Mont Ross is a stratovolcano

Stratovolcano

A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a tall, conical volcano built up by many layers of hardened lava, tephra, pumice, and volcanic ash. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile and periodic, explosive eruptions...

, the highest mountain in the Kerguelen Islands

Kerguelen Islands

The Kerguelen Islands , also known as the Desolation Islands, are a group of islands in the southern Indian Ocean constituting the emerged part of the otherwise submerged Kerguelen Plateau. The islands, along with Adélie Land, the Crozet Islands and the Amsterdam and Saint Paul Islands are part of...

 at 1,840 m. It is located in the Massif Gallieni range, at the end of the Gallieni peninsula on the main island of Grande Terre. The volcano is composed primarily of trachybasalt and was active during the late Pleistocene

Pleistocene

The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....

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History

Mont Ross was named after explorer Sir James Clark Ross

James Clark Ross

Sir James Clark Ross , was a British naval officer and explorer. He explored the Arctic with his uncle Sir John Ross and Sir William Parry, and later led his own expedition to Antarctica.-Arctic explorer:...

. The first human being to set foot on its summit was French military engineer Henri Journoud, using a helicopter, in the early 1960s. The mountain was, however, first climbed in 1975 by Jean Afanassieff and Patrick Cordier

Patrick Cordier

Dr Patrick Cordier is a French alpinism. He was killed on 5 June 1996 in a motoring accident riding his motorcycle whilst travelling on the Marseille to Aix-en-Provence motorway.-Career:...

, the last French mountain to be climbed.