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Saturn's largest moon Titan may have molten ice welling up to the surface from its warm interior, data from the Cassini spacecraft suggests.

Geologists in Iceland are drilling directly into the heart of a hot volcano. Their $20m project will lead to boreholes that could ultimately yield 10 times as much geothermal power as any previous project.

The most likely birthplace for primordial life is now thought to be the fissures in the fresh basalt of the ocean floor through which, for billions of years, have gushed superheated brines rich in hydrogen sulphide and iron.

24 August, AD79. The day one volcanic mountain came to life and two cities met their deaths. Pompeii and the nearby settlement of Herculaneum were consumed by a mixture of heat, falling pumice stone and ash. Mount Vesuvius, about 9km (5.5 miles) away, had exploded, sending a mass of volcanic debris high into the air, which then landed like a military bombardment on the citizens of the two cities below. Estimates of deaths in both places...

More than 1,000km from the event itself, Iceland's second volcanic eruption in the space of a month has caused flights in the UK to be grounded.

Airlines will lose at least $200m (£130m) per day in revenues as a result of the volcanic ash-linked disruption.

A volcanic eruption in Iceland is continuing to ground flights in the UK and Europe, but 227 years ago a far more devastating eruption occurred wiping out a fifth of the island's population - as well as tens of thousands across Europe. On 8 June, 1783, the young country of Iceland - inhabited for less than 1,000 years - had a population of 50,000. In the coming years, as a result of what began that Sunday morning at 9am, 10,000 of...