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(volcano rumbling)
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(volcano rumbling)
(gentle suspenseful music)
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(rock crashing)
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(volcano roaring)
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Volcanoes.
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They erupt with a force that we can't control,
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a fire we can't put out.
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Their mysteries are still being explored.
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(lava roaring)
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Scientists are asking,
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how did volcanoes shape the world we know today?
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(lava roaring)
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(majestic music)
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(suspenseful music)
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Our story starts in space.
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This is what Earth may have looked like
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4 1/2 billion years ago.
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This small planet, called Theia, is heading straight for it.
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(suspenseful music)
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(planets crashing)
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Early Earth had multiple impacts,
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but this one was the most destructive.
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The collision shatters Theia,
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and vaporizes Earth's outer layers.
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Over time, the surface reformed as a fiery, molten sea.
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But this is not a fire as we usually think of it.
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Rather, it's an unimaginable amount of heat,
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that is continually flowing out of the planet.
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It is released most dramatically through volcanoes.
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(lava roaring)
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(suspenseful music)
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This is Marum Crater on Vanuatu, in the South Pacific.
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Deep inside,
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a lava lake, one of only a handful on Earth.
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(lava roaring)
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Could this be what our planet's surface looked like
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4 1/2 billion years ago?
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As the lake churns, lava is thrown out
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and cools to form the newest rocks on the planet.
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And every rock tells a story.
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(lava roaring)
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By analyzing the rocks,
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geologists can learn secrets about Earth's beginnings.
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But first, you have to get to them.
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This crater is deep enough to swallow a skyscraper.
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The only way in is a treacherous rope descent
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down a sheer, unstable rock face.
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And, if that isn't enough, the air is toxic.
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It's a place no normal human would go.
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Carsten Peter, however, is not normal.
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(playful music)
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Carsten is a "National Geographic" photographer driven
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by a passion for exploring volcanoes,
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no matter how remote
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(rock crashes)
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or dangerous.
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(suspenseful music)
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For decades, his camera has captured the Earth in action.
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I want to be as close as possible
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to kind of give a intimate view into a volcano.
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(gentle majestic music)
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Plain photography is maybe not really enough for me,
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so I always, I like these additional challenges
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in climbing down volcanoes.
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(gentle majestic music)
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Decades ago, he led one of the first scientific
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and photographic expeditions down to Marum's lava lake
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where he collected rocks for study.
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Ever since, he's been looking for a chance to do it again.
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But right now,
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the miserable weather has been his biggest obstacle.
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For two weeks, there have been torrential downpours,
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and sulfur dioxide gas is now turning them into acid rain.
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Acid attacks everything,
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everything from your skin, the eyes, mucous membranes,
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to technical equipment, to the ropes.
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They get a break in the weather.
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It's not perfect, but this may be their only chance.
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(pensive music)
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Carsten is working with a team that specializes
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in high-risk climbs,
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expedition leader Geoff Mackley
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and climbing expert Chris Horsley.
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(suspenseful music)
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(suspenseful music continues)
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(lava roaring)
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You feel definitely very insignificant
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down there.
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The walls are kind of straight up,
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and then you have this raging monster next to you.
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Yeah, it's amazing feeling, of course.
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(lava roaring)
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(gentle majestic music)
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Their luck is short lived.
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Rain is moving back in that could trigger deadly mudslides.
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They have to come back up and wait.
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(volcano rumbles)
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(wistful music)
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As the days go by, it becomes apparent
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that the seasonal monsoon rains have started early
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and will continue for months.
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Carsten will have to come back and try again.
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It is always disappointing
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when you cannot fulfill what you intend to do.
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Vanuatu is not finished for me.
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So, if the Earth's surface
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once looked like Marum's lava lake,
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how did it go from that to what we have today?
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One theory suggests,
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after Earth's collision with Theia,
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gas and debris were blasted into space,
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and likely formed our moon.
