- 1 year ago
Scientists have just revealed a major new discovery hidden beneath Antarctica's icy surface—and it’s changing everything we thought we knew about the frozen continent. From mysterious underground structures to ancient fossils, this find could unlock secrets from Earth’s past we never imagined. But Antarctica isn't the only place full of surprises…
In this video, we explore jaw-dropping facts and shocking discoveries from every continent. From buried cities in the desert to unexplained ruins in the jungle, get ready to travel across the world in search of Earth's biggest mysteries! Animation is created by Bright Side.
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In this video, we explore jaw-dropping facts and shocking discoveries from every continent. From buried cities in the desert to unexplained ruins in the jungle, get ready to travel across the world in search of Earth's biggest mysteries! Animation is created by Bright Side.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/
Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV
Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz
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https://www.eastnews.ru
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For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me
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This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
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00:00Antarctica, a snowy world of about minus 46 degrees Fahrenheit, covered in ice for millions of years.
00:08But it wasn't always this way.
00:10Scientists just found something buried deep beneath the seafloor that shouldn't exist.
00:15Tiny golden droplets of amber.
00:19This means that Antarctica was once teeming with life and thick with trees.
00:24But something happened to it.
00:25Something that could reshape the way we see our own future.
00:30Antarctica has been a land of howling winds for millions of years.
00:35No tree can grow here today.
00:37But scientists who studied those lands decided to drill deep beneath the Antarctic surface.
00:44They went thousands of feet below the ice, pulling up ancient layers of sediment.
00:49And there, trapped in time, they found tiny pieces of golden amber.
00:55Amber is basically fossilized tree resin.
00:58It's found all over the world, often with perfectly preserved pieces of ancient life.
01:04Insects trapped mid-flight, pollen, frozen in time.
01:08Entire tiny ecosystems can be locked inside golden droplets.
01:13In every continent, but not in Antarctica.
01:16Until now.
01:17They discovered tiny specks from 0.5 to 1 millimeter in size.
01:25Smaller than a grain of sand, but with huge significance.
01:29This droplet had once oozed from the bark of a tree about 90 million years ago.
01:35What's even wilder, amber is only produced by certain types of trees.
01:39The ones that grow in humid, temperate rainforests and jungles.
01:44That's when the realization hit.
01:47Antarctica used to be a rainforest.
01:49Those tiny flecks of amber, clearly seen only under a microscope, tell us a vivid story of a living and breathing ecosystem.
02:01Around 90 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period, when dinosaurs ruled the Earth,
02:07Antarctica could have been covered in lush, swampy forests filled with towering conifers, ferns, and ancient plants.
02:14Some of the fragments showed signs of damage.
02:19That means the trees that produced them had been injured, perhaps by wildfires or parasites.
02:26Though despite that, and despite the fact it spent millions of years on the seafloor,
02:31this amber was almost perfectly preserved.
02:35Solid, transparent, and free of cracks.
02:38Normally, amber buried under extreme pressure and heat just crashes over time.
02:43But this piece, it survived.
02:46That means other pieces could survive as well, and we might find more of them on the ocean floor.
02:52But this wasn't the first sign that Antarctica had once been a different place entirely.
02:58It started in 2017.
03:01A team of scientists drilled deep into the seabed near Pine Island Glacier on Antarctica's west coast.
03:07They pulled up sediment cores, long, cylindrical samples of Earth that had been buried for millions of years.
03:15And it was insane.
03:18Inside these layers, they found fossilized roots, pollen, spores, traces of an ancient forest that had once thrived here.
03:26And that's exactly what they'd been studying ever since then.
03:29In order not to damage anything, they had to spend years of hard work,
03:34breaking down the sediment into thousands of tiny pieces and scanning them all under fluorescent microscopes.
03:40The same team also found another piece of the puzzle back in 2020.
03:46They found more sedimentary samples from the ocean floor that pointed to a land of dense trees, rivers, and wetlands.
03:55A world that looked more like the Pacific Northwest, or New Zealand.
04:00But why was Antarctica so warm back then?
04:03Well, that's all because of the atmosphere.
04:0590 million years ago, Earth's carbon dioxide levels were terrifyingly high.
04:12It was literally one of the warmest periods in history, with temperatures soaring even at the poles.
04:18Think about it.
04:19Antarctica had no ice caps.
04:22Instead, it could have had buzzing insects and maybe even dinosaurs wandering through its forests.
04:28But in order to learn what happened to them, the team has to find more evidence.
04:33Antarctica really is a place full of mysteries.
04:38It's hard to study because it's covered in snow and ice so much that we don't even know its true shape and size.
04:45Some parts of the ice sheet are over three miles thick, half the depth of the Mariana Trench, the deepest trench on Earth.
04:53Luckily, snow has a great quality.
04:56It can freeze things in time, perfectly.
04:58Layer by layer, year after year, it buries nature's past like a time capsule.
05:05Luckily, snow has a great quality.
05:08It can freeze things in time, perfectly.
05:11Layer by layer, year after year, it buries nature's past like a time capsule.
05:16At first, fresh snow is soft and shifts easily in the wind, full of air.
05:23But as more snow piles on top, it compresses, squeezing out the air pockets and hardening into dense ice.
05:31This freezing pressure locks everything inside.
05:34It traps ancient plants, animals, and even entire landscapes.
05:38And they literally get frozen in time because the extreme cold slows down decay.
05:46It stops bacteria growth, preventing rot, and keeping things almost perfectly intact for thousands, sometimes even millions of years.
05:56That's exactly what's going on in Antarctica.
05:58Scientists have to literally scan it all the way down this snow in order to find what this place looked like millions of years ago.
06:07What they found is an entire lost world buried under miles of ice.
