A rare satellite view reveals the persistent lava lake inside Mount Michael, an active volcano on remote Saunders Island near Antarctica.
Mount Michael contains a lava lake that remains active inside its summit crater.
The repeated heat signals provided strong evidence that molten lava persists inside Mount Michael’s crater.
Watching Mount Michael from spaceThe same isolation that makes Mount Michael difficult to study on the ground makes satellites especially valuable.
A rare break in the cloudsGetting a clear look at Saunders Island can be a challenge.
A rare satellite view reveals the persistent lava lake inside Mount Michael, an active volcano on remote Saunders Island near Antarctica.
At first glance, Saunders Island looks locked in winter. Sea ice crowds the dark water, snow covers the land, and the remote island sits hundreds of miles from the Antarctic mainland.
But near the center of the island, something much hotter is happening.
Mount Michael contains a lava lake that remains active inside its summit crater.
A remarkably clear satellite view captured on August 24, 2026, offers a rare look at this volcanic heat surrounded by the frozen South Atlantic.
Heat hidden inside the crater
NASA’s Landsat 8 satellite captured the image with its Operational Land Imager (OLI).
In natural color, Mount Michael rises from the snow-covered island.
Infrared observations reveal something the human eye cannot see so easily: intense heat coming from the volcano’s summit.
The thermal signal marks the location of Mount Michael’s persistent lava lake.
Other signs of activity are visible as well. A small volcanic plume hangs over the summit, while patches of darkened snow appear along the volcano’s northern slopes.
Together, these clues show that the isolated volcano was active while much of the surrounding landscape remained frozen.
A volcano on a remote island
Mount Michael rises 2,766 feet (843 meters) above sea level at the center of Saunders Island.
The island belongs to the South Sandwich Islands, an isolated volcanic chain stretching roughly 220 miles (350 kilometers) through the South Atlantic Ocean.
These islands exist because of a collision between tectonic plates.
The South American plate is being pushed beneath the much smaller South Sandwich plate, a process known as subduction.
As one plate sinks into Earth’s interior, melting helps generate magma. That magma feeds the volcanoes scattered along the island chain.
Eruptions have repeatedly occurred in the South Sandwich Islands in recent centuries, including at Mount Michael.
One of Earth’s rare lava lakes
Most volcanoes do not maintain exposed pools of molten rock for long periods. Mount Michael is unusual because its summit crater appears to contain a persistent lava lake.
Confirming that lake was not easy. Saunders Island is extremely remote, and clouds frequently obscure the volcano.
Researchers therefore turned to decades of satellite observations rather than relying on regular measurements from the ground.
Scientists analyzed thermal anomalies recorded over about 30 years by Landsat, Sentinel, and ASTER satellite instruments.
The repeated heat signals provided strong evidence that molten lava persists inside Mount Michael’s crater.
Only a small number of volcanoes around the world are known for similarly persistent lava lakes. They include Kīlauea in Hawaii, Nyamulagira in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Erta Ale in Ethiopia.
These lakes provide an exposed window into volcanic systems that would normally remain hidden beneath rock.
Watching Mount Michael from space
The same isolation that makes Mount Michael difficult to study on the ground makes satellites especially valuable.
Different instruments can detect different signs of volcanic behavior. Thermal sensors can identify hot areas even when those areas occupy only a small part of the landscape.
Long-term observations from the MODIS and VIIRS instruments have helped researchers follow changes in Mount Michael’s heat output.
Data from the MIROVA volcanic hot spot monitoring system indicate that relatively low-intensity activity has persisted at the volcano for several years.
Satellites can also detect gases released into the atmosphere.
Observations from NASA’s Aura satellite have shown that Mount Michael commonly releases sulfur dioxide and other volcanic gases.
Such emissions offer another way to follow activity at a volcano where routine field observations are extremely difficult.
A rare break in the clouds
Getting a clear look at Saunders Island can be a challenge.
Storms and clouds frequently sweep across the South Atlantic, while the island’s position near the Antarctic Circle brings extreme seasonal conditions.
That made the August 24 view especially useful.
Landsat captured Mount Michael during an unusually clear interval, exposing the snow-covered volcano and allowing its infrared instruments to pick out the heat concentrated at the summit.
The contrast is striking. Almost everything surrounding Mount Michael speaks of cold – frozen water, snow, and the long Antarctic winter.
Yet inside its crater, molten rock remains active.
For scientists studying one of the world’s most isolated volcanoes, brief views like this provide evidence of a fiery system continuing to operate in one of Earth’s coldest environments.
Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison
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