Mount Terror is a large
shield volcano that forms the eastern part of
Ross Island,
Antarctica
Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...
. It has numerous
cinder cones and domes on the flanks of the shield and is mostly under
snow
Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes.
It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...
and
ice
Ice is water frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 degrees Celsius or Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air, it can appear transparent or a more or less opaqu ...
. It is the second largest of the four volcanoes that make up Ross Island and is somewhat overshadowed by its neighbour,
Mount Erebus
Mount Erebus () is the second-highest volcano in Antarctica (after Mount Sidley), the highest active volcano in Antarctica, and the southernmost active volcano on Earth. It is the sixth-highest ultra mountain on the continent.
With a summ ...
, to the west.
[ Mount Terror was named in 1841 by Sir ]James Clark Ross
Sir James Clark Ross (15 April 1800 – 3 April 1862) was a British Royal Navy officer and polar explorer known for his explorations of the Arctic, participating in two expeditions led by his uncle John Ross, and four led by William Edwa ...
for his second ship, HMS ''Terror''.[ The captain of ''Terror'' was ]Francis Crozier
Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier (17 October 1796 – disappeared 26 April 1848) was an Irish officer of the Royal Navy and polar explorer who participated in six expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic. In May 1845, he was second-in-comman ...
, a close friend of Ross for whom the nearby Cape Crozier
Cape Crozier is the most easterly point of Ross Island in Antarctica. It was discovered in 1841 during James Clark Ross's expedition of 1839 to 1843 with HMS ''Erebus'' and HMS ''Terror'', and was named after Francis Crozier, captain of HMS ' ...
is named.
Geography
The rocks at the summit have not been studied, but rocks from the lower areas range from 0.82 to 1.75 million years old, and Mount Terror shows no signs of more recent volcanic activity.
The first ascent of Mt. Terror was made by a New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
party in 1959.
Terror Point (), located just below Mt. Terror, is the eastern limit of Fog Bay, WNW of Cape MacKay on Ross Island. The name was first used by members of the British National Antarctic Expedition
The ''Discovery'' Expedition of 1901–1904, known officially as the British National Antarctic Expedition, was the first official British exploration of the Antarctic regions since the voyage of James Clark Ross sixty years earlier (1839–184 ...
, 1901–04, and was apparently applied in association with Mt. Terror which overlooks this point from the northeast.glacier
A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such as ...
between Mount Terra Nova and Mount Terror on Ross Island, flowing south into Windless Bight. So named by A.J. Heine of the New Zealand Geological Survey Antarctic Expedition The New Zealand Geological Survey Antarctic Expedition (NZGSAE) describes a series of scientific explorations of the continent Antarctica. The expeditions were notably active throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
Features named by the expeditions 1957 ...
(NZGSAE), 1962–63, because of its association with Mount Terror.
Cultural references
*Mount Terror is the stronghold of Russian anarchist revolutionaries in the 1894 science fiction novel '' Olga Romanoff'' by George Griffith
George Griffith (1857–1906), full name George Chetwynd Griffith-Jones, was a prolific British science fiction writer and noted explorer who wrote during the late Victorian and Edwardian age. Many of his visionary tales appeared in magazin ...
.
*Mount Terror and Mount Erebus
Mount Erebus () is the second-highest volcano in Antarctica (after Mount Sidley), the highest active volcano in Antarctica, and the southernmost active volcano on Earth. It is the sixth-highest ultra mountain on the continent.
With a summ ...
are mentioned in the 1936 novella ''At the Mountains of Madness
''At the Mountains of Madness'' is a science fiction-horror novella by American author H. P. Lovecraft, written in February/March 1931 and rejected that year by ''Weird Tales'' editor Farnsworth Wright on the grounds of its length. It was or ...
'' by H.P. Lovecraft.
*Mount Terror is used as a location in the 2004 novel ''State of Fear
''State of Fear'' is a 2004 techno-thriller novel by Michael Crichton, his fourteenth under his own name and twenty-fourth overall, in which eco-terrorists plot mass murder to publicize the danger of global warming. Despite being a work of ficti ...
'' by Michael Crichton.
*Mount Terror is referenced in ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea
''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'' (french: Vingt mille lieues sous les mers) is a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne.
The novel was originally serialized from March 1869 through June 1870 in Pierre- ...
'' by the narrator Professor Arronax, after they arrive at the South Pole, in reference to two volcanic craters, the Erebus and Terror, in context to an earlier discovery by ‘’James Clark Ross
Sir James Clark Ross (15 April 1800 – 3 April 1862) was a British Royal Navy officer and polar explorer known for his explorations of the Arctic, participating in two expeditions led by his uncle John Ross, and four led by William Edwa ...
’’.
See also
*List of volcanoes in Antarctica
This is a list of volcanoes in Antarctica.
Table
A 2017 study claimed to have found 138 volcanoes, of which 91 were previously unknown. Some volcanoes are entirely under the ice sheet. Unconfirmed volcanoes are not included in the table below.
...
*List of Ultras of Antarctica
This is a list of all the Ultra prominent peaks (with topographic prominence greater than 1,500 metres) in Antarctica. Some islands in the South Atlantic have also been included and can be found at the end of the list.
Antarctica
South Atl ...
References
External links
*
Bibliography
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Terror, Mount
Volcanoes of Ross Island
Polygenetic shield volcanoes
Extinct volcanoes
Pleistocene shield volcanoes