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(suspenseful music)
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At that point, the Moon was a lot closer,
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and its gravity pulled at our planet,
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helping keep the surface molten.
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The Earth's rotation slowed as the Moon drifted away,
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and the surfaces of both cooled and crusted over.
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(suspenseful music)
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It was a dynamic time.
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New crust was created by cooling magma,
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and where the heat broke through, volcanoes were formed.
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(majestic music)
(lava roaring)
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(rock crashes)
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(majestic music)
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(ash crackles)
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(majestic music)
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Their eruptions sent out vast volumes of gases
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that helped build our early atmosphere,
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(majestic music)
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(birds calling)
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and provided water that contributed to our first oceans.
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At the same time, volcanic activity carried minerals
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to the surface, and the landscape began to change.
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(geyser gurgling)
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These hydrothermal pools give us a sense
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of what early Earth might have looked like.
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In here, are simple elements that are the building blocks
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for life.
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(gentle majestic music)
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(suspenseful music)
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The Earth's surface was probably too hostile
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for life to take hold.
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In the ocean, it was a different story.
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A majority of the world's active volcanoes are underwater.
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These boiling hot hydrothermal vents
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are called black smokers.
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(mystical music)
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Scientists believe
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that simple life forms may have originated here
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and then spread through the oceans,
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becoming more complex,
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and eventually moving onto land.
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This was just the first chapter
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of how volcanoes may have helped create life on Earth.
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(birds chirping)
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(volcano rumbling)
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(ash roaring)
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(wistful music)
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I was always fascinated by volcanoes,
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so I asked my parents to go to Mount Etna in Sicily.
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It was not active, but still, I was kind of blown away.
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And I wanted to see my next volcano active.
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His next experience was almost his last.
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(birds chirping)
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Well, we did everything wrong
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what you can do wrong with volcanoes.
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We went very close to the vent.
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Suddenly, there was a big eruption.
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(lava roaring)
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Just running for our lives.
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(lava roaring)
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We realized immediately how dangerous volcanoes can be.
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(light energetic music)
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That close call marked the start of his career
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as a photographer.
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(light energetic music)
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(birds chirping)
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Today, he's on a remote island in Indonesia,
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headed for a rather moody volcano called Dukono.
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It's part of a region referred to as the Ring of Fire,
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where plate tectonics cause a lot of volcanic activity.
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Dukono erupts every 15 minutes, hurling rocks.
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(birds chirping)
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About a mile and a 1/2 from the volcano, they find a rock.
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It tells the story of an earlier, massive eruption.
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And it's a reminder that even at this distance,
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they have to keep their wits about them.
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(light energetic music)
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(volcano rumbles)
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To get the vantage point he wants,
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Carsten needs to set up on the rim of the crater,
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unnervingly close to the active vent.
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This is where his considerable experience means everything.
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(volcano rumbles)
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(ash roaring)
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(lava roaring)
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(lava roaring continues)
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You push yourself all the time.
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You also get caught in the moment,
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and while it's so mesmerizing, so beautiful,
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and I mean, how does the next one look like?
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Hmm, it might be louder, bigger, and better!
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Before remote technology,
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the images that Carsten and his colleagues took
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were sometimes the only way for volcanologists
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to see this activity up close.
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(lava roaring)
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If you look directly into the vent,
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it's like if you look into a cannon.
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The projectiles can come very, very fast,
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faster than you might notice them.
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They make a sound like a fuse, so you immediately know,
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"Oh, that was close."
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So why do some volcanoes ooze lava,
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while others explode?
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It's all about the gases.
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Explosive volcanoes contain a very sticky magma
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that does not flow well, and can plug the vent.
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Rising gases can't escape easily, causing pressure to build.
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And when that pressure inside reaches the breaking point,
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(rock crashes)
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(lava roaring)
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now free, the gases rapidly expand, shattering the plug.
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(rock crashes)
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(lava roaring)
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What we call ash is actually pulverized rock.
