PBS Nature Violent Hawaii
Transcript
00:00Hawaii is a place of breathtaking natural beauty, but it's no ordinary tropical paradise.
00:14Hawaii has a dark side.
00:20In deep underground, an explosive inferno releases blazing torrents.
00:30And it's hot.
00:31The air is hot.
00:32The air is over 600 degrees going into there.
00:36The islands are ravaged by fire and lashed by water.
00:45It's like liquid thunder.
00:47Every wave can actually kill you.
00:50The fury of nature is on display everywhere, on land and in the sea.
00:59The competition is very, very intense.
01:01If you're in the water with extremely active, aggressive animals, that can be also very
01:07scary.
01:08In Hawaii, turbulent forces have conspired to create a paradise filled with perils.
01:38Hawaii was born in fire, its islands spawned by volcanic eruptions, and in some places,
02:08the fire still burned.
02:17On the big island, the island named Hawaii, Kilauea spews forth molten rock in a daily
02:24spectacle of creation.
02:28The volcano's newest cone, Pu'u O'o, has erupted almost continuously since it first
02:33appeared in 1983.
02:39The steady flow of lava over two decades has added more than 500 acres to the island.
02:54The landscape of Kilauea may seem alien and forbidding, but some find it irresistible.
03:03This may be the best place on the planet to observe a long-term eruption at close range.
03:13Scientists come often to the floor of Kilauea's caldera to take the pulse of the volcano.
03:27Here the ground itself is hot and treacherous.
03:33Endangering danger of giving way to the lava that flows beneath.
03:43Kilauea's lava can move fast at well over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
03:57For geologists Carl Thornbur and Tim Orr, today's mission is a daunting one, retrieving
04:03samples from a fresh batch of molten lava.
04:06Looks like we've got some hot stuff up ahead.
04:18They'll quench their samples in a coffee can filled with water.
04:23Protective gear is minimal.
04:25They rely more on expertise honed by years of experience.
04:29Okay, let's do it.
04:33Okay.
04:34That's a nice breakout from this cumulonimbus.
04:38I think we should get it right at the top.
04:41Ooh, hot.
04:42It's not a little hot, it's really hot.
04:45The lava is surrounded by a scorching shroud of superheated air.
04:52Oh, Jesus.
05:00I'm coming in from this side.
05:25Oh, good sloppy one.
05:29Color and brightness are good indicators of temperature, but the heat reveals itself in
05:35other ways.
05:36My head's hot enough to burn a hair off the top of your eyebrows, and I certainly kind
05:42of got red cheeks after that one.
05:45That was a hot one.
05:50Rip it up, rip it up.
05:51All right, all right.
05:52I got it.
05:53The temperature is about 1,150 degrees centigrade.
05:59That's what?
06:00About 2,100.
06:012,100 Fahrenheit.
06:02So it's a lot hotter than you can get your kitchen oven, that's for sure.
06:06And it's hot.
06:07The air's hot.
06:08The air's over 600 degrees going into there, so you're walking into an oven.
06:12So it's hard to get good samples when...
06:15But when you need them, you get them.
06:17We always get our sample, don't we, Tim?
06:21The composition of the lava can tell them how and where it was formed.
06:26Come on, quench.
06:28All right, you got a time?
06:33It is 1406.
06:36It can also help in forecasting changes in the eruption.
06:39Let's put the rest of that in, okay?
06:42Tiny fragments of lava reveal Kilauea's deepest secrets.
06:46We try to get a sample of lava as close to the vent every week, as close to the vent
06:53as we can get.
06:54It allows us to get a feel for the long-term changes, whether the eruption's going to stop,
06:59whether it's going to continue.
07:02So we get a much better handle on what's going to happen next.
07:10Figuring out Kilauea's next moves isn't easy.
07:14The volcano is always changing and seemingly inexhaustible.
07:26Over the years, its flows have spread across the mountain, hardening into a variety of
07:31forms and textures.
