00:00:08.840 --> 00:00:15.760
A high altitude world of great
and fragile mountains, where

00:00:15.760 --> 00:00:19.830
people live on the edge of
change in awe and fear of a

00:00:19.830 --> 00:00:22.255
landscape that could
come crashing down.

00:00:26.910 --> 00:00:30.300
For centuries, cultures have
lived and worshiped with the

00:00:30.300 --> 00:00:36.860
tremors beneath their feet,
tremors that tear apart the

00:00:36.860 --> 00:00:42.000
Himalayas, while rivers wash
the debris away across a

00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:45.970
plate, through the densest
population in the world, into

00:00:45.970 --> 00:00:48.130
an ocean and out of the
mouths of volcanoes.

00:00:56.450 --> 00:00:59.430
While cities grow and scientists
try to predict the

00:00:59.430 --> 00:01:09.050
timing of the next big event
in the collision zone.

00:01:36.240 --> 00:01:38.070
I've always wanted to
see the Himalayas.

00:01:38.070 --> 00:01:39.850
I've always wanted to
see the geology.

00:01:39.850 --> 00:01:41.660
I've lectured about it.

00:01:41.660 --> 00:01:44.690
I've written textbooks that
include sections on the

00:01:44.690 --> 00:01:46.980
Himalayan geology.

00:01:46.980 --> 00:01:49.820
But by coming here to the
Himalayas, you just

00:01:49.820 --> 00:01:51.165
have to say, wow.

00:01:56.690 --> 00:02:01.000
Canadian geologist Nick Eyles is
getting in a little R&R in

00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:03.185
the middle of his tectonic
tour of the planet.

00:02:06.850 --> 00:02:10.639
As he cruises along outside of
Kathmandu in Nepal, he's

00:02:10.639 --> 00:02:14.070
considering what he's going to
see up there in the mountains

00:02:14.070 --> 00:02:15.870
where the earth works
as a machine.

00:02:20.670 --> 00:02:24.700
A machine kickstarted by a
continental collision after

00:02:24.700 --> 00:02:26.900
the last supercontinent
broke apart.

00:02:29.410 --> 00:02:32.770
It's one of the greatest
stories in our history.

00:02:32.770 --> 00:02:35.720
55 million years ago is an
important marker in Earth's

00:02:35.720 --> 00:02:39.590
history because that marks the
end of the Tethys Ocean.

00:02:39.590 --> 00:02:42.350
India began its long migration
northwards,

00:02:42.350 --> 00:02:44.860
collides with Asia finally.

00:02:44.860 --> 00:02:47.530
And that's the extinction
of an ocean.

00:02:47.530 --> 00:02:50.000
And those oceanic sediments,
with all their included

00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:56.250
fossils, became caught
in a huge vice.

00:02:56.250 --> 00:02:59.230
And they've been uplifted 2
millimeters a year over 55

00:02:59.230 --> 00:03:00.820
million years.

00:03:00.820 --> 00:03:04.580
And they're now eight kilometers
above sea level.

00:03:04.580 --> 00:03:07.480
It's hard to imagine that
something as formidable as the

00:03:07.480 --> 00:03:11.550
Himalayan mountain range
could be so delicate.

00:03:11.550 --> 00:03:13.840
They are coming down as
fast as they went up.

00:03:13.840 --> 00:03:17.950
They're impermanent features
of the planet.

00:03:17.950 --> 00:03:20.640
So for all the size of the
Himalayas, they're the biggest

00:03:20.640 --> 00:03:24.070
features on the planet, they
are still ephemeral.

00:03:24.070 --> 00:03:26.950
They're being torn
down by gravity.

00:03:26.950 --> 00:03:30.260
And enormous fluxes of sediment
are being driven out

00:03:30.260 --> 00:03:31.710
into the oceans.

00:03:31.710 --> 00:03:35.440
Nick is going to investigate
that and what eroding

00:03:35.440 --> 00:03:38.150
mountains mean to the people
who live among them.

00:03:44.060 --> 00:03:46.850
Then he's going to follow the
sediment stream as it gets

00:03:46.850 --> 00:03:50.220
flushed out of the mountains and
down throughout India, out

00:03:50.220 --> 00:03:53.510
to the Indian Ocean and down
to Indonesia, where it gets

00:03:53.510 --> 00:03:56.800
recycled into new land
by volcanoes.

00:03:56.800 --> 00:03:59.770
New lands that will turn
into the world's next

00:03:59.770 --> 00:04:01.020
supercontinent.

00:04:08.730 --> 00:04:12.920
Nick is joining a donkey train
in the Nepali territory of

00:04:12.920 --> 00:04:16.490
Mustang, where the evidence of
the collision is everywhere.

00:04:16.490 --> 00:04:18.120
It's a wonderful thing to see.

00:04:18.120 --> 00:04:21.092
So we're going to lots of
fossils which were flourishing

00:04:21.092 --> 00:04:22.610
in this long-dead ocean.

00:04:22.610 --> 00:04:27.120
Nick's companion is Professor
B.P. Upreti Professor Upreti

00:04:27.120 --> 00:04:30.170
knows how to see this land
as a place in constant

00:04:30.170 --> 00:04:31.290
transition.

00:04:31.290 --> 00:04:35.196
What are now mountains
was once ocean floor.

00:04:35.196 --> 00:04:37.800
So to build these high
mountains, we've had to

00:04:37.800 --> 00:04:39.200
destroy an ocean.

00:04:39.200 --> 00:04:43.280
And rocks that were once below
sea level are now up to 8,000

00:04:43.280 --> 00:04:44.330
meters above sea level.

00:04:44.330 --> 00:04:47.590
And that's true that in all
these sediments that were

00:04:47.590 --> 00:04:50.350
deposited in the ocean bottom,
they have been uplifted.

00:04:50.350 --> 00:04:53.160
They're squeezed up
and then they have

00:04:53.160 --> 00:04:54.850
come up to this height.

00:04:59.700 --> 00:05:02.410
The root to the heart
of Mustang is the

00:05:02.410 --> 00:05:03.660
Kali Gandaki Gorge.

00:05:10.070 --> 00:05:13.510
For a thousand years, traders
and nomads have traveled

00:05:13.510 --> 00:05:15.790
through here, past
the twisted rock

00:05:15.790 --> 00:05:17.715
faces, gnarled by tectonics.

00:05:26.220 --> 00:05:29.570
It's a land of serene beauty,
but it's also prone to

00:05:29.570 --> 00:05:30.820
earthquakes and landslides.

00:05:35.740 --> 00:05:38.930
At one time, these were
flat-lying sediments sitting

00:05:38.930 --> 00:05:42.050
quietly underwater.

00:05:42.050 --> 00:05:43.030
Now look at them.

00:05:43.030 --> 00:05:45.680
It's a great example of crustal
shortening, isn't it,

00:05:45.680 --> 00:05:48.700
where you take rain rocks and
you fold them and you create

00:05:48.700 --> 00:05:50.380
this high topography?

00:05:50.380 --> 00:05:51.640
Yeah.

00:05:51.640 --> 00:05:53.010
It's the same way.

00:05:53.010 --> 00:05:55.830
These rocks were deposited in
the bottom of the ocean when

00:05:55.830 --> 00:05:57.860
they were laid horizontally.

00:05:57.860 --> 00:06:01.890
And then when they collided,
the rocks at the base here,

00:06:01.890 --> 00:06:05.020
then they started buckling
up and then they folded.

00:06:05.020 --> 00:06:09.320
And now we have these
mountains formed.

00:06:09.320 --> 00:06:12.350
From here you can see the trails
of the glaciers carving

00:06:12.350 --> 00:06:13.600
out the Himalayas.

00:06:17.210 --> 00:06:19.990
Down closer, you can see
how glaciers work as

00:06:19.990 --> 00:06:21.240
massive earth movers.

00:06:33.660 --> 00:06:36.240
That is the Khumbu Icefall
down there.

00:06:36.240 --> 00:06:39.650
As the glaciers have receded,
they have carried boulders and

00:06:39.650 --> 00:06:43.640
gravels and dumped them here,
onto a field of ice that works

00:06:43.640 --> 00:06:45.320
as a giant conveyor belt.

00:06:53.230 --> 00:06:57.870
That is a glacial lake, dammed
up by ice, ready to burst, a

00:06:57.870 --> 00:07:00.270
flood of water and sediment
that will rush downstream.

00:07:06.570 --> 00:07:10.400
It's an entire system of
erosion, a machine that

00:07:10.400 --> 00:07:12.260
continually works
toward change.

