Imagine a volcano so powerful it may have wiped out entire groups of Neanderthals—and now, it’s rumbling back to life! The Campi Flegrei, near Naples, Italy, last erupted thousands of years ago, but scientists are picking up signs it might not be done just yet. This “supervolcano” once unleashed ash and gases that darkened skies and changed climates, possibly ending the Neanderthals’ world. Now, with new tremors and rising temperatures underground, it’s like a sleeping giant stirring awake. Experts are keeping a close watch, studying every shake and shiver to predict if or when it could blow again. Could we witness another epic eruption from this ancient powerhouse? Only time will tell! Credit: Solfatara: by Falk2 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:I08_467_Solfatara.jpg, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Campi Flegrei: by Donar Reiskoffer https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Campi_Flegrei.JPG, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/, CC BY 2.5 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/, CC BY 1.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/1.0/ Animation is created by Bright Side. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/ Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en Telegram: https://t.me/bright_side_official Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
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00:00Imagine standing in the middle of Europe 40,000 years ago.
00:04The landscape is rough, cold, and unforgiving.
00:08Fast food is scarce, and there's no Internet.
00:11Suddenly, from out of the woods steps a figure, stocky, strong, and with a face that is quite
00:17unusual.
00:18This human looks similar to us, but something about them is different.
00:22Their brow is heavy, their nose is broad, and their body seems to be built to fight
00:27nature itself.
00:28Well, congrats, you've just met a Neanderthal!
00:33You might've thought that Neanderthals were basically ancient humans, but that's not
00:37really true.
00:38We come from the same genus called Homo, but we, all modern humans, belong to one same
00:44species called Homo sapiens.
00:46However, there used to be lots of human species before, and Homo neanderthalensis was just
00:52one of them.
00:54And they actually were kinda cooler than us.
00:56So what in the world has happened to them?
01:00Neanderthals lived for a long time, for about 360,000 years, across Europe and parts of
01:06Asia.
01:0740,000 years ago, the place we now call Southern Italy was sitting on top of a huge disaster
01:12– a massive supervolcano called Campi Flegrei.
01:17This big boy is huge, about 9 miles wide.
01:20That's about 10-20 minutes in a car to get across it all.
01:23But there were no cars then, remember?
01:26At the time, it was quiet for a while.
01:28But one day, suddenly, it blew in what became one of the biggest volcanic eruptions Europe
01:34had seen in 200,000 years.
01:36The catastrophe was so crazy that ash, gases, and debris altered the climate across the
01:42entire continent.
01:44What comes next is usually called a volcanic winter.
01:47Average temperatures drop, the sky gets darker, and life becomes even harsher than it already
01:52is.
01:54This eruption, known as the Campanian Inghambrite, caused Europe to cool by as much as 7 degrees
01:59Fahrenheit.
02:00Doesn't sound like much?
02:02Well, the drop of even 1 degree would cause winters to become harsher, causing horrible
02:07snowfall, rains, and floods.
02:10Crops would struggle to grow, leading to food shortages.
02:13The weather would go wild too, with storms and droughts.
02:17Kinda like now.
02:18Except multiply this by 7.
02:20Events like these cause some huge chaos in modern times.
02:24You can imagine what it did to the Neanderthals.
02:29But in reality, a simple volcanic eruption shouldn't destroy an entire species, right?
02:34Well, yes.
02:36The truth is, the Neanderthals were already hanging by a thread back then.
02:40And all because of us.
02:42They've been in a tough spot for a while.
02:45They lived in places that are now parts of Europe, Western Asia, and the Middle East.
02:50Modern humans, us Homo sapiens, entered Europe and were giving them some serious competition
02:56for food and shelter.
02:57Homo sapiens were sneaky dudes, better at finding food, easily adapting to different
03:02environments, and using more advanced tools.
03:05We were pushing Neanderthals out, trying to get the same resources.
03:09We literally made their extinction a slow and very unpleasant process.
03:15So while the volcano definitely made things worse, it wasn't their only problem, and
03:20they didn't completely disappear after the eruption.
03:23Some of them hung on in isolated places, like Gibraltar, for another 12,000 years.
03:29That's because it's likely most of the severe cooling actually happened farther
03:33east, away from where the Neanderthals were trying to survive, and it didn't hit their
03:37homes as hard as we thought.
03:40In fact, the eruption may have even helped them, at least for a while.
03:44Some scientists say that the volcanic fallout might've slowed down modern humans' expansion
03:49into Neanderthal territory and gave the poor fellas a little more time to survive.
03:55So the Compi Flegrei eruption was a nasty event, but it only delayed the inevitable.
04:01Compi Flegrei is a wild card.
