Lakes of Lava

Now like all sane people I fucking love a good lava lake which are pretty much what they sound like, a lovely crater full of lovely lava. While eruptions can be a bit scary and show off, lave lakes are just there chilling, not really posing any threat, just looking pretty. 

This video is of Kilauea and is about to ooze and spill out over the edge. The volcano has technically been erupting for absolute yonks but probably not from this crater or something.

Looking at lava lakes is one of those vaguely hypnotic things like looking at fire, ice melting or test cricket all of which I can happily watch for hours. There are different types of lava lakes depending on whether or not the lava has formed in that crater or spilled into the crater from another flow, the viscosity of the lava and all that shit can also affect the lava lake. Here are two more excellent lava lakes.

This is one my favourite lava lakes Mount Nyiragongo which is on the DRC and Rwandan border and this volcano is formed by a rift in the African plate. The picture is part of this photo series which is worth looking at. 

This is another African lava lake, Erta Ale and I really like the black scorched look to this lava. Also in all these photos you can see the lovely volcanic rock I'm always amazed at their colours which seem unreal.

Its nice to see the dormant and understated side of volcanoes in comparison to the all the eruptive shit and these glowing lava lakes look like some portal into another dimension. This post is for my mate who is in a six hour meeting which I think has some parallels to lava lakes. 

Volcano Cricket World Cup

As I was listening to the dramatic conclusion of the semi final between New Zealand and South Africa I remembered one of my fave ever VC posts, ranking all the teams in the european football tournament as if they were judged on volcanoes alone. Here is how the cricket world cup could have been if all that were considered were the volcanoes. Ratings will be given as a VEI (0-8) primarily on volcanoes in the country but playing style can have some impact, my preferences will obviously have none. Ties will be decided on volcano activity alone.

Pool A

Afghanistan
Wikipedia says there are a couple of extinct volcanoes in Afghanistan but I've never heard of them. Its only recently that the have made it on the international cricket scene and have improved quickly - beating Scotland in the group stage.
VEI - 1

Australia
Australia is obviously a very diverse country that has pretty all the ecosystems but no fucking active volcanoes, although there are a shitload of extinct ones. As much as it pains me to admit this the cricket team are pretty exciting if a little predictably good.
VEI - 3

Bangladesh
Apparently there are no volcanoes in Bangladesh but you've got to love the cricket team who made the quarter finals this year.
VEI -1

England
The only volcanoes of note are extinct ones in Wales which is technically part of England in the cricket world. What can you even say about the England cricket team? The got rid of KP the only vaguely eruptive thing.
VEI - 0

New Zealand
Yay finally some active volcanoes including the excellently named Mount Horrible and Mount Dick. White Island in 2013 was the most recent eruption in the country. The cricket team are also on fire and as they're already in the final therefore good to back.
VEI - 7

White Island

Scotland
Lots of extinct volcanoes, volcanic landscapes and volcanic plugs in Scotland including Arthur's Seat some bits of the Hebrides including Skye and St Kilda. The cricket team are just a bit shit though, sorry lads.
VEI - 2

Arthur's Seat

Sri Lanka
Again no active volcanoes but there is Sigiriya which is the best volcanic plug and one of the earliest examples of landscape gardens, a former buddhist monastery and I love it. It's close to Kandy which has the best cricket ground and great forests. The team are also pretty exciting.
VEI - 4

Sigiriya

Pool A - Results
New Zealand - 7
Sri Lanka - 4
Australia - 3
Scotland - 2
Afghanistan - 1
Bangladesh - 1
England - 0

Pool B

India
The main vulcanicity in India are the Deccan traps which are one of the largest volcanic features on earth. This volcanic activity occurred at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary and possibly responsible for dinosaur extinction. Cricket team are good if a little dull.
VEI - 4

Deccan Traps

Ireland
The Irish cricket team represents the whole of Ireland, which is good thing from a VC POV as Giants Causeway is in Northern Ireland and a volcanic formation. Cricket wise - they're the new England.
VEI - 2

Giant's Causeway

Pakistan
Pakistan is home to Tor Zawar - the only recent volcano in South Asia which erupted completely unexpectedly in 2010. The cricket team are eruptive although possibly more for the off the pitch activities.
VEI - 4

