Mount Takahe

Mount Takahe
Aerial view looking east. The prominent ridge at the center-left with the shadow behind is Gill Bluff.
Highest point
Elevation3,460 m (11,350 ft)[1]
Prominence[2][3]
ListingVolcanoes in Antarctica
Coordinates76°17′S 112°05′W / 76.28°S 112.08°W / -76.28; -112.08 (Mount Takahe)[1]
Geography
Mount Takahe is located in Antarctica
Mount Takahe
Mount Takahe
Location in SW Antarctica
ContinentAntarctica
RegionMarie Byrd Land,
Geology
Mountain typeShield volcano
Volcanic fieldMarie Byrd Land Volcanic Province
Last eruption5550 BC (?)[1]

Mount Takahe is a 3,460-metre-high (11,350 ft) snow-covered shield volcano in Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica, 200 kilometres (120 mi) from the Amundsen Sea. It is a c. 30-kilometre-wide (19 mi) mountain with parasitic vents and a caldera up to 8 kilometres (5 mi) wide. Most of the volcano is formed by trachytic lava flows, but hyaloclastite is also found. Snow, ice, and glaciers cover most of Mount Takahe. With a volume of 780 km3 (200 cu mi), it is a massive volcano; the parts of the edifice that are buried underneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet are probably even larger. It is part of the West Antarctic Rift System along with 18 other known volcanoes.

The volcano was active in the Quaternary period, from 2.5 million years ago to the present.[a] Radiometric dating has yielded ages of up to 300,000 years for its rocks, and it reached its present height about 200,000 years ago. Several tephra layers encountered in ice cores at Mount Waesche and Byrd Station have been attributed to Mount Takahe, although some of them were later linked to eruptions of Mount Berlin instead. The tephra layers were formed by explosive or phreatomagmatic eruptions. Major eruptions took place around 17,700 years ago—possibly forming an ozone hole over Antarctica—and in the early Holocene.[b] Mount Takahe's last eruption occurred about 7,600 years ago, and there is no present-day activity.

  1. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference GVP was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference peaklist was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference peakbagger was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference ICC2018 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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