:00:14. > :00:22.At this very minute, there are volcanoes erupting all over the
:00:22. > :00:25.world - in Colombia, Tanzania, chilly, Italy, the Canary Islands.
:00:25. > :00:31.Why we're here is because that is the most active volcano on the
:00:31. > :00:41.planet. So join us on an explosive journey as we take you right to the
:00:41. > :01:10.
:01:10. > :01:14.centre of the earth. This is Welcome to Hawaii. Good morning. I
:01:14. > :01:20.know it is 8.00pm in the evening with you. It is 9.00am in the
:01:20. > :01:24.morning here. We are standing at 4,000 feet above sea level. It's a
:01:24. > :01:29.little blustery. It's a little - well, kind of cloudy and a little
:01:29. > :01:34.drizzly, but it is truly spectacular here, and over the next
:01:34. > :01:39.four nights, we are going to take you on an incredible journey and
:01:39. > :01:43.introduce you to the surprising and incredibly dynamic geological
:01:43. > :01:46.phenomenon that shapes and continues to shape our world, and
:01:46. > :01:52.that is, of course, volcanoes. Because we're standing on one of
:01:52. > :01:57.the best. This is Mount Kilauea, one of the - the most active
:01:57. > :02:01.volcano in the world. 500 years ago a huge eruption blew out this huge
:02:01. > :02:06.crater. It's hard to see all the way around the cloud there, but
:02:06. > :02:09.what you can see is a plume of steam coming out of that smaller
:02:09. > :02:13.crater. That is the wonderfully named Halema'uma'u Crater. Then
:02:13. > :02:22.there is the lovely - the thing is five years ago that plume of cloud
:02:22. > :02:28.wasn't there because in 2008, this This incredible explosion that
:02:28. > :02:31.rocked the crater created that lava lake. See big plumes, that red
:02:31. > :02:34.stuff just creating... It must have been the most amazing thing to
:02:34. > :02:38.witness. A little later in the programme we'll be talking to a
:02:38. > :02:43.scientist who did indeed witness the birth of that lava lake, but
:02:43. > :02:46.the great thing is that we have been working over the weeks leading
:02:46. > :02:51.up to this series with the scientists that are based here at
:02:51. > :02:54.the Hawaii Volcano Observatory. This is one of the best studied
:02:54. > :02:58.volcanoes in the world. They have been here for a hundred years. They
:02:58. > :03:02.have provided us with all sorts of expertise and experience, but also
:03:02. > :03:07.some fantastic footage, and they sent us this footage of the lava
:03:08. > :03:12.lake just to give you a sense of what's going on under that plume.
:03:12. > :03:18.Look at that. These things are really rare. It's one of only four
:03:19. > :03:23.lava lakes in the world. It's a sort of witch's caldron. I want to
:03:23. > :03:27.dive in there. Don't do that yet! We can't get any closer to it
:03:27. > :03:31.because, sadly, the gases coming off that lake are highly poisonous,
:03:31. > :03:35.but we do have technology on our side, and there is a webcam right
:03:36. > :03:40.down there. It's updated roughly every 15-20 minutes, so let's have
:03:40. > :03:46.a look at the latest image from that webcam which gives you a sense
:03:46. > :03:50.- it is just black and white, but the cracks presumably - that is
:03:50. > :03:55.molten rock at hundreds if not thousands... Nearly a thousand
:03:55. > :03:59.degrees. It's constantly moving. You don't really get a sense in
:03:59. > :04:04.that black-and-white one. What we need is a thermal camera. Do we
:04:04. > :04:08.have one? Of course we do. That's it in action. You can see the lava
:04:08. > :04:11.breakup and moving across. Every now and then you get these gas
:04:12. > :04:16.piston explosions. What's great is it goes in the opposite direction,
:04:16. > :04:20.so it's hugely turbulent - a lot of turmoil going on there. That is a
:04:20. > :04:24.strange really because you think of a lake as being a rather sort of
:04:24. > :04:28.still and placid place, so why is that lava moving so much? Well,
:04:28. > :04:32.what's happening is the Magma from deep underneath our feet, as we
:04:32. > :04:37.will learn much more, is constantly coming up keeping that thing going.
:04:37. > :04:40.We're not just looking at Hawaii because our planet is far more
:04:40. > :04:46.dynamic than you might have guessed, so here's a little look at what
:04:46. > :04:50.we've got in store. Over the next four nights, we'll take you some of
:04:51. > :04:56.the world's most spectacular volcanic landscapes from dazzling
:04:56. > :05:01.lava flows above the ground... here, here. Here's the red stuff.
:05:01. > :05:05.That's what we have come for. volcanic chambers hundreds of feet
:05:05. > :05:10.below it. It's just a riot of every colour you can think of. And we'll
:05:10. > :05:15.discover what it is that makes our planet so dynamic and exciting.
:05:15. > :05:21.Tonight, I report from Iceland to find out how a volcanic eruption
:05:21. > :05:25.there caused chaos in the UK. Armed with fizzy pop and chewy
:05:25. > :05:30.mints, Ed Byrne recreates a volcanic eruption in a garden in
:05:30. > :05:37.Bristol. That's a reasonable height of spirit we've got there. Kicking
:05:37. > :05:42.off a series of global expeditions our cameras head to the Democratic
:05:42. > :05:46.Republic of Congo and the breath- taking lava lake of Mount Niragongo.
:05:46. > :05:50.So there is plenty to look forward to over the next four nights, but
:05:50. > :05:55.before we go any further, let's have a little look at where we are
:05:55. > :06:01.because we are about as far from the UK as is possible to be. You
:06:01. > :06:05.can see that we are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. There is the
:06:05. > :06:08.Hawaiian archipelago. It's a chain of islands. We're on the big one
:06:08. > :06:13.there at the bottom known locally as Big Island, and those islands
:06:13. > :06:17.only exist because of volcanic activity. Yeah, it's hard to
:06:17. > :06:22.believe it - we're standing above a huge plume of hot rock that's
:06:22. > :06:26.coming up now. What that does is produces Kilauea, which is behind
:06:26. > :06:30.us now, which isn't your classic volcanic, the classic cone shape,
:06:30. > :06:35.but as we'll discover over the coming days, volcanoes come in all
:06:35. > :06:38.shapes and sizes. Further over that way we have fissures in a lava
:06:38. > :06:42.field that is active, spewing out. We have some wonderful images of
:06:42. > :06:48.that. Let's have a look at this. So this is about ten miles from us.
