Why Indonesia is Always Erupting

Summary

In this captivating exploration by Johnny Harris, viewers are taken on a journey through Indonesia's volcanic landscape, focusing on why this region is home to so many active volcanoes. The video delves into the science behind volcanic formations, highlighting the rapid movement of tectonic plates in the region, and the devastating yet fertile power of volcanic ash. By profiling specific volcanoes like Kawa Ijen and Mount Merapi, Harris illustrates the danger and beauty of these natural phenomena and the reasons why millions choose to live amidst them. The cultural significance and economic impact of these 'sleeping dragons' on local communities is also explored, showing the dual nature of volcanoes as both creators and destroyers.

Highlights

• Indonesia's Sunda Arc is home to the most volcanic activity on the planet. 🇮🇩
• Volcanoes form when tectonic plates collide, slide, or move apart. 🗺️
• Kawa Ijen is famous for its acidic blue crater lake and sulfur mining. 💧
• Mount Merapi, or 'Fire Mountain', frequently erupts near dense populations. 🔥
• Krakatoa's historic eruption influenced global art and climate. 🎨
• Volcanoes like Mount Bromo hold religious significance, symbolizing creation. 🕉️

Key Takeaways

• Indonesia hosts the most volcanoes in the world due to fast-moving tectonic plates. 🌋
• Volcanic eruptions can be deadly, mainly due to ash avalanches rather than lava. 🌪️
• Despite the risks, volcanic soil is incredibly fertile, making it ideal for agriculture. 🌱
• Cultural and religious practices in Indonesia are heavily influenced by volcanic landscapes. 🙏
• Each volcano has unique characteristics, offering both challenges and opportunities for locals. 🌄

Overview

Indonesia, with its Sunda Arc, is the most volcano-rich region globally, attributed to the unique interactions of tectonic plates in this area. As these plates move, they create an array of geological wonders that are both breathtaking and deadly, shaping the landscape and human existence alike.

Volcanic eruptions, while dangerous, particularly due to ash avalanches, play a paradoxical role by enriching the soil, making it highly fertile. This fertility supports agriculture, providing livelihoods for millions, ultimately highlighting the eternal dance between destruction and creation.

Cultural and spiritual aspects intertwine with the physical landscape, as evidenced by volcanoes like Mount Bromo, which is not just a natural marvel but a sacred place for many Indonesians. This connection underscores how indigenous wisdom and modern science together fathom the mystique of these geological features.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to Global Volcanoes The chapter introduces the global distribution of volcanoes, highlighting significant regions such as Ethiopia, Iceland, and the western coastlines of the Americas. It emphasizes that Indonesia, particularly the Sunda Arc, has the highest concentration of volcanoes on Earth among its 17,000 islands.
• 00:30 - 01:00: The Sunda Arc in Indonesia The chapter discusses the Sunda Arc in Indonesia, a region known for its intense volcanic activity. It highlights the striking beauty and violence of the volcanoes in this area and aims to explore why these volcanoes are so deadly. The chapter also delves into why millions of people choose to live in close proximity to these potentially dangerous natural features.
• 01:00 - 01:30: How Volcanoes Form Volcanoes form due to the movement of the Earth's plates. The ground beneath us is a thick plate, about 100 kilometers deep, floating on molten lava. These plates are constantly moving in various directions and speeds, leading to geological activities such as the formation of volcanoes. There are seven main plates on Earth.
• 01:30 - 02:00: Indonesia's Volcanic Activity Explained The chapter explains Indonesia's frequent volcanic activity. It discusses the movements of tectonic plates, which create mountains, islands, earthquakes, and volcanoes. Specifically, when plates collide and one is forced beneath the other, it results in volcanic formations. This geological activity explains the abundance of volcanoes in Indonesia.
• 02:00 - 03:00: Impact of Volcanic Eruptions Volcanic eruptions are influenced by tectonic plate movements, with some plates moving as fast as seven centimeters per year, one of the fastest rates globally. This movement leads to significant volcanic activity. In areas around these volcanoes, there's sparse population, indicated by dark green regions, but nearby villages, represented as dots, have many inhabitants living directly in potential eruption zones.
• 03:00 - 04:30: Sponsor: Morning Brew Volcano eruptions are deadly primarily due to the ash they emit rather than the lava. The ash and gases first rise, then fall, gaining momentum on steep mountainsides, leading to destructive ash avalanches. These can devastate areas up to three kilometers in radius from the volcano, and standing in their path is fatal.
• 04:30 - 06:00: Kawaii Zhen Volcano and Sulfur Mining The chapter discusses the impact of rain on the volcanic ash from the Kawaii Zhen Volcano, creating dangerous mud rivers that can flood and impact nearby villages. The chapter also briefly mentions a sponsorship by Morning Brew, a daily newsletter, highlighting it as a positive morning routine.
• 06:00 - 08:00: Mount Merapi: The Deadly Fire Mountain The chapter titled 'Mount Merapi: The Deadly Fire Mountain' includes a transcript focusing on the Morning Brew, a witty and engaging newsletter delivering concise news updates. It covers various topics, including tech, business, and global events. Highlighted is the interest in the cryptocurrency world, referencing a previous video about NFTs. The newsletter is praised for asking pertinent questions and providing solid breakdowns that are enjoyable and quick to read. Additionally, the Morning Brew is free and easy to subscribe to, emphasizing its accessibility.
• 08:00 - 09:00: Living with Volcanoes: High Risk, High Reward The chapter 'Living with Volcanoes: High Risk, High Reward' explores the intriguing relationship between humans and volcanoes, highlighting the different 'personalities' of volcanoes. It aims to explain why people choose to live near these dangerous yet mesmerizing natural giants, often referred to as 'sleeping dragons.' The narrative seeks to provide insights into the coexistence of humans with these geological features along a particular strip, reflecting on the risks and rewards involved in such habitation.
• 09:00 - 10:00: The Destruction of Krakatoa The chapter discusses the volcanic eruption of Kawaii Zhen 3000 years ago, which resulted in the formation of a one-kilometer-wide crater. The crater is now a lake filled with bright blue, highly acidic water, regarded as the most acidic lake on Earth. This acidity is due to a large underground deposit of sulfuric gas venting through a crack. When the volcano erupts, the lava interacts with the sulfuric gas, producing a striking blue flame.
• 10:00 - 11:30: Mount Bromo and Mount Semeru: Symbolic Volcanoes The chapter focuses on Mount Bromo and Mount Semeru, highlighting their symbolic importance.
• 11:30 - 12:00: Conclusion: Indonesia's Volcanic Legacy The chapter titled 'Conclusion: Indonesia's Volcanic Legacy' describes the vibrant and dynamic volcanic environment in Indonesia, characterized by rising steam and thick plumes of yellow smoke, which are part of sulfur production processes. It highlights the intense and demanding working conditions of local workers, portrayed as heroic figures, with a specific mention of an individual named Superno. Through interactions with Superno, insights are offered into the challenging nature of the labor in this unique and harsh environment.

