Lava Lake discovered on remote Antarctic Island

It’s only the eighth lake of molten rock ever discovered on Earth

A huge lake of sizzling hot lava has been discovered in a volcano on a remote sub-Antarctic island in the South Atlantic Ocean. It’s only the eighth lake of molten rock ever discovered on Earth.

Scientists from University College London (UCL) and the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) discovered this rare lava lake on Saunders Island in the South Sandwich Islands, about 1,000 miles (1,610 kilometers) north of the eastern edge of Antarctica’s Weddell Sea. [See Photos of Another Lava Lake in Antarctica]

By looking at satellite images of the uninhabited island between 2003 and 2018, the researchers found that the snow-covered volcano of Mount Michael on Saunders Island, usually cloaked from view by heavy clouds, contains a lake of lava within its crater, between 300 and 700 feet (90 and 215 meters) in diameter.

source: livescience.com