06:14It was beneath the thickest ice of East Antarctica, near the Aurora and Schmidt subglacial basins.
06:20The weight of the ice has been so immense for so long that it actually protected the land from erosion.
06:28Scientists call it the ghost of Antarctica's landscape.
06:33And it's nothing like the smooth, flat wasteland seen from above.
06:37They found rivers that once flowed freely, now frozen in place.
06:41Valleys carved by water.
06:44Even three massive, sharply peaked hills.
06:47But what are they?
06:50To understand that, we need to go even further back in time.
06:55To the era when Antarctica was still part of a lost supercontinent.
07:01Hundreds of millions of years ago, the land we now call Antarctica was part of Gondwana, an enormous supercontinent that included South America, Africa, India, Australia, and Antarctica all fused together.
07:16But as Earth's tectonic plates slowly drifted apart, Gondwana broke into pieces.
07:24Antarctica was ripped apart, its land stretched and fractured.
07:29The massive ice sheets that formed later covered these broken landmasses, preserving them like frozen fossils.
07:36As the ice shifted and melted over time, valleys formed, and ancient rivers likely carried water toward a coast that was hundreds of miles away from where it is now.
07:49But that's not the only thing Antarctica has hidden.
07:51If you stripped away the ice, you wouldn't see a smooth, empty continent.
07:57You'd see a superdramatic landscape, towering mountains, deep valleys, even fiery volcanoes.
08:06In West Antarctica, at least 138 volcanoes are buried under the ice.
08:12One of them, Mount Erebus, is still active.
08:15And inside, it has warm volcanic caves where you could walk in a t-shirt.
08:20Oh, and if it wasn't weird enough, Erebus is also spewing out gold.
08:26Yep, the actual tiny specks of gold from deep within the Earth.
08:31Scientists believe this happens because magma, the superheated, semi-molten rock beneath the Earth's surface, carries liquid gold with it as it rises.
08:41Every single day, Erebus releases about 0.2 pounds of it.
08:46That's worth around 6,000 bucks per day.
08:49In a year, that adds up to 64 pounds, or more than $2 million, floating into the sky.
08:57Unfortunately, before we grab shovels, we gotta remember that those are just microscopic particles.
09:03They're often smaller than 60 micrometers, thinner than a human hair.
09:07Not even mentioning that they're scattered around, up to 620 miles away from the volcano itself.
09:14Finding them is nearly impossible.
09:17But that just shows that even in such a harsh place that looks just like a white desert, there are still many fascinating mysteries to discover.
09:26For example, somehow, life still clings there.
09:31In 2017, scientists drilled deep beneath the ice of the Ross Ice Shelf, looking for water.
09:37But they found something fantastic instead.
09:41A river, hidden beneath 1,640 feet of ice, running through the dark.
09:47And inside it, hundreds of tiny, shrimp-like creatures.
09:52They swarmed around the camera, blocking the lens, welcoming the scientists.
09:57In deep caves beneath the ice, DNA evidence has also shown traces of moss, algae, and possibly even unknown tiny animals.
10:06So, turns out, even in one of the harshest places on Earth, life finds a way.
10:13And who knows what else we'll discover in the South Pole.
10:20Experts explain Africa is splitting in two, and it will look like this.
10:25Up close, the process is even more shocking, with a massive crack stretching from Mozambique in the south to the Red Sea in the north.
10:34This gap keeps growing every year, tearing apart the land and destroying homes.
10:40Now, specialists believe the continent could split much sooner than we expect.
10:46Africa is breaking apart because of the Somali plate movement.
10:50Think of it like a dramatic breakup happening with tectonic plates.
10:54On the east side, there's the Somali plate.
10:57On the west, we have the Nubian plate.
10:59And during this breakup, the Somali plate just wants more space.
11:04So, it's pulling away from the Nubian plate.
11:07This movement is forming the East African Rift, a region where tectonic plates are splitting apart,
11:14magma keeps rising from deep below, and a bunch of active volcanoes are being born.
11:19So, this place is hot.
11:21With daytime temperatures, that can soar to 130 degrees Fahrenheit.
11:25And at night, they cool down to 95 degrees.
11:30Inside this hot zone, we have the Afar Triangle, also known as the Afar Depression.
11:36And its geology is fascinating, as the rifting process is causing valleys, faults, and deep cracks to form in this region.
11:43Take, for example, this massive 35-mile-long fissure in Ethiopia's desert.
11:50It's also so wide that a person can easily fit inside of it.
11:54But what's scary is this crack keeps getting bigger, growing about a half an inch every year.
12:00The Nubian and Somali plates moving apart could also lead to a new ocean forming in Africa.
12:08This type of process isn't something new.
12:11About 150 million years ago, when dinosaurs were still around, a similar tectonic shift created the Atlantic Ocean.
12:19The continents were once all clustered together, but when a rift formed in what was Pangaea,
12:25it started pulling them apart, splitting the East and West hemispheres.
12:31So, a similar thing is happening with this gap in Africa.
12:35At some point, experts say the waters of the Indian Ocean might flood the East African Rift Valley,
12:41eventually creating a sixth ocean.
12:44Now, it's a pity you won't be able to swim in its waters during your lifetime, though.
12:49According to geophysicist Ken McDonald, who specializes in tectonic faults,
12:54this dramatic rupture could happen in 1 to 5 million years.
12:59Trust me, that's considered fast in geologic terms, and way sooner than most experts thought.
13:05Now, even though you won't get to watch Africa breaking apart,
13:08people there will still see and feel the signs.
13:12They might experience intense volcanic eruptions and strong earthquakes as this process slowly unfolds.
