Mount Melbourne and its volcanic field are emplaced over a basement of Precambrian to Ordovician age, which consists of volcanic and metamorphic rocks of the Wilson Terrane. The volcano is located at the intersection of three geological structures; the Rennick Graben of Cretaceous age, the Victoria Land Basin and the Polar 3 magnetic anomaly, which has been interpreted to be either a transform fault or a push-up structure formed by faulting. The Terror Rift in the Victoria Land Basin runs between Mount Melbourne and Mount Erebus and appears to be related to their existence. The volcano appears to rise in a graben whose marginal faults are still active with earthquakes, on the eastern flank of Mount Melbourne. North-south trending faulting may also be responsible for the north-south-like trend in edifice structure, and strike-slip faulting takes place on the eastern flank. Holocene coastal uplift in the area indicates that tectonic activity is still ongoing.