进入地狱 Into the Inferno(EN)Subtitles
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1 00:00:11 [soft choral music playing]
2 00:01:06 [rumbling]
3 00:02:06 [Werner] We are herein the Vanuatu Archipelago,
4 00:02:09 a cluster of volcanic islandsin the Pacific,
5 00:02:13 about 1,000 miles eastof northern Australia.
6 00:02:19 Below, the village of Enduon the island of Ambrym.
7 00:02:25 A year ago, most of it was destroyedby a tropical storm
8 00:02:29 of phenomenal force.
9 00:02:32 But the village also has to endureto the periodic fallout
10 00:02:36 of volcanic eruptions.
11 00:02:38 Punctuated by catastrophes,
12 00:02:41 time does not seem to have found a gripon the community.
13 00:02:49 We met Chief Mael Moses,
14 00:02:51 here with members of his large family.
15 00:02:57 This is Clive Oppenheimer,
16 00:02:59 a volcanologistfrom Cambridge University,
17 00:03:02 who brought us to this place.
18 00:03:05 Chief Mael Moses, you're the headof this beautiful village of Endu,
19 00:03:08 just a few kilometersfrom the volcano crater.
20 00:03:11 You visited the craterand looked yourself into the inferno,
21 00:03:17 -into the raging fire.-Yeah.
22 00:03:19 How did you feel when you went there?
23 00:03:23 Uh...
24 00:03:26 I felt very frightenedto look at the fire.
25 00:03:32 Secondly, I feel that I was notin the island of Ambrym.
26 00:03:39 I thought I was somewhere else.
27 00:03:41 And, uh... the other thing,
28 00:03:45 I feel that--how powerful that fire is.
29 00:03:55 [rumbling]
30 00:03:56 [Clive]Do spirits live in the fire?
31 00:04:00 [Mael] That's how we believe,that spirits are in the fire.
32 00:04:03 The fire is burningthrough that spirit.
33 00:04:09 We believe that the fireis burning through that spirit.
34 00:04:14 I read that there was a big eruptionin 1968,
35 00:04:20 and that there were rituals performedto stop the eruption.
36 00:04:25 And then tourists were not allowedfor three years afterwards
37 00:04:30 to visit the crater
38 00:04:32 because it was seen that somehowthe tourists had started the eruption.
39 00:04:36 Is that...?
40 00:04:37 Well, we believe thatbecause we thought that the spirits
41 00:04:42 that are in the volcano...
42 00:04:44 if they look at you,they don't know who is this. Okay?
43 00:04:48 But if they look at one of us,they know that, uh,
44 00:04:52 because we are more or lessrelated to the volcano,
45 00:04:55 then they will just be quiet.
46 00:04:59 Sometimes we say that touristswon't go up there. Okay?
47 00:05:04 Because you are foreignersto that spirit, the volcano.
48 00:05:09 [chuckles]
49 00:05:13 Once I dreamt about volcano,I saw people in that fire.
50 00:05:21 People and women and men.
51 00:05:24 They're cooking their food in there.
52 00:05:26 So, it makes me believethat there is somebody who is--
53 00:05:30 their spirits are there.
54 00:05:34 [Clive] The molten rock,is that part of the spirit?
55 00:05:38 [Mael] The lava expressesthe anger of the devil
56 00:05:44 who are living in that fire, volcano.
57 00:05:51 Do the ancestors, then,live under the volcano?
58 00:05:55 Yes, we believe that anybody who dies heregoes to the volcano,
59 00:06:01 and that volcano has become their village,
60 00:06:05 where you can talk to themand they can talk to us.
61 00:06:10 -Can you talk to the volcano?-I'm not, because, you know,
62 00:06:14 I'm not related to the volcano.
63 00:06:17 But one of my brothers is.He was talking to the volcano.
64 00:06:22 His father-- His father,when he goes up to the volcano,
65 00:06:28 and if he wants to smoke,he just calls out
66 00:06:32 and the fire will come down,and take the fire
67 00:06:35 and light his cigarette or pipeor something like that.
68 00:06:39 And if you brother talks to the volcano,
69 00:06:42 is he allowed to tell youwhat the volcano has said,
70 00:06:45 -or is it just a secret?-No, it's a secret for him. Yes.
71 00:06:48 -Do you try and get the secret out of him?-I've got some.
72 00:06:51 [both laugh]
73 00:06:53 [birds squawking]
74 00:06:55 [Werner]But Chief Mael Moses is worried
75 00:06:58 about the loss of their ancient culture.
76 00:07:01 He asked us to follow himto a ritual site in the jungle.
77 00:07:05 [villagers shouting]
78 00:07:10 Once upon a time,our people were cannibal.
79 00:07:15 They see somebody,and they would like to attack him
80 00:07:20 and kill himso that they use it for meat.
81 00:07:24 And this how they demonstrate it.
82 00:07:30 [all snarling and shrieking]
83 00:07:49 [Mael] Many people herehave lost the dance.
84 00:07:52 They have lost the idea of dancing.
85 00:07:57 Yes.
86 00:07:59 The custom dancethat you're going to see this afternoon,
87 00:08:05 just my family will perform the dance.
88 00:08:15 This a happier dance.The happiest dance.
89 00:08:19 After we have gone througha long suffering,
90 00:08:22 then we are happy to go backand dance
91 00:08:25 and to express ourselves.
92 00:08:27 [chanting and singing]
93 00:08:47 [drums playing, singing continues]
94 00:09:40 I studied here ten years agowith some colleagues,
95 00:09:44 scientists from Vanuatu.
96 00:09:45 For you, is it strange to imaginethat someone would come here to work,
97 00:09:50 to study how the volcano works,how it erupts?
98 00:09:54 I'm very surprised to hearthat you people are very interested
99 00:09:59 in the volcano. Yeah.
100 00:10:02 I always ask myself,
101 00:10:04 "Why do these peoplewant to do with that fire?"
102 00:10:08 Okay?[chuckles]
103 00:10:11 When looking at this,going in the helicopter yesterday,
104 00:10:16 I was wondering,"Why this man is going--
105 00:10:20 wanting to do with that volcano, eh?"
106 00:10:23 -[chuckles]-[rooster crows nearby]
107 00:10:28 Yes, I don't know whyyou are so interested in volcano.
108 00:10:34 [Werner] In a way, this film startedfor me ten years ago in Antarctica.
109 00:10:40 I was doing a film about scientistson this continent
110 00:10:44 which took me to Mount Erebus,an active volcano,
111 00:10:48 one of the three in the world
112 00:10:50 where you can look straightinto the magma of the inner earth.
113 00:10:55 Magma is the heated molten rockfrom which lava can be extruded.
114 00:11:01 It was on Erebus,12,500 feet above sea level,
115 00:11:06 that I met a strange and wonderful tribeof volcanologists,
116 00:11:10 some of them overcomeby altitude sickness.
117 00:11:22 This close to the boiling magma,which frequently explodes,
118 00:11:26 we were briefed on the etiquetteof how to deal with the stuff.
119 00:11:33 [man] One very important thingto keep in mind
120 00:11:35 when you're on the crater
121 00:11:37 is that the lava lakecould explode at any time.
122 00:11:41 If it does, it's vitalto keep your attention
123 00:11:45 faced toward the lava lake
124 00:11:46 and watch for bombsthat are tracking up into the air,
125 00:11:51 and try to pick out the onesthat might be coming toward you
126 00:11:54 and step out of the way.
127 00:11:56 The last thing you want to dois turn away from the crater
128 00:11:59 or run or crouch down.
129 00:12:01 Keep your attention toward the lava lake,look up,
130 00:12:04 and move out of the way.
131 00:12:06 [choral music playing]
132 00:12:09 [Werner] What really impressed mewas seeing these scientists
133 00:12:12 toiling up the side of the volcanowith such heavy loads.
134 00:12:18 The temperatureon this particular morning
135 00:12:21 was minus-25 degrees Fahrenheit.
136 00:12:25 My face is frozen.[chuckles]
137 00:12:28 [cranking]
138 00:12:29 [Werner]One of them stood out.
139 00:12:32 Despite having that fantasticlava lake down there,
140 00:12:35 with all that energy,
141 00:12:36 we still have to bring oldpetrol generators up to the crater rim.
142 00:12:46 [clicking]
143 00:12:52 Man vs. machine, chapter 53.
144 00:12:55 Professor Clive Oppenheimer on Erebus.
145 00:13:00 Hands in pockets.
146 00:13:02 Waiting for it to start spontaneously.
147 00:13:05 I think he'll be waiting a long time.
148 00:13:07 [chuckles]
149 00:13:09 [Clive] Have you ever seen two men kisson the top of Erebus before?
150 00:13:12 [laughing]
151 00:13:14 [indistinct chatter]
152 00:13:18 I like working with Harry.
153 00:13:21 [sighs]
154 00:13:22 Is that all right? Thank you.
155 00:13:25 [Werner] It was easyto start a friendship with him.
156 00:13:29 On one of our first days together,
157 00:13:31 he insisted upon traininghis own camera on me.
158 00:13:35 Let's turn it off, yeah? Okay?