South Africa
There's a game reserve in South Africa - Pilanesberg which is of volcanic origin but not much else apart from Prince Edward and Marion Island (I'm only really counting mainland volcanoes for this). I've never been a fan of the team.
VEI - 1

United Arab Emirates
No volcanoes here and it's a ridiculous country.
VEI - 0

West Indies
The West Indies (which only really exists for cricketing purposes) consists of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Anguilla, Montserrat, British Virgin Islands, Sint Maarten and US Virgin Islands. Sorry for the long list but I've always wondered. Active volcanoes include Kick 'em Jenny and Soufriere Hills, sadly Mount Pelee is on Martinique and not therefore in the West Indies. They are also my favourite the best international cricket team.
VEI - 5

Kick 'em Jenny

Zimbabwe
There are some volcanic land forms in Zimbabwe but not much to speak of.
VEI - 1

Pool B - Results
West Indies - 5
India - 4
Pakistan - 4
Ireland - 2
South Africa - 1
Zimbabwe - 1
UAE - 0

Quarter Finals! Sadly this is going to be a bit predictable, I should create some sort of dice cricket element for this.
India v Australia
India win by 30 runs, with the help of the Deccan traps Kohl and Dhoni put on a big target that can't be chased down.
West Indies v Scotland
West Indies win by 9 wickets, Chris Gayle makes another record breaking 200 and it's a bit of walkover.
Sri Lanka v Pakistan
Sri Lanka win by 2 runs, this one goes down to the last ball and final wicket but Malinga slogs it over the boundary for 6.
New Zealand v Ireland
New Zealand win by 10 wickets. Ireland all out for a pitiful 92.

Semi Finals
New Zealand v India
New Zealand win by 2 wickets.
West Indies v Sri Lanka
In an exciting semi final West Indies win by 24 runs.

FINAL!!!
New Zealand v West Indies
Chris Gayle's instagram account can't help him now (not sure if this makes me like him more or less but it does have to be seen), Williamson and Guptill help NZ put on an impressive 358 and win by 43 runs.

Here is a picture of VC favourite Tongariro to celebrate.

Sorry that was very long but you probably didn't read it all. It does make you wish that England had colonised countries with more volcanoes. If NZ do win the World Cup then it's obviously all down to the volcanoes.

Cyclone Pam and Volcano Ambrym

One of the main problems with volcano club is that whenever I want to find out about somewhere it's normally because of a fairly large eruption and volcanoes tend to be in really cool places. Then I have this weird desire to go load of places following ecological disasters - so today we have Vanuatu. Vanuatu is so cool that it has the highest language density in the world and is estimated to be the most ecologically efficient country with high well being. It's a great place if you can ignore Tanna, the island where they worship Prince Philip, but that's a cargo cult which have more to do with european colonisation anyway, I mean I'm not a theologist but that's probably true. Unless you know all the flags in the world, all the capitals in the world or are an avid pointless viewer (tbh I'm sure that lots of people are all three) then you might not have known a lot about Vanuatu until cyclone Pam. Vanuatu is quite near Fiji and New Caledonia and used to be called New Hebrides presumably because like the real Hebrides when Captain Cook went there it rained continuously and no shops were open.

The cyclone has been described as the worst natural disaster in the country's history with many buildings being destroyed and some islands being left without services like drinking water. For the island of Ambrym things were particularly shit as there was also a volcanic eruption, however it wasn't in the direct path of the cyclone so other islands were worst affected and are still in need of aid. The volcano is also called Ambrym and has a 12km wide caldera which is fucking massive and was formed in the second largest eruption in recent history. There are two craters - Marum and Benbow which have lava lakes, lava lakes are fucking great as you can see below. The recent eruption was actually quite small and the volcano is one of the most active in the world but the area is still in state of alert.