07:34Like a river in flood, the lava moves where it will, difficult to predict or control.
07:44Since this eruption began in 1983, lava from Kilauea has rolled across the surrounding
07:49countryside.
07:55The lava's journey toward the sea was relentless and destructive.
08:01For the residents of Kalapana, this was a disaster in slow motion.
08:08They learned the hard way that wooden structures are no match for molten rock.
08:18The invasion of Kalapana claimed more than 180 homes.
08:34Eventually, the community was buried in a thick shroud of lava.
08:44When Kilauea's flow stops, its destructive power is transformed.
08:49As it cools and hardens, everything in its path is enveloped in a prison of stone.
09:04Although the Big Island reveals the most dramatic displays of volcanic power, every
09:17one of the Hawaiian islands bears witness to a fiery past.
09:23The Hawaiian chain stretches for more than 1,500 miles through the heart of the Pacific,
09:29the most isolated archipelago on Earth.
09:32In the southwest lie six main islands and two smaller ones.
09:37Their rugged landscapes provide clues to the forces that shape them.
09:52Time and tide, wind, water, and fire.
09:57They have sculpted Hawaii over millions of years.
10:19Jagged cliffs, the remnants of extinct volcanoes, rise 1,000 feet above the sea.
10:27They testify to the combined power of erosion and seismic forces.
10:34Magnificent canyons were created when earthquakes twisted and split the landscape.
10:49The craters are evidence of past eruptions and hint at new ones to come.
11:02The most ancient volcanoes, worn down by the elements, now lie hidden beneath a carpet
11:08of green.
11:17One of Hawaii's most famous landmarks, Diamond Head, looms above the beaches of Waikiki.
11:26The site is postcard perfect, but few realize that 10,000 years ago, this too was the scene
11:33of a violent eruption, as lava fountained from these walls and spilled into the sea.
11:39Today, nearly half a million people live in its shadow.
11:47Hawaii's volcanoes did more than sculpt the landscape.
11:51They actually built the islands from scratch.
11:54The Hawaiian chain sits atop the Pacific Plate, a shifting block of the Earth's crust.
12:00Beneath the plate lies a stationary hotspot.
12:04It produces a column of magma, creating volcanoes that gradually rise above the sea to form
12:09islands.
12:12As the plate slowly drifts northwest, each island in turn is pulled away from the hotspot,
12:18and the volcanoes are extinguished.
12:21The hotspot now sits 20 miles south of the Big Island, where it's creating a new volcano
12:26named Loihi.
12:29To see it, you have to head underwater.
12:33Keeping an eye on the young volcano, scientists like Terry Kirby journey down in a manned
12:38submersible.
12:39We never know what we're going to find in there from year to year, and this year, there
12:45was a little more anticipation because we heard that there was some seismic activity.
13:03The slow descent to Loihi takes hours through waters that grow darker and colder.
13:16Though the mountain has grown two miles above the seafloor, its summit is 3,000 feet beneath
13:22the ocean's surface.
13:25Inside a newly formed crater, the tiny submersible is dwarfed by Loihi.
13:34Like any active volcano, Loihi is inherently unstable.
13:39Seismic tremors in the interior can trigger landslides.
13:43I definitely am aware of what can happen down there.
13:45We see these gigantic boulders down in the pit.
13:48I wouldn't want to be down there when one of those things came down, so we're always
13:52really tuned in to any kind of sounds, any kind of vibrations.
14:03A few species have adapted to this hostile environment, managing a precarious existence.
14:13Beneath the rugged terrain, the same inferno that feeds Kilauea is constantly reshaping
14:19Loihi.
14:21Delicate pencil chimneys rise from surfaces strewn with rubble.
14:25Frequent earthquakes cause old structures to crumble, while new ones form.
14:29This is pretty amazing.
14:32This is actually part of the wall that collapsed two years ago.
