Planet Earth is full of volcanoes. Some are dormant, some are extinct, but a scary amount are constantly active. This includes supervolcanoes, which when they erupt cause cataclysmic damage to the entire planet.
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00:00:00We live on a volcanic planet. There are volcanoes all over the earth, from
00:00:06northern Russia to Antarctica. They are found on every continent. They are the
00:00:12wildest forms of nature, untamable, dangerous and dramatic.
00:00:18They're still being found. The largest volcano in the world was discovered in
00:00:232013, a massive undersea mountain off the coast of Japan. It's not the largest
00:00:29we know of. That would be Mons Olympus on Mars. Nor is it the largest ever on
00:00:36earth. That was likely an Indonesian volcano that 70,000 years ago almost
00:00:41wiped out mankind, leaving less than 1,000 breeding pairs of humans to
00:00:47continue our race. The biggest is yet to come. The Yellowstone supervolcano
00:00:53erupts every 600,000 years. The last eruption was 648,000 years ago, so it's
00:01:02now long overdue. When it erupts, it will likely be the largest natural explosion
00:01:07in the history of the earth, equivalent to about a thousand nuclear bombs or a
00:01:13one-kilometer asteroid hitting the earth. It will drop world temperatures by 10 to
00:01:1920 degrees, and will eventually likely trigger the end of civilization.
00:01:26There's thankfully no active volcano today comparable with Yellowstone, but
00:01:31the one that perhaps comes closest is Niragongo, deep in Central Africa,
00:01:36considered the most dangerous volcano in the world. Its last major eruption a few
00:01:41years ago killed many people, ran a river of lava right through the city of Goma,
00:01:46and made refugees out of over 120,000 people. We went to climb this large
00:01:52towering volcano to see the power of it and the risk it presents to the people
00:01:57and wildlife of the Congo.
00:02:03It's a long way to get there, flying first to London, England, then to
00:02:08Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, then to Kigali, Rwanda, then by land across Rwanda, across
00:02:16the border into the Congo. The sprawling rough scrabble town of Goma is our last
00:02:23stop before base camp. To put it mildly, Goma is not Geneva. How poor is the
00:02:30eastern Congo? In Goma, they make their own bicycles out of wood. And when I
00:02:38start handing out Congolese francs to my photographic subjects, it almost causes a riot.
00:02:43That's me in green, besieged by this mob of urchins. Above the crazy street
00:02:50scenes of Goma lurks a smoking Narragongo volcano. In 2002, it had a major
00:02:56eruption that sent a river of lava right through the city of Goma. The disaster
00:03:01brought more hardship to a city that has suffered war and poverty for decades.
00:03:06We met with Jacques Derieux, a French scientist who's been studying the volcano for
00:03:1130 years. During the last eruption in 2002, we have been extremely lucky because
00:03:16the lava flows that did enter the city were moving at a speed between 5 and 8
00:03:20kilometers per hour, allowing the people to run away. If we do have in the city,
00:03:26lava flows at a speed between, I don't know, 20 to 40 kilometers per hour, it will
00:03:31be a huge catastrophe. That eruption just occurred after 11 years of war. And the
00:03:38volcano was more impressive to the people than the 11 years of war. In 2002,
00:03:45the lava flowed so fast that cars and trucks were engulfed before they could be moved.
00:03:50And they're still there today, a permanent reminder of the power and unpredictability
00:03:56of an active volcano. See the boy peeking out from the back of that rusted truck?
00:04:04Hard to believe it, but that's his home now. If Niragongo blows its stack again,
00:04:10who knows what will happen to this shabby town and the people who live in it.
00:04:15We prepared to climb to see the state of the volcano today.
00:04:19We're here now and I'm told we will go up to the coulee and then up to the fracture.
00:04:26And so we began the six-hour trek straight up the steep volcano. Our Congolese porters
00:04:31were incredible. This is a challenging climb. These guys do it carrying everything from heavy
00:04:37cans of water, to tents, to my camera, to an AK-47 to protect us with, and do it with speed.
00:04:47Some of them also have pretty amazing stories to tell about their experiences with the volcano.
00:05:01I thought it would be interesting to try and get down inside the volcano.
00:05:20Not interesting enough for me personally, you understand, but perhaps interesting enough for
00:05:25one of the geologists traveling with us. It's free. Okay. Pull and it locks. All right.
00:05:31Squeeze and it's free. I'll place the rope pad.
00:05:39What's it like? But eventually he too decided discretion was the better part of valor.
00:05:44It gets pretty tough to take after a while.
00:05:49Not worth going any deeper. Not without an air-conditioned suit.
00:05:54There are lots of holes leading deep into the lava. When the lava flowed through here in 2002,
00:05:59this was actually a rainforest. And you see a lot of these casts from the trees that used to be
00:06:03here. The lava flowed around the trees and then burned the trunks out. So you've got these holes
00:06:07all the way up the path to the summit. Our team continues to trudge up the hill.
00:06:19By the end of the day, we're staggering up the 40 degree slope.
00:06:24I can't wait to get to the top of this thing.
00:06:26And know that climbing beside him with my heavy camera, I feel just the same.
00:06:31Come on up. Have a look. We finally make it. This is it. Oh, this is great.
00:06:41Oh, man. That is awesome. Congratulations. That's what I'm talking about. Look at that.
00:06:50Welcome to the top. After five years of planning, five days of traveling, and five hours of climbing.
00:07:06Completely sucked in by thick clouds and then wicked thunderstorms that lasted for three days.
00:07:20When it finally cleared, we got a chance to get out and witness and photograph
00:07:24the world's largest lava lake.
00:07:27Now we wait for darkness to witness one of the rarest and most spectacular sights on the planet.
00:07:53Mount Niragana.
00:08:06It's a window into the core of the earth. 2,000 degrees of molten fury.
00:08:16It's an amazing sight and a reassuring one.
00:08:19The boiling cauldron of lava actually means the volcano is comfortably vending off its energy.
00:08:27For now, it seems the 600,000 people of Goma are safe.
00:08:31But who knows what tomorrow will bring to this corner of darkest and hottest Africa.
00:08:38Not all volcanoes are found in places as wild as the eastern Congo.
00:08:49Costa Rica, for instance, is a peaceful tropical paradise with lush rainforests,
00:08:59great waterfalls,
00:09:03and all kinds of opportunities to see and photograph nature in the raw.
00:09:09It's also an adventure playground with thick rainforests, wild rivers, untouched jungles,
00:09:16and especially an array of active volcanoes running from north to south.
00:09:27Costa Rica is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, a 40,000 kilometer band of seismic activity
00:09:34that has created hundreds of volcanoes, many of them clustered in this small country.
00:09:41Over the last century, many spectacular eruptions have made Costa Rica a hotbed of volcanic activity.
