We are here in the Vanuatu Islands,
a group of volcanic islands in the Pacific,
about 1,000 miles east from northern Australia.
Below, Endu village on Ambrym island.
A year ago, most were destroyed by tropical storms phenomenal strength
But the village must also survive for periodic impacts
volcanic eruptions.
Interspersed by havoc,
Time doesn't seem to find a handle in the community.
We met Head Mael Moses,
here with a large family member.
This is Clive Oppenheimer,
a volcanologist from Cambridge University,
which brings us to this place
Head Mael Moses, you are the head of this beautiful village of Endu,
only a few kilometers from the volcanic crater.
You visit the crater and see yourself going to hell,
- into a raging fire. -Yes.
How do you feel when you go there?
Uh...
I feel very scared to see fire
Second, I don't feel on Ambrym Island.
I thought I was somewhere else.
And, uh... another thing,
I feel it-- how strong the fire is.
Does the spirit live in fire?
That's what we believe, These spirits are in fire.
The fire lights up through that spirit.
We believe that fire is burning through that spirit.
I read that there was a big eruption in 1968,
and that there is a ritual performed to stop the eruption.
And then tourists are not permitted for three years thereafter
to visit the crater
because it looks somehow the tourists have started the eruption.
What is that...?
Well, we believe that because we think that spirit
who are on the volcano...
if they see you, they don't know who this is Good?
But if they see one of us, they know that, uh,
because we are more or less related to volcanoes,
then they will just shut up.
Sometimes we say that tourists will not go up there Good?
Because you are a stranger That spirit, volcano.
As soon as I dream about a volcano, I see people in the fire.
People and women and men.
They cook their food there.
So, it makes me believe that there is someone who--
Their spirits are there.
Liquid rock, is that part of the spirit?
Lahar reveals demonic anger
who lives on that fire, volcano.
What is that ancestor, then, live under a volcano?
Yes, we believe anyone who dies here goes to the volcano,
and the volcano has become their village,
where you can talk to them and they can talk with us.
-Can you talk to a volcano? -I don't, because, you know,
I am not related to volcanoes.
But one of my brothers is. He is talking to the volcano.
His father - his father, When he climbed into the volcano,
and if he wants to smoke, he just calls
and the fire will go down, and take fire
and light a cigarette or pipe or something like that.
And if your brother talks to a volcano,
can he tell you what the volcano says,
- or is it just a secret? -No, this is a secret for him. Yes.
-Do you try and get the secret from him? -I have a few.
But Chief Mael Moses worries
about the loss of their ancient culture.
He asked us to follow him to a ritual place in the forest.
A long time ago, our people were cannibals They see someone, and they want to attack him
and kill him so they use it for meat.
And this is how they demonstrate it.
Many people here have lost their dance.
They have lost the idea of dancing.
Yes.
Custom dance that you will see this afternoon
only my family will do the dance.
This is a happier dance. The happiest dance.
After we are finished a long suffering,
then we love to go back and dance
and to express ourselves.
I studied here ten years ago with some of his colleagues,
scientist from Vanuatu
For you, is it strange to imagine it? that someone will come here to work,
to learn how volcanoes work, how to erupt?
I was very surprised to hear that that you are very interested
on a volcano. Yes.
I always ask myself,
"Why are these people? Want to relate to the fire?"
Good?
When I saw this, went in a helicopter yesterday,
I want to know, "Why does this person go -
Want to connect with the volcano, right?"
Yes, I don't know why you are very interested in volcanoes.
On the one hand, this film started for me ten years ago in Antarctica.
I am doing a film about scientists on this continent
which brings me to Mount Erebus, an active volcano,
one in three in the world
where you can see straight into magma inside the earth.
Magma is heated liquid rock from where lava can be extruded.
It is in Erebus, 12,500 feet above sea level,
that I met with strange and beautiful tribes from volcanology,
some of them are treated with with altitude sickness.
This is close to boiling magma, which often explodes,
we were told about the etiquette how to handle the item
One very important thing that needs to be remembered
when you are in the crater
is lava lake can explode anytime
If yes, it's important to keep your attention
facing towards lava lake
and watch for bombs that track into the air,
and try to choose the that might come towards you
and step out of the way.
The last thing you want to do is to turn away from the crater
or run or squat.
Your attention to lava lakes, Look,
and get away.
What really impressed me was seeing these scientists
work hard on the side of the volcano with such heavy loads.
Temperature this morning
is minus 25 degrees Fahrenheit.
My face froze.
One of them stands out.
Despite having a fantastic lava lake there,
with all that energy,
we still have to carry the old one gasoline generators get to the edge of the crater.
Man vs. engine, chapter 53.
Professor Clive Oppenheimer at Erebus.
Hands in pocket.
Waiting to start spontaneously.
I think he will wait a long time.
Have you ever seen two men kissing above Erebus before?
I like working with Harry.
Is it okay Thank you.
It's easy to start friendship with him.
On one of our first days together,
he insisted on practicing my own camera.