14:36You can see the edge of it coming up here, a very sharp ridge that used to extend quite
14:42a ways further out, and all that caved in and came down a couple of years ago.
14:53As part of their routine survey, they'll check the volcano's temperature.
15:02Vents in Loihi's flanks release blazing heat and dissolved gases.
15:09The numbers steadily climb to well over 150 degrees Fahrenheit.
15:16That's amazing.
15:17I think the ambient water is almost freezing, and there's vent water flowing out in this
15:23almost ice-cold water that's 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
15:29Scientists will continue to monitor the young volcano.
15:32More earthquakes and collapses are inevitable.
15:39Loihi will slowly rise from the ocean floor, finally breaking the surface thousands of
15:44years from now to become the next Hawaiian island.
16:05When it emerges from the sea, Loihi will be barren and lifeless, like every new volcanic
16:11island.
16:14Yet even in this severe moonscape of frozen lava, spores and seeds blown by the wind manage
16:21to take hold.
16:24Tiny trees push through cracks in the surface, reaching for the tropical sun.
16:33Wind and water quickly break down the lava into soil.
16:38In just a hundred years, the bare flow can be transformed into a garden.
17:03Here in the relative desert of the surrounding Pacific, Hawaii's rich volcanic soil has made
17:10the islands oases of fertility.
17:31Plants wash down to the coasts, and the islands' flanks provide purchase for coral reefs,
17:37the most bountiful of all marine environments.
17:57The Hawaiian waters are a welcome refuge for a wide range of creatures, many of them migrants.
18:09The largest of all are humpback whales.
18:15Each winter they arrive by the thousands from colder latitudes.
18:43For the humpbacks, Hawaii is more than a warm winter getaway.
18:49This is the perfect nursery.
19:01Here in Hawaii, females can give birth and nurse their young in safety, free from the
19:07threat of killer whales.
19:10The warm Hawaiian waters are an ideal place to gain weight on their mother's milk.
19:18Mother and calf are often accompanied by a second adult.
19:23It was once believed this was a female helping to rear the calf.
19:28Now we know the escorts are always males, and these charming creatures are revealing
19:34a darker, more aggressive side.
19:50Scott Spitz has witnessed humpback aggression firsthand, observing them over ten winters
19:56off the coast of Maui.
19:58People have described humpback whales as gentle giants for many, many years, and they are
20:02extremely graceful animals.
20:04But they're also very large, powerful, wild animals that compete, just like any other
20:10animal does, for the things that are important, for resources.
20:14And male humpback whales compete very aggressively for mating opportunities with females.
20:21So the idea that they're gentle all the time is absolutely not true.
20:25They do, under the right circumstances, engage in very, very aggressive behavior.
20:33The humpbacks form large, competitive pods of as many as 20 males with a single female.
20:41The males challenge each other to get close to the female, to win the right to become
20:45her escort, and perhaps her mate.
20:50In the world of humpbacks, size definitely matters.
20:55The largest whale is more likely to get the principal escort role, or the dominant male
21:02role.
21:03Whether or not that leads to reproduction, we don't know.
21:06No one has yet to see humpback whales mate.
21:09But it certainly would be sensible that these whales are exerting all this energy and challenging
21:15each other for some significant reward.
21:28Many of the whales' challenges are almost imperceptible to humans.
21:33But their body language and subtle signals send a clear message to other whales.
21:39And combat can turn brutal.
21:42They compete by threatening each other with bubbles, by charging each other, and in the
21:46most severe situations, by ramming into each other and physically forcing each other out
21:51of the way.
22:02When a large group of males is involved, the competition heats up, and a series of duels
22:07can last for hours.
22:11If two males of equal size square off, the battles can turn bloody.
22:27Fins and blowholes can be rubbed wrong.
22:49As the spectacle plays out, the females are not entirely passive.
23:14They encourage the males to fight, or even signal a preference.
