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Submarine volcanic edifices in the Bransfield Strait (Antarctica): towards a unified toponymy

Part of: Different Perspectives on Antarctic Science, An Homage to Prof. Andrés Barbosa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 June 2025

Antonio Polo-Sánchez Open the ORCID record for Antonio Polo-Sánchez [Opens in a new window] ,
Adelina Geyer Open the ORCID record for Adelina Geyer [Opens in a new window] ,
Antonio M. Álvarez-Valero Open the ORCID record for Antonio M. Álvarez-Valero [Opens in a new window] ,
Noah Schamuells Open the ORCID record for Noah Schamuells [Opens in a new window]  and
Antonio Caracausi Open the ORCID record for Antonio Caracausi [Opens in a new window]
Antonio Polo-Sánchez*
Affiliation:
Departamento de Geología, Universidad de Salamanca , Salamanca, Spain
Adelina Geyer
Affiliation:
Geosciences Barcelona (GEO3BCN), CSIC , Barcelona, Spain
Antonio M. Álvarez-Valero
Affiliation:
Departamento de Geología, Universidad de Salamanca , Salamanca, Spain
Noah Schamuells
Affiliation:
Schamuells Art, Barcelona, Spain
Antonio Caracausi
Affiliation:
Departamento de Geología, Universidad de Salamanca , Salamanca, Spain Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) sezione di Palermo , Palermo, Italy
*
Corresponding author: Antonio Polo-Sánchez; Email: apolosanchez@usal.es
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Bransfield Strait stands out as one of the most accessible places to study Antarctic submarine volcanism, hosting seven active principal submarine volcanic edifices (Edifices A, B and C, Three Sisters, Orca, Hook Ridge, G Ridge) and ~100 smaller seamounts. Only two of them have names (Eastern and Western Seamounts), and ~80 are grouped into two named areas: Spanish Rise and Gibbs Rise. During recent decades, numerous studies have assigned different names to the same volcanic edifices, leading to confusion. Only one of them, Orca, is formally registered in the Scientific Committee of Antarctic Research Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica, which is the catalogue collecting all of the official location names in Antarctica. A unified toponymy is essential, particularly to effectively manage regional logistic operations in case of eruption. Therefore, this study compiles the distinct names assigned to these edifices as a toponymy reference for future research. We recommend using the names most commonly cited in previous studies and, when new names are necessary, submitting them to the Scientific Committee of Antarctic Research Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica to avoid further confusion.

Keywords

Bransfield StraitSCAR Composite Gazetteer of Antarcticasubmarine volcanic edificestoponymy

Information

Type
Earth Sciences
Information
Antarctic Science , Volume 37 , Issue 5 , October 2025 , pp. 407 - 412
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This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Antarctic Science Ltd

Introduction

Active volcanic processes are abundant in Antarctica and can be grouped into 1) hotspot-related oceanic islands (e.g. Balleny Islands), 2) intraplate rift-related alkaline volcanism across the West Antarctic Rift System in Marie Byrd Land, Ellsworth Land and Victoria Land (e.g. Mount Berlin, Mount Takahe, the Hudson Mountains, Mount Melbourne, Mount Rittmann and Mount Erebus), 3) volcanic activity associated with the closing stages of very slow subduction close to the north-eastern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula in the James Ross Island Group (e.g. James Ross Island) and post-subduction volcanism further south on the Antarctic Peninsula and 4) back-arc rifting volcanism related to the opening of the Bransfield Strait (e.g. Deception Island; Geyer Reference Geyer2021 and references therein). Of all of these sites, the Bransfield Strait stands out as one of the few places with relatively easy access for studying active Antarctic submarine volcanic activity, and hence it has been the focus of attention of multiple volcanological, petrological, geochemical and geophysical studies over the past decades (e.g. Gràcia et al. Reference Gràcia, Canals, Lí Farràn, Prieto, Sorribas and Team1996, Keller et al. Reference Keller, Fisk, Smellie, Strelin and Lawver2002, Fretzdorff et al. Reference Fretzdorff, Worthington, Haase, Hékinian, Franz and Keller2004, Almendros et al. Reference Almendros, Wilcock, Soule, Teixidó, Vizcaíno and Ardanaz2020, Haase & Beier Reference Haase and Beier2021, Li et al. Reference Li, Yuan, Heit, Schmidt-Aursch, Almendros and Geissler2021, Smellie Reference Smellie2021, Cesca et al. Reference Cesca, Sugan, Rudzinski, Vajedian, Niemz and Plank2022, Anderson et al. Reference Anderson, Saal, Lee, Mallick, Riley, Keller and Haase2023, Reference Anderson, Saal, Mallick, Wang, Riley, Keller and Haase2024).

