Mount Siple is a potentially active

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 ...

shield volcano A shield volcano is a type of volcano named for its low profile, resembling a warrior's shield lying on the ground. It is formed by the eruption of highly fluid (low viscosity) lava, which travels farther and forms thinner flows than the more v ...

, rising to and dominating the northwest part of

Siple Island Siple Island is a long snow-covered island lying east of Wrigley Gulf along the Getz Ice Shelf off Bakutis Coast of Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica. Its centre is located at . Its area is and it is dominated by the dormant shield volcano Mount Si ...

, which is separated from the

Bakutis Coast The Bakutis Coast is that part of the coast of Marie Byrd Land, West Antarctica, extending from a point opposite eastern Dean Island, at , to Cape Herlacher, or between Hobbs Coast in the west and Walgreen Coast in the east. It stretches between ...

Marie Byrd Land Marie Byrd Land (MBL) is an unclaimed region of Antarctica. With an area of , it is the largest unclaimed territory on Earth. It was named after the wife of American naval officer Richard E. Byrd, who explored the region in the early 20th centur ...

, by the

Getz Ice Shelf The Getz Ice Shelf is the largest Antarctic ice shelf along the SE Pacific-Antarctic coastline, over long and from wide, bordering the Hobbs and Bakutis Coasts of Marie Byrd Land between the McDonald Heights and Martin Peninsula. Several lar ...

. Its youthful appearance strongly suggests that it last erupted in the

Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togethe ...

. It is capped by a summit

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is ...

, and

tuff cone Volcanic cones are among the simplest volcanic landforms. They are built by ejecta from a volcanic vent, piling up around the vent in the shape of a cone with a central crater. Volcanic cones are of different types, depending upon the nature and s ...

s lie on the lower flanks.

Recely Bluff Recely Bluff is a snow and rock bluff on the northeast slope of Mount Siple on Siple Island. The bluff is 7 nautical miles (13 km) northeast of the summit of the mountain. It is mapped by United States Geological Survey (USGS) from surveys and ...

is on the northeast slope of the mountain, about 7 nautical miles (13 km) from the peak. Its volume of is comparable to that of

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 ...

. Mount Siple is named after Paul A. Siple (1908–68), a US Antarctic explorer and geographer who took part in six Antarctic expeditions, including the two Byrd expeditions of 1928-30 and 1933-35 (

Siple Coast Siple Coast () is the middle portion of the relatively ill-defined coast along the east side of the Ross Ice Shelf, between the north end of Gould Coast () and the south end of Shirase Coast (). The area was originally called Kirton Coast, but wa ...

, Siple Island). He was in command of the

West Base West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

of the

US Antarctic Service The United States Antarctic Program (or USAP; formerly known as the United States Antarctic Research Program or USARP and the United States Antarctic Service or USAS) is an organization of the United States government which has presence in the A ...

(USAS), 1939–41, and was navigator on all major exploratory flights from the base, including the flight on which Mount Siple was discovered. According to peaklist.org, the volcano was probably climbed, but there is no evidence of this and the summit may have been landed on by helicopter. The volcano was visited in February 2017 as part of the

Swiss Polar Institute Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland *Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri *Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia *Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internationa ...

's Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition.

Al Jazeera English Al Jazeera English (AJE; ar, الجزيرة‎, translit=al-jazīrah, , literally "The Peninsula", referring to the Qatar Peninsula) is an international 24-hour English-language news channel owned by the Al Jazeera Media Network, which is own ...

Science and Technology editor Tarek Bazley was on board and filed a news report on his visit to a colony of Adele penguins breeding there.

References

External links

Mount Siple
at skimountaineer.com
"Mount Siple, Antarctica" on Peakbagger
{{DEFAULTSORT:Siple Polygenetic shield volcanoes Calderas of Antarctica Volcanoes of Marie Byrd Land Potentially active volcanoes

See also

References

External links