A quick google search will tell you that aside from volcanoes the island is also known for black magic and there are many associated dances and rituals with this. I think that this type of searching shows the problem with the internet because while I'm sure that there are these beliefs which are important and deeply held, but if you're a tourist you probably aren't really seeing them and you can't expect to understand a foreign culture from a week long stay. Also these magical beliefs are often tied to big scary things, so maybe the sense of foreboding attached to the island has as much to do with the fucking massive active volcano as the black magic. Which is something me and my brother were talking about yesterday - that something can have different explanations which can be unrelated yet equally valid, only he put it way better as unlike me he is theologist and had a way better analogy.

Even by VC's very low standards this post has gone wildly off topic but basically don't believe google , don't be a voyeur and there is still a disaster in Vanuatu, donate if you want.

Eruption update

Sinabung was one of the first volcanoes of the week, way back in September 2010, (amazing that this format of VC has been going for so long) and has since been erupting sporadically (trying to up my clueless references). Before this the volcano had been dormant for 400 years. The volcano is in North Sumatra which is one of Indonesia's biggest islands and has been severely deforested (but that's a topic for later). In general the eruptions haven't been particularly plinian or explosive (VEI = 2) but they have been really fucking ashy. This is really shit because it means that communities have to be evacuated and relocated with crops being destroyed. Constant raining ash must just be so depressing, just seeing endless grey skies and having to protect your homes and families. There was a more violent phase to the eruption in January and February this year which killed 17 people. At the moment the eruption is continuing and the alert level has been raised this week.

See really grey ash

To me it seems that volcanic activity has been increasing lately, but whether this is true or not is in doubt. Obviously no one really knows if it is and there are loads of conflicting theories and I haven't read them, but it is actually really interesting and if I can be bothered I will research it. To summarise possible theories are it's part of climate change/ general planet in crisis shit or that its do to with globalisation/ access to information shit. Which is all very interesting. 

Volcano of the Week #26 - Mount Ontake

It's been a while since I've done one of these and it's a bit of a sad one. I've been planning stuff for the blog all week but considering the nature of volcanoes, it is fitting that my plan was disrupted by yesterdays eruption. It's quite big news so I imagine people know quite a lot about it (probably more than me). Mount Ontake is Japan's second biggest volcano, after Fuji, both volcanoes are in the mountainous Chubu region which is just south and west of Tokyo. Its quite hard to find out exactly when the volcano last erupted but there hasn't been a major eruption in modern times. So far over 30 people have died in the eruption, the volcano is a popular hiking spot particularly at this time of year and it's pretty beautiful, it also has religious significance and there are temples and shrines in the area.

as I said, beauts

There were hundreds of people who did manage to evacuate the volcano and the eruption had little warning. Obviously (lying on a fault line) volcanic activity in Japan is quite high and there was a bit of seismic activity but not enough to suggest the volcano was about to erupt so soon. I'm no volcanologist but what I do know is that predicting eruptions is difficult and not exactly accurate all the time. Climbing volcanoes is a risk but so are most worthwhile things (also mundane ones like crossing the road). So hopefully there will be no more fatalities and the rescue efforts go smoothly. There are loads of awesome (in the true sense of the word) pictures and videos of the eruption and here is a more scientific blog if people are interested.

Really scary video. 

Gatekeepers and Murals

My dad sent me this link about the gatekeeper, Pak Asih, of Mount Merapi and his father the previous gatekeeper of Merapi, who had died in the volcanoes last eruption. And I remembered that I knew about this and had written about it but then I found out it was two years ago which pretty much blew my mind as it seems crazy that I've been writing this shit for over two years. I know if I look down the side of my blog I can see the dates but I don't really pay any attention to that. Obviously Volcano Club dates back to 1995 it's just the blog that was created two years ago. I don't know if it's good that I've been doing this so long or that it's how I should mark the time passing.

The gatekeepers funeral

Anyway it's actually a really interesting programme, I particularly like the bit where he says 'I'm uneducated why would I want to go anywhere else', which makes a lot of sense. Then talking about his daughters and how he wants more for them - to be educated and travel. I'm not really sure if this is progress being gatekeeper to a volcano must be very fulfilling and they must have a deep connection with the volcano - I believe him when he says the government gets it wrong. It's all too easy for to dismiss the knowledge of local people as unscientific however the accumulated experience of centuries must have some truth. The role of these gatekeepers to live by the volcano and observing it maybe is as good research and warning system as anything else available.

