The Hudson Mountains are a mountain range in western Ellsworth Land just east of

Cranton Bay Cranton Bay is a bay about long and wide, lying south of the Canisteo Peninsula at the eastern end of the Amundsen Sea. The southern limit of the bay is formed by the Backer Islands and an ice shelf which separates this bay from Pine Island ...

and Pine Island Bay at the eastern extremity of

Amundsen Sea The Amundsen Sea, an arm of the Southern Ocean off Marie Byrd Land in western Antarctica, lies between Cape Flying Fish (the northwestern tip of Thurston Island) to the east and Cape Dart on Siple Island to the west. Cape Flying Fish marks the ...

. They are of volcanic origin, consisting of low scattered mountains and

nunatak A nunatak (from Inuit ''nunataq'') is the summit or ridge of a mountain that protrudes from an ice field or glacier that otherwise covers most of the mountain or ridge. They are also called glacial islands. Examples are natural pyramidal peaks. ...

s that protrude through the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. The Hudson Mountains are bounded on the north by

Cosgrove Ice Shelf Cosgrove Ice Shelf is a long by wide ice shelf, occupying the inner (east) part of the embayment between King Peninsula and Canisteo Peninsula, Antarctica. It was mapped from air photos taken by U.S. Navy Operation Highjump, 1946–47, and named ...

and on the south by Pine Island Glacier.

Geology

The Hudson Mountains contain slightly eroded parasitic cones that overlie three extensively eroded Miocene

stratovolcano A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a conical volcano built up by many layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with a summit crater and per ...

es: Mount Manthe,

Teeters Nunatak Teeters Nunatak () is a nunatak (615 m) standing 5 nautical miles (9 km) north of Hodgson Nunatak in the Hudson Mountains, Antarctica. It was mapped by United States Geological Survey (USGS) from surveys and U.S. Navy The United S ...

and

Mount Moses Mount Moses () is, at , the highest and most prominent of the Hudson Mountains of Antarctica, located near the center of the group, about north-northeast of Mount Manthe. It was mapped from air photos taken by U.S. Navy Operation Highjump in 1 ...

. Potential steam was reported in 1974 and an unconfirmed report of an eruption detected by satellite was made in 1985, indicating that the Hudson Mountains may be volcanically active. Volcanic activity of the Hudson Mountains has produced predominantly

subaerial In natural science, subaerial (literally "under the air"), has been used since 1833,Subaerial
in the Merriam ...

basaltic lava flows, although subglacial or subaqueous tuffs and lava flows have also been noted. A tephra layer deposited from a subglacial eruption has been dated at about 200 BCE based on ice thickness.

History

The mountains were discovered by members of the USAS in flights from the in February 1940, and further delineated from air photos taken by USN

Operation Highjump Operation HIGHJUMP, officially titled The United States Navy Antarctic Developments Program, 1946–1947, (also called Task Force 68), was a United States Navy (USN) operation to establish the Antarctic research base Little America IV. The opera ...

in December 1946. The full extent of the group was mapped by USGS from US Navy air photos of 1966. Named by US-SCAN after Captain

William L. Hudson Captain William Levereth Hudson, USN (11 May 1794 – 15 October 1862) was a United States Navy officer in the first half of the 19th century. Career Hudson was born 11 May 1794 in Brooklyn. His first service afloat was in the Mediterranean Squa ...

, commander of during USEE, 1838–1842. ''Peacock'', accompanied by under Lieutenant Walker, cruised along the edge of the pack to the north of this area for several days during the latter part of March 1839. On January, 2008, the

British Antarctic Survey The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) is the United Kingdom's national polar research institute. It has a dual purpose, to conduct polar science, enabling better understanding of global issues, and to provide an active presence in the Antarctic on ...

scientists led by Hugh Corr and David Vaughan, reported (in the journal '' Nature Geoscience'') that 2,200 years ago, a volcano had a

subglacial eruption Subglacial eruptions, those of ice-covered volcanoes, result in the interaction of magma with ice and snow, leading to meltwater formation, jökulhlaups, and lahars. Flooding associated with meltwater is a significant hazard in some volcan ...

under the

Antarctic The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other ...

ice sheet, based on airborne survey with radar images. Described as the biggest eruption in Antarctica in the last 10,000 years, the volcanic ash was found deposited on the ice surface under the Hudson Mountains, close to Pine Island Glacier.

References

Bibliography

* {{Antarctica Volcanoes of Ellsworth Land Miocene stratovolcanoes Active volcanoes Landforms of Ellsworth Land

Geology

History

See also

Further reading

References

External links

Bibliography