Mawson Peak
| Mawson Peak | ||
|---|---|---|
 Satellite image of Mawson Peak, 2012 |
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| height | 2745 m | |
| location | Heard ( Heard and McDonald Islands ) | |
| Mountains | Big Ben massif | |
| Coordinates | 53 ° 6 '11 " S , 73 ° 30' 57" E | |
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| Type | Stratovolcano , active | |
| Last eruption | 2016 | |
Mawson Peak is the highest peak of the complex volcanic massif Big Ben on the island Heard in the Australian external territory Heard and McDonald Islands . At 2745 m, it is the highest peak on Australian territory. Heard is north of 60 ° South, but within the Antarctic convergence , so Mawson Peak is in the Indian Ocean or the Southern Ocean, depending on the definition .
geography
Besides the neighboring McDonald Island , Big Ben is the only active volcano in Australia, a stratovolcano . There have been at least ten eruptions since 1910, the last so far in February 2016. The massif is 43 km long and 21 km wide and takes up almost the entire island. It consists of trachy basalt . Mawson Peak is located in the middle of a 2.3 km wide and 3.5 km long crescent-shaped caldera on the southwest side of the volcanic massif and is glaciated all year round.
Similar to the way Kibo is the highest mountain of the Kilimanjaro massif, Mawson Peak is just one of several separate mountain peaks of the Big Ben massif. Due to the remoteness of Heard Island, Mawson Peak is one of the most dominant mountains on earth , it ranks 29th worldwide.Among other things, it is the most dominant mountain in Australia, the second most dominant mountain without continental reference and the most dominant mountain in the Southern Ocean or the second most dominant mountain in the Indic, behind the Piton des Neiges on La Réunion .
history
In November and December 1929, the British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition, led by polar explorer and geologist Douglas Mawson, visited the island. In 1948 the Heard Expedition of the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions named the mountain peak in his honor. On February 20, 1950, Thomas Gratton "Tim" Young was the first to observe on board the ship HMS Lebuan that Big Ben is an active volcano and recorded this in his logbook. An expedition of the schooner Patanela led by Major Warwick Deacock with skipper Major Bill Tilman in 1964 and 1965 made the first ascent of Mawson Peak. The volcanic eruption from 1985 to 1987 formed the crater of Mawson Peak as it exists today.
literature
- WE LeMasurier, JW Thomson: Volcanoes of the Antarctic Plate and Southern Oceans , American Geophysical Union 1990, ISBN 0-87590-172-7
Web links
- Map of Heard with topographical details on heardisland.aq
- Heard Island - The Climbing of Big Ben ; Tim Bowden in: AURORA ANARE Club Journal, Issue 30, No. 3; March 2011. Detailed report of the first attempts to climb Mawson Peak in 1963 & 1965.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Big Ben volcano: Scientists witness 'amazing' eruption on remote Australian sub-Antarctic island . Lucy Shannon, ABC News, Feb. 1, 2016.
- ↑ Mawson Peak, Heard Island , Earth Observatory, NASA .
- ^ Mawson Peak , Australian Antarctica Data Center (AADC), Antarctic Gazetteer