The Royal Navy has come to the aid of four UK women working at an isolated Antarctic scientific base after its buildings were buried in heavy snow.

Sailors and Royal Marines from HMS Protector spent two days digging out the Port Lockroy site.

The damaged roof of Bransfield Hut – home to a museum, gift shop and world’s most remote post office – was fixed.

The women beat 6,000 applicants to manage the base and share the island with a colony of Gentoo penguins.

Clare Ballantyne, Mairi Hilton, Natalie Corbett and Lucy Bruzzone accepted the task of reopening the site 9,000 miles from the UK in October, 2020.

They were setting up, assisted by three other staff who are leaving shortly, ahead of the austral summer – which falls between November to February in the southern hemisphere – when heavy snowfall of between two and four metres (6-12ft) deep arrived.

The team from HMS Protector, which is based in Plymouth when in the UK, shifted several tonnes of snow and carried out temporary repairs.

Engineers say they used traditional naval ship damage control methods using wooden stakes and blocks to stabilise the structure.

The ice patrol ship pays regular visits to international bases like Port Lockroy on the frozen continent, delivering supplies, and supporting scientific research of the UK and other nations.

Warrant Officer First Class Lee “Rattler” Morgan, who was part of the rescue team, said he was “taken aback” by “the sheer amount of snow”, adding that the buildings “had all but disappeared”.

“It is good for the ship’s company to step ashore and help out. The sailors were all smiles and happy to get cracking on with such a worthwhile task.”

The staff can now resume their five-month stint at Port Lockroy, a former whaling station that has become a tourist attraction visited by around 20,000 people during the summer season.

During their time at the site, the four have given up running water, a flushing toilet, wi-fi, and can only speak to their loved ones for 10 minutes a week.

But when they were asked about giving up on creature comforts, the four said they could not resist the opportunity to work on the island.

Ms Corbett, in charge of running the gift shop at the site’s museum, was a newlywed when she embarked on the role.

The 31-year-old from Hampshire dubbed the trip a “solo honeymoon”.

“Who wouldn’t want to spend five months working on an island filled with penguins in one of the most remote places on the planet?” she said.

Ms Ballantyne, from Lincolnshire, had just completed a masters in earth science at Oxford University.

The 23-year-old will deal with approximately 80,000 cards during her time on the job, which are mailed each year from the site to more than 100 countries.

Ms Hilton, from Bo’ness, near Falkirk in Scotland, is a conservation scientist in charge of monitoring the number of Gentoo penguins that live on the bay.

Ms Bruzzone, from London, who previously spent three months in Svalbard as a chief scientist on an Arctic expedition, is working as the base leader, managing the team and coordinating all ship visits to the island.

Indonesia’s Mount Semeru volcano has erupted, sending ash billowing into the sky and sparking evacuations on the country’s main island, Java.

Authorities raised the volcano’s warning status to the highest level, meaning its activity had escalated.

No injuries have been reported but nearly 2,000 people were evacuated from the area around the volcano.

People have been urged to keep at least 8 km (5 miles) away, as “hot avalanches” of lava poured from Semeru.

The increased threat level from three to four also means the danger threatens people’s homes, a spokesman for Indonesia’s Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG) told a national broadcaster.

The organisation said a bridge being rebuilt after a previous eruption had been badly damaged.

Volcanic ash mixed with monsoon rain was falling on nearby villages and 1,969 people, including children and seniors, had been evacuated, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said.

At least six villages had been affected, it added.

Residents of six villages were evacuated by rescuers
Videos of the event showed the sky turning black as a massive plume of ash blocked the sunlight.

Japan issued a tsunami warning for its southernmost islands after the eruption, but meteorologists said no tidal changes had been observed.

Mount Semeru, in East Java province, began erupting at about 02:46 local time (19:46 GMT), authorities said.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” where tectonic plates collide, causing frequent volcanic activity as well as earthquakes.

Semeru – also known as “The Great Mountain” – is the highest volcano in Java at 3,676m (12,060ft) and one of the most active. Its last erupted exactly one year ago, killing at least 50 people and leaving streets filled with mud and ash.

The eruption also follows a series of earthquakes on the west of Java island, located about 640 km (400 miles) east of Indonesia’s capital Jakarta, including one last month that killed more than 300 people.

The Nabemba Tower, also known as Elf Tower, is an office skyscraper in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo.

At 106 metres and 30 floors it is the tallest building in the Republic of the Congo, as well as Central Africa.

The tower got its name from the mountain Mont Nabemba, the highest mountain in the country, thus the tallest building in the country.

The tower was built with borrowed funds from the French oil company Elf Aquitaine.

The tower was designed by Jean Marie Legrand during the government’s five-year plan and was built between 1983 and 1986. Various ministries and charities’ offices are housed in the tower, such as the African Self-help Development Initiative, the New Partnership for African Development, and UNESCO.

The tower is located directly on the Congo River in the south of the city, across from Kinshasa.

Nabemba Tower was inaugurated by President Denis Sassou Nguesso on 3 February 1990.

The shape of the Nabemba Tower is slender, the sides towards the middle and bent inwards so it makes a concave cylinder.

The tower is based on a rectangular pedestal that forms the main core of the shape.

The facade consists of vertical lines with glass and light concrete, which reinforces its narrow shape.

The floor plan, comprising the 6th to 27th floor, makes three concretic circles: in the middle there are elevators and technical facilities, then there are circular corridors, and finally these two rings are surrounded by an outer ring of offices, which are divided into segments by movable walls.

The windows are sealed, but an air-conditioning system pumps cold air through a cooling system and regulates the temperature in the building.

The tower had significant damage during the Republic of Congo Civil War in 1997, but when President Sassou Nguesso returned to power.

However, the building was rebuilt at the exorbitant cost of £6,000,000 which was more than the entire initial construction cost, but maintaining the building costs £3,000,000.

The local architect Norbert Mbila has said repeatedly that the tower is nothing more than “symbolic building which was built purely for prestige and it is neither necessary nor useful for such a poor country”.

He is actually right to say those things, but all in all the building is a marvelous masterpiece of architecture, which can compete for the best building ever built in Africa.

Many people on the Big Island of Hawaii are bracing for major upheaval if lava from Mauna Loa volcano slides across a key highway and blocks the quickest route connecting two sides of the island.

The molten rock could make the road impassable and force drivers to find alternate coastal routes in the north and south. That could add hours to commute times, doctor’s visits and freight truck deliveries.

“I am very nervous about it being cut off,” said Frank Manley, a licensed practical nurse whose commute is already an hour and 45 minutes each way from his home in Hilo to a Kaiser Permanente clinic in Kailua-Kona.

If the highway closes, he anticipates driving two-and-a-half to three hours in each direction. Manley fears he might lose pay if an accident or other traffic disruption along an alternate route delays his arrival.

The lava is oozing slowly at a rate that might reach the road next week. But its path is unpredictable and could change course, or the flow could stop completely and spare the highway.

The slow-moving flow was coursing about 2.7 miles (4.3 kilometers) from the road Friday, U.S. Geological Survey scientists reported.

There are more affordable housing options on the island’s east side, home to the county seat, Hilo.

But many jobs at beach resorts, in construction and other industries are readily available on the west side, where Kailua-Kona is located. Saddle Road, also known as Route 200 or Daniel K. Inouye Highway, connects the two communities.