00:09:49Being in this ring of fire also makes the country prone to earthquakes.
00:09:54The 2009 quake was dramatically captured in the middle of a local live news coverage.
00:10:08Although Erazu has erupted 23 times in modern history,
00:10:12the show it gave to U.S. President John Kennedy is considered most infamous.
00:10:24Lasting over two years, the volcano dumped a huge amount of ash over central Costa Rica,
00:10:30even covering the runway that Air Force One had to land on.
00:10:42The built-up ash and heavy rains combined to produce flash floods that caused tremendous damage.
00:10:49Erazu is now a national park with thousands of visitors coming each year
00:10:54to see the volcano that did so much damage to their country.
00:10:59Although inactive at the moment, Erazu is developing fissures that indicate it could
00:11:04blow its top any time. The real action though is Mount Arenal, Costa Rica's most active volcano,
00:11:11with a well-populated town right below it. Scientists are trying to predict what the big
00:11:16hill might do, and we got a chance to climb up it and look at it with them.
00:11:25The first half of the climb was the easy part.
00:11:31From here we walk. The international team of geophysicists from Ireland,
00:11:35Italy and Costa Rica are installing seismic imaging equipment that will help them understand
00:11:41and more importantly predict the underground magma movement on the volcano.
00:11:45We're just taking up the cables for connecting the instrument. The seismometer needs to be
00:11:51connected to a computer and to a global positioning system for the time signal.
00:11:57So we're just gathering together all those cables so we can bring them up into the
00:12:00field with the seismometers and connect everything up. One, two.
00:12:06Climbing volcanoes, especially with scientific or camera equipment on your back,
00:12:10is usually a hot strenuous task, and Arenal is no exception.
00:12:16There's no real trail, just a steep field of rocks and lava bombs from past eruptions.
00:12:26You can already hear rocks coming down the side of the mountain.
00:12:34The area we are exploring today is well within striking distance of Arenal's molten hot lava
00:12:39and periclastic flow, like this one that killed two visitors here in 2000.
00:12:46All right, we've arrived at the site. Once at the high optimum measurement site,
00:12:54scientists and technicians, some assistance from my climbing partner George Karunas,
00:12:59lay out the piles of cable and wire, precisely measuring the field
00:13:04and installing and calibrating the instruments.
00:13:09Chris Bean, the leader of the expedition, fills me in on what it's all about.
00:13:14What we're doing is we are trying to understand the nature of the seismic sources on the volcano.
00:13:20All volcanoes make noise, and as seismologists, we put out instruments on the surface of the
00:13:26volcano to record those sounds that the volcano makes, much like a medical cardiograph,
00:13:30except we're looking at acoustic signals rather than electrical signals. And so what we're doing
00:13:34is putting out these instruments to try to understand what those signals are telling us
00:13:37about how fluids are moving in the subsurface in a volcano. Underneath Arenal, and every volcano,
00:13:43is a labyrinth of underground chambers where 1200 degree magma flows.
00:13:50These tests help them understand where the magma is moving and where and when it might erupt.
00:13:57We're putting out 10 instruments in what's called an array, so they're just out in a
00:14:01semicircle, and we are installing those individual seismometers, and each seismometer records ground
00:14:08vibration. So they're continuous, even though we can't feel it here because we're not so sensitive
00:14:13to ground vibration, there are continuous vibrations as we stand here. These instruments
00:14:18are sensitive enough to detect those, and we can use some techniques to turn that information into
00:14:24a knowledge of what the near surface variability of structure of the volcano is. So that's today's
00:14:28job. But Arenal's a serious piece of work, and even seasoned volcanologists get nervous working
00:14:36on this mountain. Well we're going to stay here for as short a time as possible, I'll put it that way.
00:14:42You don't like to linger here? I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I'd say I wouldn't camp overnight
00:14:47at this particular location, I wouldn't linger. I mean it's nice to be here, it puts an edge on
00:14:52on it, but you know it can be dangerous as well, so we'll get in and out as quickly as we can.
00:14:58On the other side of the world, the other side of the ring of fire,
00:15:02lies Indonesia, with more than 150 sites, one of the most volcanic places on the planet.
00:15:14Indonesia is full of history, color, fire, and mysterious creatures.
00:15:22The island archipelago is also home to many of the world's great volcanoes.
00:15:33We managed to get close to many of them, Papandiam, Bromo, Samaru, and the mother of all volcanoes, Krakatoa.
00:15:55On August 27, 1883, Krakatoa erupted with a force never seen before.
00:16:02Hundreds of villages were wiped out by the explosion and huge pyroclastic flows.
00:16:11Even more devastating, Krakatoa produced a 40 meter high tsunami that claimed 36,000 lives.
00:16:18So powerful, it sent ships three kilometers inland in the massive surge.
00:16:27We're heading for the island of Rakata, once part of Krakatoa,
00:16:31now a smaller island, where we should be able to get a good view of the very active
00:16:35remaining volcano, now known as Anak Krakatoa.
00:16:41Guiding us is Indonesian volcanologist, Donny Widjianto.
00:16:45How's it going Donny? I'm fine, thank you. Where are we off to today?
00:16:49Today we're gonna go to Krakata, the original Krakatoa, and camp there.
00:16:55Excellent. Super, bloody, maximum, bagus, f***ing awesome dude.
00:17:01Donny may not be your stereotypical scientist, but he knows volcanoes and he starts by taking
00:17:07us to the Krakatoa observatory to show us the latest seismic activities on the islands.
00:17:18We arrive at the exploding island, just as it is sending a huge ash cloud
00:17:23hundreds of meters in the air.
00:17:30We set up a camp that gives us a front row seat on what was once the most destructive volcano
00:17:36in human history. Our crew begins preparing dinner, setting up tents,
00:17:41and complaining about the weather. Super, bloody, maximum hot.
00:17:46It is hot, isn't it? Not quite as hot as over there on the other island.
00:17:50Yeah, because it's windy on the island.
00:17:53Windy? Oh yeah, there's also hot rocks flying out of it.
00:18:05What a sight for a swim.
00:18:11Late in the afternoon, we get on to Anak Krakatoa and try to get close to the top of the
00:18:16mountain.
00:18:24This is going to be tough determining how close is safe on this one.
00:18:28I like this mountain.
00:18:31Well, it's starting to get late in the day. The sun's going to be going down soon enough, so
00:18:37it's best to just get off the mountain, go and observe from a safer area because
00:18:42when it starts getting dark and these things start heading for you,
00:18:46game over, man. Krakatoa slowly rebuilding itself with these new eruptions
00:18:51is a fascinating volcano, but not by any means the only one in Indonesia.
00:18:58Next, Donnie leads us to Papandayan volcano on western Java.
00:19:02The flow came down from the crater here, and then extended how far down?
00:19:07Telling us of the major 2002 eruption.
