Magnitude 6.2 earthquake hit South Sandwich Islands area

The South Sandwich Islands are a group of volcanic islands in the southern ocean. They are a Volcanic Island Arc, made up of volcanoes on South Sandwich Microplate, a small tectonic plate between the South American, Scotia and Antarctic Plates. The South American Plate is being subducted beneath the South Sandwich Plate, as this happens rocks from the plate are drawn into the mantle of the Earth, where they are melted by heat from the Earth’s core. Lighter material then rises up through the overlying South Sandwich Plate, where it is extruded at the surface, forming basalt volcanoes.

Mount Hodson is located on Visokoi Island, 56 km to the east of Leskov Island and 47 km southeast of Zavodski Island. The volcano rises 1005 m above sea level (‘visokoi‘ means ‘high‘ in Russian). Plumes were seen above the volcano in 1830 and 1930. (New Submarine Volcanoes discovered in the South Sandwich Islands – Science Thoughts)