00:00Well, pack your bags and hurry down to Antarctica, because gold is literally raining from the
00:06sky there!
00:08$6,000 per day!
00:10Well, not exactly from the sky.
00:12More like from the eruptions of this massive fiery volcano.
00:17The towering beast of a mountain is called Erebus.
00:20It looms over the icy, lifeless expanse of Antarctica, on Ross Island.
00:26It shares the spot with three neighbors – Mt. Terror, Mt. Bird, and Mt. Terra Nova.
00:33Although Erebus is certainly dominating the place, it's about 12,500 ft tall, like 8
00:39Empire State Buildings.
00:42Even though it's far smaller than Mt. Everest, it's still the southernmost active volcano
00:47in the world.
00:49And even though it stands in the middle of nowhere, Erebus is far from lifeless.
00:54It has a terrible temper, actually.
00:56Erebus constantly breathes and roars, throwing out gases and chunks of molten rock in crazy
01:02tantrums called Strombolian eruptions.
01:06And among them, it spews out tiny delicate specks of shimmering gold.
01:11And it's not a couple here and there.
01:13This money fountain works every day, spewing out nearly a quarter pound of gold per day.
01:19Like we mentioned, it's worth over $6,000.
01:23It also sums up to a crazy 64 pounds of gold per year – over $2 million!
01:30But before you treasure hunters rush there, we have to tell you that these are more like
01:35particles of gold.
01:37They're often less than 60 micrometers in size and are scattered around, impossible
01:42to collect.
01:43And when we say scattered around, we mean it.
01:46Some of those particles have been found as far as 620 miles away from the volcano, carried
01:52in the middle of nowhere by Antarctic winds.
01:55Erebus isn't a super-friendly place to hang out next to.
01:59Its eruptions are wild and unpredictable.
02:02So most of what scientists know about Erebus comes from satellites, which monitor its activity
02:07from the safety of space.
02:10For scientists, this place is also a gold mine.
02:14Erebus is the only volcano that can do this stuff.
02:17They figured out that this happens when the magma – super-hot semi-molten rock beneath
02:22the Earth's surface – rises to the volcanoes.
02:26Magma brings some liquid gold with it.
02:28The moment it meets the chilly Antarctic air, the gold crystallizes into little pieces,
02:34and voila!
02:352 million bucks per year!
02:38Erebus is such a weird and rare volcano.
02:41Its fiery heart has been burning for over a million years.
02:45Over these million years, it's been building layer by layer.
02:48Its basis is a super-ancient lava.
02:51And the upper layers are youngsters.
02:55And throughout many years, it's been very active, with a glowing lava lake bubbling
02:59at its center.
03:01This lava lake is exactly what it sounds – a pool of constantly shifting, burning molten
03:06rock.
03:07This sight is incredibly rare because there are only several lakes like that in the entire
03:12world.
03:13But this isn't just a pool of rock – it's a window into the volcano's soul.
03:18In Erebus, it's made of phonolite.
03:21Phonolite is a very cool rock.
03:23Its name comes from the Greek words for sound and stone.
03:27Because guess what?
03:28It's a rock that produces a ringing sound when you strike it.
03:32There are only a couple of volcanoes that give it to us.
03:35But it's not the only volcano that can flex its weirdness.
03:40Uldoyenyo Lengai, a volcano from the East African Rift in northern Tanzania, is even
03:46more mysterious.
03:48It spews what's called natrocarbonatite lava.
03:52Most volcanoes erupt glowing red-hot rivers of molten rock.
03:56But this one erupts dark lava.
03:59It flows super-fast, like water, creating these thin, fast-moving rivers.
04:04So all this makes it look almost like black mud or oil.
04:08What's even wilder is that as soon as it hits the air, it starts reacting super-fast
04:14and turns white within hours.
04:16It's like magic, with black lava turning into something that looks like white dust
04:20or snow.
04:22Not even mentioning that it even glows faintly at night.
04:26And it's not that hot either.
04:27Well, it's still pretty hot – from about 900 to 1000 degrees Fahrenheit.
