The late Dr Peter Francis was Professor of Volcanology in the Department of Earth sciences at the Open University. Dr Clive Oppenheimer is a University Lecturer in the Department of Geography at the University of Cambridge.

• 1. The Basics: isotopes and green cheese ; 2. Keeping planets cool: volcanoes, hot-spots, and plate tectonics ; 3. Four classic eruptions ; 4. Magma - the hot stuff ; 5. Types of volcanic activity ; 6. Lava Flows ; 7. Pyroclastic eruptions: bubbles, bangs, columns, and currents ; 8. What goes up must come down: pyroclastic fall deposits ; 9. Pyroclastic currents from collapsing domes and transient eruptions ; 10. Pyroclastic currents and ignimbrites associated with plinian eruptions ; 11. Super-eruptions, super-volcanoes and calderas ; 12. Debris avalanches and flows: magic carpets and muck ; 13. Volcanoes as landscape forms ; 14. Submarine volcanism ; 15. Extraterrestrial volcanoes ; 16. Eruptions and climate ; 17. Volcano monitoring ; 18. Reducing volcanic risks

'Oppenheimer does not shy away from difficult concepts, and as part of a more modern treatment of magma vesiculation (bubble formation) he presents a skilful precis of Yuri Siezin's catastrophe theory model, whereby a slight change in the pressure driving up a conduit can trigger an enormous change in magma ascent velocity.' Times Higher Education Supplement, April 2004.

The late Dr Peter Francis was Professor of Volcanology in the Department of Earth sciences at the Open University. Dr Clive Oppenheimer is a University Lecturer in the Department of Geography at the University of Cambridge.

• 1. The Basics: isotopes and green cheese ; 2. Keeping planets cool: volcanoes, hot-spots, and plate tectonics ; 3. Four classic eruptions ; 4. Magma - the hot stuff ; 5. Types of volcanic activity ; 6. Lava Flows ; 7. Pyroclastic eruptions: bubbles, bangs, columns, and currents ; 8. What goes up must come down: pyroclastic fall deposits ; 9. Pyroclastic currents from collapsing domes and transient eruptions ; 10. Pyroclastic currents and ignimbrites associated with plinian eruptions ; 11. Super-eruptions, super-volcanoes and calderas ; 12. Debris avalanches and flows: magic carpets and muck ; 13. Volcanoes as landscape forms ; 14. Submarine volcanism ; 15. Extraterrestrial volcanoes ; 16. Eruptions and climate ; 17. Volcano monitoring ; 18. Reducing volcanic risks

'Oppenheimer does not shy away from difficult concepts, and as part of a more modern treatment of magma vesiculation (bubble formation) he presents a skilful precis of Yuri Siezin's catastrophe theory model, whereby a slight change in the pressure driving up a conduit can trigger an enormous change in magma ascent velocity.' Times Higher Education Supplement, April 2004.

The late Dr Peter Francis was Professor of Volcanology in the Department of Earth sciences at the Open University. Dr Clive Oppenheimer is a University Lecturer in the Department of Geography at the University of Cambridge.

• 1. The Basics: isotopes and green cheese ; 2. Keeping planets cool: volcanoes, hot-spots, and plate tectonics ; 3. Four classic eruptions ; 4. Magma - the hot stuff ; 5. Types of volcanic activity ; 6. Lava Flows ; 7. Pyroclastic eruptions: bubbles, bangs, columns, and currents ; 8. What goes up must come down: pyroclastic fall deposits ; 9. Pyroclastic currents from collapsing domes and transient eruptions ; 10. Pyroclastic currents and ignimbrites associated with plinian eruptions ; 11. Super-eruptions, super-volcanoes and calderas ; 12. Debris avalanches and flows: magic carpets and muck ; 13. Volcanoes as landscape forms ; 14. Submarine volcanism ; 15. Extraterrestrial volcanoes ; 16. Eruptions and climate ; 17. Volcano monitoring ; 18. Reducing volcanic risks

'Oppenheimer does not shy away from difficult concepts, and as part of a more modern treatment of magma vesiculation (bubble formation) he presents a skilful precis of Yuri Siezin's catastrophe theory model, whereby a slight change in the pressure driving up a conduit can trigger an enormous change in magma ascent velocity.' Times Higher Education Supplement, April 2004.