World's Eighth Lava Lake Discovered in Perilous Journey to Uninhabited South Atlantic Island

Lava lakes are bulky volumes of molten lava enclosed within vents, craters, or other depressions in the ground. Experts consider these geologic phenomena to be rare with only a few volcanoes on Earth known to host these bodies of lava. For many years, there have been only seven known lava lakes in the world, located on different continents, including Antarctica, Africa, and Oceania.

Now, scientists confirmed the existence of the world's eighth lava lake after it was discovered during a perilous journey into an uninhabited island in the South Atlantic Ocean, near Antarctica. The discovery comes after more than two decades when NASA first scanned the island in 2001, when they found a thermal anomaly inside an unexplored volcano, indicating the presence of a potential lake of molten lava during that time.

World's Eighth Lava Lake

(Photo : Photo by Pierre-Yves Burgi on Unsplash)

Filmmakers followed a group of scientists in their quest to find the world's eighth lava lake on an icy volcano in Saunders Island, located in the South Atlantic Ocean. This expedition to the summit of a volcano called Mount Michael confirmed the existence of another rare lava lake. The group's journey will be shown in a National Geographic documentary entitled "Explorer: Lake of Fire" and premiere this week on Disney+ and Hulu.

Saunders Island is located approximately 1,200 miles north of Antarctica. Due to the island's remoteness, as well as its dangerous terrain and harsh oceanic conditions, it has been uninhabited by humans despite being part of the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. Regardless, Saunders Island is home to more than a million penguins and other wildlife, including Albatrosses and sea lions.

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What are Lava Lakes?

Lava lakes, as mentioned earlier, are lakes of molten rocks in volcanic craters or depressions. According to the United States' National Park Service (NPS), most lava lakes are made of basaltic lavas, which are more fluid than other volcanic rocks like andesites or dacites. Although basalt is the most common rock type found in the Earth's crust, lava lakes do not always form unless a vent or crates are filled with molten lava.

Scientists use the term "lava lake" to describe both lava lakes that are either partially or completely solidified, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). In general, these rare phenomena occur during a volcanic eruption, allowing lava to fill vents, craters, or other bowl-shaped structures on the volcanic ground.

Prior to the confirmation of the world's eighth lava lake, persistent lava lakes have been found in the following volcanoes around the world: