A Window to Fire and Ice

Brown Bluff is a basalt tuya located on the Tabarin Peninsula of northern Antarctica. This site supports a breeding colony of about 20,000 pairs of adelie penguins and about 550 pairs of gentoo penguins. Geologically speaking, Brown Bluff is simply fascinating. The towering bluffs were the result of an explosive volcanic eruption under ice. Large boulders have toppled from Brown Bluff to the beach where they have been sculpted by wind, sand, water and ice. These landscapes have a lot to tell us about life in Antarctica in previous epochs.