NOVA is the best. They know how to do documentaries correctly. Engaging presentation, no oddball theories or random conspiracies to try to hold attention, and seemingly with the idea that the viewing audience had a measure of intelligence. Kudos! Well done, NOVA.
And what's most impressive about that is that this is a fairly recent doc (5 yrs, at time of commenting), when the pressures to present a particular narrative one way or another are particularly...insistent.
Docs on Earths great geo features never get old because the science and current understanding keep evolving so quickly. Thanks for another great one on this region!
As a member of the US Navies 6th Fleet, I spent a lot of time in Naples and the surrounding areas. The places are beautiful and the people are for the most part friendly. I was not aware however of the evidence under the streets, of a major eruption in the distant past. These cities were built many years before the people understood the geological dangers they faced. An eruption of equal or even lesser size could mean the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. If I was a resident of Naples right now....I believe I would be looking for another place to live.
@@junkvista61Don’t move to Italy then. There are 12 volcanoes in Italy and nine are considered active. One of these volcanoes is a supervolcano! One volcano, about an hour from Rome is the Colli Albani, which is dormant.
Unfortunately, NOVA didn't mention that Campi Flagrei is a super volcano. One of its eruptions 40,000 years ago was 200 times bigger than Mount Saint Helens, and deposited meters of ash as far away as Russia.
They didn't because it doesn't actually qualify as a "supervolcano", and the term isn't really meaningful anyways. To qualify as a supervolcano, a volcano must have produced at least 1 VEI (Volcanic Explosivity Index) eruption of an 8. The VEI scale goes from 0, with no or minimal explosive activity, often producing just lava flows an to 8 producing more than 1,000 cubic kilometers (km^3) of tephra. Tephra is any solid (once cooled) explosive eruption product, including ash and pumice and even broken chunks of the mountain that get explosively ejected. A VEI 8 is beyond anything human history has encountered and would likely generate an intense volcanic winter, as the low 7's humans have witnessed all did. (VEI 7 is 100 to 999 km^3 tephra production.) Mt St Helens in 1980 was a low 5, with just over 1km^3 of tephra. The huge eruption in early 2022 in the south pacific at Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai that produced a Pacific-wide tsunami and an explosion so loud it was heard in Alaska was a high VEI 5, maybe a low 6. It isn't conclusively determined which yet. (And sadly, the news of this huge, impactful and historic eruption was quickly overshadowed by the even more historic and impactful Russian invasion of Ukraine a month later.) So, what's the largest eruption produced by Campi Flagrei? Well, it was a VEI 7, with around 500km^3 tephra generated. Huge, but only half the size it would need to be called a supervolcano. But the term supervolcano isn't particularly useful anyways. There are many large caldera system volcanoes like Campi Flagrei, and only a few have produced a VEI 8 eruption, but they are all extremely hazardous. In addition, there's a big overlap between the largest eruptions from "normal" volcanoes and the colossal eruptions *sometimes* produced by supervolcanoes. In fact, the last volcanic winter humanity experienced did not come from a supervolcano - it was from Tambora in 1815, causing 1816 to be gripped by a volcanic winter and called "the year without a summer." In fact, even the 'infamous' Yellowstone that is the subject of many videos and docudramas meant to scare more than educate, erupts a lot more often than its super eruptions. It actually averages out to an eruption about every 60,000 years, and most of these are not particularly explosive - a vent opens up, there's minor explosive activity (possibly from groundwater interaction), and a big sticky rhyolite lava flow squeezes out of the ground. This is why geologists call these volcanoes caldera systems instead. It describes their behavior better than the term supervolcano, which is a term that was used once in a geology paper in the 1960s to make fun of the idea of a certain cluster of volcanoes with similar behavior actually being one volcano. (Later study discovered that cluster of volcanoes shares a deep crustal magma source, but have separate shallow magma plumbing systems.) The media found out about the term sometime in the 90s and it sounds scary, so they ran with it. Geologists then adopted the term only because the public already had, and language is for communicating even if the origin of a term or phrase is really stupid.