00:07:16.710 --> 00:07:19.545
Up here, impermanence
is everywhere.

00:07:24.440 --> 00:07:27.660
This is a huge landscape,
isn't it?

00:07:27.660 --> 00:07:29.770
You've been working up here
more than 30 years.

00:07:29.770 --> 00:07:33.550
So why don't you take me through
what we're seeing.

00:07:33.550 --> 00:07:36.410
The place is called Khadburi
down there in that village.

00:07:36.410 --> 00:07:41.690
You can see that this is a
boundary like area between the

00:07:41.690 --> 00:07:46.510
upper Mustang and the
lower Mustang area.

00:07:46.510 --> 00:07:51.460
And here, interestingly,
you have the old

00:07:51.460 --> 00:07:54.470
sediments of the ocean.

00:07:54.470 --> 00:07:58.900
The oceanic sediments, these are
now converted into rocks.

00:07:58.900 --> 00:08:02.810
These rivers were flowing south
from Tibet side even

00:08:02.810 --> 00:08:04.460
before the rise of
the Himalayas.

00:08:04.460 --> 00:08:10.050
So this river has cut through
the Himalaya as the Himalaya

00:08:10.050 --> 00:08:11.300
was rising.

00:08:19.230 --> 00:08:22.530
So in a way, the rivers
are older than

00:08:22.530 --> 00:08:23.750
the Himalayan rising.

00:08:23.750 --> 00:08:27.130
And these rivers have been
carrying sediments from all

00:08:27.130 --> 00:08:30.950
these areas throughout its
history and bringing them to

00:08:30.950 --> 00:08:34.825
the Ganges River and then
finally to the Bay of Bengal.

00:08:40.370 --> 00:08:42.270
These valleys were all filled
with these sediments.

00:08:42.270 --> 00:08:45.230
And now, very little has
remained and that means the

00:08:45.230 --> 00:08:48.940
power of these rivers carrying
down these sediments.

00:08:48.940 --> 00:08:50.770
And one day, all these
sediments will be

00:08:50.770 --> 00:08:52.055
all gone from here.

00:08:52.055 --> 00:08:54.315
So despite their thickness,
they're very transitory,

00:08:54.315 --> 00:08:55.170
aren't they?

00:08:55.170 --> 00:08:56.010
They won't be there very long.

00:08:56.010 --> 00:08:57.520
Yes, definitely.

00:08:57.520 --> 00:09:00.390
In the due course of time
everything that you see, these

00:09:00.390 --> 00:09:02.320
deposits will be all gone.

00:09:02.320 --> 00:09:04.830
And only the bedrocks
will be left there.

00:09:07.850 --> 00:09:10.110
Throughout the Himalayas, one of
the most impressive things

00:09:10.110 --> 00:09:14.880
you see are huge landslides and
debris flows tearing down

00:09:14.880 --> 00:09:16.210
the mountains.

00:09:16.210 --> 00:09:19.950
And as soon as the uplift stops,
as soon as India and

00:09:19.950 --> 00:09:23.450
Asia become locked, then
gravity will win.

00:09:23.450 --> 00:09:25.910
We know that in about 200
million years time, the

00:09:25.910 --> 00:09:29.405
Himalayas will we beveled
to a low relief surface.

00:09:32.340 --> 00:09:34.800
People have lived and farmed
in Mustang for

00:09:34.800 --> 00:09:36.780
more than 1,000 years.

00:09:36.780 --> 00:09:41.170
The sediments make for fertile
fields and the landscape forms

00:09:41.170 --> 00:09:43.030
the very core of
their beliefs.

00:09:43.030 --> 00:09:57.170
[SPEAKING NEPALI]

00:09:57.170 --> 00:09:58.960
These are people of the
Bhote tradition.

00:10:03.970 --> 00:10:07.480
Bhote monks mediate in caves
carved into the walls of the

00:10:07.480 --> 00:10:09.660
Kali Gandaki.

00:10:09.660 --> 00:10:12.135
They crawl into the embrace
of the rock itself.

00:10:26.340 --> 00:10:30.680
This village's name, Lubrak,
means crag of the snake skin.

00:10:30.680 --> 00:10:35.420
It's named after this relief
on the canyon wall.

00:10:35.420 --> 00:10:38.450
People here believe that there
are nasty snake spirits in the

00:10:38.450 --> 00:10:41.020
rock that will cause
trouble unless they

00:10:41.020 --> 00:10:42.270
pray to them daily.

00:10:45.740 --> 00:10:47.990
Lubrak rests on a shoulder
of a stream

00:10:47.990 --> 00:10:49.750
that feeds the Gandaki.

00:10:49.750 --> 00:10:53.010
But it is in the shadow of a
massive boulder that will

00:10:53.010 --> 00:10:57.502
demolish the town if or
when it's dislodged.

00:10:57.502 --> 00:10:58.300
Yeah.

00:10:58.300 --> 00:11:02.350
Unfortunately, the village is
not in a very good place in

00:11:02.350 --> 00:11:05.810
the sense that when you have
very large earthquakes, a lot

00:11:05.810 --> 00:11:08.550
of these buildings will collapse
and also a lot of

00:11:08.550 --> 00:11:12.015
these boulders will come down
and damage the building and

00:11:12.015 --> 00:11:14.010
kill people.

00:11:14.010 --> 00:11:15.730
I can very large blocks
up there--

00:11:15.730 --> 00:11:16.530
Yeah.

00:11:16.530 --> 00:11:17.310
--scattered around.

00:11:17.310 --> 00:11:19.030
And I can see a wide area where
there's obviously been a

00:11:19.030 --> 00:11:19.810
recent landslide.

00:11:19.810 --> 00:11:22.820
So the next major earthquake
for this area will begin to

00:11:22.820 --> 00:11:25.090
send all this coming
down the slope.

00:11:25.090 --> 00:11:28.410
You may ask why these people
are living in these areas?

00:11:28.410 --> 00:11:31.540
Whenever you have these kind of
land slides, you have more

00:11:31.540 --> 00:11:35.780
flat radius formed and more
gentle slopes are formed.

00:11:35.780 --> 00:11:39.160
And naturally, that is a good
place for farming agriculture.

00:11:39.160 --> 00:11:42.790
So therefore, many of these
areas where you have these

00:11:42.790 --> 00:11:47.480
villages, settled somewhere
in the landslide areas.

00:11:47.480 --> 00:11:50.640
These landslides only occur once
every few hundred years.

00:11:50.640 --> 00:11:54.050
So there's major opportunities
there for communities to

00:11:54.050 --> 00:11:58.260
occupy those areas safely until
the next landslide.

00:11:58.260 --> 00:11:59.960
But it's a dangerous
landscape.

00:11:59.960 --> 00:12:07.260
[SPEAKING NEPALI]

00:12:07.260 --> 00:12:10.480
So it's really no wonder that
the monks of Lubrak pray for

00:12:10.480 --> 00:12:12.740
the serenity of the landscape.

00:12:12.740 --> 00:12:16.090
Everyone here is conversant on
the tectonic history of the

00:12:16.090 --> 00:12:17.540
Kali Gandaki.

00:12:17.540 --> 00:12:20.730
They speak of an earthquake
in 1505 as

00:12:20.730 --> 00:12:22.530
if it happened recently.

00:12:22.530 --> 00:12:25.404
Of course, in geologic
terms it did.

00:12:32.500 --> 00:12:35.820
Religions have always attempted
to explain why the

00:12:35.820 --> 00:12:37.500
Earth does what it does.

00:12:37.500 --> 00:12:40.240
And geologists have always tried
to apply their science

00:12:40.240 --> 00:12:43.070
to the landscape to
do the same thing.

00:12:43.070 --> 00:12:45.840
It's a question of
perspective.

00:12:45.840 --> 00:12:48.750
145, 150 million years
or a little older.

00:12:48.750 --> 00:12:51.910
The study of geology isn't
really very old.

00:12:51.910 --> 00:12:54.520
But the cultures of
the Himalayas are.

00:12:54.520 --> 00:12:57.080
So for centuries, whenever
they found the fossil of

00:12:57.080 --> 00:13:01.490
Jurassic era sea shell, they had
no choice but to regard it

00:13:01.490 --> 00:13:04.220
with a degree of mysticism.

00:13:04.220 --> 00:13:06.760
We'll see if we can excavate one
of kings of the Jurassic.

00:13:06.760 --> 00:13:09.612
These are called
ammonite, yeah.

00:13:09.612 --> 00:13:14.137
Now, the age of these rocks
are Upper Jurassic, 150

00:13:14.137 --> 00:13:19.240
million to 145 million
or a little older.

