00:00Imagine diving in the heart of Europe, 40,000 years ago.
00:04The scenery is austere, glacial, ruthless.
00:08The sources of food are rare, and don't expect an internet connection.
00:12Suddenly, a silhouette emerges from the woods.
00:15Trapped, powerful, with at least an unusual face.
00:19This human has traits similar to ours, but something distinguishes him.
00:24His forehead is prominent, his nose is wide,
00:27and his body seems carved to face the forces of nature.
00:30Congratulations, you have just met the Neanderthal man.
00:34Perhaps you thought that Neanderthals were simply ancestors of modern man,
00:38but this is not entirely true.
00:40Although we belong to the same genus, Homo,
00:43we, the current humans, are all of one species, Homo sapiens.
00:48However, there were many human species in the past.
00:52Homo neanderthalensis was just one of them.
00:55And it could even be that they were some assets that we don't have.
00:58But then, what happened to them?
01:01Neanderthals thrived for about 360,000 years
01:05throughout Europe and some regions of Asia.
01:0840,000 years ago, what we call today the south of Italy,
01:12was facing a latent threat.
01:14A gigantic supervolcano, known as the Flegrean Field.
01:18This colossus extends over about 15 km in diameter,
01:22a distance that could be crossed by car in 10 to 20 minutes.
01:25But of course, there were no cars at that time, remember.
01:29At that time, the volcano remained calm.
01:32But one day, it suddenly exploded in one of the largest volcanic eruptions
01:36that Europe has known in 200,000 years.
01:39The magnitude of this disaster was such that the ashes,
01:42gas and debris projected into the atmosphere
01:45altered the climate throughout the continent.
01:48This type of event leads to what is called a volcanic winter.
01:51The average temperatures drop, the sky darkens
01:54and life becomes even more exhausting.
01:57This cataclysm, called the Indian-British Campania eruption,
02:00lowered the temperature of Europe by nearly 12 °C.
02:04This is not negligible,
02:06because a drop of a single degree would already make winters harder,
02:09causing heavy snowfalls, flooding and floods.
02:14Crops would struggle to grow, causing food shortages,
02:18while the climate would deteriorate with storms and droughts.
02:22Imagine this multiplied by 12.
02:24Such events are already causing chaos today.
02:27You can therefore imagine the devastating effects for the Neanderthals.
02:33In reality, a simple volcanic eruption should not be enough
02:37to destroy an entire species, right?
02:39Well yes, the truth is that the Neanderthals were already
02:43in a critical situation at that time.
02:46And all this, in large part, because of us.
02:49They were already fighting for their survival for some time
02:52and inhabited the regions that today correspond to Europe,
02:55West Asia and the Middle East.
02:58When modern humans, us, Homo Sapiens,
03:01entered Europe, they imposed a formidable competition
03:05for food and habitat.
03:07The more cunning Homo Sapiens excelled in the search for food,
03:11adapted easily to different environments
03:14and used more perfected tools.
03:16We repelled the Neanderthals,
03:18taking the same resources as them.
03:20Thus, our species has orchestrated their extinction
03:23in a slow and painful way.
03:25Although the volcano has certainly aggravated the situation,
03:28it was not their only concern and they did not completely disappear
03:31following the eruption.
03:32Some of them have subsisted in remote areas,
03:35like Gibraltar, for another 12,000 years.
03:37This is probably explained by the fact that the severest cooling
03:41mainly took place further east,
03:43far from the places where the Neanderthals fought to survive
03:46and did not affect their habitats as hard as we had supposed.
03:50In reality, the eruption may even have been beneficial to them,
03:53at least temporarily.
03:55Some scientists estimate that volcanic eruptions
03:58have slowed the expansion of modern humans
04:00in the Neanderthal territories,
04:02thus giving them a little more time to survive.
04:06The eruption of the Phlegra fields was therefore a destructive event,
04:09but it only delayed the inevitable.
04:13The Phlegra fields, also known as the fire fields,
04:16were perfectly unpredictable.
04:18The air there is saturated with legend.
04:20The Greeks and Romans considered this volcano
04:23as a gateway to hell.
04:25And even the Roman poet Virgil refers to it
04:28in his famous work, the Aeneid,
04:31where the eponymous hero must go down to hell,
04:34and this is precisely where he begins his journey.
04:36In the past, this landscape welcomed Roman villas,
04:39therms and fish pools.
04:41The Roman elite lived there in luxury,
04:43without knowing that they were standing on an unstable ground,
04:46likely to collapse at any time.
04:50The Phlegra fields are not an ordinary volcano.