159 00:13:37 Do you see themonly in destructive terms, volcanoes?
160 00:13:41 No, I... I do not. Uh...
161 00:13:47 Something different.It's good that they are there.
162 00:13:50 And the soil we are walking upon,uh, is not permanent.
163 00:13:56 There's no permanenceto what we are doing...
164 00:14:00 no permanence to the effortsof human being,
165 00:14:03 no permanence to art,no permanence to science.
166 00:14:07 There is something of a crustthat is somehow moving,
167 00:14:12 and it makes me fond of the volcanoto know that our life,
168 00:14:18 human life, or animals,
169 00:14:21 can only live and survive
170 00:14:23 because the volcanoes createdthe atmosphere that we need.
171 00:14:27 Do you have a sense of the different kindsof volcanoes and different eruptions?
172 00:14:31 I know you filmed onLa Soufrière de Guadeloupe many years ago,
173 00:14:36 which is a very--
174 00:14:38 Well, do you sense differencesin the activity here with...?
175 00:14:43 Yeah, La Soufrière was very volatile.
176 00:14:46 [classical music playing]
177 00:14:49 [Werner]It was all the way back in 1976
178 00:14:52 when I first filmed a volcano.
179 00:14:55 This was on the Caribbean islandof Guadeloupe.
180 00:15:00 The mountain was expected to explodeat any moment,
181 00:15:03 and 70,000 peoplewere rapidly evacuated.
182 00:15:07 [donkey braying]
183 00:15:10 The fear was intense
184 00:15:12 because of the memory of an eventthat took on apocalyptic proportions.
185 00:15:18 It was known that, in 1902,
186 00:15:22 on the neighboring island of Martinique,Mount Pelée exploded.
187 00:15:26 The signals that La Soufrière issuedin Guadeloupe
188 00:15:32 were almost identicalto what had happened.
189 00:15:36 It was measured in 1902.
190 00:15:39 So, everybody was afraidit would explode,
191 00:15:41 and it would explodewith very, very massive force,
192 00:15:45 many times an atomic bomb,Hiroshima-size.
193 00:15:50 So, I was not interested in the volcano.
194 00:15:52 I was interested in one single manwho refused to be evacuated.
195 00:15:57 Uh-huh.
196 00:15:58 A different attitude towards death.
197 00:16:00 75 people--75,000 people being evacuated,
198 00:16:05 and he stayed on.
199 00:16:06 I actually found him--I find him sleeping.
200 00:16:09 I find him sleeping.I had to wake him up on camera.
201 00:16:16 And what was wonderful--he was very philosophical.
202 00:16:18 A very poor black farmer.
203 00:16:21 And I sensed that, after a while,
204 00:16:23 he didn't feel so comfortablewith us anymore,
205 00:16:26 and he sat up and startedto tie his worn-out tennis shoe.
206 00:16:32 And then, all of a sudden,he sings a song against the camera,
207 00:16:35 and I knew that was that.So, go away, we'd better get out.
208 00:16:39 [singing in French]
209 00:16:49 [singing continues]
210 00:16:54 We met in Antarctica
211 00:16:56 during the shootof Encounters at the End of the World,
212 00:17:00 and I knew a little bit about you.I'd seen some of your movies
213 00:17:04 when I was a youngster,
214 00:17:06 and I knew something of your reputation.
215 00:17:09 And we, in our field team,
216 00:17:13 we were anxious that you were goingto have us propelled
217 00:17:18 down towards the lava lake.
218 00:17:20 There was some concern that you would belooking for lengths of rope
219 00:17:25 with which we could be lowered downwithin meters of this fiery lake
220 00:17:28 on Mount Erebus, volcano.
221 00:17:30 And instead, you were interestedin what we were doing
222 00:17:36 and why we were doing it.
223 00:17:38 For me, there is no personal excitementto go down.
224 00:17:43 There's a curiosity.Yes, I would love to see it from close up.
225 00:17:48 But since it is too dangerous,it would be silly.
226 00:17:51 We have, in some ways, similar...
227 00:17:54 Um, you know, we both--As a volcanologist,
228 00:17:57 of course, there's a riskdoing the measurements,
229 00:17:59 and you ask yourself, "Well, is it worthdying to get this measurement?"
230 00:18:04 And the answer is no,if you look at it in those terms.
231 00:18:08 But you're always trying to evaluate
232 00:18:10 how far you're goingto tolerate the risk.
233 00:18:13 I mean, even here,the volcano could explode now
234 00:18:15 and we could all be hitby one of these five-meter bombs.
235 00:18:18 [Werner] I'm the only one in filmmakingwho is clinically sane,
236 00:18:22 -taking all precautions.-That's very clear. Oh, absolutely.
237 00:18:25 I mean, you wouldn't still be hereif you were insane.
238 00:18:28 You would've been consumed long agoby a pyroclastic current
239 00:18:32 or a gas flare or a grizzly bearor whatever.
240 00:18:36 So, it's quite clear that you're sane.
241 00:18:39 I never doubted that for a momentfrom our first encounter.
242 00:18:43 Deposited out from the volcanic gas.
243 00:18:48 Very nice.
244 00:18:49 [whooshing, rumbling]
245 00:18:51 -That's a good swoosh.-Yeah, a good swoosh.
246 00:18:56 -We're very blasé about all of this.-Yes.
247 00:19:00 But let it come at us.We'll face it and step aside.
248 00:19:06 [Werner] We would often discussthe life and work of a French couple,
249 00:19:10 Katia and Maurice Krafft.
250 00:19:14 They were famous for capturingincredible images of volcanoes.
251 00:19:21 But this meant that they had to getdangerously close to their subject.
252 00:19:26 Too close,as it would eventually turn out.
253 00:19:30 [opera music playing]
254 00:20:04 [rumbling, crashing]
255 00:21:13 They were both instantly killedby a pyroclastic flow in Japan,
256 00:21:18 together with 41 other people.
257 00:21:27 This is the very avalancheof super-heated gases that killed them.
258 00:21:32 What is rushing down this slopeat over 100 miles per hour
259 00:21:37 has a temperatureof more than 800 degrees Fahrenheit.
260 00:22:04 -[bugs chirping]-[birds calling]
261 00:22:10 [Clive] I spent a very formative partof my youth in Indonesia.
262 00:22:13 I came to Tobawhen I was 19 years old.
263 00:22:17 And actually, in Indonesia,I feel like it's my second home.
264 00:22:20 I've come backintermittently over the years,
265 00:22:23 but I immediately feel at home.
266 00:22:25 The smell of the kretek clove cigarettes,the sights, the sounds.
267 00:22:30 It's a very special place to me.
268 00:22:32 And I think my career as a volcanologist
269 00:22:36 was partly formed from that first visitas a 19-year-old.
270 00:22:42 [Werner] Indonesia was the right placefor an aspiring scientist.
271 00:22:46 In fact, there's no country in the worldthat has more volcanoes than this one.
272 00:22:52 Clive Oppenheimer took usto Mount Sinabung.
273 00:22:56 It had been relatively quietthe last few years.
274 00:23:00 [low rumbling]
275 00:23:01 The area we are shooting in right nowhad been declared a restricted zone,
276 00:23:06 with no access allowed to anyone.
277 00:23:10 But, as we found farmers working there,we felt reasonably safe.
278 00:23:16 Eerie relics remained, though,from an eruption in 2010.
279 00:23:23 Feeling that this wasdistant enough in time,
280 00:23:27 no one was expectingwhat happened next.
281 00:23:33 [echoing booms, rumbling]
282 00:24:18 Fortunately, this eruptiondid not hurt anyone,
283 00:24:21 and we quickly left the area.
284 00:24:30 [indistinct radio chatter]
285 00:24:31 [Werner] Only a few days later,we saw this on Indonesian television.
286 00:24:37 Seven people were killed in the very spotwhere we had had our camera.
287 00:24:41 [people shouting]
288 00:24:44 [sirens wailing,helicopter blades whirring]
289 00:24:47 [shouting continues]
290 00:24:55 [helicopter flying overhead]
291 00:25:06 In order to prevent such catastrophes,
292 00:25:09 Indonesia has set upnumerous early warning systems.
293 00:25:14 This is the Babadan Observatory,
294 00:25:17 which monitors Mount Merapi,
295 00:25:19 one of the most dangerous volcanoesin the world.
296 00:25:24 And each of these stationsis a seismometer somewhere on Merapi,
297 00:25:28 a different distance,five, six kilometers from the summit?
298 00:25:32 Yeah, that's true.So, we have a summit station.
299 00:25:38 We have a short east station,
300 00:25:41 we have short station in Babadan Hill.
301 00:25:44 And also we have on the west of station.
302 00:25:49 And these real-time data provideone of the most important parts
303 00:25:54 of a volcano-monitoring programfor assessing what the volcano is doing.
304 00:25:59 -It's the heartbeat of the volcano.-Exactly.
305 00:26:01 This one is the electronicdistance measurements.
306 00:26:06 So, we have a reflectorin the summit of Merapi.
307 00:26:11 Then we're measuring every morning.
