Mount Michael, Mountain summit in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.

Mount Michael is a stratovolcano on Saunders Island in the South Sandwich Islands, rising to 990 m and topped by a 700 m wide crater that holds a persistent lava lake. The active crater sits within an older caldera, and the cone is almost entirely covered by ice and snow. Coastal cliffs expose layers of tephra and lava from frequent eruptions.

Mount Michael was first recorded in 1819, when Bellingshausen's Russian expedition reported an ash cloud from Saunders Island. Few visitors came afterwards because of the island's remoteness; in 1997 geologist John Smellie watched persistent degassing from offshore. In 2022 a National Geographic expedition led by UCL volcanologist Emma Nicholson made the first documented ascent, observing a glowing lava lake and installing a seismic station.

Mount Michael's name comes from Bellingshausen's 1819 Russian expedition, which reported an ash cloud from the peak. In 1997 geologist John Smellie watched persistent degassing from offshore. A 2022 National Geographic expedition led by UCL volcanologist Emma Nicholson made the first documented ascent, saw the glowing lava lake, and installed a seismic station.

Mount Michael lies on Saunders Island in the South Sandwich Islands, reachable only by ship from South Georgia, several days' sail away, and landings depend on swell and weather. Cloud and snow obscure the summit most of the year, leaving only a few clear days for observation. The 2022 National Geographic expedition led by UCL volcanologist Emma Nicholson made the first documented ascent, installing a seismic station and collecting gas, water and snow samples.

Mount Michael's lava lake stayed hidden from science until 2019, when Gray et al. confirmed it using 30 years of Landsat and Sentinel-2 imagery; the molten surface, roughly 90–215 m across at 989–1279 °C, appeared in nearly every clear-sky image from 2003 to 2018. The first documented ascent came only in 2022, when a National Geographic expedition led by UCL volcanologist Emma Nicholson climbed the volcano and saw the glowing lake directly.