04:53One could imagine a unique peak,
04:55but the landscape is deceitfully peaceful,
04:57dotted with small formations.
04:59Seen from the sky, the panorama is impressive.
05:02A huge circular basin riddled with volcanic cones
05:05and craters, marked by scars
05:07from the tumultuous past of the earth.
05:09What makes this place dangerous
05:11is the discretion of its activity.
05:13The ground under your feet is in perpetual motion,
05:16even if it passes unnoticed.
05:18Sometimes the earth rises to fall again,
05:20sometimes from several feet,
05:22thanks to the movements of magma or gases under the surface.
05:25It is a deaf and disturbing threat,
05:27almost invisible.
05:29The Phlegra fields are a vast depression,
05:31the result of two titanic volcanic eruptions.
05:34One decimated the Neanderthals,
05:36the other took place 15,000 years ago.
05:38However, the most famous eruption
05:40occurred in the 16th century
05:42and it was absolutely terrifying.
05:45In 1538, the inhabitants of Pouzole
05:48observed for a long time a disturbing phenomenon.
05:51Earths, formerly submerged,
05:53emerged little by little.
05:55What had been the sea became a new land.
05:57The rumbles coming from the depths,
05:59although terrifying,
06:01were now part of their daily lives.
06:03The first earthquakes,
06:05appeared at the beginning of the 1530s,
06:07were light,
06:09but in eight years they had become commonplace.
06:11Then, one day,
06:13on September 28th to be precise,
06:15terrible tremors shook the earth.
06:17The next evening,
06:19while the sun was setting,
06:21a huge crack tore the ground
06:23near the old medieval village of Tripergole.
06:25From this fault,
06:27flames, smoulders of smoke,
06:29and a rain of volcanic ash
06:31reached several kilometers.
06:33These ashes, thick and bubbling,
06:35seemed to be mixed with underground water.
06:37The ground was shaking
06:39while fragments of burning stone
06:41were propelled into the air.
06:43Shortly after,
06:45a new mountain began to rise.
06:47It was the birth of what we call today
06:49the Montenuovo.
06:51After this episode,
06:53things seemed to calm down,
06:55as if the earth was breathing again.
06:57The following days were quiet
06:59and the inhabitants,
07:01somewhat reassured,
07:03approached the mysterious new volcano,
07:05a crater where a strange bubbling activity
07:07attracted the curious,
07:09becoming almost an attraction.
07:11But a few days later,
07:13the disaster struck again.
07:15In the middle of the night,
07:17without any sign of an outrunner,
07:19the new mountain erupted.
07:21An explosion on its south flank
07:23projected scurries,
07:25pieces of volcanic rock
07:27formed by the following
07:29huge and impressive shapes.
07:31For centuries,
07:33the only signs of life
07:35of the Montenuovo were small fumaroles,
07:37gas emanations escaping from the ground.
07:39Then, even these traces disappeared,
07:41leaving room for a greenish cone,
07:43a sleeping giant, majestic and peaceful.
07:45The ground near Naples,
07:47in Italy,
07:49remains active.
07:51The Flegraean fields are still calm for the moment,
07:53but it may not last.
07:55This supervolcano presents
07:57an infernal landscape,
07:59with its bubbling mud,
08:01its geysers and its fumaroles.
08:03Medieval Romans and Christians
08:05used to see an access door
08:07to hell there,
08:09and it is easy to understand why.
08:11What worries,
08:13is that an unusual activity
08:15has recently been detected under the surface.
08:17In 2012, Italian authorities
08:19have raised the level of alert
08:21of the volcano from green to yellow,
08:23and it has increased.
08:25Specific changes usually precede an eruption.
08:27The magma begins to release gases,
08:29which can weaken the rock on the surface
08:31and eventually trigger a disaster.
08:35Unfortunately,
08:37it is impossible to predict exactly when,
08:39or even if,
08:41an eruption will occur.
08:43But if it were to take place,
08:45the consequences could go from a simple disaster
08:47for the inhabitants,
08:49to a world-scale disaster.
08:51This eruption occurred in the 16th century,
08:53and was not too serious.
08:55However,
08:57if history were to repeat itself
08:59like the Neanderthals,
09:01we would all be in danger.
09:03Such an eruption could cause
09:05global cooling,
09:07loss of crops,
09:09and a general famine.
09:11Currently,
09:13a group of scientists
09:15is trying to better understand
09:17the underground activity.
09:19For the time being,
09:21the supervolcano remains peaceful,
09:23and we hope it will remain so.
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