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When I was a kid,
I had this globe next to my bed,

And when I couldn't sleep,
sometimes I'd turn it on

And just kinda explore the world,

Feel the mountains
and the ocean floors,

The country borders,
the lakes and seas.

It was all very interesting to me.

And I couldn't help but wonder
why it looked this way.

Did it always look like this?
Did it once look different?

Why does Madagascar look like
somebody chiseled it off of Africa?

For that matter,
why does Africa's west coast

Have almost the exact same outline
as South America's east coast?

Why is there a ridge
on the ocean floor

That follows the same path
almost exactly halfway between 'em?

I began to see the world
as a bunch of puzzle pieces

That came together
to be what it is today.

I didn't know how
these things happened.

I didn't know why.

Nobody had ever said anything
to me about plate tectonics,

But I inherently knew about it

Because of the hours I spent
staring at this globe.

And I think this might have been

One of those formative
experiences for me,

Just made me think differently
about the Earth and geology.

And later when I did learn
about plate tectonics

And the billions of years
that it's been going on,

Well, that only added
to the fascination.

A few years back,
I traveled to Sedona, Arizona.

I found myself marveling
at the rock formations

And pondering
the millions of years of wind

It took to carve that out,
just one grain of sand at a time.

People talk about Sedona
being a spiritual place.

But I can't even argue with that

Because it forces you to think
on unfathomable timescales,

And it kinda breaks your brain.

While at the same time,
in volcanic areas around the world,

New rock is produced every day
in sudden and violent outbursts.

Rock that later becomes fertile soil
and explodes with life.

We live on an ancient planet
that's constantly remaking itself,

And that's a concept I've
always wanted to explore.

So somewhere along the way,
an idea got embedded in my brain.

What if instead of talking about it,

I actually went to the places
that best illustrated that?

What could I learn?
What kind of story would that tell?

What if I traveled to the oldest
and newest places on planet Earth?

This is my producer, Cooper,

And I'm about
to wreck his world.

This is the face of someone

Who just wasted
three months of his life.

Three months that he
had spent planning

A very complicated trip
to Australia.

Because in 2014,
it was reported

That researchers had
found zircon crystals

In the Jack Hills of Australia

Dating back to
4.4 billion years old,

Making these the oldest rocks
on planet Earth.

There was just one catch.

These crystals are
literally microscopic.

And we had certain parameters
with this project.

One, it has to be
rock that I can stand on.

That's the gag here.

I stand on the oldest
and newest rocks.

Two, it has to be
a natural formation,

Not behind a case in
some museum somewhere.

That's too easy.

And too hard –
I'd probably get arrested.

And three, it has
to originate from Earth

And be the result of
some geologic process.

So, some meteorite fragment
that's as old as the solar system,

That doesn't count.

Now, I knew that the zircons
were too small to stand on,

But I assumed the rocks
that they were found in

Would be just as old, right?

Right?

So in 2023,
we made preparations

To visit the Jack Hills
in Western Australia,

Which is super remote,
super inhospitable, not near a road.

This was gonna require working
with an outfitter and a guide.

We needed satellite phone.
This was a whole thing.

And just to be thorough,

I thought I could
interview the geologist

A geologist from UC Boulder
named Dr. Steven Mojzsis.

And amazingly, he responded.

He says the Jack Hills zircons

Are the oldest minerals
on Earth.

While it is true that they're
upwards of 4.38 billion years old,

They're weathered from older rocks
as sedimentary detritus,

And a younger assemblage that
occupied a sedimentary basin.

- He's speaking like a scientist here.
- Right, right.

- Around 3.3 billion years ago.
- Right.

So the rock itself is
3.3 billion years.

Yeah, that's
what I was reading.

Yeah. So he said that's—

That is still a long time ago,
but not the oldest place on Earth.

...Yeah.

What I was asking him was like,
is it Pilbara or Jack Hills?

- And he was like, neither.
- Kinda.

Yeah, we were looking
in the wrong place.

According to Dr.  Mojzsis,

The actual place that
we're looking for was called

The Acasta Gneiss Complex
in far north Canada.

So instead of going down here,

We are actually needing
to go way up here.

It's not the same place.

And unlike the Jack Hills,

Where you can just kinda drive
most of the way out to it,

The Acasta Gneiss Complex

Is in the middle of
absolute nowhere.

There are no roads for
hundreds of kilometers,

And the landscape is insane.

It's on the edge of a lake,

But the area is dotted with
literally thousands of lakes.

The only defining feature is
an island in the middle of it

That kinda looks
a little bit like Snoopy.

In fact, the geologists
call it "Snoopy Island".

I cannot tell you
how many hours I spent

Scouring the maps
looking for Snoopy Island.

It was like a hellish geological
version of Where's Waldo.

So our plans had to change.
Drastically.

And since it was
approaching fall,

The temperatures in the area

Were already dipping into
fairly dangerous territory, so...

We were gonna have
to wait another year.

This was not the last thing
that went wrong.

So while Cooper began looking

Into how exactly we get
to this new location,

I began considering
the "newest" rocks on Earth.

I'll be honest, this choice was
always a bit arbitrary

Because technically new land
is being created all the time

In volcanic hotspots
around the world,

Of which there are currently 46,

According to the Smithsonian's
Global Volcanism Program.

And there's no shortage
of young land masses

Created by these volcanic
hotspots around the world,

Any of which would work, but...

When it came down to it,
one stood out amongst all the rest:

The Big Island of Hawaii.

Not only is the Big Island
only half a million years old,

It's almost always erupting.

Plus it's a US state.

So there was no language barrier,
no currency exchange.

There's an infrastructure
and a national park right there,

And besides, it's freaking Hawaii.
Who wouldn't want to go there?

So, Hawaii it would be.

With our locations chosen,
the team went to work

Planning out our
epic adventure in 2023.

Nothing was gonna stop us
this time.

In the summer of 2023,

Just as we started
finalizing our plans,

A massive wave of wildfires
swept across Canada.

The smoke from these fires drifted
over the northern United States,

Blanketing many major US cities.

It quickly became
international news.

Just devastating fires

That are clearly linked to
human-caused climate change.

But the scale of
the human impact in Canada

Is quite concerning.

There's many fires
burning at once,

And some of them are further north
than we would typically expect.

So more so into the tundra,
which is very uncommon.

And right in the middle of it
was the town of Yellowknife,

Which was the closest town
to the outcrop

And where we were planning to stay.

It also was the home

Of the Northwest Territories
Geological Survey,

Who had helped us out
tremendously with our planning.

All of our plans were on hold

As we waited
for the fires to subside.

But that didn't happen.

In fact, it only got worse.

By mid-August,
two major fires had reached

The outskirts of Yellowknife,
and the order was given to evacuate.

My contacts at the Geological Survey
suddenly became unavailable

As they and the other
20,000 people in Yellowknife

Fled for their lives.

Over the next couple of weeks,

Through a combination
of human intervention

And just dumb luck,
the winds changed,

The fires were diverted,
and the town was saved.

But Yellowknife was pretty much
a ghost town at that point.

It would take months for
the residents to trickle back in

And for the town to
become functional again.

And by that point,

Our opportunity was
pretty much gone.

By the way, you might
remember that in 2023,

Hawaii suffered through
some devastating wildfires,

Especially on the island of Maui,

Where 102 people died
in the town of Lahaina.

So yeah, both places we
wanted to go to were on fire.

In the spring of 2024,
one of my contacts

From the Northwest Territories
Geological Survey

Put me in touch with this guy.

This is Jesse Reimink,
a geologist from Penn State

And co-host of
the PlanetGeo Podcast

And just happens to be
one of the world's top experts

In the Acasta Gneiss Complex.

And it just so happened

That he was planning
another trip in July

With this guy.
This is Mike Ackerson.

He's a geologist with
the Smithsonian Institution,

Who's leading a team of
researchers, including Jesse,

To study the outcrop.

And to our utter
shock and surprise,

They invited us to join them.

This... was actually happening.

After three years of missteps
and natural disasters,

We had just a few weeks
to plan the journey of a lifetime.

We'll be flying from Dallas
to Denver to Calgary

To Yellowknife in
the Northwest Territories.

Then we'll have to
charter a float plane

To fly out to the outcrop,
for a total of four flights

And 4,500 kilometers
– 3000 miles.

With me will be Cooper,
who somehow didn't leave the project

After the Australian mishap.

We've got
our boarding tickets,

Which I printed out
because I have flight anxiety,

And my passport,
and they have to be in my hands

The entire time
or I lose my mind.

Hi, I'm Cooper, field producer.

Cooper, what are you hoping
to get out of this trip?

Outside of just
good footage and stuff?

Paid!

I don't know,
the sense of adventure.

I think it's really cool
in the fact that we're going to

...such a unique space.

I feel like it's kinda like
going to the Moon on Earth

Or like the bottom of the ocean.

It's like the nth degree
of something, you know?

And he's bringing along Kyle,

Our director of photography
and cameraman.

Kyle's got plenty of travel
documentary experience,

And we've worked on several
projects with him in the past.

Well, it's so great
to go somewhere

For that... exploratory purpose.

To be there with the Smithsonian.

- But this is like...
- This is out there.

Yeah. I was actually thinking,
you were talking about

Getting like a guide through a city
or something like that.

We're getting guides through time.

Yeah.

Like the geologists
are like gonna guide us

Through the history of the Earth.

In the oldest place
that exists on planet Earth.

I mean, like...

I'm kinda having trouble
even processing that sometimes.

You should travel with the best.

Oh, that is hot!

Scalding.

This is where I flip my shit!

Oh, hi. Welcome to Canada.

- What time is it?
- It's 11:30.

11:30, sun's still out.
Here we go!

Welcome to Yellowknife.

It's 1 am.

Over the last 36 hours,

I've been traveling for
about 25 of those hours?

Counting the vacation
that I had before this.

So, I'm pretty much spent.

Completely bloody exhausted.

But, I'm glad to be here,

And it's been a hell of a day.

One thing that stood out
as we were flying

From Calgary to Yellowknife

On a prop engine plane,
which was cool,

Was that at one point,

I thought that we were
flying into fog.

Like, it looked like low lying fog,

Like you just couldn't
see the ground anymore.

And then we wound up
flying through it,

And it was only then that
I could smell the smoke.

And I realized, oh...

That's not fog, that's smoke.

Those are wildfires.

I spotted two
on my side of the plane.

Cooper spotted he said
up to seven or eight

On his side of the plane.

This was the very thing

That kept us from
coming here last year,

And they're still happening?

I'm not gonna make this
about climate change.

I'm not, I'm not gonna make
this about climate change.

But today was a really long day.

