Antarctica has an active lava lake, right now! At one of the coldest locations on Earth, there is an active more than 300 foot wide lava lake which has a temperature of more than 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit. This is at the summit of Antarctica's Mount Erebus volcano, which has been continuously erupting for 53 years straight. Today's video will discuss why it exists, how it formed, its unusual geologic features such as Erebus crystals, and what its typical eruptions are like. Thumbnail Photo Credit: A. Eschenbacher, Used with Permission. Note: Today's video is not sponsored by the National Science Foundation. I merely chose a thumbnail image that included one of their helicopters in Antarctica. A special thanks to A. Eschenbacher for the photos of Mt. Erebus and the many Erebus crystals and Mt. Erebus lava bombs! If you would like to support this channel, consider using one of the following links: (Patreon: http://patreon.com/geologyhub) (YouTube membership: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYeGh5VML5XPr5jYnzh3J6g/join) (Gemstone & Mineral Etsy store: http://prospectingarizona.etsy.com) (GeologyHub Merch Etsy store: http://geologyhub.etsy.com) Google Earth imagery used in this video: ©Google & Data Providers This video is protected under "fair use". If you see an image and/or video which is your own in this video, and/or think my discussion of a scientific paper (and/or discussion/mentioning of the data/information within a scientific paper) does not fall under the fair use doctrine, and wish for it to be censored or removed, contact me by email at [email protected] and I will make the necessary changes. Various licenses used in sections of this video (not the entire video, this video as a whole does not completely fall under one of these licenses) and/or in this video's thumbnail image (and this list does not include every license used in this video and/or thumbnail image): Public Domain: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/ CC BY 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode Sources/Citations: [1] Iverson, N. A., P. R. Kyle, N. W. Dunbar, W. C. McIntosh, and N. J. G. Pearce (2014), Eruptive history and magmatic stability of Erebus volcano, Antarctica: Insights from englacial tephra, Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst., 15, 4180–4202, doi:10.1002/2014GC005435. [2] Davey, F. & Granot, Roi & Cande, Steven & Stock, Joann & Selvans, M. & Ferraccioli, Fausto. (2016). Synchronous Oceanic Spreading and Continental Rifting in West Antarctica: West Antarctic Rifting. Geophysical Research Letters. 43. 10.1002/2016GL069087. [3] Harpel, Christopher & Kyle, Philip & Esser, Richard & McIntosh, William & Caldwell, David. (2004). 40Ar/39Ar dating of the eruptive history of Mount Erebus, Antarctica: Summit flows, tephra, and caldera collapse. Bulletin of Volcanology - BULL VOLCANOL. 66. 687-702. 10.1007/s00445-004-0349-7. [3] U.S. Geological Survey [4] Parmelee, David & Kyle, Philip & Kurz, Mark & Marrero, Shasta & Phillips, Fred. (2015). A new Holocene eruptive history of Erebus volcano, Antarctica using cosmogenic 3 He and 36 Cl exposure ages. Quatemary Geochronology. 30. 114-131. 10.1016/j.quageo.2015.09.001., CC BY 4.0. [5] VEIs, dates/years, composition, tephra layer name, DRE estimates, and bulk tephra volume estimates for volcanic eruptions shown in this video which were assigned a VEI 4 or larger, https://www2.bgs.ac.uk/vogripa/view/controller.cfc?method=lameve, Used with Permission [6] Source of Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) methodology and criteria: Newhall, C. G., and Self, S. (1982), The volcanic explosivity index (VEI) an estimate of explosive magnitude for historical volcanism, J. Geophys. Res., 87(C2), 1231–1238, doi:10.1029/JC087iC02p01231. Accessed / Read by Youtube.com/GeologyHub on Oct 5th, 2022. 0:00 Lava in Antarctica 0:33 Mount Erebus 0:50 Unusual Features 1:12 Erebus Crystals 1:32 Location 2:08 Geologic Setting 3:05 Geologic History 4:25 2 Major Eruptions