Let's turn it off, huh? Good?
Do you see them only in destructive terms, volcanoes?
No, I... I don't. Uh...
Something different. It's good they are there.
And the land we live in, uh, is not permanent
There is no eternity for what we do...
there is no eternity for human effort ,
there is no eternity for art, there is no eternity of science.
There is something from the earth's crust it somehow moves,
and that makes me like the volcano to know that our lives,
human life, or animals,
can only live and survive
because volcanoes are created The atmosphere we need.
Do you have a taste of different types of volcanoes and eruptions?
I know you filmed La Soufrière de Guadeloupe many years ago,
which is very--
Well, do you feel the difference in activity here with...?
Yes, La Soufrière is very unstable.
It was all the way back in 1976
when I first recorded a volcano.
This is on the Caribbean island from Guadeloupe
The mountain is expected to explode anytime,
and 70,000 people are quickly evacuated
because of the memory of an event which takes apocalyptic proportions.
It is known that, in 1902,
on the neighboring island of Martinique, Mount Pelee exploded.
The signal issued by La Soufrière in Guadeloupe
almost identical for what has happened
It was measured in 1902.
many times an atomic bomb, Hiroshima Size
So, I'm not interested in the volcano.
I am interested in one person who refused to be evacuated.
Uh huh.
75 people - 75,000 people were evacuated,
and he stays
I really found it - I found him sleeping.
I have to wake him in front of the camera.
And what's beautiful-- he's very philosophical
A very poor black farmer.
And I feel it, after a while,
He feels uncomfortable with us again,
and he sat down and started to tie his worn tennis shoes.
And then, suddenly, he sang a song against the camera,
and I know that. So, go, we better get out.
We met in Antarctica
during shooting from Encounters at the End of the World,
and I know a little about you. I've seen some of your films
when I was young,
and I know something about your reputation.
And we, on our field team,
we are worried that you will go to have us driven
go down to the lava lake.
There are some concerns that you will be looking for a long rope
with which we can be lowered in meters from this fiery lake
on Mount Erebus, volcano.
And instead, you are interested in what we do
and why we do it
For me, there is no personal excitement down.
There is curiosity. Yes, I want to see it at close range.
But because it's too dangerous, it will be ridiculous
We have, in some ways, similar...
Um, you know, both of us - As a volcanologist,
Of course, there are risks taking measurements,
and you ask yourself, "Okay, it's worth it Dead to get this measurement?"
And the answer is no, if you see it in that term.
But you always try to evaluate
how far you go to tolerate the risk.
I mean, even here, Volcanoes can explode now
and we can all be beaten by one of these five meter bombs.
I am the only sane clinical film maker,
- take all precautions -That's very clear Oh, of course.
I mean, you won't stay here if you're crazy
You must have consumed with pyroclastic currents
or gas flare or grizzly bear or whatever.
So it's pretty clear that you are sane.
I never doubt it for a moment from our first meeting
Deprived of volcanic gas.
Very good.
- That's a good swoosh -Yeah, good swoosh
-We are very blast about all this. -Yes.
But let that come to us. We will deal with it and move aside.
We will often discuss life and work of French couples,
Katia and Maurice Krafft.
They are famous for capturing extraordinary volcano images
But this means they have to get it very close to their subject.
Too close, because it will eventually change.
They were both instantly killed with pyroclastic flow in Japan,
with 41 other people.
This is an avalanche super-hot gas that kills them.
What is being rushed down this slope? at more than 100 miles per hour
has a temperature of over 800 degrees Fahrenheit.
I spend a very formative part my youth in Indonesia
I came to Toba When I was 19 years old.
And actually, in Indonesia, I feel like my second home.
I returned intermittently for years,
but I immediately felt at home.
The smell of kretek clove cigarettes, sights, sounds This is a very special place for me.
And I think of my career as a volcanologist partly formed from the first visit as 19 years.
Indonesia is the right place for aspiring scientists.
Actually, there is no country in the world that has more volcanoes than this one.
Clive Oppenheimer takes us to Mount Sinabung.
It has been relatively quiet the last few years.
The area that we are aiming for now has been declared a limited zone,
without access allowed anyone.
But, when we found farmers working there, we felt safe enough
A frightening relic still exists, from the 2010 eruption
Feeling this happened far enough in time,
no one suspected what happened next.
Fortunately, this eruption doesn't hurt anyone,
and we immediately left the area.
Only a few days later, We saw this on Indonesian television.
Seven people died in that place where we have our camera
To prevent such a disaster,
Indonesia has been established many early warning systems
This is the Babadan Observatory,
which monitors Mount Merapi,
one of the most dangerous volcanoes In the world.
And each of these stations is a seismometer somewhere in Merapi,
different distances, five, six kilometers from the top?
Yes it's true. So, we have a peak station.
We have a short east station,
We have a short station at Babadan Hill.
And also we are to the west of the station.
And this real-time data gives one of the most important parts
from the volcano monitoring program to assess what the volcano is doing.