23:19Being in the water with these large animals is, it's certainly intense.
23:23If you're in the water with 10 or 12 or 15 extremely active, aggressive animals, that
23:29can be also very scary at times.
23:34Whales are jostling for position, they're blowing bubbles, this decreases the visibility,
23:39they're moving very rapidly in unpredictable directions, so you really never know exactly
23:44what you're going to see when you get in the water with a competitive group.
23:49There is always a chance that you're going to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
23:58Like the islands themselves, the humpbacks' majestic beauty masks a ferocious power.
24:46There is another winter visitor to the shores of Hawaii, another giant with a violent side.
24:58Storms as far away as Siberia hurl huge swells across the North Pacific.
25:03When they finally break, the waves can rise 70 feet, propelled at more than 40 miles an
25:08hour.
25:12It happens on the north shore of Maui, on a stretch of coastline called Teahi.
25:17Today, both the waves and the beach are known by a new name, Jaws.
25:25Monster waves like these are seen only rarely, usually during the winter.
25:30But the surf here is always dangerous, and a team of lifeguards watches over Maui's beaches
25:36year-round.
25:37After you get down and posted, come back and get this on it.
25:42Archie Kalepa is the head of ocean safety for Maui County, and he's a top-rated surfer
25:46himself.
25:47It's definitely dangerous working there because of the imposing surf, the rugged coastline,
25:54the rocky shore.
25:55Cleo, is that Andy out there?
25:58Archie knows the dangers of big waves and their attraction.
26:02Once you've accomplished being in that environment, surfing those kind of waves, you kind of live
26:09for that moment, and when it's not here, that's all you can think about.
26:20With the big waves just a few months away, he's keeping an eye on Jaws.
26:26If you look, you'll actually see some swells that are starting to come in, and as those
26:31swells get closer to the shoreline, you'll probably see some waves start developing as
26:37they get closer.
26:38It's still not in the, you know, what we would consider it as breaking, but it's a good indicator
26:45of the things that come this winter.
26:48When the big waves arrive, they'll be unlike those that break anywhere else on the islands.
26:54They're formed by the unique coastline at Jaws, lifted and amplified by an underwater
26:59ridge of lava and coral.
27:03Incredible as it may seem, intrepid surfers journey from all over the world to take them on.
27:13A ride at Jaws may last less than half a minute, and the next crushing wave can break in a few seconds.
27:20But surfers will risk their lives for the challenge.
27:23If you're going to go out there and surf that place, it goes far beyond training just to
27:29be able to surf.
27:30You're training to survive.
27:33You know, it's an incredibly dangerous place to work.
27:40The waves at Jaws can swallow surfers and lifeguards in an instant.
27:45The lifeguards train all year to perform high-speed rescues in thundering surf.
27:52So you have to have good personnel that you can trust, that you can work with, that has
27:59good communications.
28:03Now we're going to jump back in the water.
28:05Once you break the surface, I want you to tap your head, and I want you to say, clear.
28:15Clear.
28:16Good.
28:17Good job.
28:19Archie puts his team through a grueling regimen on the beach and in the ocean to develop the
28:24strength and skills they'll need.
28:32Wave runners and special rescue boards make their mission possible.
28:50During these months of calm before the storms, they'll drill almost daily, perfecting their
28:56techniques and their timing.
29:03This is not Jaws, but it'll be here.
29:06And when it's here, you'll know.
29:20When winter comes to Hawaii, it will bring other changes high above the sea.
29:26At nearly 14,000 feet, Mauna Kea on the Big Island rises above 40 percent of the Earth's
29:32atmosphere, making it ideal for observing the stars.
29:37It's home to some of the world's most advanced telescopes.
29:41The summit of Mauna Kea is usually barren and dry.
29:45Most of the mountain's annual precipitation falls in the form of snow.
29:52In fact, blizzards are common in the winter.
30:00Winds can top 70 miles an hour.
