Imagine a volcano that doesn’t just erupt lava—it spits out real gold! In Indonesia, the Kawah Ijen volcano releases gases so rich in sulfur that tiny particles of pure gold form inside them. Scientists estimate that this volcano produces around $6,000 worth of gold every day, though most of it is impossible to collect. The extreme heat and toxic fumes make it way too dangerous for treasure hunters to get close. Still, the idea of a "gold-spewing volcano" sounds like something straight out of a pirate movie! Who knew nature had its own hidden gold factory? Credit:
CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ :
Hopi Buttes Volcano: By Nate Loper, https://skfb.ly/ooDtJ
Monte Erebus, Antártida: By CMPLab, https://skfb.ly/oEMEw
Empire State Building: By NanoRay, https://skfb.ly/oozNy
Mount Everest and Mountains: By Nate Loper, https://skfb.ly/6UtGo
Ol Doinyo Lengai: By CMPLab, https://skfb.ly/oSswC
Old Car - VAZ 2107: By Arkady Gribachev, https://skfb.ly/6YLnQ
CC BY-SA 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ :
Phonolite: By Bodofzt, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Phonolite.webm
Gregorite: By Strekeisen, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gregorite.JPG
CC BY-SA 3.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ :
Casualidad C 10: By Gerhard Haubold, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Casualidad_C_10.jpg
Lengai from Natron: By Clem23, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lengai_from_Natron.jpg
Mount Erebus Volcano: By Pierre Markuse from Hamm, Germany, CC BY 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ , https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mount_Erebus_Volcano,_Antarctica_(51726418853).jpg
Ol Doinyo Lengai Crater: By Pedro Gonnet, CC BY 2.5, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ol_Doinyo_Lengai_Crater.jpg
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This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ :
Hopi Buttes Volcano: By Nate Loper, https://skfb.ly/ooDtJ
Monte Erebus, Antártida: By CMPLab, https://skfb.ly/oEMEw
Empire State Building: By NanoRay, https://skfb.ly/oozNy
Mount Everest and Mountains: By Nate Loper, https://skfb.ly/6UtGo
Ol Doinyo Lengai: By CMPLab, https://skfb.ly/oSswC
Old Car - VAZ 2107: By Arkady Gribachev, https://skfb.ly/6YLnQ
CC BY-SA 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ :
Phonolite: By Bodofzt, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Phonolite.webm
Gregorite: By Strekeisen, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gregorite.JPG
CC BY-SA 3.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ :
Casualidad C 10: By Gerhard Haubold, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Casualidad_C_10.jpg
Lengai from Natron: By Clem23, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lengai_from_Natron.jpg
Mount Erebus Volcano: By Pierre Markuse from Hamm, Germany, CC BY 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ , https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mount_Erebus_Volcano,_Antarctica_(51726418853).jpg
Ol Doinyo Lengai Crater: By Pedro Gonnet, CC BY 2.5, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ol_Doinyo_Lengai_Crater.jpg
Animation is created by Bright Side.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/
Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV
Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz
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Our Social Media:
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en
Telegram: https://t.me/bright_side_official
Stock materials (photos, footages and other):
https://www.depositphotos.com
https://www.shutterstock.com
https://www.eastnews.ru
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For more videos and articles visit:
http://www.brightside.me
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This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
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FunTranscript
00:00Well, pack your bags and hurry down to Antarctica, because gold is literally raining from the
00:06sky there!
00:08$6,000 per day!
00:10Well, not exactly from the sky.
00:12More like from the eruptions of this massive fiery volcano.
00:17The towering beast of a mountain is called Erebus.
00:20It looms over the icy, lifeless expanse of Antarctica, on Ross Island.
00:26It shares the spot with three neighbors – Mt. Terror, Mt. Bird, and Mt. Terra Nova.
00:33Although Erebus is certainly dominating the place, it's about 12,500 ft tall, like 8
00:39Empire State Buildings.
00:42Even though it's far smaller than Mt. Everest, it's still the southernmost active volcano
00:47in the world.
00:49And even though it stands in the middle of nowhere, Erebus is far from lifeless.
00:54It has a terrible temper, actually.
00:56Erebus constantly breathes and roars, throwing out gases and chunks of molten rock in crazy
01:02tantrums called Strombolian eruptions.
01:06And among them, it spews out tiny delicate specks of shimmering gold.
01:11And it's not a couple here and there.
01:13This money fountain works every day, spewing out nearly a quarter pound of gold per day.
