Volcanos Fierce Earth


Volcanos

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You hear that noise, you see that smoke?

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That's the sight of the earth actually coming alive.

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And we've travelled a long way to get here by plane, by boat,

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it's been a good four hours' hike up the mountain and we're here

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to get face-to-face with one of the awesome forces on our planet,

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an erupting volcano.

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On today's explosive Fierce Earth special,

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we're travelling to Italy to witness the awesome power

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of two of the world's most spectacular volcanoes,

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Etna and Stromboli.

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We're going inside secret lava tubes...

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..outside with children who live on a volcano...

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and climbing all the way to the red-hot top!

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That is fantastic!

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What happens when the ground shakes,

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the seas rise up and the air tears itself apart?

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The Fierce Earth team move in,

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taking on the most powerful forces on the planet.

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Get ready for Fierce Earth. The earth, and how to survive it.

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Volcanoes are planet earth's spectacular, and terrifying,

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fireworks display. Living mountains that erupt molten rocks

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from deep within the earth.

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There are more than 500 active volcanoes in the world today

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and right now about 20 will be erupting.

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Volcanoes can lie dormant for years, perhaps centuries, and then, boom!

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They explode, releasing seemingly endless rivers

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of super-hot molten rock that destroy everything in their path.

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I've travelled the world for many years,

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chasing and observing these natural wonders.

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I love volcanoes. I fear volcanoes. My mates call me Doctor Volcano.

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Volcanoes are a reminder that the very ground humans walk upon

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is ever-changing, and that the planet, not far below our feet,

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is a violent furnace.

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Today I'm on a mission to get right up close to an erupting volcano

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and discover just where they get their awesome power.

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So I'm heading straight for Europe's biggest,

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Mount Etna on the island of Sicily, in Italy.

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This cut-open peach is a great example of what the earth

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might look like if we cut it with a really big knife.

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On the outside is the thin, cold crust, that's where we live.

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But inside it's thousands of degrees centigrade right to the eye

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and core in the middle.

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Now, this area here is known as the mantle

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and that's where magma gets generated,

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and, if cracks can be made in the earth's crust,

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that magma can escape and form volcanoes.

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So why do those cracks appear?

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It's all down to plate tectonics. The earth's outer layer is made up

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of giant tectonic plates that lock together like a huge jigsaw puzzle.

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The plates float around on top of the sticky,

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toffee-like mantle beneath.

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The plates move very slowly, just centimetres a year,

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but as they pull apart or push together,

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the movement helps generate and release magma.

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A volcano is born.

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Etna is where the African Plate meets the European Plate,

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with volcanic consequences. Just look at this lava flow.

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This has come barrelling from the top of the mountain,

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Mount Etna in the cloud there, all the way down, burning trees,

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killing everything in its path.

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Now, this would have been red-hot molten rock, a lava flow,

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which people often fear the most. But sometimes it's the volcanoes,

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the active ones that don't erupt lava, which are the most dangerous.

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Let me show you why.

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Take two mini volcanoes, tins for magma chambers

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and coloured milk for the magma itself.

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Both identical, but for one crucial difference

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that will make one of them deadly.

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So we've created two very simple homemade volcanoes here, OK?

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We've put magma in both of them and I am just going to do

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two very simple eruptions to explain the point.

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I'm going to add these effervescent tablets to trigger the eruption.

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Let's start with volcano number one, see what happens.

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The fizzy tablets set off a reaction that simulates lava

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leaving a volcano when flowing freely.

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Beautiful, look at that.

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A great lava flow now, it's starting to flow down the side

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of our makeshift mountain, fantastic.

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Etna erupts like this every few years

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and the Sicilians are used to dealing with it.

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Roads and houses often have to be rebuilt.

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Although it's dangerous,

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lava on the slopes here tends to be relatively slow-moving.

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If it's heading in your direction,

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you usually have time to get out of the way.

