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You hear that noise, you see that smoke? | 0:00:05 | 0:00:08 | |
That's the sight of the earth actually coming alive. | 0:00:08 | 0:00:11 | |
And we've travelled a long way to get here by plane, by boat, | 0:00:11 | 0:00:15 | |
it's been a good four hours' hike up the mountain and we're here | 0:00:15 | 0:00:19 | |
to get face-to-face with one of the awesome forces on our planet, | 0:00:19 | 0:00:23 | |
an erupting volcano. | 0:00:23 | 0:00:25 | |
On today's explosive Fierce Earth special, | 0:00:26 | 0:00:29 | |
we're travelling to Italy to witness the awesome power | 0:00:29 | 0:00:32 | |
of two of the world's most spectacular volcanoes, | 0:00:32 | 0:00:35 | |
Etna and Stromboli. | 0:00:35 | 0:00:37 | |
We're going inside secret lava tubes... | 0:00:41 | 0:00:43 | |
..outside with children who live on a volcano... | 0:00:44 | 0:00:48 | |
and climbing all the way to the red-hot top! | 0:00:48 | 0:00:51 | |
That is fantastic! | 0:00:51 | 0:00:52 | |
What happens when the ground shakes, | 0:00:56 | 0:00:58 | |
the seas rise up and the air tears itself apart? | 0:00:58 | 0:01:02 | |
The Fierce Earth team move in, | 0:01:02 | 0:01:04 | |
taking on the most powerful forces on the planet. | 0:01:04 | 0:01:08 | |
Get ready for Fierce Earth. The earth, and how to survive it. | 0:01:23 | 0:01:28 | |
Volcanoes are planet earth's spectacular, and terrifying, | 0:01:30 | 0:01:33 | |
fireworks display. Living mountains that erupt molten rocks | 0:01:33 | 0:01:38 | |
from deep within the earth. | 0:01:38 | 0:01:40 | |
There are more than 500 active volcanoes in the world today | 0:01:40 | 0:01:43 | |
and right now about 20 will be erupting. | 0:01:43 | 0:01:47 | |
Volcanoes can lie dormant for years, perhaps centuries, and then, boom! | 0:01:47 | 0:01:53 | |
They explode, releasing seemingly endless rivers | 0:01:53 | 0:01:56 | |
of super-hot molten rock that destroy everything in their path. | 0:01:56 | 0:02:02 | |
I've travelled the world for many years, | 0:02:04 | 0:02:07 | |
chasing and observing these natural wonders. | 0:02:07 | 0:02:10 | |
I love volcanoes. I fear volcanoes. My mates call me Doctor Volcano. | 0:02:10 | 0:02:16 | |
Volcanoes are a reminder that the very ground humans walk upon | 0:02:18 | 0:02:22 | |
is ever-changing, and that the planet, not far below our feet, | 0:02:22 | 0:02:26 | |
is a violent furnace. | 0:02:26 | 0:02:29 | |
Today I'm on a mission to get right up close to an erupting volcano | 0:02:29 | 0:02:33 | |
and discover just where they get their awesome power. | 0:02:33 | 0:02:36 | |
So I'm heading straight for Europe's biggest, | 0:02:36 | 0:02:39 | |
Mount Etna on the island of Sicily, in Italy. | 0:02:39 | 0:02:43 | |
This cut-open peach is a great example of what the earth | 0:02:45 | 0:02:48 | |
might look like if we cut it with a really big knife. | 0:02:48 | 0:02:51 | |
On the outside is the thin, cold crust, that's where we live. | 0:02:51 | 0:02:55 | |
But inside it's thousands of degrees centigrade right to the eye | 0:02:55 | 0:02:59 | |
and core in the middle. | 0:02:59 | 0:03:01 | |
Now, this area here is known as the mantle | 0:03:01 | 0:03:04 | |
and that's where magma gets generated, | 0:03:04 | 0:03:07 | |
and, if cracks can be made in the earth's crust, | 0:03:07 | 0:03:10 | |
that magma can escape and form volcanoes. | 0:03:10 | 0:03:13 | |
So why do those cracks appear? | 0:03:13 | 0:03:16 | |
It's all down to plate tectonics. The earth's outer layer is made up | 0:03:16 | 0:03:20 | |
of giant tectonic plates that lock together like a huge jigsaw puzzle. | 0:03:20 | 0:03:25 | |
The plates float around on top of the sticky, | 0:03:25 | 0:03:27 | |
toffee-like mantle beneath. | 0:03:27 | 0:03:29 | |
The plates move very slowly, just centimetres a year, | 0:03:29 | 0:03:32 | |
but as they pull apart or push together, | 0:03:32 | 0:03:35 | |
the movement helps generate and release magma. | 0:03:35 | 0:03:38 | |
A volcano is born. | 0:03:38 | 0:03:39 | |
Etna is where the African Plate meets the European Plate, | 0:03:44 | 0:03:47 | |
with volcanic consequences. Just look at this lava flow. | 0:03:47 | 0:03:51 | |
