I recently tried a program by Ken Wohletz, which can be found here. Erupt is now in its third edition. This is manly an educational and analysis program, and it does a great job at both. Erupt would be great in the classroom or as an educational experience at home. Users are able to see the layers of volcanic material, each layer has two different colors, which are meant to display different eruptions. However, it also really entertaining to play with. You can create almost any type of volcanic eruption, from Kilauea style eruptions to Yellowstone eruptions and everything in between. Even on my failing computer it used up very little memory and hardly affected by computer.
The only problem with the program is the graphics. The are clearly outdated, however, one must remember that this meant to be educational in nature.
This is a great program and one that I would highly recommend, even if it is just for a few hours. I really think you will become addicted to it and not be able to shut your computer off at night.