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These lava flows will destroy everything in its wake,

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just like what you see behind me.

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But you will survive.

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What happens, though, if the magma can't escape so easily,

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if the gases can't release so easily?

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So what we're going to do with volcano number two,

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we've got the effervescent tablets,

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but this time we're going to put a lid on.

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Let's pile some rocks up. Look at that, a few rocks on top.

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Now then, I'll just get out the way a bit.

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We sit back and wait to see what happens.

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You can see the pressure building now,

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you see the rocks starting to move? There's real pressure building,

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I can feel it... Oh! Look at that!

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Wow! Now, you don't want to be around when that happens.

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Sadly, that's exactly what did happen in the north west of the USA

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in 1980. Sticky magma and tons of rock had combined

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to keep Mount St Helens quiet for centuries.

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But when it did finally erupt

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they were the very things that made it so deadly.

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The sudden release of pressure blew the entire top

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and side of the volcano completely off.

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A crater was left a kilometre and a half wide

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and 57 people lost their lives.

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Up on the slopes of Mount Etna, it's clear that there have been

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huge amounts of volcanic activity over the years.

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But, luckily, very few catastrophic explosions.

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Look at this.

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This ropey texture,

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that's typical of lava flows.

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Unlike explosive volcanoes,

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the magma here is less sticky

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and it flows down the side of the mountain.

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But it's the hidden treasures that lie beneath this

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is what I've come to see today.

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And that's what I'm going to need this for.

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Sometimes, rather than looking up at a volcano,

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it pays to look down.

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Under the slopes are secret tunnels built by the volcano itself.

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The walls, ceiling and floor are all made of lava.

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These lava tubes are all over Etna,

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sometimes miles from the crater

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where the lava first started flowing.

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Lava tubes are formed when the top layer of lava hardens.

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The rock roof keeps everything inside from cooling,

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a bit like the insulation on a hot-water pipe.

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The hot lava inside carries on flowing and, when the eruption ends,

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it leaves behind this amazing network of tubes.

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Tunnels like this are the real hidden wonder of the volcano.

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The magma would have started up at this level

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and it drained rapidly to start forming a lava tube.

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You can see the drips of lava it left behind as it drained.

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And just here you can see there's a tide mark.

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This is where the river of lava once was.

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If I was in this tunnel now when that lava was flowing,

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it would be around sort of waist high here, chest high.

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I'd be sort of wading against a river of lava

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which is cascading down the mountain

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and feeding lava flows maybe... maybe miles away from the vent.

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It drained even further.

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It cooled and formed the top crust of the final lava flow,

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the final resting place.

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Now, if I was in this tube when that lava was flowing,

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I'd be burnt alive.

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All volcanoes are named after Vulcan, the Roman god of fire.

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It was Vulcan's job to make weapons for the other gods

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and the Romans believed the glow of the lava

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was from Vulcan's furnaces as he worked away under the earth.

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Around three quarters of the world's volcanoes

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are found around the edge of the Pacific Ocean.

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Because of this, the area is known as the Ring of Fire.

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Volcanoes are always changing,

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and an active one may suddenly go quiet and become dormant.

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Others are very reliable and have been erupting for decades

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or even centuries.

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Here are three of the most active volcanoes on the planet.

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The US state of Hawaii

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is a chain of volcanic islands in the Pacific Ocean.

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The main volcano, Kilauea, has been erupting on its flank since 1983.

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It's generally not explosive

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but it's thought to release more lava

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than any other volcano in the world.

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At two is Stromboli,

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off the coast of Sicily in Italy.

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This tiny island is pretty much all volcano

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and has been providing amazing firework displays without a break

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for the last 2,000 years.

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Number-one most long-standing active volcano

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is Etna on Sicily in Italy.

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Estimated to have been erupting on and off

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for an incredible 3,500 years,

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it's the biggest volcano in Europe and, despite all this activity,

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over a million people, a quarter of all Sicilians,

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live on its slopes.