This has come barrelling from the top of the mountain, | 0:03:51 | 0:03:53 | |
Mount Etna in the cloud there, all the way down, burning trees, | 0:03:53 | 0:03:57 | |
killing everything in its path. | 0:03:57 | 0:04:00 | |
Now, this would have been red-hot molten rock, a lava flow, | 0:04:00 | 0:04:03 | |
which people often fear the most. But sometimes it's the volcanoes, | 0:04:03 | 0:04:07 | |
the active ones that don't erupt lava, which are the most dangerous. | 0:04:07 | 0:04:12 | |
Let me show you why. | 0:04:12 | 0:04:13 | |
Take two mini volcanoes, tins for magma chambers | 0:04:16 | 0:04:20 | |
and coloured milk for the magma itself. | 0:04:20 | 0:04:23 | |
Both identical, but for one crucial difference | 0:04:23 | 0:04:27 | |
that will make one of them deadly. | 0:04:27 | 0:04:29 | |
So we've created two very simple homemade volcanoes here, OK? | 0:04:34 | 0:04:39 | |
We've put magma in both of them and I am just going to do | 0:04:39 | 0:04:41 | |
two very simple eruptions to explain the point. | 0:04:41 | 0:04:45 | |
I'm going to add these effervescent tablets to trigger the eruption. | 0:04:45 | 0:04:49 | |
Let's start with volcano number one, see what happens. | 0:04:49 | 0:04:53 | |
The fizzy tablets set off a reaction that simulates lava | 0:04:53 | 0:04:56 | |
leaving a volcano when flowing freely. | 0:04:56 | 0:04:59 | |
Beautiful, look at that. | 0:04:59 | 0:05:01 | |
A great lava flow now, it's starting to flow down the side | 0:05:01 | 0:05:04 | |
of our makeshift mountain, fantastic. | 0:05:04 | 0:05:07 | |
Etna erupts like this every few years | 0:05:10 | 0:05:13 | |
and the Sicilians are used to dealing with it. | 0:05:13 | 0:05:16 | |
Roads and houses often have to be rebuilt. | 0:05:16 | 0:05:19 | |
Although it's dangerous, | 0:05:19 | 0:05:21 | |
lava on the slopes here tends to be relatively slow-moving. | 0:05:21 | 0:05:25 | |
If it's heading in your direction, | 0:05:25 | 0:05:27 | |
you usually have time to get out of the way. | 0:05:27 | 0:05:29 | |
These lava flows will destroy everything in its wake, | 0:05:31 | 0:05:34 | |
just like what you see behind me. | 0:05:34 | 0:05:36 | |
But you will survive. | 0:05:36 | 0:05:38 | |
What happens, though, if the magma can't escape so easily, | 0:05:38 | 0:05:42 | |
if the gases can't release so easily? | 0:05:42 | 0:05:44 | |
So what we're going to do with volcano number two, | 0:05:44 | 0:05:47 | |
we've got the effervescent tablets, | 0:05:47 | 0:05:49 | |
but this time we're going to put a lid on. | 0:05:49 | 0:05:52 | |
Let's pile some rocks up. Look at that, a few rocks on top. | 0:05:54 | 0:05:59 | |
Now then, I'll just get out the way a bit. | 0:05:59 | 0:06:03 | |
We sit back and wait to see what happens. | 0:06:03 | 0:06:07 | |
You can see the pressure building now, | 0:06:07 | 0:06:09 | |
you see the rocks starting to move? There's real pressure building, | 0:06:09 | 0:06:13 | |
I can feel it... Oh! Look at that! | 0:06:13 | 0:06:15 | |
Wow! Now, you don't want to be around when that happens. | 0:06:15 | 0:06:20 | |
Sadly, that's exactly what did happen in the north west of the USA | 0:06:22 | 0:06:26 | |
in 1980. Sticky magma and tons of rock had combined | 0:06:26 | 0:06:30 | |
to keep Mount St Helens quiet for centuries. | 0:06:30 | 0:06:33 | |
But when it did finally erupt | 0:06:33 | 0:06:35 | |
they were the very things that made it so deadly. | 0:06:35 | 0:06:38 | |
The sudden release of pressure blew the entire top | 0:06:38 | 0:06:42 | |
and side of the volcano completely off. | 0:06:42 | 0:06:45 | |
A crater was left a kilometre and a half wide | 0:06:45 | 0:06:49 | |
and 57 people lost their lives. | 0:06:49 | 0:06:52 | |
Up on the slopes of Mount Etna, it's clear that there have been | 0:06:56 | 0:06:59 | |
huge amounts of volcanic activity over the years. | 0:06:59 | 0:07:02 | |
But, luckily, very few catastrophic explosions. | 0:07:02 | 0:07:06 | |
Look at this. | 0:07:06 | 0:07:07 | |
This ropey texture, | 0:07:07 | 0:07:10 | |
that's typical of lava flows. | 0:07:10 | 0:07:12 | |
Unlike explosive volcanoes, | 0:07:12 | 0:07:14 | |
the magma here is less sticky | 0:07:14 | 0:07:17 | |
