Lava light

These photographs of a lava eruption were taken by a PhD student at the University of Bristol during a visit to the Afar Rift in Ethiopia.

Lorraine Field, from the department of Earth sciences at Bristol, was among researchers from the international Afar Rift Consortium who witnessed the explosion in a lava lake at the remote Erta Ale volcano. Erta Ale is one of five volcanoes that form a land continuation of a rift in the Red Sea. The eruption is the latest event in a long process that may ultimately lead to the birth of a new ocean.