| Mount Murphy | |
|---|---|
 Aerial view of Mount Murphy | |
| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 2,705 m (8,875 ft)[1] |
| Prominence | 2,055 m (6,742 ft)[1] |
| Listing | Ultra |
| Coordinates | 75°20′S 110°44′W / 75.333°S 110.733°W[1] |
| Geography | |
  Mount Murphy Location in Antarctica | |
| Location | Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica |
| Geology | |
| Age of rock | Unknown |
| Mountain type | Shield volcano |
| Volcanic field | Marie Byrd Land Volcanic Province |
| Last eruption | Pleistocene[2] |
Mount Murphy is a massive, snow-covered and highly eroded shield volcano in Marie Byrd Land of West Antarctica with steep, rocky slopes. It is directly south of Bear Peninsula and is bounded by the Smith, Pope and Haynes Glaciers. Volcanic activity began in the Miocene with the eruption of basaltic and trachytic lava. Volcanism on the slopes of the volcano resumed much later during the Pleistocene, with a parasitic cone having been K–Ar dated to 0.9 million years old.[2]
Delineated from aerial photographs taken by US Navy Operation Highjump in January 1947. Named by US-ACAN for Robert Cushman Murphy of the American Museum of Natural History, noted authority on Antarctic and sub-Antarctic bird life. While serving on the whaler, he charted the Bay of Isles region of South Georgia.
