Mount Terror (Antarctica)

Mount Terror (-77.51667°N, 168.53333°W) is an extinct volcano about 3,230 m high on Ross Island, Antarctica, about 20 nmi eastward of Mount Erebus. Mount Terror was named in 1841 by polar explorer Sir James Clark Ross for his second ship, HMS Terror. The captain of Terror was Francis Crozier, a close friend of Ross for whom the nearby Cape Crozier is named.

Geology
Mount Terror is a large shield volcano that forms the eastern part of Ross Island, Antarctica. It has numerous cinder cones and domes on the flanks of the shield and is mostly under snow and ice. It is the second largest of the four volcanoes that make up Ross Island and is somewhat overshadowed by its neighbour, Mount Erebus, 30 km to the west.

Geography
The rocks at the summit have not been studied, but rocks from the lower areas range from 0.82 to 1.75 million years old, and Mount Terror shows no signs of more recent volcanic activity. The first ascent of Mount Terror was made by a New Zealand party in 1959. The mountain is to the west of Cape Crozier, and east of Mount Terra Nova and Mount Erebus.

Kienle Nunataks
-77.46667°N, 168.6°W. Three aligned nunataks to the north of Mount Terror in northeast Ross Island. The nunataks trend east-west for 1 nmi and rise to about 1700 m. The central nunatak is 2.5 nmi north-northeast of the Mount Terror summit. At the suggestion of P.R. Kyle, named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) after Juergen Kienle (d.), Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, a United States Antarctic Project (USAP) team leader for the investigation of volcanic activity and seismicity on Mount Erebus in six field seasons, 1980-81 through 1985-86.

Mount Sutherland
-77.5°N, 168.46667°W. A peak 1.4 nmi west-northwest of the summit of Mount Terror on Ross Island. The feature rises to about 2500 m. Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) (2000) after Alexander L. Sutherland, Jr., Ocean Projects Manager, OPP, NSF, with responsibility for directing operations and logistics for United States Antarctic Project (USAP) research vessels from 1989; responsible for acquisition of the Research Vessel/Ice Breakers Nathaniel B. Palmer and Laurence M. Gould.

Rohnke Crests
-77.58333°N, 168.68333°W. Two rock ridges, about 1400 m high, that are parallel and rise above the general ice mantle on the southeast slopes of Mount Terror. This feature is east of the head of Eastwind Glacier and 4 nmi northeast of Conical Hill. Names in association with Eastwind Glacier after Captain (later Rear Admiral) Oscar C. Rohnke, USCG, who commanded United States Coast Guard Cutter (USCGC) Eastwind in Ross Sea during United States Navy (United States Navy) Operation Deep Freeze (OpDFrz) I, 1955-56.

Moore Peak
-77.51667°N, 168.45°W. A peak rising to 2500 m high on the west slope of Mount Terror, Ross Island. The peak is 1.6 nmi west-southwest of the summit of Mount Terror and 1 nmi south of Mount Sutherland. At the suggestion of P.R. Kyle, named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) (2000) after James A. Moore, a member of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology team on Mount Erebus in the 1983–84 and 1985-86 field seasons. He completed his M.S. thesis on the geology of Mount Erebus.

Ohau Peak
-77.5°N, 168.7°W. A sharp rock peak 1.9 nmi northeast of the summit of Mount Terror on Ross Island. The feature rises to about 2400 m high and is central in three aligned summits 0.8 nmi north of Mount McIntosh. Named by New Zealand Geographic Board (NZGB) (2000) after a peak near the locality of Tekapo (see Tekapo Ridge), New Zealand.

Giggenbach Ridge
-77.46667°N, 168.33333°W. A north-south chain of summits, 5 nmi long, located to the west and northwest of Mount Terror. The ridge rises to about 2400 m west of Mount Terror, but descends to 1320 m at the north end. Named at the suggestion of P.R. Kyle, named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) (2000) after Werner F. Giggenbach, Chemistry Division, DSIR, who worked in the NZAP at Mount Erebus in four field seasons during the 1970s. He rappelled into the Inner Crater of Mount Erebus in 1978, but had to be pulled out when an eruption showered him and colleagues on the crater rim with volcanic bombs. He was one of the leading volcanic gas geochemists of the period.

Chuan Peak
-77.48333°N, 168.35°W. A peak, about 2200 m high, located 1 nmi northeast of Barker Peak in the south part of Giggenbach Ridge, Ross Island. At the suggestion of P.R. Kyle, named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) (2000) after Raymond L. Chuan who, as a scientist with the Brunswick Corporation, Costa Mesa, CA, undertook many airborne surveys of volcanic aerosols from Mount Erebus and also did sampling at the crater rim, 1983–84 and 1986–87; investigator (with Julie Palais) on a project which examined aerosols between Mount Erebus and the South Pole.

