The Truth is Out There TV - The Universe TV - Mike Benton - Horizon TV - Pompeii: The Last Day TV - Tony Robinson TV - Gates of Hell TV - David Attenborough TV - Jeremy Irons & Life on Fire TV - Mark Twain - Richard Hammond TV - Rome Revealed TV - The Roman Empire TV - Eric H Cline - Costas Synolakis - Atlantis TV - Rise of the Continents TV - Timebomb Iceland TV - Kate Humble TV - Andrew Wallace-Hadrill TV - Brian Cox TV - Mary Beard TV - Japan: Earth’s Enchanted Islands TV - Claudio Scarpati - Extreme Universe TV - Oliver Goldsmith - Clarence Edward Dutton - Ken Wohletz - Secrets of the Underground TV - Jay Melosh - How the Universe Works TV - The Pompeii Prophecy: Countdown to Destruction TV - In Search of … TV - Jim Al-Khalili: Secrets of the Solar System TV - Secret History of Humans TV - Pompeii’s Final Hours TV - Margaret Mountford: Pompeii: The Mystery of the People Frozen in Time TV - Andrew Graham-Dixon & Giorgio Locatelli TV - Conspiracies Decoded TV - Ash Cloud: The Week the World Stopped TV - The UnXplained with William Shatner TV - Storyville: The Fire Within TV - Lost Treasure Tombs of the Ancient Maya TV - Iceland with Alexander Armstrong TV - Pompeii: The Discovery with Dan Snow TV - Bettany Hughes TV - Chris Packham TV - Doomsday Volcano: The Next Pompeii TV -
There are roughly fifty volcanic eruptions going on at any time around the world, and many include strange lights and flying objects. The Truth is Out There s2e21, History 2022
Venus has many more active volcanoes than we do. The Universe: Mercury & Venus: Inner Planets, History 2010
One feature on Earth is abundant liquid water. It is thought the earliest volcanoes spewed out massive amounts of steam which condensed into rain and supplied the planet with water. But recently, new sources of water have been suggested. And water appears to be a key component for the origin of life. The Universe s5e1: Seven Wonders of the Solar System
If it’s not impact, then the next most dramatic instant kind of catastrophe is initiated by volcanic eruptions of some kind. Mike Benton
Fossil magnetism also helped solved the problem of continental drift. Horizon: Message in the Rocks, BBC 1978
Further evidence of continental drift has come from earthquakes and volcanoes ... Plate Tectonics. ibid.
3,000,000 years before the impact, the dinosaurs were already in trouble ... Did they stabilize or carry on dwindling? What is known is that their environment continued to worsen. For about half a million years before the K-T boundary the world suffered one of its most destructive periods of volcanism ... in what is known as the Deadly Traps ... Maybe the dinosaurs had died out gradually and for many different reasons. Horizon, What Really Killed the Dinosaurs? BBC 2004
The Yellowstone Super Volcano was alive ... Gigantic plumes of ash and debris will be thrown into the atmosphere blocking out the sun. Horizon: The End of the World, BBC 2011
The landscapes of Earth have been shaped by volcanoes. We’ve long been in awe of their destructive beauty. But only recently have we discovered that volcanism exists beyond Earth. The planets and moons of the solar system have volcanoes that are even more extraordinary that those of our home planet. The largest volcano of the solar system – three times the height of Everest – is on Mars. The most violent volcano is on a moon of Jupiter. Huge icy geysers fountain out into space from a moon orbiting Saturn. Horizon: Space Volcanoes, BBC 2017
Iceland: this small country has more types of volcanoes and geological wonders packed into it than anywhere else in the world. ibid.
Casts of victims buried in the ash preserve their dying moments. Precious objects tell intimate details of their lives. And the writing of a young man who watched it happen expose the full horror of what killed them. Pompeii: The Last Day, BBC 2003
Pompeii lies in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius. This volcano has been quiet for fifteen hundred years. The people don’t even know it’s a volcano ... Minor earth tremors plague the city. They are one of the signs that Vesuvius is stirring. ibid.
Around 1 p.m. on 24th August A.D. 79 Vesuvius roars back to life ... As the cloud of ash obscures the sun, day turns to night. ibid.
Thousands take to the streets and flee ... Pumice continues to bombard the city. ibid.
From surviving records we know that Admiral Pliny’s rescue mission was underway around 5 p.m. ibid.