30:03Roads begin to crumble.
30:06Winds can top 70 miles an hour.
30:09Roads become impassable.
30:12And drifts leave observatories snowbound.
30:19The summit may get more than four feet of snow in a single season.
30:24Parts of the volcano are covered from December to May.
30:37In midwinter, the top of Mauna Kea no longer looks like Hawaii at all.
30:47The ancient Hawaiians knew all about the volcano's uncommon climate.
30:51That's why they named it Mauna Kea, the White Mountain.
30:59But when a blizzard rages on Mauna Kea,
31:03chances are good that down at sea level, it's pouring.
31:09Torrential storms are common here,
31:11and annual totals are often measured in hundreds of inches.
31:17Rain can be both nourishing and destructive.
31:27On these mountainous islands, water is always on the move,
31:31and it moves fast.
31:41Waterlogged hillsides eventually give way,
31:44with disastrous results.
31:48On O'ahu, one community found itself in peril
31:52after tons of rock rolled down from the hills above.
31:56Boulders narrowly missed the houses,
31:58and residents took the warning seriously, evacuating their homes.
32:06To help prevent further disaster,
32:08residents set up temporary shelters in the mountains.
32:13To help prevent further disasters,
32:15crews went to work on the nearby slopes.
32:20The loose rocks can't simply be removed,
32:23but with luck and skill, they might be held in place.
32:29The best solution is a veil of steel mesh to contain the hillside.
32:34Helicopters do the heavy lifting,
32:36but a crew of scalers has to repel down the uneven face of the slopes.
32:42and stitch the net together.
32:59Their work may keep the rocks in check here, for a time,
33:03but in Hawaii, erosion is part of the natural order.
33:07What the volcanoes have built up,
33:10wind, water, and seismic forces will inevitably tear apart.
33:17You can see it on the Big Island, on the southwestern flank of Kilauea.
33:24The Great Crack is an eight-mile-long fissure,
33:27up to 40 feet wide and 70 feet deep.
33:34It opened during an eruption in 1823,
33:37but its future remains unclear.
33:41Some scientists believe this fracture might act like a giant hinge,
33:45detaching one part of the island from the rest.
33:50Clues may lie hidden deep inside the crack itself.
34:00Don Swanson is scientist in charge
34:02at the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.
34:07It is pretty impressive to walk along the crack,
34:10and it does remind you of something that's happened in the past
34:14that we haven't seen since,
34:16this big, long crack opening and magma spewing out of it.
34:20It must have been quite an impressive sight.
34:25The interior of the crack is riddled with caves and crevices.
34:29Many of them have never been explored.
34:33Three.
34:36That's what lures Rick Elhard and Don Coons.
34:39They're cavers, who are spending their spare time
34:42mapping the Great Crack's internal structures.
34:54Whoa, what a drop.
34:56Once we get beyond two or three of these pitches, there's a dam.
34:59We know almost definitely that we're the first people to ever be there,
35:02wherever it takes us to.
35:04Whatever we find down there, we'll be the first to ever discover it.
35:15What I'm most interested in is all this rock stuff right over here,
35:19oozing and dripping down the wall.
35:21It's like candle wax.
35:23That tells us that activity from the volcano, from the caldera,
35:26from the magma, flowed through this area at one time.
35:29It's not just a broken tectonic crack.
35:31It was an active, living part of the volcano.
35:35Whoo!
35:37All right, here we go.
35:43Coming on top of you.
35:46Looks like a blowing hole to me, Don.
35:48You can feel the draft from here.
35:50Just feel the cold air.
35:52It's coming right straight down that slope.
35:55You thought those were stowels, but it kind of looks like ferns on there.
35:58Might be, I don't know.
36:00It's blowing enough air, and I love that patina.
36:02That had flow.
36:04There was something moved through there.
36:06Oh, holy moly.
36:09To gauge the depth of the cave,
36:11they'll use a technique that's simple but effective.
