Scientists on board the CSIRO's research ship the Investigator have taken rare pictures of an eruption of the remote Big Ben volcano.

Big Ben on the sub-Antarctic Heard Island is the highest mountain on Australian territory and is known to have erupted at least three times in the past 15 years.

The neighbouring McDonald Islands are also home to an active volcano.

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The voyage's Chief Scientist, Professor Mike Coffin from the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies, said the eruption came as a surprise.

"Seeing vapour emanating from both of Australia's active volcanoes and witnessing an eruption on Mawson Peak have been an amazing coda to this week's submarine research," he said.

"We have 10 excited geoscientists aboard Investigator, and our enthusiasm has spread to our 50 shipmates."

Jodi Fox from the University of Tasmania, who is also onboard, is doing a PhD on Heard Island volcanism.

"To see lava emanating from Mawson Peak and flowing down the flank of Big Ben over a glacier has been incredible," she said.

The full eruption was captured on video and uploaded to YouTube by the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies.

One of the scientists interviewed in the video said that they were excited to see land after a couple of weeks at sea and that the volcano eruption was an "added bonus".

The remote Australian Territory of Heard and McDonald Islands is 4,100 kilometres south-west of Perth and 1,750 kilometres north of Australia's Antarctic base at Davis Station.

Scientists on the voyage are studying the link between active volcanoes on the seafloor and the mobilisation of iron, which supports life in the Southern Ocean.

Their findings will become part of a greater understanding of the Earth's climate system and climate change.