A recording has surfaced of one of Australia two assets volcanoes spewing hot lava. Big Ben, a volcano located in the middle of a tectonic plate, was captured by the European Space Agency's Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite on May 25 during the eruption.
Reports collected by the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program, before the image was shared, suggest that the current lava flow is part of an "eruption episode" that has been ongoing since September 2012.
Lava was seen flowing down the side of Big Ben from near the summit, known as Mawson Peak, in satellite images.
The image was captured by the European Space Agency's Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite on May 25 and is a combination of an optical image and an infrared image.
Dr Teresa Ubide, a volcanologist and associate professor at the University of Queensland, said the eruption was "pretty normal" for the region.
She said: "This volcano has been erupting since the early 20th century. What is happening is quite normal and is generating lava flows."
The Global Volcanism Program records around 20 "lava flow" incidents since September 2012.
Dr. Ubide added that these types of intraplate volcanoes, meaning volcanoes located in the middle of a tectonic plate, were caused by a "hot spot" within the Earth and were typically not very explosive. and therefore emitted little ash.
She said: "Many eruptions are made up of smaller events. This [most recent lava flow] seems to be following what has been happening there since 2012.โ
Dr. Jodi Fox, an Antarctic volcanologist who currently works at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Japan, said Heard Island, on which Big Ben stands, was probably between 750,000 and 500,000 years old.
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Evidence suggested that the source of the magma was Earth's upper mantle, which was about 28 miles below the surface.
Commenting on the latest lava flows, he said The Guardian: โThis is actually quite typical of how he behaves.
โIt produces these relatively slow-moving streams with few, if any, explosions. Sometimes there is a column of steam and gas at the same timeโ.
He added that Big Ben was unusual for an intraplate volcano because it appeared to be rising higher when similar oceanic volcanoes tended to eventually collapse into the Earth's crust under their own weight.
Big Ben volcano and Heard Island sit on the Antarctic plate. There are more than 100 volcanoes in Antarctica itself, including about 90 that are hidden under the ice.
Heard and McDonald Islands sit on the Kerguelen Plateau, which rises some 3,000 meters above the surrounding seabed.
Heard Island covers 142 square miles. It is approximately 25 miles long and 12 miles wide.
Mawson Peak atop Big Ben stands at 2,745 meters above sea level, 517 meters higher than the largest peak on the Australian mainland, Mount Kosciuszko in New South Wales.
