QUESTION:
How often do Antarctic volcanoes erupt and what 
type of eruption occurs?

                    Jane Zugazaga
                    Spring Creek
                    Jr.Sr. High School



ANSWER from Mary Lenox, Antarctic Support Associates
            Palmer Station, Antarctica 
            Tue, 15 Apr 1997 11:51:58 -0500   


Hello, Jane.

  Antarctica has very few volcanoes that have been active in recent
times.  Evidence suggests that about 80 million years ago there were
numerous active volcanoes and some associated earth movements, and
there may also have been some volcanoes erupting under the ice as
recently as about 18 to six million years ago.  The area around
McMurdo Sound had a number of active volcanoes about three million
years ago, and the cones of four of these form Ross Island, where
McMurdo Station is located today and which served as a base for a
number of Antarctic explorations in the early twentieth century.

  Today the only active volcano left is Mt. Erebus, which rises
picturesquely behind McMurdo.  It was discovered and named in 1841
by Sir James Clark Ross, and at that time it was emitting smoke and
flame that reached a couple thousand feet above its peak.  The most
recent significant eruption occurred in 1984/85 when trapped gas
was vented in a series of voilent explosions.

Mary Lenox