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Alaska’s most dangerous volcano is showing signs of activity, while Arizona is home to some of the world’s most enigmatic volcanoes. These geological wonders are sparking interest for their unpredictable behavior and mysterious origins.
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00:00The ground suddenly starts shaking.
00:03Clouds of gas start forming in the sky, making it dark during broad daylight.
00:08Bits of the ground start swelling, lifting, and even collapsing.
00:12These are the tell-tale signs of a volcano that is bound to erupt.
00:17And this is what could easily happen again with Mount Spur.
00:21It's only about 75 miles from Anchorage, one of Alaska's busiest cities.
00:26More than half of the population of the northernmost state of the U.S. live there.
00:31There's also a huge amount of air cargo that passes through its international airport daily.
00:37So anytime a volcano this close to such a vital hub begins to get restless, people start paying attention.
00:45Just FYI, approximately 350 million people in the world live within the danger range of an active volcano.
00:53That means that around 1 out of 20 people live in an area at risk of volcanic activity.
01:00Alaskans probably wish that Spur's reawakening was fiction, but it's actually true.
01:06The Alaska Volcano Observatory picked up on several of these
01:10I'm about to erupt signs from Mount Spur.
01:13So much so that they raised the alert level to yellow, which means unrest above normal background levels.
01:21Spur erupted twice in the 90s, and it was pretty intense.
01:25If we were ranking volcanic eruptions on a scale from 1 to 10, these eruptions would rank a 6 or
01:317.
01:32Not that terrible, but still worth 10 to 17 million in damages.
01:37However, these numbers are nothing compared to Alaska's 1988 Redoubt Eruption.
01:43Another volcano that erupted and summed up a staggering $345 million in damages.
01:50Mainly because its ashes hit aircraft engines, such as the KLM 747 that lost power after all its engines went
01:59off due to the ashes.
02:01If people weren't paying attention to Alaska's unstable geology before that, well, they surely started to after it.
02:10When you think of the hazards of volcanic activity, the first thing that might possibly pop in your mind is
02:16Pompeii, Italy.
02:18Of course, that's the worst-case scenario, a city being engulfed by lava.
02:24Spur may seem innocent compared to Vesuvio, but it still took its toll.
02:28The last time it erupted in the 90s, and it threw volcanic aerosols over 60,000 feet into the atmosphere.
02:37Let's get our science straight here.
02:39Think of volcanic aerosols like liquid particles that are released into the atmosphere during an eruption.
02:45These particles are usually created when gases from a volcano, such as sulfur dioxide, combine with water and other particles
02:53that exist in our atmosphere.
02:55These aerosols can actually cool the Earth's surface, since they reflect sunlight directly back into space.
03:02And that's not the worst part.
03:04It can stay in the atmosphere for several years after an eruption, causing lots of health issues.
03:11The eruption unleashed blazing-fast avalanches of hot gas and ash called pyroclastic flows, along with thick, muddy floods known
03:21as lahars.
03:22Oh, and there were also the massive volcanic boulders.
03:27These rock chunks were huge, some over three feet long, and they blasted out from the volcano like nature's cannonballs,
03:34landing more than six miles away.
03:36All that volcanic heat melted part of a nearby glacier.
03:42Some good came out of Spur's first eruption, though.
03:45The main lesson was, volcanic monitoring pays off.
03:49The local monitoring was able to reduce the economic damage done by the eruption, especially for a city that has
03:55an intense air traffic.
03:57Spur is deemed as dormant for the moment, but it could go off anytime soon.
04:04You see, volcanoes are classified as active, dormant, or extinct, depending on how much action they're putting on.
04:12If it's still active, it's still rumbling and erupting somewhat regularly.
04:17Dormant means it's had some recent activity, but it's still lying low for now.
04:21And extinct, that's when it's been quiet for such a long time that we figure it's done for good.
04:29One of the U.S.'s most dangerous active volcanoes is Mount St. Helens.
