The Power of Volcanoes Pt. 2: In the Shade of burning Mountains | Full Documentary

volcanoes are sleeping giants roba Titus should they awake millions of people live in their shadows and very close to a looming catastrophe but even Giants far away and long forgotten and suddenly come alive looking at history we come to understand that active volcanoes also need to be reckoned with in the future ouka knowledge Asst climate researchers geologists they all want to learn from previous catastrophes in order to save lives in the future [Music] in a way they're like Beauty and the Beast can we protect ourselves from this danger we can't always predict these events people will die [Music] the ill Oh Pongo Lake in El Salvador if you know that this huge lake was created by the eruption of a volcano archeologists from the University of Colorado was eager to find out how civilizations can prepare for large volcanic eruptions in order to do that he is going to conduct research on a dormant giant a volcano right directly beneath him 1,500 years ago this was much as it appears now beautiful quiet but the magma pushed up through a vent caused a colossal steam explosion and volcanic ash blasted all over the landscape and changed El Salvador from a lush tropical paradise that really was to a desert of white desert overnight ok close although the records of volcano erupt again today let go its crater is 230 meters deep that is twice the height of the Statue of Liberty its sides are steep and are strewn with hot springs there are indicators that new magma continues to rise to the surface [Music] in some spots it heats up the water to 70 degrees the volcano is still active the majority of dormant Giants remain invisible sometimes for so long that they fall into oblivion how do people react in view of the possible sudden catastrophe [Music] Kayson sheets delves deep into the past to answer this question the traces of this past catastrophe can also tell us what the future holds it is the quest for the power of the sleeping giants Robert dole from the University of Texas in Austin has researched the scope of the last great eruption there is a very large magma chamber that sits under Lake ela Pongo and one of the wonderful things about a caldera lake is that unlike the more conical stratovolcanoes that we are used to seeing the magma chamber down below the lake itself is showing really almost the entire size of the magma chamber I expect that an eruption will happen from ela Pongo at some time in the future it's happened over and over again in the past and it's likely to happen again this is the place you need to research if you want to know how civilizations react to the threat because el salvador hasn't just been destroyed several times by volcanoes the area has also been populated since millennia oh yeah - oven is located 35 kilometers from the illa Pongo the small Mayan Town provides important clues as to how people have led their lives in the face of danger for one thing the village isn't located under the ash layer of the yellow Pongo it is actually constructed on top of it the results of his excavations here make peace and sheets believed to have found what a life with a sleeping giant has been like up until today more than 1,000 years ago only a few hundred people lived in Shuren their village was destroyed by a volcanic eruption [Music] if you dig here you dig through several ash layers that were produced by the sleeping giants volcanoes in a place like this have some very beneficial aspects and some very detrimental aspects the beneficial ones are creating rain up high and volcanic ash weathering into very fertile soil in this case the soils recovered people came in started this small community of surin 200 maybe 300 people but look what they did they built this gorgeous delicate very religious building for a diviner the Shaymin is an intermediary between the people and their environment she is asking for good harvests and safety from nature's perils [Music] the shame in here can handle these everyday kinds of anxieties but when the eruption occurred she could not do anything to help the problem is that if you're standing this far away from me shouting you cannot hear the sound from the steam emissions from the very beginning of the eruption is way too loud this loudest sound they ever heard in your lives they inhale that cloud that is following them catches up to them it coats the inside of their lungs with volcanic ash and they have about a minute or a minute I have to keep living no more oxygen gets to them it is a very painful death this story illustrates feeling safe is the biggest danger but Payson Sheetz believes that the Giants power reaches far beyond its ash in Mexico 1,200 kilometers away there is a mysterious place where as villages have been built on the ashes of the ill upon go in very close vicinity life here seems to have come to a halt forever today the city is Mexico's high plateau is called Quixote walk on the place where humans become gods the only thing that this high culture left behind are ruins but the most monumental on the American continent at that the pyramid here measures 65 meters it is the third tallest in the world [Music] this huge city is considered to be the precursor of many of Mexico's civilizations but its downfall remains a mystery above-ground