00:19:09Four and a half kilometer down.
00:19:11Really?
00:19:12And then some of the rock, they're flying to the other side.
00:19:17Right over the other side of the mountain?
00:19:18Right on the side of the mountain.
00:19:21He also tells me about his fascination with volcanoes.
00:19:24Volcano is amazing. You know, you never know what's going to happen.
00:19:29Mother nature is a big power. I like to learn about it.
00:19:33So up here, you said that there's a
00:19:36fumarole that sounds like a jet engine. How far away is that?
00:19:39About 500 meters from here.
00:19:46Oh, this is steep here, isn't it?
00:19:47Oh, yeah.
00:19:48It's not just steep.
00:19:49Super bloody maximum steep.
00:19:54You see, Donnie learned most of his English from Eddie Murphy movies.
00:19:59As well as bad language, there are also bad,
00:20:01bad smells coming from the sulfuric vents of Papandayan.
00:20:10Now that sounds like a rocket engine.
00:20:29The sulfur is hot and liquefied.
00:20:36And the gases are not something any of us want to get into our lungs.
00:20:40Let's go take a look.
00:20:54But that's so amazing.
00:20:55There's so much liquid sulfur in that one spot.
00:20:57It's just bubbling away.
00:21:03Inside these vents is a pond of liquid sulfur.
00:21:07And in its liquid form, it's orange.
00:21:09And when it comes up through the gas,
00:21:12it crystallizes and forms these yellow deposits that you see everywhere here.
00:21:16But the gas is so toxic.
00:21:19So toxic that it's not a good idea to try to talk.
00:21:25At the other end of Java is another volcano that has been turned into a real hell on Earth.
00:21:31Kawaichan is also rich in sulfur deposits
00:21:35that are in this case dug out of the ground by hand and lugged over the mountain.
00:21:39By miners working for pitons.
00:21:43It is back-breaking work done by men with only basic tools,
00:21:47no safety equipment, and no protection.
00:21:51Once they have dug the sulfur from the volcano,
00:21:54they lug loads, some up to 100 kilograms, out of the crater.
00:22:09The journey continues with a back-breaking hike to the peak,
00:22:13then down the other side to the weigh station.
00:22:28Each miner makes this grueling trip twice a day.
00:22:39Back in the mine, I convinced George to try out the load himself for the camera.
00:22:50Okay?
00:22:52Oh my god.
00:22:58Oh yes, it's as heavy as it looks.
00:23:03Wow.
00:23:07Super strong.
00:23:08These guys are supermen. I don't know how they do it.
00:23:11And then it's not just a matter of walking 10 feet.
00:23:13Oh no, they have to go all the way up there to the top of the crater.
00:23:18Four kilometers and it's not flat.
00:23:21It is steep, rugged volcanic terrain.
00:23:25Wow.
00:23:26Now that we've seen the strength of the Indonesians,
00:23:29we hire another 20 of them to help us get to the top of one of Java's highest,
00:23:34most active, and most dangerous volcanoes, Mount Semeru.
00:23:39Looks pretty far.
00:23:42It's a long two-day hike that starts pretty flat and increasingly becomes steeper and steeper.
00:23:55As we hike through the jungle,
00:23:57we can occasionally catch glimpses of the volcano looming in front of us.
00:24:02It's a long, hot, tough climb just to get to the base of the remote volcano.
00:24:07But the reality of volcano exploration is,
00:24:10if you want to see the good eruptions, you've got to work for it.
00:24:15I don't know how these guys do this every day.
00:24:24You know, when I'm sitting at home, I love talking about climbing mountains.
00:24:27But when you're halfway up the side of one, it's amazing how the opinions change.
00:24:33This is one intimidating volcano.
00:24:36The idea today is to get to the base of the cone.
00:24:40And then when you look and you see the cone,
00:24:42and realize that's what I have to climb tomorrow.
00:24:46There are a number of things that make Semeru a particularly difficult volcano to climb.
00:24:51First of all, quite simply, it's very steep.
00:24:54And this is the easy part.
00:24:56It gets much harder from here.
00:24:57You have to be off the mountain by 10 a.m.
00:25:00So you have to start the summit push at midnight and climb in the dark.
00:25:04It is very high, which means two things.
00:25:07You've got a long way to climb.
00:25:09And the higher you climb, the more out of breath you get.
00:25:13There's a knife-edge ridge you have to cross before you get to the main part of the mountain.
00:25:17And when you do get there, you find it's covered in loose scree.
00:25:21So your boots are full of stones.
00:25:23And for every two steps you take forward, you slide one step back.
00:25:28Incredibly steep.
00:25:29Of course, on top of all that,
00:25:31there's the other little matter that the mountain is continually exploding.
00:25:48Almost to the top.
00:25:53Hopefully really soon.
00:25:55Samaru is the highest point on all of Java.
00:26:02It's over 3,670 meters high.
00:26:08And pretty soon, I'm going to be on the top of it.
00:26:12Hopefully.
00:26:14I don't die between now and then.
00:26:16At 5.30, the sun makes its first appearance.
00:26:19In the thin air, the sunrise provides a good excuse to stop climbing,
00:26:24try and catch one's breath, and admire the view.
00:26:27Wow, beautiful.
00:26:30Better keep going.
00:26:33Oh, the glorious last few steps.
00:26:38Summit!
00:26:40I'm never gonna do it again.
00:26:42Never do it again.
00:26:44Funny, I'm saying the same thing to myself.
00:26:48Ignoring the danger signs, we head for the action.
00:26:53And we get it.
00:26:57Maybe a bit too close, so we retreat a little to wait for a big eruption.
00:27:04And Samaru doesn't disappoint.
00:27:06Oh, there we go!
00:27:06Oh, big one!
00:27:07Look at that!
00:27:09Wow!
00:27:12Ah, building up huge dark clouds of ash.
00:27:16Oh, and rocks!
00:27:17Look at the impact!
00:27:18Wow!
00:27:20Now, that was worth the trek up here.
00:27:28Perfect conditions, blue sky, very active mountain.
00:27:34You've seen a lot of my climbing partner, George Karunas, here.
00:27:37And you might start to think that I'm almost married to him.
00:27:41I'm not.
00:27:41You're not.
00:27:42Michelle Schubert is.
00:27:44And that's because I helped convince him to ask her to marry me.
00:27:47Michelle, we married.
00:27:49Yes.
00:27:50Oh, my God.
00:27:52On the lip, naturally, of an exploding volcano.
00:27:58I organized the volcanic wedding to take place in Vanuatu,
00:28:02an island paradise in the South Pacific,
00:28:04with the very impressive Yasir Volcano on one of the out islands.
00:28:13Nice.
00:28:16Real nice.
00:28:16Big ash cloud.
00:28:18Yasir Volcano, one of the most active volcanoes in the world.
