No latest activity reported for Penguin Island.

Below is a summary of eruption dates and Volcanic Explosivity Indices (VEI).

The following references are the sources used for data regarding this volcano. References are linked directly to our volcano data file. Discussion of another volcano or eruption (sometimes far from the one that is the subject of the manuscript) may produce a citation that is not at all apparent from the title. Additional discussion of data sources can be found under Volcano Data Criteria.

Birkenmajer K, 1979. Age of the Penguin Island volcano, South Shetland Islands (West Antarctica), by the Lichenometric Method. {Bull Acad Polonaise, Sci Ser Sci Terre}, 27: 69-76

Gonzalez-Ferran O, 1972. Distribucion del volcanismo activo de Chile y la reciente erupcion del Volcan Villarrica. {Instituto Geog Militar Chile}, O/T 3491

IAVCEI, 1973-80. Post-Miocene Volcanoes of the World. {IAVCEI Data Sheets, Rome: Internatl Assoc Volc Chemistry Earth's Interior}.

LeMasurier W E, Thomson J W (eds), 1990. {Volcanoes of the Antarctic Plate and Southern Oceans}. Washington, D C: Amer Geophys Union, 487 p

Weaver S D, Saunders A D, Pankhurst R J, Tarney J, 1979. A geochemical study of magmatism associated with the initial stages of back-arc spreading. {Contr Mineral Petr}, 68: 151-169

The small 1.4 x 1.7 km Penguin Island is located off the SE coast of King George Island in Antarctica's Shetland Islands, west of the axis of the Bransfield Rift. The most prominent feature on Penguin Island is Deacon Peak, a basaltic scoria cone with a 350-m-wide well-preserved summit crater that forms the 180-m-high summit on the SW side of the island. A small plug of basaltic lava occupies the 75-m-deep crater. Petrel Crater, a 300-m-wide maar, is located near the east coast. The formation of Deacon Peak scoria cone was dated by lichenometry at about 300 years ago, and the younger Petrel Crater maar was dated at about 100 years (Birkenmajer 1979). Some of the historical reports of fumarolic activity on nearby Bridgeman Island are attributed to the more youthful Penguin Island.