We visited the Pompeii exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago and they talked about the increased activity, and said if you want to see Pompeii in person, maybe don't wait to go. Go soon.
Oh man I've been to that museum twice and was NOT disappointed! Awesome exhibits there. And yeah I was thinking the same thing, like "I guess if I want to see all the cool sites in Italy, I should go soon..."
Probably the biggest warning sign of an imminent eruption would be harmonic tremors; I'm surprised the documentary didn't even mention that, considering how much they monitor both volcanoes.
There was no doubt that serious tremors and quakes had occurred quite often. I read that earthquake repairs were in progress at the time of the 79 AD eruption.
Like many, I've always been fascinated by Pompeii and ancient Rome as well. So like us in some ways and yet so different. Today, I live in an area with several active volcanoes, Washington State. We not only have these ring of fire volcanoes, but a major subduction zone. Unlike the ancients, we understand what all this means and yet we live here. Odd, isn't it? Anyway that Pompeiian baker may have survived. Bread with his stamp has been excavated elsewhere according to another source. Yes, they signed their bread!
Washington State is beautiful, but I couldn't live there; I'd be too afraid of the Cascadia Fault. It's been quiet for a long time, but the next time that thing ruptures, WA isn't going to look so beautiful anymore.
I think people who made a decision to leave early on stood a chance of making it out of there. However, it seems to be human nature that we want to "wait and see." You can't always wait for more information in catastrophic situations. Waiting too long to make a decision can take your life and those of your family.
Artifacts like the baked bread, and really the whole area of Pompeii and Herculaneum, remind us those former residents were just like us. People engaged in everyday life of working, trading, just making a living. Then suddenly gone.
Even with all the dramatic flourishes some people are complaining about, it was interesting to see the geologic explanation of what causes an eruption & the steps the authorities are taking to monitor the volcanic activity to have an early warning system in place. They have been trying to do the same on the US west coast regarding earthquakes & tsunamis. We also have several volcanoes here. Mt. Ranier in WA, Mt. Hood in OR, Mt. Mazama (Crater Lake) in OR & Mt. St. Helens in WA. Calif has 29 including Mt. Shasta. Monitoring them & gathering data is important.
Geologists here. When talking to the general public, I'll often include a compelling story or a bit of drama just to keep people a bit more engaged. It also helps to ask people questions, as most people cannot absorb information for an hour continuously without breaks or some kind of feedback. (Basic lecture structure helps too. It should be to tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them.)
coming on Oct 28th or so...the 4 gas giants will form a square, with earth closest to the sun, will be alone, in front of the sun...same planetary alignment as 79AD when this happened. I suspect many volcanoes world wide will be popping off...heads up as I'll be watching
Well, with a magnetic shift in progress, volcanic eruptions & earthquakes are going to be happening more than anyone has ever seen in a lifetime. Anybody living in an earthquake prone area or near a volcano might just want to consider a change of scenery.
I was on the island of Hawaii during the 2018 eruption, it was awesome and scary. We were evacuated from our community because it was coming our way when it made a sharp right turn and filled Green Lake. Green Lake was a fresh water lake formed from a crater from a long ago eruption. More than 750 homes were lost, many of which were strictly vacation homes and AirBnB. A large mango farm that produced 80% of the island’s source of the fruit was destroyed. The warm pounds was over run and lost. The losses of properties and currently uninhabitable properties are great and some people got no help for various reasons. One of the memorable things Civil Defense guy said was a warning of boulders the size of refrigerators should there be an eruption at the summit of Kilauea. Anyways, I now live in Brooklyn NY.
@@LilyGazou I moved back to be closer to my brother, it’s easier and more possible to pay $29 than $900 to get to Boston. I’m in the Coney Island neighborhood and it’s ok. Next week I gotta dye my hair for the mermaid parade, not gonna be in it but it’s time to have fun.
