In less spectacular times volcanologists track achingly slow changes to the earth and make big contributions to society while doing so

What does it feel like to climb into a volcano? A volcanologist would know. Those people who specialise in the study of volcanoes do not often get much public exposure; but days such as yesterday – when an eruption in Iceland sent volcanic ash drifting across northern Europe and disrupted UK flights – belong to them. While the TV news focused on families unable to get out of Heathrow, the scientists were more excited at the prospect of being able to track that rare thing, the eruption of an ice-covered volcano. There are barely 20 volcanologists in the UK, and Jennie Gilbert at Lancaster University was surely typical of the profession in being up early and at her computer to track the online images being sent back from an observation post on the Eyjafjallajokull glacier. In less spectacular times, volcanologists (like other geoscientists) track the achingly slow changes to the Earth. And in so doing they make two big contributions to society. They monitor the progress of glaciers, and so add to the scientific evidence on climate change; and in the event of an eruption, they also forecast where the lava from a live volcano is likely to go. How will the lava from Etna affect towns and roads? Very useful, no doubt – but, perhaps most excitingly of all, Dr Gilbert can also tell us what it is like inside a volcano she visited in Chile. "Very bright and hot," she says. And while inside the caldera was an ice sheet, she had to cover up to avoid sunburn. Volcanologists: they report back from the parts other earth scientists do not reach.