308 00:26:15 By this measuring,we're plotting the cone.
309 00:26:19 So, it's measuring--It's firing a laser pulse
310 00:26:22 to a mirror five, six kilometers away,
311 00:26:25 the light bounces backand you've measured the distance.
312 00:26:27 And that can showwhether the volcano is inflating
313 00:26:31 because magma is rising into the cone.Is that--
314 00:26:35 That's right. That's the ideafor the electronic distance measurements.
315 00:26:41 In a worst-case scenario,
316 00:26:44 I imagine the observer is at riskif there's a pyroclastic flow.
317 00:26:48 If it's too latefor the observer to evacuate,
318 00:26:51 are there any options left?
319 00:26:53 Yeah, that's the emergency.
320 00:26:55 Then, if it is emergency,we have a bunker.
321 00:27:00 It's a thick door.
322 00:27:02 -Yeah.-After you.
323 00:27:04 [Sri]We put the food and also oxygen.
324 00:27:08 We hope that they can survivefor one month.
325 00:27:13 It reminds me of the eruptionof Mount Pelée in 1902
326 00:27:18 that killed nearly 30,000 peoplein the city of Saint-Pierre
327 00:27:22 as the pyroclastic flows reached it.
328 00:27:26 And the only survivor livedbecause he was the baddest guy in town.
329 00:27:31 He was a criminal.I think he stabbed a prison officer
330 00:27:35 through the cheek with a pencil,
331 00:27:37 and he was put in solitary confinementin a bunker-like cell.
332 00:27:41 All the other prisoners perished,but he survived,
333 00:27:45 albeit badly burnt, because there wasa tiny grill window in the cell,
334 00:27:49 and he subsequently joinedthe Barnum & Bailey Circus
335 00:27:53 and was exhibited as a celebrity,
336 00:27:55 as the sole survivor of this eruption.
337 00:27:59 [booming]
338 00:28:09 So, in 2010, the monitoringwas absolutely crucial
339 00:28:14 in forecasting the eruptionand its escalation.
340 00:28:18 [Sri]The first indication was seismic.
341 00:28:21 A lot of volcanic earthquakes.
342 00:28:26 This indicates that there is magma moving.
343 00:28:29 Also, supported by these electronicdistance measurements.
344 00:28:34 And the gas measurements?
345 00:28:35 Of course. [chuckles]
346 00:28:38 I know this looks pathetic,like a shoebox
347 00:28:40 with a baked bean tin stuck on the end,
348 00:28:43 and it also lookslike it's pointing at the ground,
349 00:28:45 rather than at the volcano summitover here.
350 00:28:47 But it's something I'm very proud of.It's something that we built in Cambridge.
351 00:28:51 There's a little window here,and a mirror and some lenses,
352 00:28:55 connected to an ultraviolet spectrometer.
353 00:28:57 The device measures the emissionsof sulfur dioxide from the volcano
354 00:29:02 as the gases rise above the summit,
355 00:29:05 and this is a very important parameter
356 00:29:07 in many volcano-monitoring programsaround the world.
357 00:29:10 And the forerunner of this devicewe had working here in 2010,
358 00:29:15 and it played an important rolein the hazard assessment,
359 00:29:20 and it's conservatively estimatedat something like 20,000 lives were saved
360 00:29:24 because of the effective monitoringof Merapi in 2010
361 00:29:27 and the evacuation that followed.
362 00:29:37 [speaks Indonesian]
363 00:29:38 I'm very happy to seethat it's still working. Uh...
364 00:29:41 I hold, along with some colleagues,the patent for the original prototype,
365 00:29:46 which we designedmore than ten years ago now.
366 00:29:49 So, this technology is now foundon volcanoes around the world,
367 00:29:53 and it's revolutionized the monitoringof gas emissions from volcanoes.
368 00:29:59 It's my baby.I'm really glad to see it.
369 00:30:02 I haven't seen it for two years,and here it is, still working.
370 00:30:08 [bell pealing]
371 00:30:12 [Werner] Obviously, there wasa scientific side to our journey.
372 00:30:16 But what we were really chasingwas the magical side:
373 00:30:20 the demons, the new gods.
374 00:30:24 This was the itinerarywe had set for ourselves,
375 00:30:28 no matter how strangethings might eventually get.
376 00:30:33 Here in the palaceof the Sultan of Jogjakarta,
377 00:30:37 dignitaries are charged with the taskof reconciling the goddess of the ocean
378 00:30:43 with the demon of the volcano.
379 00:30:48 The sultan himself does not participatein the procession.
380 00:30:52 We marveled at his parked Mercedes,wrapped in a bubble of plastic,
381 00:30:58 as if the conceptual artist Christohad just been here.
382 00:31:05 [soft bell music playing]
383 00:31:11 The procession stops for a ritualclose to the ocean.
384 00:31:15 This will be a reenactmentof the sexual union
385 00:31:19 between an ancient sultanand the Queen of the Sea.
386 00:31:24 A doctoral student of Clive's,Adam Bobbette,
387 00:31:28 functioned as our guide.
388 00:31:30 Every year, they have to reproduce thisby giving rituals--
389 00:31:35 by doing rituals in this siteand then giving offerings
390 00:31:38 to the South Sea from the sultan,including his body parts--
391 00:31:43 fingernails, hair, clothes--
392 00:31:46 which they launch into the oceanto appease the Queen of the South Sea.
393 00:31:51 As a part of their sexual union,
394 00:31:54 they also created a kind of monster
395 00:31:58 that ended up occupying the volcano.
396 00:32:02 So, this hole is wherethey will give offerings,
397 00:32:06 because this is the siteof the sexual union
398 00:32:10 between the Goddess of the Seaand the first sultan.
399 00:32:13 I think it's coming right now.It's a box.
400 00:32:16 This is it.
401 00:32:29 [Werner]And now the offerings to the ocean.
402 00:32:33 [loud, overlapping chatter]
403 00:33:00 The following day,we witnessed the ritual at the volcano.
404 00:33:04 Merapi, on this morning,was not enshrouded in clouds.
405 00:33:21 [speaking Indonesian]
406 00:33:31 After the ceremony, the crowdwent right for the flower petals,
407 00:33:36 an auspicious souvenir.
408 00:33:38 [overlapping chatter]
409 00:33:50 More strange magic.
410 00:33:52 Another bewildering alignment,
411 00:33:55 this time between a buildingand the volcano,
412 00:33:58 here, barely visible,as if floating in the clouds.
413 00:34:05 The odd edificeis still under construction.
414 00:34:09 [clanging]
415 00:34:12 [clanging echoes]
416 00:34:17 Inside, we found nobody
417 00:34:20 in an empty chairpretending to watch TV.
418 00:34:32 On the floor above,we met a few carpenters.
419 00:34:44 [speaking Indonesian] Yes, I am one ofthe workers building this place.
420 00:34:49 What is it?What are you building?
421 00:34:52 I built this.
422 00:34:57 The owner had a dream.After that, he built this building.
423 00:35:04 A building to be used for prayer.
424 00:35:13 It looks like a chicken?
425 00:35:15 It's actually a dove, not a chicken.
426 00:35:18 But maybe it's also related to Merapi?
427 00:35:25 [overlapping chatter]
428 00:35:27 Maybe the owner thinks that way,pointing it towards Mount Merapi.
429 00:35:33 I'm only an ordinary worker
430 00:35:38 who goes home after working hours.
431 00:35:42 But it still looks like a chicken, right?
432 00:35:48 Yes, most people sayit's like a chicken.
433 00:35:52 They call it the Chicken Church.
434 00:35:56 -A soap opera filmed a scene here.-Yes.
435 00:36:04 It became popularafter the soap opera was shot.
436 00:36:09 Last Saturday, someone from Surabayawho saw the show,
437 00:36:16 wanted to see the location,so they came here.
438 00:36:27 [Werner] Odder still is the fact that,in this mostly Muslim country,
439 00:36:31 this is a Roman Catholic church.
440 00:36:35 Under the floor,it even has its own catacombs,
441 00:36:39 maybe as a shelter for hermits,
442 00:36:42 as protection against volcanic fallout.
443 00:36:45 [construction noise echoing]
444 00:37:15 [thunder rumbling]
445 00:37:17 [opera music playing]
446 00:37:28 Of all the many volcanoesin Indonesia,
447 00:37:31 there is no single onethat is not connected
448 00:37:35 to a belief system.
449 00:37:39 For the locals,all this volcanic landscape
450 00:37:42 bears magical names.
451 00:37:45 The Night Market of the Ghosts,
452 00:37:47 the Flying Foxes,
453 00:37:49 the Dancing Place of the Spirits.
454 00:38:30 Back to Lake Toba,
455 00:38:32 where Clive Oppenheimer'sscientific journey began.
456 00:38:37 [Clive] This is the largestvolcanic crater lake on Earth.
457 00:38:40 It extends something like 100 kilometersoff into the distance.
458 00:38:44 Frankly, it's too big to film.
459 00:38:46 We should've booked a ticketon the International Space Station
460 00:38:49 to look down from aboveand appreciate its vast scale.
