Scientists film rare footage of remote volcano erupting

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Scientists, in the right place at the right time, have captured extremely rare footage of a remote sub-Antarctic volcano erupting.

While sailing around Heard Island on a research program, the crew of RV Investigator filmed the eruption of one of Australia's volcanoes.

The Big Ben volcano found on the island ìs one of only two active volcanoes within Australia's territories, and they have loaded exclusive footage online of an eruption.

Mike Coffin, the chief scientist on board the Investigator, said: "We saw vapour being emitted from the top of the volcano and we saw lava flows coming down the flank of Big Ben.

"We have learned that lavas flow over the top of glacial ice at the top of the mountain, and then they appear to descend beneath the ice at some point down the volcano.

"So there is a strong interaction between glacial ice and molten lava on Big Ben."

Eruptions are usually only seen by satellite due to the remote location of the volcano, so to see this is very rare indeed.

Mike continued: "There are very few ships that come to this part of the world, the last one that landed on Heard Island was in 1987, so it was nearly 30 years ago."

H/T: Reddit.