no stone is left unturned so the secret of the former metropolis must lie elsewhere [Music] the exploration of TLT wakhan is difficult there are neither decipherable scripts nor other accounts nothing that explains its downfall archaeologist Sergio Gomez is hoping to find out more about the former high cultures fate 14 meters below one of the pyramids he follows a tunnel that the inhabitants constructed under the Temple of the feathered snake the pyramid devoted to one of their most important gods holy in those musics a rare find and 2003 Gomez discovered a shaft 100 meters away from the pyramid Center since then he has been trying to advance further into the tunnel camera robots give the researchers a first impression of what awaits them on the inside of the shaft [Music] not only did the inhabitants dig this tunnel but they also sealed it with tons of earth after its construction without pack animals and wagons they put a tremendous effort into hiding a construction that was supposed to remain hidden forever [Music] after a few attempts the robot succeeds and advances into the first segment of the tunnel [Music] the images show that the tunnel wasn't constructed to serve an earthly use it is part of a type of underworld that existed underneath the bustling city its purpose however still puzzled scientists like da da da da handle in Tunis 4k at the moment we're still working on the tunnel to better understand their system of government KCG a vocal Hispanic unity one of the main thesis that I set up is that we will find the grave or the human remains of those that stood in close relation to the government or a political system of TOD work on it every political their duty worker meanwhile the team has uncovered several meters of the tunnel an imperial grave however has not yet been discovered but the tunnel contains countless clues 75,000 objects have been recovered and they can be read like a book Caribbean conscious statues masks and sacrificial vessels mysterious cultures with ornaments on a high level of craftsmanship the inhabitants must have been in contact with several different cultures but few of the found objects were of practical use the most bizarre find ritualistic knives made of glass and a piece of human skin [Music] well I should add más importante Tod wagon was the most important and influential city of its time seeing this place akin between 100 and 500 CEO it was the center of a huge complex Empire lejos East that was governed from Tod waka waka Nia a control ventilators para limiter the more Teotihuacan was symbolically speaking the most important holy city that existed that had ever been constructed until then Quixote walk on is located in central Mexico just 45 kilometers from the capital it is known to have served as a model for the construction of Mexico City today over 20 million people live in the environs of the city one of the world's largest it is the economic cultural and social epicenter of the country and it continues to grow especially in its wealthy center one can easily forget the danger of a volcanic eruption it's a normal day like in any other megalopolis everything seems to be more important than a preparation for a disaster situation modern symbols of wealth and power rule the skyline even though both TLT wakhan and Mexico City are surrounded by will gain us the pyramids and towers of glass rest on troubled ground Mexico is in the hands of the sleeping giants Cretors rise up everywhere in some areas they protrude out of a sea of houses this volcano named Seco is considered to be dormant but magma is seething underneath it it can find its way to the surface at any given moment this is the largest daisy chain of volcanoes on the planet the country lies on the so called Pacific Ring of Fire a fissure line of the tectonic plates around the Pacific Ocean nowhere are there more volcanoes and there are 40 of them in Mexico alone only 50 kilometers from Mexico City one of the most dangerous volcanoes the Popocatepetl lies dormant it's active signs are constantly monitored seismic waves elevations of the ground gases it became active again in the 1990s currently a so-called lava dome seals at shaft should the volcano stir the instruments will raise the alarm [Music] Ramon Espinosa is the vice director of the Popocatepetl Observatory he tries to foresee the time of a future eruption [Music] lava lava is spewed out it collapses very slow because it's very slow flowing lava it doesn't flow downhill but stays in the area of the volcanoes opening instead forming a hill in the exact shape of a double prezis American for Louisville this dome seals the shaft and prevents not only gases from leaking but also the release of energy that's why this energy is then collected underneath it until it reaches a sufficient amount to explode and to catapult the dome into the air any movement of the volcano could be the start of a large eruption [Music] in 2000 a big eruption announces itself the formerly peaceful sleeping neighbor awakens and instantly becomes a threat the residents of the surrounding villages are evacuated even against their own will [Music] but L pupal quiets down again only to awaken shortly thereafter the constant to and fro dedenne's the residents fear once the alarm sounds again many refused to leave their houses [Music] psychologist