Horizon

Horizon - Season 39 Episode 2 Volcano Hell

2025-10-06 60 minutes.
7.40 33 votes

Season - Episode

61 Season 61 Aug 18, 2025
60 Season 60 Jul 22, 2024
59 Season 59 Mar 31, 2022
58 Season 58 Jan 04, 2021
57 Season 57 Jan 16, 2020
56 Season 56 Jan 23, 2019
55 Season 55 Feb 05, 2018
54 Season 54 Jan 19, 2017
53 Season 53 Mar 16, 2016
52 Season 52 Aug 18, 2014
51 Season 51 Aug 12, 2013
50 Season 50 Jul 23, 2012
49 Season 49 Aug 08, 2011
48 Season 48 Sep 27, 2010
47 Season 47 Oct 13, 2009
46 Season 46 Jan 26, 2009
45 Season 45 Jan 15, 2008
44 Season 44 Mar 13, 2007
43 Season 43 Jan 12, 2006
42 Season 42 Jan 13, 2005
41 Season 41 Jan 08, 2004
40 Season 40 Jan 09, 2003
39 Season 39 Jan 10, 2002
38 Season 38 Jan 25, 2001
37 Season 37 Jan 12, 2000
36 Season 36 Jan 28, 1999
35 Season 35 Feb 19, 1998
34 Season 34 Feb 27, 1997
33 Season 33 Jan 08, 1996
32 Season 32 Jan 09, 1995
31 Season 31 Jan 10, 1994
30 Season 30 Jan 04, 1993
29 Season 29 Jan 06, 1992
28 Season 28 Jan 07, 1991
27 Season 27 Jan 08, 1990
26 Season 26 Jan 09, 1989
25 Season 25 Jan 04, 1988
24 Season 24 Jan 05, 1987
23 Season 23 Jan 06, 1986
22 Season 22 Jan 07, 1985
21 Season 21 Jan 09, 1984
20 Season 20 Jan 10, 1983
19 Season 19 Jan 11, 1982
18 Season 18 Jan 05, 1981
17 Season 17 Jan 14, 1980
16 Season 16 Feb 26, 1979
15 Season 15 Jan 06, 1978
14 Season 14 Jan 07, 1977
13 Season 13 Jan 05, 1976
12 Season 12 Jan 20, 1975
11 Season 11 Jan 07, 1974
10 Season 10 Jan 04, 1973
9 Season 9 Jan 03, 1972
8 Season 8 Jan 04, 1971
7 Season 7 Jan 05, 1970
6 Season 6 Jan 02, 1969
5 Season 5 Jan 02, 1968
4 Season 4 Jan 17, 1967
3 Season 3 Jan 02, 1966
2 Season 2 Jan 06, 1965
1 Season 1 Feb 04, 1964
0 Season 0 Dec 25, 1966

Overview

It began with a ghastly tragedy. In 1985 the massive Colombian volcano Nevado del Ruiz erupted, melting a glacier and sending a vast landslide of mud down on the people asleep in the town of Armero below. Twenty thousand died. In the aftermath science was set a challenge: to make sure such a catastrophe never happened again, by finding a way of accurately predicting when a volcano will erupt. Now, at last, it seems that one scientist may have met that challenge. Anyone can tell when a volcano becomes active. You can see it and you can smell it. But a volcano can be active for years without erupting. For those living nearby, there is no way they will abandon their homes and livelihoods just because of a few rumblings. The only way to persuade them to seek safety is to predict an eruption almost to the day, leaving just enough time for an evacuation. Scientists threw themselves at the problem, but there just seemed to be no way to make sense of the violent forces at work inside a volcano. Then along came Bernard Chouet. He is different from other volcanologists. His training lay in the complex equations and theories of physics, and he believed the answer had to lie in analysing the mysterious patterns drawn by seismographs. These measure the tremors caused by active volcanoes. Previous attempts to use these tremors to predict eruptions had proved fruitless. No one could find any correlation between the squiggles on the graph paper and the timing of eruptions. So Chouet locked himself away for five years and then emerged claiming he had found the answer. The key, he said, were seismic signals called long period events. These strange shapes had baffled volcanologists for years. Chouet said they were made by molten magma resonating - that is coming under pressure - inside the volcano. The more long period events there were, then the nearer the volcano was to exploding. Chouet could use the long period events to predict an eruption to within days. But another scientist was working on a completely different method. Stanley Williams could not be more different from Chouet. Where Chouet crunched numbers and looked at graphs, Williams climbed into craters and got up close; because he believed the best clue to when a volcano would erupt was to measure how much gas it was belching out. In 1993 the two methods came head to head. A conference was held at the foot of another Colombian volcano, Galeras. The highlight was to be a trip into the crater. Williams's gas readings indicated the volcano was safe. Chouet's long period events suggested the volcano might blow. After some debate, Williams led a team of volcanologists up the mountain. Suddenly Galeras exploded, killing six scientists and three tourists. Williams himself survived but was maimed for life. Since that day on Galeras, Chouet's methods have commanded wide respect and have been increasingly used around the world. In a dramatic demonstration last year Mexican scientists used Chouet's method to predict an eruption of the mighty volcano Popocatepetl. Tens of thousands of people were safely evacuated just before the biggest eruption of the volcano for a thousand years. No one was hurt.

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Popularity 59.7003
Language English

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