:06:48. > :06:53.This is happening as we speak. This area has been erupting since 1983,
:06:53. > :06:57.and it's that that makes Kilauea the world's most active volcano -
:06:57. > :07:01.absolutely. I mean, it's mesmerising stuff to watch. Great,
:07:01. > :07:06.that red stuff - it's something about the red stuff, isn't it? It's
:07:06. > :07:09.not just that. Just over here is Mauna Loa beside us here. That
:07:09. > :07:13.looks like a nice, gentle hill but it's actually the biggest volcano
:07:13. > :07:18.on earth - the second biggest - nearly - the second biggest on the
:07:18. > :07:23.entire solar system, which is just unbelievable. It is unbelievable
:07:23. > :07:30.because it looks so innocuous. It looks like a gentle Welsh hill.
:07:30. > :07:34.does, but that one has an eruptor cycle that goes every eight years
:07:34. > :07:37.on average, but hasn't gone since 1984. That's one we'll definitely
:07:37. > :07:41.be keeping an eye on. Scientist here are definitely keeping an eye
:07:41. > :07:45.on it too. The more we discover about volcanoes, the more questions
:07:45. > :07:49.seem to arise, not just from the scientific community, but from all
:07:49. > :07:59.of us who have been working on the series. Every day we wake up with a
:07:59. > :08:02.
:08:02. > :08:07.would like to get questions into us, we'll try to answer them throughout
:08:07. > :08:09.the programme. To do that, you need to go to bbc.co.uk/volcanolive. You
:08:09. > :08:15.can also Tweet questions at hashtag #volcanolive.
:08:15. > :08:24.At the moment, we have a live web chat going on via our website with
:08:24. > :08:28.Dr Marianne Cook -- Dr Clive Opneheimer from Cambridge
:08:28. > :08:33.University. If we fail to answer your questions, he certainly should
:08:33. > :08:43.be able to. So given volcanoes are erupting all over the world, why is
:08:43. > :08:47.
:08:47. > :08:51.Holiday shows, Hawaii 5-0, yeah, we all know Hawaii is a holiday
:08:51. > :08:58.tropical paradise of crashing surf and bronzed bodies, but scratch
:08:58. > :09:03.beneath the layer of sun cream, and you discover that Hawaii is alive.
:09:04. > :09:08.Big Island is made up of five volcanoes that fuse it together.
:09:08. > :09:13.Over the last 700,000 years, their eruptions and outpourings have
:09:13. > :09:18.pushed new land above the waves of the Pacific. For volcanologists
:09:18. > :09:23.it's about the most exciting place to be on planet. Exactly a hundred
:09:23. > :09:27.years ago the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, or HVO, was founded to
:09:27. > :09:33.try to understand how these volcanoes work - a task it still
:09:33. > :09:36.performs to this day. Our first order of mission is to issue time
:09:36. > :09:41.warnings of volcano and earthquake activity in the state of Hawaii. In
:09:42. > :09:45.order to do that of course, we have to establish and maintain 24/7
:09:45. > :09:49.monitoring of the physical parameters around volcanoes and
:09:49. > :09:52.earthquakes. Although it seems simple to be issuing warnings,
:09:52. > :09:56.there's lot of background that has to be done, a lot of history that
:09:56. > :10:00.has to be acquired and interpreted and reinterpreted. Every time we
:10:00. > :10:10.learn something new, we have to go back to the old records and think,
:10:10. > :10:10.
:10:10. > :10:14.did we see that back in 1950? It is in the park, a vast area which is
:10:14. > :10:18.vast whose landscaping is ever changing. This is the edge of
:10:18. > :10:22.Kilauea. This park has the most active volcanoes in the entire
:10:22. > :10:25.world. Here we can see the eruption of Kilauea at its summit, and so
:10:25. > :10:30.here people can come - very accessible from all over the world,
:10:30. > :10:33.and they can actually see in our lifetimes rocks being formed, and
:10:33. > :10:38.typically, we think about rocks being formed in millions and
:10:38. > :10:43.millions of years, and here, it's in a human timescale - in minutes,
:10:43. > :10:47.seconds, hours, days, months - you can actually see rock form, so this
:10:47. > :10:51.is an incredible laboratory where you can feel and see the awesome
:10:51. > :10:56.power of this planet. The volcanoes haven't just shaped
:10:56. > :11:01.the land. They've helped form one of the world's most vibrant
:11:01. > :11:05.ecosystems, home to unique plants, birds and animals.
:11:05. > :11:13.And they have had a profound effect on the people who live here, giving
:11:13. > :11:18.birth to a rich culture. SINGING
:11:18. > :11:24.In Hawaii and in our culture, our ancestors came here to the edge of
:11:24. > :11:27.the crater to Kilauea, and they came to honour and respect Pele,
:11:28. > :11:36.the goddess of the volcano. And still today we show that kind of
:11:36. > :11:46.respect by coming here, and giving (Indiscernible) The voice that
:11:46. > :11:49.
:11:49. > :11:53.That just makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck every single
:11:53. > :11:56.time I hear it. We have come down from the crater room which is just
:11:56. > :12:02.up there. This is our little technical hub. We're very small and
:12:02. > :12:08.neat. That is a horse Bob, but at the moment it contains our
:12:08. > :12:14.producers and all sorts of screens, satellites beaming live to you.
:12:14. > :12:17.This is the most important member of Volcano Live. We call her Minnie
:12:17. > :12:22.Winnie. She may look like a campervan to you, but my goodness,
:12:22. > :12:26.she's got a secret in here. Minnie Winnie is the only mobile volcanic
:12:26. > :12:30.hub that we know of throughout the entire world, and here we are
:12:30. > :12:34.plugged into not just what's happening in Hawaii, but all over
:12:34. > :12:42.the world. This will give you a little sense of geography of where
:12:42. > :12:46.we are. So we are about here at the -- this crater. Here is the
:12:46. > :12:51.enormous Mauna Loa, so it gives you a sense of scale of just how big
:12:51. > :12:55.this volcano is. The lava flows that you saw, happening down here,
:12:55. > :13:00.so we are in, we hope, the right place. So this is a volcano control
:13:01. > :13:04.room, and what we're going to have - we can get maps and things like -
:13:04. > :13:07.access what the latest volcanic activity is. So this is map of all
:13:07. > :13:11.of the known volcanoes on the planet. All of these - there is
:13:11. > :13:17.about 1,400 we know of have erupted in the last million years or so,
:13:17. > :13:21.but not all of these are active on a daily basis. There is about 60
:13:21. > :13:24.that is active. This is what is active right now - 25 volcanoes
:13:24. > :13:28.today active in this. The most active places around the Pacific -
:13:28. > :13:32.this is the Pacific ring of fire, so volcanoes all the way around
:13:32. > :13:37.there, and right in the middle, right in Hawaii - that's where we
:13:37. > :13:41.are. The great thing about modern science, modern volcanology, if you
:13:41. > :13:46.like, is that webcams give all of us a great view of what is going on.
