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Post Info TOPIC: Deception Island


L

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RE: Deception Island
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Deception Island - the Antarctic volcano that just doesn't make any sense

Only two volcanoes in Antarctica are active. There is Mount Erebus, which is roughly due south of New Zealand, and Deception Island, which lies about 850km south east of Cape Horn.
Mt Erebus has been erupting continuously over the last few decades. Yet the rather smaller Deception Island, in the South Shetland archipelago, is responsible for the largest known eruption in the Antarctic area.

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L

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On the trail of Shackleton in Antarctica

The entrance to Deception Islands leads to a vast inlet that is the crater of an active volcano which is reputed to erupt every 40 years. We were there on the 38th and took comfort from the margin of error. It sent clouds of steam rising from the water. Those of our party who had the foresight to bring swimsuits went for a dip.
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L

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Deception Island is a volcanic caldera, which formed a natural harbour when the caldera collapsed.
The harbour is called Port Foster.
The Island is in the South Shetland Islands, on the Bransfield Rift where the rift is offset by a short ridge-ridge transform fault .
700000 years ago, volcanic pressure on Deception Island resulted in a tremendous eruption that caused the island’s peak to explode.

Deception Island
[B]Latitude -62.955437° Longitude -60.631512°[/B]

The prehistoric 7-kilometer-diameter caldera is largely flooded by sea. The caldera apparently formed as a result of voluminous eruptions of sodic andesite or basaltic andesite.
The volcano is still very active and its eruptions have caused evacuations and considerable damage to the stations there (during the 1920-21 whaling season the harbour water boiled and stripped the paint off the ships' hulls). The most recent eruption was in 1991-92. Numerous active vents are situated along the ring fractures, near the shoreline of the natural harbour.

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