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Around 500 million people live on or near volcanoes.

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Why would so many people choose to live

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so close to such dangerous mountains?

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Well, it's all down to our old friend lava.

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It's full of minerals that make the land around volcanoes

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incredibly fertile - great for growing food,

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and the reason why people first started living around volcanoes.

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To find out what that's like, I am off to number two in our chart,

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Etna's little brother, Stromboli.

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The Mediterranean Sea.

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The water here is full of fish

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and the coast is green and fertile.

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Because of this, the area has been home

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to generations of farmers and fishermen.

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But this particular home happens to be...

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a real volcano.

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Stromboli is the tiny volcanic island

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that makes a very big impression.

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It's been erupting so regularly, and for so long,

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that the Romans called it the Lighthouse of the Mediterranean.

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Around 800 people live on the island,

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in two villages clinging to the edge of the volcano.

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There's only one school, with less than 50 children.

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Instead of playing fields out the back, there's a live volcano.

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Playing in the shadow of Stromboli looks scary.

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So, what do the kids think of their volcano?

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CHILDREN SPEAK ITALIAN

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TRANSLATION: In reality, you ought to be scared of Stromboli

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but once you've got used to living here a while

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you no longer have all this fear.

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-TRANSLATION:

-I have always liked the volcano

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because in the evening

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I hear it do things.

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"Voom, voom, voom!" is the noise it makes.

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-TRANSLATION:

-We can see the theatre of fire.

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Also, if there are any flares

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they are beautiful because you can see real things close up.

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TRANSLATION: Even from my house.

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-TRANSLATION:

-I'm never scared of the volcano

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because the lava has never come down this far,

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so we don't need to be scared.

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We can rest easy with no worries.

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The two villages on Stromboli are on the other side of the island

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from the main danger zone.

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But that doesn't mean there's no risk.

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In 2003, a series of major eruptions nearly caused Stromboli

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to be evacuated.

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There were no deaths, even though boulders ejected from the crater

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left houses in ruins.

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For this reason, emergency plans are in place.

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-TRANSLATION:

-If there IS an enormous eruption,

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then we can evacuate the island by boat.

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Because of the 2003 eruption,

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a volcano monitoring station was put in place

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and is manned 24 hours a day, all year round,

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watching over the safety of the children below.

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TRANSLATION: There are explosions that are beautiful

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because they light up everything. I like it a lot.

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Far from being scared of the fire-breathing mountain

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in their own back yard,

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the children of Stromboli love the volcano

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they call simply "iddu" - "him".

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Stromboli can make life in a country with no volcano

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seem a little boring

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but there is volcanic action if you know where to look -

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as Leo is about to find out in Edinburgh.

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Edinburgh, in wet and windy Scotland.

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It seems about as far as a volcano as you can possibly get

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but even in the UK there is evidence of volcanic activity

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if you know where to look.

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Believe it or not, there are two here, but where are they hiding?

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For this slightly unusual challenge,

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I have chosen one of my favourite ways of getting around -

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a mountain bike.

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There is no better way to go urban-volcano hunting.

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You just need to know the clues.

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I have climbed enough mountains to know

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that you need to look for a certain sort of volcanic rock.

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It's the rock that will give away the location of volcanoes,

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even millions of years after they were active.

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My first sleeping giant is right under the noses

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of all the tourists at Edinburgh Castle.

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The castle is at the very heart of Edinburgh

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and it's famous throughout the world,

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but what I am interested in is what is underneath it - Castle Rock.

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The rock that creates the spectacular setting of the castle

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is actually the remains of an ancient volcano.

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Over the millennia the earth's tectonic plates shifted

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and the volcanoes became extinct.

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The mud around the extinct volcanoes eroded

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and all that was left of these once-fearsome mountains

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was their central cores of tough volcanic rock.

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So that's volcano number one,

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but I want to show you another in Edinburgh

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that is even more spectacular.