00:13:19.240 --> 00:13:23.580
And during this time,
the sea was ruled

00:13:23.580 --> 00:13:26.830
by these have ammonites.

00:13:26.830 --> 00:13:28.860
The continents, particularly
the northern--

00:13:28.860 --> 00:13:29.700
Found one.

00:13:29.700 --> 00:13:32.260
Yeah, it's beautiful.

00:13:32.260 --> 00:13:33.530
It's perfect.

00:13:33.530 --> 00:13:34.970
Yeah, it came out.

00:13:34.970 --> 00:13:36.220
It's wonderful.

00:13:38.820 --> 00:13:41.246
So these are kings of the
Jurassic Ocean, which are now

00:13:41.246 --> 00:13:44.040
more than 3,000 meters
above sea level.

00:13:44.040 --> 00:13:45.570
Yeah, that's very interesting.

00:13:45.570 --> 00:13:50.740
And these ammonites were
living in the ocean.

00:13:50.740 --> 00:13:53.655
Now, they are at the top
of the mountain.

00:13:56.800 --> 00:13:59.380
This is the proof that this
part of the mountain was

00:13:59.380 --> 00:14:03.370
undersea at some time about 150
million years before here.

00:14:03.370 --> 00:14:05.410
They dominated those oceans,
didn't they?

00:14:05.410 --> 00:14:05.890
Yeah.

00:14:05.890 --> 00:14:07.655
In a way that the dinosaurs
dominated life on

00:14:07.655 --> 00:14:07.910
land at the same time.

00:14:07.910 --> 00:14:08.180
Yes, exactly.

00:14:08.180 --> 00:14:11.206
This is very interesting.

00:14:11.206 --> 00:14:13.540
Is there a local
name for these?

00:14:13.540 --> 00:14:14.460
Saligram is the name.

00:14:14.460 --> 00:14:14.750
Saligram.

00:14:14.750 --> 00:14:15.850
Saligram.

00:14:15.850 --> 00:14:17.100
Ammonite is the scientific
name.

00:14:23.550 --> 00:14:26.240
[NEPALESE], Namaste.

00:14:26.240 --> 00:14:29.560
Nick and Professor Upreti are
joined by anthropologist Carol

00:14:29.560 --> 00:14:32.810
Dunham, who's been studying the
cultures of these valleys

00:14:32.810 --> 00:14:34.400
for 30 years.

00:14:34.400 --> 00:14:36.700
She's going to lead them
to a sacred site

00:14:36.700 --> 00:14:38.296
over the next ridge.

00:14:38.296 --> 00:14:43.230
[SPEAKING NEPALI]

00:14:43.230 --> 00:14:46.290
One of the most important
Mustang traditions is to make

00:14:46.290 --> 00:14:49.850
sure visitors leave happy and
that prayers are said to keep

00:14:49.850 --> 00:14:51.333
the earth's rumblings at bay.

00:15:05.190 --> 00:15:06.990
The mules trudge
up steep cliffs

00:15:06.990 --> 00:15:08.240
of compressed sediments.

00:15:11.820 --> 00:15:13.400
This is a land of trails

00:15:13.400 --> 00:15:15.560
connecting valleys and cultures.

00:15:15.560 --> 00:15:18.780
Suspension bridges have helped
shorten some routes.

00:15:18.780 --> 00:15:22.090
But it's still best when
travelling in Mustang to give

00:15:22.090 --> 00:15:23.340
yourself time.

00:15:27.000 --> 00:15:30.740
Pilgrims have passed by this
shrine of stones, this stupa,

00:15:30.740 --> 00:15:33.390
for centuries.

00:15:33.390 --> 00:15:37.030
Each little rock left behind is
like a coin thrown into a

00:15:37.030 --> 00:15:39.290
wishing well.

00:15:39.290 --> 00:15:41.883
I can really feel the
elevation right now.

00:15:41.883 --> 00:15:42.346
Yeah.

00:15:42.346 --> 00:15:45.124
Each breathe is precious, huh.

00:15:45.124 --> 00:15:48.730
At his time of year, the temple
at Muktinath becomes a

00:15:48.730 --> 00:15:51.045
pilgrimage site for Hindus
from Kathmandu

00:15:51.045 --> 00:15:52.744
and Southern Nepal.

00:15:57.010 --> 00:15:57.740
Ah, saligrams.

00:15:57.740 --> 00:15:58.440
Yeah.

00:15:58.440 --> 00:16:01.330
We've seen these in every
community we've visited.

00:16:01.330 --> 00:16:05.030
Now, how does a fossil
become revered?

00:16:05.030 --> 00:16:07.330
These ammonites are found
here in these areas.

00:16:07.330 --> 00:16:13.450
Traditionally, these ammonites
are worshiped by the Hindus.

00:16:13.450 --> 00:16:18.160
They represent life itself,
the very life itself.

00:16:18.160 --> 00:16:23.360
So would they carry these as
good luck symbols with them?

00:16:23.360 --> 00:16:25.120
It's about a god actually.

00:16:25.120 --> 00:16:30.350
So they actually worship
it every day at home.

00:16:30.350 --> 00:16:35.475
I have these saligrams at my
home, where my ancestors were

00:16:35.475 --> 00:16:36.725
for many generations.

00:16:43.220 --> 00:16:46.130
Some of these Hindus have walked
for two weeks to get

00:16:46.130 --> 00:16:49.150
here, up the side of a mountain,
near the foot of a

00:16:49.150 --> 00:16:51.986
landslide where a crystal
clear spring emerges.

00:16:55.540 --> 00:16:59.310
For these worshipers, there is
a sacredness to this place,

00:16:59.310 --> 00:17:01.830
tied to the drama of the
landscape and the

00:17:01.830 --> 00:17:03.900
presence of the water.

00:17:03.900 --> 00:17:06.480
The 108 spouts symbolize
all of the water

00:17:06.480 --> 00:17:07.730
actually on this planet.

00:17:10.900 --> 00:17:14.890
So today, they're purifying
and they're bathing as a

00:17:14.890 --> 00:17:18.819
symbol also of representing
the whole world itself.

00:17:27.819 --> 00:17:32.210
Today, actually they're
worshiping the goddess Durga,

00:17:32.210 --> 00:17:33.685
for the Hindus here.

00:17:33.685 --> 00:17:35.390
But before they do that,
they have to bathe.

00:17:35.390 --> 00:17:38.350
They have to purify themselves
so they can see clearly.

00:17:38.350 --> 00:17:40.390
And that's really where the
importance of water is, which

00:17:40.390 --> 00:17:41.915
is essential.

00:17:41.915 --> 00:17:44.970
To purify the mind and the body,
they believe you have to

00:17:44.970 --> 00:17:46.220
do that water.

00:17:50.740 --> 00:17:53.160
As a geologist, I've noticed
that this area a giant

00:17:53.160 --> 00:17:55.612
landslide and this spring
is emerging at

00:17:55.612 --> 00:17:57.250
the back of the landslide.

00:17:57.250 --> 00:17:59.552
Do they know that, that that
landslide could happen again

00:17:59.552 --> 00:18:00.900
in the future?

00:18:00.900 --> 00:18:04.050
I think that there is a great
awareness that they live in a

00:18:04.050 --> 00:18:05.450
very volatile place.

00:18:05.450 --> 00:18:07.680
And they see that in
a sacred sense.

00:18:07.680 --> 00:18:10.655
Their world view is one that
they need to propitiate the

00:18:10.655 --> 00:18:13.340
Earth's spirits that
they coexist with.

00:18:13.340 --> 00:18:15.270
So their response is
a religious or

00:18:15.270 --> 00:18:16.820
ritual one to that.

00:18:16.820 --> 00:18:19.570
And they believe that these
landslides are caused when

00:18:19.570 --> 00:18:21.575
there is disharmony and when
they're unhappy with the

00:18:21.575 --> 00:18:22.825
Earth's spirits.

00:18:25.170 --> 00:18:28.470
What I really love, as I said,
the stories, where you will

00:18:28.470 --> 00:18:31.716
look at it and as a geologist,
will tell one story in the

00:18:31.716 --> 00:18:34.870
striations, in the folds, in the
crumples of the mountain.

00:18:34.870 --> 00:18:39.690
For them, they will see a very
dramatic interplay of spirits

00:18:39.690 --> 00:18:43.240
at play, that is frozen there,
demons and spirits that live

00:18:43.240 --> 00:18:44.730
within the rock itself.