Now heavier with denser rock part of the column collapsed and cascaded down the mountain in a great wave. Superheated ash and molten rock churn down the volcano in a racing burning avalanche. It’s now known as a pyroclastic surge. ibid.
The final surge kills thousands who have fled into the countryside. ibid.
It was this catastrophe that brought about life as we know it. Tony Robinson, Catastrophe II: Snowball Earth, Channel 4 2008
Volcanoes are Nature’s ultimate destructive force. Fuelled by immense pressure deep within the planet they shoot molten rock and toxic gasses high into our atmosphere. Tony Robinson, Catastrophe III: Planet of Fire
250 million years ago the Siberian flood basalt released enough lava to cover an area the size of the United States under one mile of molten rock. Siberia has long since cooled. ibid.
Toba is an Indonesian super-volcano. It’s last eruption is described by volcanologists as mega-colossal – that’s as big as it gets. The date 74,000 years ago. Tony Robinson, Catastrophe: Survival Earth
The Ring of Fire is the chain of volcanoes that surrounds the Pacific Ocean. It’s the world’s most volcanically active region. ibid.
The Toba eruption was the biggest on Earth for two million years. ibid.
The bigger the magma chamber the bigger the eruption. ibid.
The real killer would be volcanic ash. It’s thought that Toba’s eruption column reached the very edge of space. ibid.
It’s an epic story of giant volcanoes, colliding continents, and of how Britain was ripped away from what is now north America. It’s the story of the Birth of Britain. Tony Robinson, Birth of Britain: Volcanoes
Edinburgh had once been a volcano ... Hutton unlocked one of the greatest mysteries of the world ... The tell-tale signs of an ancient volcano. ibid.
In the heart of Nicaragua, twelve miles from the capital city Managua, is a massive chasm. A volcano called Masaya ... On seeing Masaya the Friars were convinced this was it. Gates of Hell, 2010
Another volcano long believed to be a portal into Hell. Could a momentous supernatural event have taken place at Hekla? ... Medieval legends say nine hundred years ago an enormous eruption at Hekla broke the barriers of Hell. ibid.
In one of Earth’s most dangerous places lies a final gateway that may lead us to the heart of Hell itself: Erta Ale. In the remote barren reaches of Ethiopia is a volcano that according to local legend is linked to the Origin of the Universe and as old as Creation itself. ibid.
Mount St Helens, May 18th 1980: It blew away three-quarters of a cubic mile of rock … Over sixty people stayed and were killed. David Attenborough, The Living Planet I: A Portrait of the Earth: The Building of the Earth, BBC 1984
Krakatoa … the loudest noise that ever echoed round the Earth in recorded history. ibid.
The floor of the Atlantic Ocean is split in two by an immense volcanic mountain chain that winds unbroken for 45,000 miles around the globe. David Attenborough, Planet Earth e11: Ocean Deep, BBC 2006
In places volcanoes have erupted to build great submarine mountains. There are thought to be around 30,000 such volcanoes. Some measured from the sea floor are taller than Everest. ibid.
Volcanoes: Many of them are still active. And in a region called Hell’s Valley some snow monkeys have found the perfect winter resort. A thermal spa where the water temperature is a blissful 41° Centigrade. David Attenborough, Life e10: Primates, BBC 2009
Burning ash snuffs out life. Little stirs so close to an erupting volcano. The surviving animals have a choice: stay and fight or flee the wrath. Life on Fire: Ash Runners, Jeremy Irons narrator, PBS 2013
This giant butterfly lives in a land of active volcanoes. ibid.
To survive they depend entirely on the mood of the volcano. Life on Fire: Pioneers of the Deep
Nicaragua: In the middle of the long string of volcanoes which make up Central America is home to Masaya – a huge volcano that has been active for over 30,000 years. Life on Fire: Phoenix Temple
Bats have made their home in the volcano’s labyrinth. ibid.
Tropical forest has established itself on some of the oldest lava flow … host to a rich diversity of living creatures. ibid.
Colombia: The tremors in the volcano are increasing, and the heat rising from the fires burning in its heart could explode the ice-cap any day now. Life on Fire: Volcano Doctors
But if the magma is thick and sticky like toffee the gas bubbles can’t escape so the pressure builds up until the magma explodes furiously like a bomb. ibid.
Iceland was created by volcanoes … These volcanoes haven’t finished yet. Life on Fire: Icelandic Volcanoes – Who is Next?