NOVA has a history and reputation for producing excellent documentaries, however, I have noticed that, in recent years, the background music has moved from a solid foundation of instrumentation that piques and keeps one's interest, toward the lower-grade "Are There Aliens Among Us" shows, with their horror/thriller sounds and music.
Keep in mind the people had no idea Vesuvius was a volcano so it was easier for it to catch Pompeii off guard. Scientists know a lot more about volcanism now than they even knew when Mt St Helen’s erupted in 1980 so it might be possible to give people at least a few days notice before either volcano erupts. That may not be a lot of warning time, but it’s better than nothing
In all the years we have had PBS, they have never lost their acc uracy, taste, and respect for their viewers. You have the confidence that any show they stream is worth watching.
Thank you very much for this facinating documentary. Particular thanks to all the people who explained the geology of these volvanoes so clearly, and all those associated with the program. The people of Naples are taking a big risk. Hope it works out well.
Here is the problem with evacuating 3 million people from around Campi Flegrei: We get everyone out of the way. Turning Pozzuoli and Naples into ghost towns. Then days go by. Weeks. A month. People are going to want to go back to their homes. To their jobs. They are going to get antsy. Irritated. We've seen this in Grindavik. At Mt. St. Helens, even with the huge bulge on the side of the mountain that can only be caused by a huge force, people were camping out in the Blue Zone because it was "safer" than the Red Zone, even though the bulge made St. Helens into a giant Claymore Mine pointed right in their direction. That Sunday, local residents were scheduled to go back into the area to retrieve more belongings from their homes. The next Monday after that, lumber crews were scheduled to go back into the area to continue to work the logging operations. Instead of killing 57, St. Helens would have killed hundreds if the eruption happened several hours or a day later. Simply put, we can predict that a volcanic eruption is immanent, but it can be immanent for weeks or months. Unless Italy wants to impose a tyranny far beyond anything Mussolini or Caligula ever achieved, there is no way we are going to keep 3 million people away from their homes and jobs on the basis of a definite maybe.
I never knew that they got the bodies of the victims by pouring plaster into the cavities left behind by the bodies. That explains why we are able to see facial features. But seeing the child's jaw in one of the bodies hit me deeply. It just boggles the mind to think of how many people live directly on top of a caldera. They say repeatedly that they "can save Naples," but that's a misnomer. There's no saving the town, only the inhabitants. The best way to survive Campi Flegrei is to move off the capstone and get away from the area where the pyroclastic flow is likely to emanate. As for the British scientist who goes down to the fumarole to take readings; isn't there some scientific instrument to do that for them? If I can have CO2 detector in my home, surely there are expensive meters that can get the data he is interested in without rappelling down into the mouth of an active volcano!
Living in a beachhouse in SoCal years ago, I'll never forget the shaking "thunk" of the bigger ocean waves collapsing on the beach. Luca is a genius to think of using this along with super sensitive seismometers to build a 3D Magma Chamber Map. Potentially saving millions of Italian lives.
In the book "Isaac's Storm" (about the early 1900s Galveston hurricane), it was the heavy pounding of the waves that got his attention that something was brewing out at sea. Technology has real benefits and I'm not antitech, but there's something to be said for sensitivity to nature's communications.
They talk about giving people time to escape a eruption. None of them live in Florida and see what happens when only a couple hundred people try to escape a hurricane.