Tomorrow's gonna be
a little bit lighter.

We're just kind of
exploring Yellowknife.

So I'm gonna close
these blackout curtains

That are clearly required
in this town

And get myself some sleep.

Our first day in Yellowknife

Was really all about
orienting ourselves

And locking down the plans
for the rest of the trip.

Not to mention trying
poutine for the first time

And eating the biggest
egg roll on the planet.

Also, maybe the hottest
egg roll on the planet.

Yellowknife sits at the top
of the Great Slave Lake,

And chances are,
if you've heard of it,

It's from the show
Ice Road Truckers,

Which as somebody who's lived
his whole life in Texas,

The idea that it gets so cold
that you can drive on top of a lake

Is insane to me.

Even ice skating on top
of a lake is insane to me.

But that's in the winter.

And this is July,
and it's actually kinda balmy.

Wave hi, boys.

So we're going down to
Old Town, Yellowknife,

Which is right by the bay,
which as we get closer,

The temperature has dropped
15 degrees, you think?

- Yep, I'd say that.
- It's...

- Like a microclimate.
- It's super nice here.

I wish we were hanging out
here the whole time.

In the summer months,

Instead of catering
to Ice Road Truckers,

The main attraction here
is hunting and fishing

And just the beauty of
Old Town Yellowknife.

And there are many places
to fish up here.

On the flight in,

I was just mesmerized
by the landscape,

Watching the fields
and forests around Calgary

Slowly change into
the endless vista of rock

Dotted by countless
thousands of lakes.

Like I'd seen it on maps,
but it still hadn't prepared me

For what it was like to
actually see it from a plane.

It was bizarre,
even alien-looking to me.

But it was only when I was
on the ground in Yellowknife

That it really sunk in.

Everything is rock.

The empty field outside my hotel
is just a field of rock.

People don't have yards
in front of their house.

They just have rock.

Highways don't have shoulders.
It's just rock.

Hey, you wanna have
a little garden?

Maybe grow a little
squash or strawberries?

Well, you can't
'cause it's all rock!

And I'm not saying "rocks".
I'm using the singular on purpose.

It's like the entire area
is on top of one giant rock.

It's like somebody
just etched a town

Into the top of a giant boulder.
Which made me wonder...

What kind of people lived here?

What culture was formed

On top of the oldest
rocks in the world?

Luckily there was a place
right down the road

Where we could find out.

On the way.

Boom!

About 100 kilometers
northwest of Yellowknife

Sits the town of Behchokǫ̀,

The seat of government
for the Tłı̨chǫ people.

The Tłı̨chǫ are
a First Nations tribe

Whose name translates
to "Dogrib",

And in 2005, they negotiated

A landmark treaty with
the Canadian government

That gave them full autonomy
over their land.

This isn't the Tłı̨chǫ "reservation".

This is the Tłı̨chǫ Nation.

And I had the honor of meeting
with one of the people

Dr. John Zoe.

Dr. Zoe was heavily involved
in researching and reestablishing

The traditional Tłı̨chǫ
place names on their land,

Essentially removing
the westernized names

That were brought in
by the European settlers

And fur traders and miners

Over the last
couple hundred years.

How far back do those go,
those names?

Like, you said
thousands of years earlier.

- Like do you know specifically?
- Yeah.

How far back?

Well, I would say,
at the time of giant animals.

And... that's why
the first set of place names

Is the oldest, that had to do

With where the larger animals
would dwell.

You talking about like
mammoths and mastodons?

Well, it's— we just
call them large animals.

And one of the things
that we got to know is...

That our landscape holds

Probably the oldest rock
in the world.

We were debating about
what can we do in a community,

So that we don't forget
our own history?

And they say, "Well...
well go back on the land.

That's the only way to do it."

And so,
almost every step we make,

There was a story.

There were old campgrounds.

There's burial sites.
And there's place names galore.

Now to a westerner,

All this removing of
European influence

Might come off as unnecessary
or even vengeful or performative.

But as Dr. Zoe explained,
it's a lot more important than that.

Language is
very important because...

It takes us back to the source

Of what we're accustomed to.

And we just need to reapply it

So that we continue it
in today's modern world,

- Using the original terms.
- Mm.

Rather than relying too much

On describing...

Something that cannot
be described...

- In your own world.
- Mhm.

Except for your own world.

And it's a link back
to their oldest ancestors.

The very history of their people
can be found in their place names.

By just hearing the name,

You knew it was a place
where you could find trout,

Or wood for canoes,
or beaver pelts,

Or the right stones
for knives and weapons.

These names made it possible

To navigate the vast
and insane landscape

Of the Canadian Shield.

On that note, could I get you
to say something in your language?

I don't know—

I don't wanna give you
something to say necessarily,

But I'd love to hear it.

And it's funny
'cause I'm sitting here

And I'm thinking about, you know,
looking at it from above,

How complex all this is,

But when you're...

At— you know, in it...

How do you navigate that?

A lot of it is from memory.

Like through storytelling.

I mean, it makes sense.

Yeah, so it—

Each place name has—

Is really a story of...

- Right.
- What's available in that area

And the method of harvesting.

We drove past
a lot of burnt out forests

And flew through smoke so thick,

You couldn't hardly
even see anything.

Is— You've lived here
your whole life, right?

Is that— Has this
always been like that?

This is probably
the first time.

Really?

That it's gone
to the scale of...

The wildfires last summer.

Uh-huh, yeah.

And, was also the first time

That we had to
evacuate this community

Since its establishment
here in 1904.

This isn't
a climate change video.

This isn't
a climate change video.

Oh yeah. Soot on the foot.

This is what kept us
from going last year.

While Yellowknife was
mercifully spared by the wildfires,

Behchokǫ̀ and many living around it
weren't so lucky.

Dozens of Tłı̨chǫ citizens

Lost their homes and
businesses to the flames

And are still recovering
a year later.

This landscape
that's seen so much change

Over its billions of years

Is now experiencing
changing weather patterns

That's lowered rainfall
and increased heat,

Leading to dangerously dry forests

In a landscape of tinder
just waiting to go off.

Rocks that were once
buried under miles of ice

Now set ablaze,

Filling the sky with
a thick layer of smoke

That turn the sunlight
a deep hue of orange-red.

It was especially bad
on the day we flew to the outcrop.

So while the crew's back there
getting our plane ready,

Our tiny float plane,

Just thought I would
stand here for a second

And take it all in.

I've been planning this
for three years...

And the day's finally here.

I'm not as nervous
as I thought I would be.

Although nervous isn't
really even the right word.

Just excited to get out there.

I've talked to Jesse and Mike
on Zoom many times,

But I've never met them in person.

So it's gonna be kind of like
meeting old friends

For the first time.

In areas like this,

Where the communities are
few and very far between,

The only way to get around
is by float plane.

So we had to weigh ourselves
and all of our gear

So that we have
the right amount of fuel

To get there, because...

- These are tiny planes.
- We're taking on a bunch of gear.

- Hey!
- We're traveling pretty light.

Our pilot's name is Sofie,
who is a total badass.

She actually rode into work
on a bike.

And this plane was old school.

According to Sofie,
the plane was made in the 1950s,

And the only thing electronic on it
is the radio and the GPS system.

This is 100% manual flying.

For the next two hours.
I'll be honest.

I was kinda nervous
about this flight.

I don't normally get nervous flying

Because it's kind of
a really big deal

When a plane goes down,

And you really don't hear
about them that often,

Considering the thousands of flights
that take place every day.

So you know
how often they happen.

But little private planes like this?

This wouldn't even make the news.

I have no idea
how many of these go down.

And the only time
they do make the news

Is when some celebrity is on board.

Like, say, a beloved YouTuber.

Also we're taking off
and landing in water,

And I've never done that before.

It kind of feels like
it would be rough

With it bouncing off the tops
of the waves in the water.

But thankfully it was
in fact a smooth ride

And more like driving
through the sky.

We even rode
with the windows cracked.

- Like butter.
- Woo!

Gave out a Texas woo.

I was as giddy as a schoolboy

And mesmerized by
the alien landscape,

A landscape that was dotted
with even more wildfires.

In fact, at one point,
we entered a smoke cloud

And briefly lost all visibility.

This is a literal
land of fire and ice.

After a couple of hours of flying

And passing by thousands
of lakes and streams,

The time had arrived.

As the plane began to circle
to find the right angle to land,

I saw it. Snoopy Island.

After spending countless hours

Searching maps
for this distinctive island,

There it was, right below me.

It was surreal.

Somewhere down there was
the oldest rock on planet Earth.

And I was ready to meet it.

The landing was smooth
as butter, by the way.

As we pulled out to the beach
– yes, Snoopy Island has a beach –

Jesse and Mike appeared
and waded out to the plane

And literally helped pull
the plane toward the sand.

They drove a stake
in the ground to secure it,

And then Sofie tied it off
like a horse at a saloon.

And the jet bridge
was one of the worst

I've ever experienced at an airport.

I generally don't
wanna get my feet wet

When I'm disembarking.
Zero stars.

- Nice to meet you, man.
- Good to see you.

- Thanks for having us out.
- Oh, of course.

- Oh, of course.
- Welcome.

You brought the smoke with you.

Base camp was pretty basic.

Well stocked kitchen tent,
work tent, bags of rock collections.

You might be thinking
it looks like a lot of stuff

For just a couple of guys.

Well, that's because
they actually have

A whole team of people
on this expedition,

But that particular day,
they were actually out in the field,

So Mike and Jesse stayed back
to hang out with us.

So we'll be—
We'll go to this outcrop here,

That you can see the cliff,

Then basically past the cliff
to the land over there

Is where the oldest part is for sure

That I mapped in my PhD.

Wow, I'm gonna learn
so much today.

That's the plan.

- Taking y'all with me!
- We all will.

- Be prepared to nerd out.
- You know, well...

That's the quote of
the day right there.

Yeah, you described
yourself on Zoom as...

You're the keeper of
the nation's rock collection.

Mhm, yeah, yeah.
One of three of 'em, yeah.

We have three people
who are all PhD scientists

Whose job it is to ensure that
this wealth of information

That's retained in rocks

That people have
worked on for decades,

Remains something
that people can use.

Which is part of the reason
we're out here...

Is to collect some rocks to bring
them back to the collections.

I know the bugs are gonna get you.

- I know, well...
- Yeah.

Just gonna have to deal
with it, I guess, I dunno.

Yep.

Well, as the keeper of
the nation's rock collection—

That sounds like something that

Nicholas Cage would be trying
to break into at some point.

Yeah, we're right across
from the National Archives too.

So I'm always like,
"Hmm, I don't know.