:13:46. > :13:51.We saw the webcam earlier in the bottom of the crater here. These -
:13:51. > :13:55.many of these volcanoes have webcams on. We know that there is a
:13:55. > :13:59.volcano in Guatemala that is active at the moment, so that's that one
:13:59. > :14:04.here, and let's go up to the webcam there - actually, not terribly
:14:04. > :14:08.active by the looks of things. it's a beautiful volcano, a lovely,
:14:08. > :14:12.lovely shape. You can just see a little bit of activity. We get
:14:12. > :14:16.these daily reports from the Smithsonian, which is the place
:14:16. > :14:20.that summarises all the activity. We'll keep an eye on this but the
:14:20. > :14:30.other one is in Mexico. So just here. Let's go to the webcam of
:14:30. > :14:33.
:14:33. > :14:38.that. Two weeks ago this started kicking off, producing ash plumes.
:14:38. > :14:42.The worry is Mexico City is down here, huge connurbations, so
:14:42. > :14:45.definitely keeping our eye on that one. You too can keep your eye on
:14:45. > :14:50.all the webcams attached to these volcanoes by going to our website,
:14:50. > :14:54.bbc.co.uk/volcanolive. But what is it about these
:14:54. > :14:58.volcanoes that makes them happen? One of the things is - what all
:14:58. > :15:06.volcanoes have in common is they give off heat, but one of the big
:15:06. > :15:10.questions is where does that heat Heat is everywhere in Hawaii, if
:15:10. > :15:15.not beaming down from above it is buoying up from below. If you want
:15:15. > :15:25.to get a sense of the heat caused by Hawaii's volcanoes, you have to
:15:25. > :15:35.
:15:35. > :15:40.As far as I can see, it is all lava. It is almost like a different
:15:41. > :15:47.planet, like you have landed on Mars. This whole landscape is a
:15:47. > :15:52.hardened crust of lava that spewed out of the crater 15 miles from
:15:52. > :16:00.Kilauea summit. With the naked eye, you get the audience of the
:16:00. > :16:05.tremendous heat that lies beneath. -- the odd glimpse. That whole
:16:05. > :16:12.landscape transforms with one of these cameras. Those red areas are
:16:12. > :16:16.around 500 Celsius. The white parts are even hotter, over 1,000. The
:16:16. > :16:24.tremendous heat that is inside the Earth is what has melted the rock
:16:24. > :16:30.that fuels all the world's cocaine nose. -- Be wolds volcanoes. The
:16:30. > :16:34.question is, where did this come from? To answer that question, you
:16:34. > :16:38.have to travel back four-and-a-half billion years, to the formation of
:16:38. > :16:43.the planet itself. Our world began life as a little more than a jumble
:16:43. > :16:46.of rocks, colliding with each other as they circled the sun. These
:16:46. > :16:50.impacts were so violent, they generated a huge amount of heat,
:16:50. > :16:55.some of which remains trapped inside the planet to this day. The
:16:55. > :16:59.violent collisions are only half the story, because the rocks
:16:59. > :17:05.themselves contain radioactive material, and that material also
:17:05. > :17:10.became trapped inside the earth. It is hard to believe, but we live on
:17:10. > :17:13.a radioactive planet. You get a sense of that from this, this is a
:17:13. > :17:19.Geiger counter, which measures natural decay in the rocks around
:17:19. > :17:25.me. Decay from radioactive elements that are in trapped inside the
:17:25. > :17:30.rocks, since the planet was formed. The point is the decay of those
:17:30. > :17:35.radioactive elements generates heat. So if I take a rock like this, this
:17:35. > :17:40.is rich in uranium. If I put that to the Geiger counter, look at that.
:17:40. > :17:45.It is off the scale. Although that is rich in radioactive elements, it
:17:45. > :17:50.doesn't cause any harm, it doesn't generate much heat. These rocks,
:17:50. > :17:55.they have even less radioactive elements in them. You just get the
:17:56. > :18:00.odd click. Because we have got so much rock, or all those tiny
:18:00. > :18:04.amounts add up, so that if you take the planet as a whole, it is a huge
:18:04. > :18:10.amount of rock that it produces a huge amount of heat. Half the heat
:18:10. > :18:14.that is trapped inside the Earth comes from radioactive elements.
:18:14. > :18:17.When combined with heat from other sources, like the violent
:18:17. > :18:23.collisions that formed our world, there is enough to heat the core of
:18:23. > :18:27.our planet to 5,500 Celsius. That is as hot as the surface of the Sun.
:18:27. > :18:33.Incredibly, most of us live our whole lives without even noticing
:18:33. > :18:37.the inferno beneath our feet. That is because the Earth's thick rocky
:18:37. > :18:41.crust acts like a blanket, keeping the heat inside. It can't contain
:18:41. > :18:47.it for ever. Although it is blistering hot down there, up there
:18:47. > :18:52.in space, it is freezing. If Planet Earth is this hot rock hurtling
:18:52. > :18:56.through the frozen depths of space, like any hot object surrounded by
:18:56. > :19:03.cold space, our world is cooling. It means that he that is trapped
:19:03. > :19:07.down there wants to get out. -- the heat that is trapped. That is what
:19:07. > :19:16.causes all of the volcanic activity on the planet. Heat is transported
:19:16. > :19:21.as molten rock, magma. Its seats up through the ocean floor, it burns
:19:21. > :19:27.through weak spots in the ground and forces its way through cracks
:19:27. > :19:32.and rock, erupting in spectacular explosions. From humble defence to
:19:32. > :19:37.dramatic fiery mountains, volcanic activity is all caused by the same
:19:37. > :19:43.process. Heat from the inferno beneath our feet escape into the
:19:43. > :19:47.surface. It is wrong to think of volcanoes as great offence in the
:19:47. > :19:57.earth, they are white hot windows into the inner workings of our
:19:57. > :20:03.
:20:03. > :20:08.You can see the Halema'uma'u' crater in all of its glory. Beneath
:20:08. > :20:15.the sun it -- the solid ground we are no, there is not a ocean of mac
:20:15. > :20:19.my. If you slice through the planet -- there is not an ocean of magma.
:20:19. > :20:25.It is like a pineapple. The pineapple has a hard core, the
:20:25. > :20:30.dense core of the planet. Around that is the Earth's mantle, and
:20:30. > :20:35.then we have the soft and took -- outer skin. The mantle and the
:20:35. > :20:42.Cross are both solid rock. While the crust is cool and rigid and
:20:42. > :20:47.brittle, this rock is plastic and flows like Plasticine. The question
:20:47. > :20:50.is, where does the modern stuff come from? Down here, the
:20:50. > :21:00.temperatures are easily enough to melt rocks that should be Morton.