04:35This volcano is actually responsible for the most powerful eruption in U.S. history.
04:40It's last blast was so intense, it threw off about 1,300 feet off its summit.
04:47Basically, the top of the mountain vanished.
04:50And if you thought Mount Spur's ash cloud was impressive, St. Helens wins the competition,
04:56since it launched its ashes 80,000 feet into the sky.
05:00Eastern Washington plunged into total darkness.
05:05But it wasn't just that.
05:07In a matter of three minutes, the eruption hurled 3.7 billion cubic yards of blazing rock and dust,
05:14enough to fill a million Olympic-sized pools across 230 square miles of lush forest.
05:21Actually, the earthquakes that anticipated the eruption started weeks before May 18, 1980.
05:27A ground shake of magnitude 5.0 went off, triggering a landslide on one side of the volcano.
05:36By the end of the official eruption date, 57 people had lost their lives.
05:41Nearly 7,000 big-game animals like deer and elk were wiped out,
05:46and millions of birds laid scattered on the burnt earth.
05:50Researchers don't think St. Helens will blow at the same magnitude again anytime soon,
05:55but they're keeping an eye on it, because this volcano is not exactly finished.
06:01By the way, the word volcano comes from the Roman name Vulcan,
06:05which was the Roman deity of fire.
06:07And they often happen at the meeting point of tectonic plates,
06:11which are the pieces of the earth's surface that fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.
06:16The so-called Ring of Fire, located in the Pacific Ocean,
06:20is the world's danger zone when it comes to volcanoes.
06:22It contains between 750 and 915 active volcanoes.
06:30The largest volcano located in the Ring of Fire,
06:33also the largest active volcano in the world,
06:36is the Mauna Loa.
06:38It's over 13,000 feet high, and it's located in Hawaii.
06:43Researchers say that Mauna Loa has been erupting for at least 700,000 years.
06:48It's most recent eruption began on the 27th of November, 2022,
06:53and it lasted until December 13.
06:56It's been quiet since the 80s until it decided to wake up again.
07:01Thanks to constant monitoring by the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory,
07:04it didn't cause any casualties when it last erupted.
07:08Scientists have been investing big time on volcanic monitoring,
07:13not only to reduce economic hazards, but also to save lives.
07:17The most recent attempt has been to drill into volcanoes.
07:22Recently, a group of scientists went all the way to Iceland in one of the world's volcanic hotspots.
07:28There are around 33 active volcanoes in Iceland alone,
07:33but the one that is the most interesting to them the most is the Krafla Volcano.
07:38The Krafla has erupted around 30 times in the last 1,000 years,
07:43and its most recent eruption was in the mid-1980s.
07:47The project named Krafla Magma Testbed, or KMT for short,
07:51is hoping to advance the understanding of how magma behaves underground.
07:56The main advantage of this drilling research is predicting the risk of eruptions,
08:00but it can also help to push geothermal energy forward.
08:04I mean, can you imagine having electricity that is run by the limitless source of volcano power?
08:11The KMT team will begin drilling holes deep into volcanic ground in 2027.
08:17They're aiming at reaching over a mile into the ground.
08:20After all, it's different to monitor lava activity when it's on the surface
08:24than when it is still below ground.
08:26This will allow researchers to listen to the pulse of the Earth, according to them.
08:33They're saying this research is as revolutionary as the first time man went to the moon.
08:38Oh, and speaking of that,
08:40I was shocked to discover that volcanoes exist all throughout the solar system.
08:45Yep, other planets and moons have volcanoes too.
08:48The largest volcano in our solar system is Olympus Mons on Mars.
08:54It's a shield volcano, much like the ones that make up the Hawaiian Islands.
08:58It's about 370 miles wide.
09:02If we transported it all the way back to Earth,
09:04it would almost occupy all of Poland.
09:08Yikes.
09:10Phew, you can finally send that last report for the day and breathe out.