00:28:22So we set out to explore it.
00:28:24And the two of us set up ropes,
00:28:25so that I can film George descending toward the crater.
00:28:29Right now, the plan is to rappel down into the crater of the volcano
00:28:34and still make it out for my wedding day.
00:28:37Oh, look at that.
00:28:39Oh, big bombs.
00:28:44Right now the plan is to rappel down into the crater of the volcano
00:28:49and still make it out for my wedding day.
00:28:53Oh, look at that! Big bombs! Big bombs!
00:28:58I've got to be real careful. This is a bit treacherous.
00:29:03We drive stakes into the ground for the safety lines
00:29:06and George asks me to drag his limp body back
00:29:09in case he should be knocked out cold by a flying lava bomb.
00:29:12So I'm squeezing it and I can go down.
00:29:13As soon as I let go, I'm attached to it and he'll pull me up on the rope.
00:29:24I film George's last-minute dressing into a full fireproof suit.
00:29:37So far so good. I'm about 50 meters inside the volcano now.
00:29:42The lava is really starting to glow bright orange.
00:29:45It's starting to get dark.
00:29:49Whoa!
00:29:53Big explosions behind me. Huge!
00:29:56I've got to keep going.
00:30:13Okay, I'm 60 meters down into the volcano
00:30:16and this is as far as I can go safely because I'm at the end of my rope.
00:30:20As a safety precaution, I don't want to go any further.
00:30:22The rocks around me are smoking
00:30:26and I'm totally surrounded by relatively fresh lava bombs.
00:30:33This is crazy.
00:30:36Okay, I'm getting blasted with sulfur dioxide now.
00:30:39I've got to put my mask on.
00:30:44Oh, big eruption.
00:30:49Noisy eruption.
00:30:51This is not a place that's conducive to life for very long.
00:30:54I can't stay here long.
00:30:59From my vantage point,
00:31:01I can see the eruptions begin to increase in size
00:31:04so I urge George to ascend.
00:31:11At that point, though,
00:31:13George spies a huge bomb that has landed behind him
00:31:16and determines to get it.
00:31:26From high above,
00:31:29From high above,
00:31:31George's bride-to-be,
00:31:33operating a fifth camera,
00:31:35observes the crazy action.
00:31:38On the walkie-talkie,
00:31:40I call to George,
00:31:42half egging him on,
00:31:44half calling him back.
00:31:46Fortunately, George hears more of the enthusiasm
00:31:49than the warning in my voice
00:31:51and gets to a brand new level.
00:31:53However, just as he starts to return,
00:31:55there's another major eruption.
00:31:57Only when reviewing the footage later
00:31:59do we see how close the lava bombs were falling.
00:32:13It's hot.
00:32:18Brand new bomb from Yasir.
00:32:21I saw where it hit.
00:32:23Ran out to get it.
00:32:31Whoo!
00:32:36Whoa.
00:32:40Still glowing.
00:32:43Feel the heat coming off of this.
00:32:46But spying his fiancée watching from the top of the hill,
00:32:49George remembers why he came to Vanuatu.
00:32:53All right, here I come.
00:32:55I think I've pushed my luck enough today.
00:33:02It's hot.
00:33:05All right.
00:33:07Enough messing around.
00:33:10Time to get married.
00:33:24Explosion.
00:33:41The night before the wedding,
00:33:43we celebrate with members of the John Frum Group,
00:33:46the strange cargo cult
00:33:48that worships a mythical U.S. Marine
00:33:50they believe will be their messiah.
00:33:57The next day...
00:34:12Thank you for coming all the way to Vanuatu
00:34:15to get married.
00:34:17Well, I'd just like to welcome you
00:34:19and say thank you for coming this far.
00:34:21As Pastor Isaac leads them through the ceremony,
00:34:24the volcano gives some spectacular eruptions.
00:34:27...the presence of the Almighty God,
00:34:29that you promise to take this woman as your wife.
00:34:36I promise to take this woman...
00:34:38...to care and to support her...
00:34:40...to care and to support her
00:34:42in good times and in bad times...
00:34:47I'm so happy with the many years that we've had,
00:34:50and I look forward to many, many more
00:34:53sharing our lives together.
00:34:56You may now slip the ring into the bride's finger.
00:35:05You have been my supporter,
00:35:08my wall and my rock.
00:35:11And if we're not careful,
00:35:13we might melt into one.
00:35:16I have this great honor
00:35:18to pronounce you husband and wife.
00:35:26And you may now kiss your bride.
00:35:39Let's ask the band to give a little song
00:35:43to finish off this ceremony.
00:36:14Oh!
00:36:21Hey!
00:36:35Oh!
00:36:39Oh, the volcano is just going again.
00:36:44In my career as a cinematographer,
00:36:47it's the first wedding I've filmed,
00:36:50and a very memorable one.
00:36:56But for the moment, I've lost my climbing partner.
00:36:59With George and his new bride off on a honeymoon,
00:37:02shark diving in the Bahamas,
00:37:04I decide to head to Guatemala,
00:37:06one of the most volcanically active countries in the Americas,
00:37:10to see the volcanoes there.
00:37:12This time, I have a new group of climbing companions.
00:37:15Thirteen young'uns,
00:37:17all of them under the age of 27.
00:37:20Guatemalan volcano exploration is unique
00:37:23in that it can all be done from one central place,
00:37:26the classic and colorful colonial city of Antigua.
00:37:35Antigua was the capital of Guatemala in the colonial era,
00:37:38but was twice destroyed by earthquakes.
00:37:41It has been restored today
00:37:43into one of the most pleasant towns in Central America,
00:37:46though it is still threatened by underground action.
00:37:49Look down any of Antigua's streets on a clear day,
00:37:52and you'll see one of the four active volcanoes that surround it.
00:37:59Naturally, it is home base for the country's best volcano guides.
00:38:03We decide to climb with Ox Tours,
00:38:05who assign us their top guide, Mahodif and Adam.
00:38:08Well, it's just a while.
00:38:10It's just because getting here,
00:38:12I want to get to this campsite
00:38:14with enough time in set camp
00:38:16and then get us up there before sunset.
00:38:18On this expedition, I'm trying out a new tool,
00:38:21a drone helicopter camera
00:38:23that I hope to fly into the craters of the volcanoes.
00:38:26Everyone warns me of the possible problems I may have there,
00:38:29but no one guesses the real reason
00:38:31why the drone won't work on the big mountains.
00:38:34We start with a climb up Pacaya,
00:38:37an active but modestly sized volcano one can manage in a day.
00:38:41But while the volcano is smoking,
00:38:43the clouds and mist swirling around the peaks
00:38:46make the job of filming it a challenge.
00:38:55However, we do get the drone in the air
00:38:57and out into the first of Pacaya's craters,
00:39:00where it shoots some video.