36:14Let's just tumble it in and see what we can hear.
36:24Still rattling.
36:29It's gone down another 80, 100 feet at least,
36:32on top of what we've already come down.
36:36On rappel into the abyss.
36:39The only way to learn more
36:41is to follow the rocks into the darkness below.
36:45Oh, my God, it's huge!
36:48All right.
36:55A monstrous big cave down here.
37:00All right.
37:03Oh, there's that scree pile we kicked down here.
37:08This is the biggest cave they've ever seen in the Great Crack,
37:12and it's the first time anyone has set foot here.
37:16It may once have been a major artery
37:18leading from the fiery heart of Kilauea.
37:21My left wall is about 15 feet.
37:24Right wall's a good 30 feet away.
37:28Ceiling 25, floor 3.
37:31Oh, I'm just making a quick sketch of the cave.
37:34I'm doing a plan view right now,
37:36and then we'll pick up a profile,
37:38basically just showing the contour of the ground,
37:40how it slopes down in one direction, up in another.
37:43On point.
37:45Tape 17.2.
37:4717.2.
37:4917.2.
37:50Tracing the Great Crack's interior
37:52can help them understand how Kilauea has changed over time
37:56and how it might behave in years to come.
38:00Clino's minus 6.
38:02Good for the next station. Move on.
38:11Some believe a future eruption
38:13could cause the Great Crack to split further,
38:16perhaps causing the entire southern edge of the Big Island
38:19to slide away into the sea.
38:25The Hawaiian landscape has undergone cataclysmic changes
38:29many times in the past.
38:33Some of the islands are bordered by towering cliffs.
38:37Far below, just offshore, lie vast deposits of rubble.
38:43They provide clues to how these sheer cliffs were formed.
38:51Walter Dudley is a geologist at the University of Hawaii.
38:56These enormous, majestic cliffs behind me
38:58for years have puzzled geologists by their sheer size.
39:02The normal rates of marine erosion
39:04just couldn't create these cliffs in the time it was available.
39:07And it wasn't until the seafloor was mapped around them
39:10that we discovered that they weren't produced merely by marine erosion
39:13but by enormous landslides where whole chunks of the island
39:16fell off into the Pacific Ocean.
39:19Evidence of these giant slides can be seen all around the islands.
39:24Scientists have identified at least 17 underwater rubble zones
39:28covering thousands of square miles of seafloor.
39:32For me to be able to stand at the top of these sheer cliffs
39:34and realize that in one catastrophic event
39:38so much of that coastline had fallen down
39:40and slid off into the Pacific Ocean,
39:42oh, it's an awesome feeling.
39:44One just is amazed by the power of Mother Nature.
39:49The events that left behind cliffs like these
39:52were no run-of-the-mill rockslides.
39:55The Hawaiian Islands and every other volcanic island in the Pacific
39:58has been sculpted by the force of these landslides.
40:02We're talking about an incredibly large volume of material.
40:06Thousands of cubic kilometers of material all at once
40:10just like this mass behind me
40:12sliding off into the Pacific Ocean.
40:18Such a huge amount of debris
40:20can displace an equally large volume of water
40:23generating enormous waves, powerful tsunamis.
40:29One of them occurred just over 100,000 years ago
40:33when a section of the Kona Coast on the Big Island collapsed.
40:37It produced a giant tsunami that fanned out across the sea.
40:45This mountain of water rose so high
40:47that it deposited coral and marine gravel
40:49on cliffs 1,200 feet above the ocean.
40:54Even a much smaller tsunami can be devastating.
40:58These unstoppable walls of water are not at all like ordinary waves.
41:04If you've ever swum out into the ocean,
41:06you know you can swim through surf.
41:09But tsunami waves, the water is moving like a flood.
41:11All the water is moving from the surface to the bottom
41:14and that has the power to pick up boulders the size of cars.