If they don't want the Constitution,
they could come for the rocks."

Yeah, well...

One of the best things
I've heard people talk about rocks

In terms of being a geologist,
which is that rocks are like books,

And that you don't
really look at a book

And say, "Wow, what a great book."

It's the story inside the book
that you care about.

It's the same thing with rocks.

Well, I wanted to give
you a chance to talk about

Specifically what you guys
are researching right now.

Is there a specific goal
for this trip?

Absolutely, yeah.

So, you know, these rocks

That we're
about to be standing on

Are the oldest known
rocks on the planet.

A lot of the work
that Jesse and other people

Have been doing
points back in time

To the potential for rocks
that are— might be even older.

So we think, based on
the geochemical evidence

That Jesse and others
have produced,

That there should be rocks

That are older than
4 billion years out here.

And so we're hoping,

If we have an outstanding,
amazing success,

We will have discovered
rocks that are—

Or at least crystals that are older
than 4 billion years out here.

And we only have
one data point

From beyond 4 billion years.

So our hope is that we're going to
be able to add another data point

And try to compare and contrast
how the rocks here

Might have told a different story
about the early Earth

Than the rocks that
are currently residing

On the other side of the planet.

That's one of our main goals,

Is to try to investigate
and hopefully discover something

That's older than
4 billion years old.

But that's a pipe dream.

Chances of success are low,

But the opportunity for
human knowledge advancement

Is extremely high, so...

It's the way—
that's the place to be.

To accomplish this,
they need to bring in somebody

Who had spent extensive
time on these rocks

And mapped them thoroughly.

Someone like this guy.

I mean, I'm just...

One of the more recent

Of a long line of people
who've worked in these rocks.

I mean, these are famous rocks
in geological circles,

Since the late '80s when they
were discovered to be old.

And various people have
mapped at various scales.

Some people would take this outcrop
and produce a map of it.

Some people would map in
over 30 square kilometers here

And produce a map of that area.

And what I did was kind of
in between those two.

It was this island
and the peninsula over there.

- We'll go, we discovered some—
- The hook.

The hook one, yep, exactly.
We'll go park on those.

Those are the ones that we mapped

As this 4.02 billion year old unit
where it starts there,

It ends there,
and it goes up into the hill,

And you could map it as a unit.

So that kind of intermediate scale
was what my PhD was on.

But there's decades of people
who've mapped

This complex,
this suite of rocks

In this 50 square kilometer
area here.

So this 50 square kilometer area

Is like the oldest spot?

There are parts of it
that are the oldest.

This rock you're sitting on is
a 3.6 billion year old rock.

So it's not the oldest part,
unfortunately.

- Still pretty old.
- It's still very—

I mean, there's maybe...

What, I'm gonna
make up a number here,

Ten places on Earth
that have rocks that old.

So it is one of
the oldest rocks on Earth.

- It's not the oldest though.
- Yeah.

So, so in this complex,

If you look, all these hills
you can see around us,

They'll be rocks
ranging from 4 billion years

To 2.9 billion years,
are the age of the rocks.

And then they were
all metamorphosed

1.9 billion years.

And that's the deformation,

The sort of structural pattern
we can see to these rocks.

That was a later feature
that squished them together.

Is there a difference
between like continental crust

And ocean crust?

Mm, oh, great question.

Or is it just
that there's a dip,

And that's where the water goes?

The rocks that we're on
are continental crust.

They make up the continents.

They're lighter in terms of density,

And they're functionally
more buoyant

Than the oceanic floors,

- Which are a denser rock.
- Oh, okay.

So...

Most ocean plateaus are made
up of rocks that are denser,

And they're actually—
the crust there is much thinner.

- Okay.
- It's a couple of kilometers

Versus maybe 40, 50, 60
kilometers below us here.

So these
continental crust rocks,

At least now,
are rising above the oceans,

And they chemically weather,

And they form the composition
of our atmosphere.

They stabilize the atmosphere.
They stabilize our ocean chemistry.

They're a really
unique feature to Earth

That no other planetary body has.

As we were flying in,
and I was looking at it,

And I was like thinking about

All the glacial periods
that have happened up here,

And I'm sitting here thinking about
how old these rocks are,

And it occurred to me that...

That's like the—
a blink of an eye.

And the age of these rocks,
that's just nothing!

So the significant thing
about the glaciers

Was it— could it have been just
that kind of cleared the rocks off

And brought this up to
where it's exposed now?

Yeah, I think it's...

It's probably the former, certainly.
Probably not the latter.

So the rocks were probably
at or near sea level,

Or at, you know,
in their current elevation

Relative to the deeper rocks

For a long time, for hundreds
of millions of years.

And the glaciers, as you said,
are just the most recent thing

- In the last...
- Yeah.

Few, tens of
thousands of years.

But they cleaned them off,
scraped the stuff off,

Exposed them, and—

But these rocks,
people have gone around

And tried to understand
how did they—

When did they rise
to the surface or near surface?

And that was an old
phenomenon as well.

So hundreds of millions
of years at least

Since these things
were deep down.

So they've been
kinda just riding high

Right near the surface for...

Several hundred million years
to billions of years.

Educate me on cratons.

Cratons.

First of all,
am I saying it right?

- Yes, you are.
- Okay, good.

If you're English
or British school,

- You'd say 'KRAHT-ons', but—
- KRAHT-ons.

Yeah, exactly, yeah.
If you wanna sound smart.

But 'CRAYT-ons', that's what I say.
'CRAYT-ons', so that's good.

Cratons are the—

You can think of them as
the interior of continents.

They're the really stable part.

If you have heard the word
'Canadian Shield'.

- Yeah.
- That's a craton.

There's a bit of discussion about
what the term 'craton' means,

Because if you look at
the Canadian Shield,

It's a vast expanse
of stable continent

That hasn't seen much
deformation or metamorphism

Or much activity
for a very long time.

Not to cratons.
They are old, they're stable.

They have a super thick
mantle root beneath them

That protects them
from later deformation.

So we're all familiar
with plate tectonics, right?

That the Earth's crust is
made up of different plates

That move and slide around
and crash into each other,

Sometimes splitting apart
continents, creating oceans,

Sometimes subducting
underneath into magma

And melting like Anakin Skywalker,
creating mountains and volcanoes.

Well, cratons are formed
in the earliest days of Earth.

This was actually known
as the Hadean Era

After Hades, the great god of hell.

Everything is boiling hot magma.

But in some places,

Some less dense magma
floated to the top

And collected and then
cooled in the air,

And this became the first rock.

Eventually, the denser rock
around it would cool

And fill out the rest
of the continents

And the tectonic plates.

But these earliest rocks
were the earliest rocks,

Because they were so buoyant.

So when the plates started
smashing into each other,

It was the denser rock
that would slide underneath

And melt into the mantle.

And these older,
more buoyant rocks, these cratons,

They didn't get sucked under.

They just kind of floated on top
of all this for 4 billion years.

It didn't survive
unscathed, though.

It definitely evolved over time.

It gets eroded, folded, pressed,
smashed up quite a bit,

But it never gets subducted.

There are several ancient
cratons around the world,

But the biggest and oldest
is the Canadian Shield,

Which also just happened to spend

The last several million years
in the glacial zone.

And as the Earth went through
several glacial periods,

These mile-high walls of ice
scraped away the top soil,

Leaving this endless, expansive rock
exposed for the world to see.

And because of this,

Wide swaths of Canada are
almost entirely uninhabited

Because there's just no land
to develop agriculture on.

But also because of this,
it exposed these rocks

And the stories held within them.

I think for me,

Geology... is such
a massively diverse field

That it's just about
the world around you,

The landscape around you,
and you look around.

And it's the same thing, yeah.
People have—

You could very easily walk
across these rocks

And think, "Oh, those are
quite pretty rocks."

But they're some of
the oldest rocks in the world.

It has new meaning.

You have to sit down
and think about,

What does 4 billion years
actually mean?

That's really hard to comprehend.

- Yeah.
- And I can't—

I'm not doing it right now,

But when I do
comprehend it a little,

You get hints of it,
and it's scary.

I mean, it's like, wow,
this is unbelievable.

It's a sort of a spiritual—
or whatever, you know,

It's some—
it has meaning that's—

It's very complicated and
a sort of a spiritual experience

To sort of think about
time and that scale.

'Cause we try and keep
things simple as geologists.

So we always talk about it

In like the first or
second decimal place.

We say,
"Oh, it's 4.0 billion years."

And that just cheapens it
a bit, you know?

We should say it's like...

4 billion is a massive number
compared to...

That .1 is 100 million years.

- Exactly, it's insane.
- Unfathomable.

So the difference between,
you know, this rock,

Which is 3.8,
and that one, which is 3.6,

That's 200 million years old.
Or 200 million years—

That's 200 million years
of difference.

That's an enormous amount of time.

- And we're sitting on—
- Wait, wait, wait, wait.

No, wait, so I have to process this.

So, so this rock right here...

Is, what, 300 million years
younger than this?

This is younger.
This will be three— Well, okay.

This isn't a great outcrop

'cause I haven't dated
this particular one.

- But for the sake—
- But for the sake of argument.

For the sake of argument,
this is 3.8.

Similar rocks to this over there
are 3.8 billion years old, 3.75.

This is 3.6.

So that's 150 million years

Of age difference
between those two rocks,

And they're just sitting happily

Next together, next to
each other right now.

That's like...

...before the dinosaurs.

Well before the dinosaurs.

Well before the dinosaurs.

- That entire space?
- Yeah.

- Right there.
- Exactly.

It's deeply humbling to sit
on a 4 billion year old rock

And think, you know,

My life is a minuscule
amount of time

Compared to what
this rock has experienced.

These are hallowed ground
to geologists.

Like everybody,
if in an undergrad degree,

You will probably hear the words
"the Acasta Gneiss Complex"

At some point
in that degree process.

And so this is a place,
I've been here, set up camp

When we're mapping
during my PhD

Where a random helicopter came
and dropped off a couple geologists

Just because they wanted
to look at it for the day,

And they had some helicopter time,
and they were swinging by.

So it's a place like that,

That people will land
to check it out

Because it is kind of
hallowed ground

In a— for geologists.

You think more deeply about
things other than rocks

When you're sitting on these rocks.

At least I do,
in my own experience.

The actual outcrop
is a short boat ride

Across the lake from Snoopy Island,

And in the interest
of protecting it,

We've chosen not to reveal
its exact location here.

We're headed
for those outcrops.

We can see just a—

Just on the other side of the point,
just past the point there.

This lake, by the way,
is so far from human habitation

That they're able
to drink directly from it.

I saw them refilling
their water bottles

On our trip back.