00:39:07And I safely get it back.
00:39:37We then take on the high and challenging Mt. Acatenango,
00:39:42sister peak to smoking Mt. Fuego.
00:39:45It's another long, tough climb,
00:39:47helped until the steepest sections
00:39:49by pack horses carrying our gear.
00:39:51This is a bit of a killer climb.
00:40:05We've been climbing since about 9 o'clock this morning.
00:40:10It's now 2 or so and we've been climbing all this time.
00:40:15The end is in sight.
00:40:18We've got people spread all over the last corner of the mountain.
00:40:25This is a bit of a killer climb.
00:40:27We've been climbing since about 9 o'clock this morning.
00:40:32It's now 2 or so and we've been climbing all this time.
00:40:37The end is in sight.
00:40:39We've got people spread all over the last corner of the mountain here.
00:40:44There's a girl behind who's not feeling well.
00:40:47I hope she doesn't drag the back end down.
00:40:50We've got about three people ahead of us and we're here.
00:40:54Not too far to go.
00:40:56Back there we've got Mt. Agua,
00:40:58a beautiful looking stratovolcano.
00:41:01It's apparently dangerous to climb for banditry and the like,
00:41:04so it isn't often climbed.
00:41:06But it is a perfect looking volcano.
00:41:08It looks as nice as Mt. Fuji in Japan, doesn't it?
00:41:11A really perfect volcano.
00:41:13Looks like it's got some kind of a TV tower or something on the top of it.
00:41:18And where are we above it?
00:41:20We're about level with it now.
00:41:22I think when we get to the top here we'll be above it
00:41:25because this is one of the highest volcanoes in Central America
00:41:29that we're climbing today.
00:41:31As it gets higher, it gets steeper.
00:41:35My daughter Brianna, handling second camera,
00:41:38is one of the first to the top.
00:41:41Twenty minutes later, I join her at the peak.
00:41:44We're here.
00:41:46At the top.
00:41:48This is it.
00:41:50This is the summit.
00:41:52Great.
00:41:54I can see smoke coming off Fuego over there.
00:41:58So it was time to set up the drone camera
00:42:01and send it over into the crater.
00:42:10But it wasn't to be.
00:42:13Well, this is a total bummer.
00:42:16The whole plan was to come here with the drone
00:42:19and get some shots into the crater.
00:42:21It seems the air is too thin up here.
00:42:24It doesn't have enough strength.
00:42:26The battery power doesn't work fine lower down.
00:42:30But up here in this thin air,
00:42:32it just doesn't have the oomph
00:42:34to get up in the air and control it
00:42:37so we can't get any height out of it.
00:42:40What a pity.
00:42:46And so we have to be satisfied with filming the volcano
00:42:49in the conventional manner.
00:42:51Not so bad.
00:42:53As the sun sets behind us,
00:42:55we have a great vantage point of it.
00:42:59The sun is setting.
00:43:11The explosions induce great enthusiasm
00:43:13from my youthful climbing companions.
00:43:30As the evening clouds roll in and the sun sets,
00:43:33we prepare for a cold, colorful, and noisy night
00:43:37beside exploding Mount Fuego.
00:44:00Mount Fuego
00:44:13Perhaps the most famous volcano in history,
00:44:16Mount Vesuvius in southern Italy
00:44:18exploded on April 24, 79 AD,
00:44:22completely covering the major city of Pompeii
00:44:25with ash and lava.
00:44:29For two days and nights,
00:44:31the volcano laid ruin to the city
00:44:33and killed almost every inhabitant.
00:44:36After the eruption, Pompeii was lost and forgotten
00:44:39for more than 1,500 years.
00:44:42The light ash of the pyroclastic flow of the volcano
00:44:46had the effect of perfectly preserving Pompeii,
00:44:49completely covering it,
00:44:51so that once it was dug up, starting in the 1740s,
00:44:54an amazing window into the Roman Empire was created.
00:44:58The archaeologists of the 18th century
00:45:00not only uncovered the architecture, sculpture,
00:45:03art, and housewares of the Roman era,
00:45:06created at the height of the Empire's power,
00:45:09but they were also able to carefully create casts
00:45:12of the bodies of dozens of Roman citizens
00:45:15caught in their moment of death at the hands of the volcano.
00:45:21They also uncovered a Pompeii brothel,
00:45:24complete with stone beds and frescoes
00:45:27well protected by the ash,
00:45:29illustrating the variety of offered services.
00:45:36For those of us who like to explore active volcanoes,
00:45:39it is sobering to see how these dangerous forces of nature
00:45:43can wipe out the lives and industry of people in an instant.
00:45:52And while Pompeii is gone, Vesuvius is still here.
00:45:56It had a major eruption in 1944, at the height of World War II,
00:46:01and it now threatens not just the roads and villages surrounding it,
00:46:05but the major city of Naples,
00:46:07now expanding to the flanks of the volcano.
00:46:12But Naples is not the only city in Italy threatened by volcanoes,
00:46:16so we head further south,
00:46:18to the biggest volcano in continental Europe, Mount Etna.
00:46:22We meet with one of the world's leading experts on the volcano,
00:46:25Professor Carmelo Ferlito.
00:46:27It is. Actually, Etna is known for being an effusive volcano,
00:46:32so for giving rise to mostly effusive eruptions,
00:46:36meaning eruptions with a lot of flow.
00:46:38Ferlito shows us some of the images shot of Etna in its many recent eruptions.
00:46:42Here, this flow, there's a big crater.
00:46:46There are people here.
00:46:49Mount Etna
00:46:54One of the most active volcanoes in the world,
00:46:57Etna is in a state of almost constant activity,
00:47:00known for large lava flows and major damaging eruptions.
00:47:10When it blows its top, it destroys everything in its way.
00:47:15With dozens of major eruptions over the last century,
00:47:19it poses a serious threat to nearby ski resorts, people and towns.
00:47:38We headed out to see the volcano,
00:47:41but at this time of year, Etna is not really interested in greeting visitors.
00:47:48Who knew we could expect such conditions at the southern tip of Italy?
00:47:52Certainly not our car rental company that gave us an underpowered car with no snow tires.
00:47:58While I drive, George shouts instructions and then pushes.
00:48:05Go, go, go!
00:48:07But the steep, slush-covered volcano is too much for the little car,
00:48:11so we have to abandon the climb.
00:48:15It's not about getting to the top anymore, it's about getting back down.
00:48:19Damn you, Etna! Damn you!
00:48:28It is disappointing for us, but we have a very promising alternative to tackle.
00:48:35Mount Stromboli rises 1,000 meters out of the Tyrrhenian Sea, off the coast of Sicily.
00:48:45Beneath Stromboli, a village of 700 people goes about its business,
00:48:49seemingly unfazed by the threat of living in the shadow of one of the world's most active volcanoes.
