Here we go again?

Iceland's Gromsvotn Volcano has started erupting but will it effect flights like last year's eruption? Read what the expert think by clicking these links:
BBC News Website
Ice News

Mount Merapi blows it's top

One of Indonesia's active volcanoes is causing devastation and chaos. Over 64 people have been killed and flights between Singapore and Jakarta have been suspended.

Read more by clicking these links: Death toll and flights suspended.

You can also follow the activity by clicking this link.

Eyjafjallajokull volcano

Hulme pupils witness the Eyjafjallajokull volcano first hand on the recent Geography Department trip to Iceland. Although still in the throat clearing stages of its eruption the sight was still spectacular. The party was able to visit the region during the excursion to the seaside town of Vik. Getting up really close would have involved a 6 hour ice trek up the galcier but the lack of crampons prevented anyone getting their eyebrows singed. Perhaps it was a lucky escape as the road was closed behind the bus on the return journey to Rejkavik .

The infamous ash cloud!

An image made available by NEODASS/University of Dundee which shows the volcanic ash plume from Iceland, top left, to the north of Britain as received by NASA's Terra Satellite at 11.39 GMT Thursday April 15, 2010. All flights in and out of the UK and several other European countries have been suspended as ash from a volcanic eruption in Iceland moves south.

For more information from the BBC click this link.

Structure of the Earth

Welcome back after the holiday.

Tonights homework is easy to research but you can get carried away with the amount of information - so to make it easier follow these steps:

• You need a digram showing you the cross-section of the earth (a bit like this one but more detailed).

• Tell me in no more than five lines (for each) about the four layers: Crust, Mantle, Outer Core and Inner Core.

I could put a link on but that would be far too easy!

Man made eruption

The eruption of the Lusi mud volcano in Indonesia was caused by drilling for oil and gas, a meeting of 74 leading geologists has concluded.

Lusi erupted in May 2006 and continues to spew out boiling mud, displacing around 30,000 people in East Java.

Drilling firm Lapindo Brantas denies a nearby well was the trigger, blaming an earthquake 280km (174 miles) away.

Around 10,000 families who have lost their homes are awaiting compensation, which could run as high as $70m (£43m).

After debating new evidence at a conference in South Africa, most geologists voted drilling as the cause.

For more details follow this link to the BBC page.

Britain goes deep.

Scientists are set to explore the world's deepest undersea volcanoes, which lie 6km down in the Caribbean.
Delving into uncharted waters to hunt for volcanic vents will be Autosub6000, Britain's new autonomously controlled, robot submarine.
Once found, the life, gas and sediment around the vents - the world's hottest - will be sampled and catalogued.
The research will be carried out by a British team aboard the UK's latest research ship, the James Cook.

For more information link to the National Oceanography Centre in Southhampton.