Professor Claire Horwell and Professor Ed Llewellin, volcanologists from the Department of Earth Sciences, have had a one-of-a-kind rug made, inspired by the eruption of Kilauea volcano, Hawaii.

We love the pattern - it is visually striking - with order but also randomness, which was created by the earth and not by a person. It has meaning - it is the ‘heartbeat of Kilauea’!

The married couple have worked at the United States Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and, when the USGS published its professional paper on Kilauea’s 2008-2018 lava lake at Halema’uma’u Crater, the couple was struck by the beauty of a graph showing the seismic tremor from the eruption. They liked it so much, they decided to get a rug made of the image. Professor Llewellin said: “We love the pattern - it is visually striking - with order but also randomness, which was created by the earth and not by a person. It has meaning - it is the ‘heartbeat of Kilauea’!”

Working through a London-based flooring company, the rug is being hand-knitted at a factory in Kathmandu, Nepal which is part of the Good Weave Foundation which promotes ethical and sustainable labour in Nepal’s carpet factories.