00:18:44.730 --> 00:18:46.180
So I come up here
as a geologist.

00:18:46.180 --> 00:18:48.490
And I would map this area to
try and understand how the

00:18:48.490 --> 00:18:50.310
Himalayas were built.

00:18:50.310 --> 00:18:53.420
But I'm sort of missing the
big picture, aren't I?

00:18:53.420 --> 00:18:56.780
Well, I think that while you
look at that incredible, rich

00:18:56.780 --> 00:18:59.680
story, there is a very
profound story that's

00:18:59.680 --> 00:19:03.140
invisible, that they see
as well within there.

00:19:03.140 --> 00:19:06.630
And when that is lost, we lose
a very profound link to the

00:19:06.630 --> 00:19:07.880
Earth Itself.

00:19:19.150 --> 00:19:22.480
Over the years, pilgrims have
carved prayers into rock.

00:19:22.480 --> 00:19:24.100
These are Mani stones.

00:19:24.100 --> 00:19:26.780
And they ask the land for
peaceful passage along these

00:19:26.780 --> 00:19:28.030
mountain paths.

00:19:34.220 --> 00:19:36.060
But there are no guarantees.

00:19:36.060 --> 00:19:38.205
This path cuts through the
Muktinath landslide.

00:19:42.960 --> 00:19:44.220
We've talked about
these as hazards.

00:19:44.220 --> 00:19:46.190
We've got the community
down there.

00:19:46.190 --> 00:19:48.650
But basically, this is how
mountains are pulled down,

00:19:48.650 --> 00:19:49.770
aren't they?

00:19:49.770 --> 00:19:50.510
Yeah.

00:19:50.510 --> 00:19:54.250
This is the mountain's fate.

00:19:54.250 --> 00:19:57.960
They rise and then finally
they are brought down.

00:19:57.960 --> 00:20:02.216
And one day, they become
flat and almost

00:20:02.216 --> 00:20:04.015
there is mountain left.

00:20:04.015 --> 00:20:05.760
And this is the process
that happens.

00:20:05.760 --> 00:20:08.510
Erosions goes on and on.

00:20:08.510 --> 00:20:11.910
And this is how the mountains
have to come down and finally

00:20:11.910 --> 00:20:13.160
become the plains.

00:20:21.270 --> 00:20:24.740
Flattening the Himalayas means
an immense amount of material

00:20:24.740 --> 00:20:28.350
will be carried down through
the Kali Gandaki Gorge.

00:20:28.350 --> 00:20:30.980
The problem is that the glaciers
is in the Himalayas

00:20:30.980 --> 00:20:35.020
are melting faster these days,
expelling more sediments and

00:20:35.020 --> 00:20:37.220
dumping a gigantic load
into the river

00:20:37.220 --> 00:20:38.470
systems to the south.

00:20:49.446 --> 00:20:51.332
It's amazing the amount
of sediment in this

00:20:51.332 --> 00:20:52.890
river, isn't it?

00:20:52.890 --> 00:20:55.350
One of the heavies silt
loads of any river

00:20:55.350 --> 00:20:55.842
system in the world.

00:20:55.842 --> 00:20:56.826
It might be the heaviest.

00:20:56.826 --> 00:20:59.912
That's because of the Himalayan
mountains, the size

00:20:59.912 --> 00:21:02.864
of them, and the fact there are
glaciers eroding down into

00:21:02.864 --> 00:21:03.848
their slopes.

00:21:03.848 --> 00:21:05.324
They're so young and moving.

00:21:05.324 --> 00:21:07.784
They let off a tremendous
amount of soil.

00:21:10.740 --> 00:21:13.710
Claudia Sadoof is
a hydroeconomist

00:21:13.710 --> 00:21:15.140
with the World Bank.

00:21:15.140 --> 00:21:17.460
She's studying how the countries
that feed off the

00:21:17.460 --> 00:21:21.240
Himalaya runoff can deal with
all the muck that's now

00:21:21.240 --> 00:21:23.040
carried by rivers.

00:21:23.040 --> 00:21:27.168
Well, this caused amazing
problems in all the barriages

00:21:27.168 --> 00:21:28.659
and dams downstream.

00:21:28.659 --> 00:21:29.653
Absolutely.

00:21:29.653 --> 00:21:34.140
Any infrastructure built on the
river for hydropower or

00:21:34.140 --> 00:21:38.874
for irrigation is clogged up
with all this sediment levels.

00:21:38.874 --> 00:21:41.670
And in order to control for
the amazing flooding and

00:21:41.670 --> 00:21:44.631
movement of this river, large
embankments are built

00:21:44.631 --> 00:21:46.322
throughout the system as well.

00:21:46.322 --> 00:21:49.710
When the sediment builds
up-- whoo, whoo, whew--

00:21:49.710 --> 00:21:50.320
Cold?

00:21:50.320 --> 00:21:51.991
--between the barriers
and the enbankment.

00:21:51.991 --> 00:21:53.241
It's insulation water.

00:21:56.284 --> 00:21:59.540
So that must reduce the lifetime
of these dams, if you

00:21:59.540 --> 00:22:01.261
got huge amounts of sediments
coming in,

00:22:01.261 --> 00:22:02.480
Quite significantly.

00:22:02.480 --> 00:22:05.380
Not only the dams themselves,
which begin to have their

00:22:05.380 --> 00:22:07.655
reservoirs expelled very
quickly, but even the

00:22:07.655 --> 00:22:12.280
hydropower turbines are eaten up
by all the soils that goes

00:22:12.280 --> 00:22:14.937
through the turbines because
there's so much soil and silt

00:22:14.937 --> 00:22:18.070
in these waters.

00:22:18.070 --> 00:22:20.540
Now, as a geologist, I see this
river carrying enormous

00:22:20.540 --> 00:22:22.530
volumes of sediment
down to the ocean.

00:22:22.530 --> 00:22:23.615
It's a natural system.

00:22:23.615 --> 00:22:26.140
But you need to manage that
system, don't you?

00:22:26.140 --> 00:22:28.430
What are the main challenges
that arise from all the

00:22:28.430 --> 00:22:30.772
sediment that's going
down river?

00:22:30.772 --> 00:22:34.660
Well, the sediment is so heavy
that it affects all of the

00:22:34.660 --> 00:22:37.280
infrastructure that are
built on the river.

00:22:37.280 --> 00:22:39.260
The river moves and
it meanders.

00:22:39.260 --> 00:22:43.400
And as the river washes the
sediment down, the sediment

00:22:43.400 --> 00:22:45.250
builds up and it creates
little eddies and

00:22:45.250 --> 00:22:46.240
it turns the river.

00:22:46.240 --> 00:22:48.250
And the river flows and is
braided throughout its system.

00:22:48.250 --> 00:22:51.240
So it becomes a very
unpredictable river, that can

00:22:51.240 --> 00:22:54.070
be extremely disruptive
at times of flood.

00:23:03.170 --> 00:23:06.510
Eight tributaries flow through
the Kathmandu Valley, fed by

00:23:06.510 --> 00:23:08.730
waters from the Himalayas.

00:23:08.730 --> 00:23:11.910
This temple on the banks of the
Bagmati River is the place

00:23:11.910 --> 00:23:15.000
where Hindus cremate their dead
and commit the ashes to

00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:17.410
the sacred waters, which
eventually joined

00:23:17.410 --> 00:23:20.470
the Ganges in India.

00:23:20.470 --> 00:23:23.700
There are over 3 million people
around Kathmandu.

00:23:23.700 --> 00:23:26.660
30 years ago, there were only
a few hundred thousand.

00:23:32.105 --> 00:23:35.390
There are few checks against
growth here, even less

00:23:35.390 --> 00:23:38.390
oversight for how buildings
are built and where.

00:23:40.970 --> 00:23:43.830
At times, it feels like
Kathmandu is a city out of

00:23:43.830 --> 00:23:46.690
control and that's what gives
it much of its charm.

00:23:50.190 --> 00:23:54.270
But it's also a disaster
waiting to happen.

00:23:54.270 --> 00:23:58.000
Kathmandu is built on an old
lake bed made of sediments

00:23:58.000 --> 00:24:00.210
that poured in here from
the mountains.

00:24:00.210 --> 00:24:02.750
And the lake bed is on
an earthquake zone.

00:24:18.320 --> 00:24:20.900
These schoolchildren take
their earthquake drills

00:24:20.900 --> 00:24:23.395
seriously, right down
to the fake injuries

00:24:23.395 --> 00:24:26.428
and the gory make-up.