-This is the heartbeat of a volcano. -Persis.
This one is electronic distance measurement
So, we have reflectors at the top of Merapi.
Then we measure every morning.
With this measurement, we plan the cone
So, it measures - This fires laser pulses
to mirror five, six kilometers away,
light bounces back and you have measured the distance.
And that can be shown whether the volcano is flushed
because magma rises to the cone. Is that--
Right. That is the idea for electronic distance measurement.
In the worst case scenario,
I imagine the observer is at risk if there is pyroclastic flow.
If it's too late for observers to evacuate,
are there any options left?
Yes, it's an emergency.
Then if there is an emergency, we have a bunker.
This is a thick door.
-Yes. -After you.
We put food and also oxygen.
We hope they can survive for one month.
This reminds me of the eruption of the Mount Pelée in 1902 which killed nearly 30,000 people in the city of Saint-Pierre
when pyroclastic flow reaches it.
And the only goodbye because he is the worst man in town.
He is a criminal. I think he stabbed a prison officer
through the cheek with a pencil,
and he was put in an isolation cage in a bunker-like cell.
All other prisoners perish, But he survives,
even though it burns badly, because there are small grill windows in cells,
and he then joins Barnum & Bailey Circle
and exhibited as a celebrity,
as the only survivor of this eruption.
So, in 2010, monitoring was very important in predicting eruptions and their escalation.
The first indication is seismic.
Many volcanic earthquakes.
This shows that there is a moving magma.
Also supported by this electronic distance measurement
And gas measurements?
Of course.
I know this looks sad, like a shoe box
with canned baked beans sticking to the end,
and also look like that pointing to the ground,
not at the top of the volcano here.
But that is something I am very proud of. This is something we built at Cambridge.
There are small windows here, and mirrors and some lenses,
connected to an ultraviolet spectrometer.
The device measures emissions of sulfur dioxide from volcanoes When the gas rises above the peak,
and this is a very important parameter
in many volcano monitoring programs around the world.
And the predecessor of this device we have worked here in 2010,
and it plays an important role in hazard assessment,
and estimated conservatively on something like 20,000 lives saved
because of effective monitoring Merapi in 2010
and evacuation that follows it.
I am very happy to see that still works Uh...
I hold, along with several colleagues, patents for the original prototype,
that we designed more than ten years ago now.
So, this technology is now found in volcanoes around the world,
and it revolutionizes monitoring gas emissions from volcanoes.
This is my baby. I am very happy to see it.
I have never seen it for two years, and here it is, still working.
Obviously, there are the scientific side for our journey.
But what we really chase is the magic side:
devil, new god.
This is a trip plan we have set for ourselves,
it doesn't matter how strange things can finally happen.
Here in the palace of the Sultan of Jogjakarta,
High officials are charged with their duties reconcile the ocean goddess
with a volcano devil.
The Sultan himself does not join in the procession
We admire the Mercedes that is parked, wrapped in plastic bubbles,
As if conceptual artist Christo had just been here
The procession stops for ritual close to the sea.
This will be a reenactment of sexual union
between an ancient sultan and the Queen of the Sea.
A doctoral student Clive & apos; s, Adam Bobbette,
serves as our guide.
Every year, they must reproduce this by giving rituals -
by performing rituals on this site and then giving offerings
to the South Sea from the sultan, including body parts -
nails, hair, clothes--
they launch into the sea to calm the Queen of the South Sea.
As part of their sexual union,
They also created a kind of monster
who finally occupies the volcano.
So, this hole is where they will offer,
because this is the site from sexual union
between the Sea Goddess and the first sultan.
I think it's coming right now. This is the box.
Here it is.
And now offerings to the sea.
The next day, we witness the ritual on the volcano.
Merapi, this morning, is not clouded.
After the ceremony, crowds go right for flower petals,
good souvenir
Strange magic.
Another confusing alignment,
This time between a building and a volcano,
Here, barely visible, seems to float in the cloud.
Strange buildings are still under construction.
Inside, we don't find anyone
on empty seats pretend to watch TV
On the floor, we met some carpenters.
Yes, I am one of the workers to build this place.
What is that? What are you building
I built this
The owner dreams. After that, he built this building.
A building that will be used for prayer.
Looks like chicken?
This is actually a dove, not a chicken.
But maybe it's also related to Merapi?
Maybe the owner thinks like that, points towards Mount Merapi.
I'm just an ordinary worker
who return home after work hours.
But it still looks like a chicken right?
Yes, most people say It's like chicken.
They call it the Chicken Church.
- A soap opera makes a scene here. -Yes.
It became popular after the soap opera was shot.
Last Saturday, someone from Surabaya who saw the show,
want to see the location, so they come here
Even stranger is the fact that, in most Muslim countries,
This is the Roman Catholic church.
Under the floor, even has its own catacombs,
may be a refuge for hermits,
as protection against volcanic impacts.