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And it's the next chapter
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in the way volcanoes shaped our world.
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The ash holds a hidden secret.
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It's full of nutrients.
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And where it falls,
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it lays the foundation for vibrant ecosystems.
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(somber music)
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This crater is all that remains
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of an ancient volcano called Ngorongoro.
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Ash from that eruption laid the foundation
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for a rich and diverse ecosystem,
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the Serengeti Plains.
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(hooves beating)
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(joyful music)
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One of the major reasons is the volcanic soil
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that produces nutrient-rich grasses.
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(joyful music)
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Ol Doinyo Lengai erupts every few decades.
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(gentle bright music)
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This is the summit crater full of hardened lava.
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And after a series of major eruptions, it looked like this.
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All that ash has become vital plant food for the Serengeti.
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(camera shutter clicks)
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500 miles to the west,
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volcanoes helped create another spectacular ecosystem.
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(volcano rumbling)
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The Virunga Mountains shelter one of the last groups
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of mountain gorillas.
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The nutrient-dense foods have been linked
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to brain development in ape species.
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What has been great for these gorillas has also been great
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for us.
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Over centuries, humans settled next to volcanoes.
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We farmed their fertile slopes,
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built civilizations in their shadows,
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(vocalist warbling)
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and mined their minerals.
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Today, those ancient settlements have become some
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of the world's major cities.
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But there's a paradox here.
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Volcanoes build, but they also destroy.
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(suspenseful music)
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Volcanoes can be dormant for thousands of years,
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and people settling near them had no idea
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of the potential danger.
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In 79 AD, a massive eruption
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from Mount Vesuvius wiped out the Roman town of Pompeii.
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The only warning signs were a series of small earthquakes.
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But when the volcano finally erupted,
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(rock crashes)
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it was with a ferocity that staggers the imagination.
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(volcano rumbles)
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Hours later, a burning hot avalanche
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of gas and rock obliterated the city.
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(somber music)
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Thousands died in Pompeii,
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and in the towns and villages that surrounded Vesuvius.
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(somber music)
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The ash preserved everything so perfectly
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that as archeologists started to uncover the ruins,
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they discovered evidence of a sprawling, vibrant city.
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(somber music)
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The remnants give us a sense of what life was like
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in those last moments.
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(somber music)
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Today, tourists come from all over the world
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to see this city frozen in time.
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(somber music)
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Pompeii is a cautionary tale,
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a reminder of how powerless we are
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in the face of an erupting volcano.
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(somber music)
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Vesuvius is still a threat.
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It has erupted frequently since Pompeii.
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And now with millions of people living in its danger zone,
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even a moderate eruption could be catastrophic.
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(somber music)
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Scientists still can't predict with accuracy exactly
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when a volcano is going to erupt,
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but they can tell when one is waking up.
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(volcano rumbling)
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Indonesia is the most volcanically active
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and monitored country in the world.
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Yet Sinabung wasn't even on the radar
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when it suddenly rumbled to life in 2010.
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Thousands of earthquakes prompted authorities
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to evacuate the area just in time.
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Those settlements are now ghost towns,
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and will be until Sinabung goes back to sleep.
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(somber music)
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Around the world, nearly 1/2 a billion people live
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in areas at risk from active volcanoes.
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(somber music)
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On the big island of Hawaii,
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the Kilauea volcano has been closely monitored
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for over a century.
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Since the mid-1980s,
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it has been erupting in a mostly slow and stable pattern.
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That predictability gave people the confidence
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to build houses in areas they thought were safe.
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In the spring of 2018, something changed.
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(somber music)
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A full 25 miles from the active summit,
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a surge of magma pushed its way
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under a residential neighborhood.
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The ground began to split and spatter lava,
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burning a number of houses to the ground.
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(somber music)
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Even though this is one of the most watched volcanoes,
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no one expected the magnitude of what came next.
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(lava roaring)
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In a matter of days, more than 20 fissures opened up,
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and huge fountains of lava shot hundreds of feet
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into the air.
