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00:00So, you might have heard that Yellowstone National Park is sitting on top of a giant
00:06supervolcano.
00:07That's a reason why the area can boast powerful geysers and hot springs.
00:13But it also means that underneath Yellowstone, there is an enormous magma chamber.
00:19In 2015, researchers from the University of Utah found out that this chamber was much
00:25bigger than everyone had previously thought.
00:28They even found one more reservoir with magma under the top one.
00:32Apparently, the more spacious the chambers are, the more magma they contain.
00:37Together, the two reservoirs store a glob of magma that could easily fill the Grand
00:42Canyon not once, but 11 times!
00:46But you know the most worrying thing about the magma chambers?
00:49They tend to push against the ground above them.
00:52As a result, the land in Yellowstone rises about 1 to 2 inches a year.
00:58On top of that, Yellowstone has the status of an active volcano, and its Volcanic Explosivity
01:04Index – yes, there is one – is 8 out of 8.
01:08Such a high number means that if this volcano erupted, it would be an apocalyptic event.
01:13To put it into perspective, the eruption of Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991, which
01:19is considered the most powerful in living memory, was given a mere 6 on the Volcanic
01:25Explosivity Index.
01:26Ha!
01:27Loser!
01:28Now, let's figure out if there's anything to worry about.
01:33In March 2023, the University of Utah seismograph stations recorded 354 earthquakes in the entire
01:40region of Yellowstone National Park.
01:43Sounds like a lot!
01:45Keep in mind that the most impressive event of the month was a mini-earthquake of magnitude
01:503.7.
01:54It was part of a swarm of 106 earthquakes that began on March 29 and continued until
02:00the end of the month.
02:01Yep, earthquakes apparently also come in swarms, so be aware.
02:07Experts say that Yellowstone's seismic activity is, well, kind of more active than usual.
02:12But it's really nothing serious.
02:16A geophysicist working at Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, called Michael Pollan, claims
02:21that the volcano won't erupt any time soon.
02:24For this to happen, there must be enough magma ready to erupt beneath the surface.
02:30There should also be enough pressure to cause this magma to rise.
02:35But neither of these conditions exist today.
02:38According to the expert, Yellowstone is stable now.
02:42At the same time, Pollan and his team are keeping track of all kinds of underground
02:47activity, looking for warning signs of possible eruptions.
02:51Some of them can be the frequency of earthquakes and ground deformation.
02:55Thousands of mini-earthquakes, coupled with extreme changes in the surface of the ground
03:00in that area, can be alarming.
03:03The team also monitors the temperature of the park's thermal features.
03:07That's another noteworthy sign of a potential disaster.
03:11That's why changes in geyser activity, as well as gas and thermal emissions.
03:16So despite the media claims that Yellowstone is due to erupt soon because the last eruption
03:22happened 70,000 years ago, that's not how volcanoes work.
03:27Experts say that it's one of the most popular misconceptions about volcanoes.
03:31They don't follow timelines.
03:34If a super-eruption did happen, though, the most worrying thing for us would not be the
03:39lava flows, and not an earthquake that would most likely accompany the natural disaster.
03:45No, the worst consequence of such a super-eruption would be ash and ashfall.
03:51Let's have a look at what it was like when the Yellowstone volcano erupted many years
03:55ago.
03:57There have been at least three super-eruptions in the history of the volcano.
04:01The most powerful of them was 2,500 times more devastating than the terrifying eruption
04:07of Mount St. Helens in Washington state in 1980.
04:12As for the most recent super-eruption, it was dubbed the Lava Creek eruption.
04:18It formed the Yellowstone caldera after spewing out an insane amount of dust, volcanic ash
04:24and rock into the air.
04:26Recently, scientists have also learned about two other previously unknown super-eruptions
04:32that happened around 9 and 8.7 million years ago.
04:36The younger of the two is now considered to be the largest recorded event of the whole
04:41Snake River Yellowstone volcanic province.
04:44Anyway, let's have a look at what was going on all those millions of years ago.
04:50Because I wasn't around then, so we're all assuming this stuff based on evidence.
04:56The first signs of the disaster appeared long before the catastrophe broke out.
05:01For thousands of years, the heat had been welling up from within the planet's insides.
05:06It had been melting rock beneath the planet's crust and leaving behind huge chambers.
05:11They were filled with a pressurized mixture of semi-solid rock, magma, water vapor and
05:16different gases, including carbon dioxide.
05:20All this scorching underground soup was expanding since more and more magma arrived with time.
05:26The land over the volcanic system was rising upward almost unnoticeably.
05:32A year before the super-eruption, Yellowstone gave a warning, a burp maybe.
05:37But that long ago, there was no one who could interpret these signals.
05:42Plus, those alarming processes were mostly going on underground.
05:46For example, decompression releases gas bubbles.
05:50While bursting, such bubbles can often power particular kinds of eruptions.
05:56Months before the eruption, small-scale earthquakes became more frequent and more intense.
