this was really cool...there's a video of it erupting at http://www.smithsonianmag.com/multimedia/video/06Dec_volcano.php

The text under the picture:

Mr. Erebus is the most active volcano in Antarctic Continent. It was discovered in 1841 by James Ross expedition in England. Earnest Shackleton, an English explorer climbed to the caldera wall of the crater for the first time in 1908.
The mountain repeats strombolian eruption for a few times in a day and has phonolite lava lake on top of it, which is rare worldwide. It belongs to stratovolcano, with three-fold caldera as can be confirmed in the image.
McMurdo base, the largest base for Antarctic exploration of the U.S. and Scott base of New Zealand are located at the tip of Hut Point Peninsula, which stretches long to the south of Mt. Erebus.

@alancu....that video was cool. Thanks for supplying it for us.

when I tried the link, I got a page error, then tried to find the video and couldnt find it