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National Geographic Volcano Nature s Inferno
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Our world is lit by two fires |
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One above. And one below. |
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Nothing can contain the inferno |
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In the past thousand years, |
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volcanoes have claimed |
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No beauty more deadly |
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The rocky heights of the Andes, |
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are more than mere mountains. |
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Many are sleeping volcanoes. |
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In Colombia, a peak called Galeras |
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Then in 1988, |
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soldiers stationed at its summit |
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and the smell of sulfur. |
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Some six miles away, the city of Pasto |
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the pride of local farmers. |
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Galeras has never harmed Pasto. |
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But a large eruption could threaten |
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Colombian officials invited |
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of Arizona State University, |
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An expert of Latin American volcanoes |
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William helped organize the |
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in January 1993. |
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El volcan Galeras es el volcan |
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en todo el Colombia... |
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Close to a hundred volcanologist |
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After three days of meetings, |
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Galeras has been stable for six months |
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a reassuring sign to |
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We were volcanologist |
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We had been working for five years |
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We thought we understood Galeras. |
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In fact, we thought Galeras was |
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for an active volcano. |
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Most scientist join field trips on |
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Williams leads a group of twelve |
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on a grueling, |
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As his colleagues explore the terrain, |
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Everybody opened up their cases |
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of the gases of read the gravimeter. |
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Geoff Brown, professor from England, |
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is the expert of the world on how |
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The two Colombian scientists with him |
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they had a chance to work with |
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Igor was working that day |
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with Nestor Garcia and |
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It was an exciting, positive field day. |
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Then all of a sudden, with no warning |
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I looked down into the crater and at |
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We better get outta here now. |
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I made it running, not very far, |
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before, the first big rock knocked |
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broke my jaw, ruined my ear. |
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Made it another 20 or 30 feet, |
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a lot of rocks hit me, |
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But the next big one broke my left leg |
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I tried to run, but my foot was standing |
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It was hardly moved my legs |
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I crawled. The problem was, |
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so I had to roll over and |
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So I crawled behind a big rock. |
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The eruption spares everyone |
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But members of Williams group appear |
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At least two scientists are dead. |
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The names of the missing |
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Andrew, Mike, yo, Standley, |
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Luis with help, and Andrew McFarlene |
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With help. Not by themselves. |
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We gotta send somebody down there. |
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Yeah. |
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Within 15 minutes, |
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Now Williams struggles |
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I had hours of time lying there with |
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and thought about going home |
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I didn't want to die, |
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Less than three hours |
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rescue teams arrive from Pasto. |
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Three hikers and |
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in a blast no one could foresee. |
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Several bodies will never be found. |
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Rescuers locate Williams |
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He's the last survivor |
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In 48 hours, |
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to a hospital in Arizona. |
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Sixteen surgeries saved a mangled leg, |
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and patched a hole in Williams' skull. |
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Skin grafts hide burns. |
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Only his determination survives intact |
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Galeras remains a threat to thousands |
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A danger undiminished |
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The loss of friends and colleagues |
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breaks the heart |
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I've worked on Galeras now |
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and I've tried hard to essentially |
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and Galeras says, |
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Ha, I'm much |
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And I come back and say, |