00:24:26.428 --> 00:24:30.170
[SPEAKING NEPALI]

00:24:30.170 --> 00:24:33.460
But when a major earthquake does
hit here, covering their

00:24:33.460 --> 00:24:36.350
heads and running out the front
door of the school might

00:24:36.350 --> 00:24:38.670
not be enough for these
kids to survive.

00:24:38.670 --> 00:24:43.370
[SPEAKING NEPALI]

00:24:43.370 --> 00:24:46.710
As the city has grown very
rapidly, and poorly planned it

00:24:46.710 --> 00:24:49.620
must be said, we've now got
buildings on top of very

00:24:49.620 --> 00:24:51.520
steep, very unstable slopes.

00:24:51.520 --> 00:24:54.710
So the school we just visited
is right on the top there.

00:24:54.710 --> 00:24:57.090
And part of the school has
collapsed down slope.

00:24:57.090 --> 00:24:59.690
So if there's a major
earthquake, you can imagine

00:24:59.690 --> 00:25:01.190
the results there'll
be to the building.

00:25:05.700 --> 00:25:08.910
One of the other caps Professor
B.P. Uphreti wears

00:25:08.910 --> 00:25:12.200
is that of an earthquake
preparedness expert.

00:25:12.200 --> 00:25:15.540
Nepal is overdue for another
large earthquake, isn't it?

00:25:15.540 --> 00:25:15.990
Yes.

00:25:15.990 --> 00:25:16.140
Yes.

00:25:16.140 --> 00:25:19.270
This wouldn't be the place
to be, would it?

00:25:19.270 --> 00:25:23.616
In fact, this core part of the
city, Kathmandu Valley's core

00:25:23.616 --> 00:25:26.245
part, and particularly the
capital of the city's core

00:25:26.245 --> 00:25:28.990
part, is this area.

00:25:28.990 --> 00:25:34.180
And this is going to be really
a ready difficult place when

00:25:34.180 --> 00:25:35.170
you have big earthquakes.

00:25:35.170 --> 00:25:37.680
A lot of houses have
collapsed here.

00:25:37.680 --> 00:25:40.577
And there is a study that
we did one square

00:25:40.577 --> 00:25:42.320
kilometer of the area.

00:25:42.320 --> 00:25:46.510
There were over 2,000
deaths in this area.

00:25:46.510 --> 00:25:50.200
These streets are very narrow
and people have very little

00:25:50.200 --> 00:25:51.520
chance to escape out.

00:25:56.130 --> 00:25:57.980
Kathmandu is very old city.

00:25:57.980 --> 00:25:59.940
They have many such
earthquakes.

00:25:59.940 --> 00:26:04.290
So they also have developed some
indigenous technology for

00:26:04.290 --> 00:26:06.740
artifacts and features to
put in the buildings and

00:26:06.740 --> 00:26:08.660
particularly the temples.

00:26:08.660 --> 00:26:12.270
For example, they have very good
foundations, very wide

00:26:12.270 --> 00:26:12.950
foundations.

00:26:12.950 --> 00:26:16.180
Even if the temples are
torn, but their

00:26:16.180 --> 00:26:17.830
foundation is very wide.

00:26:17.830 --> 00:26:21.280
It's a pyramidal structure
in a way.

00:26:21.280 --> 00:26:23.760
Many of these temples have
survived in the last

00:26:23.760 --> 00:26:27.610
earthquake of 1934 of
8.3 Richter scale.

00:26:27.610 --> 00:26:30.880
I presume modern day Kathmandu,
which is growing so

00:26:30.880 --> 00:26:33.730
quickly with urban sprawl, the
buildings are put up cheaply,

00:26:33.730 --> 00:26:34.650
aren't they?

00:26:34.650 --> 00:26:38.660
That's exactly the scariest
thing that is happening today

00:26:38.660 --> 00:26:43.260
in Nepal, in Kathmandu, is that
the buildings are coming

00:26:43.260 --> 00:26:46.240
up so quickly and the structures
are not safe.

00:26:46.240 --> 00:26:50.230
And if you are not going to make
good structures, they are

00:26:50.230 --> 00:26:52.500
more vulnerable and more
dangerous than

00:26:52.500 --> 00:26:55.070
the traditional buildings.

00:26:55.070 --> 00:26:57.950
Normally we say it's not the
question whether there will be

00:26:57.950 --> 00:27:00.475
an earthquake in Kathmandu
or not, in it is when.

00:27:08.410 --> 00:27:10.920
So we know by looking at the
geology of the continents,

00:27:10.920 --> 00:27:14.910
going back 4 billion years, even
more, that Himalayan type

00:27:14.910 --> 00:27:16.160
mountains are ephemeral.

00:27:22.840 --> 00:27:25.990
So you're converting
massive, impressive

00:27:25.990 --> 00:27:28.226
mountains into sediment.

00:27:31.780 --> 00:27:34.240
These rivers feed
into the Ganges.

00:27:34.240 --> 00:27:37.220
If we remember the analogy that
the Earth here works like

00:27:37.220 --> 00:27:40.880
a machine, then the Ganges is
the transport link that

00:27:40.880 --> 00:27:42.845
delivers raw materials
to the factory.

00:27:46.610 --> 00:27:50.500
But the Ganges is also the
source of life for a sixth of

00:27:50.500 --> 00:27:53.720
the planet's population.

00:27:53.720 --> 00:27:56.830
As the Himalayan sediments flow
through, some are left

00:27:56.830 --> 00:28:01.580
behind to make incredibly
fertile farmland.

00:28:01.580 --> 00:28:04.890
But now, there are more people
relying on the Ganges and what

00:28:04.890 --> 00:28:08.360
it provides than ever before.

00:28:08.360 --> 00:28:11.020
The strain on the system
has become enormous.

00:28:28.010 --> 00:28:31.190
Here are some facts about
the Ganges River.

00:28:31.190 --> 00:28:34.770
It's over 2,500 kilometers
long, snaking from the

00:28:34.770 --> 00:28:36.525
Himalayas to the
Bay of Bengal.

00:28:48.560 --> 00:28:50.680
Along its route, the
Ganges sustains

00:28:50.680 --> 00:28:53.570
over a billion people.

00:28:53.570 --> 00:28:56.780
In Calcutta alone, near the
river's mouth, there are over

00:28:56.780 --> 00:29:00.370
5 million people, and for each
of them, the river is the

00:29:00.370 --> 00:29:01.620
center of life.

00:29:03.904 --> 00:29:08.440
The sheer volume of people that
are using this water is

00:29:08.440 --> 00:29:11.390
just amazing to anyone who
tries to understand the

00:29:11.390 --> 00:29:13.840
different river systems
of the world.

00:29:13.840 --> 00:29:17.270
Dr. Saugata Datta teaches at
Kansas State University in

00:29:17.270 --> 00:29:18.550
America now.

00:29:18.550 --> 00:29:21.390
But he grew up here in Calcutta,
studying both the

00:29:21.390 --> 00:29:25.110
water and everything that gets
poured into the Ganges,

00:29:25.110 --> 00:29:29.000
industrial waste, garbage,
sewage, even the ashes from

00:29:29.000 --> 00:29:30.250
Hindu funerals.

00:29:37.430 --> 00:29:40.980
At the same time, babies are
baptized in the river and

00:29:40.980 --> 00:29:43.660
people perform their ablutions,
even though the

00:29:43.660 --> 00:29:47.660
river water itself is
far from hygienic.

00:29:47.660 --> 00:29:50.630
The water causes skin
rashes, infections,

00:29:50.630 --> 00:29:52.810
and intestinal problems.

00:29:52.810 --> 00:29:56.260
Getting the water uncontaminated
is out of the

00:29:56.260 --> 00:29:58.360
question right now,
as it stands.

00:29:58.360 --> 00:30:00.900
I don't suppose the central
problem is it's a holy river

00:30:00.900 --> 00:30:01.800
for many people.

00:30:01.800 --> 00:30:04.870
So how do you slowly
ween them off that?

00:30:04.870 --> 00:30:10.360
People still have this belief
that the river water, the

00:30:10.360 --> 00:30:12.400
Ganges River water, is actually
coming from the

00:30:12.400 --> 00:30:16.330
Himalayas and it is untainted
throughout its journey or

00:30:16.330 --> 00:30:19.002
course until it gets
into the delta.

00:30:22.270 --> 00:30:24.960
How do you tell a billion people
that something they

00:30:24.960 --> 00:30:28.840
believe is so sacred is filled
with impurities?

00:30:28.840 --> 00:30:32.060
How does a scientist separate
his work from his beliefs?