:21:00. > :21:06.
:21:06. > :21:11.Star What stops it is the pressure. Deep beneath us, we have a plume of
:21:12. > :21:16.hot rock that rises up from the call, like a blowtorch and melts
:21:16. > :21:21.through the ocean crust. Because it rises up close to the surface,
:21:21. > :21:27.there is less pressure holding it in so it is able to turn from solid
:21:27. > :21:33.to liquid, and then rise up, make its way through the crust.
:21:33. > :21:37.Underneath our feet is just a huge chamber, maybe one mile down and
:21:37. > :21:41.several hundred feet across. Eventually the pressure from the
:21:41. > :21:45.magma chamber built up and bursts out as volcanoes. It is complicated,
:21:45. > :21:50.does it make sense? It made perfect sense, it is amazing what a
:21:50. > :21:56.geologist can do with a bit of tropical fruit. That magma chamber
:21:56. > :22:03.creates volcanoes. This was created in 2008. One of the people lucky
:22:03. > :22:07.enough to witness the Ver -- the birth was Jeff Sutton who works at
:22:07. > :22:13.the Hawaiian volcanoes observatory. You have possibly the best office
:22:13. > :22:17.in the world? That is really nice, especially on a morning like this.
:22:17. > :22:22.Can you talk us through the birth of this lava like and what happened,
:22:22. > :22:27.what did you see? It took about five months for it to become
:22:27. > :22:34.apparent that something was going to be happening. In late 2070, in
:22:34. > :22:44.November, we started seeing sighs Mr T increase. In December, gas
:22:44. > :22:48.emissions went up and they became very high. Those gas emissions
:22:48. > :22:54.going through the roof told you something would happen? That is
:22:54. > :23:01.right. By mid-January of 2008, the gas that is being emitted around
:23:01. > :23:07.the rim of Halema'uma'u' were what we call an eruptive gas composition.
:23:07. > :23:12.We knew something was up at that point. Then what happened? By the
:23:12. > :23:20.next month, the sulphur dioxide emissions were high enough that
:23:20. > :23:24.park visitors were having to be driven out by emergency vehicles,
:23:24. > :23:30.because the sulphur dioxide concentrations were so high. The
:23:30. > :23:38.park decided to close down that half. About a month later, this new
:23:38. > :23:44.event opened up on March 12th. He a few days after that, at night time,
:23:44. > :23:49.the fuming area began to glow red. From the observatory, it looked
:23:49. > :23:54.like a camp fire of glowing embers. How long did it take before you
:23:54. > :23:58.realised what was going on was the formation of a lava like? That came
:23:58. > :24:05.a bit later. We knew something was going on but it wasn't until a week
:24:05. > :24:11.or so later that there were two of us in the observatory. One of us
:24:11. > :24:16.was just getting to work. The rest of us had not gone home yet. Over
:24:16. > :24:22.the course of a couple of minutes, the glowing amber of the camp fire
:24:22. > :24:30.collapsed, it got dark. The next thing we knew, the visitor fence
:24:30. > :24:37.had caught on fire. Everything else was dark. Then we noticed a further
:24:37. > :24:44.crust, a saw furious area, a Salford deposit had caught on fire.
:24:45. > :24:53.Sulphur burns with this eerie glow. It might have been an unforgettable
:24:53. > :24:59.moment. So far, yes. The role of scientists like Jeff at the HVO is
:24:59. > :25:03.to constantly monitor this volcano. There is always things going on
:25:03. > :25:11.here. One of the things that give scientists a clue as to what might
:25:11. > :25:18.happen next and when is the lava in that lake, as Matt Patrick explains.
:25:18. > :25:23.The I am Mathiot -- I am Matt Patrick, I am a geologist at the
:25:23. > :25:26.HVO and my job is to observe and understand the volcano. My mission
:25:26. > :25:30.is to gain a better understanding of how the volcano works, so we
:25:30. > :25:34.have a better sense of what the hazards might be. Taking a simple
:25:34. > :25:39.photo or making an observation can be a powerful tool, but we go a
:25:39. > :25:45.step beyond that and we deploy a number of cameras, visual and
:25:45. > :25:50.thermal. We put them in the field so that they run continuously and
:25:50. > :25:57.make 247 observation. It also gives views into areas that are much more
:25:57. > :26:02.dangerous to access. The plume is very thick and obscures the view in
:26:02. > :26:07.the vent to the naked eye. The firm or camera is useful because it can
:26:07. > :26:10.see through that and gives you an image -- the thermal camera. It has
:26:10. > :26:14.revealed a number of things that we would not be able to see with the
:26:15. > :26:21.naked eye. A year ago, we had a spectacular eruption. The effects
:26:21. > :26:26.were felt at the summit. The result was that the summit lava Lake drain
:26:26. > :26:30.catastrophically and we were able to capture that with a thermal
:26:30. > :26:36.camera. Another important part is monitoring the flows and finding
:26:36. > :26:43.out where they are. He with the helicopter, we can get broad views
:26:43. > :26:49.on the activity on the lava flower- filled. Tracking these is important
:26:49. > :26:53.-- the lava flow field. It is an important part of our job to get a
:26:53. > :26:57.precise location on where those flows are. During my time here, we
:26:57. > :27:03.have used camera systems to capture spectacular processes. Things like
:27:04. > :27:09.crater collapses, lava Lake draining events, Delta collapses, a
:27:09. > :27:16.whole host of activities. The spectacular processes are happening
:27:16. > :27:21.on a daily basis. And we get to see them as part of our daily routine.
:27:21. > :27:25.What is clear from Jeff and that is that we are on a living, breathing
:27:25. > :27:30.volcano and one that occasionally has its volcanoes -- has its
:27:30. > :27:33.tantrums. Thousands of people visit here every day so the
:27:33. > :27:39.responsibility of keeping them safe is with Park Rangers like Jim Gale.
:27:39. > :27:45.It is a hell of responsibility. Absolutely. We tried to let people
:27:45. > :27:49.get as close as possible, so it is approachable, a place where people
:27:49. > :27:54.can have a first-hand experience of the volcano. I was surprised, you
:27:54. > :28:04.can come right up to the edge. Everyone is getting nervous, but
:28:04. > :28:05.
:28:05. > :28:09.there is a huge crack here. At some point, it will... Isn't it a worry
:28:09. > :28:14.that people can come to these edges and fall off? We had a campaign
:28:14. > :28:19.about how to view lava safely. When people come to the park, they know
:28:19. > :28:23.what to bring an what to wear. is the relationship that the
:28:23. > :28:28.visitors would have with this wonderful volcano? It is that they
:28:28. > :28:36.are right here when it is erupting. So they can see it and have a safe
:28:36. > :28:42.experience. It has an incredible safety experience -- safety record
:28:42. > :28:47.and everyone these -- everybody leaves with an incredible
:28:47. > :28:51.experience. Sorry if you are experiencing a few sound problems.