Esperanza Vasquez is a researcher for the Mexican Ministry of Health among others it is her goal to make the population aware the seriousness of the warnings given by geologists to this end she examines the relationship of the residents to their mountain sample no Venetian is circumstantial ah they look at it and say oh he's happy he's coughing performance with his dad and even if they're not thinking this way the volcano still plays a central role in their lives and some studies that I've conducted show that the people living here see the volcano more as a legend as a part of the landscape collectively their image is a lot more positive than that of scientists from abroad you see it as a threat from an objective point of view a new graph the locals see it as a part of their identity loss identificar yes the volcano is like a relative to them coconuts remediation how do the residents in the immediate surrounding area of the volcano cope with the threat of an eruption is the threat even taken seriously those are questions that Esperanza Vasquez wants to fight answers to they are important to determine the best way to communicate with the people so they can be evacuated in the event of an emergency the psychologist especially wants to communicate with a new generation water turn off the gas and switch off all electrical devices and put on protective glasses and a face mask so I won't breathe in any ashes that could hurt me well no Caracas no sleeping all Muslims I think it's better to be close to an active volcano a dormant one can also erupt at any time but with an active one at least you know about it and you can prepare better for it people all over Mexico are aware of the volcanoes untamed powers just 230 kilometers from the capital there is a village church embedded in lava it's history shows just how fragile the Earth's crust and Mexico really is in February 1943 in the middle of a cornfield the ground starts to rise and then bursts a new volcano was formed right in front of the eyes of the farmers within two days it's constant eruptions produce so much lava that it rises up to a height of 50 meters a year later it is 336 meters high the lava destroys everything in its path except for the church [Music] ten years later the volcano falls silent but only after a very long eruption these past eruptions help to understand reoccurring events in the course of Mexico's history in the fourth century for example the shaft of the cyclic covered the world in ash with a single long-lasting eruption without a previous warning eruptions such as these can reach gigantic dimensions the seat let-let's an area of 70 square kilometers disappear under its ash and lava [Music] the City of Waco core is completely destroyed the residents have to leave their land taking only meager belongings that can be saved only the pyramid defies destruction [Music] today it is located in the middle of Mexico City in between the University and residential areas entire districts of the modern metropolis were constructed on top of lava fields where did all these people go back then Sergio Gomez has traced the path of the refugees and came to a surprising conclusion what is remarkable is that all of them fled into the same direction their path leads directly to Tod wakana this has widespread consequences collide of sea under Vulcan shittily an eruption of the Sydney volcano has dramatically changed the history of the Mexican basin the effect on the social and economic history of both places quick vehicle and the rising city of Teotihuacan was rewritten keiko men Saba merket say mudafucka porque resumed quixote work on is therefore never had any rivals and could establish a wide reaching network of economic and social connections debian coulis economic OC social sk was able to spread its rule of the entire Mesoamerican region America several volcanic eruptions are the cause of mass migrations with the arrival of the refugees Quixote wakhan gains importance as more and more people are drawn to the city what makes the city so attractive one of the reasons is its religious system and TOD welcome the people make a pact with the gods the residents carried the old Colts to an extreme as if they wanted to confront the force of nature with everything humanly possible the priests don't even shy away from human sacrifice meant to protect the city from catastrophes but the idea that nature can be kept under control by performing rituals will soon be proven wrong even today the danger is far from over the giant can awaken at any moment how do you live with a dangerous volcano close by how do you cope with this constant threat no one trusts the official institutions anymore too often they warn the population of an eruption that didn't happen in the end therefore many turn to Cajun knowledge [Music] Kashima epifaño Alonzo faith is the only way to cope with living in the volcano shadows yours nosotros CM presence in common and we always trust in God first in always it work on is Eluga the volcano is delays but also to ask for what we need he tells a cell where is there is a place at the descent of God's Spirit in us otros here we pray to receive everything we need to live in this adults everything we need volcanoes represent the primal forces of nature their power reaches beyond human control that is why they continue