00:30:35.090 --> 00:30:38.180
I was born and brought
up in this culture.

00:30:38.180 --> 00:30:43.900
I understood the presence of the
river in our society, in

00:30:43.900 --> 00:30:45.340
our religion.

00:30:45.340 --> 00:30:51.350
And it is inborn or ingrained
in my family too.

00:30:51.350 --> 00:30:54.080
We still know the science behind
it We exactly know how

00:30:54.080 --> 00:30:55.970
the pollution is happening.

00:30:55.970 --> 00:31:01.770
We know that it is one most
polluted waters of the water.

00:31:01.770 --> 00:31:06.450
But still to us, it remains as
holy water which we can use

00:31:06.450 --> 00:31:11.690
for the entire time to
come for the future.

00:31:16.050 --> 00:31:18.950
Calcutta, like India, is growing
at a stunning rate.

00:31:26.130 --> 00:31:29.320
The demand for water has drawn
people into the streets, where

00:31:29.320 --> 00:31:31.395
they pump it up from an
underground aquifer.

00:31:38.570 --> 00:31:41.980
He's pumping groundwater from
a shallow aquifer that runs

00:31:41.980 --> 00:31:43.350
beneath this massive city.

00:31:43.350 --> 00:31:45.430
Isn't there some pollution
into this?

00:31:45.430 --> 00:31:45.780
Yes.

00:31:45.780 --> 00:31:47.600
There should be some pollution
into this.

00:31:47.600 --> 00:31:51.800
But more as we're closer to the
city, to the river Ganges

00:31:51.800 --> 00:31:54.960
in this case, about three
to four kilometers, the

00:31:54.960 --> 00:31:56.545
contamination is much lower.

00:31:56.545 --> 00:31:59.010
So this is pretty much clear
water right now.

00:31:59.010 --> 00:32:02.246
They're using the water for
drinking purpose for all the

00:32:02.246 --> 00:32:04.070
hotels and restaurants nearby.

00:32:04.070 --> 00:32:05.980
And the deep water must be
coming from hundreds of

00:32:05.980 --> 00:32:08.840
kilometers away, up in the
Himalayas and driven down

00:32:08.840 --> 00:32:10.808
pretty deep in the basin.

00:32:10.808 --> 00:32:12.058
That's true.

00:32:15.740 --> 00:32:18.495
Himalayan water providing
for all of these people.

00:32:22.690 --> 00:32:25.840
The problem is that no one is
really sure how much longer

00:32:25.840 --> 00:32:29.220
the tap from the Himalayas
will remain open.

00:32:29.220 --> 00:32:32.410
The glaciers are melting and
presumably one day will be

00:32:32.410 --> 00:32:33.660
gone entirely.

00:32:37.500 --> 00:32:39.550
That would be catastrophic.

00:32:39.550 --> 00:32:43.500
Meanwhile as the glaciers in
Nepal melt faster, the Ganges

00:32:43.500 --> 00:32:46.840
carries more of the sediments
downstream than the watershed

00:32:46.840 --> 00:32:48.090
can handle.

00:32:50.165 --> 00:32:53.870
As freighters head towards
Calcutta, they churn up water

00:32:53.870 --> 00:32:57.690
turbid with Himalayan mud.

00:32:57.690 --> 00:32:59.195
And it's increasing
day by day.

00:33:02.810 --> 00:33:07.230
Right now, it's about 530
million tons of sediment

00:33:07.230 --> 00:33:10.445
throughout the Ganges
River per year.

00:33:10.445 --> 00:33:14.950
And in my 20, 25 years of
growing up in the city myself,

00:33:14.950 --> 00:33:18.740
I have seen more and more
population is encroaching and

00:33:18.740 --> 00:33:21.310
making the channel of the river
smaller and smaller.

00:33:26.910 --> 00:33:30.580
For centuries, Calcutta has
been a gateway to the sea.

00:33:30.580 --> 00:33:33.080
But now, the port
is in jeopardy,

00:33:33.080 --> 00:33:34.800
clogged with sediments.

00:33:34.800 --> 00:33:36.320
The ships hit bottom.

00:33:36.320 --> 00:33:40.210
And in some parts, it's
impossible to navigate at all.

00:33:40.210 --> 00:33:43.560
Meanwhile out here, south of the
city where the river meets

00:33:43.560 --> 00:33:47.040
the sea, life is spent on
fishing boats hauling nets

00:33:47.040 --> 00:33:50.050
through the pull of the mud or
by farming on one of the

00:33:50.050 --> 00:33:53.710
myriad bars of silt that make
up the fingers of the Ganges

00:33:53.710 --> 00:33:56.570
delta, the world's largest
river delta.

00:34:02.060 --> 00:34:05.810
The sediments in the delta
coalesce as small islands and

00:34:05.810 --> 00:34:08.909
then grow as even more
sediments gather.

00:34:08.909 --> 00:34:12.969
But the land they form is low
lying and typhoons can come

00:34:12.969 --> 00:34:16.120
screaming in here and obliterate
everything, the

00:34:16.120 --> 00:34:18.739
farms, the channels,
the livestock,

00:34:18.739 --> 00:34:19.989
and the people here.

00:34:25.790 --> 00:34:29.199
Through it all, that stream
of sediment never stops.

00:34:29.199 --> 00:34:33.080
Some stays, but the bulk
is carried out to sea.

00:34:33.080 --> 00:34:35.810
The sediments fan into
the Bay of Bengal and

00:34:35.810 --> 00:34:37.280
are swept away south.

00:34:37.280 --> 00:34:38.510
You can see them.

00:34:38.510 --> 00:34:40.800
They look like wisps of sand.

00:34:40.800 --> 00:34:44.150
What was once seabed and then
was once the tops of

00:34:44.150 --> 00:34:47.380
mountains, is again at the
bottom of the ocean.

00:34:47.380 --> 00:34:51.210
And as they arrive in Indonesia,
the sediments reach

00:34:51.210 --> 00:34:52.719
the end of the production
line.

00:34:52.719 --> 00:34:56.790
They are about to be fed into
the fiery furnace of the

00:34:56.790 --> 00:34:58.040
collision zone.

00:35:12.820 --> 00:35:16.570
Yogyakarta, is the cultural
capital of Java, Indonesia.

00:35:21.230 --> 00:35:25.190
The downtown is built around a
400-year-old sultan's palace

00:35:25.190 --> 00:35:35.980
that was knocked down by a
vicious earthquake in 2006.

00:35:35.980 --> 00:35:39.140
The earthquake, which registered
7.8 on the Richter

00:35:39.140 --> 00:35:42.260
scale, leveled much of
the rest of the city.

00:35:42.260 --> 00:35:44.680
Almost 6,000 people
died and 1 and 1/2

00:35:44.680 --> 00:35:46.545
million were left homeless.

00:35:51.090 --> 00:35:55.350
Yogyakarta is in a precarious
spot, atop the meeting place

00:35:55.350 --> 00:35:57.920
of two violent tectonic
plates.

00:35:57.920 --> 00:36:01.830
And it's not very far from
Marapi, the volcano that

00:36:01.830 --> 00:36:05.870
created so much havoc
in the fall of 2010.

00:36:05.870 --> 00:36:10.880
Marapi is fed by the tectonics
beneath Indonesia.

00:36:10.880 --> 00:36:14.100
The Indo-Australian plate grinds
against the Pacific

00:36:14.100 --> 00:36:16.360
plate along these Indonesian
islands,

00:36:16.360 --> 00:36:18.590
Sumatra, Java, and Bali.

00:36:18.590 --> 00:36:21.380
That's why Indonesian
looks like it does.

00:36:21.380 --> 00:36:25.000
Geologically, it's known as
an island arc, the surface

00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:28.320
expression of subsurface
machinery right along the

00:36:28.320 --> 00:36:30.990
fault line.

00:36:30.990 --> 00:36:33.260
This is one of the most
dangerous places in the world.

00:36:33.260 --> 00:36:35.880
This is a subduction zone which
runs along the whole

00:36:35.880 --> 00:36:37.880
south coast of Indonesia.

00:36:37.880 --> 00:36:41.380
And the dangerous part is when
the two plates are locked,

00:36:41.380 --> 00:36:44.680
strain builds up and eventually
the Asian plate

00:36:44.680 --> 00:36:47.780
finally releases all that energy
and pops up over the

00:36:47.780 --> 00:36:53.070
Indian plate, and that produces
a large earthquake.