:28:51. > :28:56.We are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. We may not have any active
:28:56. > :28:59.volcanoes in Britain but we have a lot of active volcanologists. We
:28:59. > :29:03.have taken terrible advantage of them. We have given cameras to some
:29:03. > :29:07.of those who are going to the remotest parts of the world on
:29:07. > :29:12.their ongoing quest to try to understand how volcanoes work. And
:29:12. > :29:22.one of them has taken a camera to possibly the most volatile place on
:29:22. > :29:46.
:29:46. > :29:52.earth, a very long way from where Before becoming a volcanologist I
:29:52. > :29:56.used to work in mobile telecom, and I decided that I'd really like to
:29:56. > :30:01.do something more interesting, so when I got made redundant, I
:30:01. > :30:05.decided this was an opportunity and made the decision to go back to
:30:05. > :30:09.university to study geology. I went and did a Ph.D at Bristol, so I
:30:09. > :30:14.spent the last four years having an amazing time studying volcanic
:30:14. > :30:19.rocks and working out how a volcano works. I was just coming to the end
:30:19. > :30:23.of my Ph.D, and I really wanted a holiday to celebrate the end of
:30:23. > :30:28.studying. I'd always wanted to see a lava lake, and the largest one is
:30:28. > :30:36.in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Unfortunately, this isn't the
:30:36. > :30:38.safest place in the world. For the past 20 years, there's been nearly
:30:38. > :30:42.constant fighting, and one of the largest United Nations' forces in
:30:43. > :30:47.the world is there to try to maintain peace. I travelled with a
:30:47. > :30:54.company who have visited that area of the Congo very regularly over
:30:54. > :30:58.the last three or four years, so I was happy that, provided I took
:30:58. > :31:03.various precautions, that it would be perfectly safe go. I left for
:31:04. > :31:09.Congo's mountains - a chain of eight volcanoes. They stretch for
:31:09. > :31:17.around 50 miles across part of the African Rift Valley.
:31:17. > :31:22.We're just about to set off for Goma and the National Park, where
:31:22. > :31:30.we're hoping to see two volcanoes, Nyiramuragira, which has a large
:31:30. > :31:33.volcanic lake and another. We had no idea what we were going
:31:33. > :31:36.to see when we got there because nobody had visited the volcanoes
:31:37. > :31:40.since the beginning of December. We were driving along in a car. We
:31:40. > :31:46.looked out of the window, and there were these very strange clouds, and
:31:46. > :31:49.I looked at it, and I thought, I'm sure that's a volcanic plume. The
:31:49. > :31:53.clouds were just a different shape and slightly different colour to
:31:53. > :31:58.the background clouds, and we could hear faint noises in the distance,
:31:58. > :32:06.like thunder, so we just couldn't wait to get to the site.
:32:06. > :32:09.We had an eight-kilometre hike through the rain forest.
:32:09. > :32:13.-- before we'd find out whether or not it was erupting. We came out of
:32:13. > :32:23.the rain forest, and there in front of us was this hundred-metre high
:32:23. > :32:25.
:32:25. > :32:33.cloud with this amazing fire It was just an incredible sight,
:32:33. > :32:36.and the noise was unbelievable. So although we ended up over 500
:32:36. > :32:42.metres away from the actual eruption, you could still feel the
:32:42. > :32:45.heat from the volcano. Normally, when you see geology, it's happened
:32:45. > :32:48.over hundreds, thousands, millions of years, but this was geology in
:32:48. > :32:58.action. This was live. This was rocks being born right in front of
:32:58. > :33:04.
:33:04. > :33:10.It was an amazing day, and as it got dark, the show was even more
:33:10. > :33:18.spectacular. As night faul, you get the incandescence from the lava,
:33:18. > :33:28.which you don't see in the day. So it really brings the fire
:33:28. > :33:34.
:33:34. > :33:40.fountaining and the whole volcano Just a little bit jealous. I mean,
:33:40. > :33:42.that is an incredible, incredible thing to witness, and we have
:33:42. > :33:45.another part of Lorraine's extraordinary journey to the Congo
:33:45. > :33:49.a little bit later on in the programme. I think what's nice is
:33:49. > :33:53.it just shows there that volcanoes work in different kind of ways.
:33:53. > :33:57.That's a spectacular eruption, but one of the things about Hawaii
:33:57. > :34:02.that's interesting is it tends to have kind mild, gentle - what we
:34:02. > :34:07.call a fuse of eruptions. Basically, what happens is fissures open up,
:34:07. > :34:11.and you get runny lava that flows - this is going quite fast. Here is a
:34:11. > :34:14.bit slower, about walking pace, but it's just beautiful. So these are
:34:14. > :34:19.the lava fields just basically over the mountain from us here.
:34:19. > :34:25.Absolutely. Isn't that gorgeous? basically, what we're seeing is
:34:25. > :34:29.more a kind of seeping rather than spiriting. Exactly. But Hawaiian
:34:29. > :34:36.volcanoes are also capable of throwing their toy of us the
:34:36. > :34:40.program. You can get fire eruptions, fire or fissures that throw jets.
:34:40. > :34:47.This happened at Kilauea Iki just down the road. What that did was it
:34:47. > :34:53.went up nearly 2,000 feet - nearly 2,000 feet, huge fire fountains.
:34:53. > :34:58.What Lorraine was seeing was smaller versions of that the irony
:34:58. > :35:01.is that's still called a fuser because it's chucking out Magna.
:35:01. > :35:05.Some get so explosive, they rip apart the volcano and throw ash
:35:05. > :35:10.thousands of feet up into the atmosphere. We'll see those later
:35:10. > :35:13.in the programme. That is what you would call an explosive eruption as
:35:13. > :35:17.opposed the an effusive eruption. Is that when you get your more
:35:17. > :35:23.classic cone shape of volcano? Absolutely. In Hawaii, you can see
:35:23. > :35:27.how low it is. It just seeps out, produces those very low volcano,
:35:27. > :35:33.but others are your classic ones. We set Ed Byrne a little challenge.
:35:33. > :35:36.We said, "We'd like you to be able to demonstrate to us the difference
:35:36. > :35:46.between effusive and explosive eruptions," so he did it, but he
:35:46. > :35:46.
:35:46. > :35:52.I'm in Bristol, a city which contains a surprisingly high
:35:52. > :35:57.concentration of some of the world's leading volcanologists.