to be seen as home of holy beings until today but Barham easily Glacia it's like let's go Randy for me it is a church a church into which you can't just look into a lot the way is implemented I'm telling you this look what occurs in my dreams I have seen what it looks like from inside swing comstock employee yeah that's how it is and we climb up there to pray for enough food you know so because the volcano protects the sea sighs even today people try to control the Popocatepetl by performing rituals prayers and offerings are seen as guarantors for Security and Prosperity and there is indeed a bit of truth in this belief because earth a volcanic origin is very loose and full of minerals these are ideal conditions for plants and thereby for agriculture as well as livestock farming in the area surrounding the volcano a few centimetres underneath the soil lies the ash of its eruptions as soon as the giant sleeps the ash turns into the most fertile soil on the planet but the price is high the Popocatepetl has catapulted stones all the way to here several kilometres away the mid es una enormocorp luminescent ISA in case of a big eruption Keynes event there would be an ash column reaching all the way into the stratosphere 15 20 kilometers high speed across tickles but all of this material would then fall back into itself and cause pyroclastic flows that would cascade down the sides of the volcano towards the surrounding villages public-owned de estas de estas locally da days [Music] these pyroclastic flows are the biggest and most treacherous dangers of a volcano barely noticeable at first because they are so quiet [Music] but they soon pick up speed and spew over everything in their way at up to 400 kilometers per hour it is highly dangerous to conduct research on them in the 1970s Katya and Marie scoffed were real celebrities in the geologists scene [Music] risking their lives they got closer and closer to the crater even today this is still the only way to learn more about volcanoes [Music] how exactly do pyroclastic flows behave what makes them so dangerous [Music] in 1991 the Ulsan and Japan shows increased activity it is one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the country [Music] the graphs are just a few meters above the valley floor on the hillside when the pyroclastic flow reaches them both lose their lives at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington one scientist has managed to create pyroclastic flows in the laboratory at a safe distance [Music] [Music] Benjamin Andrews didn't have to risk his life for this he creates artificial ash clouds on a smaller scale they behave just like real flows but they're a lot smaller [Music] this is just a mineral count and it's been smashed and sorted so that's all the same size so it really is like using baby powder without the scent except that we buy this baby powder in 40 kilogram drums instead of 800 grams bottles the Sonny's of the particles their weight everything is precisely calculated here in the laboratory the scientists can safely examine several scenarios he creates obstacles on a miniature scale like small mountains what makes the flow so dangerous in real life pyroclastic flows are very dangerous because they move very fast they are very thick and they're very hot and these currents they look fluffy but they're not fluffy at all instead they're a very fast-moving mixture of ash and rocks and pumice and all of this has the effect of destroying pretty much anything and everything in its path a laser light makes visible the behavior of the flows if they are relatively cool they can easily overcome the obstacle Benjamin Andrews heats up the ash using a toaster he wants to know whether extremely hot ash behaves differently and indeed once a hot pyroclastic stream hits an obstacle it can't overcome it instead ash and gases rise into the atmosphere and one thing that our experiments here can do is help develop ultimately help develop better or more inform risk maps based upon how far do we think periphrastic flows might go how might those car classical's interact with topography or interact with the river valley [Music] the local authorities close to Popocatepetl are trying to find safe ways out of the danger zone using these investigations it's been two thousand years since the last big eruption it would be negligent to forget about it on the contrary the more time that has passed since its last eruption the more likely a new one is to occur tension increases with the mountains every move once the instruments sound the alarm 20 million people are an immediate danger Muppet opener pen type Opel Center Padua Opel do you read smaller explosions and earthquakes like these can always be the beginning of a larger eruption I keep over by disco vocalist interpret I can read you loud and clear over inflammation camisa after other preparations for an emergency are meticulous nonetheless it is almost impossible to evacuate a city with millions of residents German volcanologist lousy been working in Mexico City for 20 years he is trying to determine the consequences of an eruption what would the ash do to the city its dense population location and the ailing infrastructure would seal the city's fate if the Sala fella drove does Mexico stat and special Mexico City that certainly is a special case what's