The eruption of Australia’s tallest mountain has been captured in a rare video.
While most people might have thought Mount Kosciuszko was Australia’s highest peak, Mawson Peak – a mountain on Heard Island, an Australian territory 4,100km south-west of Perth in the Southern Indian Ocean – actually towers over it.
It was captured on video spewing gas and vapour from its 2,745m peak located on the volcanic massif Big Ben and lava was seen flowing down the side. Although it is thought to have erupted three or more times since 2000, the island is so remote eruptions were usually inferred from satellite images.
Prof Mike Coffin from the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies said seeing the eruption was a surprise, describing it as “an amazing coda to this week’s submarine research”.
Scientists aboard the CSIRO’s research vessel Investigator were circling Heard Island and the nearby McDonald Islands, mapping the surrounding seafloor for the first time.
“We have 10 excited geoscientists aboard Investigator and our enthusiasm has spread to our 50 shipmates,” Coffin said.
The aim was to study the link between underwater volcanoes and the amount of iron in the ocean, which supports most marine life.
• Mawson Peak was incorrectly named as the highest mountain in an Australian state or territory. Mount McClintock, in Australian Antarctic Territory, is actually the highest at 3,492m. This has now been corrected.