Manahan Peak
-77.48333°N, 168.43333°W. A prominent peak 1 nmi east of Giggenbach Ridge in northeast Ross Island. The peak rises to over 2000 m high 2.6 nmi northwest of the summit of Mount Terror. Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) (2000) after biologist Donal T. Manahan, who worked eight seasons in Antarctica from 1983; United States Antarctic Project (USAP) prinicipal investigator in study of early stages (embryos larvae) of marine animals; chair, Polar Research Board, National Academy of Sciences, 2000.

Barker Peak
-77.5°N, 168.3°W. A peak 3.6 nmi west-northwest of Mount Terror on Ross Island. The feature rises to about 2200 m high and is the western of two peaks near the south end of Giggenbach Ridge. Name by New Zealand Geographic Board (NZGB) (2000) after Major James R. M. Barker, officer in command at Scott Base, 1970–71; a NZAP manager, 1970-86.

Joyce Peak
-77.46667°N, 168.2°W. A peak rising to over 1400 m high in the north-central part of Ross Island. It stands west of the main summits of Giggenbach Ridge and 5.3 mi south-southeast of Wyandot Point. Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) (2000) after Karen Joyce, a long-term ASA employee, who from 1990 made 10 deployments to McMurdo Station, including a winter-over; assisted with computers in the Crary Science and Engineering Center.

Kristin Peak
-77.43333°N, 168.31667°W. A peak rising to over 1300 m high at the north end of Giggenbach Ridge on Ross Island. The feature is 4.5 nmi south of Cape Tennyson. Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) (2000) after Kristin Larson, who has participated in support activities to United States Antarctic Project (USAP) from 1988, including two winters at McMurdo Station; supervisor, Eklund Biological Center and Thiel Labs, 1988 and 1992; supervisor, Crary Science and Engineering Center, 1992–95; editor, The Antarctican Society newsletter from 1996; later of staff of OPP, NSF.

Eastern features
Features to the east, towards the Kyle Hills, include:

Tent Peak
-77.5°N, 168.96667°W. A tent-shaped peak rising to about 1,570 m high midway between Mount Terror and Cape Crozier. It was descriptively named by a party of the New Zealand Geological Survey Antarctic Expedition (NZGSAE), 1958–59, which occupied the peak as an astronomical control station, January 5, 1959, and erected a tent below the peak.

The Tooth
-77.51667°N, 168.98333°W. A distinctive rock outcrop on the eastern slopes of Mount Terror at an elevation of about 1,400 m. The feature lies 1 nmi south-southeast of Tent Peak and is reported to resemble a fossilized shark's tooth. Descriptively named by a party of the NZGSAE, 1958–59, working in eastern Ross Island.

Slattery Peak
-77.56667°N, 168.98333°W. A somewhat isolated rock peak, about 600 m high, that rises above the ice mantle southeast of Mount Terror. The peak position is additionally defined as 5.5 nmi southwest of The Knoll and 3.8 nmi east-northeast of Rohnke Crests. Named after Leo Slattery, who wintered at Scott Base three times, twice as Officer in Charge; Post Clerk on Ross Island, summer 1973-74; Postmaster on Ross Island, summers 1979-80, 1981–82, and 1983–84.

Pönui Nunatak
-77.58333°N, 169.01667°W. A nunatak located 0.6 nmi southeast of Slattery Peak and 5.6 nmi southwest of The Knoll. The feature rises to 320 m high near the juncture of the island and Ross Ice Shelf. The name Ponui (meaning south wind) is one of several Maori wind names applied by New Zealand Geographic Board (NZGB) in this vicinity.

Conical Hill
-77.65°N, 168.56667°W. A small but distinctive rock hill, 655 m high, on the south slopes of Mount Terror, above Cape MacKay. Given this descriptive name by the British Antarctic Expedition, 1910–13, under Scott.

Cultural references

 * Mount Terror is the stronghold of Russian anarchist revolutionaries in the 1894 science fiction novel Olga Romanoff by George Griffith.
 * Mount Terror and Mount Erebus are mentioned in the 1936 novella At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft.
 * Mount Terror is used as a location in the 2004 novel State of Fear by Michael Crichton.
 * Mount Terror is referenced in Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas by the narrator Professor Arronax, after they arrive at the South Pole, in reference to two volcanic craters, the Erebus and Terror, in context to an earlier discovery by James Clark Ross.