Why Indonesia is Always Erupting Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 these are all of the volcanoes in the world you've got this big strip here in ethiopia a big cluster up in iceland and a long strip down the west coast of the americas but there's one spot that has more volcanoes than anywhere else on earth right here in indonesia and it's not even all of indonesia this country of 17 000 islands it's really this belt right here this is called the sunda arc and it's
• 00:30 - 01:00 where the majority of volcanic activity in indonesia is happening it's where the violence the intensity the beauty of all of these blasts is taking place i want to show you some of the most striking volcanoes on earth and i'm doing this because i want to try to better understand why they are so deadly and why millions of people live right in the shadow of these sleeping dragons
• 01:00 - 01:30 [Music] okay let's quickly go over why volcanoes exist maybe you've heard this before but i'm going to try to explain it in a way that makes sense it's important to remember that the ground under your feet is actually a giant plate 100 kilometers thick one of many plates floating around on molten lava they're all moving in certain directions and at different speeds there are seven main plates on earth and
• 01:30 - 02:00 a bunch of smaller ones and they're always moving when these plates move into each other they make mountains when they spread apart they make underwater volcanoes that cool and turn into rocks and we call them islands when they slide against each other they make terrible earthquakes and when they run into each other and one gets forced below the other they make volcanoes a whole series of volcanoes begins to pop up along the edge of the continent parallel to the trench so the real reason why this one strip of land in indonesia has so many volcanoes
• 02:00 - 02:30 is because this plate is slamming into this plate at a rate of seven centimeters a year which is one of the fastest movements of plates in the world so you're getting a ton of this which results in a ton of this if you zoom into one of these volcanoes you're going to see a lot of this dark green around the volcano where no one lives but all of this each one of these little dots are villages where tons of people live and they're right in the strike zone of this volcano
• 02:30 - 03:00 volcanoes kill people when they suddenly erupt but it's not the lava that kills them it's the ash this huge column of ash and gases first goes up and then it eventually falls down as it falls it gains momentum on these steep mountainsides and eventually that will slam into villages up to three kilometers in radius from the volcano if you are standing in the way of one of these massive ash avalanches you will die
• 03:00 - 03:30 and then if it rains it gets really bad because the ash and the rain make these horrifying mud rivers that cut through the mountain and flood villages all around the region okay before we go any further i want to thank today's sponsor which is morning brew morning brew is a free daily newsletter monday through sunday i love morning brew because it is a great way to start your day i used to start my mornings just sort of like rolling over opening my phone and wandering through several apps not really knowing what i should be reading
• 03:30 - 04:00 morning brew is a clear concise and honestly witty and fun to read newsletter that focuses you on the relevant news in everything from tech to business to what's happening in the world one of the things i've been following is the cryptocurrency world and obviously i've made a video about nfts they're witty they're asking the right questions it's just a really nice solid breakdown that's fun and very quick and easy to read again there's nothing to sell here morning brew is a free newsletter it takes 15 seconds to
• 04:00 - 04:30 sign up there's a link in my description clicking that link helps support this channel but it also allows you to sign up for this awesome newsletter for five minutes a day you're getting smarter and more informed about today's news thank you morningbroof for sponsoring this video and let's get back to volcanoes every volcano has its own personality and i want to show you some of the most striking volcanoes along this strip and in the process explain how and why humans live so close to these sleeping dragons [Music]
• 04:30 - 05:00 first let's talk about kawaii zhen this volcano blew up really bad 3000 years ago and left a one kilometer wide crater that is now full of this bright blue very acidic water the most acidic lake on earth because under the surface there is a huge deposit of sulfuric gas that is venting out of this crack in the earth all of this sulfuric gas means that when this thing erupts with lava it burns that gas and ignites it in this mesmerizing blue flame
• 05:00 - 05:30 all of this gas also means that there is some money to be made the locals have installed these ceramic pipes to catch the gases and force it to condense into a liquid it flows down here to where it cools and turns into a solid which can be harvested by locals my friend christian is there right now covering the realities of this job i'm gonna let him show you what this work is actually like hey johnny so right now we are inside of kawaiigen a active volcano and this crater is
