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Dive into the past and explore the catastrophic events that shaped our history, from the destruction of Pompeii to the near extinction brought upon by the Toba Volcano eruption. Discover the impact of these natural disasters on civilizations and how they influenced the course of humanity.
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00:00The story of Pompeii is complete chaos as is, but to add a little fuel to this fire, we dug
00:06up some groundbreaking facts, and I mean that quite literally.
00:10Hear me out. What if it wasn't the scorching sea of lava that destroyed the city of Pompeii, but rather
00:17an earthquake that happened during the volcano's eruption?
00:22Rewind to over 2,000 years ago. The year is 79 BCE. It was around 1 o'clock in the
00:29afternoon when Mount Vesuvius decided to erupt.
00:33Pompeians were going on with their normal daily routines when lava started taking over.
00:38The flow of lava was so quick that most people didn't have anywhere to run. The disaster took the lives
00:44of around 2,000 people.
00:46The lava covered most of the city, which then turned everything to ashes.
00:52Pompeii was only discovered during the 16th century of our common era, when an architect commended a dig to divert
00:58a river.
00:59It's a very well-studied site nowadays, but something unusual recently caught the researchers' attention.
01:07Scientists were excavating a site called the House of Painters at work.
01:11They were examining a couple of skeletons when they saw something weird.
01:16The skeletons probably belonged to two men around the age of 50.
01:21The analysis showed these men had survived the first surge of lava in the city.
01:26But they didn't make it out due to this second unexpected part, the earthquake.
01:32The men probably took shelter at the House of Painters at work, but the walls crumbled down when the earthquake
01:39hit.
01:39The men were found in a protective posture, like they were trying to shield themselves from something that was going
01:45to fall above their heads.
01:47Plus, these skeletons were not found under the layer of volcanic ash, but on top of it, proving that they
01:53really did survive Vesuvius' sea of lava.
01:57It turns out, this is not as rare as it seems.
02:00A volcanologist explained that the seismic activity during the eruption really made things worse in Pompeii.
02:06He said that this seismic chaos probably influenced the desperate choices of a lot of Pompeians in their final moments.
02:13This is not the first time the world heard of a possible earthquake in Pompeii.
02:18A guy named Pliny the Younger, who escaped the disaster and witnessed the whole thing, beat these scientists to it
02:25in his famous letters.
02:26Pliny the Younger was a lawyer and an important person back in ancient Rome.
02:30He was an eyewitness to the whole Pompeii disaster, and he wrote in one of his letters that the eruption
02:36was followed by a trembling of the Earth.
02:40Researchers do agree that something never added up.
02:43Pompeii is known to have really well-preserved skeletons, since the ashes kind of played an important role in preserving
02:49them.
02:50But the buildings were in horrible shape, making it hard to reconstruct the entire city as it once was.
02:57Pompeii was indeed one of a kind.
02:59It was one of the most vibrant and lively cities of the ancient Roman Empire.
03:04The city was huge.
03:05It could have been home to as many as 30,000 people in its heyday.
03:09The House of Fawn, for example, was a clear example of how rich Romans lived their lives in Pompeii.
03:16It was a huge house that even had two gardens inside, taking up the entire block.
03:21They looked like they were made of white marble, but it was actually painted stucco.
03:26It was clear to researchers that only aristocrats lived there.
03:30Then there was this famous forum.
03:32This is where most of the administrative part of the city life happened.
03:37It was made up of a lot of different buildings, like the Basilica, a hotspot for political and civil meetings,
03:43the McKellum, which was a market, and several temples.
03:47If we were visiting this back in the day, we'd see a bunch of men dressed in tunics.
03:52A few select ones would wear togas, those heavy, white pieces of draped cloth that look like bed linen wrapped
03:59over the body.
04:00Togas were mainly used on special occasions, since they were costly, hard to wash, and considered a traditional costume.
04:08Representatives running for office would use it during their campaign run so that commoners would identify them as candidates.
04:15One can't forget about the Villa of the Mysteries.
04:17Cool name, huh?
04:19It was called that way because of some mysterious frescoes found inside of it.
04:23Modern-day archaeologists still haven't figured out what the scenes painted are trying to depict.
04:28Probably some type of ritual or ceremony.
04:32By the way, a villa is simply a large suburban Roman-style house.
04:37It's not necessarily a super posh place where the rich and beautiful live.
04:41It's usually located on the outskirts of town, near the city's walls.
04:45The Villa of the Mysteries one, in particular, was found astoundingly well-preserved in modern archaeological excavations.
04:52It even had a manufacturing area inside of it, like its own little industry.
04:56It was common for richer Romans to own big farmlands, like Olive Gardens, for example.
05:02So they would also build a processing station inside their villas to extract the oil and package the whole thing.
05:08The amphitheater was where some of the richer men paid to put on gladiator fights for the rest of the
05:13town.
05:14It was built around 70 BCE, and it was one of the oldest amphitheaters of the world.
05:20It was even older than the Colosseum in Rome.
