Mount Dixon () is a snow-covered

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 ...

, high, standing west of

Anzac Peak Anzac Peak is a volcano on the Laurens Peninsula of Heard Island in the Southern Ocean. It lies to the northwest of Mawson Peak. Despite its low elevation of just over 700 metres high, the peak and several neighbouring peaks have permanent snow a ...

on the

Laurens Peninsula Laurens Peninsula () is a rugged peninsula surmounted by several ice-covered peaks that forms the northwestern part of Heard Island in the southern Indian Ocean. The name was applied by the Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition following ...

Heard Island The Territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands (HIMI) is an Australian external territory comprising a volcanic group of mostly barren Antarctic islands, about two-thirds of the way from Madagascar to Antarctica. The group's overall size ...

. The feature appears to have been roughly charted on an 1860 sketch map by Captain H.C. Chester, an American sealer operating in the area during this period. It was surveyed in 1948 by the

Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions The Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions (ANARE ) is the historical name for the Australian Antarctic Program (AAp) administered for Australia by the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD). History Australia has had a long involv ...

(ANARE), and named by them for Lieutenant Commander George M. Dixon,

RANVR Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve (RANVR) was a reserve force of the Royal Australian Navy. Formation In late 1920, the Navy Board proposed the creation of an Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve scheme, with approaches made to yac ...

, commanding officer of HMAS ''Labuan'' which landed and relieved the 1948 and 1949 ANARE parties. The peak is northwest of

Big Ben Big Ben is the nickname for the Great Bell of the Great Clock of Westminster, at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London, England, and the name is frequently extended to refer also to the clock and the clock tower. The officia ...

. No activity has been observed on Mount Dixon, however some lava flows that are vegetation-free suggest an eruption within the last few hundred years.

References

Volcanoes of Heard Island and McDonald Islands Quaternary stratovolcanoes Stratovolcanoes of Antarctica {{Australia-mountain-stub