The interactive talk, which will appeal to the younger audience as well as adults, is entitled Getting to the places other people don't reach: volcanoes, and will be given by earth scientists, Drs Claire Horwell and Ed Llewellin.  Labour Councillor for Hartcliffe, Royston Griffey, will chair the event.

In the first part of the talk Dr Llewellin will go on a detective hunt, looking at the clues that help volcanologists understand how and why volcanoes erupt.  He will then put this evidence together to create a volcanic eruption in front of the audience's eyes. 

Dr Horwell will subsequently talk about a volcano that has been erupting for almost a decade, the Soufriere Hills volcano in Montserrat, a British dependency in the West Indies. She will give a first-hand account of how life on the island has changed since the eruption and what it is like to get caught in a heavy ash fall.

Dr Llewellin, commenting on the talk, said: "There are 500 million people around the world who live near an active volcano who are very interested in knowing when it will erupt and what will happen when it does. To answer these questions, we first need to understand how and why volcanoes erupt at all."

The free talk, organised by the Outreach team in the University's Public Programmes Office, will take place at 7 pm on Monday, March 14, at The Gatehouse Centre, Hareclive Road, Bristol BS13 9JN. 

No booking is necessary and the talk is part of National Science Week, which runs nationwide from 11-20 March 2005.