from sleeping in an active volcano
to climbing one with a disability
some people just don't seem to mind the
heat
here are five eruptive stories that will
melt your mind
i have been skiing since i was four
years old
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my name is claudio and i ski over
volcanoes
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i spent most part of a year close to the
mountain
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when i spend time away from it i feel
nostalgic likely if something is missing
to my soul to my life and in this moment
i take my ski and i go up
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mount titan is located on the east coast
of sicily
it is known as the tallest and active
vulcan in the europe
the risks to climbing down titan are the
same of any other mountain
you have to be careful and respect what
surrounding us
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the view from the top is unique you can
see the landscape changing many times
from green woods
to desert volcanic area
all the lava flow and the coast
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black powder is a volcanic sand and it's
formed during the eruption
it's incredible
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bye
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in upstate new york there are two guys
creating some dangerous and risky
explosions all
in the name of science
this is ingo hi mingo sander i work for
the center for giz studies at the
university of buffalo and this is andrew
my name is andrew harp i am a phd
student at the university at buffalo
they're researchers studying large-scale
disasters
more specifically volcanic eruptions
currently we work on an experiment on
explosive magma water interaction
but there's a problem there's no lava in
upstate new york
so they made their
own they start with rocks 50 to 60
kilograms of rock
we melt it in our furnace
this takes four hours roughly the rock
liquefies and can reach more than 2300
degrees fahrenheit we then pour the
molten rock from that furnace into a
container and into that container we
inject water
and hope that
the water interacts dramatically with
our molten rock
it's almost impossible without being
there to understand how much heat is
put off
by this this lava
i have to wear a aluminized suit
a jacket and
kind of pants i have to wear that for
protection for from potential splashes
and most importantly from the heat
radiation that comes out there
we want to understand better magma water
interaction and that actually occurs
in
explosive volcanic eruptions
the goal would be to be able to
predict exactly the size and timing of
the reaction that we have
i feel uh fortunate to be working with
something that's so unique that it's
only done in a few places in the entire
world right now and to be at the
forefront of this research is great
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what may look like a beautiful green
oasis is actually the top of an active
volcano
located in java indonesia is the koala
gen volcano
at its top sits a highly acidic crater
lake
the water is 90 degrees fahrenheit and
appears bluish green no species live in
or around the water as the conditions
are too harsh for nature to survive
at night a rare phenomenon can be seen
unlike any other volcano in the world
koala gen emits what appears to be
bright blue flames
this blue glow is not caused by lava but
instead from a combustion of sulfuric
gasses
once the gas is cool a bright yellow
sulfur forms which is mined and sold
miners use steel bars to break off
portions of the sulfur and carry up to
200 pounds back down the volcano
the emitted gases are toxic if inhaled
making this strenuous work incredibly
dangerous
while this unique volcano may be home to
one of the world's most grueling jobs it
is also a site worth seeing
when we think about volcanoes we imagine
these eruptive hot violent gateways to
the center of the earth
and i spoke to a scientist who spends
the night in them my name is kent simms
and i'm a professor of isotope geology
at the university of wyoming ken studies
among other things volcanoes and it's
for a few reasons but one in particular
you can start to forecast this
likelihood for another eruption
to get his research data he has to spend
time in them sometimes overnight
so we're talking about what it feels
like
to spend the night in an active volcano
you're in a big crater it's spectacular
this is like being in a steep deep
canyon except for now it's circular all
the way around east there's a lava lake
below you and the summit is above you
volcanoes have a particular smell
because they're full of gas
those gases are very sulfurous so they
smell
um strong and accurate they also have
acids in them and so they're toxic the
air can be dangerous to breathe in you
know you oftentimes are wearing gas
masks but it's pretty hard to sleep with
gas masks
and it's noisy
it's echoey typically you'll hear
a scene
instead of a campfire there's an active
lava lake
looking at a lava lake is just
phenomenal that way it's it's
mesmerizing and there's something about
the the red warm glow it's unworldly
there's a lot to distract you from sleep
but sims says none of that matters
you you don't want to go to bed i mean
this is how the earth's surface formed
was from volcanoes and if you're in the
moment
it's amazing
that's so cool
we came together to accomplish a mission
we will be walking around
six to eight hours we want to
show the world that with the proper
prosthetic care and arthritic care it
makes a big difference in someone's life
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my name is kiante
story i lost my leg back in 2010
overseas in afghanistan and with the
united states marines
after my injury i felt lost and confused
a lot of questions of why why am i still
alive why am i here suicidal thoughts
which made waking up every day very
difficult
being active for me just became my
therapy
i found myself inspiring others and
motivating others to be active as well
currently we're in ecuador climbing for
range of motion project
which is a local organization providing
prosthetic and orthotic care to
countries who don't have a means to
provide such care to their
citizens
we have 10 to 12 amputees climbing
high-end volcano we all come from
different backgrounds and all different
injuries to be a part of such a team
to me is very
very important and it's very inspiring
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summoning cayambe from the refuge will
take about 12 hours we have the
equipment and the gear but we have to be
patient and wait for the right weather
to get to the summit safely
whether we summit caiamba volcano or not
it is just a small part of what we're
here to do with this climb i hope others
will learn a lot about themselves and
their abilities
they can do anything they want to
there's nothing that is impossible
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hey everybody my name is drew beebe and
i'm here in my terrible home studio that
i've made during quarantine and i wanted
to tell you about our new podcast called
great big story it's got more surprising
and delightful stories just like this
one so head over to apple podcast to
spotify wherever you get your favorite
podcasts and download great big story