Way down south, on the island of Montagu, one of the South Sandwich Islands, lies the
volcano Mount Oceanite. It's not so very tall, just 915 m asl, but still not easy to climb,
as it is fully ice-covered. Its exact position is at 58:294 S and 26:154 W
The name refers to the oceanite lavas present in this area, which occur nowhere else
in the South Sandwich Islands.

October 1st, 2004


A steaming vent, and dark basaltic tephra covering ice surfaces N of the lava that erupted
down the volcano's N flank. A steam plume drifted N, and light coloured clouds surrounded
the S side of the crater.
Courtesy of the IKONOS satellite. © Space Imaging.

December 7, 2003


December 7, 2003, by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection
Radiometer (ASTER), a sensor onboard Terra.
(NASA Natural Hazards)

Satellite imagery from 7 December 2003 showed that low-level ash emission and lava effusion
had persisted steadily at Montagu Island (Mount Belinda) for the past 2 years.
A NE-trending, 2-km-long lava flow was emplaced on the summit ice shelf in July 2003,
and ash continued to blanket the eastern side of the island.



Background. The largest of the Sandwich Islands, Montagu consists of one or more
stratovolcanoes with parasitic cones and or domes. The roughly rectangular-shaped island
rises about 3,000 m from the sea floor and is roughly 10 x 12 km wide with a prominent
peninsula at its SE tip. Around 90% of the island is ice-covered; glaciers extend to the
sea over much of the island, forming vertical ice cliffs. Mount Belinda, rising to 1,370 m,
is the high point of the island and lies at the southern end of a 6-km-wide ice-filled summit
caldera. Mount Oceanite, an isolated 900-m-high peak, lies at the SE tip of the island
and was the source of lava flows exposed at Mathias Point and Allen Point.

There was no record of Holocene or historical eruptive activity at Montagu until MODIS
satellite data, beginning in late 2001, revealed thermal anomalies consistent with lava lake
activity that has been persistent since late 2001.

Source: HIGP Thermal Alert Team, University of Hawaii Manoa
Montagu Information from the Global Volcanism Program

	Linker:

Search this site - Søk våre sider