Of the many volcanoes in Indonesia,
none of the is not connected
to the trust system
For locals, all these volcanic landscapes
bears a magical name
Pasar Malam Hantu,
Flying Foxes,
Dancing Place of the Spirit.
Return to Lake Toba,
Clive Oppenheimer place s s scientific journey begins.
This is the biggest volcanic crater lake on earth
This extends like 100 kilometers into the distance
Frankly, it's too big to be filmed.
We should have ordered tickets on the International Space Station
to look down from above and appreciate the broad scale.
The eruption happened something like 74,000 years ago.
This is a terrible thing, extraordinary volcanic eruptions,
one of the biggest that we have documented
in all earth history for one event
The sky will be dark,
there will definitely be a fire in this northern part of Sumatra
as pyroclastic currents spread Radially around the crater,
ignites all tropical vegetation.
The eruption produced something 15,000 cubic kilometers of ash and pumice
being pumped high into the Stratosphere
and spread throughout the world.
Pumice is enough to bury everyone in the United States to head height.
It's like 10,000 times bigger
from 1980 eruption Mount St. Helens.
This is 100,000 times greater
from the Eyjafjallajökull eruption in Iceland in 2010
which disrupts global flights.
This is an extraordinary event in earth history
And there is even a theory that the eruption
almost sweeps us as a species.
Based on genetic genealogy human beings,
we can say that there are obstacles in the number of people around this time period.
And the relation between climate change Made by eruption,
depletion of tropical vegetation
that's the resource base for our ancestors
Maybe there are only 600 people from our species left on Earth.
We must have been classified as endangered species.
Somehow, we rebounded.
This theory is very controversial, however.
And that's because there is very little evidence
this is far into the past.
Especially, very few human fossils
to try and establish cause and effect.
If we want to find human fossils from 74,000 years ago,
we should go to Ethiopia, We should go to the Afar Region.
This is part Danakil Depression,
300 feet below sea level.
In terms of average throughout the year temperature,
This is the hottest place on our planet.
During the summer,
the temperature almost never drops below 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
Work conditions can only be tolerated in the middle of winter,
and even when it's very hot.
Besides, this is a tribal war area,
and you can only enter it accompanied by armed soldiers.
Depression is only part of the of long, stretched cracks keep going down through all of East Africa.
In millions of years, cracks will widen
to the continental line break,
drift into the Indian Ocean.
In a place like that, the shape of a volcano.
This one, Erta Ale,
is one of the three in this world where magma is immediately exposed.
Erta Ale is also important for its benefit to early humans.
A large number of obsidian, a volcanic glass,
extruded from the crater.
Look at that. This is transparent at the edges.
Beautiful Flakes
And still very sharp. You might be able to shave it.
Obsidian is very hard and fragile,
and therefore fractures with very sharp edges.
So sharp, actually, it was until the 1980s eye surgery performed with obsidian scalpel,
sharper than any steel
This amazing material has attracted attention from ancient humans to this landscape as far as hominids a million years ago.
On this site, a team of paleontologists
is extracting artifacts and remnants of from our direct ancestors,
Homo sapiens first,
that appeared in this area 100,000 years ago.
The amazing thing for me is the fact that the body was found
almost directly on the surface.
And more, why is this place special
and don't go back there where is the goat roaming?
This box appears a tool manufacturing site.
Hundreds of obsidian chips are scattered.
Dr. Jonathan Sahle, an Ethiopian scientist,
have dug up this prehistoric workshop.
And where does your passion come from? How do you fall into this field?
Well, I have - I studied history for my undergraduate degree
And that's when I started falling in love.
So, history isn't deep enough for me.
I want to look further into the past
and find out what it is, really, what makes us human.
We are a very unique species.
On the one hand, we interact and we collaborate
and we work together and we produce, we modify our environment.
But at the same time, we fight and destroy,
and we even become hazards for other species and the planet,
the fate of this planet too.
So, we are a very interesting species.
So, I want to get the root from all this
and see, in time, what is the basis of all this process
We are filtering through human waste
from 50 to 100,000 years ago.
Do you think we have another 100,000 years on planet earth?
I will say that, you know, thousand more years,
we will be in a very critical situation,
and so we have to learn from our mistakes
and we must work to improve ourselves the condition of our planet
so that it can have carrying capacity to allow our species to perpetuate.
If you have a time machine it can go
for only one time period in the past, when is that ?
Precisely this period
because this is...
I believe this is when we start so that it looks like us, um,
and when we, uh,
As a species, um, it starts.
So, this is before we become -
we get different skin colors.
This is before we are acquired different languages
and we spread different geography
So, here I want to be, right in the root
So, I want to express...
uh, my appeal to this land
by kissing it
And here I go.
Tim White Professor from the University of California, Berkeley,
lead the team here
We were immediately captivated by the wild style explaining something.
So, look...
powder.
The wind blows hard, that's a very good item,
it's all floodplains, all mud.
But everything starts from volcanic rock from the highlands,
from the gap margin,
over millions of years, is distributed here,
and redistributed by the Awash River.
