Mt Erebus rises with a graceful imperiousness above the icy Antarctic landscape. For the ancient Greeks, Erebus emerged from Chaos as the manifestation of primeval darkness, and in its benign moods the mountain dispatches an elegant plume of steam and smoke from its crater 3794m above the Ross Sea. But its mood can quickly change. Earth tremors shake the mountain and the feather of smoke becomes a cloud of lethal volcanic gases and mass of molten rock fired from the lava lake roiling deep in its inner crater. Fire, lava and ice have formed this contradictory world for an estimated 1.3 million years, but for nearly all of this time, Erebus’s volcanic dramas lay invisible to the outside world until it was first sighted with disbelief by a British naval expedition.
It has retained an almost mythic presence for generations of explorers. For scientists and volcanologists, it continues to provide clues into Earth’s geology, even the origins of life itself. For New Zealanders, the name is irreversibly linked to a devastating tragedy.
All this, and much more, is contained in Colin Monteath’s detailed portrait of Erebus. The writer, photographer and mountaineer worked in Antarctica for 32 seasons, making the first descent into the volcano’s inner crater in 1978. He helped co-ordinate the recovery operation after the 1979 crash of an Air New Zealand jet, and has climbed in the Transantarctic Mountains, becoming the first New Zealander to reach Antarctica’s highest peak, the Vinson Massif.
An increasing human presence in Antarctica has seen an intensification of scientific studies into the continent’s volcanic geology. The technology operating in 21st-century Antarctica seems far detached from the moment in January 1841 when Captain James Ross and his crews first sighted “a stupendous volcanic mountain in a high state of activity”. The crews of the Erebus and Terror were mesmerised by this dense column of black smoke underpinned by flames rising above the ice and snow. The Antarctic volcanoes were named after the expedition’s two ships. Erebus was no longer alone.
Monteath attempts to draw the complex threads of the mountain’s human and natural history into a cohesive and highly readable whole. He’s dealing with a strange and contradictory world where high above the Ross Ice Shelf, icy fumarole towers steam gently on the summit, sheltering tiny biological communities of algae deep within their ice caves. The first people to see this Tolkein-esque environment were six members of Ernest Shackleton’s 1907-9 British Antarctic Expedition. In 1912, a second party reached the summit, but wasn’t until 1959 when three members of the New Zealand Geological and Survey Expedition made the third ascent. In every successful climb, Antarctica’s implacably hostile environment and the unpredictable moods of the mountain itself posed potentially lethal threats.
The crash of Air New Zealand flight TE901 on November 28, 1979, with the loss of 257 lives attached notoriety to Erebus. The aircraft crashed at an altitude of 447m on a gentle snow slope at the base of Ross Island. The reflections that follow contain the first-hand accounts of those who took part in a traumatic recovery operation that became part of the mountain’s history.
Despite being aware of the inherent dangers that continue to concern anyone living and working in the Antarctic, Monteath is far from immune to Erebus’s siren call. He is not alone in a touch of romanticising. The stark beauty of the place has always seduced human visitors.
Part of the book’s appeal lies in his ability to move from a personal, almost lyrical evocation to a precisely detailed account of the attempts of several generations of scientists and researchers to unlock the secrets of this enigmatic place. Add the sagas of Antarctic explorations and the sheer volume of detail in this book could become overwhelming.
Fortunately, Monteath maintains control over a narrative that somehow never becomes overburdened with detail. He’s assisted by a fastidiously selected panorama of illustrations that enhance the quality of this handsome and absorbing book.
Erebus the Ice Dragon: A Portrait of an Antarctic Volcano, by Colin Monteath (MUP, $65)
