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The Power of Volcanoes
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We think of our Earth as complete.
Its creation long settled.
But it isn't.
5 billion years since it was formed, it is still changing.
Its savage beauty offering hypnotic clues to its power - a power that threatens those who must live on Hell'' Crust.
Volcanoes can change the face of the earth in moments. Around the world, 500 million people live in their looming shadow.
The split-second finality of earthquakes can reduce cities to ruins.
In Washington State, there is an area of 230 square miles, where the land has been stripped bare.
It''s a wasteland of lifeless mud, and steaming rock.
But this landscape did not always look this way.
Once it was covered in the dense green of ancient cedar forest.
This stump of a mountain was once the perfect cone they called the Mount Fuji of America.
May 18th 1980.
Everyone living here knew Mt St Helens was a volcano but no one alive had ever seen it erupt.
The mountain had been rumbling for 2 months, and the experts had drawn a 5 miles exclusion zone around the peak to protect the public.
But those who loved this wilderness still could not believe their mountain was something to be feared.
That May morning, Sue Ruff Nelson and her boy friend, were camping with their best friends Terry and Karen, 12 miles from the volcano.
Oh it was beautiful, it was real pristine, gorgeous huge trees that had moss growing on them and the Green River was beautiful and spring melt top coming off of it, and just one of those rare spring mornings.
Thirty miles west of the volcano, another young couples were just waking up.
We had just gone down to fish and camp and you know enjoy the weather and you know the surroundings.
Even the forest service thought that the 5 mile red zone was, you know, plenty, plenty of room for the eruption and we were 25 miles outside of it.
And so we thought we were perfectly safe.
That beautiful Sunday morning, at 8:32, an earth tremor caused by liquid rock moving a mile below the mountain changed everything. The tremor triggered the biggest landslide ever recorded.
8 thousand million tons of rock went crashing down the side of Mount St Helens.
In an instant, the landslide had released the pressure packed inside the mountain.
And it blew: not upwards - like the cartoon volcano people expected - but sideways.
An explosion of gas, steam and rock blasted out, at 670 miles per hour, and swept down the mountain, hugging the ground.
Sue Ruff Nelson and her friends were around the camp’s fire. They were 12 miles away. But they were not safe.
We all looked up and it was a small little black cloud and within a few short seconds it filled the whole entire horizon and it was, it wasn''t like a smoke cloud it was like a boiling, moving, solid thing.
I remember looking at the fire and the wind just blew the flames out along low along the ground and watching the handle on my coffee pot just kind of melt in the flames and then this cloud, and it was like a wall and it just engulfed us.
The power of that blast cloud uprooted and then boiled the sap, in trees that had stood for 600 years.
Not a single tree was left standing within 6 miles of the blast.
We realized that there trees all around us that had fallen down and we had fallen down into a root ball that had one tree had uprooted one way and the other tree uprooted the other way and the other trees fell on top of the root ball and we were enclosed in this little safe little place.
Within minutes a vast mushroom cloud had risen 12 miles into the sky. Pulverised rock began to fall as fine ash.
It was so dark and so heavy with ash coming down that I felt we were going asphyxiate and choke on it. It was just like an enoumous, like being inside a blender and not knowing what to do，where to go and I remember hearing just a shrieking sound and thinking "Oh my god,"you know, and it was me, I was screaming.
In Indonesia, volcanoes as well as frequent earthquakes tell of the turmoil below.
Volcanoes transmit the power from the heart of the planet not in waves thru the ground, but thousands of feet up into the air.
In 1982, the notorious Indonesian volcano Galunggung erupted - turning the countryside white - and sending a plume of ash high into the atmosphere, just as Mount St Helens had done.
Oblivious to what was going on below them - the 240 passengers in a jet bound for Australia were just settling down to watch their after dinner film.
I noticed that the cinema beam or the beam from the projector was getting more pronounced there was a lot of smoke in it.