• 05:30 - 06:00 full of life you can see all the steam rising off of the water this insane plume of yellow smoke and this yellow smoke is what creates the sulfur and with me here are the bad ass hard-working dudes no other way to put it they're literal superheroes this here is superno what's up superno i've had this amazing opportunity to just pick his brain try to understand a little bit better why is it that these guys have taking on some of the most challenging work conditions
• 06:00 - 06:30 on planet earth what is the heaviest weight that you'll take up the hill uh 75 kilograms 75 kilograms i just tried 40 could barely manage it i mean you look at these guys they're not bodybuilders but they're strong-minded they're incredibly driven and they've got a good purpose for it how much money for one kilo only 1250. so how much do you make at the end of the day okay if you were to convert that to us dollars that's about 22
• 06:30 - 07:00 21 for the entire day's worth of work [Music] these workers make it into town where they sell this sulfur to factories which mainly use it to bleach sugar so that it's white it's back-breaking dangerous work christian made a whole video from this mine and the realities of this war i will link to that in the description next up we have mount merapi or fire mountain this volcano has killed more humans
• 07:00 - 07:30 than any other it erupts all of the time like every few years here it is erupting just last year this thing is happening over the course of five minutes this time lapse was recorded by volcano ut and freck on two different youtube channels that i'll link to in the description the reason why this volcano is so deadly is because like i said before there are millions of people living around it and not just remotely around it like right up against the mountain here's the volcano and these are all the villages right up
• 07:30 - 08:00 against it which raises an important question i had going into this story which is why do so many people live here like so many people the answer is that this is an amazing place to live indonesia has mild warm weather it rains super hard for a few months and that rain is effectively stored in these mountains and it provides water to these people throughout the year and then there's the fact that this is
• 08:00 - 08:30 perfect fertilizer all mashed up and broken down ready to make this soil incredibly fertile this is some of the most fertile land on earth you get three rice harvests from this soil every year because the soil is like magic so yeah the people living here are sort of in a high risk high reward situation they live on a sleeping dragon that could wipe them out at any moment and yet as long as it doesn't they have some of the best weather and growing conditions on earth [Music]
• 08:30 - 09:00 next up is krakatoa what you're looking at here is actually like a graveyard of what used to be a big island they used to look a lot more like this but a hundred years ago it blew up we think this is the most explosive volcano in modern history 10 of the world could hear the blast it was so intense tens of thousands were killed in the ash and the ash exploded so high into the air that all the way in europe the sky was red and hazy which has led some to speculate
• 09:00 - 09:30 that it was this event that inspired the red hazy look of this painting one of the most famous paintings in the world called the scream the volcano that grew out of krakatoa has kept erupting over the years breaking this island down further and further until the whole thing just eventually collapsed and caused a huge tsunami that killed hundreds just a couple of years ago the island went from looking like this
• 09:30 - 10:00 to this and today it's one of the fastest growing volcanoes in the world and will certainly be back for more destruction [Music] okay the last one i want to talk about is this set of volcanoes this one is mount bromo and this one is mount semeru first off these two volcanoes are some of the most stunning volcanoes i've ever seen in my life but they also represent the deep religious symbolism that volcanoes have come to symbolize over time this mountain mount sumeru
• 10:00 - 10:30 is named after the mythical mount meru which is a sacred five-peaked mountain in the cosmology of three religions hindu jain and buddhism it is considered to be the center of the physical and metaphysical and spiritual universes the neighboring volcano is also deeply symbolic it's called bromo which in javanese is the name for brahma or the hindu god of creation every year hindus hike up this mountain and make an offering of vegetables and plants and animals to the
• 10:30 - 11:00 gods embodied in this volcano there are so many more volcanoes in indonesia and my goal is to go to indonesia with my camera and actually photograph them for myself a lot of the footage from this video came from christian who gave me a lot of his footage he lives in indonesia and from other places i didn't go there but i really want to i'm now deeply fascinated with volcanoes because i've been deeply diving into plate tectonics so i hope you understand more about
• 11:00 - 11:30 why volcanoes exist why so many exist in indonesia and how the people cope living next to these ticking time bombs what's so intriguing to me is that the volcano is a giver it gives abundance and fertility most of the time but sometimes it chooses to take away [Music] okay that's it