00:48:59Our guide, Zaza, drives us in his microbus.
00:49:03We navigate the incredibly narrow streets up to the base,
00:49:06the starting point for the 1,000-meter trek to the summit.
00:49:10The caution sign tells us to beware, do not trespass this limit,
00:49:34risk of landslide and volcanic eruption, which is pretty much what we came for.
00:49:39So, undaunted, we keep trekking up the hill.
00:49:42This is where the climb gets tough, with steep terrain and tricky footing,
00:49:47but Zaza and his trusty dog, Pele, know the way.
00:49:53This looks like the steep part.
00:49:55Like most volcanoes, Stromboli soon becomes a 30 to 40-degree climb.
00:50:04Eventually we make it high above the ocean, at the summit.
00:50:10As the sun sets over Stromboli, I begin to find camera positions for the evening light show.
00:50:29Zaza tells us of his passion for exploring this explosive volcano.
00:50:39Come on!
00:50:41Come on!
00:50:4430 years ago, I climbed here for the first time.
00:50:4830 years, 78.
00:50:51Every time you climb, it's different.
00:51:01The first time, it's the most beautiful.
00:51:05As darkness falls, I get set to film my climbing partner's take on this spectacular show.
00:51:12Well, tonight it looks like there's four different vents that are active on Stromboli.
00:51:15This one down here behind me is spitting out a lot of gas.
00:51:18It's glowing, but it's not really exploding.
00:51:20If we get really lucky, we'll get one of these vents shooting a huge plume of magma into the air.
00:51:26And right on cue, I get one.
00:51:28Oh, yeah! See? That's what I'm talking about.
00:51:31That is a big eruption.
00:51:33And that's why around the world, regular explosive eruptions are known as Strombolian eruptions.
00:51:38Because night after night, day after day,
00:51:41Mount Stromboli has been kicking them out for as long as mankind can remember.
00:51:49Unlike Italy, a rich, fertile land dotted with a few scattered volcanoes,
00:51:54Iceland is a vast, bleak landscape of volcanoes.
00:51:58Iceland is a vast, bleak landscape of volcanic rock,
00:52:02covered for much of the year in snow and, of course, ice.
00:52:06We drive far out into the Icelandic wilderness to see the volcanic bonanza,
00:52:11including its most distinctive feature, hot water vents, fumaroles, and geysers.
00:52:17This one, Geyser, gave the phenomenon its name.
00:52:21Following an earthquake in 2000, Geyser, although still boiling, has become a bit dormant.
00:52:28Nearby it, though, is Stroker, which erupts regularly.
00:52:37Of course, we had to get much closer to it than you were really supposed to be.
00:52:40There we go. I cannot recommend anyone getting this close to a geyser,
00:52:44because it's very, very dangerous.
00:52:47I've been watching it and timing it.
00:52:50I'll step back when it gets time to erupt.
00:52:52I just want to get in close for a couple pictures.
00:52:56Whoa!
00:53:04Warmed by the eruptions of boiling water, we head across the frozen landscape
00:53:09for a short sea passage across a rough stretch of the North Atlantic
00:53:13to take us to the offshore island of Heiming.
00:53:16There are a number of possible impediments to exploring volcanoes.
00:53:20Add seasickness to the list.
00:53:25We begin driving across the windswept tiny island,
00:53:28where in the middle of the night on January 23, 1973, the Earth exploded.
00:53:38At 2 a.m., completely without warning, the dormant Eldfell volcano violently erupted.
00:53:44A three-kilometre fissure in the Earth opened up and out poured red-hot lava,
00:53:49flowing at the speed of 199 cubic metres per second,
00:53:53threatening the people, buildings and livestock of the island.
00:53:58Amazingly calm and well-organized, the people, led by emergency services,
00:54:03mobilized within minutes to mount the largest air-sea evacuation in Icelandic history.
00:54:115,000 people were transported off the island within hours.
00:54:16The flowing lava and tons of volcanic ash began burying the town.
00:54:24Music
00:54:30Once people were safely off the island,
00:54:33the major threat was to Heiming's most important feature, the harbour.
00:54:37The massive lava flows threatened to seal off the channel entrance.
00:54:42A plan was devised to stop the flow by cooling the lava with seawater.
00:54:47For months, millions of gallons of cold seawater were pumped onto the lava.
00:54:52Music
00:55:03Eventually the Icelanders stopped the flow and Heiming thrives today, 25% larger than before.
00:55:11As we head up to explore the top of the volcano, we run into the remnants of some Icelandic weather.
00:55:17Engine noise
00:55:22Oh no.
00:55:29OK, the car has sort of bottomed out.
00:55:34So we abandon the van for now and head up to the crater on foot,
00:55:38a crater that was only a short time ago an inferno.
00:55:43Not long ago over 1,000 degrees.
00:55:46Today it is covered with wind-scoured ice and crusty snow.
00:55:51Woo! There's the crater of the volcano.
00:55:55This is the source of all the lava that flowed into town.
00:55:58It's so unbelievably windy right now.
00:56:01Today the big danger is getting blown off the mountain.
00:56:05And if George is having trouble standing upright,
00:56:08imagine the issues I'm having with the camera and tripod.
00:56:11It really is like hell on earth, another planet entirely.
00:56:20Let's go to Turkey now, where we find some rather ordinary-looking volcanoes,
00:56:25all of them either extinct or dormant,
00:56:28that have created one of the world's most extraordinary landscapes.
00:56:32Massive volcanic eruptions 300 million years ago
00:56:35laid down a deep layer of weak volcanic tufa
00:56:38with an overlay of harder ash from a second series of eruptions.
00:56:42Years of erosion have created the wildly-shaped hoodoos,
00:56:45known as fairy chimneys, seen today.
00:56:48Geothermal activity seldom has a positive result.
00:56:52The many Roman ruins throughout Turkey are a good example.
00:56:55Many are now wrecked by earthquake damage.
00:56:58Cappadocia is quite different,
00:57:00for here the remains of volcanic activity have been turned over hundreds of years
00:57:04into an extraordinary collection of dug-out houses, churches and even underground cities.
00:57:11The churches and monasteries are especially impressive,
00:57:14with most of the volcanic cave walls painted with frescoes.
00:57:18Many of these frescoes are still in excellent shape,
00:57:21others defaced by graffiti from the 19th century.
00:57:26The people of Cappadocia carve not just houses, barns and churches,
00:57:30but also elaborate underground cities from the soft volcanic rock.
00:57:37This is the Bush Connect underground city.
00:57:40This is the storage room, the second room in.
00:57:44They didn't really make them for people my size,
00:57:47especially not those tunnels.
00:57:49This is the first floor, we're going down three or four more floors.