09:14The weekend is around the corner, but just when you're about to hit send,
09:18you're alarmed by the low rumbling under your desk.
09:22Is it the light rail passing by?
09:24Unfortunately, that's not the case.
09:26It's a volcano speaking.
09:28What, here?
09:30In Arizona?
09:31That's right.
09:32The ground keeps shifting under Arizona,
09:34reminding us that Earth is alive.
09:36No panic, though.
09:38Let's arm ourselves with some context.
09:4120 American states have extinct, active,
09:44and dormant, currently sleeping, volcanoes.
09:48Among such states, you can find California,
09:52New Mexico,
09:54Nevada,
09:56Utah,
09:58and Colorado.
09:59On the bright side,
10:01Arizona's volcanoes are dormant at the moment,
10:03but it doesn't mean they won't go off in the near or not-so-near future.
10:09Now, how about traveling to Arizona to check the traces of its active volcanic past?
10:15They dot the desert landscapes of this state like spots dot a Dalmatian.
10:20There are entire volcanic fields southwest of Phoenix,
10:25east of Douglas,
10:27near Flagstaff,
10:29north of Kingman,
10:32and near the Mexico border.
10:34The most worrying thing about these fields is that even though they're not active at the moment,
10:40eruptions in this region might happen every thousand years or so.
10:43Well, the time seems to be up.
10:47The last powerful and destructive volcanic eruption occurred around 1,000 years ago at the Sunset Crater.
10:54Oh, this place is worth paying more attention to.
10:57And we will, but a bit later.
11:00First, we have to talk about hotspots.
11:03No, not that place where you can surf the web.
11:05In our volcanic context,
11:08a hotspot is a place where insane amounts of heat melt the overlying crust,
11:13Earth's thin outer layer,
11:15and form volcanoes.
11:16This heat rises from the mantle,
11:18which is located between our planet's dense, superheated core and the crust.
11:24Want to see an example of this type of volcanism?
11:28Welcome to the Hawaiian Islands.
11:31The Big Island has its active volcanoes because,
11:34at the moment,
11:35it's situated on top of the Hawaiian hotspot.
11:38The older Hawaiian islands were once there too,
11:41but later they drifted off towards the northwest.
11:45It happened because that's where the oceanic crust on top of which they sat,
11:49namely the Pacific Plate,
11:51moved.
11:53Now, look at the world's ocean basins.
11:55Yes, they're literally dotted with islands that sit on top of hotspots,
11:59like Hawaii,
12:01Iceland,
12:03Samoa,
12:04the Galapagos.
12:05Those are probably the most famous examples.
12:08But don't think that continents can't host hotspots.
12:11They can.
12:12But those are far less common.
12:15One of the most famous continental hotspots is,
12:17ah, I bet you know it.
12:19Yep, the one beneath the Yellowstone Caldera.
12:23By the way,
12:24the caldera is a vast volcanic crater,
12:26especially one formed as a result of a massive eruption
12:30that led to the collapse of the mouth of a volcano.
12:34The Yellowstone Hotspot is basically the creator of Old Faithful
12:38and the rest of the hot springs and mud pots for which the national park is famous.
12:43Speaking of Old Faithful,
12:45let's make a small detour and pay more attention to this wonder of nature.
12:50It's one of the most well-known geysers in the world.
12:53People have been coming from all over the globe to see it for more than a century.
12:58The cool thing about this geyser is that the likes of it can only form under very specific conditions.
13:05That's why they're pretty rare.
13:08Magma under the surface superheats pockets of underground water.
13:12The pressure there keeps growing until it eventually pushes the water upward with immense strength.
13:19A certain volcanic rock with a high silica content lines the tunnel through which this water escapes.
13:25Basically, it creates a unique pipe that can withstand unbelievable pressure and heat
13:31created by the water erupting above the ground.
13:35Old Faithful was the very first named geyser in Yellowstone.