Apparently the deeper water
tastes better.

I tried it myself.
It was delicious.

Oh, and when we arrived,
they made a big point to tell us

To tuck our pants into our socks
to protect from bugs.

But for some reason,
I'm the only one that did it.

Hence the classy look
I'm sporting here.

No worries guys, it's not like
I'll be on camera or anything.

- I did it!
- Pull it tight to that.

- What are we close to?
- Close to the old stuff.

- The oldest rocks?
- 4.02 billion year old stuff.

We tied off the boat
and took a short trek

Along the shore to the oldest rocks.

But first, a quick stop at
another impressive formation.

So this is a
3.8 billion year old rock

That has a bunch of veins

That are cross-cutting it,
so we know they're younger,

Because you can't
cross-cut something

Unless the something
was there before.

And so the veins are younger,

Probably 3.6 billion years old.

And it's bounded.
Sort of down here,

You can start to see
a very deformed rock...

That has this layering
to it here.

And this is a, what we call
a banded gneiss package.

So G-N-E-I-S-S, gneiss.

Lots of geology puns
that go along with that.

Nice!

But this is a gneiss,
and this gneiss package

Will continue
down the hill as we see,

And there's several different
ages of units of rocks

That are smooshed together
in this nice package.

So we're kinda
going back in time?

We're going
back and forth in time.

Because these— again,
it's rock layers like this.

It's a 4 billion year old rock,
a 3.7 billion year old rock,

A 3.9 billion year old rock,
4.0 billion year old,

3.9, 3.7 billion year old rock, 3.6.

And then they're all
squished like that

And sometimes folded
over on each other.

So there's a lot of
layering in these

'cause they're just
squished into oblivion.

But we see stuff like this,

And this is kind of a random
alignment of mineral grains,

Which is what you get
in a primary rock

That has not been
deformed very much.

This stri— These stripes
are very rare to get

In igneous rocks
as a primary feature.

So this is probably a rock
that's been squished.

So do you see this kind of
like bending in the rock

- And stuff kind of everywhere?
- Yeah. Everywhere.

But this just happens
to be super old rock

That that's been done to
many, many, many—

Exactly, yep.
So it's super old rock.

This is probably either a 3.6

Or a 3.4 billion year old
injection that...

That sort of injected itself
into this other rock

And crosscuts it.

So we know
this is older than this

Because of the
crosscutting nature of it.

And then the whole thing's
been deformed

1.9 billion years ago,

2.5 billion years ago,
multiple times.

This little body has been
isolated from deformation

More than the rocks
we'll see right down there.

This is like slightly
better preserved

Than the ones right down there.

These are some of
the more complicated rocks

You're ever going to see.

So, you kind of threw yourself
in the deep end here,

- Coming to these rocks.
- Yeah.

We were— We've been sitting
for days on these rocks

Just asking the same questions.

You are trying to grapple with
the scale and the magnitude

- Of the history in these rocks.
- Yeah.

It's functionally impossible.

- It's very hard.
- To do in the field.

For, you know,
trained geologists

With a lot of shared field expertise,

That we're sitting on rocks
that we're debating,

What does that structure tell us?

You know what's
also amazing about this?

It looks like a boot.

Okay.

It looks like a boot.
It's like—

Oh, I see, the outline.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Alright, I got you.

- That's good Texan stuff right there.
- Yeah.

Finding cowboy boots
everywhere.

I can't get away.
You can take the boy outta Texas,

But you can't take
the Texas outta—

Oh yeah, it's
gotta find one there.

We have this... law,

Law of science that you learn
in Geology 101 classes...

Where basically the idea is that
the present is the key to the past.

So you can look at
things happening today

And trace back... what was
happening in the past.

And that law
unambiguously breaks down

- You get this far back.
- Yeah.

I mean, what we have to
try to do with these rocks,

And what Jesse's done
a really good job of

Is trying to piece together...

What Earth could have looked like

When we didn't have
the ability to go walk around

And hike around in the Cascades
and grab a volcanic rock,

And go to Yosemite,
and go to Iceland, go to Hawaii.

We do not know what
the early Earth looked like,

And the only way

We can even come close
to getting there

Is by looking at these rocks.

And now that we had
a better understanding

Of what we were looking at,
it was time for the main event.

But this rock unit,
now you are standing on...

Is the...

4.02 billion year old rock unit.

And it goes from up
where your feet are

For about 10 meters
down in this direction,

And it continues up into
the hill for quite a while.

And you can see, come look at it,
and see this same kind of layering.

There's a different chemistry and
a different chemical composition

From that rock in a different age,

And it's inter-layered with
other rocks of younger eras.

But this is the old one right here.

So kinda the way
you just explained the rocks

On the other side over there...

What can we read?

What's the story here that
we can read in these rocks?

Ah, it is—

The story is smeared out

When you're looking at it
in an outcrop.

The story is really
in the geochemistry

And what we can tell
in the lab about it.

So we take these rocks
back to the lab,

We look at their zircon cargo,

These minerals that are
really good at geochronology.

They also record
a bunch of geochemistry.

And we can tell something
about when the rock—

How the rock was created,
how the magma was created,

Where it crystallized in the crust.

And then we can also look at
the composition of the rock.

So the chemical recipe for the rock.

And that tells us some key things
about how it was created as well.

What environment it formed in,
what led to the melting

That produced a magma
that created this rock,

Which made these rocks
exciting for us

Because the chemical
composition of these rocks

Matches very closely to
a rock type called Icelandite.

And as you would guess...

- Icelandite occurs in Iceland.
- Where's that from

Yeah, exactly.

And so, you know,
Iceland's a proto-continent.

These are the oldest rocks
we know of, on this area,

And maybe our planet.

And they're—
they look like Icelandites.

And, so maybe this
is a proto-continent.

Maybe this is how the continent
kinda got kickstarted growing.

Proto-continent.

Have to sit with that one
for a minute.

- That's wild.
- Yeah.

I don't know what else to say.
I'm kinda—

You gotta sit and think,
sit and think in silence is okay

- On the world's oldest rocks.
- Well...

One of the things I was
sitting here looking at,

It looks like— it kinda
looks like an old man.

Like it's got these deep wrinkles.
It's got this...

I mean, some of this I'm sure
is lichen that's on top here,

But it's like, it's so—
it's got these lines across it.

It looks scarred.
It looks weathered.

It looks old.

Deep wrinkle lines. I like that.
That's a good description.

But it...

I don't know.
It almost makes me kind of—

I'm being— I'm really
being like, woo-woo now,

But it's like, it makes me
think of like an old grandpa.

Mhm.

An old lovable grandpa

That's been through some shit.

And...

And we're all just
kinda living on it.

Yeah, no, you're not off.

That's how when
the original discovery was made,

People were walking across
these rocks and said,

"Oh wait, these have had
a tortured history.

"Much more tortured
than rocks over there,

"and rocks over there.
So this is a different beast.

Let's date it."

And then they dated it
and found

3.964 billion year old
rocks around.

So that little bit of—
your intuition is exactly right.

This looks old and tortured.

How crazy is it that like
literally just a visual thing

Of looking at it is like,
"Hey, there's something to this."

- And then it turns out there was.
- Yep.

Geology is great
because, you know,

We speak about
planetary science all the time.

Every time you look at— in a rock,
you're seeing a different planet,

A planet that used to exist
and no longer does

Because Earth has
this long timescale

Of a rock record.

And when we look at exoplanets
and other solar systems,

We're getting a snapshot
into that planet's life.

And you know, even arguably on
our limited sampling of Mars

And no samples of Venus,
we're getting kind of snapshots

Of the planetary lifetime.

In Earth,
as we go back in time,

We are doing planetary science
because we're looking at

A planet that no longer exists.

Listening to Mike and Jesse,

It became clear to me that
these are not just old rocks.

These are memories
of a previous planet.

Memories that have
become scrambled and twisted

As they become unintelligible
and nonsensical.

A 4 billion year old puzzle

For people like Mike
and Jesse to decipher.

And I could listen to them
talk about this all day,

But with our time ticking away

And Sofie waiting for us
back at the plane,

There was still one thing
left to capture.

After three years of
misdirections and close calls,

The time had finally come

To stand on the oldest
rocks on planet Earth.

I've been thinking about this trip
for a really, really long time.

And I— several—
on several occasions,

I sat down and...

Tried to write out my thoughts
on the whole thing,

And I stopped myself.

I wanted to actually get here

And feel it and see,
be like what I felt.

And now I'm here...

...and it's complicated.

I don't know how I feel.

I don't know that like—
you know, I try to stay away

From woo-woo type stuff, but...

I was wondering if I would
feel some kind of energy?

Some kind of Earth energy
coming off of this?

I don't know,
I don't know that I feel that,

But I do feel a weight.
I feel...

...a presence.

Again, I'm not trying
to make it woo-woo.

I'm not trying to make
it out like I'm pick—

It's not— this isn't
Stonehenge, you know.

It's not mystical or anything.
It's just...

To contemplate,
to sit in this spot...

On these rocks that have existed...

For almost a third of the universe?

It's very humbling.

That's not even
the right word for it.

Humbling isn't the right word.

It's not just that this has
existed for 4 billion years,

Which is itself an
incomprehensibly large number...

Because as many people
would be quick to point out,

Everything on the Earth has
been here for 4.5 billion years.

But, everything gets transformed.

Everything gets reshaped.

Everything gets turned
into something else.

Metamorphosed, if you will.

But this hasn't.

This has been here
this whole time.

Unchanging.

Actually, it's changed a lot,
but fundamentally unchanging.

You know, one of
the themes of this video

Is supposed to be like
permanence and renewal.

And permanence,
or this kind of permanence,

It's not something
that we can even...

Experience, certainly
can't experience.

Can't even really comprehend, but...

Renewal is something
that we can experience.

So maybe let's see
what that's all about.

Yeah.

Onto the next thing.

From the smoky skies and
ancient granite of northern Canada

To the sun, palm trees,
and black sand,

We traveled to the newest
place on planet Earth:

The Big Island of Hawaii.

The Big Island of Hawaii is
the youngest of the Hawaiian Islands

At around 500,000 years old.

Which, to visualize this,
when you put that on a chart

Next to the Acasta Gneiss...

Hawaii's there.
It's just a pixel or two, but yeah.

It's younger.

Also, just a quick note

On the actual pronunciation
of the word.

I always just said
"Hawaii" growing up.

That's how most of us
learn it in the US,

But there is
an apostrophe in there,

Which in the Hawaiian language
indicates a glottal stop.

So it's actually
pronounced "Ha-wai-i".

Now, there are some that
go a bit further with that

And say "Ha-va-i" with a V sound,
but that's kind of a sub-dialect.