00:57:52So believe it or not, the people who lived in these caves and built these caves
00:57:56were so paranoid about strangers coming in to steal their wine or attack them,
00:58:02that they built in place these giant rock wheels
00:58:06to roll across them from the entranceways
00:58:09so that they could protect themselves from strangers attacking them.
00:58:17One of the most iconic symbols of the area today are the whirling dervishes,
00:58:21a traditional cult-like dance movement
00:58:24that appears to mimic a cross between a human volcano and a human tornado.
00:58:32As always, the rich volcanic soils provide great opportunities for agriculture.
00:58:55The grape pickers were willing to share their rich harvest bounty with me,
00:59:00but, like a lot of photographic subjects,
00:59:03eventually began to wonder how many shots I needed to take of them.
00:59:06Did you fall in love with me?
00:59:09Oh my God!
00:59:20That's enough.
00:59:23Undeterred, I head into town to film their sisters
00:59:27boiling down the grapes over a wood fire in the jam.
00:59:32Today, people are finding all kinds of new opportunities
00:59:36to mine a living from the volcanic landscape.
00:59:39Omer Tusem turned a collection of ancient cave dwellings
00:59:43into the extraordinary museum hotel.
00:59:47This is the first concept and the first luxury concept in the area.
00:59:53The reason is because I restore the natural caves,
00:59:58which has been used for thousands of years
01:00:01and turned it into a luxury accommodation here.
01:00:04Plus, we have lovely pools and restaurants and great stuff.
01:00:09And lovely clients.
01:00:12You may be in a cave in this hotel,
01:00:14but it is the most elegantly appointed cave in the world.
01:00:20With this hotel completed,
01:00:22Tusem is now exploring the potential for geothermal energy creation
01:00:26using the volcanically heated steam and water deep beneath Cappadocia.
01:00:31Nobody believed me, you know, this is a thermal area.
01:00:34But now, to prove that, last year I drilled nearly 900 meters
01:00:38and found 180 degrees water, hot water.
01:00:42The main things now, first of all, outside the National Park area,
01:00:46we like to build electric power stations.
01:00:51And because we have a work on Cappadocia,
01:00:56nearly 750 kilometers square.
01:00:59And through that, where we are going to put our drilling
01:01:04and find the hot waters to have electric energy,
01:01:09greenhouses and thermal hotels.
01:01:12This is going to be one of the best thermal spa hotels area in the world probably.
01:01:18And then we are going to have lots of electric.
01:01:21Hot water geothermal energy is nascent,
01:01:24but the hot air balloon industry is booming.
01:01:28The volcanic flames and heat that created this wild landscape
01:01:32have been replaced by burning gas,
01:01:34also of course created deep inside the earth,
01:01:37that fuels the hundreds of hot air balloons now floating over Cappadocia.
01:01:48Every morning, flames light up the sky
01:01:52as the balloons drift eastward like phantoms through the fairytale landscape.
01:02:17Cappadocia, Cappadocia
01:02:48Cappadocia, Cappadocia
01:02:53If the walls of the cave are flat, then it's meant for people.
01:02:57But if it's with arches and columns,
01:03:00especially like the one you see, the little car, grey car over there,
01:03:03you see how beautifully arched the entrance is,
01:03:06that's a sign that there's a church or a chapel behind that wall.
01:03:18Cappadocia, Cappadocia
01:03:25Our pilot fills me in with two theories about the volcanoes that created Cappadocia.
01:03:30Mount Ergios, in the cloud over there on the east side,
01:03:34Mount Hassan,
01:03:36and the other argument is that there were
01:03:39dozens of volcanic eruptions in this area,
01:03:42small, small eruptions.
01:03:47And with that, he creates a small eruption of his own.
01:04:07Hot air balloons and micro-helicopters allow us to get above terrestrial volcanoes.
01:04:14Submersibles allow us to get down to witness them under the ocean.
01:04:18They have enabled scientists to make one of the most surprising discoveries
01:04:22in the history of oceanography,
01:04:25underwater hydrothermal volcanic vents.
01:04:29The Canadian underwater explorer and inventor, Phil Newton,
01:04:33remembers the extraordinary find made in 1977.
01:04:37The discovery of the heat vent is certainly well known to me.
01:04:41A couple of friends of mine were on board the vessel and the submarine
01:04:45that found the very first heat vent off the Galapagos.
01:04:49And they were, to say, blown away is a complete understatement.
01:04:54Until then, no one knew there were volcanoes venting deep in the oceans.
01:04:59But the scientists made an even more amazing discovery.
01:05:02Colonies of life never before thought possible
01:05:05in such an extreme and hostile environment.
01:05:10Life without sun.
01:05:13Here we have life that is not based on sunlight.
01:05:16It's based not on photosynthesis but on chemosynthesis,
01:05:19taking the energy and the fuel directly from the heat vent.
01:05:25The remarkable discovery turned the science of marine biology upside down.
01:05:30The incredibly exciting thing about this environment these animals are found in,
01:05:34the black smoker environment, is how phenomenally hostile this environment is.
01:05:38It is a place that is hot and cold, hot like 700 or 800 degrees,
01:05:42cold like close to freezing a few centimeters away.
01:05:45It's an environment that's toxic.
01:05:47Hydrogen sulfide is coming out under extreme pressure
01:05:50and this is a gas that will kill you dead if you breathe it.
01:05:53And what's intriguing is until this ecosystem was discovered only 30 years ago,
01:05:58really this wasn't, you know, there was no understanding
01:06:01that animals could possibly live under such hostile conditions.
01:06:05Of course what is truly exciting about this to scientists like Chris Harvey Clark
01:06:09is that it opens up much broader possibilities for life on other planets.
01:06:15Well in the deep sea vents hydrogen sulfide is energy
01:06:18and so we have a sort of upside down ecosystem.
01:06:21Up here we've got sun coming down, down there we've got hydrogen sulfide
01:06:24and other energy rich compounds coming up out of the magma,
01:06:28really the mantle of the earth.
01:06:30It is of course extremely difficult and expensive to visit undersea volcanoes.
01:06:34But from time to time volcanoes burst forth from the sea
01:06:38and create brand new islands.
01:06:40When I heard that a new one had been created in Tonga,
01:06:43I determined to see it.
01:06:45I traveled there through New Zealand
01:06:47where we first checked out some more established Polynesian volcanoes.
01:06:52In order to get a better sense of what to expect on the brand new island,
01:06:57In order to get a better sense of what to expect on the brand new volcanic island in Tonga,
01:07:02we visited a small volcano off the coast of New Zealand called White Island.
01:07:19This rugged island is brimming with gas vents, fumaroles and giant mud pools.
01:07:27White Island is one of the most active volcanic sites in New Zealand
01:07:31and the energy is vented with astonishing power.
01:07:38This is one of the most intense fumaroles I've ever seen
01:07:41and we wanted to get in closer to it.