05:22This huge building could fit around 20,000 spectators at once.
05:26The seating was arranged by social class, so you could easily spot who was a member of the nobility.
05:32Ah, and in case you're wondering why it was shaped like a weird egg,
05:37it's because that was the shape that allowed for an unobstructive view wherever you were in the crowd.
05:43As every other Roman city, Pompeii also had some famous baths.
05:48Since not every house had access to plumbing back in the day, most people didn't shower in their homes.
05:54That's why so many Romans would use public baths, usually at the end of the day, to clean themselves.
06:00But make no mistake, this wasn't just a place for bathing.
06:03It was a cultural hotspot.
06:06The baths were made up of many different rooms.
06:09The first one was like a locker room, where people would keep their clothes and personal belongings.
06:14This is where the upper and lower classes mingled together.
06:17Someone's class could easily be identified by their clothes and jewelry.
06:21The amount of gold and silver worn back in those days is nothing compared to what most people wear today.
06:28Usually, the rich folks would leave someone to take care of their belongings while they went and took their bath.
06:33Because, yes, it could happen that stuff went missing while chilling and relaxing.
06:38The big focus on self-care nowadays was already a thing for ancient Romans.
06:43It was common that before taking a bath, olive oil was rubbed all over the skin.
06:48They would scrape off the dirty skin with a strigil.
06:51That may sound weird, but also extremely pleasing.
06:55The baths had rooms for massages.
06:58Some of them had reading rooms and even courtyards for some healthy exercise.
07:02Oh, there was even a natatio, or swimming pool if you're not fluent in Latin.
07:07After all, it was the Romans that said, a healthy body is a healthy mind.
07:13The bakeries.
07:14Bread was one of the main components of Pompeian diet.
07:18So much so that there were around 30 bakeries in the city.
07:22Bread was freshly made from scratch every day.
07:25In a special area of the shop, the corn or wheat was ground and mules would circle around to keep
07:31the mills going.
07:33The funny thing about Pompeians is that they liked to cover the exterior walls of buildings with paintings, much like
07:39graffiti nowadays.
07:41Their paintings, usually frescoes, used to depict what daily life was like in the city.
07:47Ancient Romans were very outdoorsy people, so coloring their walls seemed like a good option for them.
07:53A lot of houses had frescoes inside of them, too, to make up for the lack of windows.
07:58The paintings gave the house owners the illusion of more space if the painting was of, let's say, a garden,
08:05for example.
08:07The latest super eruption of Yellowstone occurred 640,000 years ago, and it was long before Homo sapiens saw the
08:16light of day.
08:16But we were around, during another, no less devastating natural disaster.
08:22This super eruption took place on the island of Sumatra around 74,000 years ago.
08:28That's when an erupting super volcano wreaked havoc on huge territories, sending up plumes of debris and ash that spread
08:35for thousands of miles and caused temperatures on the planet to plummet.
08:40The effects of this super eruption were visible as far away as southern Africa.
08:46Experts believe they could have impacted early humans there.
08:50By the time the volcano erupted, our ancestors had already been using stone tools and had likely known how to
08:56produce yarn.
08:58And some specialists even think that the Toba super eruption was so powerful it could push our ancestors to the
09:05brink of extinction.
09:07They claimed that Toba might be the largest volcanic eruption to occur on Earth within the last 2 million years.
09:14The eruption disgorged so much pyroclastic rock, it would be enough to cover the entire United States to the depth
09:21of a one-story house.
09:23About a third of that deposit piled up on northern Sumatra, while a lot more ended up beneath the floor
09:30of the Indian Ocean.
09:31The super eruption left an elliptical crater lake around 60 miles long.
09:36The caldera is so large, it's hard to feel that you're indeed in a volcano.
09:42Pumice deposits from the eruption remain in the canyon walls and go deep below the ground.
09:49There aren't many arguments about the amount of pumice and ash involved in this disaster.
09:54At the same time, experts aren't sure how much sulfur ended up in the atmosphere.
09:58Even some sulfur layers in the polar ice could be potential candidates.
10:04But so far, scientists haven't found any connection between them and Toba.
10:09But let's get back to the dramatic impact the super eruption had on early humans.
10:15It turns out, some not only survived, but even thrived after this natural catastrophe.
10:21At least judging by the artifacts they made during and after the eruption.
10:25The disaster might not have posed a serious threat to those of our ancestors who took refuge along the coast.
10:32Genetic evidence hints that modern humans descend from a few thousand people that ventured out of Africa around 60,000
10:40years ago.
10:41Why just a few thousand?
10:44According to some experts, the rest of our ancestors could have been devastated by the Toba eruption.
10:50After all, the super volcano spewed out a thousand cubic miles of dust and rock in a flash, leaving a
10:58scar in the ground that was dozens of miles wide.
11:00All that dust and sulfur Toba sent into the atmosphere potentially cooled the surface of our planet, which led to
11:08the appearance of glaciers and the lowering of Earth's sea levels.
