NASA Satellite Captures Rare View of Lava Lake Inside Remote Volcano Near Antarctica

Mount Michael is a stratovolcano at the center of Saunders Island that rises 2,766 feet (843 meters) above sea level, almost 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) north of Antarctica. On August 24, rare images of Mount Michael were acquired with the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on the NASA-USGS Landsat 8 satellite. The images revealed heat from the persistent lava lake inside its summit crater. A volcanic plume was also visible above the mountain, indicating ongoing activity at the volcano, whose current eruptive period dates back to November 2014.

Saunders Island is part of the remote South Sandwich Islands, a chain of volcanic islands stretching roughly 220 miles (350 kilometers) across the South Atlantic. Mount Michael is one of the most isolated volcanoes on Earth, and its summit crater contains a rare persistent lava lake. The lake is estimated to measure about 360 feet (110 meters) across and cover approximately 10,000 square meters, an area roughly equivalent to eight Olympic swimming pools.

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Persistent lava lakes are rare because most exposed pools of molten rock cool and solidify relatively quickly. Only a small number of volcanoes around the world are known to maintain similarly persistent lava lakes, including Kīlauea in Hawaii, Nyamulagira in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Erta Ale in Ethiopia.

In 2020, Dr. Emma Nicholson led an expedition to Saunders Island to investigate whether Mount Michael contained a lava lake. Accessing the volcano is extremely difficult because of its remote location, while persistent cloud cover often prevents clear satellite observations. Blizzard conditions and dangerous, crevassed terrain prevented the team from reaching the summit.

Nicholson returned in 2022 and completed the Mount Michael expedition, confirming the presence of the lava lake. The expedition provided researchers with valuable information about one of the world’s least accessible active volcanoes, while also allowing them to investigate its potential environmental effects.

Saunders Island is so isolated and difficult to reach because of its distance from other land and the harsh conditions in the region. The Falkland Islands are about 300 miles (480 kilometers) east of the southern tip of South America, yet they are still approximately 960 miles (1,550 kilometers) from Saunders Island. “If you stand on Saunders Island, the closest other humans are on the International Space Station,” Nicholson told National Geographic in an interview. “That’s the definition of remote.”