:35:57. > :36:01.Shortly I'll be meeting one such volcanologist, but before I do, he
:36:01. > :36:07.has given me a shopping list of things to pick up - golden syrup -
:36:07. > :36:12.I would be ashamed to show up with just six bottles and him to say, "I
:36:12. > :36:20.said lots", sugar - six bags, just to be on the safe side. There we go.
:36:20. > :36:25.Diet Coke - it does seem strange to buy this much sugar, then buying
:36:25. > :36:31.diet drinks, and Mentos - presumably, these volcanologists
:36:31. > :36:35.don't like bad breath. There ain't no party like a volcanologist's
:36:35. > :36:40.party! Up at the University of Bristol I am meeting up with the
:36:40. > :36:46.man who sent me shopping, Dr Jeremy Phillips. Apparently he can use
:36:46. > :36:53.these to find out how and why volcanoes erupt. Good to meet you.
:36:53. > :36:57.Excellent. I see you have everything I asked for. That looks
:36:57. > :37:06.great. Just in case you think I am being
:37:06. > :37:10.paid to say diet Coke and Mentos, I'm not. Volcanologists have proved
:37:10. > :37:15.they're the best for showing how a volcano erupts.
:37:15. > :37:21.It's the bubbles that result from the dissolved gass that are the
:37:21. > :37:25.main driving force behind volcanic eruptions. In this experiment the
:37:25. > :37:30.bottle represents the volcano. The diet Coke represents the Magna,
:37:30. > :37:35.which is a liquid that has dissolved gases like a volcano.
:37:35. > :37:38.the Mentos represents any catalyst that makes bubbles form. I'll screw
:37:38. > :37:44.up the top. Five, four, three, two, one.
:37:44. > :37:50.LAUGHTER I'd say that's a reasonable height
:37:50. > :37:54.of spirit we've got -- spurt we have there. Magna is filled with
:37:54. > :38:03.dissolved gases. Just like our Diet Coke, it needs a surface to allow
:38:03. > :38:12.it to result. As magma drives towards the surface, it causes
:38:12. > :38:21.pressure in which bubbles flow. This is called nuke Leeation. It
:38:21. > :38:27.Here's the thing - not all eruptions are the same. Some fire
:38:27. > :38:32.out lava fountains and Flos like in Hawaii, while others explode out
:38:32. > :38:37.ash and pumas. What makes the two types different? Apparently it's
:38:37. > :38:41.how easily the gas bubbles can travel through the Magma, which is
:38:41. > :38:45.where the golden syrup comes in. We know how bubbles create eruptions.
:38:45. > :38:50.We have seen that already with the Mentos and the Coke, so this is how
:38:50. > :38:55.bubbles in different levels of viscosity of Magma create different
:38:55. > :39:00.kinds of eruptions? In this experiment we have two tubes that
:39:00. > :39:04.contain golden syrup. That is a sticky liquid, a viscous liquid,
:39:04. > :39:09.and it represents Magma in these experiments. OK. So I'll start the
:39:09. > :39:14.experiment. I'll just turn on the gas. This just contains the golden
:39:14. > :39:16.syrup, and from what we can see, because the bubbles can pass easily
:39:16. > :39:20.through the Mag Marx there is no opportunity for pressure to build
:39:20. > :39:26.up in this system. So we're having a quite happy, bubbling volcano,
:39:26. > :39:30.like the guys are sitting watching in Hawaii right now? Exactly right.
:39:30. > :39:35.But not all Magmas are the same. Some are stickier than other, which
:39:35. > :39:40.is why we have added sugar to the tube. I am going to turn the gas on
:39:40. > :39:44.in this tube, and what we can see is the surface raises up to a much
:39:44. > :39:47.greater height. That's showing there is more pressure in tube as a
:39:47. > :39:52.result of the fact that the gas finds it much more difficult to
:39:52. > :39:57.pass through this more viscous Magma. Some volcanoes have lava
:39:57. > :40:01.which isn't particularly viscous, so bubbles can escape relatively
:40:01. > :40:06.easy and their eruptions tend to be less violent. They're known as
:40:06. > :40:10.effusive eruptions. However, with the stickier, more viscous Magma,
:40:10. > :40:15.bubbles can't escape. Pressure build, and you get explosive
:40:15. > :40:18.eruptions, but the thing is when you have an explosive eruption it's
:40:18. > :40:23.not molten lava thrown into the air but billowing ash clouds, so
:40:23. > :40:27.where's all this stuff coming from? The answer lies with the massive
:40:27. > :40:32.drop in pressure which viscous Magmas experience as they erupt to
:40:32. > :40:42.the surface. In this tube we have our very vig counsel gas-rich Magma
:40:42. > :40:45.represented here by a mix of acetone and pine.
:40:45. > :40:50.By releasing this pressure, we should see what happens to Magma
:40:50. > :40:56.when the volcano erupts and is suddenly exposed to the much lower
:40:56. > :41:02.pressure of the atmosphere. I'll open the valves.
:41:02. > :41:07.There she blows. Cool. What is this? This is solidified
:41:07. > :41:11.resin... Yes, what you can see what's on the inside of the tube is
:41:12. > :41:16.the pine resin with the acetone removed preserving the texture of
:41:16. > :41:21.the bubbles that were there as it accelerated and flowed up the tube.
:41:21. > :41:25.In explosive eruptions the pressure drops rapidly. That means the
:41:25. > :41:29.volatile gas inside the Magma can expand and accelerate the mixture
:41:29. > :41:37.up through the volcano as we saw in the experiment, and then what we're
:41:37. > :41:40.left with is a material called a pumus. Pumuses get generated during
:41:40. > :41:43.large explosive eruptions, then they get ground up to form the ash.
:41:43. > :41:48.As they form up through the volcano, they collide with each other and
:41:48. > :41:53.they collide with the sides of the pipe they flow through. They get
:41:53. > :41:59.ground up and that ground up pumus becomes the ash. They get exploded
:41:59. > :42:03.out of the top. So there you have it. Some volcanoes just bubble away.
:42:03. > :42:07.Some pour molten lava out all over the place, and some explode,
:42:07. > :42:11.shooting rock and gas and ash out into the atmosphere. It's all to do
:42:11. > :42:19.with the composition of Magma, crystals, viscosity, pressure
:42:19. > :42:26.changes and - Mentos. What were the Mentos again?
:42:26. > :42:33.Yeah, I have to say I'm still a little confused about the chewy
:42:33. > :42:39.mints. What do they represent in real life The gases attaches itself
:42:39. > :42:43.in the Coke and grow. The pressure builds up and explodes to the
:42:43. > :42:48.surface. That's what it's trying to get at. What fun. Who knew you
:42:48. > :42:51.could have so much fun with fizzy pop and mints? Your questions are
:42:51. > :42:55.coming in. This is one of my favourite questions. It's from
:42:55. > :42:59.Joseph Jones, who is eight from Rugby. He wants to know the
:42:59. > :43:04.difference between lava and Magma because he needs to explain it to
:43:04. > :43:08.his teacher. Basically, Magma is the liquid rock that rises up, and
:43:08. > :43:14.Magma is what produced when it comes out of the surface. Perfect.