and it flows down the side of the mountain. | 0:07:17 | 0:07:20 | |
But it's the hidden treasures that lie beneath this | 0:07:20 | 0:07:22 | |
is what I've come to see today. | 0:07:22 | 0:07:24 | |
And that's what I'm going to need this for. | 0:07:24 | 0:07:27 | |
Sometimes, rather than looking up at a volcano, | 0:07:29 | 0:07:33 | |
it pays to look down. | 0:07:33 | 0:07:35 | |
Under the slopes are secret tunnels built by the volcano itself. | 0:07:35 | 0:07:39 | |
The walls, ceiling and floor are all made of lava. | 0:07:45 | 0:07:49 | |
These lava tubes are all over Etna, | 0:07:49 | 0:07:52 | |
sometimes miles from the crater | 0:07:52 | 0:07:54 | |
where the lava first started flowing. | 0:07:54 | 0:07:56 | |
Lava tubes are formed when the top layer of lava hardens. | 0:07:58 | 0:08:02 | |
The rock roof keeps everything inside from cooling, | 0:08:02 | 0:08:05 | |
a bit like the insulation on a hot-water pipe. | 0:08:05 | 0:08:07 | |
The hot lava inside carries on flowing and, when the eruption ends, | 0:08:07 | 0:08:11 | |
it leaves behind this amazing network of tubes. | 0:08:11 | 0:08:15 | |
Tunnels like this are the real hidden wonder of the volcano. | 0:08:15 | 0:08:20 | |
The magma would have started up at this level | 0:08:20 | 0:08:22 | |
and it drained rapidly to start forming a lava tube. | 0:08:22 | 0:08:25 | |
You can see the drips of lava it left behind as it drained. | 0:08:25 | 0:08:29 | |
And just here you can see there's a tide mark. | 0:08:29 | 0:08:32 | |
This is where the river of lava once was. | 0:08:32 | 0:08:34 | |
If I was in this tunnel now when that lava was flowing, | 0:08:34 | 0:08:37 | |
it would be around sort of waist high here, chest high. | 0:08:37 | 0:08:40 | |
I'd be sort of wading against a river of lava | 0:08:40 | 0:08:42 | |
which is cascading down the mountain | 0:08:42 | 0:08:45 | |
and feeding lava flows maybe... maybe miles away from the vent. | 0:08:45 | 0:08:48 | |
It drained even further. | 0:08:48 | 0:08:50 | |
It cooled and formed the top crust of the final lava flow, | 0:08:50 | 0:08:53 | |
the final resting place. | 0:08:53 | 0:08:54 | |
Now, if I was in this tube when that lava was flowing, | 0:08:54 | 0:08:58 | |
I'd be burnt alive. | 0:08:58 | 0:08:59 | |
All volcanoes are named after Vulcan, the Roman god of fire. | 0:09:02 | 0:09:07 | |
It was Vulcan's job to make weapons for the other gods | 0:09:07 | 0:09:10 | |
and the Romans believed the glow of the lava | 0:09:10 | 0:09:12 | |
was from Vulcan's furnaces as he worked away under the earth. | 0:09:12 | 0:09:16 | |
Around three quarters of the world's volcanoes | 0:09:19 | 0:09:22 | |
are found around the edge of the Pacific Ocean. | 0:09:22 | 0:09:25 | |
Because of this, the area is known as the Ring of Fire. | 0:09:25 | 0:09:28 | |
Volcanoes are always changing, | 0:09:31 | 0:09:32 | |
and an active one may suddenly go quiet and become dormant. | 0:09:32 | 0:09:36 | |
Others are very reliable and have been erupting for decades | 0:09:37 | 0:09:40 | |
or even centuries. | 0:09:40 | 0:09:42 | |
Here are three of the most active volcanoes on the planet. | 0:09:43 | 0:09:46 | |
The US state of Hawaii | 0:09:48 | 0:09:49 | |
is a chain of volcanic islands in the Pacific Ocean. | 0:09:49 | 0:09:53 | |
The main volcano, Kilauea, has been erupting on its flank since 1983. | 0:09:53 | 0:09:58 | |
It's generally not explosive | 0:09:58 | 0:10:00 | |
but it's thought to release more lava | 0:10:00 | 0:10:02 | |
than any other volcano in the world. | 0:10:02 | 0:10:04 | |
At two is Stromboli, | 0:10:06 | 0:10:08 | |
off the coast of Sicily in Italy. | 0:10:08 | 0:10:10 | |
This tiny island is pretty much all volcano | 0:10:10 | 0:10:13 | |
and has been providing amazing firework displays without a break | 0:10:13 | 0:10:17 | |
for the last 2,000 years. | 0:10:17 | 0:10:19 | |
Number-one most long-standing active volcano | 0:10:19 | 0:10:22 | |
is Etna on Sicily in Italy. | 0:10:22 | 0:10:24 | |
Estimated to have been erupting on and off | 0:10:24 | 0:10:28 | |
for an incredible 3,500 years, | 0:10:28 | 0:10:30 | |
it's the biggest volcano in Europe and, despite all this activity, | 0:10:30 | 0:10:35 | |
