During the last week of March, 2012, Peter Idstein showed his classes how volcanoes erupt. Since there aren't any in Kentucky, Idstein used trash cans filled with water as the 'volcanoes,' and liquid nitrogen as the catalyst for the eruption. In this podcast, Idstein describes the set-up procedures, students react, and we share some explosive audio!

Idstein's demonstrations were for a course he is teaching, Geology 160: Geology for Elementary School Teachers. Idstein is the lab coordinator for the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and does research on karst hydrogeology, studying groundwater systems in Kentucky. 

This podcast was produced by Cheyenne Hohman.

A&S photographer was also on hand to capture the action – view the photo album.

We also had a bit of fun pulling off an April Fool’s prank and gave one of the explosions a bit of the Hollywood treatment – if you haven’t seen the extreme version, you can watch it below.