Erebus is Still There

In Greek Mythology, Erebus was the gate to Hell.
During these dark, winter days it's easy to forget
that we have a 12,444 foot Strato-volcano; the
southernmost active volcano in the world, in our
backyard. We can only see it from one particular
place in town, near the Paint Barn, but as Chad's
photo shows, it's still there, looking very
One Million Years B.C.-ish and ready to
blow it's cork at almost any time. Thankfully it just
steams, or erupts small Strombolian explosions that
eject bombs onto the crater rim. None of these "bombs"
makes it anywhere near McMurdo and instead land
near the cauldron. One of the biggest boondoggles
around is the chance to take a helicopter ride to
the top of Erebus and hike to the crater's edge to
see the red lava lake inside the crater. One of the
few places on Earth this can actually be done. There's
a urban legend here that may or may not be true that
someone once "borrowed" a snowmobile after work one
night, drove all the way to the top, looked around and
was back in time to go to work the next day. Not likely
this is going to happen anytime soon. Certainly not by
me. However it would be nice to see the view from up
there. From down here, the view of Erebus itself is
pretty dramatic.