On more trivial volcano news I have a big space on my wall that I want to paint a mural on - obviously my initial thoughts have all been volcanic. Is this a good idea? Is any mural ever a good idea? I really don't want anything twee so whatever I do has to be actually good. So maybe some kinda volcanic landscape, I've been  looking at 36 Views of Mount Fuji so I'm thinking along those lines, but maybe it'll just look crap and I don't want it to look like I'm trying to do a Japanese painting cos that will look crap. So any advice would be greatly received.

Also you can still buy copies of my zine here

How football tournaments should be judged

Because my life has pretty much been taken over by the Euros (the football tournament not the currency) I haven't posted on here in a while but I have managed to find a way to combine them = YAY VOLCANOES AND FOOTBALL TOURNAMENTS! Basically this is going to imagine if the teams still left in the competition were judged for their volcanoes not their footballing ability. Countries will then be given a VFI (Volcanic Footballing Index) and the higher index will win the round.

 


First up, Czech Republic v Portugal

Czech Republic, the only instance of volcanoes in the country (only mention in Wikipedia) is Trosky castle which is built on a volcanic plug, which are remnants of the magma chamber. The football team aren't too exciting either. VFI = 2/10
Portugal - the mainland has no active volcanoes but the islands of Azores and Madeira have many active and extinct volcanoes. Madeira also has amazing plant life partly due to the volcanic soil and it's where Christiano is from and he's pretty eruptive. VFI = 6/10
Portugal wins!

 




Tomorrow Greece v Germany
Greece has 6 volcanoes, which are all on the islands, the best is Santorini which possibly wiped out the Minoan civilisation. I think the unpredictability of the team also adds to their VFI and the fact they have the ability to upset THE WHOLE FOOTBALLING WORLD. VFI = 7/10
Germany only has one incident of volcanism, which is the West Eifel Volcanic Field, a 600 sq km area in the Rhineland containing small extinct stratovolcanoes, but it's not very impressive and hasn't erupted since the Holocene era. Germany also has quite an organised footballing style which is not very volcanic. VFI = 3/10
Greece wins!

 

Saturday Spain v France
Spain there are a couple of volcanic fields in the Pyrenees which like Germany's have been extinct for ages. The Canary Islands like Madiera are volcanic, the most notable volcano being Teide on Tenerife. But I don't call passing the ball very accurately a million times very volcanic so some minus points. VFI = 5/10
France again has a mainland volcanic field that has long been inactive. But France still has loads of overseas territories (which is a bit weird) and Gualdeloupe, Reunion and Martinique all have active volcanoes. The team are bit too structured to be volcanic. VFI = 5/10
Spain win on Penalties.

 


Sunday ENGLAND v Italy
England, now if we're looking at England as opposed to the UK then England are crap as Scotland and Wales has some volcanic landscape and like France the UK has some volcanic overseas territories but I can't include those. So all we've got is the Scafells (remnants of a supervolcano) and Wayne Rooney's eruption of hair. VFI = 1/10
Italy - Vesuvius, Etna and Stromboli, Italy is pretty much the king of volcanoes and Balotelli could erupt at any moment. VFI = 9/10
Italy win, conclusively (sorry)


Semi Final 1, Greece v Italy
This will a be crazy game with lava flowing everywhere but in the end Italy are unbeatable.

Semi Final 2, Portugal v Spain
In this Iberian derby (I bet 20mill that a commentator will say that) Portugal just get ahead, goal from Christino. 

FINAL Italy v Portugal
Despite Mario Balotelli getting sent off Italy prove to be unbeatable and take the trophy home.

ITALY WIN! (This picture isn't in Italy)

Now I have to go and get changed into my Christano Ronaldo shirt which will definitely please my blog editor. Also it's a shame Russia are out as they would given Italy a run for their money.

