacetime disaster.
The flights were a novelty of the late 1970s: a day trip from Auckland to fly low over Antarctica and back, with a guide narrating the view. On this flight, a coordinate in the aircraft's navigation computer had been changed without the crew's knowledge, shifting the programmed track by 45 km — directly toward Erebus rather than down McMurdo Sound. In the flat Antarctic light, a phenomenon called sector whiteouterased the contrast between snow-covered slope and cloud, so the crew saw only white where the mountain rose ahead. The aircraft struck the lower flank at 1,500 feet. A memorial cross stands on the mountain, and the disaster reshaped how aviation treats crew briefings and navigation-data integrity.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Mount Erebus?
Mount Erebus is on Ross Island in Antarctica, overlooking McMurdo Sound and the two largest Antarctic research bases — the U.S. McMurdo Station and New Zealand's Scott Base. At 3,794 m it is the highest volcano in Antarctica and the southernmost active volcano on Earth, sitting at about 77.5° south.
Is Mount Erebus still active?
Yes. Erebus has been continuously active since at least 1972, and its most recent activity in our records is dated 2025. It hosts a persistent lava lake and produces small Strombolian explosions that fling volcanic bombs from the lake. It is one of only a handful of volcanoes on Earth with a lava lake that stays molten for decades at a time.
What makes Erebus's lava lake unique?
Erebus has the only persistent lava lake of phonolite composition on Earth. Every other long-lived lava lake — Erta Ale, Nyiragongo, Kīlauea, Ambrym, Masaya — is basaltic or nephelinitic. Phonolite is unusually gas-rich and viscous, which is part of why Erebus's lake behaves so differently and why scientists have studied it since the 1970s.
What happened to Air New Zealand Flight 901?
On November 28, 1979, Air New Zealand Flight 901 — a sightseeing flight over Antarctica — crashed into the lower slopes of Mount Erebus, killing all 237 passengers and 20 crew, 257 people in total. A navigation coordinate error combined with a whiteout optical illusion called sector whiteout led the crew to fly into rising terrain they could not distinguish from cloud. It remains New Zealand's deadliest peacetime disaster.
What are the ice towers on Mount Erebus?
Erebus's flanks carry more than a hundred ice fumaroles — hollow chimneys of ice that form where warm volcanic gas escapes into the −60°C air and instantly freezes. Some stand several meters tall, and the caves beneath them shelter heat-loving microbes, making them a prized natural analog for the search for life on Mars and the icy moons of the outer planets.