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No, I'm not going to let you do |
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and uh, I'm going to get on top of |
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We're sort of battling it out. |
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In the past five decades, |
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nearly thirty scientist have died |
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Volcanology is a young |
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one that pits us against the power |
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We live on a fiery planet. |
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Nearly 2,000 miles beneath our feet, |
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the Earth's inner core |
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of 12,000 degrees Fahrenheit. |
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Molten rock, or magma, rises to |
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a cold, rigid crust fractured |
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When magma breaks through crust it |
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and gives birth to volcanoes. |
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Most blossom along |
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where one plate dives beneath another, |
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or two plates spread apart. |
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Earth's oceans conceal some 80 percent |
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An underwater ridge 46,000 miles long |
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marks the boundaries |
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Lava fills the gaps. |
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This deep sea fire fuels hot springs. |
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At more than 700 degrees Fahrenheit, |
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water rich in sulfur supports |
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in the total absence of sunlight. |
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Some volcanoes rise from the deep. |
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November 1963. Just south of Iceland, |
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Within days, |
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the windswept isle of Surtsey is born. |
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Earth's fire also forged |
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The Hawaiian Islands are the work of a |
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across the pacific plate. |
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There may be no finer setting |
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With nearly continuous eruptions |
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Kilauea is the most active volcano |
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and one of the most benign. |
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At 2000 degrees Fahrenheit, |
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its fluid lava can flow for miles, |
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But it can generally be escaped |
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This congenial fire has been |
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It also captured the attention |
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Thomas Jaggar. |
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He believed, the only way |
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a visit to Kilauea in 1909. |
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convinced him he had found the |
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In Jaggar's day, |
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"volcanology" meant little more than |
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to the aftermath of a major eruption. |
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It was too little, too late. |
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In 1912, |
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Jaggar founded what today is called |
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Serving three decades as director, |
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collected gases and charted subtle |
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Eventually, he successfully predicted |
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Many consider him a founding father |
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Today, Hawaiian volcanoes are |
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Decades of firsthand observations are |
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Predicting eruptions is almost routine |
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Each volcano is unique, with its |
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But one rule of forecasting applies |
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The key to the future is the past. |
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Sakurajima. The "Island of Fire," |
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A noble man commissioned |
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to commemorate an eruption in 1779. |
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Written accounts of this volcano's |
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Sakurajima is home |
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Another half million live |
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This life at the foot |
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Sakurajima has been consistently |
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It erupts up to 400 times a year, |
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and drops millions of tons |
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Local scientists forecast these |
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Residents tune in for ash fall reports. |
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Eruptions are as commonplace |
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And ash clean-up is a way of life. |
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Soil enriched with ash yields |
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But each fruit requires individual |
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As does every school child |
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Most ash collects |
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harmless until it rains. |
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In a flash, |
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rivers can swell into mudflows |
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Safety channels equipped with sensors |
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help contain the threat. |
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Volcanic mudflows can travel up |
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and sweep up boulders the size if cars |
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When the rains end, tons of |
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It's a model system. |
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But at any moment, |
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1914. Lava buries six villages. |
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More than half the islanders lose |
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Twenty-three drown trying |
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The anniversary of the 1914 disaster |
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with an evacuation drill. |