The Bransfield Strait is a 400 km-long and 80 km-wide basin located between the Antarctic Peninsula and the South Shetland Islands (West Antarctica; Fig. 1; Fretzdorff & Smellie Reference Fretzdorff and Smellie2002). The basin formation is related to a back-arc spreading process due to the subduction of the Phoenix plate under the Antarctic plate during the Mesozoic-Cenozoic (Burton-Johnson et al. Reference Burton-Johnson, Bastias and Kraus2023). The opening of the Bransfield Strait was accompanied by volcanic activity, leading to the formation of several submarine volcanic edifices along its main spreading axis (Gràcia et al. Reference Gràcia, Canals, Lí Farràn, Prieto, Sorribas and Team1996) and three prominent volcanic systems: Bridgeman, Penguin and Deception islands (Fig. 1; Smellie Reference Smellie1990). Bridgeman and Penguin islands, located on the eastern side, are considered dormant, with their last eruptions occurring in 1821 and 1905, respectively (Geyer et al. Reference Geyer, Di Roberto, Smellie, de Vries, Panter and Martin2023, Smellie et al. Reference Smellie, Kraus and Williams2023). However, Deception Island, situated on the western end of the basin, is considered one of the most active volcanoes in Antarctica, which last erupted in 1970, with a high probability of a further eruption in the near future (e.g. Smellie Reference Smellie2001, Bartolini et al. Reference Bartolini, Geyer, Martí, Pedrazzi and Aguirre-Díaz2014, Geyer et al. Reference Geyer, Álvaerz-Valero, Gisbert, Aulinas, Hernández-Barreña and Lobo2019, Reference Geyer, Pedrazzi, Almendros, Berrosco, López-Martínez and Maestro2021, Álvarez-Valero et al. Reference Álvarez-Valero, Gisbert, Aulinas, Geyer, Kereszturi and Polo-Sánchez2020, Reference Álvarez-Valero, Sumino, Caracausi, Polo-Sánchez, Burgess and Geyer2022).

Figure 1. Spatial location of the submarine volcanic edifices compiled in Table I. Edifices identified by the frequent names (see ‘Frequently named’ column in Table I). Bathymetry from the GMRT database (https://www.gmrt.org/; Ryan et al. Reference Ryan, Carbotte, Coplan, O Hara, Melkonian and Arko2009). Coordinates expressed in decimal degrees (WGS-84 Projection).

To date, a total of seven main submarine volcanic edifices and up to 112 little seamounts (including two named seamounts (Eastern and Western Seamounts) and two named areas (Spanish Rise and Gibbs Rise), which group 80 seamounts) have been identified along the main axis of the Bransfield Strait (Fig. 1 & Table I). All of them are located at depths between 700 and 1600 m below sea level (Fig. 1). The seamounts have basal areas of up to 1 km2 and heights reaching 400 m (Smellie Reference Smellie2021). In contrast, the seven main volcanic edifices have basal areas ranging from 12.05 to 177.9 km2 and rise between 250 and 500 m from the sea bottom (Gràcia et al. Reference Gràcia, Canals, Lí Farràn, Prieto, Sorribas and Team1996). These main edifices show different morphologies, from conical (Orca; Fig. 1) to elongate (Three Sisters, Hook Ridge, G Ridge; Fig. 1). Among them, five (Edifices A, B and C, Three Sisters and Hook Ridge; Fig. 1) show grabens associated with rectilinear faulting, whereas only two (Orca and Edifice A) show circular depressions (Fig. 1) interpreted as small calderas (Smellie Reference Smellie2021) of a few hundred metres depth (Gràcia et al. Reference Gràcia, Canals, Lí Farràn, Prieto, Sorribas and Team1996). Finally, Three Sisters is composed of three rectilinear elongated volcanic edifices (Fig. 1 & Table I).

Table I. Compilation of the different names assigned for the same volcanic edifice. The numbers below the name of the edifice refer to the references consulted during the compilation of these various names. Three Sisters edifice (i.e. Edifice D) is presented divided into the three individual sectors (D1, D2 and D3) of the volcano, following the classification of Gràcia et al. (Reference Gràcia, Canals, Lí Farràn, Prieto, Sorribas and Team1996).