All the islands have
their own subcultures

With their own dialects,

But the most universally
accepted pronunciation,

According to the experts
I talked to anyway, is "Ha-wai-i".

So, I'm gonna be using
that pronunciation in this video.

There are seven main islands
in the Hawaiian island chain,

And they get younger
the further down you go,

Ranging in age from
5.2 million years old

To half a million years
old on the Big Island,

Whose name is actually Hawai'i,

But because that's also
the name of the state,

Most people just call it
"the Big Island".

Because it's the big one.

And the Big Island
is especially unique

Because out of the 13 climate zones
that exist on planet Earth,

Eight of them can be found
on the Big Island of Hawaii.

It is literally the most
ecologically diverse

Place in the world.

This is due to the unique
geology of the island,

Which is dominated by two peaks
– Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa –

Which rise up to 4,207 and
4,169 meters respectively.

This causes the trade winds
carrying warm, moist air

Up from the northeast
to rise up as it hits the mountains.

This cools, condenses,
and falls as rain,

Making the east side wet and humid
while the west side is drier,

Even desert conditions
in some places.

And there are two main
population centers on the island,

With Hilo on the east coast
and Kailua-Kona on the west coast.

Hilo is larger and
serves as the county seat

On the island of Hawai'i,

While Kailua-Kona is more
of a tourist destination

That's famous for their coffee.

But as much as I love coffee,
we traveled to Hilo

Because of its proximity to
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

Also, that's where the offices

Of the US Geological Survey
are located.

When I said that
Hilo is generally

More humid and wet,
I wasn't kidding.

In fact, Hilo is considered

The wettest city
in the United States.

And just some foreshadowing,

That was totally
my experience there.

I was quite moist the whole time.

Which, while that might not be
my favorite feeling in the world,

It's made Hilo the most
lush and green place

I've ever seen in my life.

The plant life here is spectacular
with sky-high palm trees

Alongside wide and
sprawling banyan trees

That are such a fixture
of the island

That many of them had names.

Outside our hotel,
at any given time,

There were people swimming
and paddle boarding

And fishing in the lagoon,
and families enjoying epic cookouts

Underneath the banyan trees.

It's an island lifestyle

That operates on vibes
and community spirit,

Where a sunny day can become
a rainstorm and back again

In the span of 15 minutes.

The rain is just part of life here.

The locals call it liquid sunshine.

Okay, we're in Hawaii,
and here's where things stand.

Where we stand right now
is we're on the island.

We're in Hilo on the Big Island.

We have one interview
set up with a geologist.

We have a second one
on the way

And a third that we
are trying to set up.

The thing that I'm finding
is that Canada, I thought,

Would be a million times
harder than here

Because it's very remote.

There's no infrastructure
out there and all that.

This is Hawaii.
It's actually a state.

You don't even have to do
a currency exchange.

What I'm finding though is that...

Especially when getting
interviews set up,

This is where people live and work.

And right now they have
a lot of work to do

Because the volcano is erupting.

So our schedules had to
be insanely flexible.

And what we've told everybody is,

"Look, give us three hours
of head time, lead time,

And we will come to you.
We'll make it happen."

So in the meantime, today...

So this is the first day.
This is Friday.

We're gonna be going around Hilo,
seeing a little bit of the town.

We do have an interview
this afternoon

That I'm really excited about.

But the first things first,

I've gotta get some
Sudafed or something

Because my ears have not...

Have not cleared
since I got off the plane.

I can barely hear
anything outta this ear.

It's not a good time.
But we're here.

I'm ready to make the most of it.
And let's just see what happens.

Little sea arch back there.

It's not gonna be around forever.

It might fall in our lifetimes.

The island of Hawai'i is
of course a volcanic island,

One of the most volcanic
hotspots in the world,

Regularly spewing out molten lava
from its three active volcanoes,

Kīlauea, Mauna Loa,
and Hualālai,

The last of which
hasn't erupted since 1801,

But it's still considered active.

Mauna Loa is considered
the tallest volcano on Earth

When measured from the sea floor,

And it's the second tallest
mountain in the world,

Again, if measured
from the sea floor.

It's just bested by its
sister mountain Mauna Kea,

A mere 38 meters taller.

And then there's Kīlauea,

One of the most active
volcanoes on Earth.

It's been erupting almost
nonstop since 1983,

Releasing lava from
its central caldera

As well as various rift zones
along the southeast of the island.

All of which is to say
that if we wanna stand

On the newest rocks in the world,

We've got plenty of options
to choose from.

So we set out to find the best spot.

Alright. Here's
what we're looking at.

So this is the Hawaii
Volcanoes National Park.

According to the geologists
and the researchers I talked to,

There's three... pretty good
options here for the newest rock.

The first one is actually over here.

Okay.

This is actually Mauna Loa.
This isn't Kīlauea.

So Mauna Loa is the second
highest mountain on the island,

But it's the highest active
volcano in the world.

- So it's up in elevation quite a bit.
- Right.

But there's this
access road right here.

It's called
Mauna Loa Observatory Road.

And in 2022, so two years ago,

A lava flow completely
blocked off this road.

So if you're going down that road,
you can't miss it.

You literally can't go any further.
It's blocked off by lava.

But it's a publicly accessible road.
There's a highway right over here.

Anybody can go to it.
100%, this is doable.

- We can do this.
- Sure.

And that's two-year-old rock.

- Okay.
- Not too bad.

But three months ago...

There was an eruption right here.

This little crack,
this little fissure right here.

This is just south
of the big crater,

But it's a pretty remote area.

There's a trail that goes
right through here,

But it's a six-mile hike,
and it's an unmarked trail.

It's not paved.
It's not even a smooth trail.

It's over sharp, jagged rocks.

And then from there,
we'd have to go off-trail

For at least a mile and a half or so

Over even newer sharper rocks.

- So like 12 miles round trip?
- Yes.

- Over sharp rocks.
- Over sharp rocks.

And there's no
cell phone reception there.

Okay.

And like we're going up
a mountain too, on sharp rocks.

Yeah.

With no cell phone reception.

- Carrying gear.
- With gear.

Yeah.

So, not the best option.

And we're going off-trail.

- Yeah.
- So...

...technically speaking,
illegal.

Yeah, so...

So we could get arrested?

- We might get arrested.
- We could get arrested.

Small problem.

So we won't get
arrested going there.

- Okay.
- For the two-year-old rock.

This one, there's all kinds
of dangers and issues there.

- Could get arrested or die.
- Yeah.

Okay.

There is another option though.

Literally two days
before we arrived in Hawaii,

A fissure opened up
in what they call

The middle East Rift Zone,
near a crater called Nāpau Crater.

It was the first lava flow
from Kīlauea in months,

So we got pretty lucky.

It started out as
a fairly small eruption

Releasing just enough lava
to set the vegetation on fire.

But over the next few days,

It turned into a curtain of lava
several meters high

That pooled and flowed
over the crater walls

Briefly creating a lava fall,
which is like a waterfall from hell.

The fissure expanded into the crater

And would eventually
cover two-thirds of it

With a new layer of lava rock.

The question was...

...could I stand on
this brand new rock?

To get some answers,
I visited the Geology Department

At the University of Hawai'i at Hilo

Where samples of this eruption
were being studied.

And we got to sit in
on a demonstration.

So I'm kinda gonna take you
through the whole process

Of like what our eruption response,

As well as just normal
processing looks like

When we have samples.

When we're looking at these samples,
we wanna find both glass

But also the crystals
to do analyses on.

And so the mineral chemistry
and the mineral crystals

Tell us a lot about what's going on

Underneath the magma chamber
and underneath the surface.

And so thinking about
that chemical zoning,

Thinking about their chemistry,

We really need to actually
find the crystals.

And to do that,
we have to break down the rock

And sift through and find them.

- Am I doing it right?
- Yeah.

UH Hilo is unique

Because their undergraduates
actually get to participate

In volcano research
right there side by side

With USGS scientists at the
Hawaii Volcano Observatory.

Yep. Awesome.

So if people want
to come take a look,

Use these, lightly play around,
try to find any crystals

That you can, go for it.

So the eruption
that's happening right now,

Is that considered
Mauna Loa or Kīlauea?

No, that's a
Kīlauea eruption, yes.

So, the eruption
that happened on Sunday,

It started Sunday night
on September 15th,

Started in the middle
East Rift Zone of Kīlauea.

And it was kind of between
Makaopuhi Crater and Nāpau Crater.

And what happened is
a fissure opened up

In— just opened, separated,

Magma flowing out
and having fountains.

It's funny 'cause we've been
kinda keeping track of all this

- Before we come out here.
- Yeah.

And they were like,
"Oh, something's erupting."

- Like, oh, yay, you know.
- Yay!

But then like,
it was kinda like,

"Oh, it's kinda
oozing out, whatever."

And then I saw the video
where just, "Ksssh!"

Yes!

Like the end of, you know,
Revenge of the Sith.

And then it was like, "Oh my god."

End of the world, yeah.

How common is that?
Is that like a big deal to get that?

Or is that just like a Tuesday?

- Yeah, just a Tuesday.
- Yeah.

Yeah, but I mean,
I think it's very cool.

It had a lava waterfall.

- I saw that, yeah.
- Yeah.

I've never seen that before.

- Oh, wow.
- It was pretty insane, yes.

So like you're...

Oh no, you're sitting at your desk,

And they're like, "Woo-woo-woo.
Time to fly out there."

- Yeah, yeah.
- Is that how that works?

That's how I see it in my head.

Honestly, kind of, yeah.

It's like the marionettes, like,
"Okay, let's go on our own."

And they're like, "Go to work."

Yeah, it kind of is like that.

There's a lot more
strategy behind it.

Really?

We have like
eruption call down lists

Where we have certain people
at certain teams,

What skills they have,
and what data sets we need.

And so, you know,
higher-ups will get notified.

We have a lot of alarms,

Like both seismic
and thermal alarms.

So when an eruption happens,
everyone can kinda get notified.

So, so did you get to
actually collect the lava,

Or was it already hard,
and you're just taking the rock?

No, you actually collect it.

- You're actually collecting it.
- Yes, yes.

And wearing the suit
and everything?

- Yeah, yeah, so you wear—
- I'm so jealous.

But how do they get

Chemical analysis of the rock
in one day?

We talked to the department chair,
Steve Lundblad, to find out.

Hey, is there science
happening in here?

- Perhaps, come on in.
- Alright.

- Well, I'm Joe.
- Hi Joe, I'm Steve.

- Nice to see you.
- Nice to meet you.

So what are we doing here?