13:19One example is related to that scary crack in Ethiopia's desert we mentioned earlier.
13:25The fissure was created in 2005, after the area was hit by two volcanic eruptions and 163 earthquakes,
13:34each with a magnitude greater than 3.9.
13:37A crack this deep and long on Earth usually takes centuries to form,
13:42but in this case, it unfolded in just a matter of days.
13:45That's how powerful this event is.
13:49In fact, this kind of intense seismic activity can speed up the African splitting process.
13:56And that's why it's so hard to predict the exact time frame for the event.
14:00What we know is that people are already calling this new land the Nubian continent.
14:06If the predictions are right, it will include Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, and part of Ethiopia.
14:12That's exciting and concerning at the same time.
14:16As new coastlines emerge, countries will need to make major adjustments when it comes to infrastructure and land management.
14:23They might lose a lot of roads, houses, and other constructions currently located near or right in the East African Rift.
14:30In Kenya, for example, the fissures tore apart a busy road, and authorities desperately tried to fill the gap with rocks and cement.
14:39In another case, an old woman was sitting and eating with her family when her house suddenly split down the middle.
14:46Recently, earthquakes that happened near Ethiopia's far region demolished 37 schools and forced about 5,000 students to leave their classrooms.
14:56Unfortunately, stories like this could become more common over the next few years.
15:01But there is a positive side to all this.
15:05Countries located in the middle of Africa, like Zambia and Uganda, could gain coastlines.
15:12And that might be great for them.
15:14Having a coast means they would get access to new trade routes, opening fresh economic opportunities.
15:20Plus, think about the tourism boom.
15:22With all those newly formed paradisiacal beaches, these countries could become the next big gateway spot for travelers.
15:29The local ecosystem in this newly created ocean will change as well, and new marine species may emerge.
15:38So, let's look.
15:40This is the path where the rift is most advanced right now.
15:43I mean, we expect this is where Africa will eventually get separated.
15:48But things could get a little more complicated.
15:51Some time ago, Michael Daly, a geologist at the University of Oxford, suggested that this rift could extend further west.
15:59And some new evidence backs up his theory, pointing out that the crack could extend south through Botswana's heartland into South Africa,
16:07and west through Namibia, all the way to the Atlantic Ocean.
16:12If these fractures widened into deep cracks, the ocean might come in and fill the gaps.
16:17Experts say Africa could split so much that it becomes an archipelago.
16:22But, then again, we won't see that happening.
16:25It will take tens of millions of years for this to play out.
16:29We already know that Africa is at risk of breaking into a bunch of huge islands, or small continents.
16:35The news isn't great for Madagascar, either, as the world's fourth-largest island could end up being split in half.
16:42But can the opposite process happen?
16:45I mean, can new land appear as the Nubian and Somali plates move apart?
16:51Well, as these tectonic plates get away from each other, the magma from the Earth's mantle might rise to the surface.
16:58And when it cools, it solidifies into new land.
17:02That's how other places in the world emerged, like Iceland and the Azores.
17:06So, yeah, the same process could happen in the East African Rift.
17:11And over the long term, it is possible that the rift could create new islands.
17:17For now, all we can say is that the geology of the Afar Depression is unique.
17:23It is the most active rift system on our planet.
17:26And when I say rift system, I mean a zone where tectonic plates are pulling apart.
17:31This region brings together all kinds of events, from faults in the Earth's crust to volcanic zones to the potential formation of a sixth ocean.
17:41For experts, it's like studying the evolution of rifts up close.
17:46And since it is such an active volcanic area, it also has enormous potential for tapping into geothermal energy.
17:54That is, using heat from inside the Earth to generate electricity.
17:57Two geothermal power plants are already producing energy in Ethiopia.
18:03One in the Ethiopian Rift Valley, and the other in the Afar.
18:07Now, geologists are exploring new potential spots.
18:11When we look at that deep crack in the ground, we know it's caused by tectonic plate movement.
18:16There's no mystery there.
18:18But what we still don't fully understand is why the cracks happen exactly where they do.
18:23For example, a crack that opened up in Botswana appeared after a magnitude 6.5 earthquake back in 2017.
18:33But the epicenter wasn't in the rift zone, where the plates are moving like we would expect.
18:38Instead, it was farther south.
18:41Since it's unusual for a rift to happen without volcanic activity,
18:45this fact really challenges our traditional ideas of how continents divide.
18:50Figuring out why these cracks appear in specific spots is still a missing piece of the puzzle for experts trying to explain how Africa is splitting.
19:00Hopefully, we get some answers before the continent turns into a massive archipelago.
19:05The South Pole is more than penguins and endless snow.
19:12There's a hidden ghost world within it.
19:14Look, it's right here on the globe.
19:16Don't confuse Antarctica with the Arctic, which is at the top of our maps.
19:20Much smaller in size, and, let's face it, way less mysterious.
19:25The ice sheet covering Antarctica is about 1 to 3 miles thick,
19:30which is up to 16 Eiffel Towers stacked on each other.
19:33This massive blanket hides the true features and contours of Antarctica's land.
19:40We still don't know much about this mysterious continent,
19:43and it is ice and snow that are to blame.
19:46We still don't even know the true shape and size of this continent.
19:50Mapping Antarctica without some huge shovels is an incredibly hard task.
19:55But, satellites learned to penetrate the ice with their cameras.
19:59And now, we know there's actually an enormous, dramatic, ancient landscape beneath the snow.
20:06The ghost of the past.
20:09About 90 million years ago, Antarctica was a much warmer place.
20:14It was actually a lush rainforest with tons of plants and probably teeming with life.
20:18It even had rivers flowing through it.
20:21Then, the ice came.