00:36:53.070 --> 00:36:55.840
And of course at about 100
kilometers depth, the edge of

00:36:55.840 --> 00:36:59.470
that plate is melting and that
produces the volcanoes, which

00:36:59.470 --> 00:37:03.290
lie just inland and form this
spine no along the hole of the

00:37:03.290 --> 00:37:05.580
Indonesian plate.

00:37:13.340 --> 00:37:19.410
In 2004, more than 230,000 were
killed by a tsunami that

00:37:19.410 --> 00:37:21.030
hit the west coast of Sumatra.

00:37:27.205 --> 00:37:31.620
In 2009, the Sumatran city of
Padang was shaken by an

00:37:31.620 --> 00:37:34.015
earthquake that killed
an estimated 1,300.

00:37:40.960 --> 00:37:44.940
In the fall of 2010, there were
actually twin tragedies

00:37:44.940 --> 00:37:46.590
for Indonesians.

00:37:46.590 --> 00:37:49.530
First, a tsunami swamped
some remote

00:37:49.530 --> 00:37:52.160
islands, killing hundreds.

00:37:52.160 --> 00:37:54.800
Then central Java was
covered with ash.

00:37:54.800 --> 00:37:58.194
Marapi erupted with much
more force than it

00:37:58.194 --> 00:38:00.465
has shown in a century.

00:38:00.465 --> 00:38:02.700
Temperature around 700.

00:38:02.700 --> 00:38:06.400
Christian Auwe is a ranger who
patrols the landscape around

00:38:06.400 --> 00:38:09.310
the base of Marapi and
has seen every

00:38:09.310 --> 00:38:11.280
one of its many moods.

00:38:11.280 --> 00:38:13.405
He was here in 2006.

00:38:13.405 --> 00:38:17.670
Mount Marapi sometimes they call
it Good Guy and Bad Guy.

00:38:17.670 --> 00:38:23.860
Good Guy because it bring good
things like those boulders,

00:38:23.860 --> 00:38:26.890
stones, sands for buildings.

00:38:26.890 --> 00:38:28.810
Also for the soil is good.

00:38:28.810 --> 00:38:33.590
And you can throw peanuts and
it will grow quickly.

00:38:33.590 --> 00:38:37.230
But in the same time,
destroy everything,

00:38:37.230 --> 00:38:39.825
like houses, people.

00:38:44.230 --> 00:38:47.470
When it's quiet, Marapi can
yield everything from rocks

00:38:47.470 --> 00:38:50.810
for construction to grains
harvested from the volcanic

00:38:50.810 --> 00:38:54.220
earth, which is super fertile
and is the basis for some

00:38:54.220 --> 00:38:55.470
valuable agriculture.

00:39:02.030 --> 00:39:05.270
But when Marapi starts to
thunder, all of the people who

00:39:05.270 --> 00:39:08.540
live around the giant volcano
are evacuated.

00:39:08.540 --> 00:39:11.880
It's a cycle that repeats itself
once every five years

00:39:11.880 --> 00:39:14.750
and makes for a very volatile
place to live.

00:39:17.320 --> 00:39:21.130
The real dangers here are the
pyroclastic flows and they are

00:39:21.130 --> 00:39:23.030
intensely deadly.

00:39:23.030 --> 00:39:26.830
Pyroclastic flows are clouds of
hot gas and rock that can

00:39:26.830 --> 00:39:30.510
whip down the side of a volcano
at terrifying speeds,

00:39:30.510 --> 00:39:33.070
at temperatures of 1,000
degrees Celsius.

00:39:39.050 --> 00:39:41.620
You've seen a lot of
pyroclastic flows.

00:39:41.620 --> 00:39:44.350
If we were standing here when
one came around that corner,

00:39:44.350 --> 00:39:47.770
down the gorge, what would
it looks like?

00:39:47.770 --> 00:39:49.620
I cannot think about it--

00:39:49.620 --> 00:39:53.422
I'd die immediately because the
speed of the lava is 100

00:39:53.422 --> 00:39:54.790
kilometers per hour.

00:39:54.790 --> 00:39:57.440
We only three kilometers
away from up there.

00:39:57.440 --> 00:39:59.610
So you said no, I'm
standing here.

00:39:59.610 --> 00:40:01.710
I cannot tell anything--

00:40:01.710 --> 00:40:02.960
die.

00:40:04.980 --> 00:40:08.780
During the 2006 eruption, two
journalists thought they were

00:40:08.780 --> 00:40:10.340
at a safe distance.

00:40:10.340 --> 00:40:14.260
They had no idea how fast the
pyroclastic flow would pounce

00:40:14.260 --> 00:40:15.300
on top of them.

00:40:15.300 --> 00:40:26.620
[SPEAKING INDONESIAN]

00:40:26.620 --> 00:40:30.560
We got news that they were in
the bunker and they died.

00:40:30.560 --> 00:40:33.740
The day after we come back here
to look for them, but

00:40:33.740 --> 00:40:37.840
because of the thick material,
the pyroclasts is too thick,

00:40:37.840 --> 00:40:41.460
and then we have some
time, two days

00:40:41.460 --> 00:40:44.160
digging we found them.

00:40:44.160 --> 00:40:50.700
[SPEAKING INDONESIAN]

00:40:50.700 --> 00:40:55.490
One guy we found next to the
gate over there, the doors.

00:40:55.490 --> 00:40:56.740
He was--

00:40:59.170 --> 00:41:00.790
what do you call it--

00:41:00.790 --> 00:41:03.750
burned like a barbecue.

00:41:03.750 --> 00:41:05.965
And the other guy was
in the bathroom.

00:41:05.965 --> 00:41:08.940
It was boiling, die.

00:41:08.940 --> 00:41:09.970
They both--

00:41:09.970 --> 00:41:10.670
death--

00:41:10.670 --> 00:41:11.730
yeah.

00:41:11.730 --> 00:41:14.410
Two days after the eruption,
we found them.

00:41:14.410 --> 00:41:29.140
[SPEAKING INDONESIAN]

00:41:29.140 --> 00:41:32.236
Marapi has done nasty things
to a lot of people.

00:41:35.370 --> 00:41:39.050
In 1830, 1,400 died.

00:41:39.050 --> 00:41:42.450
In 1994, another
64 were killed.

00:41:45.840 --> 00:41:49.430
All is quiet on this day though,
barely a burp on the

00:41:49.430 --> 00:41:50.680
seismograph.

00:41:54.300 --> 00:41:59.145
But on May 27, 2006, the
seismograph looked like this.

00:42:03.150 --> 00:42:05.200
Marapi misbehaves often.

00:42:05.200 --> 00:42:08.350
So to keep tabs on things
in the quiet times, the

00:42:08.350 --> 00:42:10.880
caretakers make a monthly
trek to the summit.

00:42:17.190 --> 00:42:20.420
Just before sunrise, their
headlights catch blooms of

00:42:20.420 --> 00:42:23.810
volcanic rock, particulates
swirl in the air with the

00:42:23.810 --> 00:42:25.060
sulphur gases.

00:42:29.350 --> 00:42:32.890
This place here is the death
zone of one of the subduction

00:42:32.890 --> 00:42:36.630
related volcanoes, all because
of the magmatite which is

00:42:36.630 --> 00:42:37.965
pushing up from underneath
the volcano.

00:42:37.965 --> 00:42:39.600
It's pretty stiff.

00:42:39.600 --> 00:42:42.620
And most people have an image of
volcanoes with red-hot lava

00:42:42.620 --> 00:42:43.620
running down the slope.

00:42:43.620 --> 00:42:46.490
It's not the case in this
type of volcano.

00:42:46.490 --> 00:42:50.840
Where it's very stiff, magma has
pushed up from the magma

00:42:50.840 --> 00:42:52.890
chamber and forms
this lava dome.

00:42:52.890 --> 00:42:54.950
And we've been spending the last
couple hours wandering

00:42:54.950 --> 00:42:56.260
around this lava dome.

00:42:56.260 --> 00:42:59.130
And it gets pushed
up, pushed up.

00:42:59.130 --> 00:43:00.380
And it eventually collapses.

00:43:02.910 --> 00:43:05.900
And one can safely predict that
in the next few months,

00:43:05.900 --> 00:43:08.850
the next few years, the whole
side of the mountain will give

00:43:08.850 --> 00:43:11.365
way and there will be an
enormous pyroclastic flow.

00:43:17.060 --> 00:43:21.050
The rising sun reveals the
steaming dome of Marapi.

00:43:21.050 --> 00:43:23.580
There is no looking over
the lip here, to

00:43:23.580 --> 00:43:25.640
peer down into a crater.