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(lava roaring)
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(somber music)
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There is no way of stopping this much lava.
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All that residents could do was watch
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as their neighborhoods were consumed by the flows.
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(somber music)
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(lava roaring)
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In just a few months, Kilauea had dramatically changed part
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of the island's landscape.
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And while no lives were lost,
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for the thousands of people in the area,
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life will never be the same.
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(lava roaring)
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I've never seen Hawaii like this.
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This is a huge eruption.
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Everything is in a big, big change.
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It's a really historic event.
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(lava roaring)
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(lava roaring continues)
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In three months, Kilauea produced enough lava
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to cover Manhattan Island almost 20 feet deep.
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(lava roaring)
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Some of the most striking features were the fountains
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that shot lava over 100 feet in the air.
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(lava roaring)
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If you imagine how heavy magma is,
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I mean that's pure rock,
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and shooting up like that in front of you.
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(lava roaring)
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(lava roaring)
(fire crackling)
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This eruption is part of an ongoing process
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that built this island up from the bottom of the sea.
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In time, new life will return to these blackened landscapes
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as the cycle of destruction and rebirth continues.
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(rock crashes)
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(suspenseful music)
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Volcanoes are a powerful force.
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At times, you can see that power in amazing ways.
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At Yasur, explosions are so energetic
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that they generate visible shock waves.
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(earth rumbling)
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(earth rumbling continues)
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(earth rumbling continues)
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00:37:23,320 --> 00:37:26,320
(suspenseful music)
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Six months ago, monsoon rains forced Carsten
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to give up his descent down to the lava lake
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at Marum Crater.
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Now, he's back.
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00:37:42,600 --> 00:37:46,233
But Carsten can see a drastic change in the lava lake.
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It's now a fraction of the size.
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Could the lake be draining back into the Earth?
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00:37:59,812 --> 00:38:02,812
(suspenseful music)
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This time the weather is perfect.
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So, Carsten and climbing expert Chris Horsley go for it.
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(suspenseful music)
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(majestic music)
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00:38:52,140 --> 00:38:54,483
After a grueling two-hour descent,
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00:38:55,375 --> 00:38:57,025
they make it to the crater floor.
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00:38:58,100 --> 00:39:00,850
(majestic music)
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00:39:21,418 --> 00:39:24,001
(lava roaring)
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00:39:43,059 --> 00:39:45,220
I mean, this lake
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00:39:45,220 --> 00:39:47,710
is one of the wildest lakes you can imagine.
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00:39:47,710 --> 00:39:49,202
Huge waves.
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00:39:49,202 --> 00:39:52,720
The whole thing is rumbling, the whole Earth is shaking.
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00:39:52,720 --> 00:39:57,573
It's absolutely incredible, the energy you are facing there.
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00:40:00,470 --> 00:40:03,360
Once again, Carsten's adventures have taken him
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to places few of us will ever go.
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And he's bringing back some new rocks
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00:40:08,810 --> 00:40:10,363
for scientists to study.
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If every rock tells a story, imagine what these might say.
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Maybe it's just a word, or a sentence,
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00:40:22,940 --> 00:40:25,470
but even small contributions can add up
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00:40:25,470 --> 00:40:27,103
to a major discovery.
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00:40:29,460 --> 00:40:32,120
And that could lead us to a new understanding
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00:40:32,120 --> 00:40:34,010
about volcanoes
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00:40:34,010 --> 00:40:39,010
and the way these fires of creation have shaped our Earth.
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00:40:39,126 --> 00:40:44,126
(lava roaring)
(majestic music)
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00:40:50,653 --> 00:40:53,236
(joyful music)
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00:41:19,794 --> 00:41:23,211
(joyful music continues)
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00:41:49,106 --> 00:41:52,523
(joyful music continues)
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00:41:55,839 --> 00:41:58,922
(joyful music fades)
29183
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