Werner Herzolcano (he should def call the film that)

This post is again going to be me going on about how excited I am about a volcanic project but this REALLY IS EXCITING! Werner Herzog's next film is going to be a VOLCANO DOCUMENTARY!!! (you can tell I'm really excited by the amount of caps and exclamation marks I'm using). Really I don't know why I'm that excited it's not very surprising as I'm sure by now everyone has worked out that everything great is linked to volcanoes however tenuous that link may be. It's also not that surprising as there is something quite volcanic about Herzog's films anyway, it might be that they often have a sense of waiting, of something building up which can be a bit like a cano. There is also the obvious amazing cinematic quality of volcanoes and man vs nature which both crop up Herzog's film all the facking time (I should know I did my AS level German oral exam on Herzog and my teacher hadn't even heard of him- what a loser!). Actually it turns out that he has already directed a film about a volcano erupting on Guadeloupe, the focus was on the inhabitants that refused to leave and their views on death and the volcano. The film is only 30 mins long, I will try and get hold of  a copy. 

I'd have to agree

Here's a video of him talking about volcanoes (I didn't really watch it, I was a bit distracted by the Wizard of Oz because because because etc...)

This shows the lovely cinematic quality of volcanoes- as always there are loads of volcanoes erupting at the moment I'll write about them soon. 

More Volcano Lovers

Have just found the most amazing volcano blog, which has really up to date information on ALL THE ERUPTIONS. It also has a twitter feed which has almost made me want to join twitter but only almost as if I join I will inevitably start posting facts about my life then everyone will know how boring and unfulfilled my life is (if you can't already tell). Here's a roundup of what's new in volcanoes, you could just read the blog but personally I like having stuff retold so many times that it becomes meaningless. 1. Someone else loves volcanoes! 2. There probably won't be a supervolcanic eruption soon. 3. Lots of volcanoes are erupting all the time. 4. Volcanoes in Space. Maybe I should make friends with the person who writes this blog, it's probably better than mine, although I haven't seen any volcano jokes or anything about volcanoes in popular culture.

Is this funny?

P.S If you search for volcanoes in popular culture you get loads of links for volcano club!

Deep Sea Sulphur

I have always been fascinated by deep sea sulphur vents that are powered by volcanoes and are therefore incredible. However incredibly life has been found in these regions which can reach 400 degrees Celsius, have absolutely no sunlight and high sulphur content. This has completely challenged the way that scientists think about life and dispelled that fact that sunlight is always needed for life on earth and that organisms can use entirely different metabolic pathways which gives us an insight into all the amazing and weird ways that life could form. It also reminds us of how little we do know about life especially in the depths of the ocean and also the insignificance of man, readers of this blog will know I find this very comforting (another blog theme is that it could give an insight into life on other planets). These creatures have been found near Antarctica here is an article and some pictures.

 Yeti Crab

Pale Octopus not to be confused with Paul the Octopus (who I fucking love)

I have been posting a lot recently and I have just finished reading The Volcano Lover so I also need to write about that which I'll do when I'm feeling less ill. 

End of the World

Now as much as I hate using the Daily Mail as a source, I am about to, which is because I think I have found the cause of the 2012 apocalypse (I think you need to name apocalypses by year because they are so frequently predicted that otherwise everyone would just get them confused). But anyway the cause of the end of the world will be a supervolcano under a lake near Bonn called the Laacher See Volcano and at the very least it would cause flight devastation all over Europe. The volcano last erupted ages ago and the lake produces carbon dioxide so it's due to erupt soon. The eruption is predicted to be around the same size as the Pinatubo eruption in 1991 although if the volcano is going to cause the apocalypse it will have to be bigger than that one, which was a VEI of 6.

To apologise for the awfulness of this post, here's an apocalypse related tip, if you ever need to perform Apocalypse Now in charades then break it down into syllables as Apple-Lips Now.

New Year, New Island

Following a volcanic eruption in the Red Sea a new island has formed. It is fairly common for underwater eruptions to create new islands but they normally don't last long, sometimes they disappear and regrow many times before becoming stable, this was the case with Anak Krakatau. But for some reason islands in the Red Sea tend to be more stable than in other places. The island has formed around the gaps in the Arabia and Africa tectonic plates close to the Zubair Group of islands between Haycock Island and Rugged Island (which the quick minded among you may have noticed is the name of the 'Rival Island' on Father Ted where Father Dick Byrne lives). The new island has not been named yet, probably because it may not be stable, I don't have any ideas for the name (apart from Craggy Island) but I don't think I'm qualified to name an island.

