Perilous expedition to uninhabited island in South Atlantic confirms existence of world's 8th lava lake

By Sascha Pare published about 11 hours ago

A new National Geographic "Explorer" episode follows an expedition to Saunders Island and the first documented ascent of Mount Michael, a volcano hosting the world's eighth lava lake.



A colony of penguins stands at the foot of Mount Michael on Saunders Island.

Saunders Island is teeming with wildlife and is home to over a million penguins. (Image credit: National Geographic/Ryan Valasek)


In 2001, NASA satellites scanning an uninhabited island near Antarctica in the South Atlantic Ocean detected a thermal anomaly that left scientists reeling. Deep inside an unexplored volcano, they detected the signature of a bubbling lake of molten rock. Only seven such lava lakes were known worldwide.

With nothing but thermal data, however, volcanologists were unable to confirm the existence of a lava lake. Two decades later, they finally did it. In a brand-new "Explorer" episode premiering Thursday (Oct. 26), filmmakers followed scientists and mountaineers as they negotiated the first ascent of Mount Michael, a volcano on Saunders Island in the South Sandwich Islands, and confirmed it contained the lake.

"Lava lakes are one of the best natural laboratories that we have to study volcanic processes," Emma Nicholson, a volcanologist and associate professor in Earth sciences at University College London who went on the expedition, told Live Science. "Lava lakes are not permanent; they are geologically transient, so when we discover a new laboratory, we have to harness it as quickly as we can."

Nicholson and a team of explorers first tried to reach the summit of Mount Michael in 2020, but poor weather conditions forced them to abandon the effort halfway through.

More:
https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/volcanos/perilous-expedition-to-uninhabited-island-in-south-atlantic-confirms-existence-of-worlds-8th-lava-lake