461 00:38:53 The eruption occurredsomething like 74,000 years ago.
462 00:38:58 This was a monstrous,stupendous volcanic eruption,
463 00:39:02 one of the very largestthat we've documented
464 00:39:04 in all of Earth historyfor a single event.
465 00:39:07 The skies would've been darkened,
466 00:39:09 there would've been a conflagrationacross this part of Northern Sumatra
467 00:39:13 as the pyroclastic currents spread outradially around the crater,
468 00:39:19 igniting all of the tropical vegetation.
469 00:39:22 The eruption produced something like15,000 cubic kilometers of ash and pumice
470 00:39:28 that was pumpedhigh into the stratosphere
471 00:39:31 and spread across the globe.
472 00:39:33 Enough pumice came out to bury everyonein the United States to head-height.
473 00:39:40 It's something like 10,000 times larger
474 00:39:43 than the 1980 eruptionof Mount St. Helens.
475 00:39:46 It's 100,000 times greater
476 00:39:48 than the Eyjafjallajökull eruptionin Iceland in 2010
477 00:39:52 that disrupted global aviation.
478 00:39:54 This was the stupendous eventin Earth history.
479 00:39:58 And there's even a theorythat the eruption
480 00:40:01 almost wiped us out as a species.
481 00:40:03 Based on the genetic pedigreeof living humans,
482 00:40:07 we can say that there was a bottleneckin human numbers around this time period.
483 00:40:13 And the link is between the climate changewrought by the eruption,
484 00:40:18 the decimation of tropical vegetation
485 00:40:20 that was the resource basefor our ancestors.
486 00:40:24 Perhaps there were as few as 600of our species left on Earth.
487 00:40:29 We would've been classifiedas an endangered species.
488 00:40:32 Somehow, we rebounded.
489 00:40:34 This theory is very controversial,however.
490 00:40:37 And that's because there'sa very limited amount of evidence
491 00:40:40 this far back in time.
492 00:40:42 In particular,there are very few human fossils
493 00:40:45 to try and establish cause and effect.
494 00:40:47 If we want to find human fossilsfrom 74,000 years ago,
495 00:40:50 we'd better go to Ethiopia,we'd better go to the Afar Region.
496 00:40:58 [Werner] This is partof the Danakil Depression,
497 00:41:01 300 feet below sea level.
498 00:41:04 In terms of averageyear-round temperature,
499 00:41:07 this is the hottest place on our planet.
500 00:41:12 During summer,
501 00:41:13 temperatures hardly ever dipbelow 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
502 00:41:19 Working conditions are only tolerablein mid-winter,
503 00:41:23 and even then it is extremely hot.
504 00:41:28 On top of that,this is an area of tribal warfare,
505 00:41:32 and you can only enter itaccompanied by armed soldiers.
506 00:41:47 This depression is only partof a long, stretched rift,
507 00:41:51 continuing downthrough all of East Africa.
508 00:41:55 In millions of years,the rift will widen
509 00:41:58 until a strip of the continentbreaks off,
510 00:42:02 drifting into the Indian Ocean.
511 00:42:06 In such places, volcanoes form.
512 00:42:11 This particular one, Erta Ale,
513 00:42:14 is one of the three in the worldwhere magma is directly exposed.
514 00:42:18 [rumbling]
515 00:42:45 Erta Ale is also importantfor its significance to early man.
516 00:42:51 A great amount of obsidian,a volcanic glass,
517 00:42:55 was extruded from the crater.
518 00:43:00 Look at that.It's translucent at the edges.
519 00:43:05 Beautiful flake.
520 00:43:10 And very sharp still.You could probably shave with that.
521 00:43:14 [Werner]Obsidian is very hard and brittle,
522 00:43:17 and therefore fractureswith extremely sharp edges.
523 00:43:21 So sharp, in fact,that up until the 1980s
524 00:43:25 eye operations were performedwith obsidian scalpels,
525 00:43:30 sharper than any steel.
526 00:43:34 This amazing material has attractedearly humans to this landscape
527 00:43:40 as far back as hominidsa million years ago.
528 00:43:44 [indistinct chatter]
529 00:43:46 At this site,a team of paleontologists
530 00:43:50 are extracting artifacts and remainsof our direct ancestors,
531 00:43:54 the first Homo sapiens,
532 00:43:57 who emerged in this area100,000 years ago.
533 00:44:04 What is amazing to me is the factthat the remains are found
534 00:44:08 almost directly at the surface.
535 00:44:10 And more so,why this particular spot
536 00:44:14 and not back therewhere the goats are roaming?
537 00:44:21 This grid was apparentlya tool manufacturing site.
538 00:44:25 Hundreds of obsidian chipsare strewn about.
539 00:44:30 Dr. Yonatan Sahle,an Ethiopian scientist,
540 00:44:34 has excavated this prehistoric workshop.
541 00:44:39 And where did your passion come from?How did you fall into this field?
542 00:44:43 Well, I had-- I studied historyfor my bachelor's degree.
543 00:44:49 And that's whenI started to fall in love.
544 00:44:52 So, history was not deep enough for me.
545 00:44:54 I wanted to look further back in time
546 00:44:58 and find out what is it, really,that makes us human.
547 00:45:02 We are a very unique species.
548 00:45:04 In a way, we interactand we collaborate
549 00:45:08 and we cooperate and we produce,we modify our environment.
550 00:45:12 But at the same time,we fight and destruct,
551 00:45:15 and we are even a dangerto other species and the planet,
552 00:45:19 the fate of the planet as well.
553 00:45:21 So, we are a very interesting species.
554 00:45:23 So, I wanted to get at the rootof all this
555 00:45:27 and see, in deep time,what underlies all these processes.
556 00:45:34 [Clive] We're siftingthrough the trash of humans
557 00:45:37 from 50 to 100,000 years ago.
558 00:45:40 Do you think we haveanother 100,000 years on planet Earth?
559 00:45:45 I would say that, you know,another thousand years,
560 00:45:50 we will be in a very critical situation,
561 00:45:53 and so we will have to learnfrom our mistakes
562 00:45:56 and we'll have to work toward improvingthe condition of our planet
563 00:46:03 so that it can have the carrying capacityto allow our species to perpetuate.
564 00:46:10 [Clive] If you had a time machinethat could go
565 00:46:12 to only one time period in the past,when would it be?
566 00:46:15 It would be exactly this time period
567 00:46:18 because this is...
568 00:46:20 I believe this is when we startedto look like us, um,
569 00:46:26 and when we, uh,
570 00:46:30 as a species, um, started.
571 00:46:34 And so, this is before we became--
572 00:46:39 we acquired different skin colors.
573 00:46:42 This is before we acquireddifferent languages
574 00:46:46 and we spread acrossdifferent geographies.
575 00:46:50 So, this is where I want to be,right at the root.
576 00:46:54 So, I would love to express my...
577 00:46:58 uh, my fascination to this ground
578 00:47:01 by kissing it.
579 00:47:04 And here I go.
580 00:47:16 [Werner] Professor Tim White ofthe University of California, Berkeley,
581 00:47:20 leads the team here.
582 00:47:22 We were immediately captivatedby his wild style of explaining things.
583 00:47:29 So, look at the...
584 00:47:32 powder.
585 00:47:34 It blows in the wind,it's very fine grain,
586 00:47:36 it's all floodplain, it's all silt.
587 00:47:39 But it all started as volcanic rockfrom the highlands,
588 00:47:43 from the rift margin,
589 00:47:45 ground up over millions of years,distributed out here,
590 00:47:49 and redistributed by the Awash River.
591 00:47:51 If you die today,
592 00:47:54 your body will decomposeon the floodplain.
593 00:47:56 If the hyenas don't chewall the bones up,
594 00:47:59 the next time the river floods,this soft, silty material
595 00:48:03 will be carried in,
596 00:48:05 and it will encase your bones.
597 00:48:09 Let's go.
598 00:48:10 [engine starts]
599 00:48:24 [speaking in Afar]
600 00:48:36 Oh, we're gonna call thisthe Werner Herzog Highway.
601 00:48:42 And what we're doing hereis opening up a space for the cars...
602 00:48:48 so we can come throughwith a full crew tomorrow morning...
603 00:48:54 to recover the additional piecesof the hominid
604 00:48:57 that we found just up on top there,on the eroding sediments.
605 00:49:01 So, we'd like to pull the cars inas close as we can get
606 00:49:04 so we can get all the equipment there.
607 00:49:06 And we'll start an extraction processto pull that hominid out.
608 00:49:17 How phenomenally lucky are weto have arrived now
609 00:49:20 and you've foundthis 100,000-year-old human?
610 00:49:25 This does not happen very often.
611 00:49:27 These hominid fossilsare very, very rare.
612 00:49:31 Finding an artifact, that's easier,
613 00:49:34 because during any hominid's lifetime,they can make dozens, thousands,
614 00:49:37 of stone-age calling cardsscattered all over the landscape.
615 00:49:41 But they only have one skeleton,one dentition.
616 00:49:44 They only die once.So, think about it.
617 00:49:47 Acres and acres of eroding sediment.