20:23This happened about 34 million years ago,
20:26during the transition from the Eocene to the Oligocene,
20:29when our planet cooled significantly.
20:32It was the beginning of one of our several ice ages.
20:35The land remained, but now, was hidden under ice and snow that got thicker and thicker.
20:42To a regular eye, Antarctica turned into a white desert.
20:46Vast, flat, and featureless.
20:50Time went on.
20:52This massive ice sheet moved around,
20:54smoothing and shifting the ground beneath it.
20:57Over the millions of years, it changed what the land looked like.
21:00Now, if we looked under the ice, it wouldn't hold any signs of the original South Pole.
21:06Except for one place.
21:09In areas where the ice is especially thick and doesn't move much,
21:12like in East Antarctica,
21:14it has actually worked the other way around.
21:17It became like a super-thick blanket that protects the land.
21:22Normally, things like wind or rain slowly wear away the ground over time,
21:26changing its shape.
21:27But since we have this protective ice blanket,
21:31it prevents these natural processes from reaching the stuff underneath.
21:35So, the ground stayed almost the same for millions of years,
21:39like it's been frozen in time.
21:41This special area near the Aurora and Schmidt subglacial basins
21:45has become the ghost of Antarctica's landscape.
21:49This place was barely touched,
21:51even since it was first covered in snow 34 million years ago.
21:54This is a historical footprint,
21:57a place that can tell us what Antarctica's ground looked like
22:01before it became a freezing nightmare.
22:04As scientists peered under East Antarctica,
22:07they saw an amazing ghost.
22:10The traces of the rivers that were flowing there millions of years ago,
22:14various valleys,
22:15and some weird little islands,
22:17as well as three big chunks of land,
22:20shaped like the letter U.
22:21Hey, what's that all about?
22:25You see,
22:26the continents on our planet are moving constantly,
22:29sliding along the red-hot lava mantle like cereal on milk.
22:33Over history,
22:34they came together and broke apart several times.
22:38Hundreds of millions of years ago,
22:40several continents were a part of one enormous Gondwana.
22:44Antarctica was one of them.
22:46It used to be one huge landmass.
22:49But when Gondwana broke apart,
22:51the poor continent got stretched by tectonic forces.
22:56Parts of land were pulled away from each other.
22:58Whoosh!
22:59And they got torn apart.
23:01And that's how we got these big chunks or blocks of land,
23:05under thick layers of ice.
23:07In any case,
23:08scientists now want to explore this ghost a bit more.
23:11But to study it deeply,
23:13they need to actually drill down through the ice,
23:16like using a straw to get to the bottom of a thick shake.
23:19This will help them pick up some rocks and dirt from way below
23:22to learn more about the Earth's history and climate.
23:26Antarctica is the fifth largest continent in the world,
23:30approximately bigger than the entirety of Europe or Australia,
23:34competing with the entire South America in size.
23:37Aside from East Antarctica,
23:39we discussed there are several more regions.
23:43Antarctica Peninsula,
23:44South Pole,
23:45West Antarctica,
23:47and the Ross Sea.
23:49The continent is basically a frozen sandbox,
23:52and all its hidden, mysterious landscape
23:54is actually less explored than Mars' terrain.
23:58We only know for sure that without ice,
24:00it wouldn't just be flat and empty,
24:02but an entire world full of big mountains,
24:06huge canyons,
24:08and even fiery volcanoes.
24:11Some of these volcanoes are so huge
24:13that they peak above the layers of snow.
24:15In West Antarctica alone,
24:17there are at least 138 volcanoes,
24:21though only about eight or nine are active today.
24:24One of the craziest ones is Mount Erebus,
24:27the southernmost volcano
24:29and the tallest one on the continent,
24:31about 12,500 feet high.
24:34And deep beneath the ice sheet,
24:35this guy hosts incredible, beautiful sub-volcanic caves.
24:40The temperatures there are warm enough for T-shirts.
24:43The Antarctic Peninsula,
24:46or Lesser Antarctica,
24:47looks like a bunch of mountainous islands
24:49deeply underground.
24:51It has newer volcanic rocks
24:53that are part of the Pacific Ring of Fire,
24:55which is like a giant circle of volcanoes
24:58and earthquake zones around the Pacific Ocean.
25:02The Greater Antarctica is a huge part,
25:05almost as big as Australia.
25:07It consists of East Antarctica and the South Pole.
25:11Beneath the ice,
25:11it's a place of rocks that have been around
25:14for a very, very long time,
25:17including the special zone we mentioned.
25:19You probably know that Antarctica
25:21is nearly devoid of humans.
25:24No wonder,
25:25with a mean temperature of about minus 46 degrees Fahrenheit.
25:29But even though this place is horrifyingly cold and deserted,
25:33life still clings on.
25:35You guessed it,
25:36in the underworld.
25:38In 2017,
25:39scientists found DNA traces of algae,
25:42moss,
25:43and even possibly unknown small animals
25:45in the deep caves.
25:47That means that even in such crazy conditions,
25:50there are still unique ecosystems
25:51thriving in little isolated warm pockets beneath the snow.
25:56There was another incredible find
25:58beneath Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf,
26:00a lively ecosystem vibing within an underground river.
26:06Scientists have long suspected
26:07that Antarctica's underworld
26:09should have some freshwater lakes and rivers.
26:12One day,
26:13a satellite spotted a groove there.
26:16They decided to explore it
26:17and used a hot water drill
26:20to melt their way through the ice.
26:22As they reached the underworld,
26:24they dropped a camera
26:25into one of those hidden fresh rivers.
26:27And at first,
26:28they thought they'd find just some rocks or something.
26:31But instead,
26:32they stumbled upon hundreds of amphipods,
26:35tiny shrimp-like creatures.