There's nothing I've ever found more dangerous than people running for their lives in panic. I was at the Chiefs parade and that's exactly how everyone got injured. It wasn't from the shooter, he hit a woman and was tackled, but the other 40 or more people were injured by the crowd itself, that's why you don't see it being talked about but I was there. I saw it. That mob.. they looked like orcs from lord of the rings. Just one thought only "RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!" and that's even what the police and military guys told me. They screamed RUN FOR YOUR LIFE and not knowing where to run, nowhere was safe, I laughed out loud both times because I hate being yelled at, and nobody in this world had EVER said or screamed anything like that to me in whole life. They caused the panic. Those people meant to keep the peace only made it a thousand times worse. I saved 2 little kids from being ripped in half, I'm going to write it all out one day, because I was RIGHT there. Since then, I'll never go anywhere with a large group of people unless back is against a large structure or wall. People in utter panic mode like wild animals won't run towards an object they know they can't push through or break down. They flow like water into other areas with less resistance. It was truly the most horrible thing I've ever seen with two eyes, and once as a kid I saw a guys throat get ripped out with a claw hammer at a party. I thought that was bad but wow. Mobs. Unbelievable what those fans did. And I mean this too, this is why they haven't done any cartoon or animates sequences of what happened. It was the crowd who hurt everyone. And nobody yells at me to run for my life so I didn't run anywhere. I took cover behind a concrete barrier and was talking to people with their eyes squeezed shut, bawling, trying to help (I wasn't scared, Im old and if I die that's fine) telling them "It's ok, it's ok, they got the guy, open your eyes, you need to move, follow those people, but everything is OK!" and most understood and did run off in a daze, but some didn't or couldn't listen. If the dude or someone else was there and walked around that corner, he would mowed all of us down, 50 or more people, all with eyes squeezed shut like nothing I'd ever seen before.. Sure am glad the authorities screamed at us to run for our lives right? No mental trauma there, right?
We can always count on NOVA to release quality, educational content. I've been a fan since I was a kid. Thank you for everything you do to continue to educate and inform.
I love NOVA too but your channel has such low volume.I even tried a sound booster to no avail. Will you please increase the volume control? I'd really like to watch many of your videos. Thanks
I was in Naples for a few days and if they all had to evacuate in a day it would be mass hysteria and maybe like 10000 people would make it out. It is so crowded and the streets are narrow. You would have to walk out and you wouldn't make it in time. I could never live there. It was a great city, though - if not for the volcano I would love it.
I very much understand the attachment people feel to their surroundings and the costs of moving, finding jobs, starting a new business someplace else, etc., but given the historical precedent, what Vulcanology tells us and the present level of activity, getting out of that area should be part of everyone’s short term plans.
I haven't slept in almost 24 hours, so when I heard that volcanologists had a more "hands on" way to check on volcanoes I panicked thinking they stick their hands into the volcanoes!
You gotta be kidding. 1st, why were you up 24hrs, and 2nd, in that state of mind, you actually thought human beings were putting their hands into liquid stone for a "hands on" way of "checking them"? That's amazing. Never heard of such a thing but it did make me laugh. Driving home from vacation once, just hyped to get home, take a HOT shower and sleep in own bed vs a tent in Grand Canyon AZ, I drove 23hrs straight to get back home, only stopping for gas and going to the bathroom in poweraid bottles. Never got tired from the excitement of taking a shower after 9 long days of hiking, I was very dirty, but getting home, I tried calling family to let them know I'd made it safe, but I couldn't use my cellphone. No matter WHAT, I *_couldn't_* make it work. Kept putting in area codes when it didn't need them, even trying contacts, I just couldn't get it to work period to simply call out. Kept thinking "what would you do if you had to dial 911, this is nuts!" Looking at in my hands, it looked foreign in my frustration trying to make it call someone, but it was like something I didn't even know what it's function is. Gave up after 10 mins, I tried *hard* then skipped the shower (ugh), laid on bed, never waking up for any the 7 alarms I'd set two mins apart, missing work by 4hrs as no call no show. Work knew I was coming back from vacation so they were very forgiving but wow. That 23hrs was sure something else. Towards the end (and I'd been awake longer than that, but that's just how long the drive home was) things were getting really weird in a not so good way, not just the phone. Truthfully in that state, it was good I was home. People doing stunts as I did are just as irresponsible as people drinking and driving. I shouldn't have done that even if I did make it home safe. A 4-6hr nap would have helped but I pushed through, adrenaline rising higher and higher the closer I got home. But I was NOT myself and even felt slightly intoxicated except I don't drink at all not being a fan of it. But whoa was that something else. It's funny as a kid, I would have been fine. You know, you and your buddies in grade school have sleep overs for the weekend, have contests to stay up for 48hrs or longer, just goofing off, but in older age, going without sleep or sleep deprivation can be VERY dangerous. I couldn't use a cellphone stone cold sober! It was so frustrating yet funny at the same time too. I knew what was happening. Just total confusion. So really upon that reflection, I can *_totally_* see how you might have thought that. I get it now. It'd just been a while since doing that and had forgotten.