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If you want to go ancient-volcano spotting yourself,

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there are opportunities all over the UK -

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the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland

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and Fingal's Cave on the Isle of Staffa in Scotland

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were both built from cooling lava.

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And many of the peaks in Snowdonia in Wales

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were originally volcanoes.

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It's a shame we are a little too late to see them erupting -

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about 60 million years too late.

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With some hard pedalling, I make a two-mile loop of the city streets

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in under ten minutes.

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You can't miss what I have come for

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and there it is, brooding over the city -

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secret volcano number two, and it's a whopper.

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That's Arthur's Seat,

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the central core of a massive volcano

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right in the middle of the city.

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These are the clues that give the volcanic activity away.

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Even today, you can clearly see layers of ancient lava and ash -

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still visible despite millions of years of erosion -

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all that's left of a once-great volcano.

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There's no way I'm leaving Edinburgh without conquering

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this mini-mountain.

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I'm not going to scare Bradley Wiggins at this speed,

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but I need to pick up the pace if I am to get to the top.

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It's not my toughest challenge,

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but it's made slightly harder by the fact

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there's no cycling allowed on the ancient volcanic rocks.

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There's nothing for it but for me to carry my bike.

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But it's worth it.

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It is incredible to think that this was once the centre

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of a giant volcano that created this entire landscape.

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Awesome.

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360 million years of history.

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40 km/h top speed.

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Two ancient volcanoes.

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Sorted.

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The ancient volcanoes of Scotland are long extinct

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but there are many around the world that are still very much alive.

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Back in Italy, Dougal is preparing for a close encounter

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with one of the most awe-inspiring.

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Stromboli -

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the tip of a massive volcano emerging from under the sea,

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erupting pretty much continuously for the last 2,000 years.

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Every year it gets a little bit bigger

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as yet more layers of ash and lava are launched out of its crater.

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If you want to get face to face with a volcano

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this is my particular favourite one,

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and today I'm going to go right to the top.

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Even from sea level it's clear that Stromboli is very much alive.

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They call this scree slope built from rocks ejected from the crater

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the Sciara del Fuoco - the Stream of Fire.

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Those rocks have bounced over 900 metres

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from the top of the volcano

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all the way down to the sea

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and that's how far we've got to go to get up to the top.

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It is going to be fantastic.

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900 metres is over twice the height of the Empire State Building

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in New York,

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and all of it built from volcanic rock.

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It's clear Stromboli is not to be messed with,

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so before my climb I drop in on the monitoring station

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that helps the islanders live safely side by side with their volcano.

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So, here we're at the main monitoring hub of Stromboli volcano,

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and these little diagrams here that have been

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almost virtually printed out on the screen,

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these record how the volcano shakes.

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Devices on the slopes measure minute changes in the volcano -

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rumblings that can predict when Stromboli may erupt dangerously.

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This is a lovely graphic here.

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You can see this is the April 2003 eruption.

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You can get a real feel for the small normal background eruptions

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and the big one.

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Let's hope that doesn't go off when we're up there.

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So, am I going to get what I came here for?

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A face-to-face encounter with an erupting volcano?

0:20:030:20:07

It's time to head for the top of Stromboli and find out.

0:20:090:20:14

Climbing an active volcano can be dangerous,

0:20:140:20:16

so I'm travelling with local guide Antonio.

0:20:160:20:20

I ask him how many times he's climbed Stromboli.

0:20:200:20:24

Mille volte.

0:20:240:20:25

-A thousand times?

-Yes.

-A thousand times. That's incredible.

0:20:260:20:30

We are just about halfway up the volcano now

0:20:410:20:44

and you get this fantastic view over what we saw from the boat -

0:20:440:20:48

this scree slope of ejected bombs and debris.

