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

                                        Jane Zugazaga
					Spring Creek
					Jr.Sr. High School
                                        Elko, Nevada

ANSWER from Scott Borg, Program Director                                 
            Office of Polar Programs
            Antarctic Geology & Geophysics Program        
            National Science Foundation
            Mon, 31 Mar 1997 17:51:13 -0500

Dear Ms. Zugazaga,

Mt Erebus, an active volcano on Ross Island erupts fairly frequently (like
weeks or days between eruptions) but these eruptions are very small and are
associated with a continuously active lava lake in the summit crater.  These
eruptions generall only throw out blobs of lava (called volcanic bombs) and
some ash for a distance of several hundred meters at most.  Larger eruptions
are much less frequent.  

In general it is not possible to determine accurately the frequency of
eruption of volcanoes.  Scientists are trying to find ways of determining
when a eruption is likely to occur by looking for certain kinds of "early
warning signs", like changing composition or volume of gas coming out of
vents on the volcano, or by listening for small earthquakes within the
volcano.  There are volcanoes in Antarctica, mainly in the Antarctic
Peninsula, that are capable of erupting very very violently, with ash
columns thousands of meters in the air.


Thanks for your question!

Scott B.