Bizarre scenes at the Erta Ale volcano in Afar, Ethiopia, in late December: a man wanted to light his cigarette. But without a lighter to hand, he resorted to a more unconventional method.

For three days a cloud of billowing ash dimmed the sun as the region's largest volcano, Erta Ale—"smoking mountain ... and a fiery lake of lava. The 2005 quakes and subsequent rattlings are ...

The 990m-high strato-volcano's setting makes it extremely difficult to climb. Pictures taken from space are really the only way of looking inside Saunders Island is part of the South Georgia and ...