0:20:480:20:51

Now, this stuff is ejecting out of the volcano

0:20:510:20:54

and just dropping to the ground

0:20:540:20:56

and the volcano builds

0:20:560:20:58

piece by piece, bit by bit, relentlessly out.

0:20:580:21:02

We're a good two hours into the climb now

0:21:050:21:08

and we spot something I'm not expecting.

0:21:080:21:10

Turns out humans aren't the only creatures

0:21:100:21:12

to make their home on the steep slopes of Stromboli.

0:21:120:21:15

As we get towards the rim of the volcano here

0:21:160:21:18

we are seeing more and more of this metalwork.

0:21:180:21:21

These solar panels and aerials and so on are housing seismographs,

0:21:210:21:26

there's a thermal camera there constantly monitoring the volcano

0:21:260:21:29

and they send this as messages, radio messages,

0:21:290:21:33

down from here all the way down to the observatory

0:21:330:21:36

where we were this morning.

0:21:360:21:37

And that's really how we can sort of listen

0:21:370:21:40

to the heartbeat of the volcano.

0:21:400:21:41

We're nearing the climax of our four-hour climb.

0:21:460:21:50

As we get closer to the crater,

0:21:500:21:52

the danger of approaching a live volcano becomes very clear.

0:21:520:21:56

Wow.

0:21:580:21:59

Things are starting to get a little interesting.

0:21:590:22:03

Believe it or not, this is a bomb.

0:22:030:22:07

This is a ballistic that's been thrown from the volcano

0:22:070:22:09

during one of its slightly more... aggressive phases, let's say.

0:22:090:22:13

There's lots of them, actually.

0:22:130:22:15

These small ones are the usual size of things that might fall.

0:22:150:22:18

So I think it's a good time we probably put our hard hats on.

0:22:180:22:21

Now, I'm not sure how a hard hat like this

0:22:230:22:25

is going help me when a rock like this falls out the sky,

0:22:250:22:29

but we've got to wear them from now on in anyway.

0:22:290:22:31

The last couple of hundred metres is tough going

0:22:350:22:38

with a loose surface that's difficult to walk on.

0:22:380:22:41

The rocks are called scoria.

0:22:410:22:42

Every single bit was once a chunk of hot lava,

0:22:420:22:46

rocks thrown out from the depths of the earth by this awesome volcano

0:22:460:22:50

as it built itself up, piece by piece, out of the sea.

0:22:500:22:54

Wow.

0:22:580:22:59

This... This is an incredible vantage point

0:22:590:23:03

We have got all four, five craters of the volcano at eye level.

0:23:030:23:08

-HE SNIFFS

-There is sulphur in the air.

0:23:080:23:10

You can see an eerie gas and fog drifting over the mountain.

0:23:100:23:14

We are right now close to the heart of Stromboli.

0:23:140:23:17

All we've got to do is wait here

0:23:170:23:19

and see if Stromboli is going to talk to us.

0:23:190:23:22

Turns out our timing is perfect,

0:23:250:23:27

and the view, just 150 metres from the live crater, is awesome.

0:23:270:23:32

Look, you can see the red blocks of lava now, drifting down.

0:23:320:23:37

It didn't take long for Stromboli to say hello.

0:23:370:23:40

It's so exciting to see a live volcano erupt.

0:23:400:23:43

Stromboli doesn't let us down.

0:23:430:23:46

But we haven't yet seen just how red hot the rocks really are.

0:23:460:23:51

I wait for it to get dark -

0:23:510:23:53

my favourite time to view an erupting volcano.

0:23:530:23:56

Between eruptions, it almost looks like

0:23:560:23:59

some of the land over there is quite safe.

0:23:590:24:02

You can only just see a little bit of the volcano

0:24:020:24:05

glowing in the background,

0:24:050:24:07

but when you bring a heat camera up and have a look,

0:24:070:24:10

you can actually see

0:24:100:24:12

every one of those craters over there

0:24:120:24:15

is glowing hot.

