Ross Island

Ross Island lies in McMurdo Sound off the coast of Victoria Land, Antarctica, and is the largest of several volcanic islands built along the Ross Sea. It was formed by the coalescence of four volcanoes: Mount Erebus, an active stratovolcano and the tallest of the four; the extinct Mount Terror; and the smaller, older Mount Bird and Mount Terra Nova, all products of the West Antarctic Rift System's volcanism. The island hosts New Zealand's Scott Base and the United States' McMurdo Station, the largest research station in Antarctica, both built on its volcanic ground because it is one of the few parts of the continent's coastline not permanently buried under the ice sheet. Ross Island is connected to the Antarctic mainland by the McMurdo Ice Shelf, and its coastline was first explored and named during James Clark Ross's 1841 expedition. This entity documents Ross Island specifically as a geological formation, a volcanic island in the Ross Sea built from the coalescence of four Antarctic volcanoes.