618 00:49:50 How in the world can we find the place
619 00:49:52 where this dead person's bonescame to rest
620 00:49:57 and arrive just at the geological moment
621 00:49:59 that erosion is carvingthese sediments out,
622 00:50:02 exposing these ancient surfaces,
623 00:50:04 with the monkeys and the hipposand everything else,
624 00:50:07 thousands of bones and artifactsall over the surface?
625 00:50:09 And there's one guy,one guy in the world.
626 00:50:12 If I had to say, "Get that guy out hereon the surface.
627 00:50:15 He's gonna find the hominid."You know who that is?
628 00:50:18 That is Kampiro Kayrento,
629 00:50:20 the world's greatest fossil finder.
630 00:50:23 [indistinct chatter]
631 00:50:25 Oh.
632 00:50:26 This is Kampiro Kayrento.
633 00:50:28 He is one of the world's experts,if not the world's expert.
634 00:50:32 He's the guy I want on the aircraftto find things.
635 00:50:34 He can recognize what's an antelope,what's a carnivore,
636 00:50:38 what's a fish, what's a baboon,what's a zebra,
637 00:50:42 what's a giraffe, what's a rhino.He's got all that.
638 00:50:46 Not from the whole animal,because you never find the whole animal.
639 00:50:49 You find pieces of animals,pieces of the bones of animals.
640 00:50:53 He knows what they are.
641 00:51:00 You got anything, Tim?
642 00:51:01 More pieces for the puzzle.
643 00:51:04 Cranial vault piece,freshly out of the ground.
644 00:51:08 That one needs to be squirted off.
645 00:51:11 This bone is beautifully preserved,
646 00:51:14 completely silicified,completely fossilized.
647 00:51:18 So, we've got nowa number of different elements.
648 00:51:22 The most diagnostic and important one,ultimately, will be this one here,
649 00:51:29 which is... the top...
650 00:51:34 of the left orbit.
651 00:51:37 So to sort of place it in Clive's head...
652 00:51:43 -Whereabouts?-Other side. There you go.
653 00:51:46 Okay.
654 00:51:47 I'm looking into the eyeof a Paleolithic hominid that lived here.
655 00:51:53 So, it's a three-dimensionaljigsaw puzzle.
656 00:52:01 [Clive] Yeah, no one's gonna arguethat those two pieces fit back together.
657 00:52:05 That's a nice fit.
658 00:52:06 In evolutionary terms,here in the Middle Awash,
659 00:52:09 we have six million years' worthof rocks.
660 00:52:12 The ones on the bottomhave small-brained early bipeds.
661 00:52:17 These are close to the topof the succession.
662 00:52:20 These are much more like you and I.
663 00:52:22 They have chins, vertical foreheads.
664 00:52:25 We still have a lot to learn about them,but the importance for humanity
665 00:52:29 is that this is the right time,100,000 years ago,
666 00:52:33 and the right place, Africa,
667 00:52:36 according to the archeologyand the genetic evidence...
668 00:52:40 to know the people who were the ones
669 00:52:44 who expanded from Africa to Asia,
670 00:52:48 to Europe, and then beyond.
671 00:52:53 While these people were living herein tropical Africa,
672 00:52:56 dining on hippos,Europe was locked under ice.
673 00:53:05 Let's go get more pieces.Are we ready to rock 'n' roll?
674 00:53:08 Let's get brushes.
675 00:53:11 We've taken all ofthe surface-exposed bone off the surface.
676 00:53:15 We suspect there's going to besub-surface bone in here.
677 00:53:18 We've maximized where we think it is,
678 00:53:22 and now it's a matterof going to the casino
679 00:53:27 and rolling the dice
680 00:53:28 and hoping we're gonna getsome nice human anatomy,
681 00:53:33 fossilized for 100,000 years,right out of this unit.
682 00:53:36 We're just gonna brush and find bone.
683 00:53:38 Whoa! There's a piece of boneright there.
684 00:53:41 That one's not identifiable,but it might join other ones
685 00:53:44 and become identifiable.So, that's a keeper.
686 00:53:47 Every single piece of boneis a keeper.
687 00:53:57 See the piece?
688 00:54:08 So, that's a limb bone shaft.
689 00:54:10 I can't tell which limb bone.It's one of three.
690 00:54:12 It's tibia, humerus or femur.
691 00:54:16 Here we go.That's a nice shaft piece.
692 00:54:20 Again, it's tibia--It's one of the major long bones.
693 00:54:23 It's this one, this one or that one.
694 00:54:26 You can see these things are--they're completely turned to stone.
695 00:54:30 They're completely fossilized,
696 00:54:32 so they're brittle.
697 00:54:35 And when erosion comesand exposes them,
698 00:54:39 they just shatter.
699 00:54:40 And so, we have to be carefulto get all of the shattered pieces.
700 00:54:43 My skeleton has 206 bones.Same with this person.
701 00:54:48 They're human.
702 00:54:49 But now we're looking for literallyprobably 4,000 pieces
703 00:54:54 because all of those boneseach shattered.
704 00:54:57 I can already see somethingthat discriminates you and I,
705 00:55:00 which is, we've been herethe same amount of time.
706 00:55:02 You've pulled out half a dozenof these bone fragments.
707 00:55:04 I haven't found anything.
708 00:55:06 There's clearly an expertisethat goes with this business.
709 00:55:10 But the greatest thing about the game
710 00:55:12 is the combination of the expertiseand the luck.
711 00:55:15 Like Las Vegas.
712 00:55:17 Viva Las Vegas!
713 00:55:21 Courtesy of Bizayu.
714 00:55:23 Bizayu! Got a limb bone shaft.Thank you.
715 00:55:29 What's wrong over there, Clive?
716 00:55:31 [chuckling]
717 00:55:33 -Ohh!-Ohh!
718 00:55:35 [laughing]
719 00:55:38 Whoo!
720 00:55:40 [indistinct chatter]
721 00:55:41 Check it out!
722 00:55:44 Clive.
723 00:55:48 Where does it fit in?
724 00:55:50 Check it out. This is a distal humerus.
725 00:55:54 Definitely hominid.
726 00:55:56 It is right down at the endof your upper arm bone.
727 00:56:02 So, if we were to place thisin our anatomy,
728 00:56:05 we'd set it up something like that.
729 00:56:07 I figured out, Tim,I'm holding the brush wrong.
730 00:56:10 There's got to be something wrongwith my technique.
731 00:56:13 Come on, Clive,move over into the hot place there.
732 00:56:15 I'm moving K.K. out.This is your chance.
733 00:56:17 -You don't think it's too hot for me?-This is your chance.
734 00:56:20 You got to get in here, man.This guy's finding everything.
735 00:56:22 I was right there.
736 00:56:24 [laughter]
737 00:56:25 He planted it.
738 00:56:27 [laughter continues]
739 00:56:28 It's just to make me look bad, isn't it?
740 00:56:31 -I'll stick to volcanology.-Brush, man, brush!
741 00:56:33 He's going to lose this race.
742 00:56:36 Piece after pieceafter piece after piece.
743 00:56:39 Maybe we'll get it allback together again.
744 00:56:42 If we're lucky.If Clive would just find something!
745 00:56:46 -I'm not gonna give up.-Come on, Clive.
746 00:57:00 Huh? Look at...
747 00:57:04 Whoa, whoa, whoa.
748 00:57:06 Whoa! Bingo!
749 00:57:10 -[Clive] Is it a human?-Yeah.
750 00:57:13 All right! He's got it.
751 00:57:16 Clive scores!
752 00:57:19 [sighs]It's such a relief.
753 00:57:25 Just out of the dirt,
754 00:57:27 where it's been 100,000 years, maybe.
755 00:57:31 A little piece of my direct ancestor,perhaps.
756 00:57:38 It's quite heavy. It's, uh, fossilized.
757 00:57:47 One skeleton from Kenya.
758 00:57:52 One skeleton from two meters up,
759 00:57:54 500 meters away,in the Middle Awash.
760 00:57:58 And this one.
761 00:58:00 That's how rare even partial skeletonsof human ancestors are
762 00:58:06 in that time interval.
763 00:58:08 Just the first surface sweep,
764 00:58:10 we've probably got another 30 piecesof this individual,
765 00:58:15 and all of this came outin about 30 minutes
766 00:58:19 of simply sweeping.
767 00:58:21 As these piles that we've swept upgo through the sieve,
768 00:58:25 we're gonna havea bunch of other pieces of bone
769 00:58:28 that escaped the brushingbut won't escape our sieve.
770 00:58:31 Hopefully,we'll see a cranium take shape,
771 00:58:35 and we'll come to knowthe anatomy of this person.
772 00:58:38 I just-- What a phenomenal cornucopia
773 00:58:41 for half an hour's workwith a dustpan and brush.
774 00:58:43 It's just-- just sensational.
775 00:58:46 One of three in Africaever recovered.
776 00:58:50 Your timing was very good.
777 00:58:53 [singing]
778 00:58:56 What? Wait a minute.
779 00:58:58 There's a Konso dance going on herein the background.
780 00:59:00 -It's gonna be good.-This is gonna be good.