References are listed chronologically and, when from the same year, alphabetically. 1: Fisk (Reference Fisk1990). 2: González-Ferrán (Reference González-Ferrán, Thomson, Crame and Thomson1991). 3: Jin et al. (Reference Jin, Kim, Kim and Nam1996). 4: Lawver et al. (Reference Lawver, Sloan, Barker, Ghidella, von Herzen and Keller1996). 5: Bohrmann et al. (Reference Bohrmann, Chin, PEetersen, Sahling, Schwarz-Schampera and Greinert1998). 6: Dählmann et al. (Reference Dählmann, Wallmann, Sahling, Sarthou, Bohrmann and Petersen2001). 7: Klinkhammer et al. (Reference Klinkhammer, Chin, Keller, Dählmann, Sahling and Sarthou2001). 8: Fretzdorff & Smellie (Reference Fretzdorff and Smellie2002). 9: Keller et al. (Reference Keller, Fisk, Smellie, Strelin and Lawver2002). 10: Christeson et al. (Reference Christeson, Barker, Austin and Dalziel2003). 11: Roberston-Maurice et al. (Reference Robertson Maurice, Wiens, Shore, Vera and Dorman2003). 12: Fretzdorff et al. (Reference Fretzdorff, Worthington, Haase, Hékinian, Franz and Keller2004). 13: Petersen et al. (Reference Petersen, Herzig, Schwarz-Schampera, Hannington and Jonasson2004). 14: García et al. (Reference García, Ercilla, Anderson and Alonso2008). 15: Dziak et al. (Reference Dziak, Park, Lee, Matsumoto, Bohnenstiehl and Haxel2010). 16: García et al. (Reference García, Ercilla, Alonso, Casas and Dowdeswell2011). 17: Aquilina et al. (Reference Aquilina, Connelly, Copley, Green, Hawkes and Hepburn2013). 18: Catalán et al. (Reference Catalán, Galindo-Zaldivar, Davila, Martos, Maldonado, Gambôa and Schrieder2013). 19: Schreider et al. (Reference Schreider, Schreider and Evsenko2014). 20: Bohoyo et al. (Reference Bohoyo, Larter, Galindo-Zaldívar, Leat, Maldonado, Tate and Nitsche2016). 21: Bohoyo et al. (Reference Bohoyo, Larter, Galindo-Zaldívar, Leat, Maldonado and Tate2019). 22: Almendros et al. (Reference Almendros, Wilcock, Soule, Teixidó, Vizcaíno and Ardanaz2020). 23: Haase & Beier (Reference Haase and Beier2021). 24: Li et al. (Reference Li, Yuan, Heit, Schmidt-Aursch, Almendros and Geissler2021). 25: Loureiro Olivet et al. (Reference Loureiro Olivet, Bettucci, Castro-Artola, Castro, Rodríguez and Latorres2021). 26: Smellie (Reference Smellie2021). 27: Soloviev et al. (Reference Soloviev, Bakhmutov, Yakymchuk and Korchagin2021). 28: Cesca et al. (Reference Cesca, Sugan, Rudzinski, Vajedian, Niemz and Plank2022). 29: Liu et al. (Reference Liu, Hernández-Molina, Yang, Zhang, Huang and Yin2022). 30: Poli et al. (Reference Li, Yuan, Heit, Schmidt-Aursch, Almendros and Geissler2021). 31: Cui et al. (Reference Cui, Wang, Fang, Li, Liu and Liu2023). 32: Espinoza Celi et al. (Reference Espinoza Celi, Cahuana-Yánez, Martillo-Bustamante and González-Bonilla2023). 33: Parera-Portell et al. (Reference Parera-Portell, Mancilla, Almendros, Morales and Stich2023). 34: Smellie et al. (Reference Smellie, Kraus and Williams2023). 35: Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica (CGA; https://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/gaz/scar/).

Note: In Keller et al. (Reference Keller, Fisk, Smellie, Strelin and Lawver2002), all of the main edifices classified by Gràcia et al. (Reference Gràcia, Canals, Lí Farràn, Prieto, Sorribas and Team1996) are described with coordinates, yet without names.