00:43:25.640 --> 00:43:29.200
After Marapi explodes, the lava
congeals and covers the

00:43:29.200 --> 00:43:34.440
volcano with a cap, a
form-fitting lid.

00:43:34.440 --> 00:43:37.320
And you can see cracks
around here.

00:43:37.320 --> 00:43:40.650
We've already had two small
earthquakes this morning.

00:43:40.650 --> 00:43:46.790
And the whole side of the lava
dome will very soon collapse.

00:43:46.790 --> 00:43:49.340
All the signs are here,
the tremors, the

00:43:49.340 --> 00:43:51.630
steam, and the heat.

00:43:51.630 --> 00:43:52.850
This area is cracking.

00:43:52.850 --> 00:43:55.210
This area is literally
falling apart.

00:43:55.210 --> 00:44:00.320
And the cracks provide conduits
for sulfur dioxide

00:44:00.320 --> 00:44:02.640
and other sulfur gases and
also a lot of water

00:44:02.640 --> 00:44:04.330
vapor to come up.

00:44:04.330 --> 00:44:05.180
So these are called

00:44:05.180 --> 00:44:07.690
"fumaroles," which means smoking.

00:44:07.690 --> 00:44:10.068
And he's measuring the
temperature of

00:44:10.068 --> 00:44:11.550
one of these fumaroles.

00:44:17.972 --> 00:44:19.470
Now, these are scalding
temperatures.

00:44:19.470 --> 00:44:21.440
These are just a little
bit below boiling.

00:44:21.440 --> 00:44:23.070
So this is quite a
dangerous area.

00:44:23.070 --> 00:44:27.980
And the rocks too are being
rotted by gas moving up

00:44:27.980 --> 00:44:29.180
through them.

00:44:29.180 --> 00:44:32.870
So this area is completely
disintegrating.

00:44:32.870 --> 00:44:34.870
By walking around, looking at
what's happening to these

00:44:34.870 --> 00:44:39.530
slopes, taking temperatures,
we're in for a big one.

00:44:39.530 --> 00:44:43.760
This is not a place where
you want to hang around.

00:44:43.760 --> 00:44:46.720
It makes me nervous because
I've seen these things in

00:44:46.720 --> 00:44:49.900
action and they're extremely
dangerous.

00:44:49.900 --> 00:44:52.820
But as a geologist, I am
absolutely fascinated by the

00:44:52.820 --> 00:44:56.590
opportunity to come here and
look and see what happens

00:44:56.590 --> 00:44:59.020
before a pyroclastic
flow takes off.

00:45:02.324 --> 00:45:07.280
The pyroclastic flows burst
forth from Marapi only a year

00:45:07.280 --> 00:45:11.250
after Nick visited the
volcano summit.

00:45:11.250 --> 00:45:14.660
Hundreds of thousands of
Javanese were forced to flee

00:45:14.660 --> 00:45:19.500
as Marapi's devastation spread
out farther and farther.

00:45:19.500 --> 00:45:24.010
In the grand tectonics sense,
Marapi is part of the same

00:45:24.010 --> 00:45:26.930
machine that began
in the Himalayas.

00:45:26.930 --> 00:45:31.030
And one day, the end product
will roll out on the tectonic

00:45:31.030 --> 00:45:33.615
assembly line, a whole
new supercontinent.

00:45:46.740 --> 00:45:49.520
This is the debris that
was left behind by

00:45:49.520 --> 00:45:54.820
Marapi's 2006 eruption.

00:45:54.820 --> 00:45:55.940
There were a few unlucky

00:45:55.940 --> 00:45:59.420
homeowners who had to relocate.

00:45:59.420 --> 00:46:02.580
Tourists come up here now, while
they can, to tramp up

00:46:02.580 --> 00:46:06.040
and down the path, next to the
farmers laden with harvest

00:46:06.040 --> 00:46:07.290
from their volcanic fields.

00:46:11.360 --> 00:46:14.120
Some people buy flowers
to make offerings to

00:46:14.120 --> 00:46:15.370
the goddess of Marapi.

00:46:19.670 --> 00:46:24.210
But Marapi is dangerous even
after the eruptions calm down

00:46:24.210 --> 00:46:26.900
because there is always
the risk of lahars.

00:46:40.330 --> 00:46:44.430
A lahar is a massive mudslide
rolling with the weight and

00:46:44.430 --> 00:46:47.020
consistency of concrete.

00:46:47.020 --> 00:46:50.540
When heavy rains soak the
volcanic debris left behind by

00:46:50.540 --> 00:46:54.684
the pyroclastic flows, the
whole mass is dislodged.

00:46:58.180 --> 00:47:01.050
Lahars have been clocked at over
100 kilometers an hour.

00:47:08.230 --> 00:47:11.560
The government has build some
retaining walls here to try to

00:47:11.560 --> 00:47:14.970
control the flow for when
a lahar happens again.

00:47:14.970 --> 00:47:17.210
It's just another hazard
of living along the

00:47:17.210 --> 00:47:18.790
Indo-Australian plate margin.

00:47:21.380 --> 00:47:25.040
All this debris is the final
byproduct of the mechanisms

00:47:25.040 --> 00:47:28.040
that raised the Himalayas,
caused them to share their

00:47:28.040 --> 00:47:31.300
sediments, and then carried
those sediment all the way

00:47:31.300 --> 00:47:35.620
here to be shot out
of a volcano.

00:47:35.620 --> 00:47:37.040
Well, it's a grand cycle.

00:47:37.040 --> 00:47:40.600
You have plates colliding,
huge mountains

00:47:40.600 --> 00:47:42.120
being thrown up.

00:47:42.120 --> 00:47:44.440
Those mountains are
defying gravity.

00:47:44.440 --> 00:47:45.790
Gravity doesn't like
mountains.

00:47:45.790 --> 00:47:47.610
It wants to pull them down.

00:47:47.610 --> 00:47:49.870
Huge amounts of sediments
are being released.

00:47:49.870 --> 00:47:51.980
They are flushed down
into the oceans.

00:47:51.980 --> 00:47:54.630
And then they're recycled
in subduction

00:47:54.630 --> 00:47:56.290
zones to form new lands.

00:47:56.290 --> 00:48:00.040
So it's a great epic of mountain
building, plate

00:48:00.040 --> 00:48:00.930
collisions.

00:48:00.930 --> 00:48:04.320
And sediments are the thread
that connects that to the

00:48:04.320 --> 00:48:08.990
future chapters of new land
and new supercontinents.

00:48:08.990 --> 00:48:11.780
And that's the point,
why all of this huge

00:48:11.780 --> 00:48:14.350
tectonic activity continues.

00:48:14.350 --> 00:48:18.110
It's all about building the
plates, building the land, and

00:48:18.110 --> 00:48:20.465
ultimately constructing
a new supercontinent.

00:48:24.370 --> 00:48:27.120
Supercontinents form
with a frequency of

00:48:27.120 --> 00:48:29.620
about 400 million years.

00:48:29.620 --> 00:48:33.090
The last supercontinent broke up
about 200 million years ago

00:48:33.090 --> 00:48:35.090
to form the modern oceans.

00:48:35.090 --> 00:48:39.460
And slowly, those modern oceans
are being consumed.

00:48:39.460 --> 00:48:42.650
The ocean crust is being lost
down subduction zones.

00:48:42.650 --> 00:48:45.610
And we're just starting to get
into the next phase of

00:48:45.610 --> 00:48:48.820
building another
supercontinent.

00:48:48.820 --> 00:48:51.115
And we can predict the position
of future continents

00:48:51.115 --> 00:48:55.550
with a lot more accuracy than
we can next week's weather.

00:48:55.550 --> 00:48:58.470
So as a geologist if look built
into the future, we can

00:48:58.470 --> 00:49:01.840
say with accuracy that in 200
million years' time there will

00:49:01.840 --> 00:49:05.860
be another supercontinent and
it will be centered around

00:49:05.860 --> 00:49:07.110
Indonesian.

00:49:08.610 --> 00:49:10.600
And then the process
will start again.

00:49:13.520 --> 00:49:16.090
But that is 200 million
years away.

00:49:16.090 --> 00:49:19.410
And for many of us, that amount
of change in that vast

00:49:19.410 --> 00:49:21.060
time frame is unimaginable.

00:49:24.590 --> 00:49:28.740
But change, at least in the
short term, is familiar to the

00:49:28.740 --> 00:49:29.990
people who live here.

00:49:33.620 --> 00:49:35.980
Just come visit and
stay awhile.

00:49:35.980 --> 00:49:39.050
Before long, you'll feel
the earth move too.