Mt Erebus puts on an Antarctic fireworks display of its own to mark the New Year

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This was published 9 years ago

Mt Erebus puts on an Antarctic fireworks display of its own to mark the New Year

By Steve Meacham
Updated
Mt Erebus put on a show for travellers on New Year's Eve.

Mt Erebus put on a show for travellers on New Year's Eve. Credit: Steve Meacham

As Sydney put on its usual spectacular fireworks show to mark the New Year, down in Antarctica Mt Erebus was treating visitors to a sulphuric show of its own.

Passengers aboard the Qantas 747-400, chartered for the night by Antarctica Flights, were surprised to be greeted by the sight of Mt Erebus erupting as the plane flew over Ross Island around 2am on New Year's Day, brilliantly illuminated because of the perpetual summer light in this southern version of the Land of the Midnight Sun.

At 3.794 metres, Mt Erebus is the most active volcano in the ice continent. But Professor Pat Quilty, former head of the Antarctic Division's research programme and the guest lecturer aboard the 13 hours flight which left Sydney airport at 8pm on New Year's Eve, told passengers it was only the second time he had seen Erebus erupting in 29 flights over the continent.

"It was by far the best eruption I've seen in Antarctica," he said after the flight. "The flume was going up so nicely, then being blown to the north by the winds. If we had flown over the top of the mountain, we'd have seen a red lava lake. And if we had been on the land, climbing the mountain we'd have been pelted with stones and other material."

In fact the sight would have seemed very familiar to Australians Professor Edgeworth David and Sir Douglas Mawson who were among the six men team which made the first ascent of Mr Erebus in October 1908 during Sir Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod expedition.

"Erebus seemed to be quiet when they set off," said Professor Quilty. "But suddenly lava bombs started raining down around them. They were very lucky not to be struck."

David and Mawson, along with naval surgeon Alistair McKay, also became the first men to stand on the South Magnetic Pole on that expedition following one of the most epic sledging journeys in polar history. They'd find that impossible now. Today the South Magnetic Pole is well out to sea, constantly moving because of the earth's changing magnetic field. "It's moving steadily towards Adelaide, though it will never get there, at the rate of around 8 kms a year;" explained Professor Quilty.

The five Antarctica Flights per year usually pass over the South Magnetic Pole on the way to explore Mawson's Hut and other polar highlights. But this time poor weather conditions around Mawson's Hut meant the Qantas jumbo was diverted further south to the American station at McMurdo.

That gave the 364 passengers and 20 crew an unforgettable memory of Mt Erebus - still best known for the disaster on 28 November 1979 when an Air New Zealand sightseeing flight crashed into the mountain with the loss of 257 lives.

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