26:37Little ones instantly swarmed around the lens.
26:41Shrimps blocked the camera
26:42and scientists couldn't check out what they wanted to.
26:45Pretty funny,
26:46but at least that means
26:47that there really is an important ecosystem
26:50deep within Antarctica.
26:52Now,
26:52they're gonna explore it.
26:53And all this is just the beginning
26:56of the mysterious underworld.
26:59Antarctica's snow also hides
27:00the deepest canyon on Earth
27:02under the Denman Glacier.
27:04Well,
27:05Mariana Trench is still the deepest point on Earth,
27:08but it's a part of the oceanic crust,
27:10geologically speaking.
27:12Also,
27:13in 1958,
27:15explorers found a huge mountain range under the ice,
27:18as big and tall
27:19as the famous Alps Mountains.
27:21The rain stretched for about 745 miles
27:25with peaks as high as 1.7 miles.
27:29And all this magnificence
27:30is buried under tons of ice.
27:33Who knows what else we might find there?
27:36Antarctica holds about 60%
27:38of our entire planet's freshwater,
27:40which means it would be pretty bad if it melted.
27:44For example,
27:45there's this Doomsday Glacier,
27:47officially known as Thwaites Glacier.
27:49It's a huge ice formation,
27:52about the size of Florida,
27:53and it's melting right now.
27:56Every year,
27:57the sea levels rise by 4% because of it.
28:00If this guy melts away completely,
28:02the sea levels all around the world
28:03will increase by 2 feet,
28:05which might not sound like a lot,
28:07but it would be catastrophic for coastal areas.
28:11Luckily,
28:11researchers have found that
28:13even if its ice shelf
28:14were to collapse in the next 50 years,
28:16the glacier itself wouldn't retreat
28:18as quickly as they feared.
28:20It's still losing ice rapidly,
28:22but it would be quite a slow process.
28:27If all the volcanoes on Earth
28:29suddenly erupted together,
28:30it'd be loud.
28:31We'd also have around 1,500
28:34of these formations bursting at once.
28:37Now, normally,
28:37it's just 10 to 20 volcanoes
28:39that are active each day.
28:40But what would the world look like
28:42if they all blew their tops simultaneously?
28:47Geologists think it wouldn't be pretty.
28:49Even if only the land volcanoes erupted together,
28:52it would set off a chain reaction
28:54way worse than anything
28:56we've ever seen before.
28:57The two big problems
28:58would be ash and volcanic gases.
29:01While the explosions and lava
29:02would be damaging for people nearby,
29:05the real danger lies in what happens next.
29:08A thick layer of ash
29:09would cover the planet,
29:10blocking out sunlight completely.
29:12No sunlight means no photosynthesis,
29:15which means crops would fade away
29:17and temperatures would drop considerably.
29:20And all this ash cloud
29:21could remain in our atmosphere
29:22for up to 10 years.
29:24Now, ash aside,
29:26there's also acid rain to worry about.
29:28Volcanic gases like hydrochloric acid
29:31and sulfur dioxide
29:32would mix with the atmosphere
29:33and fall back down as acid rain.
29:36This type of weather
29:37would harm the groundwater
29:38and ocean surfaces.
29:40Even if humans
29:41would find a way
29:42to survive up to this point,
29:44we'd have no corals
29:45and no other sea creatures around.
29:47Scientists have seen similar events
29:49in Earth's history
29:50at a smaller scale.
29:52Big volcanic eruptions
29:53have been linked
29:54to mass extinctions.
29:55When Mount Pinatubo
29:56erupted in 1991,
29:58it cooled parts of the world
30:00for two years.
30:01But the extra carbon dioxide
30:03from these eruptions
30:04could also heat the planet,
30:06the same way we turn our stoves
30:08to broil for that extra crispy layer
30:10on our casserole.
30:14Geologists also mentioned
30:15that there's evidence
30:16in our atmosphere
30:17that stuff like this
30:18may have happened
30:19in the distant past.
30:21During the Cretaceous period,
30:23carbon dioxide levels
30:24were way higher than today,
30:26which made it difficult
30:27for marine life to thrive.
30:29Who would survive all this?
30:30Probably just some extremophiles,
30:33these organisms that survive
30:34in harsh conditions
30:35like hot springs
30:37or deep undersea vents.
30:39As for humans,
30:40we could all lay low
30:41in underground bunkers
30:42until things clear up.
30:43Or build multiple space stations
30:45that could fit us all.
30:47Yeah, right.
30:49The chances of all volcanoes
30:51erupting at once, though,
30:53are very slim.
30:54That's because there isn't
30:56one giant source
30:57supplying all the volcanoes on Earth.
30:59Each one of these openings
31:00has its own deposit of magma,
31:03except for a few cases
31:04where they indeed share the supply.
31:06For example, in 1912,
31:08Novorupta in Alaska
31:10erupted alongside another volcano,
31:12sharing magma.
31:14Scientists have also found evidence
31:16of magma hiding under volcanic areas,
31:18like under the Taupau Volcanic Zone
31:20in New Zealand.
31:21This magma can spread out horizontally
31:23for long distances,
31:25but is still just a local feature.
31:27Even if we consider all the magma
31:29under Taupau as one system,
31:32it's not connected
31:32to other volcanic areas,
31:34like Indonesia or the Philippines.
31:36Because the great majority
31:37are isolated,
31:39volcanoes can't sync up
31:40to erupt at once.
31:42The magma comes from
31:43different processes,
31:44like mantle decompression
31:45or adding water to the mantle
31:47through subduction.
31:48There's no way to make
31:49all these different volcanoes
31:51erupt together
31:52because of how tectonics work.
