Caleb Rosen traveled to Mt. Erebus, Antarctica to collect gas and rock samples.

Studying microbes on Mt. Erebus, Antarctica

Rosen was also featured on a New Zealand post stamp!

ByDepartment of Earth Sciences May 8, 2025

Earth Sciences Ph.D. student, Caleb Rosen, traveled to Mt. Erebus, Antarctica in Nov ’23 and Nov ’24 with an international research team based at the Thermophile Research Unit at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. Mt. Erebus is the southern most active volcano on the planet and has geothermal fumarole near the summit that are kept warm and ice-free.

Panoramic shot of Mt. Erebus, photo by Antzworks

There, Rosen and his team collected gas and rock samples and are currently incubating growth substrates in the soil to discover how the local bacteria survive in this extreme environment. Ultimately, they hope to discover how microbes survive in the hot rocks on the flanks of this volcano, a relative oasis compared to the majority of the Antarctic continent.

Caleb standing next to geothermal fumarole near the summit of Mt. Erebus, Antartica

Scott Base Lights - photo credit by Antzworks — Scott Base Lights – photo credit by Antzworks

Every year, the New Zealand post publishes a limited edition series of stamps for their Ross Dependency collection, the region of Antarctica south of New Zealand. In 2025, they featured Caleb’s project, the Multidisciplinary Analysis of Geothermal Microbes in Antarctica (MAGMA) studying microbes on Mt. Erebus.

Ross Dependency stamps, New Zealand Post

Caleb is in the bottom-left stamp, right figure.