781 00:59:03 -Moya!-Moya means, in Afarinia, "head."
782 00:59:06 [laughter]
783 00:59:10 Got the moya.
784 00:59:12 Whoo!
785 00:59:13 We got a moya!
786 00:59:15 [indistinct chatter]
787 00:59:18 [man singing]
788 00:59:22 The extraction begins.
789 00:59:24 [Werner] This fragmentis of particular importance,
790 00:59:27 as it is part of the cranium.
791 00:59:30 Time for a Shakespearean moment, perhaps,
792 00:59:33 to soliloquize on... my deep ancestry.
793 00:59:42 I can see the curvature.
794 00:59:44 It's the biggest piece we have so far.
795 00:59:48 [soft choral music playing]
796 00:59:51 [Werner] As dusk came,we made our way to the volcano.
797 00:59:56 [rumbling]
798 00:59:57 Looking into the magma at night,
799 01:00:00 the interior of our planetreveals its strange beauty.
800 01:01:15 [indistinct radio chatter]
801 01:01:17 [Werner]Compared to Ethiopia,
802 01:01:20 Iceland's historyis a mere blip in time.
803 01:01:24 Less than 1,200 years ago,
804 01:01:27 it was settled by Norsemen.
805 01:01:29 [ship's horn blowing]
806 01:01:31 All of Iceland is volcanic,
807 01:01:34 including the Westman Islandsto the south.
808 01:01:38 Out of nowhere,in the early morning hours
809 01:01:42 of January 23, 1973,
810 01:01:45 a trench of fire opened
811 01:01:47 right at the edgeof the town of Heimaey.
812 01:01:52 The eruption occurredwithout any previous warning signs.
813 01:02:39 [booming]
814 01:02:51 As bad as it looks,no one lost their lives here.
815 01:02:55 The fishing fleethad just returned to harbor
816 01:02:59 and rescued many of the inhabitants.
817 01:03:07 Forty years after the event,
818 01:03:10 Clive Oppenheimer brought us here.
819 01:03:12 Grass has grown again,
820 01:03:15 and there are still curtainsin the windows.
821 01:03:20 But Heimaey was hardlyan isolated event.
822 01:03:23 Not a season goes by in Icelandwithout an eruption.
823 01:03:31 [rumbling]
824 01:03:36 This event happened in 2010
825 01:03:39 and is remembered as the ash cloudthat paralyzed air traffic for weeks.
826 01:03:46 Very quickly, the heat from the eruption
827 01:03:49 melted the thick ice coveringon top of the mountain,
828 01:03:53 creating enormous floods.
829 01:03:57 [dramatic choral music plays]
830 01:04:47 But an event of this magnitudeis nothing
831 01:04:50 compared to earlier eruptionsin Iceland.
832 01:04:54 This area is the siteof the so-called Laki eruption.
833 01:04:59 Beginning on June 8, 1783,
834 01:05:02 this entire landscapeexploded into flames
835 01:05:06 as far as the eye could see,from horizon to horizon.
836 01:05:23 [Clive] The molten rockcame up to the surface
837 01:05:25 and rent opena 27-kilometer-long fissure
838 01:05:29 that stretches in this directionfor something like half of that distance.
839 01:05:36 Overall, about 140 vents were active,
840 01:05:40 building up cones above themwith fire fountains rising into the air.
841 01:05:47 And after a few months,the fissure opened up in this direction,
842 01:05:52 again, another 13, 14 kilometers or so.
843 01:05:56 And another few dozen vents open up,
844 01:05:59 and they spewed out lavato the northeast of us.
845 01:06:03 Everything we see nowhas been set in stone.
846 01:06:06 The lava has solidified and frozen.But if we'd been here at the time,
847 01:06:11 we would've seen jets of fire,fountains of fire,
848 01:06:14 rising a kilometer-and-a-halfinto the air
849 01:06:18 and then cascading downto the ground again.
850 01:06:21 And that built up the cones,like the one that we're standing on now.
851 01:06:27 And from the bases of these cones,
852 01:06:28 lava gushed outat a phenomenal rate.
853 01:06:31 This is very, very hot lava,very, very fluid,
854 01:06:34 and it poured down the valleys,
855 01:06:36 filling them to depthsof 100, 150 meters.
856 01:06:53 [Werner]These primordial occurrences
857 01:06:55 influenced the sense of mythical poetryof the Icelanders.
858 01:07:01 There is a text that definesthe spirit of the people.
859 01:07:05 It exists only in a single manuscript.
860 01:07:08 For Iceland, it is as importantas the Dead Sea Scrolls are for Israel.
861 01:07:15 The codex was given as a presentto the king of Denmark
862 01:07:19 by an Icelandic bishopin the 17th century.
863 01:07:23 Hence its name:The Royal Codex, or Codex Regius.
864 01:07:28 In 1971,Denmark returned it to Iceland.
865 01:07:33 Knowing that it constitutedthe soul of the country,
866 01:07:36 the codex was puton Denmark's largest battleship
867 01:07:40 and escorted by a whole fleet.
868 01:07:43 No amount of money in the worldwould be enough
869 01:07:46 to purchase this manuscriptfrom Iceland,
870 01:07:49 although it is battered and crumpledand filled with holes.
871 01:07:56 In the opening passage, called"The Prophecy of the Seeress,"
872 01:08:00 there is an apocalyptic visionof the end of the pagan gods.
873 01:08:05 This seems to describea huge volcanic event.
874 01:08:11 "'Neath the sea the land sinketh,the sun dimmeth,
875 01:08:16 from the heavensfall the fair, bright stars;
876 01:08:20 gusheth forth steam and gutting fire,
877 01:08:24 to very heaven soarthe hurtling flames.
878 01:08:29 The fates I fathom,yet farther I see:
879 01:08:33 of the mighty godsthe engulfing doom.
880 01:08:39 Comes the darksome dragon flying,
881 01:08:41 Níthhogg,upward from the Nitha Fells.
882 01:08:46 He bears in his pinionsas the plains he o'erflies,
883 01:08:51 naked corpses:now he will sink."
884 01:09:51 [men singing in Korean]
885 01:10:02 Right on the border with Chinalies a volcano
886 01:10:05 in the Democratic People's Republicof Korea,
887 01:10:08 better known in the Westas North Korea.
888 01:10:11 It has been inactivefor more than 1,000 years,
889 01:10:15 but it plays a huge rolein the imagination of the people.
890 01:10:21 For millennia, it was consideredthe mythical birthplace
891 01:10:24 of the Korean nation.
892 01:10:26 Today, the socialist governmentco-opts this myth.
893 01:10:32 This is the site of pilgrimages.
894 01:10:36 Out of the mist, we saw a formationof uniformed men with a flag emerging.
895 01:10:42 We believed they were soldiers,
896 01:10:44 but it turned outthey were university students
897 01:10:47 come to rejoice in the powerthat emanates from this place.
898 01:10:52 [singing continues]
899 01:10:54 [men speaking Korean]
900 01:10:59 [cheering]
901 01:11:13 And now they are singingin praise of Mount Paektu.
902 01:11:16 [singing in Korean]
903 01:11:34 Everything is different in North Korea.
904 01:11:37 Imagine if these were studentsat a campus in California.
905 01:12:25 [singing ends]
906 01:12:26 A unique opportunitypresented itself to us.
907 01:12:30 The near-impervious countryopened its doors
908 01:12:33 to a joint scientific program
909 01:12:35 between the University of Cambridgeand North Korean volcanologists.
910 01:12:40 And so we were invited to film there.
911 01:12:44 [singing continues]
912 01:12:51 But everything we sawwas an act of presentation,
913 01:12:55 and we went for it.
914 01:12:56 There is no other wayto see this enigmatic country
915 01:13:00 other than how it wantsto present itself.
916 01:13:05 In propaganda films seen frequentlyon North Korean television,
917 01:13:09 the images display monumental unityand fervent emotion,
918 01:13:14 all dedicated to the leadership.
919 01:13:17 [cheering]
920 01:13:19 [patriotic music playing]
921 01:13:28 [female presenter speaking Korean]
922 01:14:04 [presenter's voice continues,slowly fades]
923 01:14:08 One thing that's remarkableand I'm very aware of as I work here
924 01:14:12 is the sanctity of this mountain.
925 01:14:14 This has a very long history,going back 5,000 years,
926 01:14:18 as the mythical birthplaceof the Korean people from this volcano.
927 01:14:23 And through the medieval periodand to the more modern period,
928 01:14:27 this is the sacred mountainof the revolution,
929 01:14:29 where the struggle was foughtagainst Japanese occupation
930 01:14:32 70 years ago.
931 01:14:34 And the spirit of the mountainis in all the Korean people,
932 01:14:39 and this is something very, very specialabout this place.
933 01:14:44 It seems like we're on a tranquilboat trip on a Norwegian fjord,
934 01:14:48 but actually we're at ground zero
935 01:14:50 of what was a most monumentalvolcanic eruption
936 01:14:53 nearly 1,100 years ago,the so-called Millennium eruption.
937 01:14:57 The crater hereis about three miles across.