The geochronological database of the main edifices is very limited. Gràcia et al. (Reference Gràcia, Canals, Lí Farràn, Prieto, Sorribas and Team1996) estimated an age of 100 ka for Three Sisters and Hook Ridge, although the dating method used was not specified. The only precise age data, obtained through K-Ar geochronology, comes from the Western and Eastern Seamounts (Fig. 1), located 20 km north-east of Orca. These seamounts have reported ages of 103 ± 35 ka and 53 ± 36 ka, respectively (Fisk Reference Fisk1990). Most recent manifestations of volcanic activity along Bransfield Strait include the seismic unrest at Orca (August 2020–February 2021) associated with a magma intrusion episode beneath the volcano. With 85 000 earthquakes recorded within half a year, this seismic event is the largest ever monitored in Antarctica (Cesca et al. Reference Cesca, Sugan, Rudzinski, Vajedian, Niemz and Plank2022). Additionally, there is an active hydrothermal system along the volcanic edifices showing shimmering water, altered sediments and mineralization deposits (Klinkhammer et al. Reference Klinkhammer, Chin, Keller, Dählmann, Sahling and Sarthou2001, Petersen et al. Reference Petersen, Herzig, Schwarz-Schampera, Hannington and Jonasson2004, Aquilina et al. Reference Aquilina, Connelly, Copley, Green, Hawkes and Hepburn2013), as well as high thermal flux (49–626 mW/m2; Smellie Reference Smellie2021) and excess 3He in water (Schlosser et al. Reference Schlosser, Suess, Bayer and Rhein1988, Dorschel et al. Reference Dorschel, Gutt, Huhn, Bracher, Huntemann and Huneke2016, Rodrigo et al. Reference Rodrigo, Blamey, Huhn and Provost2018).

These manifestations of submarine volcanic activity highlight the importance of understanding their magmatic systems, as they pose a direct hazard to the stations of the South Shetland Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula due to their shallow depths (e.g. Nomikou et al. Reference Nomikou, Polymenakou, Rizzo, Petersen, Hannington and Kilias2022). Over the years, the main submarine volcanic edifices have been assigned numerous names by different authors (Table I), leading to confusion among the scientific community. Except Orca, these names do not appear in the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica (CGA; https://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/gaz/scar/), which serves as the official catalogue for placenames in Antarctica. Furthermore, the official name Three Sisters in the CGA is assigned not only to mountain peaks on Alexander Island, located ~1100 km south of the Bransfield Strait, but also to volcanic cones situated on the south-west slope of Mount Erebus, located 4,150 km farther south.

Standardizing this nomenclature would also be of importance to relate the different research works among the scientific community as well as to enhance the preparedness for logistical management operations at research stations and vessel traffic in the event of an eruption. This is particularly important in the Bransfield Strait, which hosts the highest density of stations and vessel traffic in Antarctica due to its proximity to inhabited countries such as Argentina and Chile (e.g. Geyer et al. Reference Geyer, Di Roberto, Smellie, de Vries, Panter and Martin2023). For these reasons, this study aims to compile all of these different names to establish a comprehensive toponymic reference for further research in the Bransfield Strait region. Additionally, we provide a brief description of the guidelines to be followed when proposing new toponymic names.

Methodology

From the extensive literature dataset (Connected Papers: https://www.connectedpapers.com; ResearchRabbit: https://researchrabbitapp.com), numerous articles describe the Bransfield Strait with no mention of the individual volcanic edifices (e.g. Anderson et al. Reference Anderson, Saal, Lee, Mallick, Riley, Keller and Haase2023, Reference Anderson, Saal, Mallick, Wang, Riley, Keller and Haase2024). In this review, we found up to 34 articles, covering different geological topics such as volcanology, oceanography, geochemistry or geophysics, to have distinguished each volcanic edifice individually. These articles have been compiled along with the names officially registered in the SCAR CGA. To organize the names in a concise way, the nomenclature of Gràcia et al. (Reference Gràcia, Canals, Lí Farràn, Prieto, Sorribas and Team1996) was applied as a starting reference (Table I), as this study was the first to provide a morphological description and a comprehensive grouping of all of the main edifices. The named seamounts are also included in the compilation (Table I). All volcanic edifices are listed geographically from south-west to north-east (Fig. 1 & Table I). The distinction between frequent and alternative names is based on citation frequency, with the most cited one considered as the frequent name. In case of two names having the same number of references, the earliest reference is designated as the frequent name.