If you die today,
Your body will rot on the floodplain
If the hyena doesn't chew all the upper bones,
Next time flooding the river, This soft and glare material
will be brought in,
and it will wrap your bones.
Let's go.
Oh, we will call this Highway Werner Herzog.
And what we do here opens space for cars...
so we can pass it with full crew tomorrow morning...
to return additional pieces from hominids
which we found only up there, on eroded sediments.
So, we want to pull the car as close as we can get
so we can get all the equipment there.
And we will start the extraction process to pull out the hominid.
How lucky we are have arrived now
and have you found this 100,000 human year?
This doesn't happen very often.
These hominid fossils are very, very rare Finding an artifact, it's easier,
because during any hominid period, they can make tens, thousands,
stone calling cards scattered throughout the landscape.
But they only have one skeleton, one tooth.
They only die once. So, think about it.
Acres and hectares of sediment erosion.
How in this world can we find that place
where the bones of dead people come to rest
and arrived right at the time of geology
erosion is carving this sediment comes out,
Exposing this ancient surface,
with monkeys and hippos and other things,
thousands of bones and artifacts entire surface?
And there is one person, one person in the world
If I have to say, "Get that person here on the surface.
He will find the hominid." You know who it is
That's Kampiro Kayrento,
the biggest fossil finder in the world.
Oh
This is Kampiro Kayrento.
He is one of the world experts, if not a world expert.
He's the person I want on an airplane to find something.
He can recognize what an antelope is, what is carnivore,
what is fish, what is baboon, what is zebra,
what is a giraffe, is that a rhinoceros He has all that.
Not from all animals, because you have never found an entire animal.
You find animal pieces, pieces of animal bones.
He knows who they are.
What do you have, Tim?
More pieces for puzzles.
Cranial dome pieces, have just come out of the ground
That needs to be sprayed.
This bone is maintained beautifully,
really silicification, really fossil.
So, we have now a number of different elements.
The most diagnostic and important, finally, this one here,
the... the top...
from left orbit.
So to sort of place it in Clive & apos; s head...
-Where? -The other side. This is it.
Good.
I look into the eyes of Paleolithic hominids living here.
So, that's three dimensions picture puzzles
Yes, no one will argue that the two pieces fit together.
That's perfect.
In evolutionary terms, here is in Awash Tengah,
We have a value of six million years from stone.
The ones at the bottom have the initial small-brained biped.
This is close to the top of succession
It's much more like you and me.
They have a chin, vertical forehead.
We still have a lot to learn about them, but it is important for humanity
is that this is the right time, 100,000 years ago,
and the right place, Africa,
according to archeology and genetic evidence...
to know people who are people
that develops from Africa to Asia,
to Europe, and then outside.
While these people live here in tropical Africa,
eat on hippos, Europeans are locked under ice.
Let's get more pieces. Are we ready to rock & nos; n & apos; roll?
Come on brush.
We have taken all surface-exposed bones from the surface.
We suspect there will be sub-surface bone here.
We have maximized what we think,
and now that's a problem go to the casino
and rotate dice
and hope we will get some good human anatomy,
fossils for 100,000 years, out of this unit
We will only brush and find bones.
Whoa! There is a piece of bone there.
That is not recognizable, but may join the others
and become recognizable. So, it's the keeper.
Every part of the bone is a guard.
See the part?
So, it is the stem of the extremity bone.
I can't tell which limb bone. This is one of three.
This is the tibia, humerus or femur.
We start. That is a good shaft piece.
Again, this is tibia - This is one big long bone.
This is this one, this one or that one.
You can see these things - they really turn into stones.
They are really fossils,
so they are fragile.
And when erosion comes and confronts them,
they have just been destroyed
So, we have to be careful to get all the broken pieces
My skeleton has 206 bones. Same with this person.
They are human.
But now we are looking for literally 4 maybe 4,000
because all those bones each fall apart.
I can already see something that discriminates against you and me,
which one, we are already here the same amount of time
You have issued half a dozen from this bone fragment.
I haven't found anything yet.
Obviously there is expertise that goes with this business.
But the biggest thing about the game
is a combination of skills and luck
Like Las Vegas.
Viva Las Vegas!
Courtesy of Bizayu.
Bizayu! Have a shaft of limb bone. Thank you.
What's wrong there, Clive?
-Ohh! -Ohh!
What
Take a look!
Clive.
Where is it located?
Take a look. This is the distal humerus.
Clear hominids.
When it's down from the upper arm bone.
So if we have to put this in our anatomy,
We have prepared it like that.
I know, Tim, I hold the wrong brush.
There must be something wrong with my technique
Come on, Clive, move to a hot place there.
I moved K.K. outside. This is your chance
-You don't think it's too hot for me? -This is your chance
You must enter here, man. This person found everything.
I was there.
He planted it.
That's just to make me look bad, right?
-I will hold on to volcanology. -Brush, man, brush!
He will lose this race.
Piece by piece after piece by piece
Maybe we will get everything back together again
If we are lucky. If Clive only finds something!