31:56Now, that doesn't mean
31:58we won't see interesting
31:59volcano activity in the future.
32:00Take an underwater area
32:02near British Columbia,
32:03where recently,
32:05about 200 small earthquakes
32:06per hour have been noted.
32:08Deep beneath the Pacific Ocean floor,
32:11off the coast of Vancouver Island,
32:13magma is set to erupt,
32:14heating the water so much
32:16that it'll bubble like soda.
32:18However, this event will likely
32:20go unnoticed by anyone
32:21other than scientists.
32:23The anticipated eruption
32:24will most likely happen
32:26around three miles
32:27below the ocean surface.
32:28Scientists explain
32:30that the earthquakes
32:31range from negative
32:32to 4.1 magnitude,
32:34meaning only those nearby
32:36would feel any tremors.
32:38This unusual activity
32:39gives us a rare opportunity
32:40to study how the Earth's crust forms.
32:43The magma beneath the ocean floor
32:45is estimated to be
32:47almost 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit,
32:49but will cool rapidly
32:50upon eruption
32:51and contact with water.
32:53This runny rock
32:54will solidify upon contact
32:56with the seafloor,
32:57turning black quickly.
32:59This event will be useful
33:00for a biologist, too,
33:02who will have the opportunity
33:03to study the marine animal's
33:05response to any changes.
33:06Like, run!
33:09Antarctica,
33:10often seen as a vast, icy continent,
33:13also holds a volcanic surprise
33:15beneath its frozen surface.
33:17Researchers have identified
33:18over 130
33:20under the western ice sheet alone,
33:22making it the largest
33:23volcanic region on Earth.
33:24Most of these volcanoes,
33:27about 90,
33:27were only recently discovered
33:29in 2017.
33:31But could any of these
33:32Antarctic volcanoes
33:34actually erupt?
33:35Well, it depends on
33:36which volcano
33:37we're talking about.
33:38While these formations
33:39are relatively young
33:41in geologic terms,
33:42it's hard for scientists
33:44to tell if they're still
33:45active or not.
33:46There are only two confirmed
33:47active volcanoes
33:48in Antarctica,
33:50Deception Island
33:51and Mount Erebus.
33:52The latter,
33:53standing tall
33:54as the highest peak
33:55on the continent,
33:56has been continuously erupting
33:57since at least 1972.
34:00It's known for emitting gas
34:01and steam,
34:02and sometimes even
34:03throwing out rocks
34:04in what are called
34:05Strombolian eruptions.
34:07One of its most notable features
34:09is a persistent lava lake
34:10in its crater,
34:12a rare phenomenon
34:13due to specific conditions
34:14needed to keep
34:15the surface molten.
34:17For instance,
34:18it's fueled by a steady supply
34:19of magma from deep
34:21within the Earth's mantle.
34:22This continuous inflow
34:24of molten rock
34:25provides the material
34:26for the lava lake to exist.
34:28It also features
34:29low ambient temperatures.
34:31Despite its location
34:32in Antarctica,
34:33Erebus has relatively
34:34mild temperatures
34:35in its summit region
34:36because of the heat
34:38generated by the
34:39volcanic activity.
34:40This allows the lava lake
34:42to remain liquid
34:42rather than freezing over.
34:45Deception Island,
34:46another active volcano,
34:47last erupted in the 70s.
34:50While it's currently
34:50not showing signs
34:52of imminent eruption,
34:53it's being monitored
34:54closely for any
34:55concerning activity.
34:57Apart from these two
34:58being confirmed
34:59to be active,
35:00Antarctica is dotted
35:01with fumaroles,
35:02openings in the Earth's crust
35:04that release gases
35:05and vapors.
35:06Sometimes these fumaroles
35:07can create icy towers
35:09reaching heights
35:10of 10 feet.
35:13What we should focus on
35:15is maybe supervolcanoes.
35:17They're this type
35:18that has the potential
35:19to produce the most
35:20massive and destructive
35:21eruptions.
35:22Unlike the typical one,
35:24which has a single vent,
35:25supervolcanoes have
35:26a vast magma chamber
35:28beneath the surface,
35:29spanning tens or even
35:30hundreds of miles
35:31in diameter.
35:32Their eruptions
35:33can have catastrophic
35:34effects on the
35:35surrounding area
35:36and even impact
35:37global climate patterns
35:39because of the amounts
35:40of ash and gases
35:41they spill out
35:42into the atmosphere.
35:43One famous supervolcano
35:45is the Yellowstone one,
35:47which some say
35:48is gearing up
35:48for another eruption.
35:50It has the capacity
35:51to unleash
35:52a colossal eruption,
35:53spewing over 240
35:55cubic miles
35:56of material.
35:57As much as we'd like
35:58to predict its behavior,
36:00volcanoes don't stick
36:01to a calendar.
36:02Hmm.
36:03On the contrary,
36:04eruptions simply happen
36:05when there's enough magma
36:07beneath the surface.
36:08There also needs
36:09to be enough pressure
36:10for the magma
36:11to travel upwards.
36:12As far as we can measure,
36:14these conditions
36:14are not currently met
36:16at Yellowstone.
36:17Sure, many volcanoes
36:18operate on a cyclical pattern,
36:20but that doesn't mean
36:21Yellowstone is overdue.
36:23In fact,
36:24Yellowstone has had
36:25just three major eruptions
36:27over the past
36:282.1 million years.
36:31Also, the term
36:33supervolcano
36:34refers to the formation's size,
36:36not necessarily
36:37how fussy it is.
36:39Yellowstone's monitoring
36:40is extensive,
36:41tracking seismicity,
36:43ground deformation,
36:44thermal emissions,
36:45gas, water chemistry,
36:47and surface changes.
