Volcano Live

8:00pm Thursday 12 July on BBC TWO

Kate Humble and Professor Iain Stewart present a four day journey into our extraordinary and dynamic planet, live from Kilauea on Hawaii, the world’s most active volcano.

Live once again from the summit crater of Kilauea, Kate and Iain look to the future, examining the latest monitoring equipment and asking whether scientists will ever be able to definitively predict when a volcano is going to erupt.

Iain travels to Naples to Mount Vesuvius to hear about the elaborate evacuation plan that will be implemented when the volcano next begins to show signs of unrest.

Across Europe, Kate ascends to the summit of Katla, the country’s biggest volcano, and learns that when it next goes off, it’s likely to make the 2010 Eyjafjallaj?kull eruption look miniscule by comparison.

In our final expedition film we follow Professor Jon Blundy from the University of Bristol as he searches the rock deposits of Dominica in the Caribbean on the hunt for clues that might tell him when the great volcano Morne Au Diable might roar back into life, whilst Ed Byrne uses a bin, several plastic balls and some liquid nitrogen to try and recreate a supervolcanic eruption.

Volcano live is hosted by the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park with assistance from scientists of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory

Ep 4/4

8:00pm Wednesday 11 July on BBC TWO

Kate Humble and Professor Iain Stewart present a four day journey into our extraordinary and dynamic planet, live from Kilauea on Hawaii, the world’s most active volcano.

Live from the town of Kalapana, destroyed 20 years ago by Kilauea’s lava flows, the team explores the connections between volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis, revealing that they are all linked to the interaction of tectonic plates.

Iain travels to the Bay of Naples in Italy where he explains that the world’s most devastating eruptions and seismic events take place at specific type of plate boundaries known as subduction zones.

Closer to home, Ed Byrne attempts to recreate the conditions of an earthquake measuring 8 on the richter scale from the safety of the lab.

Meanwhile, Kate’s Icelandic adventure continues as she descends several hundred feet into a dormant volcano, reaching the floor of one of the world’s only accessible magma chambers.

At the other end of the world, Dr Clive Oppenheimer from Cambridge University tells us about the extreme conditions he had to endure to study the vast volcano Erebus in Antarctica.

Volcano live is hosted by the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park with assistance from scientists of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory

Ep 3/4

8:00pm Tuesday 10 July on BBC TWO

Kate Humble and Professor Iain Stewart present a four day journey into our extraordinary and dynamic planet, live from Kilauea on Hawaii, the world’s most active volcano.

Coming live from the site of a 1969 eruption in the area of Kilauea known as Mauna Ulu, Kate and Iain get a first-hand look at the destructive power of volcanoes. Where there was once a lush green landscape, there is now only a mass of twisted black lava, stretching as far as the eye can see.

However, volcanoes aren’t just the powerful and destructive forces they may initially appear to be. As Iain explains, they help shape life as we know it, serving to maintain our atmosphere and regulate our climate.

Elsewhere, Ed Byrne investigates the most deadly type of eruption, the pyroclastic flow, whilst Kate travels to the small Icelandic island of Heimaey to hear the amazing story of the islanders who took on the giant lava flow that was threatening to destroy their town – and won.

We also meet Hugh Tuffen, a British volcanologist who travelled to Chile to record spectacular images of the recent explosive eruption of Mount Puyehue.

Volcano live is hosted by the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park with assistance from scientists of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory

Ep 2/4

8:00pm Monday 9 July on BBC TWO

Kate Humble and Professor Iain Stewart present a four day journey into our extraordinary and dynamic planet, live from Kilauea on Hawaii, the world’s most active volcano.

In the first episode, Kate and Iain broadcast live from the edge of the Kilauea summit crater, home of the Halema’uma’u lava lake, a bubbling mass of molten rock that the native Hawaiians revere as a god. From there, they explain why volcanoes exist, how they erupt and what studying them can tell us about the inner workings of the Earth.

Back in the UK, comedian and keen mountaineer Ed Byrne joins the team, heading to the laboratories of the University of Bristol to try and work out why different volcanoes erupt in different ways.

We also meet Lorraine Field, a British volcanologist who shares the story of her incredible expedition to see the erupting volcanoes of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Kate hits the road too, travelling to Iceland to visit Eyjafjallaj?kull, the volcano whose ash plume eruption caused so much disruption in 2010. Ascending to the still steaming summit, she meets the scientists trying to work out why such a relatively small volcano was able to cause disruption on such an enormous scale.

Volcano live is hosted by the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park with assistance from scientists of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory

Ep 1/4