11:12And since Toba might have had an important role in shaping humankind, scientists have been working hard trying to understand
11:20precisely how early humans reacted to this disaster.
11:24In 2011, several researchers found an enigmatic soil sample in South Africa's Pinnacle Point, an archaeological site overlooking the Indian
11:34Ocean.
11:35This sample contained some volcanic ash.
11:38After examining the layer, they found more than 400,000 artifacts left by early humans.
11:45Those ranged from heat-treated stone tools to signs of fire and animal bones.
11:50Based on this finding, the team suggested that early humans on the South African coast thrived after the eruption, living
11:58in that area for thousands of years and improving their tools.
12:03The region might have served as a refuge during and after the Toba eruption.
12:08A 2009 study suggested that the eruption could have lowered global temperatures by 14 degrees Fahrenheit.
12:15It would have made survival tough elsewhere in Africa.
12:18If there had been a volcanic winter, it wouldn't have been as cold along the coastline.
12:24On the other hand, newer studies claim that Toba spewed out so much sulfur into the atmosphere that the resulting
12:31aerosols could have stuck together,
12:33which would have limited their cooling effect in the long term.
12:37In other words, right after the eruption, temperatures would have plummeted, but only in some regions.
12:43And after three years or so, the effects of the eruptions would have calmed down altogether, becoming not dangerous to
12:49humans.
12:50Well, apparently, more research is needed.
12:54Meanwhile, let's figure out if we should watch out for any volcanoes these days.
12:58Last year, thousands of small earthquakes shook the ground near Iceland's Fartzengi geothermal power plant.
13:07Magma rose to the surface there, and now it has opened wide fractures slicing through the small town of GrindavÃk.
13:14The ground there is still swelling, and an eruption might happen with little notice.
13:19But, of course, that's not all.
13:22Over the planet, 45 other volcanoes keep rumbling.
13:26For example, Italy's Vesuvius, that infamous thing that finished the city of Pompeii in 79 CE.
13:34Over the last 17,000 years, the volcano has experienced eight explosive eruptions,
13:40followed by powerful pyroclastic flows, dense masses of super-hot ash, lava fragments, and gases flowing at high speeds.
13:49The volcano's last eruption happened in 1944.
13:54Mount Rainier is one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the USA.
13:58Its high elevation, chemical composition, and proximity to Washington's Seattle and Tacoma suburbs,
14:05and the volcano's ability to produce massive pyroclastic flows, make Mount Rainier a threat to consider.
14:12The heat from this volcano could potentially melt the ice and snow covering it,
14:16leading to rapid downstream flows of debris, mud, and rocks.
14:21The Novorupta volcano in Alaska's Katmai National Park and Reserve formed in a 1912 eruption,
14:27which was the world's largest in the 20th century.
14:31The volcano sent almost 7 cubic miles of ash and debris into the air.
14:36It also produced such a powerful ash flow that it created the Valley of 10,000 Smokes.
14:44Mount Pinatubo is located in a populated region in the Philippines.
14:48It became notorious after a 1991 massive eruption, which was the second largest eruption of the 20th century.
15:05Mount Gun, a continuously erupting volcano in Indonesia, had its last major eruption in 1963.
15:15It was one of the most tragic eruptions in the country's history.
15:20It lasted for 11 months, producing ashfall and pyroclastic flows that led to the loss of more than 1,000
15:28lives and serious property damage.
15:31People saw ash plumes above the volcano throughout 2018, following the eruption in November 2017.
15:39Japan's Mount Fuji hasn't erupted since 1707.
15:43That year, a massive earthquake likely set it off.
15:47In 2014, experts warned that Fuji could be at risk of another eruption following the 9-magnitude earthquake that shook
15:55Japan in 2011.
15:57Experts believed the earthquake had raised pressure below Fuji.
16:01The eruption in 1707 sent so much ash and debris into the air that all this mass even reached Tokyo.
16:09Should Fuji erupt again, it would affect more than 25 million people in the surrounding areas.
16:16The eruption of Washington's Mount St. Helen in 1980 was one of the most destructive volcanic events in U.S.
16:24history.
16:24Fifty-seven people, as well as thousands of animals, lost their lives during that natural disaster.
16:31The eruption also destroyed around 200 square miles of forest.
16:36Experts think that Mount St. Helen's history of massive eruptions means that future catastrophes are bound to happen.
16:43The next explosive eruption might send large amounts of ash all over the Pacific Northwest.
16:49No wonder the volcano is under close monitoring.
16:53One of Indonesia's most active volcanoes, Mount Merupi, has been erupting for centuries.
16:59NASA claims that the biggest risk of this volcano is pyroclastic flows, which can spread over vast areas and harm
17:07loads of people.
17:09For the last time, Merupi erupted in January 2024, sending plumes of smoke into the air.
17:16These days, more than 24 million people live in the areas surrounding this volcano.
17:22Heaven does vulnerably fail to death.
17:23So far, let's make some love of this volcano.
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