that from the Antigua ghost at times because it's a metropolis a mega say he missed an arm that isn't located next to a river with the ocean at least that's gone from Mexico so the city's serious system is already quite stratum Irish women and the deputy inter connect ace like this would eat the plagues and even bigger problems good it's the directions given on to not feed water on problem and the sewers aren't the only concern the ash can get anywhere it can contaminate the drinking water rupture the power supply through short circuits an impaired car and air traffic by limiting visibility it is hard to believe that more and more people want to move here but life with a fire-spitting giant can also have its benefits benefits that were also valuable to TLT walk on back then volcanoes create fertile soil they seem to intensify the need for rights and culture the pact were the God's promises people a life and safety but fertility wakhan these are not the only advantages imagine it is the most successful civilization that had ever existed in Mesoamerica and in political and economic and religious terms no doubt about it just like Mexico City tio2 akan lies on a high plateau far away from the ocean nevertheless their residents have access to plenty of food there is prosperity and not only in the upper class soon the city becomes larger than the ancient Rome at a to akan you have to imagine a city of over a hundred thousand people beautiful gridded streets and residential compounds apartment buildings and the agricultural system works very well trade routes on all the way down into what's now Guatemala and Belize and El Salvador all the way up into New Mexico volcanoes supply the crude material for the city's wealth the alleys are full of obsidian workshops the volcanic glass is used to create jewelry cold objects and tools and TOD wakhan exports weapons to all of Central America [Music] one of the most important commodities of the time that could be exchanged for food cosmetics and luxury goods [Music] obsidian is created when lava cools down so quickly that it cannot form any crystals a volcanic glass has helped tio to walk on to become the first trade city in Central America tenemos evidence ya the presencia we have proof of Teotihuacan presence in Guatemala in Honduras even in El Salvador donde a probability the places and people the city must have had some sort of contact with assume Congress could commit this way loose volcanoes like a city flourish remarkably its residents left shortly after the eruption of the yellow Pongo in the 6th century is this where the secret of the cities down foe can be found 1200 kilometers away Pisan sheets is sure that the illa Pongo is responsible for the fall of Quixote walk on but after several centuries it is hard to prove his theory humans were also sacrificed here to appease the giant just like in the city figurines of Christian saints that have been brought up here by later generations testifying to this and yet the danger seems to have been forgotten and people would like to believe in this area that that's it it won't erupt again I'm sorry and I'm sorry this is not a good place for long-term land investment over here you see 545 Robert dole has managed to date he'll open goes eruption this offers a decisive clue is that this is a massive amount of information yeah this is ice cores and get yourself 57 that's the summer loss event in a sense in kind of a selfish archaeological sense as a researcher well I know that there are hundreds literally hundreds of archaeological sites buried by the volcanic ash from ela Pongal they all date a course to the same timeframe today the villages that were suffocated under the ash are the only witnesses they reveal how massive the eruption of the elope Unga was judging by the measurements of the ashes dispersion it must have spewed out up to 160 megatons of sulphur so Fariq acid clouds circled the globe for several years the climate is out of control that means that the eruption didn't only happen in the time in question but that it was big enough to influence the climate even in places very far away they got hit by this dramatic downturn in climate that was both a long term more than a decade of cold temperatures and drought both of those caused in k2 akan a failure of confidence in the system the city faces the consequences of the largest volcanic eruption in 2000 years [Music] for 500 years the pact with the gods and the omnipotence of the priests have kept the volcano in check the human sacrifices seemed to have silenced the volcanoes they had ensured rain and with it fruitfulness and prosperity but suddenly there is no more rain for years the gods seem to have forgotten the holy city there was a fire that ran along the street of the Dead and burned the temples early people thought it was a huge fire that ran through the city no it was set the enraged residents set fire to the symbols of the gods that no longer provide them with shelter the city was largely abandoned and it never regained that kind of political economic religious power that was it history shows that even highly developed civilizations cannot oppose the force of volcanoes 1,500 years after the catastrophe of the ELA Pongo in 2008 the shy 10 and southern Chile erupts almost without any prior warning its eruption catches the