00:00The largest and most evil supervolcanoes of our planet are awakening.
00:05When they erupt, you will certainly notice it, even if you live thousands of kilometers from the epicenter.
00:11Scientists fear that we do not have enough time to prepare ourselves and face the consequences of a super-eruption.
00:18We observe a volcanic activity near the Italian city of Naples.
00:22And no, it has nothing to do with the famous Vesuvius, but with another volcano.
00:28This one is more difficult to see because its summit is not so high.
00:32But do not let yourself be abused by this bad boy.
00:34It could be much more dangerous than its gigantic neighbor.
00:37It has a huge crater about 13 km wide.
00:41This volcano is called Champs-Légrains.
00:44It is one of the largest in Europe and is located in the Gulf of Pouzole.
00:48The Champs-Légrains erupted 39,000 years ago with such a massive explosion
00:53that it spread ashes throughout the Mediterranean region.
00:57It also caused a temperature drop of more than 9 ° C throughout Eastern Europe.
01:02This was the largest volcanic eruption on the continent in 200,000 years.
01:07Since then, the Champs-Légrains have experienced more modest eruptions, the last dating from 1538.
01:13Today, the region is full of small craters, hot springs and boiling pools
01:19that prove that this supervolcano is still alive and that it has not forgotten us.
01:24Since the beginning of the 2000s, the ground of the giant crater and the neighboring city
01:29slowly rises from 3 to 4 cm per year.
01:32At least 150 earthquakes have shaken this area in recent times.
01:36In May 2024, an earthquake of a magnitude of 4.4 occurred in the region,
01:41the most important in the last 40 years.
01:44Residents had to leave their homes and camp outside because they feared other earthquakes.
01:49No one knows how the Champs-Légrains will behave in the months and years to come,
01:54so the authorities are organizing evacuation exercises to prepare the population for the worst.
02:02But this Italian volcano looks like an innocent kitten compared to the Caldeira of Yellowstone.
02:07For a volcano to deserve the title of supervolcano,
02:10it must be capable of producing catastrophic eruptions
02:13and ejecting huge amounts of magma, ash and volcanic gas.
02:17The Yellowstone Giant meets these criteria.
02:21Even if it moves from time to time, this American supervolcano has not erupted for 640,000 years.
02:27But when it wakes up, it will probably do so with incredible power,
02:32equivalent to that of 10 huge nuclear power plants.
02:36Under the ground of Yellowstone, there is a very hot area filled with melting rocks, the magma.
02:42As this burning matter moves into what is called the magmatic chamber,
02:47the ground above begins to inflate and rise.
02:50When the magma cools down, the ground cools down.
02:54Between 2004 and 2009, the ground of Yellowstone rose by nearly 25 cm,
02:59but it began to descend slowly in 2010.
03:02Scientists do not know if this volcano will soon erupt.
03:06But there is another great volcano, the Caldeira of Long Valley, in California.
03:11It has been active since 1980 and could represent a very important threat to the inhabitants of this state.
03:17Scientists who study it have discovered that it only took a small year to prepare its largest eruption,
03:24which occurred 760,000 years ago.
03:28This is bad news, because the eruption of a supervolcano can have a considerable impact on the planet,
03:33like the eruption of the Toba volcano in Sumatra about 74,000 years ago.
03:38It was the largest volcanic eruption that the Earth has known in 28 million years.
03:43It covered part of Indonesia, India and the Indian Ocean with a thick layer of volcanic debris,
03:49like a 15 cm cover.
03:51The amount of rocks thrown corresponded to nearly 3 million Empire State Buildings stacked on top of each other.
03:57The giant crater created on this occasion is still visible from space.
04:02All the ash and gases rose in the air and blocked part of the sunlight.
04:08Result, a volcanic winter that lasted between 6 and 10 years.
04:12Some scientists think that this eruption could have affected the first humans.
04:16At the time of the eruption of the Toba, the human population suffered a brutal fall.
04:20Some even say that, for this reason, modern men are all from a small group of survivors.
04:26According to the theory of the Toba disaster, most of the first men in Europe and Asia did not survive the cold and harsh climate that followed the eruption.
04:34Only a few lucky people in Africa would have survived this ordeal.
04:38All scientists do not agree on this hypothesis.
04:41Some archaeological and climatic data testify to a completely different story.
04:47Another volcano that profoundly changed the world is the Tambora, in 1815.
04:53The following year entered history as the year without summer.
04:57It was cold and rainy, and there was snow and frost until mid-August, especially in Europe and North America.
05:04This is explained by the fact that the volcano rejected huge amounts of sulfur dioxide into the sky.
05:09The gas then spread throughout the world, which had the effect of cooling the planet.
05:15The eruption of the Tambora also caused devastating tsunamis, which killed nearly 10,000 people.
05:21As a result, about 80,000 other people died as a result of the eruption.
05:27The cold destroyed crops, so that food became very expensive.
05:31And since horses were then our main means of transport, the price of oats also increased considerably.
05:38Some even think that this led to the invention of a brand new means of transport in 1817.
05:44The bicycle.
05:46The eruption made the earth colder for about three years.
05:49But even if it was an event of rare power, it was the disaster of the Krakatoa.
05:54Another Indonesian volcano, which won the palm in 1883.
05:59At that time, it was simply easier to spread information through telegrams and photos.
06:04Its final explosion was the loudest noise ever recorded in history.
06:09People could hear it on 10% of the total surface of the earth.
06:13The eruption triggered a tsunami whose waves reached half the height of the Statue of Liberty.
06:19If we only had 12 months to prepare for the eruption of a supervolcano,
06:23it would be really difficult for us to store enough food for everyone.
06:28But don't panic right away.
06:30Supervolcano eruptions are very rare.
06:32The last one occurred 26,500 years ago in New Zealand.
06:36Scientists think that a super-eruption occurs on average once every 100,000 years.
06:41But what is sad is that the earth does not follow a perfect chronology.
06:45There could be super-eruptions with shorter intervals and longer periods of calm.
06:51Since there have already been two super-eruptions over the last 100,000 years,
06:55there is always a risk that one of them will occur earlier than expected.
07:00In addition to the supervolcanoes of Yellowstone and Long Valley,
07:03scientists state a few less well-known but equally worrying hot spots.
07:08In Chile, the Laguna del Maul has erupted in the past, leaving behind a huge crater.
07:14Over the last 20 years, the ground has risen by nearly 0.3 meters per year,
07:19that is, very quickly.
07:21Some people are worried that this could be the sign of a major eruption to come.
07:25But scientists say that there is not enough magma yet for a disaster to occur.
07:30In Bolivia, the Uturunku volcano is also waking up.
07:34It is part of a group of volcanoes that have been talked about in the past.
07:37Since the 1960s, the ground around the Uturunku has risen,
07:41but the last eruption dates back to 250,000 years.
07:44Even if the magma rises, there is no place to worry for the moment.
07:48The probability that a super-eruption will occur during our lifetime is 1 in 1,400,
07:53which is quite low.
07:55And there is therefore no reason to be overly alarmed.
07:58But just as someone wins the lottery every week with very little chance,
08:02a super-eruption could happen one day or another.
08:05And when it happens, we absolutely have to be ready.
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