:43:14. > :43:19.There you go. I hope that'll explain that to your teacher. Lee
:43:19. > :43:23.contacted us via Twitter. He wants to know - thanks, Lee - what would
:43:23. > :43:28.happen if all five of the Hawaiian volcanoes went off at the same
:43:28. > :43:31.time? Is that technically possible? More or less unlikely. The once in
:43:31. > :43:36.the north are not active. The ones that are active - this is Mauna Loa
:43:36. > :43:40.- it is active. It has big lava flows. It could come down here and
:43:40. > :43:45.take out the main town. That is a worry. Kilauea, the one right on
:43:45. > :43:49.our doorstep - if that goes, I guess we go off air. So we do. Keep
:43:49. > :43:52.your questions coming in. As I say, we'll try and answer some more as
:43:52. > :43:58.the programme goes on and throughout the series, but for
:43:58. > :44:02.those of us in Britain, we tend to think of volcanoes as being
:44:02. > :44:07.something rather exotic, but they happen elsewhere, so when a volcano
:44:08. > :44:11.erupted a thousand miles away in Iceland in 2010, obviously most of
:44:11. > :44:20.us thought it would have no impact on our lives whatsoever. How wrong
:44:20. > :44:24.we were. In April 2010, we experienced the biggest disruption
:44:24. > :44:31.to air travel since the Second World War. Travel chaos after more
:44:31. > :44:35.than half of all flights in Europe Hundreds of thousands of passengers
:44:35. > :44:43.were left stranded. One of the world's busiest hubs has been
:44:43. > :44:46.brought to a complete standstill. The source of the problems was the
:44:46. > :44:52.Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull, and it continued to blast huge
:44:52. > :45:02.volumes of ash into the atmosphere for over a month.
:45:02. > :45:02.
:45:02. > :45:08.Today, the scene here couldn't be This is it, this is the culprit,
:45:08. > :45:16.Eyjafjallajokull. This is the volcano that caused all that chaos
:45:16. > :45:26.back in Europe two years ago. And it looks so benign and beautiful
:45:26. > :45:30.now, a great shining, pure white Gleision. The end it is strange. --
:45:30. > :45:34.white Gleision. By thought there would be more evidence that --
:45:34. > :45:38.white glacier. I thought there would be more evidence that the
:45:38. > :45:43.landscape would be blackened. There was untold amounts of ash that
:45:43. > :45:47.poured out of this crater and now there is so little sign of it up
:45:47. > :45:53.here. Most of the Ash has now been buried under two years' worth of
:45:53. > :46:02.fresh snow, returning much of the summit of the volcano to a pristine
:46:02. > :46:09.whiteness. We are flying directly around the crater, now. You can
:46:09. > :46:14.smell the sulphur in the air. It is a quite extraordinary contrast
:46:14. > :46:21.between the thick Plasil ice and the exposed steaming rock --
:46:21. > :46:28.glacial ice. The steaming rock is the very heart of this volcano. It
:46:28. > :46:34.is just an incredible sight. Immediately after the eruption, the
:46:34. > :46:38.glacier was turned back. A huge volume of ash had caused disruption
:46:38. > :46:43.for much longer than expected, and it all came from what is a
:46:43. > :46:48.relatively small volcano. So where did all that - come from? To find
:46:48. > :46:58.out, earth I head for the summit of the volcano itself -- where did all
:46:58. > :47:02.
:47:02. > :47:09.that - come from. -- that ash. We climbed 1500 metres over Plasil
:47:09. > :47:16.eyes, finally arriving at the craters edge. -- over Plasil eyes.
:47:16. > :47:20.With -- over glacial ice. This man is part of the team to look at why
:47:20. > :47:25.there was such long-lasting disruption. We have come as close
:47:25. > :47:32.to the edge of the crater as we dare. Beyond this, the icy walls
:47:32. > :47:42.are extremely unstable, tumbling down to the steaming vent below.
:47:42. > :47:46.
:47:46. > :47:54.Why did this volcano generate sh so much ash? It is due to it happening
:47:54. > :48:04.under ice. The interaction between rock and ice creates - and
:48:04. > :48:05.
:48:05. > :48:11.disperses as planes in the atmosphere -- creates ash. Because
:48:11. > :48:18.it happened under ice, you had this reaction that you describe, and it
:48:18. > :48:24.turned not into solid lava, but this powdery Ash? Yes, if it
:48:24. > :48:29.happened on a dry land, we would see lava around and it would mostly
:48:29. > :48:39.be effusive. But when we Wicks -- when we mix of water and Amanda
:48:39. > :48:43.
:48:43. > :48:48.Ursell it turns explosive. -- water Long-lasting high eighth pressure
:48:48. > :48:51.over the Atlantic created strong northerly winds which carried the
:48:51. > :49:01.ash towards continental Europe and forced the cancellation of
:49:01. > :49:03.
:49:03. > :49:11.To explain why, to be on has brought some ash from the 2010
:49:11. > :49:16.eruption with him. Service is the very ash that came out of this
:49:16. > :49:24.volcano in 2010? Yes. It was this fine-grained ash, it is a little
:49:24. > :49:28.bit muddy. It gets highest in the atmosphere and is carried furthest
:49:28. > :49:34.from the volcano. This would have been what caused all the disruption
:49:34. > :49:37.in Europe? Yes. It might look harmless, but this strange muggy
:49:37. > :49:43.substance has the potential to inflict real damage on aeroplane
:49:43. > :49:51.engines. But it is mostly volcanic glass. When it gets into the jet,
:49:51. > :49:57.it melts and when it cools, it covers the jet engine inside and
:49:57. > :50:01.produces a breakdown. It is this the fine-grained glass. Fine-
:50:01. > :50:09.grained ash like this is often produced at the ice covered craters
:50:09. > :50:14.but most eruptions only produce a dash for a few days. So why did
:50:14. > :50:17.Eyjafjallajokull continued to pump out ash for well over a month? As
:50:17. > :50:25.the team have discovered, the reason relates to something that
:50:25. > :50:31.had been lurking inside the volcano since well before the 2010.
