TWO North-East geological experts hope their visit to the Antarctic will increase the understanding of volcanoes.

Prof Jon Davidson, 45, head of Durham University's Earth Sciences Department, and Dr Dougal Jerram, 35, a lecturer at the university sponsored by the petrol firm Total, spent two weeks last month on a US project in the Antarctic Dry Valleys.

They hope their research on the area's rock formations, forged 180 million years ago, could yield vital clues on how some volcanoes, such as that which devastated Asia in the tsunami disaster, work.

The pair were accepted to join a 25-strong team, led by Prof Bruce Marsh, of John Hopkins University in Maryland. There was only one other Briton in the team.

The pair, continuing Durham's cutting-edge geological research tradition, were examining rocks created during volcanic eruptions when the Earth's current tectonic plates were formed in a bid to understand how magma flows develop.

Although it is summer in Antarctica, the men's flight from New Zealand was delayed for a week by bad weather.

As well as learning how to survive in ice holes in the event of an emergency, such as a helicopter crashing or being forced down, they visited the hut of the explorer Captain Scott, who died after being beaten to the South Pole by the Norwegian Amundsen in 1912.

The building, set up during a previous Scott expedition and preserved as a museum, still has the items of food left by the doomed expedition.

Dr Jerram said: "It was unusual. There are biscuits with bite marks in them and seal carcasses.

Prof Davidson said: "It will help us understand how some volcanoes occur. We can learn things here that we can't from other volcanoes because they aren't extinct.

"It was surprisingly clement. When we were in camp it was only a few degrees below zero and if it was sunny and there was no wind you could sit outside in a T-shirt."

Although most people think of the Antarctic as covered in ice and snow, The Dry Valley where the men were taking samples, is a desert because ice turns straight to gas.

Dr Jerram said : "We were privileged to be involved in what was an American-funded expedition.''

The pair, who have visited sites across the world, described the expedition as a highlight.

They will examine their rock samples with a spectrometer to gain clues on how some volcanoes build up to an eruption.