00:00Make your suitcases and go to Antarctica.
00:04It rains gold, and not just a little.
00:066,000 dollars per day.
00:08Well, it doesn't really fall from the sky,
00:10but from the crater erupting from a huge volcano.
00:13This gigantic mountain is called Erebus.
00:16It stands above the frozen deserts of Antarctica,
00:19on the island of Ross.
00:21It shares this territory with three other mountains.
00:24Mount Terror, Mount Bird and Mount Terra Nova.
00:28But Erebus dominates the place with its 3,810 meters high,
00:33the equivalent of 8 Empire State Buildings.
00:36It is much smaller than Everest,
00:38but it remains the most active volcano in the south of the planet.
00:42And even if it is in the middle of nowhere,
00:45Erebus is far from being calm.
00:47In fact, it has a very bad character.
00:49Erebus blows and roars constantly,
00:52releasing gases and pieces of melting rocks
00:55during crazy anger crises,
00:57which are called strombolian eruptions.
00:59It spits, among other things,
01:01tiny and precious gold flakes.
01:03But it's not just a few small fragments here and there.
01:06This fountain works all the time
01:08and spits nearly 100 grams of gold per day.
01:11As we mentioned, it represents more than 6,000 dollars.
01:14This also equates to an incredible total of 30 kilos of gold per year,
01:18or more than 2 million dollars.
01:20But before you, treasure hunters,
01:22rush to the site,
01:24you must know that we are talking about gold particles here.
01:27They often measure less than 60 micrometers
01:30and spread everywhere,
01:32which makes them impossible to gather.
01:35And when we say, spread everywhere,
01:38it's not a way of speaking.
01:40Some of these particles have been found
01:42up to a thousand kilometers from the volcano,
01:45transported in the middle of nowhere by Antarctic winds.
01:48Erebus is not a very welcoming place,
01:51its eruptions are wild and unpredictable.
01:54Scientists have therefore acquired most of their knowledge
01:57on this mountain thanks to the satellites
01:59that monitor its activity from space.
02:01In terms of knowledge,
02:03this place is also a gold mine.
02:05Erebus is the only volcano capable of doing what it does.
02:09This happens when magma,
02:11a semi-melted and burning rock
02:13located under the surface of the earth,
02:15goes up to the volcanoes.
02:17This magma carries liquid gold.
02:20As soon as it comes in contact with the Antarctic ice age,
02:23the gold crystallizes.
02:25And here it is, 2 million dollars a year.
02:28Erebus is a very strange and very rare volcano.
02:31Its burning heart has been burning for more than a million years.
02:35During this period, it was built layer by layer.
02:38Its base is made up of a very old lava
02:41and the upper layers are more recent.
02:43And for many years, it has been very active.
02:47There is a lava lake boiling in its crater.
02:50This lava lake is exactly what it looks like.
02:54A sea of burning rocks in perpetual motion.
02:58It is an incredibly rare spectacle
03:01because there are only a few lakes of this type in the world.
03:04And it's not just a sea of rocks,
03:06it's a window on the soul of the volcano.
03:09In Erebus, the lava is made of faunolith.
03:12Faunolith is a very cold rock.
03:14Its name comes from the Greek words meaning sound and stone.
03:18Do you know why?
03:20Because it's a rock that makes a bell sound when you hit it.
03:23Only a few volcanoes can produce it.
03:26But there are other very strange volcanoes on our planet.
03:29The Ol Doenyo Lengai,
03:31a volcano in the East African Rift,
03:33in northern Tanzania, is even more mysterious.
03:36It spits what is called carbonated natural lava.
03:40Most volcanoes generate incandescent rivers of melting rocks.
03:44But this one is black lava that escapes.
03:48It flows very quickly,
03:50like water forming thin rivers that move at full speed.
03:54This gives it almost the appearance of a black mud or even oil.
03:58And what is even more surprising
04:01is that as soon as it comes in contact with the air,
04:04it reacts very quickly and becomes white in just a few hours.
04:08Like magic, black lava turns into something
04:12that looks like white dust or snow.
04:15And on top of that, it shines slightly at night.
04:18It is not very hot either,
04:20well, a little bit,
04:22between 480 and 540 degrees Celsius.
04:26But in general, the temperature of the lava
04:29oscillates between 700 and 1200 degrees Celsius.
04:32So it is rather cold, according to volcanic standards.