22:00 "you are probably kill-ed." I was not expecting to laugh during this documentary, but that was amazing. I'm going to pronounce it that way (in casual conversation anyways) from now on.
The Archaeologist explains that those are not bodies we are seeing... does he not consider a skeleton the remains of someone? All the casts still have the bones of the individuals who lost their lives in them.
Did you listen to the description? There were only voids left in the rocks where bodies had once been. Researchers poured plaster into those voids to create casts showing what the bodies looked like when they died. It's far easier to visualize their poses when they are casts, rather than looking at the empty space. If there had still been bones inside those rocks, I am certain that archaeologists would've removed the bones rather than pouring plaster all over them.
It's not a question of "IF" Naples will become the next Pompeii, but when. And no, you can't predict it. And this is a perfect example as to why people shouldn't build cities next to volcanoes...lol!
Amazing genius who developed the ocean wave sounding system should be given the Nobel Prize. Incredible! What about using bridges, runways or other things that produce widespread, penetrating sounds?
One mistake that they made in this documentary was to focus solely on Campi Flegrei. Like at Yellowstone, there are several calderas along the shore. There is plenty of evidence that the bay itself is another caldera. An eruption could occur in any of the adjacent craters, but the one with most of the hot springs, fumaroles and geysers is Campi Flegrei.
Niva is an excellent science program, and is the best reporting whatever information they have to offer. Now about this particular documentary. As far as "evacuating people"--I do not think it is possible to evacuate 3 million people in an advance warning of less than one month or more. Anything less than this, there is gridlock as people panic and try to escape. A 24-48 hour notice, and if it were me, I would shelter in place and just die where I sit. why bother? I would just as soon take a sleeping pill and pleasantly just sleep through and not wake up. There had to be signs for days in 70 AD when Mt. Vesuvius blew. Those who heeded those early warnings obviously got out with their lives. We will never know how many died in the harbor, who were boiled alive, and or drowned in the escape attempt--as those corpses floated and or rotted away. I imagine it was into the thousands. Unless people left a good week before the events took place, people did not get very far because of conditions. When conditions got so bad and they saw what was happening, about 2000 people figured it was no use, and sheltered in place. In reality, probably very few really got out, when the whole thing started. When Mt. St. Helens was acting up, there were signs for months--but people did not want to leave their businesses! They expected scientists to pinpoint an exact day, hour and minute! So no, they did not want to leave the mountain. Basically hardly anyone left at all. Anyone who was forced to leave threatened to sue. Therefore people came back. As a result there were deaths when Mt. St. Helens finally did blow. This resulted in the death of a National Geographic employee too--who was just too close photographing the mountain--today an observatory is named after him in the area of the mountain. I have been there. Just like the Mt. St. Helens incident, the people living and making a living all around that area in Naples are not going to just pack up and leave because of volcano warning. They will scoff, laugh, and say: "Been living here all my life, nothing has happened, and I am not going to lose my house, and business by leaving....." By the time the volcano does blow, they will be the first ones panicking and blocking the roads with their vehicles and will die. This is human nature. Those who are not so materialistic and place a higher value on human life, will heed the warnings a evacuate early, if given enough time and can beat the crowds. It is simple as that.
The second threat it's the number 1 threat not only to Naples but to all Europe, because it's a Super volcano, and it's imminent it's explosion. Campi Flegrei with a city on the top it's craters.