population off-guard and it can barely flee to safety shortly after the eruption column collapses and pyroclastic flows gushed down the sides of the mountain the j10 has proven how difficult it is to predict a dangerous eruption for centuries the volcano was considered to be dormant the city of kite n is completely destroyed due to the destruction and the constant volcanic activity the government decides to abandon the place completely [Music] villages and people within the radius of volcanoes can be led to safety but the history of tio2 wakhan indicates that the Giants pose a threat and can even reach cities that are far away these are especially vulnerable in 2010 the eruption of a EF Fiat sahaja yoga tree gives us an inkling of how vulnerable even modern and technologically advanced societies can be today exactly what volcanologists fear the most takes place magma comes into contact with glacier ice the steam explosions rip apart the molten rock into tiny ash particles poisonous fluorine and ash spreads over the landscape five hundred people have to be evacuated from around the volcano the farmers that work the area are hit especially hard but the consequences spread further [Music] the wind continuously pushes the ash clouds into higher air layers and sends them across the North Sea over to Central Europe in April 2010 they reached Germany all air traffic is grounded Europe is at a standstill 100,000 passengers are stranded and cargo flights are canceled and yet the eruption of the AFE atla-hi co2 isn't even the biggest one the volcano ejects only about 0.14 cubic kilometers of material into the air the eruption of Mount st. Helens is 10 times bigger and the yellow pond goes 100 times as big the eruption of a supervolcano could release more than 1,000 times of that amount so we cannot fathom I cannot fathom the enormity the massive scale of an eruption of Yellowstone should it occur again today this volcano is almost unrecognizable simply because of its enormous size the Yellowstone supervolcano is one of the world's biggest it lies dormant in the middle of the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming Henry hustler is a geologist working for the Yellowstone National Park he monitors the numerous geysers visible signs of the sleeping supergiant [Music] go ahead and pan it out towards gar this is the largest collection of hot springs in existence three million visitors come to see them every year in a way they're like Beauty and the Beast at the same time they look gorgeous but you can have above boiling temperature waters you can have acidic conditions pH 1 & 2 the pH of battery acids you can have dangerous geothermal gases in low areas so how do we choose where to safely put these boardwalks so visitors can experience the sights sounds and smells of the hydrothermal area faithfully it is invisible to the visitors but the American continent is pushing itself very slowly over a huge magma bubble the Turner's deemed themselves in safety while contemplating the natural spectacle above the supervolcano every year 2000 small earthquakes and recurring elevations of the ground reveal that the giant is alive only as recently as 2014 the biggest seismic shock in 30 years at the area thankfully without causing any serious damage no scientist can predict when the volcano will awaken again the only thing we can do is to monitor the giant one look into the Yellowstone's history shows that the volcano has erupted several times these eruption put out so much volcanic material as a fine ash it was getting it out it wasn't a big explosion it was getting it out much like when an apple pie starts to break and you get steam coming out that the ground then subsided just a few kilometers underneath the surface magma eats its way through the Earth's crust like a welding torch only since 2015 do we know that the bubble is incredibly large 46,000 cubic kilometers the last eruption of the Yellowstone was 630 thousand years ago it destroyed everything within a radius of 100 kilometers Ash rains down even 1500 kilometers away the rest of the world disappears in the darkness for over decades [Music] you get these big dense populations trying to have them handle a big eruption they don't they become archaeologically important material thank you but they did not do well at that time the cloud of the Yellowstone could well introduce a new small ice age under a veil of ash and sulfur the tropical rainforest would freeze supplying cities with over a million inhabitants would become impossible to handle [Music] these huge eruptions are extremely rare they occur only wants every 100,000 years however the Giants are still just asleep and lura said the believing we are in safety by overwhelming us with their beauty [Music]

Channel: hazards and catastrophes

Views: 601,282

Rating: 4.7049289 out of 5

Keywords: volcanoes, volcano, volcano documentary, volcano pictures, volcano images, inside volcano, active volcano, volcano eruption, volcano school, volcano crater, volcano lava, volcano magma, volcano usa, volcano america, volcano national geographic, volcano kill, volcano ash, volcano dormant, volcano explained, volcano explosion, volcano eruption caught on tape, Bali Volcano, Bali

Id: gzJ5oy-DBoA

Length: 52min 8sec (3128 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 17 2017