04:36Indeed, this lava is rich in nirerite and gregorite,
04:40strange materials,
04:42similar to soot and salt,
04:44and incredibly rare.
04:46Nirerite is generally incolor and shiny,
04:49it looks like small transparent crystals.
04:52Gregorite is most often quite turbulent.
04:55These minerals are a geochemical mystery.
04:57At the bottom of the Ol Duanyo Lengai,
04:59there are two magma basins.
05:01These rare minerals probably appeared
05:04after the separation of the rich carbon parts of the magma,
05:07which formed these two basins.
05:09These minerals are fascinating.
05:11And then there are tons of them in this volcano,
05:13but they are also completely useless.
05:16They are so rare and fragile
05:18that it is impossible to use them for anything,
05:21even to make jewelry.
05:23However, even astronomers find this curious.
05:26If there are planets rich in carbon and not in oxygen,
05:29these minerals should be very popular.
05:32This volcano also emits a lot of gas.
05:35Yes, a lot.
05:36It emits carbon dioxide at a speed of about 80 kg per second.
05:40Imagine,
05:41about 5 tons of carbon dioxide per minute.
05:44Every minute,
05:45it is as if the weight of several cars
05:47was thrown into our atmosphere.
05:50Fortunately, our planet is used to these emissions,
05:53which are therefore not so dangerous for us.
05:55Right now, in the central Andes,
05:58far from any human presence,
06:00the Lastaria volcano is in full eruption.
06:04It is also one of the most extraordinary
06:06and most isolated volcanoes in the world.
06:08It is even higher than Mount Erebus,
06:10culminating at nearly 5,700 meters,
06:13and it is surrounded by an arid and supernatural landscape.
06:16There is literally no human being
06:19within a radius of 145 km,
06:21except for a few volcanologists.
06:23The Lastaria is absolutely wild.
06:26It constantly exhales hot gases
06:28and also steam.
06:30The air seems almost alive there,
06:32sparkling with panache
06:34that escapes cracks in the ground.
06:36These vents, called fumaroles,
06:39are more than hot steam.
06:41They are real chemical laboratories.
06:43They spit out different tons of gas
06:46that all react with the air and surrounding rocks.
06:49There, it's a bit like someone
06:51had overthrown the palette of painters.
06:53Everything is bright yellow,
06:55flamboyant orange and rusty red.
06:57But the most impressive
06:59are the rivers of sulfur in fusion.
07:01Yellow liquid streams boil
07:03and flow on the sides of the volcano.
07:05Some of this liquid darkens as it burns,
07:08and everything looks like a strange biscuit
07:10like guimauve and chocolate.
07:12Because sulfur, heated to its melting point
07:14by the intense heat that reigns underneath,
07:17turns into a thick and incandescent fluid.
07:21It then starts to flow,
07:23then to cool and harden.
07:26We don't really know if we should be fascinated
07:28or disgusted by this spectacle.
07:30And if it's not enough to give you the impression
07:32of being on another planet,
07:34the place itself is just as extreme.
07:37The Lastaria is perched on the heights
07:39of the Altiplano,
07:41on the edge of the Atacama Desert,
07:43one of the driest places on the planet.
07:45It practically never rains,
07:47and the temperatures can drop
07:49to 24 degrees Celsius.
07:51But at least some volcanic ashes
07:53come to enrich the ground,
07:55which allows some very resistant plants
07:57to grow here and there.
07:59There is a saline called the Sulfur Lake.
08:02It is fed by its rivers,
08:04its shores are filled with minerals.
08:06In the past, the level of this lake
08:08was much higher,
08:10but it is no longer than the shadow of itself.
08:12Thousands of years ago,
08:14it witnessed a catastrophe
08:16of unimaginable proportions.
08:18The southeast flank of the volcano
08:20collapsed for the most part,
08:22almost in an instant.
08:24Volcanic rocks and ashes
08:26swallowed its slopes.
08:28This landslide occurred
08:30at a terrifying speed,
08:32faster than the most violent storm
08:34and destroyed everything in its path.
08:36It traveled 8 km.
08:38When the dust fell,
08:40there was only a huge scar
08:42about 1 km wide.
08:44We know what happened
08:46thanks to the debris that sank to the ground.
08:48The ashes, the sandstone
08:50and the lapilli
08:52created a huge catastrophe.
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