On the flight deck, the crew were just as baffled. It looked like smoke - but there was no sign of fire anywhere.
The engineer called, "Failure on number four engine." The Captain leapt into his seat the engineer and I did the fire drill, shut the engine down, and then we sat there. Because an engine failure is not too much of a problem on a four engine aeroplane.
Gradually the smoke got thicker, until the point the oxygen masks came down and the lights went out.
The engineer said:"Number two engine''s gone: they''ve all gone. I don''t believe it." It was that quick you know...in forty five seconds to a minute we had gone from having all engines working to now having none.
The Captain''s voice came over and he said:" Ladies and gentlemen, we have a small problem, we have lost all four engines, we are doing our damnedest to get them going again, we hope you are not in to much distress."Click!
They were 93 miles - and 30,000 feet from Galunggung, but they had flown right into its ash cloud. But jet engines are not designed to operate in volcanic fallout. The crew struggled in vain to get the engines restarted.
It''s an eirie sound a jet which has lost power. There''s no air conditioning hiss. There''s no engine noise. There''s no mechanic noise. All you hear is the creaking of the plastic. We were in the dark and the exit signs were flashing and there were bells ringing. It was quite frightening.
The plane lost ten - fifteen - twentyfive thousand feet. For sixteen helpless minutes it fell. Then rushing air blew the volcanic ash out of the engines and the crew were able to get three restarted.
As we realised we were down, and the incident was over there was an enormous roar cheer on the plane and the relief and tears streaming down peoples faces, and the open relief that we had survived and we were down.
Like the survivors of Mount St Helens, they had learnt about Earth''s danger lines the hard way.
Where the plates of the Earth''s crust collide, they unlock a destructive power that can reach even into the sky.
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火山之威
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我们认为地球是完整的