over a million people, a quarter of all Sicilians, | 0:10:35 | 0:10:38 | |
live on its slopes. | 0:10:38 | 0:10:40 | |
Around 500 million people live on or near volcanoes. | 0:10:42 | 0:10:47 | |
Why would so many people choose to live | 0:10:47 | 0:10:49 | |
so close to such dangerous mountains? | 0:10:49 | 0:10:52 | |
Well, it's all down to our old friend lava. | 0:10:52 | 0:10:55 | |
It's full of minerals that make the land around volcanoes | 0:10:55 | 0:10:58 | |
incredibly fertile - great for growing food, | 0:10:58 | 0:11:01 | |
and the reason why people first started living around volcanoes. | 0:11:01 | 0:11:04 | |
To find out what that's like, I am off to number two in our chart, | 0:11:07 | 0:11:11 | |
Etna's little brother, Stromboli. | 0:11:11 | 0:11:14 | |
The Mediterranean Sea. | 0:11:17 | 0:11:19 | |
The water here is full of fish | 0:11:19 | 0:11:22 | |
and the coast is green and fertile. | 0:11:22 | 0:11:24 | |
Because of this, the area has been home | 0:11:24 | 0:11:26 | |
to generations of farmers and fishermen. | 0:11:26 | 0:11:29 | |
But this particular home happens to be... | 0:11:29 | 0:11:32 | |
a real volcano. | 0:11:32 | 0:11:35 | |
Stromboli is the tiny volcanic island | 0:11:38 | 0:11:40 | |
that makes a very big impression. | 0:11:40 | 0:11:43 | |
It's been erupting so regularly, and for so long, | 0:11:43 | 0:11:46 | |
that the Romans called it the Lighthouse of the Mediterranean. | 0:11:46 | 0:11:50 | |
Around 800 people live on the island, | 0:11:54 | 0:11:57 | |
in two villages clinging to the edge of the volcano. | 0:11:57 | 0:12:01 | |
There's only one school, with less than 50 children. | 0:12:03 | 0:12:06 | |
Instead of playing fields out the back, there's a live volcano. | 0:12:07 | 0:12:12 | |
Playing in the shadow of Stromboli looks scary. | 0:12:13 | 0:12:17 | |
So, what do the kids think of their volcano? | 0:12:17 | 0:12:20 | |
CHILDREN SPEAK ITALIAN | 0:12:20 | 0:12:21 | |
TRANSLATION: In reality, you ought to be scared of Stromboli | 0:12:21 | 0:12:25 | |
but once you've got used to living here a while | 0:12:25 | 0:12:27 | |
you no longer have all this fear. | 0:12:27 | 0:12:30 | |
-TRANSLATION: -I have always liked the volcano | 0:12:32 | 0:12:34 | |
because in the evening | 0:12:34 | 0:12:37 | |
I hear it do things. | 0:12:37 | 0:12:39 | |
"Voom, voom, voom!" is the noise it makes. | 0:12:39 | 0:12:43 | |
-TRANSLATION: -We can see the theatre of fire. | 0:12:46 | 0:12:48 | |
Also, if there are any flares | 0:12:48 | 0:12:50 | |
they are beautiful because you can see real things close up. | 0:12:50 | 0:12:55 | |
TRANSLATION: Even from my house. | 0:12:55 | 0:12:57 | |
-TRANSLATION: -I'm never scared of the volcano | 0:13:02 | 0:13:04 | |
because the lava has never come down this far, | 0:13:04 | 0:13:06 | |
so we don't need to be scared. | 0:13:06 | 0:13:08 | |
We can rest easy with no worries. | 0:13:08 | 0:13:10 | |
The two villages on Stromboli are on the other side of the island | 0:13:14 | 0:13:18 | |
from the main danger zone. | 0:13:18 | 0:13:20 | |
But that doesn't mean there's no risk. | 0:13:20 | 0:13:22 | |
In 2003, a series of major eruptions nearly caused Stromboli | 0:13:22 | 0:13:27 | |
to be evacuated. | 0:13:27 | 0:13:29 | |
There were no deaths, even though boulders ejected from the crater | 0:13:29 | 0:13:32 | |
left houses in ruins. | 0:13:32 | 0:13:33 | |
For this reason, emergency plans are in place. | 0:13:33 | 0:13:37 | |
-TRANSLATION: -If there IS an enormous eruption, | 0:13:39 | 0:13:41 | |
then we can evacuate the island by boat. | 0:13:41 | 0:13:44 | |
Because of the 2003 eruption, | 0:13:45 | 0:13:47 | |
a volcano monitoring station was put in place | 0:13:47 | 0:13:51 | |
and is manned 24 hours a day, all year round, | 0:13:51 | 0:13:54 | |
watching over the safety of the children below. | 0:13:54 | 0:13:58 | |
TRANSLATION: There are explosions that are beautiful | 0:13:58 | 0:14:01 | |
because they light up everything. I like it a lot. | 0:14:01 | 0:14:04 | |
Far from being scared of the fire-breathing mountain | 0:14:06 | 0:14:10 | |
in their own back yard, | 0:14:10 | 0:14:11 | |
