A DATE WITH DISASTER:
VOLCANO HUNTERS RACE TO PREDICT DEADLY VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS

National Geographic EXPLORER's Volcano Hunters Premieres Sunday, February 17 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT only on MSNBC

(Washington, DC February 12, 2002) In the aftermath of Congo's current Nyiragongo volcano crisis, scientists and researchers from all over the world are racing to find clues that will help predict future deadly eruptions. On Sunday, February 17, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on MSNBC,
EXPLORER joins two courageous volcano hunters, Steve and Donna O'Meara, for two perilous weeks atop one of the world's most active hot spots, Stromboli, in Italy's Aeolian Islands. Supported by the National Geographic Society, the husband and wife team set out to investigate an ancient and controversial lunar theory that they believe will contribute to
the science of predicting eruptions and may save lives.

Off the northern coast of Sicily, Stromboli's summit is a forbidding landscape of craggy rocks frequently shrouded in clouds of toxic gas. Hot ash rains down as sulfuric vapors overtake the fresh air. EXPLORER follows the O'Mearas through smoke and ash to collect hard data to prove that some volcanic eruptions follow a pattern based on the moon's gravitational pull,
much like the ebb and flow of the ocean's tides. Ascending the smoking, belching Stromboli volcano takes courage, tenacity, and perhaps a touch of madness. Ignoring critics who doubt such a lunar correlation exists, the O'Mearas push on, determined to find out if the moon is indeed tugging at the earth's molten core.

Volcanoes have killed close to a quarter million people in the past 500 years. The most catastrophic events can not only level entire towns -- as Nyiragongo did in Congo last month -- but can also wipe out animals large and small in the surrounding areas -- as Mount St. Helens did here in the United States in 1980. If the O'Mearas' observations at Stromboli are
viable, their continuing work could impact crisis aid and conservation efforts while forever shifting the study of volcanoes.

The eruption last summer of Europe's tallest active volcano is the subject of "Etna Ignites," the cover story of the February 2002 issue of National Geographic magazine.

For programming information and updates for National Geographic EXPLORER, please log on to www.nationalgeographic.com/tv/explorer.

(Too bad I don't get MSNBC... or I don't pay for it...)