Well, right now
we're running some samples

On our EDXRF,

Which stands for Energy
Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence,

Which why we call it an EDXRF.

Few extra— less syllables.

And yeah, and so what it does
is it excites the electrons

In whatever you put in here.

We have some basalt samples
that are in there right now.

And what it does is

Each one of the elements
gives off characteristic energy.

And so the different peaks
represent different elements.

And so at the end of the analysis,

We end up with
the chemical composition

Of the material
that we put in there.

Okay. So what would be
a really bad thing to see?

Like if you did your measurements,

And you got a big spike
in something,

It's like, "Oh, no,
that could mean..."

So in one regard,

If you're worried about
explosive eruptions, right?

The more silica you have,

The more viscous
the magma's gonna be,

The more gas it traps,
the more likely it might be

To have some sort of
explosive thing.

But I think around here,

It's also, if it's
really hot fluid magma

That comes out as a lava flow,

It's gonna cover
huge areas in a hurry.

So if all of a sudden,

The stuff that comes out
is much more fluid

And comes out
with a much higher—

At a much higher rate,
then there are certain places

Where you clearly don't
want to be, right?

Because you're gonna
either get run over

Or it's gonna run over trees,
which can cause methane explosions

Or, you know, all of
these types of things.

So I think some of that
situational awareness

Of what's happening
at any given time,

In addition to the scientific merit,

Is also just valuable in trying
to figure these things out.

And the cool thing about this
is that you can get results

Like same day?

Yeah, so for instance,
yesterday,

They collected the sample
at eight in the morning.

I came in here,
Lis brought it down

In her drive into work,
we stuck it in the oven

For an hour or so,
powdered it, did this.

That process takes 20 minutes
or a half an hour.

Ran it in here.

Each sample takes
about 20 or 25 minutes.

And by two o'clock
we had information

- About what the composition was.
- That's so cool.

And this is a rock
that was born yesterday.

You can see that it's got
a lot of pores in it.

And it's really frothy,
and it's not a nice even surface.

And generally our instrument,

Or any instrument that
does this type of analysis,

- Doesn't like that.
- Okay.

So what it wants,
in our finished product

That we put in there,
is a pressed pellet.

So this is a pellet from that rock.

And so we've
ground up the sample

To a very fine powder,

Pressed it under, in this case,
five tons of pressure.

And so we have a very flat surface,
a very smooth surface,

And everything is
a uniform grain size,

And it's a good density

For kind of other reasons
that we care about.

So is that part of the process
of what we were looking at

Earlier with the crushing,
or is that a whole different thing?

That's related.

What they're gonna do
is they're crushing it

To see if they can find
mineral crystals in there.

We do crush this
a little bit by hand

Before we basically
turn it into a powder

- That is super refine.
- And that's in a machine.

Yeah, and so that's just—

That's just a big stainless steel,

Essentially ball mill
type thing, right,

That's doing that,
called a shatter box

- 'cause it just shatters it into—
- Oh, I saw that in there.

- I was wondering what that was.
- Yes, yeah.

It's like the shatter box!

And so, yeah, right?

I can see
how heavy it is just—

Yeah, and so
basically put the—

Oh my god!

Put the pieces in here,
on your toe in particular.

Put the pieces in here.
These guys move around randomly.

- Oh wow?
- Right.

And then it just obliterates it
into a super-fine powder.

It's almost like a
rotary engine or something.

- Yeah.
- Can I hold this?

Yeah, sure.

- Don't drop it either.
- No, I won't.

Well this is way lighter than
that tungsten carbide thing.

Yeah, so those are
pretty frothy pieces

That were coming out.

And you know,
you can see some pieces

Coming off of that guy.

So this— the whole thing
in this video

Is that I'm going and trying
to see the newest rock.

That's one of 'em.

This is one of the newest rocks
on planet Earth.

Is there another volcano
erupting somewhere right now

- That could be beating this?
- Maybe.

Maybe?

- I think—
- I think you have a point.

There's like 20 volcanic
eruptions happening

- At the same time.
- Yeah, yeah.

But some of them might be
spewing some ash or whatever.

But in terms of, you know,
rocks you can kind of hold.

Sure.

There we are.

We did it guys, let's go home!

But alas, I did not go home.

I still needed to stand on
the newest rocks in the world.

The Hawaiian Islands sit right
in the middle of the Pacific Plate,

By far the largest
tectonic plate on Earth

Spanning 103.3 million
square kilometers,

All of it oceanic crust.

And around the edges
of the Pacific Plate,

You'll find hundreds of volcanoes

Where the plates are
colliding and subducting.

This is called
the Ring of Fire.

Most of Earth's volcanoes
can be found here,

As well as most earthquakes.

Because this is how
most volcanoes are formed.

When one plate subducts
underneath a neighboring plate,

The heat and pressure
then melts that crust,

And then it rises to the surface,
creating a volcano.

But Hawaii is nowhere
near a subduction zone.

It's in the very middle
of the Pacific Plate.

So, how does the tallest
volcano on Earth exist

In a place that shouldn't
have any volcanoes?

The answer can be found
when you look underneath the water,

'cause the Hawaiian Islands
are far more than just

The eight or nine islands
that you know about.

In fact, there are hundreds of
underwater volcanoes and sea mounts

That stretch all the way
up to the Arctic Ocean.

Hawaii has been on the move
for millions and millions of years.

This is known
as hotspot volcanism,

Where the volcano is created

By a hotspot of magma
underneath the crust

That then punches through
and forms the volcano.

And while it might
look like the hotspot's

Been traveling to the southeast,
the truth is...

The hotspot
hasn't moved at all.

It's actually the Pacific Plate
that's moving to the northwest

At a rate of 50 to 100
millimeters per year.

That's about
this much per year,

And it's been moving
that much per year

For millions and millions
and millions of years.

In fact, you can see
in this bend

In the line of volcanoes

Where the Pacific Plate
changed direction

Roughly 40 million years ago.

The structures past this bend

Are known as the Emperor Chain,
by the way.

So when you look at
the Hawaiian Islands,

They get progressively older
the further you go to the northwest,

Becoming more and
more eroded over time

Until eventually they disappear
beneath the water.

This gives each island
its own identity and flavor.

Like, just compare
the black sand beaches

And sparse crusty flat
landscape of the Big Island,

With the lush, rust-colored
cliffs and canyons of Kaua'i.

This is actually kind of

One of my favorite sciency
things to tell people.

I just— I find it fascinating,
you know, and honestly,

This globe helped spark
the fascination that I have with it,

Because it shows
the underwater sea mounts

And the Hawaiian Emperor Chain.
It just...

It just made it all click for me
when I was a kid.

Seriously, take away the iPad
and give your kids a globe, people.

I still had a lot of questions
about this process though.

So luckily I got to sit down

With another UH Hilo
geologist, Lis Gallant.

One of the really interesting,
and I think engaging parts

Of, you know, living here
is having the Mo'oelo,

Which are, you know,
the native Hawaiian stories.

And it's one of those things
that, you know,

Native Hawaiians knew
that, you know,

Kaua'i was older than O'ahu.
O'ahu was older than Maui.

Maui's older than the Big Island.

And so that, you know,
that's not something that,

You know, science discovered.

Like Hawaiians knew that

Just from looking around
at their landscape.

My question is,
so the Big Island is the newest one.

Were all the islands
before that big,

And then they just sort of
eroded away over time?

Or has the plate movement
kind of slowed down,

And therefore this island
has gotten bigger and bigger?

Or do we know that?

At one point,
O'ahu looked like the Big Island.

We had active volcanoes,
and we had larger landscapes.

But once you've removed
that volcano from the hotspot,

You don't have anything
constructing your islands anymore.

So it's just purely erosional.

And you probably have noticed
as you've been here,

- It rains a lot here.
- Yeah.

And so we have immense
amounts of erosion happening.

And so as soon as you take
that volcano off of the hotspot,

You're kind of fighting
a losing battle

Against, you know,
the elements.

The lifecycle of these volcanoes

Is actually pretty consistent.

And so eventually, you know,

The Big Island will look
more like East Maui,

And then it'll look
a little bit more like O'ahu,

And eventually it'll start
looking more like Midway

And some of the other atolls

Out in the deeper Pacific,
if you will.

The Big Island isn't
the newest volcanism

That we have associated
with the hotspot.

It's actually Kama'ehuakanaloa,
where Lō'ihi is, folks...

- Oh yeah.
- You know it?

It's still, you know,
out in the ocean,

Underneath the waves
for a little bit.

Yeah, what she's talking
about here is a new volcano

Forming off the coast
of the Big Island,

Roughly 975 meters
below the ocean surface.

Originally named Lō'ihi,
its name was changed in 2021

To Kama'ehuakanaloa,

Which means
the "glowing child of Kanaloa".

Kanaloa is the Hawaiian
god of the sea.

So yeah, eventually,
that island will break the surface,

And it'll be the newest
place in the world.

Which, I could wait
for that to happen,

But it's supposed to take
like 100,000 years.

And you know...

It's kinda taking me too long
to get this video out already.

It's remarkable to me

That you have almost
these slices of time

That you can just look at.

I mean, just as an outsider,

I'm just like, that's why
I love telling people about it.

It's just— It's fascinating to me
that you just get to see that.

So, and it's not just
here in Hawaii as well.

If you look at other
hotspot kind of areas,

It's not too dissimilar.

So, the Yellowstone hotspot.

You know, Yellowstone,
"Yellowstone"

Used to actually be
around the border

Of Idaho and Nevada in that area.

- Okay.
- But as the plate has moved,

The location of where
Yellowstone is has also moved.

And now in its wake,

We have something called
the eastern Snake River Plain,

Which is kind of bunch of that,
you know, very violent ash eruptions

- With a crust of lava on top.
- Uh-huh.

- And so—
- That's like behind it?

- Yeah.
- Yeah, okay.

And so it's one of those things

Where I think it's
most present here,

It's most obvious here,
because we only have, you know,

The same kind of volcano
kind of evolving

As we go up the chain.

But it's a process that
happens all over the planet.

Okay.

And this one's like out
in the middle of nowhere.

So it's more obvious,
it feels like.

I mean, it's not nowhere to me.

It's my home. It's where I live.

You had to make me sound bad
when making—

I wasn't meaning it like that.

Absolutely.
I'm here for the shame.

Now all of this
I thought I understood.

But then she hit me with
this bit of knowledge.

Hotspots are really weird
enigmatic sorts of things.

We think they start from
the core-mantle boundary,

But it's not...

There's not really
a definitive answer

About why we get hotspots.

Okay.

Right, there's
still is a lot of,

You know, science
happening around it.

So normally you have
the mantle layer,

- And the crust is on top of it.
- Mhm.