the children of Stromboli love the volcano | 0:14:11 | 0:14:14 | |
they call simply "iddu" - "him". | 0:14:14 | 0:14:18 | |
Stromboli can make life in a country with no volcano | 0:14:19 | 0:14:22 | |
seem a little boring | 0:14:22 | 0:14:24 | |
but there is volcanic action if you know where to look - | 0:14:24 | 0:14:27 | |
as Leo is about to find out in Edinburgh. | 0:14:27 | 0:14:30 | |
Edinburgh, in wet and windy Scotland. | 0:14:34 | 0:14:37 | |
It seems about as far as a volcano as you can possibly get | 0:14:37 | 0:14:41 | |
but even in the UK there is evidence of volcanic activity | 0:14:41 | 0:14:44 | |
if you know where to look. | 0:14:44 | 0:14:45 | |
Believe it or not, there are two here, but where are they hiding? | 0:14:47 | 0:14:51 | |
For this slightly unusual challenge, | 0:14:53 | 0:14:55 | |
I have chosen one of my favourite ways of getting around - | 0:14:55 | 0:14:58 | |
a mountain bike. | 0:14:58 | 0:14:59 | |
There is no better way to go urban-volcano hunting. | 0:14:59 | 0:15:02 | |
You just need to know the clues. | 0:15:02 | 0:15:03 | |
I have climbed enough mountains to know | 0:15:05 | 0:15:07 | |
that you need to look for a certain sort of volcanic rock. | 0:15:07 | 0:15:10 | |
It's the rock that will give away the location of volcanoes, | 0:15:10 | 0:15:13 | |
even millions of years after they were active. | 0:15:13 | 0:15:16 | |
My first sleeping giant is right under the noses | 0:15:18 | 0:15:21 | |
of all the tourists at Edinburgh Castle. | 0:15:21 | 0:15:23 | |
The castle is at the very heart of Edinburgh | 0:15:23 | 0:15:25 | |
and it's famous throughout the world, | 0:15:25 | 0:15:27 | |
but what I am interested in is what is underneath it - Castle Rock. | 0:15:27 | 0:15:30 | |
The rock that creates the spectacular setting of the castle | 0:15:33 | 0:15:37 | |
is actually the remains of an ancient volcano. | 0:15:37 | 0:15:40 | |
Over the millennia the earth's tectonic plates shifted | 0:15:40 | 0:15:43 | |
and the volcanoes became extinct. | 0:15:43 | 0:15:46 | |
The mud around the extinct volcanoes eroded | 0:15:46 | 0:15:48 | |
and all that was left of these once-fearsome mountains | 0:15:48 | 0:15:51 | |
was their central cores of tough volcanic rock. | 0:15:51 | 0:15:53 | |
So that's volcano number one, | 0:15:55 | 0:15:57 | |
but I want to show you another in Edinburgh | 0:15:57 | 0:15:59 | |
that is even more spectacular. | 0:15:59 | 0:16:01 | |
If you want to go ancient-volcano spotting yourself, | 0:16:07 | 0:16:10 | |
there are opportunities all over the UK - | 0:16:10 | 0:16:13 | |
the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland | 0:16:13 | 0:16:15 | |
and Fingal's Cave on the Isle of Staffa in Scotland | 0:16:15 | 0:16:18 | |
were both built from cooling lava. | 0:16:18 | 0:16:20 | |
And many of the peaks in Snowdonia in Wales | 0:16:21 | 0:16:24 | |
were originally volcanoes. | 0:16:24 | 0:16:26 | |
It's a shame we are a little too late to see them erupting - | 0:16:26 | 0:16:28 | |
about 60 million years too late. | 0:16:28 | 0:16:31 | |
With some hard pedalling, I make a two-mile loop of the city streets | 0:16:33 | 0:16:36 | |
in under ten minutes. | 0:16:36 | 0:16:37 | |
You can't miss what I have come for | 0:16:37 | 0:16:39 | |
and there it is, brooding over the city - | 0:16:39 | 0:16:41 | |
secret volcano number two, and it's a whopper. | 0:16:41 | 0:16:45 | |
That's Arthur's Seat, | 0:16:45 | 0:16:47 | |
the central core of a massive volcano | 0:16:47 | 0:16:50 | |
right in the middle of the city. | 0:16:50 | 0:16:52 | |
These are the clues that give the volcanic activity away. | 0:16:53 | 0:16:56 | |
Even today, you can clearly see layers of ancient lava and ash - | 0:16:56 | 0:17:00 | |
still visible despite millions of years of erosion - | 0:17:00 | 0:17:04 | |
all that's left of a once-great volcano. | 0:17:04 | 0:17:06 | |
There's no way I'm leaving Edinburgh without conquering | 0:17:10 | 0:17:13 | |
this mini-mountain. | 0:17:13 | 0:17:14 | |
I'm not going to scare Bradley Wiggins at this speed, | 0:17:16 | 0:17:19 | |
but I need to pick up the pace if I am to get to the top. | 0:17:19 | 0:17:22 | |
