fall deposits, with gentle slopes. The volcano is uneroded and forms a cone with a base area of . Viewed from afar, Mount Melbourne has a nearly perfect cone-like profile that has drawn comparisons to Mount Etna in Italy and Mount Ruapehu in New Zealand. Lava domes and short lava flows form the summit while volcanic mounds, cones, domes and scoria cones dot its flanks; from the summit is a large parasitic vent on the north-northeastern slope, which generated several lava flows. Part of the edifice rises from below sea level. Pyroclastic flow depositsa rarity for Antarctic volcanoeshave been reported. The total volume of the edifice is about . A crater or caldera sits at the top of the volcano. The highest point of the volcano lies east-northeast of the caldera and reaches elevation. The caldera has an incomplete rim and is filled with snow, leaving a depression. The rim of the caldera is covered by volcanic ejecta including lapilli and lava bombs, probably the products of the most recent eruption, which overlie a layer of pumice lapilli. Three small, nested craters formed by phreatomagmatic eruptions occur on the southern rim of the summit caldera. Pyroclastic fall deposits crop out in the northern rim of the caldera and there are more alternating lava-tephra sequences elsewhere in the summit region. There is evidence of past structural instability (collapse structures) on the eastern and southeastern flanks, and an arcuate (with the shape of an arc) scarp on the eastern flank appears to be an incipient sector collapse. Except for geothermal areas, the ground is bouldery. Some of the coastal areas around the volcano are ice-free and rocky. Frost heave has been observed in the summit region. Small creeks flow down the eastern flank of Mount Melbourne; they are fed by meltwater during summer and quickly disappear when the snow is gone. Glaciation The mountain is covered with permanent ice, which extends to the coast and leaves only a few exposures of the underlying rock; rocky outcrops are most exposed on the eastern flank. The caldera hosts a névé that generates a westward-flowing glacier. An icefall lies northwest of the caldera. Glaciers emanating from snowfields on the volcano have deposited moraines; these and tills from both Pleistocene and Holocene glaciations crop out at Edmonson Point. Tephra layers crop out in ice cliffs and seracs and testify to recent eruptions, including the one that