Results

In recent decades, Edifice A has received up to four different names, but it is most commonly referred to as Edifice A. Conversely, Hook Ridge shows three different names (Table I); Three Sisters and Orca only show two different names each, whereas Edifice C and G Ridge have only one name each (Table I). The name Little Volcano, associated with Edifice C, is considered an alternative designation, as it has been used exclusively by Petersen et al. (Reference Petersen, Herzig, Schwarz-Schampera, Hannington and Jonasson2004). Meanwhile, Edifice B is the only edifice with no designated name beyond its classification by Gràcia et al. (Reference Gràcia, Canals, Lí Farràn, Prieto, Sorribas and Team1996). Only a minority of studies used the alternative names for the same edifice. For instance, Edifice E is mostly named as Orca; only Fretzdorff & Smellie (Reference Fretzdorff and Smellie2002) and Petersen et al. (Reference Petersen, Herzig, Schwarz-Schampera, Hannington and Jonasson2004) refer to it as Viehoff Seamount (Table I). Among the seamounts, all have a single frequent name except Gibbs Rise (Table I).

Discussion

Although some volcanoes, such as Edifice A and Hook Ridge, have been referred to by multiple names, most have a commonly used name (Table I). Therefore, for further studies, it is recommended to avoid assigning new names to these edifices and instead to use the most frequently cited name, as listed in Table I. For Edifices B and C, the classification of Gràcia et al. (Reference Gràcia, Canals, Lí Farràn, Prieto, Sorribas and Team1996) is encouraged, as these edifices are rarely identified by other names. If a new name must be assigned to one of the main edifices or the seamounts in future studies, the appropriate procedure is to initiate the process by submitting a name proposal to SCAR for inclusion in the CGA. Once accepted, subsequent studies should consistently refer to the name as listed in the CGA and refrain from assigning new names to prevent further confusion.

However, it is important to note that the name proposal process may take longer than the publication process for the research requiring the new name. A potential solution to mitigate this issue could be the adoption of a temporal, first-come, first-named approach system for newly identified sites, similar to the procedure used for naming astronomical objects (e.g. Bishop Reference Bishop2004), followed by a formal request, with its respective justification, for inclusion in the SCAR CGA.

Conclusions

The Bransfield Strait is one of the few easily accessible regions for researching Antarctic submarine volcanic activity. Over recent decades, multiple studies have assigned different names to the same volcanic edifices. Reviewing the toponymy from diverse articles covering different geological topics in the Bransfield Strait, it is observed that some edifices, such as Edifice A and Hook Ridge, have been identified using up to four different names. However, most of them are referred to by a frequently cited name. Due to the importance of using a unified toponymic nomenclature, particularly for organizing logistical operations in case of an eruption, it is highly recommended to keep referring to the most frequently cited name. To maintain such consistency, any new name assignments should be formally proposed to the SCAR CGA. Ideally, this process should be completed before publishing any new names. Taking into account that making a formal proposal may take a long time, a possible way to circumvent this issue could be to assign new names by following a temporal, first-come, first-named approach, followed then by a justified formal request for inclusion in the SCAR CGA.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the editor, J. Almendros, and to two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions, which have significantly improved this manuscript.

Financial support

This study is supported by the research projects ERUPTING (PID2021-127189OB-I00) funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, HYDROCAL (PID2020-114876GB-I00) funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and VOLGASDEC (PGC2018-095693-B-I00) (AEI/FEDER, UE), and it is part of the CSIC Interdisciplinary Thematic Platform (PTI) Polar Zone Observatory (PTI-POLARCSIC) activities. AP-S acknowledges his grant ‘Programa Propio III USAL 2021 co-funded with Banco de Santander’ and his joint COMNAP-IAATO Antarctic Fellowship 2022. AC acknowledges the grant RYC2021-033270-I funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by the EU ‘Next Generation EU/PRTR’.

Competing interests

The authors declare none.

Declaration of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process

During the preparation of this work, the first author used OpenAI’s ChatGPT (2024) in order to check the grammar and the readability of the main text. After using this tool, the co-authors revised and edited the content and are responsible for the published content.

Author contributions

AP-S, AG, AMA-V, NS and AC have equally contributed to the conceptualization of the project, funding acquisition, research review and writing - reviewing and editing of the manuscript.

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Figure 0

Figure 1. Spatial location of the submarine volcanic edifices compiled in Table I. Edifices identified by the frequent names (see ‘Frequently named’ column in Table I). Bathymetry from the GMRT database (https://www.gmrt.org/; Ryan et al.2009). Coordinates expressed in decimal degrees (WGS-84 Projection).

Figure 1

Table I. Compilation of the different names assigned for the same volcanic edifice. The numbers below the name of the edifice refer to the references consulted during the compilation of these various names. Three Sisters edifice (i.e. Edifice D) is presented divided into the three individual sectors (D1, D2 and D3) of the volcano, following the classification of Gràcia et al. (1996).