-I won't give up. - Come on, Clive.
Huh? Seeing...
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Whoa! Bingo!
- Is that human? - Yeah.
Alright! He understands.
Clive Score!
It's a relief.
Just come out of dirt,
Where it has been 100,000 years, maybe.
A small piece of my direct ancestor, possible.
This is quite heavy. It's, uh, fossil.
One framework from Kenya.
One frame of two meters,
500 meters, in Middle Awash.
And this one.
That's how rarely the skeleton is even some of the human ancestors
in that time interval.
Just sweep the first surface,
we might have 30 more pieces from this individual,
and all of this comes out about 30 minutes
just sweep
Like this stack we have burned go through the filter,
we will have a bunch of other bone pieces
that escapes from brushing teeth but will not be separated from our filter.
Hopefully, we will see a skull formed,
and we will know this person's anatomy.
I just - How great is the cornucopia
for half an hour of work with safety and brush.
It's just - just sensational.
One in three in Africa ever recovered
The time is very good.
What? Wait a minute.
There is a Konso dance that takes place here in the background.
-It will be good. -It will be good.
-Moya! -Moya means, in Afarinia, "head."
Have moya.
What
We have moya!
Extraction starts.
This fragment is very important,
because it is part of the skull.
It's time for Shakespeare's moments, maybe,
to soliloquize on... my ancestors inside.
I can see the curvature.
This is the biggest part we have so far.
When dusk comes, We walk towards the volcano.
Look into magma at night,
the inside of our planet reveals its strange beauty.
Compared to Ethiopia,
Icelandic history is just a blip in time.
Less than 1,200 years ago,
it was resolved by the people of Norsemen.
All Iceland is volcanic,
including the Westman Islands to the south.
I don't know where, in the morning
January 23, 1973,
an open fire trench
right on the edge from the city of Heimaey.
The eruption occurred without the previous warning sign.
As bad as it seems, no one lost their lives here
Fleet fishing has just returned to port
and save many of its inhabitants.
Forty years after the event,
Clive Oppenheimer takes us here.
The grass has grown again,
and there is still a curtain in the window.
But Heimaey is hardly an isolated program
No season passes in Iceland without eruption
This event took place in 2010
and is remembered as ash cloud then air traffic that paralyzes for weeks.
Very fast, the heat from the eruption
melting the thick ice sheet on the mountain,
creates a big flood.
But this big event is nothing
compared to previous eruptions in Iceland
This area is the site of what is called male eruption.
Starting on June 8, 1783,
all of these scenes explode into flames
as far as the eye can see, from the horizon to the horizon
Liquid rock rises to the surface
and open rent a gap of 27 kilometers
which stretches in this direction for something like half of that distance.
Overall, around 140 active ventilation,
build a cone above them with a fire fountain rising into the air.
And after a few months, the gap is opened in this direction,
again, another 13, 14 kilometers or more.
And a few dozen other vents open,
and they spit out lava to our northeast.
Everything we see now has been set in stone.
Lava has hardened and froze. But if we are here at that time,
we must have seen a burst of fire, fire fountain,
up one kilometer and half into the air
and then flow down to the ground again
And that builds a cone, as we are living now.
And from the bottom of this cone,
lahar spurts out at a phenomenal level.
This lava is very, very hot, very, very liquid,
and it's pouring valleys,
fill them into depths of 100, 150 meters.
This ancient event
affects the sense of mythical poetry from Icelandic people
There is a text that defines people's enthusiasm.
That is only in one manuscript.
For Iceland, it's as important as _ like the Dead Sea Scrolls for Israel.
The Codex is given as a gift to the Danish king
by a bishop Icelandic in the 17th century.
Codex Kingdom, or Codex Regius.
In 1971, Denmark returned it to Iceland.
Knowing that it is formed the soul of the country,
the codex is placed on the biggest warship in Denmark and escorted by the entire fleet.
No amount of money in the world will be enough
to buy this manuscript from Iceland,
Although it is battered and tangle and full of holes.
In the opening section, called "Prophecy about Allowance,"
there is an apocalyptic vision from the end of the pagan gods.
This seems to describe _ a very large volcanic event.
"& apos; On the edge of the sea, the land sinks, the sun is dimmeth,
from the sky falls the star of light and light;
gusheth, vapor and fire, gutting, who slides
The fate I understand, but furthermore I see:
of the great gods dooms that hit
Come the dark dragon fly,
Níthhogg, up from Nitha Fells.
He bears his fist as the plain he likes,
Now he will sink. "
Right on the border with China lies a volcano
in the Democratic People's Republic of from Korea,
better known in the West as North Korea.
It's not active for more than 1,000 years,
But it plays a big role in the imagination of the people.
For thousands of years, it's considered birthplace of myths
from the Korean nation.
Today, the _ socialist government co-opts this myth.
This is a pilgrimage site.
From the fog, we see a formation Men in uniform with flags appear.
We believe they are soldiers,
but apparently they are students
come to rejoice in the power coming from this place.
