Mount Haddington
- Not to be confused with Haddington Hill
| Mount Haddington | |||
| British Antarctic Territory | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| James Ross Island | |||
| Summit: | 5,348 feet 64°12’54"S, 57°37’17"W | ||
Mount Haddington is a massive shield volcano 5,348 feet high comprising much of James Ross Island of the coast of Graham Land in the British Antarctic Territory. It is 37 miles wide and has had numerous subglacial eruptions throughout its history, forming many tuyas.[1] Old eruption shorelines are widespread on the volcano's deeply eroded flanks.
Haddington formed along the Larsen Rift dominantly during the Miocene and Pliocene epochs but more recent eruptions have produced tuff cones on its slopes. The youngest tuff cones and pyroclastic cones on the eastern slope are situated below the summit icecap and may have formed in the last few thousand years. Effusive eruptions have created large deltas composed of hyaloclastite breccia and lava flows.
Mount Haddington was discovered on 31 December 1842 by the Ross expedition, a voyage of scientific exploration of the Antarctic from 1839 to 1843 led by James Clark Ross. Ross named the mountain after Thomas Hamilton, 9th Earl of Haddington (1780-1858), who was then the First Lord of the Admiralty. At that point, Ross did not recognise the island as an island, assuming it to form part of Graham Land. However it was in honour of his exploration that Otto Nordenskjöld named the island when he proved its insular nature.
The mountain was surveyed by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey from Hope Bay in 1952-53.
References
- Gazetteer and Map of The British Antarctic Territory: Mount Haddington