Mount Takahe
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| Mount Takahe | |
|---|---|
 Aerial view of Mt. Takahe from the west. |
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| Elevation | 3,460 metres (11,352 feet) |
| Location | Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica |
| Coordinates | |
| Type | Shield volcano |
| Last eruption | 5550 BC (?) |
Mount Takahe is a large, snow covered shield volcano standing 64 km SE of Toney Mountain in Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica. It is roughly circular, about 29 km across, and has a caldera up to 8 km wide. At 780 cubic km, it is a massive volcano. The volcano may have last erupted during the Holocene, and thus is probably still active, but presently dormant.
Takahe was probably among those viewed from a distance by Admiral Byrd and other members of the USAS in plane flights from the ship Bear on Feb. 24 and 25, 1940. It was visited in December 1957 by members of the Marie Byrd Land Traverse Party, 1957-58, who applied the name. "Takahe," the Māori name for a flightless, almost extinct New Zealand bird, is the nickname of the U.S. Navy LC-47 aircraft whose crew resupplied the traverse party near this mountain and assisted by providing aerial reconnaissance to locate passable routes.
[edit] Sources
- Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism Program: Mount Takahe
- LeMasurier, W. E.; Thomson, J. W. (eds.) (1990). Volcanoes of the Antarctic Plate and Southern Oceans. American Geophysical Union, 512 pp. ISBN 0-87590-172-7.
- Amar Andalkar's Ski Mountaineering and Climbing Site. Skiing the Pacific Ring of Fire and Beyond (1997–2007). Retrieved on 2005-01-14.