938 01:15:00 And actually these cliffs are all partof the crater rim,
939 01:15:03 all around us, 360 degrees.
940 01:15:07 The amount of pumicethat came out in the eruption
941 01:15:09 would be enough to burythe whole of New York City.
942 01:15:11 Only the highest buildingswould poke out of the top.
943 01:15:15 In a way, if you look at the cratersurrounding us
944 01:15:18 and imagine that once there was a conebuilt over our heads,
945 01:15:21 that missing volume aloneaccounts for a huge amount of rock
946 01:15:27 and pumice and lava.
947 01:15:29 So, this has been spewed outover the Korean peninsula,
948 01:15:32 it's in parts of China,it's in parts of Russia,
949 01:15:36 and there's evenabout three inches of ash
950 01:15:39 that fell over parts of Japanthat you can still find today.
951 01:15:44 Around ten years ago,there was a swarm of earthquakes
952 01:15:48 that were detectedby sensitive instruments
953 01:15:51 around the mountain,
954 01:15:52 and that really ignitedthe scientific interest in the volcano
955 01:15:56 and whether there might besigns of reawakening.
956 01:16:01 Over the last few years,
957 01:16:03 we've built a really strongand unique collaboration
958 01:16:06 with scientists from Pyongyang
959 01:16:08 who've worked here for 10, 20 years,
960 01:16:10 so they have very detailed knowledgeof the structure of the volcano.
961 01:16:14 So, we've learnt a lot from them.
962 01:16:16 It's very difficult for scientists hereto attend international conferences,
963 01:16:20 so we've really shared our experiencesand expertise
964 01:16:24 to better understand this volcano.
965 01:16:26 So, two years of data.
966 01:16:28 Yeah, we've collectedtwo years of seismic data.
967 01:16:31 Uh, which is pretty incredible. Um...
968 01:16:35 And the seismometer sitting herewill record all the earthquakes.
969 01:16:40 [Clive] It looks just like a paint potlinked to a laptop,
970 01:16:44 and yet that's recordedthis unique data service,
971 01:16:47 so that's really something.
972 01:16:49 Looks can be deceptive.
973 01:16:51 It's an incredibly sensitive instrumentin there.
974 01:16:56 So, it records, you know,um, just minor movements.
975 01:17:01 Even us walking around herewill be creating noise.
976 01:17:04 So, this is Mr. Yun Yong-Gun.
977 01:17:07 He's the vice-directorof the Earthquake Administration
978 01:17:10 and kind of leads the DPRK sideof the project.
979 01:17:16 [speaking Korean]
980 01:17:24 The Earthquake Administration ofthe Democratic People's Republic of Korea
981 01:17:28 pays special attention to this projectof international joint research.
982 01:17:33 [speaking Korean]
983 01:17:46 Great importance is given to this mountain
984 01:17:49 just because around this mountain,our great leader President Kim Il-sung
985 01:17:53 fought against the Japanese imperialists.
986 01:17:57 [Werner]Kim Il-sung, the founding father
987 01:18:00 of the communist North Korean state,
988 01:18:02 appropriated the myth of the volcano.
989 01:18:06 He established his secretmilitary headquarters
990 01:18:09 in a forest right hereat the foot of the mountain,
991 01:18:13 thus transferring its power and dynamicinto his revolution.
992 01:18:22 This monument is a gatewayto the sacred ground.
993 01:18:42 [speaking Korean]
994 01:18:47 [Han Myong Il] This group sculptureis about the camping life of the guerillas
995 01:18:50 in Chongbong Camp.
996 01:18:53 They were very much movedto put their foot
997 01:18:56 the first time on the homeland,and they could not sleep.
998 01:19:01 You can see there are lady guerrillas
999 01:19:04 who are now sewing the buttonsto the clothes.
1000 01:19:07 A guerrilla who is reading a bookunder the fire.
1001 01:19:11 A little guerrilla is now dreamingabout returning back home
1002 01:19:15 after the liberation of their country,
1003 01:19:17 and one of the guerrillasis now playing the pipe.
1004 01:19:22 [continues in Korean]
1005 01:19:23 Those guerrillas are now rejoicingover the sight of Mount Paektu.
1006 01:19:31 From the 21st of July, 1979,
1007 01:19:34 our great leaderGeneralissimo Kim Jong-il
1008 01:19:37 came to this placeand particularly highly appreciated
1009 01:19:40 that that lady,who is now standing in solitude,
1010 01:19:44 was greatly depicted.
1011 01:19:56 [speaking Korean]
1012 01:19:59 This is the biggest lake, number one.
1013 01:20:03 And over there we havethe lake number two.
1014 01:20:07 And a little further up,we have the lake number three.
1015 01:20:12 When our great leader GeneralissimoKim Jong-il came here in March, 2003,
1016 01:20:18 he highly appreciatedthe beauty of these trees.
1017 01:20:24 [indistinct chatter]
1018 01:20:35 [woman speaking Korean]
1019 01:20:38 This is the mosaic mural paintingThe Glory of February.
1020 01:20:51 The mural painting representsthe great leader President Kim Il-sung
1021 01:20:55 and the anti-Japanese heroKim Jong-suk,
1022 01:20:57 who are celebratingtheir first birth anniversary
1023 01:21:00 of the great leader Kim Jong-il.
1024 01:21:07 [Werner] And here,the secret log cabin of Kim Il-sung.
1025 01:21:11 Daily, thousands of peoplemake their pilgrimage
1026 01:21:14 to this humble place.
1027 01:21:18 In the Christian world, this would belike visiting the birthplace of Jesus,
1028 01:21:23 the stable in Bethlehem.
1029 01:21:25 [woman speaking Korean]
1030 01:21:28 [Werner]For North Koreans...
1031 01:21:30 the founding father of their revolutionstill lives on.
1032 01:21:35 Kim Il-sung becamepresident of the nation,
1033 01:21:38 and then president for life.
1034 01:21:41 After his death,he was declared president for eternity.
1035 01:21:52 The propaganda appears to createa quasi-religious experience.
1036 01:22:01 [Han Myong Il] Actually,the life in the secret camp in those days
1037 01:22:05 was so difficultthat they had no blankets at all.
1038 01:22:08 That is why the guerrilla soldiers,collected their pad wads
1039 01:22:12 from their own padded clothes,
1040 01:22:15 and then made that blanketfor our dear Kim Jong-il.
1041 01:22:25 [Werner] The birthplaceof the socialist revolution
1042 01:22:29 manifests itselfin collective formations
1043 01:22:32 of the North Koreans.
1044 01:22:34 [orchestral music playing]
1045 01:22:36 In the country's biggest stadium,
1046 01:22:38 more than 100,000 people participatein creating a unique art form.
1047 01:22:47 The picture of the hut in the snowis not a painting.
1048 01:22:50 It is made of human pixels.
1049 01:22:54 And this is how it's done.
1050 01:22:57 A prearranged pattern of color cardsis held and flipped over in sync.
1051 01:23:06 Here, the rising sun over the landscapeof Mount Paektu.
1052 01:23:11 [orchestral music playing]
1053 01:23:31 And here, father and sonof the revolution.
1054 01:23:36 All this appears like a cosmic metaphor
1055 01:23:39 for a society alignedin a unified pattern
1056 01:23:42 behind a common ideology.
1057 01:24:06 But in all this display of the masses,
1058 01:24:09 I find an underlying emptinessand solitude.
1059 01:24:25 Because of the North Korean ideologyof political and economic self-reliance,
1060 01:24:31 and becauseof internationally-imposed sanctions,
1061 01:24:35 the country is unique.
1062 01:24:37 The population at largehas very limited contact
1063 01:24:41 with the outside world.
1064 01:24:43 There are no international phone linesor Internet available to the public,
1065 01:24:48 no radio or televisionfrom the outside world.
1066 01:24:53 To our eyes,it is strange to see people
1067 01:24:56 not glued to their cell phones.
1068 01:25:00 There is no advertising anywhere.
1069 01:25:02 Instead,just the ever-present propaganda.
1070 01:25:07 There are no newsstands,
1071 01:25:09 only the official party newspaperon display.
1072 01:26:03 In the subway, in the streets,almost everywhere,
1073 01:26:07 you'll find pictures of the leaders,always in the vicinity of the volcano.
1074 01:26:19 Back on the mountain, we spoketo a historian who was assigned to us.
1075 01:26:26 We asked him about the photosand the precise location
1076 01:26:29 of where they had been taken.
1077 01:26:32 He probably stood exactly at the placeyou are standing now.
1078 01:26:36 [speaking Korean]
1079 01:26:48 Not this place, but up thereon the Janggun Peak.
1080 01:26:51 [Werner] Yeah. They're famous photos.We know them.
1081 01:26:55 About this monument,it dates back to what time, roughly?
1082 01:27:00 [speaking Korean]
1083 01:27:10 [Han Myong Il]It dates back to the early 20th century.
1084 01:27:13 It was erected by the heavenly peopleliving around this area.
