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Belinda Volcano | John Seach
Montagu Island,
South Sandwich Islands
58.27 S, 26.24 E
summit elevation 1370 m
Stratovolcano
Montagu Island is the largest of the South Sandwich islands. The island is approximately 12 km by 10 km in diameter. It is located in the Weddell Sea off the coast of Antarctica. Because of inaccessibility, landings have only been made a few times on the island.
Mt Belinda
Mt Belinda is an active volcano on the island. It rises to 1370 m and is a small summit peak situated within a sloping icefield that fills the largest caldera known in the island group. The broad summit caldera is approximately 6 km in diameter and is entirely filled by permanent ice of uncertain depth. The island is about 90% ice covered, with most of the exposed rock limited to vertical sea cliffs. Mount Oceanite forms a conspicuous promontory on the south-east corner of the island.
Montagu is one of the most heavily ice covered islands in the group. The interior is buried beneath a single ice cap, which is locally divided into glaciers which spill over higher coastal cliffs.
2001-2007 Eruptions
The first recorded eruptions of Mt Belinda occurred in 2001. The first MODVOLC thermal alert on Montagu Island occurred on 20 October 2001, with a single anomalous pixel on the north side of the island. A distinct steam/ash plume was visible drifting south from the summit, and the entire north and east flanks were tephra covered according to Landsat 7 ETM+ image acquired on 4 January 2002.
Unconfirmed periods of activity occurred between 1995-1998.
Further reading
Patrick, M.R., Smellie, J.L., Harris, A.J., Wright, R., Dean, K., Izbekov, P., Garbeil, H. and Pilger, E., 2005. First recorded eruption of Mount Belinda volcano (Montagu Island), South Sandwich Islands. Bulletin of Volcanology, 67(5), pp.415-422.
Smellie, J., Patrick, M., Harris, A., Garbeil, H. and Pilger, E., 2003. First Recorded Eruption of Mount Belinda Volcano, South Sandwich Islands. AGUFM, 2003, pp.V42B-0366.
Belinda Volcano Eruptions
2001-2007