User:Jirhiker/LEH

Overview
The Lower Erebus Hut (LEH) is a permanent field facility located on Mount Erebus in Ross Island, Antarctica. The hut is the home of the Mount Erebus Volcano Observatory MEVO, run by New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology NMT. The installition comprises two huts, one kitchen and recreaction building and one working and storage building.

History
The permanant LEH was built in November of 1992 as a replacement for the Upper hut and other semi-permenate jamesway huts

Location
LEH is located on the northern side Mount Erebus within its caldera rim. The location facilitates easy ski-doo/hiking trips to the crater rim where the volcanoes persistent lava lake is visible. The exact cooridnates of the hut defined by a UNAVCO benchmark are

77 30 37.6131 S

167 08 45.829 E

3347.31 (~3401.89 m MSL)

Science
Major support for all operations at LEH are conducted through McMurdo Station run by a division of NSF, the USAP.

LEH is used as a base of operations for the monitoring of Mt Erebus and maintenance of such equipment. The work force at LEH, which is comprised of senior research scientists, professors and graduate students, maintains both the scientific and logisitical equipment on the mountain. Gaseous emmission concentration, composition and flux as well as thermal image stills, visible and IR video, and infrasonic, of the lava lake are all data collected by researchers based at LEH.