41:18Train locomotives have been picked up by tsunami waves
41:21and washed across towns.
41:23It's absolutely enormous.
41:24Almost nothing can resist the power of these waves.
41:28A tsunami can roll across the ocean at 600 miles per hour,
41:32like a boat from the blue.
41:35They have no external warning signs.
41:37When a hurricane is going to strike, the weather gets bad ahead of time.
41:40There are warnings.
41:41Before tornadoes strike, there are storms.
41:43But you can be at the beach on a beautiful day
41:45and there's no indication whatsoever
41:47that a tsunami is traveling across the ocean and will strike that beach.
41:51Tsunamis can be triggered by coastal earthquakes
41:54as well as landslides,
41:56local quakes here in the islands
41:58or distant ones off Alaska, Chile or Japan.
42:05Hawaii sits in the crosshairs in mid-Pacific
42:08and tsunamis have killed more people here
42:11than any other natural disasters.
42:15One of the last large destructive tsunamis to strike the islands was in 1946
42:19and in the town of Hilo alone, 96 people were killed.
42:23And people on all the islands were killed by that tsunami.
42:26But for Hilo, which was the hardest area hit,
42:28it was an absolute catastrophe.
42:41The 1946 tsunami was generated by a quake in the Aleutians
42:46and rolled across 3,000 miles of ocean before slamming into Hilo.
42:51It destroyed most of the buildings that fronted the ocean.
42:55It went in several blocks in some places.
42:57It destroyed the railway.
42:59The only buildings that weren't completely destroyed
43:01were those that were made of reinforced concrete
43:03and were away from the sea.
43:06Tsunami Waves
43:14Today, an early warning system is in place offshore to save lives.
43:19But Hawaii remains vulnerable.
43:22On an average day, it's been said that there are as many as 170,000 people
43:26at the beach, either in the water or lying on the sand.
43:29They're all within three feet of the sea.
43:32Even a five-foot tsunami wave could seriously endanger all of those people.
43:36And if 10% became victims, you'd have a disaster of enormous scale.
43:41Imagine 17,000 casualties.
43:45A five-foot tsunami would be bad enough.
43:48But a much larger wave could be triggered by a local offshore earthquake
43:52or a large coastal landslide.
43:56Within minutes, a wall of water could rise as high as 60 feet
44:01before plowing into a heavily populated beach like Waikiki.
44:06The prospect is terrifying and all too real.
44:12As long as we continue to have earthquakes and landslides,
44:15there'll be tsunami waves.
44:16So it's certainly not a question of if.
44:18It's a question of just when the next one's going to strike.
44:22Tsunamis
44:28Fortunately, tsunamis don't happen that often.
44:32But large waves can be counted on to batter the Hawaiian coast.
44:43Now winter has arrived in the islands,
44:46bringing with it high winds and high seas.
44:52Jaws
45:02At Peahi, Jaws is at full throttle.
45:06Wave-hungry surfers are ready for it.
45:09And so is Archie Kalepa.
45:15Jaws is here.
45:16This is what we prepare ourselves for year after year after year.
45:20The training that we go through when the surf's small,
45:22when the surf's medium, when the surf is big.
45:24Today it's here.
45:25And, you know, we're going to get firsthand experience.
45:28We're going to go on a patrol.
45:29Our guys will see up front, up close,
45:32the magnitude and the power of Mother Nature and what it possesses.
45:36All clear?
45:47It's going to be a good day for our guys to be out there.
45:53To save lives, the rescuers must be out where it counts,
45:57offshore in the midst of the action,
45:59in the heart of the monster surf.
46:03The magnitude of the wave at Peahi is so enormous.
46:08It's like liquid thunder.
46:10The wave is like no other wave.
46:19When I look at Jaws, it brings fear,
46:23a heavy adrenaline rush, and it brings excitement.
46:26It's a feeling like no other.