13:39If you come to visit it expecting the thing to erupt every hour on the hour,
13:44you're gonna be disappointed.
13:46On average, Old Faithful erupts every 91 minutes or so, which isn't that bad either.
13:51Plus, you can download a special app which will provide you with the approximate time of the next eruption.
13:57But be very careful while visiting and stay away from the site.
14:01The water erupting from the powerful geyser reaches 204 degrees Fahrenheit.
14:07The steam is even more scorching, up to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
14:12It's hot enough to bake a cake.
14:15But let's get back to our volcanic hotspots.
14:19Scientists still don't clearly understand why there aren't many hotspot volcanoes on continental crust.
14:25One reason might be that the continental crust is much thicker than the oceanic crust,
14:31which is about four times as thick on average.
14:35Another reason could be that most of Earth's crust, about two-thirds of it, is oceanic.
14:41This means that there's less continental crust for hotspots to form under.
14:47Now, I bet those of you living in Arizona will appreciate the following info.
14:52We'll talk about a volcanic field right in the heart of this state.
14:56The San Francisco Volcanic Field.
14:59That's a massive area filled with over 600 volcanoes.
15:03Yes, they're mostly small, but it doesn't make them any less impressive.
15:07They're scattered across 1,800 square miles in northern Arizona, a giant territory.
15:14Interestingly, scientists are still debating about whether this volcanic field is actually sitting on top of a hotspot.
15:21But one thing they agree upon, the volcanoes in this area get younger as you move east.
15:27And this pattern matches up with the North American plate moving west over what could be
15:32A stationary hotspot beneath the surface of our planet.
15:36Cool, huh?
15:39The volcanic Hulapaloo in that area started around 6 million years ago.
15:44So, in geological terms, it's relatively young.
15:48As for the most recent eruption, it happened less than 1,000 years ago.
15:53The Sunset Crater, which I mentioned before, the one near Flagstaff, is the most famous vent from that eruption.
16:00The Sinagua people had to leave their homes at Wupatki Pueblo because of the eruption.
16:05That site is now part of the Wupatki National Monument.
16:09There, you can see how people lived in this volcanic region many years ago.
16:15If you go to explore this area, you'll notice that most of the volcanoes there are basalt cinder cones, small
16:22and steep.
16:23The Colorado Plateau has quite dry weather conditions.
16:27That's why the volcanoes haven't worn down much.
16:30Some of the best examples of those cones, like this one, called the SP Crater, still look like they appeared
16:36yesterday.
16:39But look around.
16:40It's not just cinder cones.
16:42The San Francisco volcanic field also has a stratovolcano,
16:47as well as some lava domes that formed from volcanic rocks with more silica than basalt you can find in
16:53places like Hawaii.
16:56It means they're thicker and don't flow as easily.
16:59Anyway, the stratovolcano is going to be one of the most epic sights you'll come across while exploring this volcanic
17:05field.
17:06Well, not the stratovolcano itself, but the San Francisco peaks, the remains of that giant formation.
17:13They stand tall at more than 12,600 feet.
17:17That's four and a half Burj Khalifas placed on top of one another.
17:21It makes the peaks some of the biggest landmarks in northern Arizona.
17:26They're not only stunning, but also sacred to the Native American people who have lived in the area for many
17:33generations.
17:35Now, unlike those superactive volcanoes in Hawaii, the San Francisco volcanic field takes its time, thousands of years between eruptions.
17:45But you shouldn't relax just yet.
17:47Geologists say another eruption is likely to happen one day.
17:52It will probably occur in the remote eastern part of the field, away from big towns.
17:57Phew!
17:58And if that next eruption is anything like the one that formed Sunset Crater, it would be quite the show.
18:05Lava fountains and rivers of lava flowing.
18:08At the same time, the next eruption might not happen for centuries, maybe even millennia.
18:14Until then, the San Francisco volcanic field will remain a hidden gem of volcanic history, waiting for its next fiery
18:23performance.
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