它的发育过程早已结束
但事实并非如此
地球诞生后的50亿年里
它时刻都在变化着它那狂暴的美昭示了地球内部蓄势待发的巨大能量
这些能量威胁着
生活在地球表面的人类
火山能在顷刻间改变大地的容颜
全世界有5亿人
处在它的威胁之下
地震在瞬间就能把城市变成废墟
在华盛顿州
一片230平方英里的土地
被夷为了平地
这片荒原上
到处是死气沉沉的泥潭
和冒着蒸气的岩石
但这荒芜的景色并非与生俱来
以前 这里覆盖着古老的雪松林
到处是郁郁葱葱
这残缺的山丘
曾是一座完美的锥状山峰
被称为“美国富士山”
1980年5月18日
这里的人都知道
圣·海伦斯山是一座火山
但从未有人见它喷发过
2个月来这座山一直在隆隆作响
专家把山峰周围5英里划为禁区
以保证人们的安全
但喜爱旷野的人们依然不相信
这座山峰会有什么危险
5月的一个早晨
苏·拉夫·纳尔逊和她的男友
正和他们的好友特里以及卡伦
在距火山12英里远的地方野营
哦 那里的风景很美
没有任何污染
参天大树上长满了苔藓
格林河景色迷人
春意盎然
那是一个美丽的春天的早晨
在火山以西30英里处
另一对年轻夫妇刚从睡梦中醒来
我们去那里钓鱼 野营
享受好天气和周围的美景
连森林管理部门都认为
5英里的禁区对预防火山喷发
绰绰有余
而我们离火山有25英里远
因此我们认为自己绝对安全
在那个宜人的星期天早晨8点32分
山体下面1英里处的岩浆流动
引发了一场地震
它改变了一切
地震引发了
历史上最严重的一次山崩
80亿吨的岩石
冲下了圣·海伦斯山的山坡
顷刻间 山体滑坡释放了
山体内积聚的压力
火山爆发了
但不像人们想象的卡通火山那样
向上喷发
而是从山体的侧面喷射而出
大爆炸把气体 蒸汽和岩石
以每小时670英里的速度喷射出来
顺山坡席卷而下
迅速淹没了周围的土地
苏·拉夫·纳尔逊和她的朋友
正围坐在营火旁
他们离火山大约12英里
但他们并不安全
我们都抬头往上看
开始只是一小团黑云
几秒钟之后 它就覆盖了整个天空
它不像烟雾
更像一片翻滚移动的固体
记得我当时低头看了看营火
风把火苗向外吹
压得很低 紧贴着地面
咖啡壶的柄好像要在火中熔化了
这时 那片黑雾就像一堵墙
把我们吞没了
这股强劲的黑雾
把有600多年历史的古树连根拔起
并将树体内的汁液蒸干
火山周围6英里之内
所有的树都倒下了
我们意识到
我们周围的树都被卷倒
我们掉进了一个大树坑
树都被连根拔起
有的朝这边倒 有的朝那边倒
有的正好压在树坑上面
我们被围在了这个很小
但很安全的地方
几分钟之内 一股巨大的蘑菇云
冲到了大约12英里高的空中
化为齑粉的岩石
如同细碎的灰尘开始从天而降
四周一片漆黑
厚厚的灰尘不停地飞落下来
我觉得我们快要窒息了
我们就像
被困在一个巨大的搅拌器里
不知道该做什么 不知道该往哪去
我记得听到了一声尖叫
“哦 上帝”你知道 那是我
是我在尖叫
在印度尼西亚
火山和频繁的地震
显示了地表下面的动荡和不安
火山传递来自地心的能量
不是以地波的形式在地下传播
而是将其喷向数千英尺的高空
1982年
印度尼西亚著名的
高卢古安火山爆发了
周围的乡村变成了白茫茫的一片
火山灰喷向高空
和圣·海伦斯火山喷发时一样
在一架飞往澳大利亚的喷气机上
240名乘客对外面发生的一切
还毫无察觉
他们刚坐下来看他们的餐后电影
我注意到放映机或投影机
发出的光束越来越表明
机舱内有许多烟雾
机舱内 工作人员一片茫然
看起来像是烟雾
但飞机上没有任何着火的迹象
机械师叫道“4号发动机失灵”
机长迅速坐到他的座位上
机械师和我做好了灭火准备
关闭了发动机 然后坐下来
因为在一架有4个引擎的飞机上
一个引擎出故障算不得什么
慢慢地 烟越来越浓
最后 氧气罩落了下来
灯也熄灭了
机械师说“2号引擎也坏了
它们全坏了 我简直无法相信”
这太快了
只有短短的45秒到1分钟时间
所有正常运转的引擎
全部停止了工作
这时 耳边响起了机长的声音
他说“女士们 先生们
我们遇到了一点小麻烦
4个引擎全部出了故障
我们正尽全力让它们恢复正常
希望大家不要过于紧张”卡嗒
当时 他们离高卢古安火山
有93英里远 3万英尺高
但飞机正好进入了火山灰云层
喷气飞机的引擎可没有设计成
能在火山灰尘中工作
工作人员徒劳地重新启动着引擎
这是喷气飞机失去动力时
发出的奇怪声音
没有空调的嘶嘶声
没有引擎的轰鸣声
没有机械的噪声
你听到的只有塑料发出的嘎吱声
我们周围一片黑暗
紧急出口的指示灯不停地闪烁
警铃一直在响
那情景真让人恐惧
飞机下降了10000英尺
15000英尺
25000英尺
整整16分钟里 飞机无助地往下掉
后来 强烈的气流
把火山灰吹出了引擎
机组人员才使三个引擎重新启动
当我们意识到飞机已经降落
危险过去了
乘客中爆发出一阵欢呼
如释重负的乘客泪流满面
大家都感到非常欣慰
我们活下来了
和圣·海伦斯火山爆发中的
幸存者一样 他们在惊恐中
认识了地球的危险带
地壳板块碰撞的地方
释放出一股极具破坏性的能量
直冲云霄
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