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Geological Formations

Mount Discovery

Volcanic Formations

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Mount Discovery is a large, extinct volcano standing at the head of the Koettlitz Glacier in Victoria Land, Antarctica, across McMurdo Sound from Ross Island, rising to roughly 2,680 meters. It is built from basaltic and related alkaline volcanic rock erupted as part of the broader McMurdo Volcanic Group, the same regional volcanic province that produced Ross Island's Mount Erebus and Mount Terror, though Mount Discovery's own activity ceased long ago and it now shows no sign of ongoing eruption. The mountain was first sighted and named by Robert Falcon Scott's British National Antarctic Expedition aboard the ship Discovery in the early 1900s, one of the earliest Antarctic landmarks catalogued by that expedition. Its long-dormant, heavily eroded cone stands in contrast to the still-active Erebus visible across the sound. This entity documents Mount Discovery specifically as a geological formation, an extinct basaltic volcano of the McMurdo Volcanic Group overlooking the Koettlitz Glacier.

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