46:33All these thoughts start going through your mind,
46:36how you've got to be prepared physically, mentally, spiritually.
46:41You've got to imagine yourself making it through every wave
46:45because every wave can actually kill you
46:49when Jaws is really happening.
46:51Buzzy Kerbox is a professional big wave surfer
46:54and a Jaws aficionado.
46:56There's nothing like it. It's the Everest.
46:58It's the big, it's the ultimate,
47:00and you make mistakes out there, and it's going to let you know.
47:07I've had some bad ones where I'm just getting ragdolled underwater,
47:10getting dragged, and you don't know which way is up,
47:12or you don't know, it seems like you're just going with it,
47:15so it seems like it's never going to end.
47:17And then eventually you kind of get out of the grasp and can get up.
47:22What's scary is a lot of times, by the time you get up,
47:25the next one's right there, so you don't know.
47:28When you get up, the next one's right there,
47:30so you get one breath and you've got to be ready for another one.
47:35Maybe we weren't meant to surf Jaws
47:38because every wave that you ride out there,
47:41whether it's 10 feet, 20 feet, or 30 feet,
47:45it's life-threatening.
47:51The lifeguards consider it a good day at Jaws
47:54when everyone makes it back to shore in one piece.
47:59And their track record is spotless.
48:02They've never lost a surfer.
48:06It tingles my spine. It makes me feel good.
48:10Breathing the salt air, being able to jump in the water.
48:15The ocean is, for thousands of years,
48:20it's enabled the Hawaiian people to survive.
48:37I feel really gifted to be a Hawaiian,
48:42to grow up here in Hawaii,
48:44and to have the ocean as my playground.
48:51The Big Waves strike at Jaws only once or twice a year,
48:56but on Kilauea, the lava never sleeps.
49:10As night falls, the volcano is no longer a threat.
49:16As night falls, the volcano,
49:20illuminated by its inexhaustible fires,
49:23reveals features that are hidden under the bright tropical sun.
49:34Carl Thornbur and Tim Oar often come here
49:37to observe Pu'u O'o after dark,
49:40seeking out new vents and monitoring the eruption.
49:45The crater continues to evolve
49:48as new flows scorch the surrounding landscape.
50:04We're observing a crater that's been formed
50:08in the middle of the crater,
50:12We're observing one of the vents within the Pu'u O'o crater.
50:16It's an opportunity to grab some of the samples of material
50:20that is beneath our feet here within the crater.
50:24And we want to keep an eye on this
50:27because activity could pick up pretty quickly.
50:33The flames that are shooting are produced by hydrogen gas,
50:37and every once in a while,
50:39when this thing bubbles and churns,
50:42it sends a spit of spatter.
50:44And it could be that, you know, it could really pick up.
50:48I'll be eyes up for you.
50:50Where do you want to put it, on the ridge in the front?
50:57So we're waiting for a good spit.
50:59We've got three or four samples of this.
51:02Tiny shards of volcanic glass, called Pele's Tears,
51:07provide clues to the volcano's internal chemistry.
51:11So that's fantastic. These are fantastic samples.
51:15Yep.
51:16But we don't want to hang around here too long.
51:20The stunning displays of Kilauea belies dangers.
51:28Kilauea is not simply a tourist attraction.
51:31It's a real hazard.
51:33And you can see that when you're out here working.
51:36It lends a perspective to what you consider to be paradise,
51:41the island of Hawaii, that most people don't appreciate.
51:58Hawaii may be paradise,
52:02but it is prey to fearsome displays of nature's power.
52:10Beneath the rapturous beauty and breathtaking landscapes,
52:15there are signs of the turmoil that tore these islands apart
52:19and put them back together again.
52:25Hawaii was forged in fire,
52:28shaken by seismic upheavals and lashed by the sea.
52:38And yet, it is these violent forces
52:42that have made Hawaii a crucible of creation.
52:59Stay tuned for what's coming up next on Nature.
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