Mt. Erebus, Antarctica (Photo: Sylvain Pichat)

You can follow Dr. Ken Sims as he explores Mount Erebus in Antarctica. And, no, you won’t have to rappel after him down the inside of a volcano. You can just click a mouse to get in on the action.

During his trip, scheduled Oct. 18-Nov. 30, Sims, an associate professor in UW’sDepartment of Geology and Geophysics, will blog, and post updates and photos of his expedition. Students from Laramie High School, Snowy Range Academy, Laramie Montessori Charter School and Cathedral Home for Children can follow his research progress and ask questions along the way.

Sims has received a $571,068 National Science Foundation grant to study and better understand the origins of Erebus, Antarctica’s second highest (12,448 feet) and most active volcano. Sims hopes to determine whether Erebus is a hot mantle plume, a hypothesis in which convection in the lower mantle, or crust layer, moves heat from the Earth’s core to its surface in the form of narrow, rising columns.

Dr. Sims has not begun blogging yet, but when he does it will be available on the National Geographic Explorers Journal website.

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