:50:31. > :50:38.seems like the magma from the last eruption has been resting under the
:50:38. > :50:42.New evidence shows that an old pocket of magma got stuck within
:50:42. > :50:49.the volcano nearly 200 years ago and it has been lying in wait ever
:50:49. > :50:55.since. When Eyjafjallajokull came to life once more in 2000 and tent,
:50:55. > :51:00.the old magma was stirred up and it emerged from the crater -- once
:51:00. > :51:06.more in 2010. Adding to the volume of ash and extending the eruption
:51:06. > :51:13.for much longer than expected. So the legacy of a 19th century
:51:13. > :51:17.eruption was enough to bring modern-day Europe to its knees. We
:51:17. > :51:22.may not have seen the last of Eyjafjallajokull. History tells us
:51:22. > :51:28.that we could be entering a period where I slammed's volcanoes play an
:51:28. > :51:32.ever increasing period -- Iceland's volcanoes play an ever increasing
:51:32. > :51:36.role in our lives. The eruption of Eyjafjallajokull has proved once
:51:36. > :51:41.again that we can't take any volcano for granted, even a small
:51:41. > :51:45.one in a country thousands of miles away. Events here had showed that
:51:45. > :51:49.all volcanoes have the ability to teach us something new. Valuable
:51:49. > :51:59.lessons which could help us to better understand the next big
:51:59. > :51:59.
:51:59. > :52:06.It was amazing that a volcano that had lane apparently dormant for 200
:52:06. > :52:11.years cause so much chaos, which brings us to another question from
:52:12. > :52:14.one of our viewers, Hillary Keats wants to know, white and a volcano
:52:14. > :52:20.like Eyjafjallajokull lie apparently dormant for so long and
:52:20. > :52:24.suddenly spring back to life? key thing is that it takes a time
:52:24. > :52:30.for those magma chambers to fill up with magma, to get the pressure to
:52:30. > :52:33.blow. You can get times when the magma is cut off completely. The
:52:33. > :52:39.real difficult thing for volcano scientists is knowing when a
:52:39. > :52:44.volcano is dormant or extinct. Most of the big volcanic disasters
:52:44. > :52:49.happen from volcanoes that we think have finished. It is the question
:52:49. > :52:56.of waiting for the magma Chamber to refill and that is when it will
:52:56. > :53:01.blow. Thank you very much. As you have seen, there is still a lot
:53:01. > :53:06.that volcano scientists don't know about these amazing geological
:53:06. > :53:11.phenomenon so. Lorraine Field is one of those scientists who is
:53:11. > :53:15.trying to uncover a bit more information about them. Let's go
:53:15. > :53:25.back to her report from the Congo and another extraordinary volcanic
:53:25. > :53:27.
:53:27. > :53:37.After a few hours' sleep, we were up early for another look at the
:53:37. > :53:42.
:53:42. > :53:47.eruption site. Before we packed up Next, we headed to Nyiragongo, at
:53:47. > :53:57.two miles high one of the most famous of volcanoes in Africa and
:53:57. > :54:01.
:54:01. > :54:05.The trek up Mount Nyiragongo was exceedingly tough. Those are the
:54:05. > :54:10.hearts at the summit that we are aiming for. When we finally reached
:54:10. > :54:15.the summit, you are a belated, because you have reached the top.
:54:15. > :54:22.You rush to the top and you look down, and all that you can see is
:54:22. > :54:26.fog. The lava Lake should be down there, somewhere. You have this
:54:26. > :54:36.vision in your head, you have seen the pictures. You get there and
:54:36. > :54:40.
:54:40. > :54:46.think, yes. You look over the edge As time went on you got these tiny
:54:46. > :54:52.glimpses of a pink incandescence below the fog, where it was just
:54:52. > :54:57.beginning to clear and think, yes, yes. And eventually, the whole
:54:57. > :55:03.thing players and you have this amazing view. -- the whole thing
:55:03. > :55:08.clears. You have this incredible feeling of being on the edge of the
:55:08. > :55:14.Earth and you look over, and you have this thigh deep pit. And there
:55:14. > :55:21.is a laugh a lake at the bottom. Which Enoh is connected to the
:55:21. > :55:26.magma in the earth -- wish you know is connected. You are almost
:55:26. > :55:36.looking into the centre of the Earth, it is quite magical. I knew
:55:36. > :55:48.
:55:48. > :55:54.that as night fell, it would look The whole crater is filled with
:55:54. > :55:59.pink. It is quite an unreal colour, if you are standing below the
:55:59. > :56:09.crater rim. The Holt sky lights up with this pink coloration -- the
:56:09. > :56:15.whole sky. It was way more than I expected, it lived up to beyond my
:56:15. > :56:20.expectations. It was really interesting because it brings
:56:20. > :56:26.everything that you study to life. You realise that there are so many
:56:26. > :56:34.interacting forces. It has given me a lot of insight into how an
:56:34. > :56:38.eruption happens, which I can apply to work going forward. Studying
:56:38. > :56:43.volcanoes has completely changed my life. I have a better understanding
:56:43. > :56:48.of the Earth that we live on, for a start. Also, it has completely
:56:48. > :56:52.changed the job that I do. I can't wait to get up in the morning and
:56:52. > :56:59.coming to work, now. 10 years ago, Monday morning, I had the Monday
:56:59. > :57:05.morning feeling, I didn't want to go into work. And now, this is such
:57:05. > :57:15.a large part of my life. And I have... I get excited about
:57:15. > :57:21.
:57:21. > :57:30.That footage is beautiful. It is poetry. Would you have to remember,
:57:30. > :57:34.this lava Lake is 160 ft across, an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
:57:34. > :57:41.Lorraine's one was five times bigger. Whether it is in the Congo
:57:41. > :57:46.what it is here or in Ethiopia, it is the same process -- the Congo or
:57:46. > :57:49.it is here. Volcanologists go around the world looking at
:57:49. > :57:54.different volcanoes, the ferment -- fundamental process of how
:57:54. > :57:58.volcanoes work and how the planet works. That is the thing to
:57:58. > :58:02.remember. It is an incredibly dynamic planet that we live on, and
:58:02. > :58:07.we hope to really be celebrating that over the next three nights.
:58:07. > :58:16.Sadly, we are almost at the end of our first show. Don't forget you
:58:16. > :58:21.can still send in your questions on our website. You can keep an eye on
:58:21. > :58:27.those volcano web cams and the web chat with Dr Clive Oppenheimer is
:58:27. > :58:34.continuing. And you can tweet us. Apparently we are trending! What
:58:34. > :58:38.does that mean? I don't know. What comes up tomorrow. We go to Chile
:58:38. > :58:42.for an incredible eruption that is still going on and turns the forest
:58:42. > :58:46.a ghostly white. Incredible. I am back in Iceland telling the
:58:46. > :58:50.remarkable story of a community that took on a volcano. And we
:58:50. > :58:55.eighth move to a different part of the same volcano, where we will