Hudson Mountains

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Hudson Mountains
Southern part of the Hudson Mountains with the Webber Nunatak at the bottom left (satellite image from the west)

Southern part of the Hudson Mountains with the Webber Nunatak at the bottom left (satellite image from the west)

Highest peak Mount Moses ( 749  m )
location Ellsworthland , West Antarctica
Hudson Mountains (Antarctica)
Hudson Mountains
Coordinates 74 ° 32 ′  S , 99 ° 20 ′  W Coordinates: 74 ° 32 ′  S , 99 ° 20 ′  W
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The Hudson Mountains ( English Hudson Mountains ) is a group of numerous low mountains and nunataks in western Ellsworthland in West Antarctica . It extends over an area of ​​approximately 125 km in a north-south direction and 55 km in an east-west direction.

geography

The Hudson Mountains lie east of the two bays Cranton Bay and Pine Island Bay, which form the southeasternmost foothills of the Amundsen Sea, and are bounded in the north by the Cosgrove Ice Shelf and in the south by the Pine Island Glacier . Its longest extension is around 130 km between the Kenfield Nunatak in the north and the Evans Knoll in the southwest. The mountain peaks reach heights of a few hundred meters and protrude only slightly from the surrounding ice sheet . The highest point at 749  m is Mount Moses , followed by Teeters-Nunatak ( 617  m ), Mount Manthe ( 576  m ) and Velie-Nunatak ( 574  m ).

geology

The Hudson Mountains form the southeastern extension of the Thurston Island Crustal Block , which is bounded in the south by the rift-like, up to 1,600 m deep valley, which is filled by the Pine Island Glacier. It essentially consists of three heavily eroded Miocene stratovolcanoes (Mount Moses, Mount Manthe and Teeters-Nunatak) as well as numerous younger and less eroded flank volcanoes on top of these , which as nunataks penetrate the ice layer of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Basaltic lava flows that solidify in the air are predominant, but tuffs and lavas also occur under water or subglacial .

In 2008, scientists from the British Antarctic Survey used radar surveys of the ice sheet to provide evidence of the eruption of a subglacial volcano in the Hudson Mountains, which occurred around 2,200 years ago. With a total volume of 0.019 to 0.31 km³ tephra , deposited on an area of ​​23,000 km², this is the strongest known volcanic eruption on the Antarctic continent during the last 10,000 years.

Volcanic phenomena have also been reported recently, such as steam escapes in 1974 or indications of an eruption of the Webber Nunatak on satellite images from 1985. Even if these observations have not yet been confirmed, a continuation of volcanic activity in this region cannot be ruled out.

history

The Hudson Mountains were first sighted in 1940 by members of the United States Antarctic Service on reconnaissance flights from the USS Bear . The mountains were completely mapped by the United States Geological Survey based on aerial photographs taken by the United States Navy in 1966 . It was named after William L. Hudson, who, as commander of the Peacock as part of Charles Wilkes' United States Exploring Expedition , cruised for a few days on the edge of the pack ice north of the area in March 1839 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tom A. Jordan et al .: Aerogravity evidence for major crustal thinning under the Pine Island Glacier region (West Antarctica) . In: Geological Society of America Bulletin . tape 122 , no. 5–6 , May 1, 2010, ISSN  0016-7606 , p. 714–726 , doi : 10.1130 / B26417.1 (English, freely available online through researchgate.net ).
  2. ^ Hugh FJ Corr et al .: A recent volcanic eruption beneath the West Antarctic ice sheet . In: Nature Geoscience . tape 1 , no. 2 , February 2008, p. 122–125 , doi : 10.1038 / ngeo106 (English, freely available online through researchgate.net ).
  3. ^ Matthew R. Patrick, John L. Smellie, Synthesis A spaceborne inventory of volcanic activity in Antarctica and southern oceans, 2000-10 . In: Antarctic Science . tape 25 , no. 4 , August 2013, ISSN  0954-1020 , Antarctica and adjacent islands: Webber Nunatak (Hudson Mountains) , p. 482 , doi : 10.1017 / S0954102013000436 (English).
  4. ^ Charles Wilkes , USN, Commander of the Expedition: Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition during the years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842. Expedition report in five volumes and an atlas. tape 1 . Lea & Blanchard, Philadelphia 1845, Chapter VIII. Southern Cruise - Continued. 1839. , p. 153-166 . (English, digitized in the Digital Collections of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries [accessed June 26, 2020]).