06:01The ground in many spots all over the super-volcano got hotter than it used to be.
06:07Surface lakes and groundwater also became warmer.
06:10If people had been around at that time, they would have noticed unusual steam fogging in
06:15that area.
06:17Not long before the eruption started, the growing pressure pushed the ground over the
06:21magma chamber up.
06:23This created a dome-shaped uplift.
06:26Narrow cracks started to open along the edges of this dome.
06:30Imagine opening a bottle of soda after you've shaken it.
06:34Something like that was happening near the volcano.
06:37Think Mentos and Diet Coke.
06:39The pressure was released through the fractures when gases were bursting out from under the
06:43surface.
06:44So, right before the disaster, the ground around the Yellowstone volcano lifted.
06:50Geothermal pools and geysers heated up to boiling temperatures and got more acidic than
06:55usual.
06:57The magma started to rise toward the surface.
07:00At one point, the rock roof of the magma chamber couldn't resist anymore and the eruption
07:05kicked off.
07:07Small but constant tremors began to move the ground days before the catastrophe.
07:12But the real shaking didn't start until several minutes before the eruption.
07:17With a deafening roar, a massive column of lava and ash hurled up into the air.
07:23Within several minutes, a pyroclastic flow rushed across the area at a hurricane-force
07:28speed.
07:30Such a flow is a liquid mixture of half-solid lava pieces, volcanic ash, and hot, expanding
07:36gases.
07:37It looked like an extremely hot, toxic snow avalanche.
07:40With a temperature of about 1,300 degrees, it was burning everything in its path.
07:47The volcano kept pumping ash for days on end.
07:50For all living creatures, ash fallout was one of the most dangerous consequences of
07:54the eruption.
07:56Volcanic ash turns into glassy cement within seconds of being inhaled.
08:01Most animals didn't have a chance to survive.
08:04Even thick trees started to collapse under the weight of this dense substance.
08:09It only took a couple of days until a thick layer of ash covered huge territories.
08:15After the ash got into the stratosphere, the temperatures all over the world started
08:20to drop.
08:21The eruption was rich in sulfur, which is an effective sun blocker.
08:26That's why it soon got so cold that there was no summer in the whole world for the next
08:30several years.
08:32Animals couldn't find food and clean water.
08:36This natural disaster, called the Graze Landing Supereruption, was colossal.
08:41That's how researchers described it in their recent studies.
08:45It affected a huge territory.
08:47The streams of lava enameled an area as large as New Jersey in scorching hot volcanic glass.
08:54It instantly sterilized the land surface, wiping out all the plant life that had been
08:59thriving there before.
09:01Now if such an eruption were to happen these days, it would cover Colorado, Utah and Wyoming
09:07with almost three feet of toxic volcanic ash.
09:11Many regions would be plunged into darkness.
09:14And the coast, where most Americans live, would experience problems with the spread
09:18of the ash cloud.
09:20It would destroy crops and contaminate pastures, ruin power lines and electrical transformers.
09:26Well, so I'm sure you'll agree with me, it's a good thing that such a disaster isn't
09:32expected to occur any time soon.
09:34Hey, we've got enough other stuff on our plate.
09:39This just in, the world's oldest pyramid was built during the last Ice Age.
09:43And I'm not even talking about Egypt.
09:45I'm saying our ancestors might've spewed a 27,000-year-old pyramid in West Java.
09:51Gunung Padang is not exactly a shouting pyramid.
09:55It's more of a mound with huge scattered stones tossed all over it.
09:59But local people seem to revere it, and they have for centuries.
10:02It wasn't until recently that the Indonesian authorities decided to excavate a bit deeper
10:07to see what all the fuss was about.
10:09They ended up finding the remains of a human settlement.
10:12It was rather unexpected, since the mound is pretty high up.
10:16This excavation could only prove there were humans in the area as far back as 45 BCE,
10:22which sounds reasonable.
10:24It was up to an Indonesian geologist named Donnie Hillman to prove that Gunung Padang
10:29is the world's first pyramid.
10:31He used all sorts of new technology to support his claim.
10:34Our guy used carbon dating, which digs deep into the Earth and takes whole chunks of soil.
10:40He found layers and layers of constructions, like he was digging up Rome and finding ancient
10:44buildings buried in the ground.
10:47His research proved that there had been caverns and even rooms down there, which could only
10:51mean one thing – humans.
10:56As for the rocks located up in the mound, they were most likely strategically placed
11:00by the people who lived there back in the day.
11:03They needed a place to meditate, so they arranged things in a harmonious way.
11:07Their smooth surfaces wouldn't be the result of years of erosion, but the works of great
11:12sculptures, the Michelangelos of their day, let's say.
11:16If this is all for real, then human civilizations began way, way before we think they did.
11:21Our ancestors, the Paleolithic humans, didn't have what it took to be considered a civilization,
11:27especially not the tools and knowledge to build pyramids.
11:30They needed a lot of masonry skills, which weren't all that available during the last
11:35Ice Age.