36:48Signs of an eruption
36:49would include
36:50thousands of earthquakes
36:51over a short period.
36:53We'd also see
36:54deformation on the ground
36:55and weird gas emissions
36:56ahead of time.
36:58Stable,
36:58as it might look like
36:59for now,
37:00the consequences
37:01of it having
37:01a major eruption
37:02could look ugly.
37:04Ash dispersion
37:05could blanket
37:06a 500-mile radius,
37:08potentially disrupting
37:09Midwest agriculture
37:10and clogging waterways.
37:12Ash and gas emissions
37:13into the stratosphere
37:14could induce
37:15global climactic effects,
37:17making our planet
37:17colder for several years.
37:19And yes,
37:20we've seen some research
37:21that it shows
37:22there's more liquid
37:23molten rock
37:24under the Yellowstone volcano
37:26than scientists believe.
37:27But that doesn't
37:28translate to imminent danger.
37:30These dark patches
37:37on Greenland's ice sheet
37:38aren't just any old stains.
37:40Every summer,
37:41the ice,
37:42which is usually bright white,
37:44turns murky gray
37:45in certain areas.
37:46This so-called dark zone
37:48was a huge mystery
37:49for a long time
37:50until some studies
37:51discovered
37:51that this weird transformation
37:53was connected
37:54to the odd appearance
37:55of red,
37:56green,
37:56and brown-colored algae.
37:59The scariest part
38:00is that this algae bloom
38:02keeps growing.
38:03The dark zone
38:04is getting darker
38:04and terrifying microbes
38:06might start appearing.
38:08Now,
38:08the rest of the world
38:09should be concerned.
38:11The Greenland ice sheet
38:13is like a massive ice blanket
38:15that covers around
38:1580% of the island.
38:17It's so thick
38:18that it holds
38:19about 8%
38:20of the world's
38:20freshwater ice.
38:22For most of the year,
38:23the ice looks like
38:24a giant untouched
38:25white sheet
38:26stretching over the land.
38:27But when summer rolls around
38:29and temperatures
38:30start to rise,
38:31things begin to change.
38:32The ice melts,
38:34revealing rocky areas
38:35along the coast.
38:36And as you move
38:37further inland,
38:38that once smooth
38:39white ice
38:40becomes darker.
38:42This is the dark zone,
38:43and it covers an area
38:44of around 248 miles
38:46in length
38:47and 62 miles
38:48at its widest point.
38:50This weird phenomenon
38:51happens basically
38:52for two reasons.
38:54The first one
38:55is black carbon.
38:57Just like dust
38:57that builds up
38:58on your bookshelf,
38:59the ice in Greenland
39:00has the same issue.
39:02The wind carries
39:02a mix of dust
39:04and soot
39:04to this icy area.
39:06But unlike your bookshelf,
39:07you can't just wipe it off
39:09with a cloth.
39:10In Greenland's case,
39:11this dirty mix
39:12settles on the ice
39:13and sticks around
39:14for thousands of years.
39:18So,
39:19the dark zone
39:19is basically covered
39:21in a fine layer of dust
39:22that's built up
39:23over time.
39:24Back in 2014,
39:26researchers analyzed
39:27this dirty mix
39:28and found
39:29that the darker
39:29ice areas
39:30were filled
39:31with black carbon.
39:33This black carbon
39:34didn't just appear
39:35out of thin air.
39:36Well,
39:37actually,
39:37it sort of did.
39:38Scientists believe
39:39it mostly comes
39:40from smoke
39:41produced by wildfires
39:42in northern Canada
39:43and Alaska
39:44somewhere in the past.
39:46As you might guess,
39:47black carbon
39:47is black,
39:49which is why
39:49it makes the ice
39:50look darker.
39:50Now,
39:54the second big reason
39:55for the Greenland
39:56ice sheet's
39:56summer makeover
39:57has to do
39:58with those algae
39:59we mentioned earlier.
40:01We're mostly talking
40:02about two types of it,
40:03the Ancelonoma
40:04alaskana
40:05and the Ancelonoma
40:07nordensholdii.
40:09Both of them
40:09love cold water regions.
40:12During winter,
40:12they stay in a dormant state
40:14deep within the ice,
40:15but when spring comes,
40:17they start to slowly
40:18migrate to the surface.
40:19By the time summer hits,
40:21they're ready to bloom
40:22and soak up
40:23nearly 24 hours
40:24of sunlight each day
40:25for photosynthesis
40:26and growth.
40:28Normally,
40:29these algae are green,
40:30but when exposed
40:31to sunlight,
40:32they turn brown
40:33as a natural way
40:34to protect themselves
40:35from harmful
40:36ultraviolet rays.
40:37And this color change
40:39is also what makes
40:40the ice in Greenland
40:41look darker.
40:45So far,
40:46this has been
40:47normal behavior.
40:47What's really alarming
40:49is that these algae blooms
40:50are getting bigger
40:51and bigger every year.
40:53This happens because
40:54they thrive on phosphorus,
40:56a nutrient that's
40:57plentiful out there
40:58and comes from a mineral
40:59called hydroxylapetite.
41:01This mineral is found
41:03in a type of rock
41:04that breaks down
41:05into tiny dust particles,
41:07which are then blown
41:08across the ice
41:09by the wind.
41:10As the climate gets warmer,
41:11the rocks dry out more,
41:13and stronger winds
41:14carry more dust.
41:15More dust means
41:17more phosphorus,
41:18leading to more algae growth.
41:20See?
41:21It is a cycle,
41:22and it keeps getting worse
41:23every year.
41:26Studying this is crucial
41:27to understanding
41:28why the dark zone
41:29keeps getting bigger.