0:24:150:24:17

And you're getting spot heights

0:24:170:24:20

in excess of 100 degrees centigrade.

0:24:200:24:23

Now, water is going to flash to steam

0:24:230:24:25

at over 100 degrees centigrade,

0:24:250:24:27

so this is really, really hot stuff.

0:24:270:24:28

Imagine boiling your kettle and sticking your hand in it,

0:24:280:24:31

it's not a good idea at all.

0:24:310:24:32

So you wouldn't be able to walk over there -

0:24:320:24:34

it would start to melt your boots.

0:24:340:24:36

Stromboli often erupts like this several times an hour.

0:24:380:24:41

The explosions are so distinctive

0:24:410:24:43

that the mountain lends its name to the classic volcanic sight -

0:24:430:24:47

the Strombolian eruption.

0:24:470:24:49

Whoa, whoa! Look.

0:24:490:24:51

That is fantastic. Are you seeing that?

0:24:510:24:54

I am getting that on the thermal camera.

0:24:540:24:56

Wow. That is just what we've been waiting for.

0:24:560:24:59

150... It went up very quickly.

0:25:000:25:03

You can imagine.... Look at the scoria

0:25:030:25:05

just falling down the scree slope there.

0:25:050:25:08

Can you imagine tons and tons of that material

0:25:090:25:11

every day gets erupted from this volcano?

0:25:110:25:14

The road of fire is literally on fire now

0:25:140:25:18

and all of that is falling down to the sea.

0:25:180:25:21

Wow.

0:25:210:25:22

That's fantastic.

0:25:250:25:27

So. I've got exactly what I came for -

0:25:270:25:30

a close-up encounter with the planet's

0:25:300:25:32

most spectacular natural force.

0:25:320:25:35

When you have witnessed something

0:25:350:25:37

like Stromboli erupting in the flesh,

0:25:370:25:39

it is something that just keeps giving -

0:25:390:25:41

you want to keep coming back and seeing more and more.

0:25:410:25:43

Whoa, here we go!

0:25:440:25:46

Look at that!

0:25:460:25:47

Oh, beautiful!

0:25:490:25:50

Earth, raging earth!

0:25:520:25:54

This is the earth at its most active and its most violent...

0:25:550:25:58

..and yet it's so beautiful, you just can't stop watching.

0:25:590:26:02

Where there are volcanoes,

0:26:130:26:15

there will always be humans.

0:26:150:26:17

And, being humans, we've developed ways to survive alongside volcanoes.

0:26:170:26:21

Seismographs and other monitoring devices are used by scientists

0:26:210:26:26

to predict large eruptions.

0:26:260:26:28

Evacuation alerts are only issued in a real emergency, so act on them.

0:26:280:26:32

Remember, when it comes to danger, all volcanoes are not equal.

0:26:340:26:38

Extinct or dominant is your best bet.

0:26:380:26:40

When volcanoes are active, a shield shape is safer -

0:26:400:26:44

it means the lava can flow freely.

0:26:440:26:47

Domes are more dangerous -

0:26:470:26:48

pressure could be building deep beneath the earth

0:26:480:26:50

with lethal consequences.

0:26:500:26:51

If you are lucky enough to visit an active volcano,

0:26:510:26:54

you should only ever approach it with a professional guide,

0:26:540:26:58

check volcanic activity before your trip

0:26:580:27:00

and always travel with communication,

0:27:000:27:02

supplies and full safety gear.

0:27:020:27:05

This is how you maximise your chances of surviving...

0:27:050:27:08

the Fierce Earth.

0:27:080:27:10

Coming up next time...

0:27:120:27:14

The destructive force of the world's fastest winds...

0:27:140:27:17

..winds that tear buildings apart and leave destruction in their wake.

0:27:200:27:25

Join Fierce Earth for a spin inside the fury of the tornado.

0:27:250:27:29

HE LAUGHS

0:27:290:27:31

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0:27:500:27:53

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