11:37His peers don't share this view, though.
11:39They could believe Hillman's theory if he had found evidence such as charcoal and bone
11:43fragments.
11:44But he didn't.
11:48Flint Dibble, another archaeologist, says that without concrete evidence of human activity,
11:53there's no proof of an actual pyramid.
11:56In this case, all the data proves is that the soil in the mound dates back to 27,000
12:01years ago.
12:02He thinks the rocks on top of the mound just slip down the hill like rocks normally do.
12:08Only a complex society would have managed to build a stepped pyramid like they claim
12:12it was.
12:13But according to Bill Farley, an American archaeologist, there's just no reason to
12:18believe there were any settlements in Indonesia during the last Ice Age.
12:22Oh wow, there's a hole in the bottom of the ocean!
12:25It seems that the ocean has a leak.
12:28But it's not like a leak you would expect, where water is flowing out.
12:32It's more like a spring since water is flowing in, not out.
12:36This unique leak is something we know as Pythia's Oasis.
12:40A grad student was the one who accidentally discovered it.
12:44He noticed bubbles that were rising to the surface.
12:47Normally, bubbles in the ocean tell us there might be some hydrothermal vents, which are
12:52hot spots for some pretty cool things.
12:55These vents are actually like hot springs on the seafloor, but instead of bubbling with
12:59warm water, they release a fluid that has been superheated in the crust of our planet.
13:05When seawater seeps into these cracks and travels deep into the crust, it comes into
13:10contact with the extremely hot mantle.
13:13This heats seawater to very high temperatures, and as it moves back up towards the surface,
13:18it carries dissolved gases and minerals.
13:21When the hot fluid shoots out of the vents, it mixes with the surrounding seawater and
13:25quickly cools down.
13:27Just a short distance away from the vent, the temperature can drop to a comfortable
13:3168 degrees Fahrenheit or so, which is, as it seems, exactly what some creatures like.
13:39And there are some real weirdos living down there in the darkness, like ghostly fish,
13:43giant red-tipped tube worms, and a unique type of shrimp with eyes on their back.
13:48And some of them, like tube worms and bacteria, rely on the chemicals and minerals released
13:53by the vents to survive in harsh conditions.
13:58But in this case, the bubbling water didn't come from a hydrothermal vent.
14:02It was there because of a spring, and that's a bit more concerning.
14:06You see, the water in this reservoir needs to stay where it is.
14:10If too much of it seeps out, there could be some serious consequences, especially for
14:15the surrounding area.
14:17You can see this unusual leak along the Cascadia subduction zone, which is a massive fault
14:22line off the Pacific Northwest coast.
14:25It's a place where two pretty big plates that make up Earth's crust come together
14:30and slide along each other.
14:32The water from Pythia's oasis kinda acts as a lubricant between these plates.
14:37You can think of the fault zone as an air hockey table.
14:41When the fluid pressure is high, it's like you've turned the air on.
14:44That means the friction between the plates is reduced, which allows the plates to move.
14:49If the fluid pressure is lower, the two plates can lock together, which then leads to the
14:54buildup of stress.
14:56Not that they'll feel bad.
14:58In the context of tectonic plates, stress is some pressure or force that can cause deformation.
15:04And if this stress starts to build up, at some point, it's gotta go somewhere.
15:09When it's too much, it can trigger earthquakes, and most likely, not small ones.
15:14For example, a release of stress in the Cascadia subduction zone could lead to a magnitude
15:19nine earthquake.
15:21For comparison, the biggest earthquake we've ever recorded happened in Chile in 1960, and
15:27it had a magnitude of 9.5.
15:30The damage was enormous.
15:32So we hope the water will stay in its reservoir and keep maintaining the delicate balance
15:37between the tectonic plates.
15:40We've explored only 5% of the ocean.
15:43Who knows how many cool things are there at the bottom, waiting to be found.
15:47For example, check out these mysterious holes scientists have stumbled upon in the depths
15:52of the Atlantic Ocean, near the Azores.
15:56They're neatly aligned and are about 4 inches apart, or in some cases, even several feet.
16:02They resemble punctures left by a sewing machine.
16:05Some think these holes could have a biological origin.
16:08For instance, some fish may have made them while walking along the seafloor.
16:13Others believe we could be looking at something that's human-made, maybe left by a spiked
16:18tire.
16:19Of course, such holes are perfect for making up stories about creatures from other planets
16:23who allegedly made them, or maybe even legendary monsters like that one from Loch Ness.
16:31It's definitely hard to explain such symmetry of the holes, but one deep-sea biologist offered
16:36a pretty good explanation.
16:38He said there could be an animal burrowing beneath the sediment, and from time to time
16:43it could make little chimneys just to get access to clean water circulation in its small
16:47burrow.
16:48I mean, there are sediment piles around the opening of each hole, and they do support
16:53the idea that something pushed the soil from below.
16:57But there's still no proof these holes are actually connected beneath the surface.