And now they sing in praising Mount Paektu.
Everything is different in North Korea.
Imagine if this was an student on a campus in California.
Unique opportunities present themselves to us.
Countries that barely hold open the door
for a scientific program with
between Cambridge University and North Korean volcanologist.
So we were invited to shoot there.
But all we see is an act of presentation,
and we do it.
There is no other way to see this enigmatic country
other than what he wants to display himself.
In propaganda films often seen on North Korean television,
images display monumental and strong emotions,
One amazing thing and I am very conscious when working here
is the purity of this mountain.
It has a very long history, will return 5,000 years,
as the birthplace of myths Koreans from this volcano.
And through the medieval period and in a more modern period,
this is a holy mountain from revolution,
where the struggle was fought against the Japanese occupation
70 years ago.
And mountain spirit is in all Koreans,
and this is something very, very special about this place
Looks like we're calm boat trips in the Norwegian fjord,
from what is most monumental volcanic eruption
almost 1,100 years ago, what is called the Millennium Eruption
Crater here about three miles.
And actually these cliffs are part from the edge of the crater,
The number of pumice that comes out in the eruption
will be enough to bury the entire city of New York.
Only the tallest building will come out from above.
On the one hand, if you see a crater surround us
and imagine that there are cones built above our heads,
and pumice and lava.
it is in the part of China, it is in Russia,
and there are even about three inches of ash
around the mountain,
and is there possible reawakening sign
In recent years,
we have built a really strong and unique collaboration
with scientists from Pyongyang
who have worked here for 10, 20 years,
so they have very detailed knowledge from the structure of the volcano.
So, we have learned a lot from them.
It is very difficult for scientists here to attend international conferences,
so we really share our experience and expertise
to better understand this volcano.
So, two years of data.
Yes, we have collected two years of seismic data.
Uh, that's quite extraordinary. Um...
And the seismometer sitting here will record all earthquakes.
It looks like a paint pot is connected to a laptop,
but it's recorded this unique data service,
so it's really something
Looks can be deceiving.
This is a very sensitive instrument there.
So, that's a note, you know, um, it's just a small movement.
Even we walk around here will create noise.
So, this is Mr. Yun Yong-Gun.
He is the deputy director of the of Earthquake Administration
and type DPRK side from project
Earthquake Administration Democratic People's Republic of Korea
give special attention to this project international joint research
Very important to be given to this mountain
just because around this mountain, our great leader President Kim Il-sung
fight against Japanese imperialism.
Kim Il-sung, founder father
from a communist country of North Korea,
utilize the myth of the volcano.
He established his secret military headquarters
in the forest here at the foot of the mountain,
so that it transfers its power and dynamics into the revolution.
This monument is the gateway to the holy land.
The carving of this group is about the life of the guerrilla campers
at Chongbong Camp.
They are very moved to put their feet
the first time in the country, and they cannot sleep.
You can see there are female guerrillas
who now sews the buttons for clothes.
A little guerrilla is now dreaming about returning home
after the release of their country,
and one of the guerrillas is now playing pipe
The guerrillas now rejoice over the view of Mount Paektu.
From July 21, 1979,
our great leader Generalissimo Kim Jong-il
come to this place and highly appreciated
very illustrated.
This is the biggest lake, number one.
And there we have lake number two And a little further, We have lake number three.
When our great leader Generalissimo Kim Jong-il came here in March 2003,
he really appreciates the beauty of this tree.
This is a mural mosaic painting Glory February.
Mural paintings represent Great leader President Kim Il-sung
and anti-Japanese hero Kim Jong-suk,
who are celebrating it the birthday of their first birth
great leader Kim Jong-il.
And here, the log of Kim Il-sung's secret cabin.
Daily, thousands of people do their pilgrimage
to this simple place
In the Christian world, this will happen like visiting Jesus' birthplace,
cage in Bethlehem.
For North Korea...
the founding father of their revolution is still alive
Kim Il-sung became the nation's president,
and then the president for life.
After his death, he was declared president for good.
Propaganda appears to create a quasi-religious experience.
Actually, life in a secret camp at that time
very difficult that they have no blankets at all.
That is why guerrilla soldiers, collect their wads pad
of their own soft clothes,
and then make the blanket for our dear Kim Jong-il.
Birthplace of the socialist revolution
manifests itself in collective formation
from North Korea.
In the country's biggest stadium,
more than 100,000 people participate in creating unique art forms.
Pictures of huts in snow not paintings
This is made of human pixels.
And this is how it's done.
Pre-arranged color card patterns are held and reversed in harmony.
Here, the sun rises above the landscape Gunung Paektu.
And here, father and son from revolution
All of this looks like a cosmic metaphor
for society in harmony in a unified pattern
behind the same ideology.
But in all this mass display,
I find the underlying vacuum and loneliness.
Because of North Korea's ideology political and economic independence,
and because of international sanctions,
this country is unique
The population in general has very limited contacts with the outside world.