True, I wonder what kind of material could be used so that it would withstand the heat while also staying light enough tk fly and have a good battery life.
I always wondered why the people in Pompeii didn't leave the area since they had ample warning of an eruption and then our cruise ship sailed past Stromboli. Their experience of volcanoes was only from this small island whose eruptions mostly produce cinders. Recently it's been putting out lava but still nothing compared to Vesuvius.
There were earthquakes, a huge scary black cloud getting bigger and a rain of ash. Maybe they didn’t know what was coming or why, but there were obvious reasons to GTFO. Most people did leave before it was too late. Historians think about 13% died.
Great documentary. They only left out one question, that admittedly the authorities may not yet be ready to answer: Can 3 million people be evacuated based on the existing infrastructure, with the best warnings before the eruption starts?
Campi Flegrei, a supervolcano, is becoming more & more active, & Italian authorities are working overtime developing evacuation plans for Naples & surrounding areas. Most likely, an eruption will be only a partial one. However, should the supervolcano produce a catastrophic total eruption, the entire Italian peninsula will become a volcanic wasteland.
Please explain why people have to make their way down into the volcanoes in order to measure gases. We have the ability to go to the moon and mars- why don't we have drones that can safely retrieve data??
Yes, stability issues. Also visual monitoring is important as we see things that drones don't pick up on. Drones melt and can be dramatically impacted by winds and other gases.
They have to get the samples of gas at the exit of the fumarole pretty much in person to get the best samples, as it's at the base of a cliff. Hard to fly a drone in there.
were volcanic eruptions common enough in the empire that people would be familiar with what one is? or would it happen so rarely and with many generations in between that unless one was a well read historical scholar perhaps most people didn't know about exploding mountains and lava?
I would assume most people at that time did not know that some mountains explode. There were probably no eruptions in living memory. Stratovolcanoes like Vesuvius can be silent for centuries.
It's possible that they mostly knew, since Mount Aetna has been in continuous eruption for centuries & that's within the old Roman Empire borders. There's Santorini, as well. Italy is chock full of multiple volcanoes, so it would surprise me if the Romans weren't familiar with the possibility.
Certainly every earthquake near Vesuvius does not mean the Magma has broken through someplace. Though I understand they want to err on the side of caution. Of course those studying the volcano need continuous funding to protect the people of the area.
No, its not that simple. Much like Cascadia, the volcanoes in Italy result from a subduction zone in the East (rather then west). The fault is NOT simple either and varies regionally. There's a great documentary on Amazon Prime that explores the geology of Italy. Campi Flegrei is a super volcano so the theory that this is a hot spot volcano. The question with Vesuvius is whether its feed from subduction or an offshoot of Campi Flegrei or both.
A positive comparison from then and now is that today, we are more aware that a volcano, like other natural threats are dangerous and that we know that we must be cautious. The other aspect is that the population will be prepared on what to do. Before it was so terrible because even though it was a horrible explosion, people stayed not knowing that the whole mountain would crumble down. Many died because they had no idea on what to do.
It is one thing to live in an area where the dangers are unknown but to live in a KNOWN deadly area? Makes no sense at all. In reality, the Italian government should warn all the people in Naples to move to a safer area! If they choose not to... Oh well!
There is no such thing as a good way to die. Only worse ways to die. A lot of archaeologists are frustrated and disappointed that they can't study the bones in the plaster casts, but they are extremely revealing of their last moments of life. There are plenty of skeletons to study, so the disappointments are minimal. We need to see the faces of the worst and most extreme agony to make us think about the inescapable terror and pain those people went through. They were cooked in their togas and drowned in 1,200°F dirt. A really nasty way to die.
The one guy is calling those bodies casts. But they actually are bodies. There bone, teeth, and other pieces of that person still there. A little more respect should be given instead of just acting like it's a freeze frame photo.
So interesting how they are able to preserve the last moments of those poor people..how crazy it must have been.it is mother nature at her most powerful might.
