If There Were No Volcanoes, You Wouldn't Be Here

when you think of a volcano what's the first thing that comes to mind streams of red steaming hot lava pouring over the sides dark clouds of ash rising high into the sky maybe you think of a relaxing hot spring ah that's nice well we all imagine one thing a cone-shaped mountain looming over the horizon but it can be as green and lush as any other mountain at the top of course there's a giant hole like an opening that goes all the way down inside there's lava and gas is being pushed outside lava is so hot that if you were standing at the top of the volcano and looked down your face would feel as red as the color of that liquid rock oozing out a volcanic eruption never comes without consequences for us and i'm not just talking about people living nearby the impacts are usually felt on a global scale too can't fly for a while because of the blanket of ash released in the air not to mention it might be a bit tricky to breathe carbon dioxide sulfur dioxide and plenty of other toxic gases whose names immediately take you back to your high school chemistry class funny enough most of that cloud rising out of a volcano is just water well vaporized from those scalding temperatures but before any volcano erupts it goes through stages like an angsty teen first magma that's lava before it erupts onto the surface and gets its name change starts moving underneath the volcano this causes earthquakes that get worse and more dangerous over time then steam and different gases start spewing out of holes in the planet's crust our earth resembles a tea kettle about to whistle when the gas emissions and earthquakes get more massive it usually means the volcano is about to blow its top but those first stages can take years before an eruption happens then the magma starts building up with more and more pressure it's planning to make its great escape it's hard to notice this happening if you don't have the proper equipment good things scientists do and they've got us covered the volcano becomes more active by the minute ash starts coming out and spreading in the air creating ominous clouds that turn day to night with the magma building up an eruption is imminent then boom the surface gives in under the pressure below the magma makes its exit it's now lava spewing out the top and flowing down the sides of the mountain none of this sounds very appealing so what if it never happened what if there were never any volcanoes at all would earth still be the same not at all if volcanoes never existed there wouldn't be an atmosphere when our planet was still just a young pup volcanic gases are what created our protective bubble that allows you and me to breathe right now they also played a big part in shaping the land and oceans four billion years ago earth was still forming it didn't look anything like the pale blue dot we know today it was red hot and the water was trapped under the crust it wasn't until the surface started to cool down and solidify that the water was finally able to escape volcanoes acted sort of like a tear in the fabric of our planet water vapor would condense in the atmosphere and then fall back down as rain it rained for so long that the third planet from the sun started turning into the blue ball we're more familiar with in fact there's even a theory that all the water on earth came from volcanoes and without water of course life wouldn't have been able to form land formation went through a similar process you see our planet was a pretty rough place to be when it was forming it was a molten surface with fields of lava and constant volcanic eruptions and space rocks always crashing into it because there was no atmosphere to protect it when it started cooling down a good solid surface formed but the hot material underneath was still boiling and bubbling and it continued making its way up the crust would move and form thick layers with the material that was rising up over time these layers became more permanent volcanic eruptions were still happening but the first landmass had finally formed okay we'll take the best part of volcanoes an atmosphere so what if they stopped erupting long after we got our protective breathable shield still not good for starters volcanoes created the most fertile soil around naples you have the famous mount vesuvius the soil quality there is incredibly rich and that's thanks to two huge volcanic eruptions one that happened 35 000 years ago and another 12 000 years ago sure these volcanoes caused a lot of short-term damage but in the long run these soils were fertilized by them now the region grows all kinds of citrus fruits olives grapes cherries and of course their staple tomatoes there'd be none of that without rich volcanic soil and naples is by far not the only example like this bacteria the first living organisms lived in hot water scientists have discovered fossilized microorganisms older than 4 billion years they thrived in hydrothermal vents those are fissures on the sea floor and they're usually near volcanically active places this means that without volcanoes we wouldn't have land water or even the first life forms that as the theory goes would eventually evolve into all the creatures we have today could life have still developed on earth without these explosive mountains uh doubtful okay fair enough we want our atmosphere and life so let's say volcanoes stopped erupting today after we already have all these benefits well we're sort of already there based on this story at the start there was only one continent pangaea it was a super continent surrounded by one massive continuous super ocean volcanic activity by this time had finally calmed down and this meant all that energy would gather below the earth's crust here's a little diagram first we have the earth's inner core then there's the outer core next up we have our convection currents magma is next in line after that the oceanic crust and at the very top we have our ocean and our continental crust the reason pangaea eventually broke up into the separate continents we have today is because of plate tectonics it's not like the crust is all one solid piece it's broken up into big chunks or plates that are always moving and it's all still moving today yes the land you're standing on right now is sort of surfing on that layer of convection currents it's a slow process so it's not like you can feel it pangaea didn't break apart all at once it took tens of millions of years when the plates move they cause earthquakes and volcanic activity they create mountains too it's good for our planet as well because the earth gets to sort of renew its old crust if there was no volcanic activity now the pressure underneath the earth's crust would keep building up it'd get to a boiling point the continents couldn't handle anymore and eventually they'd start splitting into more numerous and smaller masses volcanoes are still useful to us till this day for one they cool our atmosphere their eruptions release sulfur gas it combines with water in our atmosphere and cools it at its lowest level which is where we live and breathe there's also an excellent use for their heat geothermal power plants harness the energy coming from deep inside the earth and turn its heat into steam we then use that steam and turn it into electricity this is the case for our friends in new zealand and iceland since they live in places with high underground temperatures volcanic material can also be made into blocks for building stuff it can be grounded down to make cement too if we want we can even search volcanoes for precious minerals like gold copper and sulfur and who can forget about hot springs tourism to places like yellowstone and iceland wouldn't be the same without them and who doesn't love a nice steamy dip in the ones safe for swimming oh yeah in the end volcanoes aren't so bad after all our beautiful earth wouldn't be what it is without them

Channel: BRIGHT SIDE

Views: 350,348

Rating: 4.8863978 out of 5

Keywords: what if volcanoes don't erupt, cool facts about volcanoes, volcano eruption, best what if questions, vesuvius and pompeii, natural phenomena in the world, how volcanoes work, amazing natural phenomena around the world, facts about nature, what if there were no volcanoes, strange what if questions, natural phenomena documentary, why volcanoes erupt, bright side, what would happen if, hypothetical questions, vesuvius volcano, vesuvius eruption, brightside, bright side what if

Id: cvHKuvPbJns

Length: 9min 12sec (552 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 12 2020