04:03It's also known as the Fields of Fire.
04:06The air itself there is thick with legend.
04:09The Greeks and Romans believed this volcano was the gateway to the underworld.
04:14Even an ancient Roman poet, Virgil, mentioned this in his famous story, The Aeneid.
04:20The hero Aeneas must descend into the underworld, and this place is exactly where he starts.
04:26Back in the day, this landscape was full of Roman villas, spas, and fishponds.
04:31The elite had the time of their lives there.
04:34What they didn't know, though, was that they were standing on treacherous ground that
04:38could go crazy at any moment.
04:42The Compi Flegrei is not your typical volcano.
04:46You'd imagine a single towering peak, but the landscape looks deceivingly calm, with
04:51small features popping up here and there.
04:54But if you flew above it, the sight would be insane.
04:57A gigantic circular basin, peppered with volcanic cones and craters, like scars from the Earth's
05:04violent past.
05:05The danger here lies in its subtlety.
05:08The ground beneath your feet is constantly shifting, even when you don't notice it.
05:13Every so often, the land rises, only to sink again, sometimes by several feet, as magma
05:19or gas moves beneath the surface.
05:21It's incredibly creepy.
05:23The risk is almost invisible.
05:25The Compi Flegrei is a massive depression formed by two colossal volcanic eruptions.
05:31One of them was the one that cooked Neanderthals, and another happened 15,000 years ago.
05:36The most famous eruption, though, happened in the 16th century, and it was horrifying.
05:44The year was 1538.
05:46For years, the people of Pozzuoli had noticed something unsettling.
05:51Land that once sat below the waves was slowly rising.
05:54What was once the sea had become new ground.
05:57Rumblings from deep within the Earth were terrifying, but had become a normal part of
06:02life.
06:03Earthquakes started in the early 1530s, small at first, but in just 8 years, they became
06:09the norm.
06:11Until one day, on September 28th, horrifying tremors shook the ground.
06:16By the next evening, as the sun dipped below the horizon, a massive crack ripped open the
06:21Earth near the ancient Roman town of Trepergole.
06:24From this gash spewed fire, smoke, and a rain of volcanic ash miles away.
06:30It was thick and muddy, likely mixed with underground water.
06:34The ground trembled as hot pumice rock was thrown high into the air.
06:38And then, a new mountain began to rise from the land.
06:42This was the birth of what we now call Monte Nuovo.
06:46Eventually, things seemed to calm down, as if the Earth was catching its breath.
06:51For days, things seemed quiet.
06:53Locals relaxed a bit.
06:54They began to approach the new mysterious volcano.
06:58A crater with something that resembled boiling within it.
07:01People visited it like a new attraction.
07:04But then, just days later, the disaster struck again.
07:08At night, without warning, a new mountain went wild.
07:12A blast from the southern flank hurled scoria, chunks of jagged volcanic rock, into the air.
07:18This one was fatal for 24 people.
07:20The debris found afterwards was huge and coarse.
07:24For centuries after, the only signs of life from the Monte Nuovo were small fumaroles,
07:29jets of gas seeping from the Earth.
07:32But then, even those faded away.
07:35Now it's just a lush green cone, a pretty sleeping giant.
07:42But the ground near Naples, Italy, is still alive.
07:45The Campi Flegrei sits quietly for now.
07:48But it might not be for long.
07:49It's showing signs it might be waking up again.
07:54This supervolcano looks like a hellish landscape, with its boiling mud pits, geysers, and steam
08:00vents.
08:01Romans and medieval Christians once believed it was a gateway to the underworld.
08:06And who can blame them?
08:07What's spooky is that recently, scientists detected unusual activity under the surface.
08:13In 2012, Italian authorities raised the alert level on the volcano from green to yellow,
08:19meaning that it needs close monitoring.
08:22There are certain changes that usually happen before an eruption.
08:25The magma below starts releasing gases, which could weaken the rock above, eventually triggering
08:31a disaster.
08:33Unfortunately, no one can predict exactly when or if it will erupt.
08:39But if it does, the consequences could range from a minor inconvenience for locals to a
08:44global catastrophe.
08:46Its last tiny eruption happened in the 16th century, and it wasn't too bad.
08:52But if history repeats itself, like it was with Neanderthals, we're all cooked.
08:57An eruption like that could lead to global cooling, crop failures, and widespread famine.
09:03Right now, a group of scientists is trying to get a clearer picture of what's happening
09:07beneath the surface.
09:08The Campi Flegrei Deep Drilling Project is working to drill a 10,000-foot borehole, hoping
09:14to check out the magma chamber up close.
09:17At least for now, the supervolcano remains quiet, and let's hope it stays that way.
09:24That's it for today!
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