Perhaps the most interesting example of a new island performing after an eruption is Surtsey which is the southernmost point of Iceland and formed in 1965 and has been eroding away since then. Which has happened to other Icelandic islands formed in this way. Surtsey is interesting because during its short lifetime we have been able to track the formation of life on the island as the island was firstly inhabited by lichen and moss. Flora, birds and insects also live on the island, however it is thought that the island will fade away.

Happy New Year and I only got one volcano related Christmas present this year which I'll post about when I can be bothered. 

Oh Em Gee

Nyamuragira is erupting which I did hear about the other day, its in the Democratic Republic of Congo and along with Nyiragongo it makes up for 40% of the eruptions in Africa. The eruption which is its biggest in a century has doubled tourism in Democratic Republic of Congo which is a fairly unwelcoming country. It's seems to be a fairly beautiful eruption with lava fountains of up to 300m. Nyamuragira is part of National Park with Mountain Gorillas, elephants and lowland forests so what's not to love maybe the 12 year civil war and the fact that the DRC is one of the worst places to be a woman. Maybe I'll write this in more depth when I can be bothered.

But this photo gallery is pretty, is what inspired the title of this post "Oh Em Gee".

Here's a picture if you're too lazy to click on the link. 

Volcano of the Week #21 - Anak Krakatau

It's erupting again which is pretty exciting, the volcano isn't actually that exciting, the main interest of Anak Krakatau is that it was Krakatoa. When Krakatoa erupted in 1883 it blew itself and its island apart, over years and years of tectonic activity another volcanic island Anak Krakatau grew and was visible in 1927. However due to frequent eruptions that followed the island kept disappearing and reappearing, Anak Krakatau in its current form didn't materialise until 1930 and it continues to grow at about 13cm per week. I like the idea of a young volcano struggling to form and become its own entity especially when it has such a large legacy to live up to. It's one of my favourite volcanoes though because of this history and also because it has such a distinctive shape. It is still growing and erupting so I suppose the future for this young volcano is fairly unknown but eruptions are frequent and tend to be Strombolian, the last one has been going on for a while and it has erupted earlier this year.

I wrote a sonnet about the original Krakatoa (when I say wrote I mean it was found in the ruins after the 1883 eruption) for the new travel zine which has just gone to print (when I say gone to print I mean sent to my parents) and I was going to post it here in celebration but I can't remember it. So you can have Bjork's plate tectonic song instead. The moon one is also really really good so if you want to diverse from volcanoes I strongly recommend that one.

New zine should be printed and up next week, let me know if you want one (when I say want one I mean to buy, I am unemployed)

Volcano Love, Metro Incompetence

When I was at work today I started reading the metro in the kitchen, it was my last day so I obviously wasn't going to do any actual work. The article I was most interested in was about a couple who met through their love of volcanoes and went to Kilauea for their second date. Now the article doesn't say where they are from but we can assume they are either from Hawaii or not, if they are from Hawaii then going to see a volcano wouldn't be that remarkable however if they're not from Hawaii then it is fucking mental because Hawaii is ages away from everywhere. They got married on Kilauea and live there, again if they're from Hawaii it's not that amazing because there is probably nothing else to do there. But the shoddy reporting of the metro doesn't report this vital fact. Earlier I was commenting on how bad wikipedia is for getting information but you can get some quite humorous stuff like when it said that a'a lava makes hiking difficult. The metro just leaves out important information but I will forgive it as it once ran the headline 'Teacher Made Me Photocopy My Face'. Another piece of vital information missed is that living on Kilauea isn't very dangerous as it erupts so slowly and viscously, it's not like they are living on Vesuvius or something.

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/877446-lavas-in-the-air-for-volcano-fanatics-who-fell-in-love-under-the-heat

Anywhere here is the article, I don't think that the pun is very good, in future they should come to me for volcanic puns. 

