Antarctica is the coldest place on the Earth, with temperatures freezing to the bone-chilling levels of -129°F. In such harsh conditions can you think of something more frigid than ice and snow? However, in that frozen wilderness lies a secret of fire.
Mount Erebus is the southernmost active volcano on Earth that towers 12,448 feet into the air. However, it is not just any ordinary volcano; it’s a geological wonder that regularly emits gas, steam, and molten rocks that are called volcanic bombs.However, there is one more significant thing that makes it unique, the volcano regularly emits micro-crystals of gold.
Yes, that’s right! According to reports, this volcano emits around 80 grams of gold, which amounts to about $6,000 everyday
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These particulates of gold are not bigger than 20 micrometers in size and are carried by volcanic gas, however, these particulates have also been found 600 miles away from the volcano. This phenomenon amazed scientists because Erebus is the only volcano known to be reported to emit gold in its metallic form.
Perhaps the volcano is most famous as the location of the devastating Mount Erebus tragedy in 1979.
Air New Zealand had introduced a tourism venture that allowed passengers to enjoy aerial views of Antarctica on sightseeing flights over Antarctica, returning to Auckland, New Zealand. One of those tourist flights crashed head-on into the side of one of the volcanoes, killing all 257 people on board.
That morning, despite the dismal weather conditions, the tour pushed through. Captain Jim Collins attempted to lower the aircraft down to about 2,000 feet by spiraling down in two large turns. When it spiraled down, the aircraft hit the volcano instantly killing everyone on board.
A plane crash that was so bone chilling!
According to the reports, it was much later that rescue teams at the crash site found that one of the passengers had cameras with film still in them. The photographs snapped just a few seconds before the impact revealed that no clouds were obscuring the view, thus ruling out any possibility of whether the volcano was obscured by clouds or not.
It’s claimed by sources, that the cause of this crash was that the ice on the volcano cast a whiteout making it impossible to see beyond the cast. The pilot considered all the ice below as snow and could not measure a proper distance.
Named after the God of darkness
Mount Erebus is named after the Greek deity Erebus, personified as the God of darkness and his dark abode of the underworld because its region is dark. It was named by Sir James Clark Ross, a British explorer, who discovered the volcano in 1841 in his expedition to Antarctica, after the name of one of his ships, HMS Erebus, and HMS Terror that made up his fleet. The name perfectly describes the severe and relatively dingy conditions of the Antarctic environment.
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