It's not my toughest challenge, | 0:17:23 | 0:17:25 | |
but it's made slightly harder by the fact | 0:17:25 | 0:17:27 | |
there's no cycling allowed on the ancient volcanic rocks. | 0:17:27 | 0:17:31 | |
There's nothing for it but for me to carry my bike. | 0:17:31 | 0:17:35 | |
But it's worth it. | 0:17:35 | 0:17:36 | |
It is incredible to think that this was once the centre | 0:17:39 | 0:17:42 | |
of a giant volcano that created this entire landscape. | 0:17:42 | 0:17:45 | |
Awesome. | 0:17:45 | 0:17:47 | |
360 million years of history. | 0:17:48 | 0:17:51 | |
40 km/h top speed. | 0:17:51 | 0:17:53 | |
Two ancient volcanoes. | 0:17:53 | 0:17:56 | |
Sorted. | 0:17:56 | 0:17:57 | |
The ancient volcanoes of Scotland are long extinct | 0:18:00 | 0:18:03 | |
but there are many around the world that are still very much alive. | 0:18:03 | 0:18:06 | |
Back in Italy, Dougal is preparing for a close encounter | 0:18:06 | 0:18:11 | |
with one of the most awe-inspiring. | 0:18:11 | 0:18:12 | |
Stromboli - | 0:18:14 | 0:18:15 | |
the tip of a massive volcano emerging from under the sea, | 0:18:15 | 0:18:19 | |
erupting pretty much continuously for the last 2,000 years. | 0:18:19 | 0:18:23 | |
Every year it gets a little bit bigger | 0:18:23 | 0:18:26 | |
as yet more layers of ash and lava are launched out of its crater. | 0:18:26 | 0:18:31 | |
If you want to get face to face with a volcano | 0:18:31 | 0:18:33 | |
this is my particular favourite one, | 0:18:33 | 0:18:35 | |
and today I'm going to go right to the top. | 0:18:35 | 0:18:39 | |
Even from sea level it's clear that Stromboli is very much alive. | 0:18:39 | 0:18:44 | |
They call this scree slope built from rocks ejected from the crater | 0:18:44 | 0:18:48 | |
the Sciara del Fuoco - the Stream of Fire. | 0:18:48 | 0:18:52 | |
Those rocks have bounced over 900 metres | 0:18:53 | 0:18:56 | |
from the top of the volcano | 0:18:56 | 0:18:58 | |
all the way down to the sea | 0:18:58 | 0:18:59 | |
and that's how far we've got to go to get up to the top. | 0:18:59 | 0:19:01 | |
It is going to be fantastic. | 0:19:01 | 0:19:03 | |
900 metres is over twice the height of the Empire State Building | 0:19:03 | 0:19:07 | |
in New York, | 0:19:07 | 0:19:09 | |
and all of it built from volcanic rock. | 0:19:09 | 0:19:12 | |
It's clear Stromboli is not to be messed with, | 0:19:12 | 0:19:15 | |
so before my climb I drop in on the monitoring station | 0:19:15 | 0:19:18 | |
that helps the islanders live safely side by side with their volcano. | 0:19:18 | 0:19:23 | |
So, here we're at the main monitoring hub of Stromboli volcano, | 0:19:23 | 0:19:28 | |
and these little diagrams here that have been | 0:19:28 | 0:19:31 | |
almost virtually printed out on the screen, | 0:19:31 | 0:19:33 | |
these record how the volcano shakes. | 0:19:33 | 0:19:35 | |
Devices on the slopes measure minute changes in the volcano - | 0:19:35 | 0:19:40 | |
rumblings that can predict when Stromboli may erupt dangerously. | 0:19:40 | 0:19:44 | |
This is a lovely graphic here. | 0:19:44 | 0:19:46 | |
You can see this is the April 2003 eruption. | 0:19:46 | 0:19:49 | |
You can get a real feel for the small normal background eruptions | 0:19:49 | 0:19:53 | |
and the big one. | 0:19:53 | 0:19:55 | |
Let's hope that doesn't go off when we're up there. | 0:19:56 | 0:19:58 | |
So, am I going to get what I came here for? | 0:20:01 | 0:20:03 | |
A face-to-face encounter with an erupting volcano? | 0:20:03 | 0:20:07 | |
It's time to head for the top of Stromboli and find out. | 0:20:09 | 0:20:14 | |
Climbing an active volcano can be dangerous, | 0:20:14 | 0:20:16 | |
so I'm travelling with local guide Antonio. | 0:20:16 | 0:20:20 | |
I ask him how many times he's climbed Stromboli. | 0:20:20 | 0:20:24 | |
Mille volte. | 0:20:24 | 0:20:25 | |
-A thousand times? -Yes. -A thousand times. That's incredible. | 0:20:26 | 0:20:30 | |
We are just about halfway up the volcano now | 0:20:41 | 0:20:44 | |
and you get this fantastic view over what we saw from the boat - | 0:20:44 | 0:20:48 | |
this scree slope of ejected bombs and debris. | 0:20:48 | 0:20:51 | |
Now, this stuff is ejecting out of the volcano | 0:20:51 | 0:20:54 | |