04:33But usually, lava temperature can vary from 1,300 to 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit.
04:40So it's cold by volcanic standards.
04:43That's because this lava is rich in some strange soda- and salt-like, incredibly rare
04:49materials.
04:51Nererite and gregoryite Nererite is usually colorless and shiny,
04:55looking like small clear crystals or plates.
04:59Gregoryite is often a bit cloudy.
05:01These guys are a geochemical mystery.
05:04Deep inside this place, there are two pools of magma.
05:08The rare minerals are probably born when carbon-rich parts of magma get separated from the rest,
05:14forming these two pools.
05:16And while they're fascinating, and we can get tons of them from this volcano, they're
05:20also completely useless.
05:22They're so rare and fragile that they're impossible to use in anything, even jewelry.
05:27Still, even astronomers find this curious.
05:30If there are planets out there that are rich in carbon instead of oxygen, like Earth, these
05:35minerals could be quite popular there.
05:39This volcano also releases a lot of gas, and I mean a lot.
05:43It's spewing out carbon dioxide at a speed of about 176 pounds per one second.
05:50Just think about it – about 5 tons of carbon dioxide per minute.
05:55Every minute, that's like several cars' worth of gas being pumped out into our atmosphere.
06:00Luckily, our planet is used to this volcano, so it's not that dangerous to us.
06:05Meanwhile, in the central Andes, far from human reach, Lestaria is having the time of
06:11its life.
06:12This is also one of the most extraordinary and remote volcanoes in the world.
06:17This one is even taller than Erebus, rising to almost 18,700 feet.
06:22It's surrounded by a barren, otherworldly landscape.
06:26There are literally no humans within 90 miles around it, except for some volcanologists.
06:32Lestaria is absolutely wild, constantly breathing out hot gases and steam.
06:38The air seems almost alive there, shimmering with plumes of vapor escaping from cracks
06:43in the ground.
06:44These vents, called fumaroles, are more than just hot steam – they're basically chemical
06:49labs.
06:50They spit out tons of various gases, all of which react with the air and rock around,
06:55and what's left behind is something otherworldly.
06:58It's like someone spilled a painter's palette – bright yellows, fiery oranges,
07:03and rusty reds.
07:05But the wildest part are molten sulfur rivers – streams of bright yellow liquid bubbling
07:11and flowing down the sides of a volcano.
07:14Some of it is still burning, darkening, like some sort of weird s'mores.
07:19All that because the sulfur is getting heated to its melting point by the intense heat below
07:24and turns into a thick, glowing liquid.
07:27Then it starts flowing, cooling, and hardening.
07:30You can't tell if you should be fascinated or disgusted by this sight.
07:35And if that's not enough to make you feel like you're on another planet, the place
07:39itself is just as extreme and crazy.
07:42Lestaria is perched high on the Altiplano, at the edge of the Atacama Desert, one of
07:48the driest places on Earth.
07:50Pretty much no rain, and temperatures can plummet to minus 11 degrees Fahrenheit.
07:56At least some volcanic ash enriches the soil, so there are some hardy plants here and there.
08:02The weirdest part is a salt pan nicknamed Lake of Sulfur.
08:06It's fed by those sulfur rivers.
08:10It shimmers with minerals all along its shores.
08:13This lake used to be way higher in ancient times, but now it's just a shadow of its
08:18former self.
08:21Thousands of years ago, it witnessed a catastrophe of unimaginable scale.
08:26The southeastern side of the volcano, a huge part of it, crumbled and fell in an instant.
08:31The ground just gave way, and an avalanche of volcanic rock and ash thundered down the
08:37slopes.
08:38The landslide raced at terrifying speeds, faster than the fiercest storm, tearing apart
08:43everything in its path.
08:45It tumbled for 5 miles.
08:47When the dust settled, all that was left was a massive scar, about half a mile wide.
08:53We learn this story from the debris around the place.
08:56Ash, pumice, and lopele, all are the shattered remnants of the volcano itself, lying now
09:03at its base.
09:05That's it for today, so hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like
09:11and share it with your friends.
09:12Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!
