A good way to keep track of volcanic eruptions is to sign up to the Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System, which emails alerts about volcanoes worldwide.

NASA also keeps track of volcanic activity and the USGS/Smithsonian Institute Global Volcanism Program produces a weekly report.

For information about specific volcanoes, you can search the Global Volcanism Programs database by name of volcano, region or eruption date.

To find out about the humanitarian impact of a particular volcanic eruption, the International Disaster Database is the best place to search.

What do you do if a volcano erupts nearby? Here's some information produced by the American Red Cross, which has some useful general principles. For more detailed recommendations go to the USGS site.

If you're interested in the science, there are some excellent websites that will tell you all you need to know. These include the San Diego State University webpages and the U.S. Geological Survey, which also includes a good source of links.

To see some amazing images and videos of active volcanoes, check out these sites: VolcanoWorld, the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory site and Volcano Watch International.

Finally, if you want to know how to cook with lava, check out this recipe.