Volcano leaflets

I was given two amazing leaflets at the weekend; the first of which is from Scotland. My aunt went to the Shetland Islands recently- she sent me that picture of the odd volcano monument thing on a beach. Part of the Shetlands were formed by a volcano (Eshraness) - back in the old times when the UK was part of pangaea and close to the equator. This has given the islands amazing and dramatic landscapes, although I've never actually been there so I'm just guessing from the leaflet which guide you through some volcano trails taking you to a magma chamber and beaches where you can find volcanic rock. Even though it's highly illegal Kate stole me some of the volcanic rock which is very light and aerated, you can see it in the photo below. So in addition to wanting to go to all Hebridean islands I now also want to go to the Shetlands.

If you're thinking that all this seems a bit implausible then the second volcano leaflet is far more accurate. My brother is a TEFL teacher- which means he teaches English as a foreign language as opposed to teaching frying pans how to be non-stick. For a lesson his students had to create an island (if this seems like an odd task, he has also made them play Bargain Hunt) and the centre of one of the islands had a volcano. I think it was perhaps bad town planning that the mall was positioned next to a volcano; but it is amazing how much the map looks like a map of Hawaii's volcanoes.

Finally in Volcano news people have decided that volcanoes are so fantastic that they will create artificial ones to solve all the worlds problems. And I'm also finally going to go to this exhibition in Liverpool. I'm sure it'll be fantastic and I will write a full review.

This weeks eruptions.

I did one of these posts ages ago and it was quite fun so I thought I'd do another one. I also saw a lovely picture of Etna but can't be bothered to write a whole post about it.

Here is a map displaying ALL the volcanoes erupting in the world this week.

1. Cleveland, Chuginadak, Alaska. Sarah Palin lives in Alaska, I'm not advocating the use of volcanic eruptions to take out politicians but it would solve a lot of problems. This is one of Alaska's biggest and most active volcanoes.

2. Etna, Sicily, Italy. Yay Etna's erupting again, it's a Strombolian eruption and fairly chilled. Here's a lovely picture of the volcano.

3. Marapi, Sumatra, Indonesia. Marapi is an Indonesian stratovolcano not to be confused with Merapi (which I have done on the map but they are in pretty much the same place).

4. Poas, Costa Rica. Poas is one of the most active volcanoes in Costa Rica and has a lovely lake

5. Rabaul, New Britain, Papua New Guinea. White vapour, dull incandescene, an ash explosion and slow rising grey ash plumes has been seen from the volcano. I don't have a lot to say about this one.

6. Stromboli, Aeolian Islands, Italy. The eruption was probably Strombolian, I don't think that Stromboli has ever been volcano of the week, I quite like it but I do need to see the film so my plan for the week is watching Stromboli and featuring it as volcano of the week.

7. Karymsky, Russia. The eruption was Vulcanian or Vulcanian-Strombolian, Here's a lovely volcano and a really lovely house, it's been volcano of the week if you're interested then read that or find something thats actually factually correct.

8. Kilauea, Hawaii, USA. I mean it's always erutping but obviously I have to feature it on the list. There has been a lot of lava lake activity recently and there was the rift zone collapse which is pretty beautiful. I did see a nice video of it erupting on the guardian which you can search for if you care, this is very lazy posting but there are lots of pretty pictures.

9. Kizimen, Russia. This is another Kamchatka Penisula volcano, which is the region where there are the most active volcanoes in the world which is pretty cool. The summit consists of overlapping lava domes and blocky lava flows. The peak was formed by four eruptive cycles.

10. Puyehue-Cordon Caulle, Chile. This volcano is pretty active and I can't quite be bothered to write about it.

11.Sakura-Jima, Kyushu, Japan. The volcano's formation began 13,000 years ago, the island joined the Osumi Penisula in 1914. I've just finished painting a series of volcano watercolours (which will feature on here v soon, I'm quite excited about them) but anyway I keep seeing other really lovely volcano picture which I wish I'd done paintings like.

12. Shiveluch, Russia. On my blog feed thingy I get the reports of all the volcanoes that are currently erupting (which is what I've based this post on) and there are always loads in the Kamatchsky Penisula, I've written about it before but I do find it amazing that there are so many volcanoes in Russia. This is one of the largest and most active.

This website is just fantastic and has real volcano facts.