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For a day, residents abandon |
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A long, familiar history of eruptions |
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Consider them lucky. |
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Most volcanoes lay quiet for centuries |
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A few of the deadliest have been |
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Some 35 centuries ago, |
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a Mediterranean island sparkles |
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Then suddenly Santorini blows |
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Seawater rushes in where once stood |
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and a civilization vanishes beneath |
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The legend of Atlantis |
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79 AD. |
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Few residents of Pompeii |
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Those who know believe it |
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Showers of scalding ash |
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1815 Mount Tambora, Indonesia. |
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Some 20 cubic miles of debris |
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Most fall back to earth. |
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But a cloud of ash circles the globe |
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1816 is the "Year without a summer." |
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In Europe and New England, |
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Crop fail, and 80,000 starve. |
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It's the most powerful eruption |
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By contrast, the 1980 explosion |
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was almost 80 times smaller. |
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Yet it packed the punch |
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Magma contains gases |
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as they reach Earth's atmosphere. |
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It's like pulling the cork |
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the size of Mount Everest. |
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A volcano need not explode |
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Lava too thick to |
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and form a teetering heap of hot rock. |
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Collapse triggers a searing avalanche |
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called a pyroclastic flow. |
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At 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, |
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it consumes nearly everything. |
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1902. The Caribbean town |
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at the foot of a sleeping giant |
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until May 8th, when Mount Pelee |
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In two minutes, |
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One survives. Though badly burned, |
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by the thick walls of his cell. |
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Elsewhere, the devastation is eerie. |
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Pyroclastic flows are virtually |
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Many volcanologist have seen them |
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May, 1991. Southern Japan. |
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Mount Unzen serves up an extravaganza |
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some 35 pyroclastic flows a day. |
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The flows are small. But a village |
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Evacuations are ordered. |
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From a safe distance, villagers find |
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No less captivated, journalists |
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from around the globe flock |
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among them Maurice and Katia Krafft. |
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In the volcano world, |
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Here you have a pyroclastic flow. |
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It don't occurs all the time. |
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When you have lava flow, |
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It's why this is so interesting, |
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After more than two decades |
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the Kraffts have a discriminating eye. |
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Today, Unzen underwhelms. |
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This is one of the smallest |
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I hope to see bigger one than this one |
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This is no idle bluster: |
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Maurice and Katia Krafft have probably |
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at more volcanoes, |
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The Kraffts hail from France, |
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but "home" is wherever |
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For me, an active volcano, |
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especially volcanoes |
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those are like friends, |
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between the volcano and me. |
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For me, the danger is not important, |
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I am afraid when I go in a car, |
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but on volcanoes I forget everything |
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For the Kraffts, |
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I fell in love with volcanoes |
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I saw my first volcano with |
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And this was really a discovery for, |
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a sort of cone and |
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to have explosion every minute, |
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And I have seen this eruption |
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And I was really fascinated, |
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I fell in love |
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I have seen films and photos and was, |
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and so you decided to be volcanologist. |
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And only two years later I asked |
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to go to Italy to see |
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And I was also impressed when I see |
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We met in fact at the University. |
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I was in geology and Katia was |
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So I was crazy about volcanoes, |
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and so we loved each other after, |
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it's an aftereffect |
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When we went to Vulcano, in Italy, |