01:07:44Our guide has a sense of how close one can get to it.
01:07:47Pretty much as far as we can really go.
01:07:49Really? Can't get a little closer?
01:07:51We can but you can go by yourself.
01:07:54You can go, you can go in by yourself.
01:07:56Meaning, I'm not going the hell up there.
01:07:58Alright, I'll go to the end of the sulfurous rocks here.
01:08:02Yep, if that steam does turn, put on your gas mask.
01:08:05Oh, I'll put on my gas mask now just in case.
01:08:08Taking each step very carefully.
01:08:15The terrain here at the White Island volcano
01:08:17gives clues as to what the New Tongan volcano may look like.
01:08:22The cracks in the ground give a sense of how unstable the land is.
01:08:28The power of the steam pouring out of the ground is enormous.
01:08:34I'd love to get a bit closer but the ground all around this fumarole
01:08:38is all very soft and very unstable.
01:08:42And we soon discover how unstable.
01:08:45Whoa!
01:08:47Oh man!
01:08:49Part of the crater wall just broke away.
01:08:53While we filmed the fumarole, there was a little seismic shift
01:08:57and a landslide of rocks fell down this cliff.
01:09:02Nothing like a volcanic rock slide to liven up your day.
01:09:06New Zealand is located in the volcanic ring of fire
01:09:09and there's evidence of geothermal activity here.
01:09:12And there's evidence of geothermal activity everywhere.
01:09:19The hotbed for New Zealand volcanism is the area of Rotorua on the North Island.
01:09:25Full of geysers, mud pools and exploding fumaroles.
01:09:31They even cook their food here from the intense heat that flows from the earth.
01:09:35The most spectacular piece of New Zealand volcanism is the Paiutu geyser.
01:09:40Paiutu means explosion in Maori and that's what it does about 20 times a day
01:09:45blasting boiling hot water over 35 metres into the air.
01:09:54From New Zealand we fly north to Tonga to board the fishing boat
01:09:58that will take us out to the new island.
01:10:00And try to figure out how we will actually get on to this somewhat forbidding piece of land.
01:10:30Little did we know at that point that that is the option we'd be using.
01:10:36The big swells of the Pacific send my volcano-chasing partner to his bunk
01:10:40while I film the crew bailing out the leaky old fishing boat.
01:11:01As a long bumpy voyage drags on, George has even bigger problems.
01:11:15I just hit a big wave and I rolled off the side
01:11:22and my eye went right into the corner of this table.
01:11:27If it had been two centimetres lower it would have gone right into my eye.
01:11:32Holy cow, the whole bench fell over.
01:11:39We administer some first aid with the island finally in sight.
01:11:44As we approach the island, yet another problem.
01:11:47The ship's boat is broken free and the crew must retrieve it.
01:11:59Finally we get to the island.
01:12:01But it's not as easy as we thought it would be.
01:12:05Finally we get it back, get aboard, and with the usual difficulty get the motor started.
01:12:16We head for the new island.
01:12:18But as predicted, since we can't land in the surf, we have to swim to shore.
01:12:27George and I are on our way.
01:12:30George lands first and films me swimming in, using a stylish backstroke.
01:12:36Soon, like Robinson Crusoe, we're leaving new footprints on the freshly minted beach.
01:12:45The crusty lava bombs look like solid rock but are easily broken into dust.
01:12:50In theory at least, it's probably one of the most unstable and dangerous places on earth.
01:12:55It could easily begin to erupt again, and the still warm lava could just slide back into the sea.
01:13:02The air-filled pumice that created the new islands is still very unstable.
01:13:06Any seismic event could smash it to pieces.
01:13:09The crusty lava bombs look like solid rock but are easily broken into dust.
01:13:19We discover a crater filled with near-boiling lava.
01:13:23We discover a crater filled with near-boiling water that is the epicenter of the volcano.
01:13:31Despite all the problems and difficulties getting here, what a rush being on the newest land on earth.
01:13:38Only four people had ever visited the island before George and I went on it.
01:13:45More people had been on the surface of the moon than had at that time visited Hanga Haapai.
01:13:53As a volcano to visit, I can't really recommend Hanga Haapai.
01:13:57It's almost as inaccessible as the spectacular but famously difficult to see volcanoes of Kamchatka in eastern Russia.
01:14:08No, if you want spectacular volcanoes, fairly safe and easy to visit, the place to go is the big island of Hawaii.
01:14:16In fact, the two largest ones, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, you can drive to the top of.
01:14:22They're a long way up, so be prepared for the effects of high altitude.
01:14:26In fact, measured from its base at the bottom of the ocean, Mauna Kea is 33,000 feet high, much higher than Mount Everest.
01:14:36Both Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa are scientific observatories.
01:14:41Both Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa are scientific observatories, picked for their high altitudes and clear air.
01:14:48Telescopes peer into the heavens, while an array of instruments monitor conditions here on earth.
01:14:55Mauna Loa, the largest volcano on earth, erupted most recently in 1984.
01:15:02Since the million-year-old Mauna Kea is dormant, the explosive dangers there are non-existent.
01:15:10However, there is considerable protest and controversy over the use of what are considered sacred volcano peaks for this secular purpose.
01:15:23When it is flowing, which it's been doing for the last 30 years, Kilauea is quite possibly the most spectacular volcano in the world.
01:15:33And you can see it by helicopter.
01:15:39We take to the air, hoping to get a unique perspective on some moving lava.
01:15:52One can really get a sense from up here of how massive and destructive this volcano is.
01:16:01Kilauea is a shield volcano.
01:16:03Rather than creating a cone like a more typical stratovolcano, the very viscous lava of Kilauea spreads over a wide area.
01:16:18The volcano destroyed a subdivision, many roads, and today flows through in rivers of lava and erupting lava fountains to the sea.
01:16:28But the only way to get close to Kilauea is by walking.
01:16:34It's a five-hour hike carrying your camera gear with you, and I assure you the tripod I was carrying was about 20 times heavier than that little one.
01:16:44You can see from the distant smoke plumes how far we still have to go.
01:16:49It is well worth the long walk when you get to the spot where the hot lava enters the Pacific, and even better once darkness falls.
01:16:59Hawai'i's Big Island is a fascinating struggle between the forces of volcanic creation battling the conflicting forces of marine erosion.
01:17:08Since you can get so close, it almost feels like you're in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
01:17:12Hawaii's Big Island is a fascinating struggle between the forces of volcanic creation battling the conflicting forces of marine erosion.
01:17:21Since you can get so close, it almost feels like you're in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
01:17:26Since you can get so close, it almost feels like you're in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
01:17:33Whoa! My boot caught on fire!
01:17:36It's unbearably hot here.
01:17:39This lava is 2,000 degrees, I'm getting dry roasted just standing next to it.
01:17:48Time to take in one of the most magnificent sights of nature.