Mount Siple is a potentially active Antarctic shield volcano, rising to 3,110 metres (10,203 ft) and dominating the northwest part of Siple Island, which is separated from the Bakutis Coast, Marie Byrd Land, by the Getz Ice Shelf.[4] Its youthful appearance strongly suggests that it last erupted in the Holocene. It is capped by a 4-by-5-kilometre (2.5 mi × 3.1 mi) summit caldera, and tuff cones lie on the lower flanks.[2] Recely Bluff is on the northeast slope of the mountain, about 7 nautical miles (13 km) from the peak. Its volume of 1,800 cubic kilometres (430 cu mi) is comparable to that of Mount Erebus.

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 Island). He was in command of the West Base of the US Antarctic Service (USAS), 1939–41, and was navigator on all major exploratory flights from the base, including the flight on which Mount Siple was discovered.[4]

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.

Adele Penguins nest on the side of Mount Siple

The volcano was visited in February 2017 as part of the Swiss Polar Institute's Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition. Al Jazeera English 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.[5][6]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Antarctica Ultra-Prominences" Peaklist.org. Retrieved 2011-11-21.
  2. ^ a b c "Siple". Global Volcanism Program. Smithsonian Institution.
  3. ^ Wilch, T. I.; McIntosh, W. C.; Dunbar, N. W. (1 October 1999). "Late Quaternary volcanic activity in Marie Byrd Land: Potential 40Ar/39Ar-dated time horizons in West Antarctic ice and marine cores". GSA Bulletin. 111 (10): 1574. doi:10.1130/0016-7606(1999)1112.3.CO;2. ISSN 0016-7606.
  4. ^ a b U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Mount Siple
  5. ^ "Penguins on the move in a warming world". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2017-04-21.
  6. ^ Al Jazeera English (2017-02-25), Antarctica penguins move south in search of cold, archived from the original on 2021-12-21, retrieved 2017-04-21
  • LeMasurier, W. E.; Thomson, J. W., eds. (1990). Volcanoes of the Antarctic Plate and Southern Oceans. Antarctic Research Series. Vol. 48. American Geophysical Union. p. 512. ISBN 0-87590-172-7.

External links