and just dropping to the ground | 0:20:54 | 0:20:56 | |
and the volcano builds | 0:20:56 | 0:20:58 | |
piece by piece, bit by bit, relentlessly out. | 0:20:58 | 0:21:02 | |
We're a good two hours into the climb now | 0:21:05 | 0:21:08 | |
and we spot something I'm not expecting. | 0:21:08 | 0:21:10 | |
Turns out humans aren't the only creatures | 0:21:10 | 0:21:12 | |
to make their home on the steep slopes of Stromboli. | 0:21:12 | 0:21:15 | |
As we get towards the rim of the volcano here | 0:21:16 | 0:21:18 | |
we are seeing more and more of this metalwork. | 0:21:18 | 0:21:21 | |
These solar panels and aerials and so on are housing seismographs, | 0:21:21 | 0:21:26 | |
there's a thermal camera there constantly monitoring the volcano | 0:21:26 | 0:21:29 | |
and they send this as messages, radio messages, | 0:21:29 | 0:21:33 | |
down from here all the way down to the observatory | 0:21:33 | 0:21:36 | |
where we were this morning. | 0:21:36 | 0:21:37 | |
And that's really how we can sort of listen | 0:21:37 | 0:21:40 | |
to the heartbeat of the volcano. | 0:21:40 | 0:21:41 | |
We're nearing the climax of our four-hour climb. | 0:21:46 | 0:21:50 | |
As we get closer to the crater, | 0:21:50 | 0:21:52 | |
the danger of approaching a live volcano becomes very clear. | 0:21:52 | 0:21:56 | |
Wow. | 0:21:58 | 0:21:59 | |
Things are starting to get a little interesting. | 0:21:59 | 0:22:03 | |
Believe it or not, this is a bomb. | 0:22:03 | 0:22:07 | |
This is a ballistic that's been thrown from the volcano | 0:22:07 | 0:22:09 | |
during one of its slightly more... aggressive phases, let's say. | 0:22:09 | 0:22:13 | |
There's lots of them, actually. | 0:22:13 | 0:22:15 | |
These small ones are the usual size of things that might fall. | 0:22:15 | 0:22:18 | |
So I think it's a good time we probably put our hard hats on. | 0:22:18 | 0:22:21 | |
Now, I'm not sure how a hard hat like this | 0:22:23 | 0:22:25 | |
is going help me when a rock like this falls out the sky, | 0:22:25 | 0:22:29 | |
but we've got to wear them from now on in anyway. | 0:22:29 | 0:22:31 | |
The last couple of hundred metres is tough going | 0:22:35 | 0:22:38 | |
with a loose surface that's difficult to walk on. | 0:22:38 | 0:22:41 | |
The rocks are called scoria. | 0:22:41 | 0:22:42 | |
Every single bit was once a chunk of hot lava, | 0:22:42 | 0:22:46 | |
rocks thrown out from the depths of the earth by this awesome volcano | 0:22:46 | 0:22:50 | |
as it built itself up, piece by piece, out of the sea. | 0:22:50 | 0:22:54 | |
Wow. | 0:22:58 | 0:22:59 | |
This... This is an incredible vantage point | 0:22:59 | 0:23:03 | |
We have got all four, five craters of the volcano at eye level. | 0:23:03 | 0:23:08 | |
-HE SNIFFS -There is sulphur in the air. | 0:23:08 | 0:23:10 | |
You can see an eerie gas and fog drifting over the mountain. | 0:23:10 | 0:23:14 | |
We are right now close to the heart of Stromboli. | 0:23:14 | 0:23:17 | |
All we've got to do is wait here | 0:23:17 | 0:23:19 | |
and see if Stromboli is going to talk to us. | 0:23:19 | 0:23:22 | |
Turns out our timing is perfect, | 0:23:25 | 0:23:27 | |
and the view, just 150 metres from the live crater, is awesome. | 0:23:27 | 0:23:32 | |
Look, you can see the red blocks of lava now, drifting down. | 0:23:32 | 0:23:37 | |
It didn't take long for Stromboli to say hello. | 0:23:37 | 0:23:40 | |
It's so exciting to see a live volcano erupt. | 0:23:40 | 0:23:43 | |
Stromboli doesn't let us down. | 0:23:43 | 0:23:46 | |
But we haven't yet seen just how red hot the rocks really are. | 0:23:46 | 0:23:51 | |
I wait for it to get dark - | 0:23:51 | 0:23:53 | |
my favourite time to view an erupting volcano. | 0:23:53 | 0:23:56 | |
Between eruptions, it almost looks like | 0:23:56 | 0:23:59 | |
some of the land over there is quite safe. | 0:23:59 | 0:24:02 | |
You can only just see a little bit of the volcano | 0:24:02 | 0:24:05 | |
glowing in the background, | 0:24:05 | 0:24:07 | |
but when you bring a heat camera up and have a look, | 0:24:07 | 0:24:10 | |
you can actually see | 0:24:10 | 0:24:12 | |
every one of those craters over there | 0:24:12 | 0:24:15 | |