So the hotspot is that—

Sorry, this is, I know,
dumb question, but like,

Is it from the mantle layer?

Is it like a bubble up
from the mantle layer

That like hangs out there,
and then kind of goes up?

So, yeah, it's actually—

It's not bubbling up
from the mantle

Because you're thinking
of it, you know,

The mantle on the top.

It's actually coming
from the bottom.

So if you were to drill into
like the center of the Earth,

You know, Jules Verne style,
no dinosaurs, but...

- So you go through the crust first.
- Yeah.

And then you'd go
into the mantle.

The mantle is quite thick.

You'd go down into the mantle
even further,

And then you'd hit
the core and mantle boundary.

The core has two layers.

The inner core is solid.
The outer core is liquid.

Yeah.

And so folks think that
these hotspots originate

From that liquid
outer core-mantle boundary.

And so what happens—

So it punches up through
the rest of the mantle?

- Yeah!
- Wow.

The cartoon that we have
in our brains of, you know,

What it looks like
underneath the ground,

Like, "Oh, it's a bunch
of lava down there."

Actually most of
the mantle is solid.

With just a few days left,

The eruption at Nāpau Crater
was still going strong.

And so that area was
still off limits.

And not just because of the lava

As much as the gas
that comes with it.

Gas isn't the first thing

I think of
when I imagine a volcano.

I generally think
about the ash and lava

And just make an immature joke
about the gas 'cause I'm a child.

But it turns out gas is
the key to the whole thing.

Tricia Nadeau is a geologist
with the US Geological Survey,

And her focus is on volcanic gases.

And while we were there,
she took measurements

Along the edge of
Volcanoes National Park,

Looking specifically for
sulfur dioxide, or SO₂.

I know you go and do
these driving measurements...

Daily, weekly?
I mean, how often do you do those?

If nothing's erupting,
every week or two, maybe.

But when it's erupting,
we try and get at— you know,

At least one set a day
if the winds cooperate.

If the winds are not cooperating,
then we can't.

Sometimes eruptions
are in remote places

Where we can't drive.

Then we have to do it
by helicopter instead.

And then it's a matter of,
can we get helicopter time?

So when we were
following you around...

- Yeah.
- What was going on there?

So one of our sort of
workhorse measurements

Here at— well, I don't—
any volcano observatory really is

Getting the emission rate
of sulfur dioxide,

Just how much comes out over time.

And to do that,
what I was showing you guys is...

It's what's called a spectrometer.

So, it's not quite a camera

In that it takes, you know,
2D pictures of things,

But it's just one pixel at
a bunch of different wavelengths.

So, sulfur dioxide absorbs
ultraviolet light from the Sun.

So if we use a spectrometer
that's focused on ultraviolet light,

If we set that up on a car,
and we have a GPS

To track our position
and everything like that,

And data's coming into the computer,
and it's essentially telling me

How much UV
that spectrometer is seeing.

And so if you start in clear sky,

You see lots of UV
coming from the sky.

Oh, okay.

But as you drive
underneath a volcanic plume

With sulfur dioxide in it,

You get less and less UV.

And so it's sort of
an inverse proportion.

The more sulfur dioxide you have,

The less UV your
spectrometer is gonna see.

So you keep driving
and you just see

How much sulfur dioxide
you have overhead,

Come back out to clear sky,

And then you do
a little math with the wind speed

And get your position
from your GPS

To know exactly where you were,
and you can figure out

What the emission rate
of sulfur dioxide was.

Everybody, when
they think of volcanoes,

They think of magma, they think
of lava, they think of "bleeh",

But you're focused on
the gas part of it.

Why is that important?

If it wasn't for
gases dissolved in magma,

We wouldn't really have much
in the way of volcanoes.

- If you think about...
- Okay.

Shaking up a soda bottle,
it's the bubbles and the gases

That make everything explode
and actually come out of the bottle.

So it's the same with magma.

So it's dissolved gases
that sort of make the magma buoyant

And drive the magma
up to the surface

For— to be part of an eruption.

Oh, okay.

And then once it's out,

It's a health hazard
for local populations.

So, it's important
when it's still underground

'cause it's driving the eruption,
and then once it comes out,

It can tell us roughly
how much lava's coming out.

And it's a health hazard,

So we have to keep
track of it underground

And once it gets to the surface.

I never thought about
it being less dense

Because there's gas in it.

And that's— so is that

- What you're saying?
- Yeah.

That it's like
that's what pushes it up,

Is the fact that it's less dense,
so it's more buoyant?

And in— not here in Hawaii
because of the tectonic setting,

But in certain tectonic settings
where we have volcanoes,

Having water dissolved
down underground

Actually helps magma
melt in the first place.

Okay.

So like where
you have an oceanic plate

Going underneath a continent,

Like the Cascades
or Alaska or Japan.

Right.

The water that's
sort of incorporated

Into that oceanic crust heads down
underneath the continent,

And then it comes off
that tectonic plate,

And it facilitates melting.

And then once things like water
and sulfur and carbon dioxide

Are dissolved in that magma,

That's when you get sort of
that soda bottle effect,

And the gases drive the eruptions.

Wow.

That's crazy. I've never actually
thought of it like that.

Buoyancy!

Why have I never
thought of that before?

I never really thought about
why lava comes up to the surface

Outside of just, you know,
pressures inside the Earth,

Which does play a part in it.

But no, it's all about
density and buoyancy.

There's a reason why the core
of the Earth is mostly iron.

It's because iron is super dense,
so it sinks.

Conversely, why does
lava rise to the surface?

Because it's less dense.
Why is it less dense?

Because it's filled with gas.

It's like if
you hold a basketball

At the bottom of a pool
and let it go.

It rises quickly,
violently to the surface

Because it's filled with air.

Also, remember that buoyancy
is why those cratons

Like the Acasta Gneiss kinda float
above the tectonic activity

For billions of years.
It's because it's less dense.

Pressure changes everything.

After talking to Tricia,
we spent some time

Exploring Volcanoes National Park

And learned about
its main attraction, Kīlauea.

The summit of Kīlauea is
the most visited spot

In one of the most
visited national parks

In the United States.

And once you've been here,
it's easy to see why.

Even when it's inactive,
as it was when we were there,

It's still a stunningly
dramatic setting.

Pictures just don't do justice

To this impossibly huge
hole in the ground

Crusted over with a texture
that I can only describe

As looking like a giant
chocolate brownie,

With dozens of vents
releasing clouds of steam

That hint of the violence
and extreme conditions

That exist right
underneath the surface.

There's just this underlying hint
of danger surrounding the crater,

From the thousand-foot drops
to the craggy lava rocks.

Even the wind is
lashing and violent,

And that's on a clear day.

On other days, a fog sets in,

Preventing you from seeing
the bottom of the crater

And just enveloping
the entire area in mystery.

So this is the famous
Kīlauea Crater

At the top of
the summit of Kīlauea.

This is pretty much what
Volcanoes National Park

Is completely centered around.

So the crater itself
is large and vast,

But there's a smaller crater
inside of that crater,

And that's where all
the action's taking place.

So there's fissures and
openings and rift zones

All around this area.

And the lava can come
up there all the time,

Happens a lot.
But that's kind of like...

That's like Kīlauea's blowhole.
It's just kinda always open.

Now, the lava cools
when it hits the air

And just kinda turns into rock.

So it's not like if
you look down in there,

You'll just see
a lake of molten lava,

Although that would be cool.

And sometimes it's a lot more active
than it is right now.

When it is active,

It really puts on a show,
so much so...

That they built a hotel
right over there

Called Volcano House Hotel,

Which has been rebuilt
several times.

I'll let you figure out why.

Now, in 2018, something
really remarkable happened here

When a fissure opened up
at the Pu'u 'Ō'ō Crater,

Which is down about
10 miles that way.

But what happened here
was that lava

In the crater over there sunk.

So that event in 2018 is what
they called a summit collapse.

It didn't just drop
all the magma down.

It also dropped a whole lot
of the edge of the crater.

So like it got a lot bigger
when that happened.

But I'll let Trish tell you more
about what happened after that.

But up at the summit,

Draining all that magma
to become lava flows meant

That that summit magma chamber
was partially emptied

And not able to sort of support
the ground surface anymore.

So we got a caldera collapse.

And it wasn't sort of
one continuous thing.

It was the equivalent of
a magnitude 5.3 earthquake

Roughly every day.
And if you—

We have sort of
an animation of it.

It sort of was stepwise.

It was like pulling a plug
in a bathtub or something.

It just dropped.

At the bottom of the crater,
it was a total of 500 meters drop,

Which is an Empire State Building.

So now we had
this huge, deep crater,

And we have a water well

Not too far from the summit.
So we knew....

You know, we have groundwater
around the summit.

It had not been sort of
in the crater area

'cause there was a lava lake there
before the 2018 eruption.

So it was too hot for
liquid water in that area, but...

Then there was, all of a sudden,
there's no more lava.

Everything cooled down.

And that groundwater
started to fill in.

And just under a year
after the end of the eruption,

Someone was doing
a lidar survey

To get at the new
topography of the crater.

And they were like, "What is that
little green thing at the bottom?"

It was water.
It was a little puddle.

And so over the next
14, 15 months,

Water— the groundwater just
kept infilling into the crater.

So we had this lake
that just kept rising,

And there was also kinda
weird chemistry going on.

So it went from like a greenish-blue

To greenish-yellow to brown.

But the thing about
water at a volcano

Is that if you then have magma
that wants to erupt,

If you get hot magma interacting
with groundwater or lake water,

Depending on the ratio
between the two...

Sometimes it is not explosive,

But sometimes it can
be really explosive.

Yeah, yeah.

So that, you know,
that affects a community

That lives only like
a mile or two away.

They're worried
about big explosions,

Ashfall, pyroclastic flows,

Things like you just don't—
like I said,

The water lake was unprecedented
in the written record.

We know from geologic samples

That there was probably
lakes in the past.

But it was just new
for all of us living here.

To get an idea
of how that lava

Drained out of the caldera,

We made a stop at Kaumana Caves
outside of Hilo.

This is one of hundreds of
cave systems and lava tunnels

That crisscross the island
and funnel both lava and water

From place to place.

So the Big Island's
actually riddled

With caves and lava tubes
just like this one.

And what happens,
the reason they do that

Is because as the lava is
pouring out on the surface,

The outside of it
connects with the air,

It cools it down, and it hardens.

And that hardened lava rock

On the outside
kinda insulates the inside.

So it keeps zipping along until
the lava flow peters itself out,

Which just leaves
a hollow tube behind.

Now, a lot of those hollow tubes,
as we've seen walking around,

They just eventually crumble
into, you know, rock.

