Q:

Can someone explain the effects visible in Google Image Swirl? 

How are the expanding and shrinking effects done?  
http://image-swirl.googlelabs.com/html?q=volcano#388
Is it possible with jQuery UI animate stuff?  

A:

Google uses flash for this.   Something similar might be possible in jquery, but it's going to be more complicated and will probably not be practical to run on basic machines.