The Most Extreme Volcano on Earth? | NOVA | PBS
Antarctica is an otherworldly land of extremes. But perhaps nothing there is as extreme as Mount Erebus, one of Antarctica’s two active volcanoes and the southernmost active volcano on Earth. Conveniently, Erebus’ summit is a mere 25 miles from McMurdo Station, Antarctica’s largest research base.
Originally published in 2020 on @pbsterra 🇦🇶
Hosts Caitlin Saks and Arlo Pérez join Jessie Crain, a National Science Foundation Antarctic research support manager, on an exhilarating helicopter trip from McMurdo to Erebus’ summit and then land on its flanks. At altitude in -30° F conditions, they embark on foot and see firsthand how breathtaking (literally) Erebus is — and why an active volcano in a land of ice is a scientific wonder. Together, Caitlin and Arlo discover Dr. Suess-like ice towers (gas-emitting fumaroles), learn how Erebus came to be, and how it’s a window into Earth’s climatic past. And they (Arlo especially) experience the challenges and dangers that researchers face while working at Antarctica’s most epic extreme.
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@LarryLaird-k8c
August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
Altitude sickness even occurs at 10 thousand feet. You have to alclimatize slowly and then you feel better 😅
@daphnekivinen9482
August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
I was at 11,000 ft. in the Wasatch Mountains. I did get a headache afterwhile. It was back in 2001 before the Winter Olympics. Beautiful country. I can't remember if I had difficulty breathing. That was the highest elevation I had ever been. I was detailing in Ogden at the time for one summer. It was a nice change.
@arrjay2410
August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
Minus 30 Celsius, cold day in January in Canada.
I put a jacket on the dog, and off we go.
Of course we don't spend a lot of time out in it, and we're dressed for it – as were you.
@philliplopez8745
August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
The quality of the blood brain barriar is tested at high altitude .
@xr6lad
August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
How can you have a documentary about this place AND NOT MENTION NZ’s worse air disaster when an Air NZ airliner hit the side of the mountain and killed over 240 people? Air New Zealand flight 901.
@elizabethroberts6215
August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
……Erebus is one of a handful of volcanoes’ in the world, which has a lava lake in it………
@Kennon959
August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
So the current estimate is 30 countries needed to face off with China? What does this say that the US can't go toe to toe anymore…
@RobertKLR
August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
The first half of the video is a lecture about how cold it is on a mountaintop in Antarctica. Everybody already knows that.
@AvanaVana
August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
6:35 if you’re going to try to communicate snowball earth to the general population, don’t say “scientists think that hundreds of millions of years ago, the world was covered in ice…[volcanoes] finally put out enough CO2 to heat up the planet again.” That makes it sound like prior to this, the earth was enveloped in some perpetual ice age since its inception. You say “again”, but the first sentence was already so staggering and misleading that I doubt people who don’t know would catch it or understand why you said “again” if you never said it was hot to begin with. A better way to phrase this would have been “for most of earth’s history, earth’s climate was a greenhouse, but hundreds of millions of years ago, the earth’s climate suddenly entered into a global ice age that covered the entire world in thick ice sheets”.
But I want to thank you for the incredible footage from this trip and for putting yourselves through that to get this footage and interviews with the scientists. I never realized quite how tall Mt. Erebus was…this is incredibly tall for an island volcano basically starting at sea level. Volcanoes of this height tend to be located more on continental arcs that are already tall due to orogenic uplift and overthickened crust.
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August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
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August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
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August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
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August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
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August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
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August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
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August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
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August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
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August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
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August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
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August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
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August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
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August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
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@ZMAN_420
August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
NOVA, Alway educational! I've been watching NOVA since Sesame Street in the 1980s
@PatMahoney-w1e
August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
Is ANTARTICA anywhere near Antarctica?
@jameshatton4211
August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
Does anyone know what the second biggest emission of carbon dioxide is volcanoes ARE actually number 1?
Anybody? No?
The Ocean. The Ocean is the second biggest emitter of carbon dioxide.
Do you wanna know what humans are? We are like number 5 on the list and emit under 1% of all carbon dioxide world wide. There are things more and less than us that contribute to that whole 100% though and we are made to believe it's all our fault? 0.058 of a % FFS! Volcanoes and oceans are MOST of the carbon dioxide and we have zero control over either of them!
The reason oceans are because they have a lot of biological creatures respiring and that means exchanging carbon dioxide out of the system and oxygen in to the system.
The increase in carbon dioxide from the ocean is representative of its biomass. It's an indicator besides under water volcanic vents contaminating the stats.
I'm not saying don't pollute I'm saying don't believe the climate hoax
@KathiO-v1m
August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
There's a lot of hidden history there.
@burprobrox9134
August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
Billions of years of evolution and still this stuff?
@rogerscottcathey
August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
Nova's not what it used to be. At least it's still going
@kurtwomack6473
August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
I'm shocked that PBS didn't mention ClimaChange.
@josephwarren3498
August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
This is a pathetic attempt to film something that would otherwise be quite interesting.
@sierramoreland622
August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
Nimsdai was here 🫶🏻😔🙏🏻🕊️
@virgo714
August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
That is such a beautiful cold privilege to be there🥶🥶
@philiphigonnet5655
August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
Magneto has his lair down there.
@JamnGeorge
August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
Stromboli the and a cannoli for luck😊
@Jake.the.snake77
August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
Dude must not be healthy to have that much reaction to the altitude that quickly.
@JamnGeorge
August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
Why doesn’t it blow like mt helens?
@Historybooks-456
August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
Shackleton actually brought horses there.
@uniseine
August 6, 2026 at 9:08 am
Did you know, like Antarctic fumerals, that each piece of Driftwood has its own personality, which is particularly noticeable if you're not catching very many fish.