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we were a group of friends, we were |
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in geochemistry, and so on. |
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So we stayed at the foot of the volcano |
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but with a very low amount of money. |
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And I remember that we don't had |
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but those gasses are so acid that our |
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with a lot of holes in it |
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So, after two or three days |
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From the start, the Kraffts |
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Soon, films and photos became |
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Through the lens, |
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they would share their passion for |
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Iceland, 1973. |
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The isle of Heimacy was abandoned |
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On this empty stage, |
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My work is different from |
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because, uh, when I see an eruption, |
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sometimes it's so nice that |
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That is to say, |
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I want also to film volcanoes, |
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So, I am as much interesting |
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As was often the case. |
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The Kraffts were the only |
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Katia and Maurice had no children, |
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Nothing to tie them down. |
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One year they circled |
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Tanzania, 1988. |
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They shot the first footage of lava |
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I think, really, to see Lengai |
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from near is something |
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I have never seen such |
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And what is very peculiar for this |
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it's not mud, it's lava. |
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And once you see those black |
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and there in this crater, |
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24 hours after emission |
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We were very surprised |
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and with this low temperature |
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And to take this samples of lava |
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And what was very exciting also that |
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in the night it was red, |
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The Kraffts never denied the dark side |
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The face of human suffering. |
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For UNESCO, they began producing |
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shown around the world. |
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Footage of aftermath was impressive, |
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but the Kraffts aimed to capture |
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Alaska, 1986. |
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A close encounter on the slopes |
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and whet their appetite for more. |
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We have seen so much |
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we wanted to see bigger |
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and these don't happen so often, |
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a one year or even two years |
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and more enormous it is, |
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The quest leads them |
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They set up camp inside |
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indifferent to the possible danger. |
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I am never afraid. |
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Because I have seen so much eruptions |
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even if I doe tomorrow, |
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On June 3rd, Maurice, Katia, and a |
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about two miles from the summit |
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It's a fatal miscalculation. |
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Something triggers a pyroclastic flow |
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about ten times bigger |
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Within moments, |
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By the time a TV camera |
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Maurice, Katia and 41 others are dead. |
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Surely, no one loved volcanoes better |
| 00:36:30 |
Every time we marvel at their films, |
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we are seeing the world |
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And for a moment, |
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November 13th, 1985. |
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A Colombian volcano, |
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Part of its summit glacier melts. |
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Water cascades down canyons, stripping |
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Soon, the mudflow is 130 feet deep. |
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Just before midnight, |
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it engulfs a city called Armero. |
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23,000 people are buried alive. |
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Only weeks earlier, |
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and determined Armero was at risk. |
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Somehow, their report was shelved. |
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Yet a simple evacuation plan |
| 00:38:12 |
On the ruins of Armero, |
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One year later, the US geological |
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Fifty miles from Mount Saint Helens, |
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the Cascades Volcano Observatory |
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is home base |
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With a cache of |
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the five-man team can mobilize |
| 00:38:59 |
Hey guys, I just got a request |
| 00:39:01 |
A mission begins |
| 00:39:04 |
in assessing a volcanic threat. |
| 00:39:07 |
Andy Lockhart has ten years experience |
| 00:39:12 |
If there is a typical mission, |
| 00:39:13 |
it would consist of getting the call |
| 00:39:17 |
going to the books, |
| 00:39:18 |
finding our if it's a volcano that |
| 00:39:21 |
If it's a full blown response |
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We'd take all of the sensors, |