1085 01:27:19 And, according to the inscriptionon the monument,
1086 01:27:22 they prayed to Mount Paektuand Lake Chon here
1087 01:27:25 to give birth to a prominent person
1088 01:27:28 who can give prosperity and happinessto the Korean nation.
1089 01:27:33 [Werner]And the person materialized?
1090 01:27:36 [speaking Korean]
1091 01:27:40 You are quite right.
1092 01:27:42 This kind of miserable nationwas rescued and saved
1093 01:27:47 just by our great leader,the fearless patriot Kim Il-sung,
1094 01:27:52 who fought againstthe Japanese imperialists.
1095 01:27:54 [Werner] And how do you feel,as a historian,
1096 01:27:57 with all the thousands of yearsbehind you,
1097 01:28:01 how do you feel personally?Is there pride? Is there patriotism?
1098 01:28:06 Eh...
1099 01:28:09 [speaking Korean]
1100 01:28:13 [Werner] My question was meantto elicit a personal response.
1101 01:28:16 However, personal opinionsseem to us a mirror image
1102 01:28:20 of the omnipotent ideologyof the people and their leadership.
1103 01:28:28 All the Korean peoplefrequently climb up to this mountain,
1104 01:28:32 but every time wheneverthey climb up this mountain,
1105 01:28:36 they have a new feeling,a solemn feeling,
1106 01:28:39 and at the same time,they make up a new determination
1107 01:28:42 to work harder for the countrywith patriotism.
1108 01:28:46 And all the Korean peopleare now singing the song
1109 01:28:50 whose title is"Let Us Go to Mount Paektu."
1110 01:28:54 And it clearly reflectsthe spirit of the Korean people.
1111 01:28:59 [singing in Korean]
1112 01:29:13 [singing continues]
1113 01:29:48 [singing continues]
1114 01:30:07 [playing classical music]
1115 01:30:20 [speaking Korean]
1116 01:30:33 [soft choral music playing]
1117 01:30:38 [Werner]We are back now where we started,
1118 01:30:40 the Vanuatu Archipelago,
1119 01:30:43 this time on Tanna Islandin the south.
1120 01:30:47 There is an active volcano here,Mount Yasur.
1121 01:31:17 [rumbling]
1122 01:33:05 [people singing]
1123 01:33:07 [Werner] Similar to North Korea,this volcano has created a new god.
1124 01:33:12 The name of the deity: John Frum,
1125 01:33:15 the mythical American G.I.who descended from the clouds.
1126 01:33:22 Each Friday night,the islanders celebrate his cult.
1127 01:33:26 [music playing, people singing]
1128 01:34:21 [low, distant rumbling]
1129 01:34:30 Chief Isaac of this John Frum village
1130 01:34:33 tightly controls the dogmaof the new faith.
1131 01:34:37 Different denominationsand even a schism in the church
1132 01:34:42 seem to have materialized,
1133 01:34:44 and so we were only allowedto speak to him and his son.
1134 01:34:50 He flies the Stars and Stripesbecause John Frum is an American
1135 01:34:55 who promises to returnwith copious cargos of consumer goods.
1136 01:35:03 I understand that John Frumone day will appear to all the people
1137 01:35:08 and that he will bring many things--
1138 01:35:11 chewing gum, fridges, Cadillacs,maybe Boeing airplanes.
1139 01:35:16 [speaking Narak]
1140 01:35:22 -[translator] He thinks that---[speaking Narak]
1141 01:35:24 He says that it is a promisethat was made one day.
1142 01:35:34 He says that it is a promisemade by the spirit
1143 01:35:37 that one day, it will be likethe Americans will do all that.
1144 01:35:42 Is John Frum like a god?
1145 01:35:45 Mm-hmm.
1146 01:35:47 [translator]John Frum is like a god to us.
1147 01:35:50 The one god?
1148 01:35:54 And--
1149 01:35:55 [speaking Narak]
1150 01:35:58 [translator] John Frum is like a god,and it is like--
1151 01:36:01 [speaking Narak]
1152 01:36:07 [translator]John Frum is like a gate.
1153 01:36:12 It is like Jesus. You have to pass throughbefore going to God.
1154 01:36:18 [Clive]What happens when people die?
1155 01:36:20 [speaking Narak]
1156 01:36:28 [translator] His believingis that when the dead are buried,
1157 01:36:32 they are in a room...
1158 01:36:36 waiting for the Last Kingdom.
1159 01:36:40 Will they meet John Frumin the Last Kingdom?
1160 01:36:44 [translator speaking Narak]
1161 01:36:51 [translator]So, he thinks that the Last Kingdom,
1162 01:36:54 John Frum is like a walking person,like Jesus.
1163 01:36:57 In the Last Kingdom, it is thoughtthat he'll be searching for people.
1164 01:37:03 [Werner] His son haddirect encounters with John Frum.
1165 01:37:06 You're next in line to be chiefof this John Frum village,
1166 01:37:10 and I understand that you have spent timeliving in the volcano.
1167 01:37:14 You spent some nights there.What were you doing,
1168 01:37:17 and did you speak to John Frumwhile you were there?
1169 01:37:21 [speaking Narak]
1170 01:37:27 [translator]He's answering that yes, he's been there.
1171 01:37:30 He stayed there for one full night.
1172 01:37:34 He had seen someoneand he spoke to him.
1173 01:37:39 We-- It's said that John Frumuses the volcano as a portal,
1174 01:37:45 a doorway, to travelfrom Tanna to America.
1175 01:37:49 Does John Frum live inside the volcano?
1176 01:37:54 [speaking Narak]
1177 01:38:06 He's telling us that John Frumhas a special room that he's living in.
1178 01:38:11 But there is one day that we will meet him
1179 01:38:15 in a different form of a person,like Jesus.
1180 01:38:23 [Clive]When I was on the volcano...
1181 01:38:26 I found it amazing to watch,but also quite terrifying.
1182 01:38:30 How did you feel spending a whole nightup in the crater?
1183 01:38:34 Were you afraid?
1184 01:38:38 [Moli speaking Narak]
1185 01:38:51 [translator] He's telling usthat when he went there
1186 01:38:54 and spent the night,he wasn't afraid
1187 01:38:56 because he knows thatthat is God,
1188 01:38:59 and He's the onethat's allowing him to go there.
1189 01:39:07 [speaking Narak]
1190 01:39:12 So, he went inside the volcanoand he saw Him,
1191 01:39:16 and he spoke to Him.They had a conversation.
1192 01:39:22 [Clive] Are you allowed to tell uswhat the conversation was about?
1193 01:39:27 [speaking Narak]
1194 01:39:37 [translator] He says that the messagethat the spirit gave to him,
1195 01:39:43 he didn't tell to his father
1196 01:39:45 and even the followersthat are following John Frum.
1197 01:39:49 It is only for him.
1198 01:39:50 I'm a volcano man.You can't whisper it to me in my ear?
1199 01:39:59 [dog barking]
1200 01:40:03 [hammering noises nearby]
1201 01:40:13 [rooster crows]
1202 01:40:28 [rumbling]
1203 01:40:34 [Werner] It is hardto take your eyes off the fire
1204 01:40:38 that burns deep under our feet,
1205 01:40:41 everywhere, under the crustof the continents and sea beds.
1206 01:40:46 It is a fire that wants to burst forth,
1207 01:40:49 and it could not care lessabout what we are doing up here.
1208 01:40:59 [choral music playing]
1209 01:41:02 This boiling massis just monumentally indifferent
1210 01:41:07 to scurrying roaches,retarded reptiles
1211 01:41:12 and vapid humans alike.
1212 01:41:18 [Mael]When I went there...
1213 01:41:21 I started to walk to the lava lake.
1214 01:41:27 I didn't think that I would see somethinglike what I saw.
1215 01:41:33 And when I looked down there...
1216 01:41:37 I thought that I was lookingat the seawater.
1217 01:41:45 But it was red.
1218 01:41:49 And I didn't understand.
1219 01:41:52 I started to think aboutwhy there's water there
1220 01:41:58 and the water is red.
1221 01:42:01 I didn't understand.
1222 01:42:06 I thought that perhaps this fire
1223 01:42:11 will someday cometo that seawater.
1224 01:42:17 So, I was very frightened.
1225 01:42:26 According to our culture,I think the volcano will...
1226 01:42:32 will destroy everything.
1227 01:42:35 I believe that.
1228 01:42:39 Because I hear about,from various people,
1229 01:42:42 that there are volcanoesaround the world.
1230 01:42:48 And I think that, uh...I believe that someday
1231 01:42:52 this volcano will erupt,
1232 01:42:55 and the one at Lopevi,
1233 01:42:58 and they will join togetherand will burn everybody.
1234 01:43:01 This is what I'm thinking of.
1235 01:43:04 I think everything will melt.
1236 01:43:08 That's what I'm thinking.
1237 01:43:11 Everything will melt.
1238 01:43:15 The stone, the soil...
1239 01:43:20 trees and everything, will melt.
1240 01:43:25 Like water.
1241 01:43:31 And so, I believe that this volcanowill destroy this world someday.
1242 01:43:40 [choral music playing]
1243 01:43:43 [rumbling]
1244 01:44:16 [choral music continues]