is glowing hot. | 0:24:15 | 0:24:17 | |
And you're getting spot heights | 0:24:17 | 0:24:20 | |
in excess of 100 degrees centigrade. | 0:24:20 | 0:24:23 | |
Now, water is going to flash to steam | 0:24:23 | 0:24:25 | |
at over 100 degrees centigrade, | 0:24:25 | 0:24:27 | |
so this is really, really hot stuff. | 0:24:27 | 0:24:28 | |
Imagine boiling your kettle and sticking your hand in it, | 0:24:28 | 0:24:31 | |
it's not a good idea at all. | 0:24:31 | 0:24:32 | |
So you wouldn't be able to walk over there - | 0:24:32 | 0:24:34 | |
it would start to melt your boots. | 0:24:34 | 0:24:36 | |
Stromboli often erupts like this several times an hour. | 0:24:38 | 0:24:41 | |
The explosions are so distinctive | 0:24:41 | 0:24:43 | |
that the mountain lends its name to the classic volcanic sight - | 0:24:43 | 0:24:47 | |
the Strombolian eruption. | 0:24:47 | 0:24:49 | |
Whoa, whoa! Look. | 0:24:49 | 0:24:51 | |
That is fantastic. Are you seeing that? | 0:24:51 | 0:24:54 | |
I am getting that on the thermal camera. | 0:24:54 | 0:24:56 | |
Wow. That is just what we've been waiting for. | 0:24:56 | 0:24:59 | |
150... It went up very quickly. | 0:25:00 | 0:25:03 | |
You can imagine.... Look at the scoria | 0:25:03 | 0:25:05 | |
just falling down the scree slope there. | 0:25:05 | 0:25:08 | |
Can you imagine tons and tons of that material | 0:25:09 | 0:25:11 | |
every day gets erupted from this volcano? | 0:25:11 | 0:25:14 | |
The road of fire is literally on fire now | 0:25:14 | 0:25:18 | |
and all of that is falling down to the sea. | 0:25:18 | 0:25:21 | |
Wow. | 0:25:21 | 0:25:22 | |
That's fantastic. | 0:25:25 | 0:25:27 | |
So. I've got exactly what I came for - | 0:25:27 | 0:25:30 | |
a close-up encounter with the planet's | 0:25:30 | 0:25:32 | |
most spectacular natural force. | 0:25:32 | 0:25:35 | |
When you have witnessed something | 0:25:35 | 0:25:37 | |
like Stromboli erupting in the flesh, | 0:25:37 | 0:25:39 | |
it is something that just keeps giving - | 0:25:39 | 0:25:41 | |
you want to keep coming back and seeing more and more. | 0:25:41 | 0:25:43 | |
Whoa, here we go! | 0:25:44 | 0:25:46 | |
Look at that! | 0:25:46 | 0:25:47 | |
Oh, beautiful! | 0:25:49 | 0:25:50 | |
Earth, raging earth! | 0:25:52 | 0:25:54 | |
This is the earth at its most active and its most violent... | 0:25:55 | 0:25:58 | |
..and yet it's so beautiful, you just can't stop watching. | 0:25:59 | 0:26:02 | |
Where there are volcanoes, | 0:26:13 | 0:26:15 | |
there will always be humans. | 0:26:15 | 0:26:17 | |
And, being humans, we've developed ways to survive alongside volcanoes. | 0:26:17 | 0:26:21 | |
Seismographs and other monitoring devices are used by scientists | 0:26:21 | 0:26:26 | |
to predict large eruptions. | 0:26:26 | 0:26:28 | |
Evacuation alerts are only issued in a real emergency, so act on them. | 0:26:28 | 0:26:32 | |
Remember, when it comes to danger, all volcanoes are not equal. | 0:26:34 | 0:26:38 | |
Extinct or dominant is your best bet. | 0:26:38 | 0:26:40 | |
When volcanoes are active, a shield shape is safer - | 0:26:40 | 0:26:44 | |
it means the lava can flow freely. | 0:26:44 | 0:26:47 | |
Domes are more dangerous - | 0:26:47 | 0:26:48 | |
pressure could be building deep beneath the earth | 0:26:48 | 0:26:50 | |
with lethal consequences. | 0:26:50 | 0:26:51 | |
If you are lucky enough to visit an active volcano, | 0:26:51 | 0:26:54 | |
you should only ever approach it with a professional guide, | 0:26:54 | 0:26:58 | |
check volcanic activity before your trip | 0:26:58 | 0:27:00 | |
and always travel with communication, | 0:27:00 | 0:27:02 | |
supplies and full safety gear. | 0:27:02 | 0:27:05 | |
This is how you maximise your chances of surviving... | 0:27:05 | 0:27:08 | |
the Fierce Earth. | 0:27:08 | 0:27:10 | |
Coming up next time... | 0:27:12 | 0:27:14 | |
The destructive force of the world's fastest winds... | 0:27:14 | 0:27:17 | |
..winds that tear buildings apart and leave destruction in their wake. | 0:27:20 | 0:27:25 | |
Join Fierce Earth for a spin inside the fury of the tornado. | 0:27:25 | 0:27:29 | |
HE LAUGHS | 0:27:29 | 0:27:31 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:27:50 | 0:27:53 |