There are no international telephone lines or internet is available to the public,
there is no radio or television from the outside world.
For our eyes, Strange to see people
not fixated on their cellphone.
There are no ads anywhere.
Instead, is only propaganda that is always there.
There are no newsstands,
only official party newspapers on the screen.
In the subway, on the streets, almost everywhere,
You will find pictures of leaders, always around the volcano.
Back to the mountains, we speak to historians assigned to us.
We ask about the photos and the right location
from where they have been taken
He might be standing right in that place you stand now
Not this place, but up there at Puncak Janggun.
Yes. They are famous photos. We know them.
About this monument, does it date back to what time, roughly?
This originated in the early 20th century.
It was founded by heavenly people living around this area
And according to the inscription on the monument,
They pray to Mount Paektu and Lake Chon here
to give birth to a prominent person
Who can give prosperity and happiness to the Korean nation.
And that person materializes?
You are right.
This sad nation is saved and saved
only with our great leader, without fear of patriot Kim Il-sung,
who are fighting against Japanese imperialists And how do you feel, as a historian,
with thousands of years ago behind you,
how do you feel personally? Is there pride? Is there patriotism?
Eh...
My question is intended to get a personal response
However, personal opinion Looks like we are mirror images
from omnipotent ideologies from their people and leadership.
All Koreans Often climb this mountain,
but every time they climb this mountain,
they have new feelings, serious feelings,
and at the same time, they make a new determination
to work harder for the country with patriotism
And all Koreans are now singing the song
whose title is "Let's Go to Mount Paektu."
And that clearly reflects the spirit of Korean people.
We are back now where we started,
Islands of Vanuatu,
This time on Tanna Island in the south.
There are active volcanoes here, Gunung Yasur.
Similar to North Korea, This volcano has created a new god.
John Frum,
the mystical American G.I. who descends from the cloud.
Every Friday night, the islanders celebrate their cult.
Ishak's head from John Frum's village
strict control of dogma from new faith.
Different denominations and even splits in the church
seems to have materialized,
and so we are only allowed to talk to him and his child.
He flies Stars and Stripes because John Frum is an American
who promise to return with excessive consumer goods cargo.
I understand that John Frum Will one day appear to everyone
and that he will bring many things -
Chewing gum, refrigerator, Cadillac, maybe Boeing airplanes
He thinks that -
He said that it was a promise It was made someday.
He said that it was a promise made by spirit
Someday, it will be like that America will do all that.
Does John Frum like God?
Mm-hmm.
John Frum is like a god to us.
One god
Dan--
John Frum is like a god, and it's like--
John Frum is like a gate.
It's like Jesus. You must pass before going to God
What happens when people die?
He believes is that when the dead are buried,
they are in a room...
waiting for the Last Kingdom
Will they meet John Frum? in the Last Kingdom?
So, he thinks that the Last Kingdom,
John Frum is like a walking person, like Jesus
In the Last Kingdom, it is estimated that he will look for people.
The child has a direct meeting with John Frum.
You then become the leader of this village, John Frum and I understand that you have spent time living in a volcano
You spend a few nights there. What are you doing,
and are you talking to John Frum? while you are there
He answered yes, he was there.
He stayed there for a full night.
He once saw someone and he talked to him.
We - It is said that John Frum uses volcanoes as portals,
a door, to travel from Tanna to America.
Does John Frum live in a volcano?
He told us that John Frum had a special room where he lived.
But there is one day we will meet him
in a different form from someone, like Jesus
When I was at the volcano...
I feel amazing to watch, but also quite terrible.
How do you feel to spend all night? in the crater?
Are you afraid
He tells us that when he goes there
and spend the night, he is not afraid
because he knows that is God,
and he is one That allows him to go there.
So he entered the volcano and he saw him,
and he speaks to Him. They chat.
Are you allowed to tell us? what is the talk?
he doesn't tell his father
and even his followers followed John Frum.
That's just for him.
I am a volcano. Can you not whisper to me in my ear?
It's hard to divert your eyes from fire
which burns far below our feet,
everywhere, under the crust of the earth from continents and sea beds.
This is a fire that wants to explode,
and that doesn't matter about what we do here
This boiling mass is just monumental cleverly
for cockroaches running around, retarded reptiles
and savage humans alike.
When I go there...
I started walking towards the lava lake.
I don't think that I will see something like what I see
And when I look down there...
I thought I was looking at in sea water
But the color is red.
And I don't understand.
I started thinking about it why there is water there
and the water is red.
I don't understand
I thought it might be this fire
One day it will come for that sea water.
So, I'm very scared.
According to our culture, I think the volcano will...
will destroy everything
I believe that.
Because I heard, from various circles,
that there is a volcano around the world.
And I think that, uh... I believe that someday
This volcano will erupt,
and those in Lopevi,
and they will join together and will burn everyone.
This is what I think.
I think everything will melt.
That's what I think.
Everything will melt.
Stone, soil...
trees and so on, will melt.
Like water.
So, I believe that this volcano will destroy this world someday.