But sometimes,
they become caves like this,

Because other lava flows
flow on top of it later on,

And soil builds up and whatnot,

And they become
these big cave systems.

And sometimes these big cave systems
even become like freshwater aquifers

That flow water from
the upper and the mountains

Down to the rest of the valleys.

Now what's interesting
about lava tubes

Is that there's also lava tubes
on like, the Moon and Mars,

And they're actually talking about

As we go to settle and colonize
on the Moon and whatnot,

That we might actually live
in those lava tubes

Because we'd be protected
from radiation and whatnot.

So lava tubes, you know,
kind of bring life here in Hawaii,

And it'll maybe bring
life to the Moon and Mars.

So it's kind of ironic
'cause we kinda started off

In caves here on planet Earth,
and we might start off in caves

In other places in the universe too.
Kinda interesting.

Oh, well this whole thing
is like a tube.

I think I'm just gonna focus
on not hitting my head.

This particular lava tube
was formed in 1881

By an eruption from Mauna Loa
and extends for just over two miles.

I'm not like a professional
spelunker or anything,

But I think I do understand
the pull of the void

That makes you go just
a little bit further

And a little bit further
into the darkness

Just to kinda see
where it goes and what's next.

This cave system is well explored,

And there were several groups
of tourists walking around it,

But it was still pretty dangerous
with uneven ground and low ceilings

That I bonked my head
against a few times.

This is like a subway tunnel
for lava.

Just to imagine this entire thing
being filled with rushing

1,400-degree hot liquid rock.

Let's hope that
doesn't happen right now.

That would be bad.

More than anything, though,
this cave was humid.

Insanely humid.

Water was constantly
condensing on the ceiling

And falling onto my head
in big fat drops,

Hence all the wetness on my shirt.

That and the fact that
I was sweating my guts out.

As the clock ticked down
on our week in Hawaii,

And the Nāpau Crater eruption
continued unabated,

It became more clear

That actually standing
on that brand new rock

Was becoming less and less likely.

So we thought...

...maybe we could
at least fly over it?

Today, we're going up
in a helicopter

To take a look around the island

And maybe see the new lava flow.

Never been on a helicopter before.

You guys been
on a helicopter before?

Negative.

Never been on one.

We are going to
defy the laws of gravity

And spit in God's face.

Find great glory!

Find great glory in skies above!

We weren't able to arrange
a bespoke private flight

At such short notice,

But we did book a flight
on Safari Tours,

One of several helicopter
tour companies around Hawaii.

The flight was awesome,
the pilot was super cool,

And even though it wasn't
really on the flight path,

He humored us
and flew over the site.

But as luck would have it,

Some clouds and fog had rolled in,
so there wasn't much to see.

He unfortunately couldn't safely
get us any closer than that,

So we didn't really get
what we wanted.

But no complaints.

It was a lot of fun,
and we saw some cool stuff,

And I'd never been
in a helicopter before.

So, that was cool.

Even if we had seen it, though,

That still wouldn't have
completed our mission.

We weren't there to fly over
the newest rock in the world.

We were there to stand on it.

So if we couldn't
go to the brand new rock,

And we ruled out
the three-month-old rock,

We were left with
one other option:

The 2022 Mauna Loa eruption.

So, who wants to drive up
the world's tallest volcano?

Quick thought before
I get up on this rock.

We get out here,
and we get outta the car,

And as you can see,

The entire area is just
completely bummed out

From volcanic everything.
It's just like...

Everything is sharp corners.
Everything's jagged.

There's thousands of
little pumice stones,

And it's all absorbing the sound.

It is eerily...

...freakishly quiet.

It's so quiet.

Every once in a while,
you can hear a little ping or a tick

From a tiny piece of rock
that was like dislodged...

...somewhere.

Well, something that
struck me at both places

– the oldest place, and
now the newest place –

Is they are both so otherworldly.

But it's not another world.
It's our world.

It's our planet.

This is how everything starts.

Just like at the oldest place,
I don't really have the words.

But I'm trying to— in my head,
I'm trying to think like,

Am I feeling rebirth?

Am I feeling renewal?
Am I feeling devastation?

That's certainly is what
the landscape looks like.

I feel like I'm under
something living.

Or over— I'm standing on
something that's living and...

...growing and recreating itself.

Do you have to be here
to feel that?

We could have stayed out there

Capturing this alien landscape
all day,

But the day was ending,
and the fog had rolled in,

And the time had come for us

To drive the long, winding
single-lane road

Back down to civilization.

So, we would love to stay,
but I think...

I think it's gonna get dark.

Yeah.

- I think nature might consume us.
- Yeah.

It's like a John Carpenter film
all of a sudden.

And we got stuck
on a rock for two hours,

But that's a story for another time.

But for all intents and purposes,
we achieved our mission.

Granted, this wasn't the actual
newest rock in the world.

It wasn't even
the newest rock on this island.

But the newest part of this had
always been kind of arbitrary.

There was newer rock
in the world

By the time we got back home.

Hell, there was newer rock

By the time we got off
that mountain.

There's been new rock created

Since you started
watching this film.

But if the point was to see

What a landscape
of a new Earth looks like

Still imprinted with
the violence that created it,

I can't imagine a better
place to experience it

Than that silent devastation
of Mauna Loa, 9,000 feet up.

The science that I do
is fundamentally important

To the location I live in,

And also the science
that I do is dynamic,

Because the landscape
where we live is dynamic, right?

We have a new lava flow.

There is, you know, rock

That is being born
now as we're talking.

And so for me, it's not like

The overwhelming sense
of like spirituality,

But it's a scenario where I think

That the landscape
makes you feel small.

It's a humbling experience too,
because nobody will ever look

At this exact same landscape
and see it.

- Oh yeah.
- Because the land is—

This landscape here is
changing so quickly.

So if I'm on a field shift,
nobody will ever see this landscape

Because I'm watching the lava flow

Cover this portion of,
you know, this area.

I'm the only person
that will ever see that.

And so that part's
kind of humbling too.

Like I hold that knowledge
now of what used to be there.

- It's almost more ephemeral.
- Yeah, very—

Ephemeral is a good word for it.

Hawaii is ephemeral.

The life cycle of an island
in the Hawaiian Emperor Chain

Is six to ten million years.

In the time that the Acasta Gneiss
has been around,

More than 400 generations
of Hawaiian islands

Could have risen,
gone dormant, decayed,

And slipped beneath the surface.

The oldest sea mount
on the Emperor Chain

Is named Meiji, around
82 million years old.

Beyond Meiji is
the Kamchatka Trench,

Where the Pacific Plate slides
beneath the North American Plate.

Beyond this point,
there's no way to know

How many former big islands have
been recycled into the Earth.

It could literally be thousands.

But the thing is,
with the exception

Of a handful of places
like the Canadian Shield,

That's pretty much true
of the entire planet.

The majority of
the Earth's surface

Has been remade
over and over again

For 4.5 billion years.

We're looking
at a different planet

That doesn't exist anywhere else.

'Cause no other planet
has continents.

No other planet has water.

This planet has
continents and water.

But back then,
most likely did not have life,

Did not have plate tectonics
the way we know of it,

Because the mantle was really hot,
and the rocks were squishy.

Thinking about the Earth
in this early period

Is an exercise in thinking about
a planet that doesn't exist.

So, you know, this is like
hallowed ground for geologists.

Everything we think
about the Earth...

...was basically wrong
back then.

That rock has a memory

From before our own
beginning of time.

Elders are aware of, you know,

When they first heard about...

You know, that discovery
of this oldest rock.

And they say, "Oh, they're
talking about Ɂewaàtì."

You know, like...

So they knew
about the lake already.

Like anything else,
if something's that old,

It has a memory,
and that memory

Goes back to
before our own time,

Before even the world's time.

That, that if there's anything

That holds anything

Like a food bank
that people depend on,

Or a knowledge bank,
or a university, well...

For the plain Earth,
for what it is,

That's probably
where all the memory

Of the world comes from
before it even happened.

This is the first thing
that ever really was.

It feels a little odd.

Just like that it's so—
that way you can do it.

- It feels odd that you can't—
- It costs a little money.

Yeah, it costs some money.

It took three plane rides
and a boat ride,

And we had to land on the water.

But, you know,
it's just still, I don't know.

It's very special.
It's very surreal.

Yeah, it's a great privilege.

I feel like we—
I've been talking

About this and
planning for it for so long,

And there were like a few
different times a day I was like,

"We should actually—
We're actually here."

- Mhm.
- Yeah, surreal is another word.

Yeah.

You hear about these things.

You hear about
the age of the Earth,

The age of the universe,
the solar system,

The age of certain
rock formations and places.

And it's all numbers.

It's all kinda abstract.
It doesn't really mean anything.

But when you sit here,
and you hold it,

And you think about
that level of permanence...

...it's almost impossible to grasp.

I feel silly even trying to,
if I'm being honest.

But I'm here...

...in the most ancient spot
on planet Earth.

And I'm thankful.

Not just to be here,
but to be here, to be in general.

This stuff that came
out of the Earth.

I came outta the Earth too.

And I'm only gonna be here
for a blink of an eye...

...compared to this.

And I'm thankful for that.
That I get to exist at all.

I guess that's what I'm feeling.

If I'm gonna try to search
for what I feel right now,

I feel grateful to be here.

That I've gotten to
a place in my life

Where I've been able to
do something like this.

To the people that
helped me get here.

To the people who watch my channel
and have supported me

So that I can be here.

And I'm thankful to...

God, Gaia...

This very rock...

...that I get to be here at all.

I gotta be honest,
I sat on that rock

Trying to process how I felt
into something profound.

It was mostly dross, but I think
that can sum it up like this.

Thinking on these timescales,

Realizing what a tiny blip
your life amounts to,

It can make you feel small.

But it can also make you
feel connected.

You are a part of a process

That's been going on for an
unfathomably long period of time.

A process of a planet
recycling itself

Down to the very molecules,

And eventually arranging
all those molecules into you,

A conscious being that's
capable of understanding

The process that created it

...and all the existential dread
that comes along with it.

Understanding that
is only made possible

Because of the dedicated work
of thousands of researchers

Solving the puzzles,
expanding our knowledge,

Protecting our traditions,
and keeping us safe.

I'm deeply thankful that
I got to take this journey,

And for all the people
who helped along the way

For helping me to understand
that these landscapes

That I thought were
so otherworldly...

...they're not really
landscapes at all.

They're time-scapes.

They're a glimpse of different
planets forged by time.

This... was a journey
through time.

And I hope you enjoyed
time traveling with me.

Thanks for watching.
'Til the next journey.