The colossal consequences of supervolcanoes - Alex Gendler
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0:07 - 0:10The year was 1816.
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0:10 - 0:12Europe and North America had just been through
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0:12 - 0:15a devastating series of wars,
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0:15 - 0:18and a slow recovery seemed to be underway,
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0:18 - 0:21but nature had other plans.
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0:21 - 0:23After two years of poor harvests,
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0:23 - 0:26the spring brought heavy rains and cold,
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0:26 - 0:29flooding the rivers and causing crop failures
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0:29 - 0:32from the British Isles to Switzerland.
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0:32 - 0:36While odd-colored snow fell in Italy and Hungary,
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0:36 - 0:40famine, food riots and disease epidemics ensued.
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0:40 - 0:43Meanwhile, New England was blanketed
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0:43 - 0:44by a strange fog
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0:44 - 0:46that would not disperse
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0:46 - 0:47as the ground remained frozen
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0:47 - 0:49well into June.
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0:49 - 0:53In what came to be known as "the Year Without a Summer,"
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0:53 - 0:55some thought the apocalypse had begun.
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0:55 - 0:59A mood captured in Lord Byron's poem "Darkness":
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0:59 - 1:02"I had a dream which was not all a dream.
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1:02 - 1:05The bright sun was extinguish'd,
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1:05 - 1:09and the stars did wander darkling in the eternal space,
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1:09 - 1:11rayless, and pathless,
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1:11 - 1:14and the icy Earth swung blind and blackening
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1:14 - 1:16in the moonless air;
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1:16 - 1:20morn came and went -- and came, and brought no day."
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1:20 - 1:21They had no way of knowing
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1:21 - 1:23that the real source of their misfortunes
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1:23 - 1:27had occurred a year ago thousands of miles away.
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1:27 - 1:31The 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora
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1:31 - 1:33on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa
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1:33 - 1:36was what is known as a supervolcano,
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1:36 - 1:39characterized by a volume of erupted material,
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1:39 - 1:43many times greater than that of ordinary volcanoes.
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1:43 - 1:45And while the popular image of volcanic destruction
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1:45 - 1:48is molten rock engulfing the surrounding land,
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1:48 - 1:51far greater devastation is caused
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1:51 - 1:53by what remains in the air.
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1:53 - 1:55Volcanic ash, dispersed by wind,
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1:55 - 1:57can blanket the sky for days,
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1:57 - 2:00while toxic gases, such as sulfur dioxide,
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2:00 - 2:02react in the stratosphere,
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2:02 - 2:04blocking out solar radiation
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2:04 - 2:07and drastically cooling the atmosphere below.
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2:07 - 2:09The resulting volcanic winter,
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2:09 - 2:11along with other effects such as acid rain,
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2:11 - 2:13can effect multiple continents,
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2:13 - 2:14disrupting natural cycles
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2:14 - 2:17and annihilating the plant life on which other organisms,
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2:17 - 2:21including humans, depend.
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2:21 - 2:24Releasing nearly 160 cubic kilometers
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2:24 - 2:26of rock, ash and gas,
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2:26 - 2:27the Mount Tambora eruption
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2:27 - 2:30was the largest in recorded history,
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2:30 - 2:33causing as many as 90,000 deaths.
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2:33 - 2:35But previous eruptions have been even more deadly.
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2:35 - 2:39The 1600 eruption of Peru's Huaynaputina
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2:39 - 2:41is likely to have triggered the Russian famine,
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2:41 - 2:43that killed nearly two million,
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2:43 - 2:47while more ancient eruptions have been blamed for major world events,
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2:47 - 2:49such as the fall of the Chinese Xia Dynasty,
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2:49 - 2:52the disappearance of the Minoan civilization,
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2:52 - 2:55and even a genetic bottleneck in human evolution
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2:55 - 2:58that may have resulted from all but a few thousand human beings
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2:58 - 3:02being wiped out 70,000 years ago.
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3:02 - 3:04One of the most dangerous types of supervolcano
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3:04 - 3:07is an explosive caldera,
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3:07 - 3:09formed when a volcanic mountain collapses
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3:09 - 3:11after an eruption so large
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3:11 - 3:13that the now-empty magma chamber
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3:13 - 3:15can no longer support its weight.
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3:15 - 3:18But though the above-ground volcano is gone,
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3:18 - 3:21the underground volcanic activity continues.
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3:21 - 3:23With no method of release,
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3:23 - 3:25magma and volcanic gases continue
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3:25 - 3:28to accumulate and expand underground,
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3:28 - 3:31building up pressure until a massive and violent explosion
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3:31 - 3:33becomes inevitable.
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3:33 - 3:37And one of the largest active volcanic calderas
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3:37 - 3:40lies right under Yellowstone National Park.
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3:40 - 3:43The last time it erupted, 650,000 years ago,
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3:43 - 3:45it covered much of North America
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3:45 - 3:48in nearly two meters of ash and rock.
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3:48 - 3:50Scientists are currently monitoring
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3:50 - 3:52the world's active volcanoes,
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3:52 - 3:54and procedures for predicting eruptions,
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3:54 - 3:57conducting evacuations and diverting lava flows
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3:57 - 3:59have improved over the years.
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3:59 - 4:02But the massive scale and global reach
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4:02 - 4:03of a supervolcano
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4:03 - 4:06means that for many people there would be nowhere to run.
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4:06 - 4:09Fortunately, the current data shows no evidence
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4:09 - 4:12of such an eruption occurring in the next few thousand years.
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4:12 - 4:14But the idea of a sudden and unavoidable
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4:14 - 4:17civilization-destroying apocalypse
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4:17 - 4:19caused by events half a globe away
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4:19 - 4:22will remain a powerful and terrifying vision.
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4:22 - 4:24Less fictional than we would like to believe.
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4:24 - 4:28"The winds were withered in the stagnant air,
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4:28 - 4:30and the clouds perish'd;
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4:30 - 4:32darkness had no need of aid from them --
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4:32 - 4:35she was the universe." - Lord Byron
- Title:
- The colossal consequences of supervolcanoes - Alex Gendler
- Description:
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View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-colossal-consequences-of-supervolcanoes-alex-gendler
In 1816, Europe and North America were plagued by heavy rains, odd-colored snow, famines, strange fogs and very cold weather well into June. Though many people believed it to be the apocalypse, this "year without a summer" was actually the result of a supervolcano eruption that happened one year earlier over 1,000 miles away. Alex Gendler describes the history and science of these epic eruptions.
Lesson by Alex Gendler, animation by Andrew Foerster.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TED-Ed
- Duration:
- 04:51
Caroline Cristal accepted English subtitles for The colossal consequences of supervolcanoes - Alex Gendler | ||
Caroline Cristal approved English subtitles for The colossal consequences of supervolcanoes - Alex Gendler | ||
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Caroline Cristal edited English subtitles for The colossal consequences of supervolcanoes - Alex Gendler | ||
Caroline Cristal edited English subtitles for The colossal consequences of supervolcanoes - Alex Gendler | ||
Jessica Ruby edited English subtitles for The colossal consequences of supervolcanoes - Alex Gendler | ||
Jessica Ruby edited English subtitles for The colossal consequences of supervolcanoes - Alex Gendler |