41:31From the year 2000
41:32to 2012,
41:33its size increased
41:35by 12%.
41:36But you might be wondering,
41:40why should we care?
41:42After all,
41:42it's just ice
41:43getting darker, right?
41:44Well, not exactly.
41:46Think about how you can't
41:48stand wearing black clothes
41:49on a hot sunny day.
41:51They soak up the heat
41:52and make you feel
41:52even hotter.
41:54That's because darker surfaces
41:55absorb more sunlight.
41:57The same thing
41:57happens to ice.
41:59Together,
42:00dust,
42:01black carbon,
42:02and algae blooms
42:03are responsible
42:03for about 70%
42:05of the variability
42:06in albedo
42:07on the Greenland ice sheet.
42:09Albedo is just a fancy word
42:11for how reflective
42:12a surface is.
42:13If you take two surfaces,
42:15one white and shiny,
42:16and the other dark and rough,
42:18the white one
42:19will reflect a lot
42:20of light and heat,
42:21giving it a high albedo.
42:23The dark one,
42:24on the other hand,
42:25will absorb more light
42:26and heat,
42:27so it has a low albedo.
42:29During the summer,
42:33the Greenland ice sheet
42:34experiences a reduction
42:35in albedo.
42:37This means the ice
42:38absorbs more sunlight,
42:39and when ice absorbs
42:40more sunlight,
42:41it melts faster
42:42than it should.
42:43This is why understanding
42:44what's happening
42:45in the dark zone
42:46is so important.
42:48It helps predict
42:48how quickly
42:49the Greenland ice sheet
42:50is melting
42:51and how it can affect
42:52the rest of the world.
42:57Greenland's ice sheet
42:58is the second largest
42:59in the world,
43:00covering an area
43:01about the size
43:02of all the land
43:03in the United States
43:04east of the Mississippi River.
43:06And its huge mass of ice
43:08averages a thickness
43:09of 1.4 miles.
43:12Unfortunately,
43:13the ice loss
43:14has skyrocketed.
43:15Back in the 1990s,
43:17Greenland was losing
43:18about 25 billion tons
43:20of ice per year.
43:21Now,
43:22it's losing around
43:23234 billion tons
43:26per year.
43:26That's nearly
43:2810 times more ice
43:29melting away
43:30each year.
43:34According to NASA,
43:35if all of Greenland's
43:36ice sheet were to melt,
43:38it would increase
43:38global sea levels
43:39by about 24 feet.
43:41That could be catastrophic
43:43for coastal countries
43:44and cities around the world.
43:46The Netherlands
43:47could be submerged,
43:48the Bahamas
43:49could be almost
43:50completely wiped out,
43:51and many of the Philippines'
43:53islands would be
43:54at risk of disappearing.
43:55All of this may seem
43:58like a distant reality,
43:59and it is true
44:00that most scientists
44:01believe it would take
44:02several hundred
44:03or even thousands
44:05of years
44:05for the ice sheet
44:06to melt completely.
44:07But it is important
44:08to know that Greenland
44:10didn't always have
44:11this thick layer of ice.
44:13Very recently,
44:15researchers took
44:15a close look
44:16at some sediment
44:17from the bottom
44:18of a two-mile-deep ice core
44:19extracted from the center
44:21of Greenland.
44:22They found that the soil
44:24had traces of willow wood,
44:25insect parts,
44:27fungi,
44:27and even poppy seeds.
44:29So, these fossils
44:30are the first direct evidence
44:31that Greenland's ice sheet
44:33melted away
44:33in the recent geological past,
44:36around 400,000 years ago.
44:38At that time,
44:40Greenland was home
44:40to a green tundra landscape
44:42with insects and plants.
44:44This discovery
44:45is both fascinating
44:46and scary
44:47because it shows
44:48that the ice sheet
44:49collapsed before
44:50and might be more fragile
44:52than scientists
44:53originally thought.
44:57There is another concern, too.
44:59A recent research
45:00collected meltwater
45:01from different spots
45:02on the Greenland ice sheet
45:04and found that
45:05the water samples
45:05were packed
45:06with hundreds
45:07and thousands of microbes.
45:09The concern is that
45:10they could be released
45:11into the ocean
45:12in the future.
45:13And some studies
45:14already suggest
45:15that areas near
45:16where a lot
45:17of glacial meltwater flows
45:19have a higher risk
45:20of viruses
45:21jumping to new hosts,
45:23like from animals
45:24to humans.
45:26Even though experts
45:27believe the chance
45:28of a doomsday virus
45:29coming from the glaciers
45:30is very small,
45:32it's still not zero.
45:34The truth is,
45:35we don't know much
45:36about the thousands
45:37of microbial species
45:38living on the surface
45:40of the ice,
45:40and there is simply
45:41not enough data
45:42to fully understand
45:43how dangerous
45:44these organisms
45:45might be.
45:47All of this
45:48might sound concerning,
45:50but we shouldn't
45:50panic just yet.
45:52There's still a lot
45:53we don't understand
45:54about what is darkening
45:55the Greenland ice sheet.
45:57We still need
45:57more detailed measurements
45:59of the relative abundance
46:00of dust,
46:01algae,
46:02and black carbon,
46:03as well as
46:04a better understanding
46:05of how these
46:06potentially dangerous
46:07microbes
46:07could affect our lives.
46:09The more we learn,
46:10the better we can predict
46:11what's going to happen
46:12and how we can prepare for it.
46:17That's it for today.
46:18So hey,
46:19if you pacified
46:19your curiosity,
46:20then give the video a like
46:22and share it with your friends.
46:23Or if you want more,
46:24just click on these videos
46:25and stay on the bright side.
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