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all of the computers and |
| 00:39:34 |
Lockhart and his teammates |
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at more than 15 volcanoes |
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Their most memorable mission took them |
| 00:39:51 |
April 2nd, 1991. |
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Plumes of steam are spotted |
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by tribesmen who have lived |
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They've never seen anything like this. |
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Word reaches Ray Punongbayan, |
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director of the Philippine Institute |
| 00:40:20 |
for Volcanology and Seismology |
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It has 4 seismometers near the volcano. |
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They reported that they were recording |
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over 400 volcanic quakes |
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Right then and there, |
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I said that something unusual |
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The reports arouse concern |
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just 15 miles form Pinatubo. |
| 00:40:55 |
At the request of the US Air force |
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a team from the US geological Survey |
| 00:41:07 |
They begin briefing |
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directed by Colonel Richard Anderegg. |
| 00:41:13 |
I think I was like most people, |
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until the United States Geological |
| 00:41:21 |
it was a total educational process |
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I had, you know, |
| 00:41:25 |
I thought of a volcano like in Hawaii |
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where the lava flows out |
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and people take pictures of t and |
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A joint U.S. Philippine science team |
| 00:41:39 |
Pinatubo has no written history |
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but it's surrounded by huge deposits |
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Lockhart and his teammates see |
| 00:42:03 |
For two weeks, |
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they install a monitoring network |
| 00:42:09 |
Lockhart outfits each station with |
| 00:42:13 |
that sends data to |
| 00:42:24 |
Pinatubo's activity increases daily. |
| 00:42:27 |
The science team urges local |
| 00:42:33 |
It's a big responsibility |
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are causing people |
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and transfer to evacuation centers |
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and suffer there and |
| 00:42:46 |
if nothing happens, then, |
| 00:42:51 |
So, we were very careful about that. |
| 00:42:57 |
June 5th. Swarms of earthquakes prompt |
| 00:43:02 |
Eruption possible within two weeks. |
| 00:43:09 |
Twenty thousand Filipinos living |
| 00:43:13 |
are ordered to relocate |
| 00:43:21 |
But the Air force stays put. |
| 00:43:24 |
Scientists brief the Senior Officer |
| 00:43:29 |
They admit there is a chance |
| 00:43:37 |
June 7th. |
| 00:43:38 |
Pinatubo releases clouds of ash. |
| 00:43:41 |
The science team issues |
| 00:43:45 |
Eruption possible within 24 hours. |
| 00:43:53 |
Most ominous is the appearance |
| 00:43:57 |
the kind that generates |
| 00:44:02 |
General Studer wants to see it |
| 00:44:05 |
Lockhart remembers his conversation |
| 00:44:10 |
The general says, |
| 00:44:13 |
and Hoblitt says, that's nothing! |
| 00:44:15 |
And he points out these |
| 00:44:18 |
these things that look like a Japanese |
| 00:44:22 |
in every direction |
| 00:44:24 |
See these big sheets out here, |
| 00:44:25 |
this is what this volcano does |
| 00:44:30 |
And then we wheel around |
| 00:44:32 |
There's your base down there. |
| 00:44:34 |
And you could see it very obviously |
| 00:44:36 |
of one of these sheets |
| 00:44:40 |
And so we headed back to the base. |
| 00:44:42 |
And the general says to Jeff Grime, |
| 00:44:50 |
With those words, |
| 00:44:54 |
One June 10th, |
| 00:44:55 |
some 14,000 Americans leave for |
| 00:45:03 |
A small security force, |
| 00:45:12 |
After the base was evacuate |
| 00:45:15 |
we felt two ways about it. |
| 00:45:16 |
One, that it could happen any time |
| 00:45:22 |
On the other hand, |
| 00:45:24 |
now that the base was evacuate, |
| 00:45:33 |
A century of volcanology is put |
| 00:45:40 |
From afar, |
| 00:45:49 |
June 12th, 8:51 AM. |
| 00:45:53 |
The wait is over. |
| 00:46:07 |
Pinatubo blows an ash column |
| 00:46:13 |
Communities fifty miles away |
| 00:46:24 |
Eruptions continue for two days. |
| 00:46:28 |
The evacuation radius is enlarged. |
| 00:46:31 |
More than 80,000 people leave |
| 00:46:43 |
Clark radar now shows a major typhoon |
| 00:46:49 |
Exhausted from round-the-clock shifts, |
| 00:46:51 |
the science team suspects |
| 00:46:58 |
June 15th, 2:00 AM. |
| 00:47:01 |
Pinatubo's finale begins. |
| 00:47:14 |
At dawn, pyroclastic flows stream down |
| 00:47:19 |
There's concern its entire summit |
| 00:47:37 |
Ash fall turns 10 AM black as midnight |
| 00:47:44 |
When the typhoon comes ashore, |
| 00:47:55 |
Continuous blasts overwhelm |
| 00:47:59 |
It's time to consider the possibility |
| 00:48:01 |
that pyroclastic flows |
| 00:48:07 |
I went out to look out the front door. |
| 00:48:09 |
And I was standing there looking |
| 00:48:12 |
You could see some runway lights |
| 00:48:15 |
looking towards Pinatubo. |
| 00:48:18 |
Little line of red lights. |
| 00:48:19 |
And I thought, well, |
| 00:48:24 |
it'll, it'll cut those lights. |
| 00:48:26 |
And if it cuts those lights, I'll run |
| 00:48:33 |
And that's about 400 yards |
| 00:48:36 |
that'll give me about enough time to |
| 00:48:39 |
for whatever it's worth. |
| 00:48:44 |
And that was the most terrified |
| 00:48:46 |
standing there looking at those lights |
| 00:48:57 |
Around 2 PM, |
| 00:48:59 |
the largest explosion yet knocks out |
| 00:49:07 |
I noticed that without much big ado |
| 00:49:11 |
each of the volcanologist was |
| 00:49:14 |
with the kinds of things that |
| 00:49:15 |
if he was going to have to leave |
| 00:49:18 |
And when that particularly |
| 00:49:21 |
about three of those guys turned around |
| 00:49:24 |
and they weren't slowing down |
| 00:49:26 |
So, I figured if it was good enough |
| 00:49:29 |
for them it was good enough |
| 00:49:32 |
Clark is finally abandoned. |
| 00:49:43 |
Around midnight, the eruption is over. |
| 00:49:48 |
By morning, people return |
| 00:49:53 |
Collapsed buildings claim 300 lives. |
| 00:49:57 |
But tens of thousands are saved |
| 00:50:01 |
ever staged as a result |
| 00:50:07 |
For volcanology, |
| 00:50:15 |
Still, Pinatubo's summit is gone, |
| 00:50:17 |
in the largest eruption on Earth |
| 00:50:22 |
Over two cubic miles of debris blanket |
| 00:50:27 |
Rain wreaks havoc |
| 00:50:32 |
In the days after the eruption, |
| 00:51:04 |
With each typhoon season, |
| 00:51:05 |
mudflows claim more homes |
| 00:51:11 |
Some two millions people |
| 00:51:15 |
Echoes of the eruption are likely |
| 00:51:18 |
well into the 21st century. |
| 00:51:26 |
Today, Pinatubo sleeps again. |
| 00:51:30 |
But for how long? |
| 00:51:40 |
The earth harbors some fifteen hundred |
| 00:51:46 |
More than half a bullion people |
| 00:51:55 |
To live on harmony with volcanoes |
| 00:51:57 |
may be little |
| 00:52:00 |
But for better or worse, |
| 00:52:10 |
If not for the fire within, |
| 00:52:14 |
worn smooth as a blue marble. |
| 00:52:26 |
Volcanoes provide the lifeblood |
| 00:52:29 |
They build mountains, |
| 00:52:33 |
Their fireworks recycle life |
| 00:52:50 |
Most atoms in our bodies |
| 00:52:55 |
Volcanoes brought these atoms |
| 00:53:00 |
No matter where we live, |