01:19Like we mentioned, it's worth over $6,000.
01:23It also sums up to a crazy 64 pounds of gold per year – over $2 million!
01:30But before you treasure hunters rush there, we have to tell you that these are more like
01:35particles of gold.
01:37They're often less than 60 micrometers in size and are scattered around, impossible
01:42to collect.
01:43And when we say scattered around, we mean it.
01:46Some of those particles have been found as far as 620 miles away from the volcano, carried
01:52in the middle of nowhere by Antarctic winds.
01:55Erebus isn't a super-friendly place to hang out next to.
01:59Its eruptions are wild and unpredictable.
02:02So most of what scientists know about Erebus comes from satellites, which monitor its activity
02:07from the safety of space.
02:10For scientists, this place is also a gold mine.
02:14Erebus is the only volcano that can do this stuff.
02:17They figured out that this happens when the magma – super-hot semi-molten rock beneath
02:22the Earth's surface – rises to the volcanoes.
02:26Magma brings some liquid gold with it.
02:28The moment it meets the chilly Antarctic air, the gold crystallizes into little pieces,
02:34and voila!
02:352 million bucks per year!
02:38Erebus is such a weird and rare volcano.
02:41Its fiery heart has been burning for over a million years.
02:45Over these million years, it's been building layer by layer.
02:48Its basis is a super-ancient lava.
02:51And the upper layers are youngsters.
02:55And throughout many years, it's been very active, with a glowing lava lake bubbling
02:59at its center.
03:01This lava lake is exactly what it sounds – a pool of constantly shifting, burning molten
03:06rock.
03:07This sight is incredibly rare because there are only several lakes like that in the entire
03:12world.
03:13But this isn't just a pool of rock – it's a window into the volcano's soul.
03:18In Erebus, it's made of phonolite.
03:21Phonolite is a very cool rock.
03:23Its name comes from the Greek words for sound and stone.
03:27Because guess what?
03:28It's a rock that produces a ringing sound when you strike it.
03:32There are only a couple of volcanoes that give it to us.
03:35But it's not the only volcano that can flex its weirdness.
03:40Uldoyenyo Lengai, a volcano from the East African Rift in northern Tanzania, is even
03:46more mysterious.
03:48It spews what's called natrocarbonatite lava.
03:52Most volcanoes erupt glowing red-hot rivers of molten rock.
03:56But this one erupts dark lava.
03:59It flows super-fast, like water, creating these thin, fast-moving rivers.
04:04So all this makes it look almost like black mud or oil.
04:08What's even wilder is that as soon as it hits the air, it starts reacting super-fast
04:14and turns white within hours.
04:16It's like magic, with black lava turning into something that looks like white dust
04:20or snow.
04:22Not even mentioning that it even glows faintly at night.
04:26And it's not that hot either.
04:27Well, it's still pretty hot – from about 900 to 1000 degrees Fahrenheit.
04:33But usually, lava temperature can vary from 1,300 to 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit.
04:40So it's cold by volcanic standards.
04:43That's because this lava is rich in some strange soda- and salt-like, incredibly rare
04:49materials.
04:51Nererite and gregoryite Nererite is usually colorless and shiny,
04:55looking like small clear crystals or plates.
04:59Gregoryite is often a bit cloudy.
05:01These guys are a geochemical mystery.
05:04Deep inside this place, there are two pools of magma.
05:08The rare minerals are probably born when carbon-rich parts of magma get separated from the rest,
05:14forming these two pools.
05:16And while they're fascinating, and we can get tons of them from this volcano, they're
05:20also completely useless.
05:22They're so rare and fragile that they're impossible to use in anything, even jewelry.
05:27Still, even astronomers find this curious.
05:30If there are planets out there that are rich in carbon instead of oxygen, like Earth, these
05:35minerals could be quite popular there.
05:39This volcano also releases a lot of gas, and I mean a lot.
05:43It's spewing out carbon dioxide at a speed of about 176 pounds per one second.
05:50Just think about it – about 5 tons of carbon dioxide per minute.
05:55Every minute, that's like several cars' worth of gas being pumped out into our atmosphere.
06:00Luckily, our planet is used to this volcano, so it's not that dangerous to us.
06:05Meanwhile, in the central Andes, far from human reach, Lestaria is having the time of
06:11its life.
06:12This is also one of the most extraordinary and remote volcanoes in the world.
06:17This one is even taller than Erebus, rising to almost 18,700 feet.
06:22It's surrounded by a barren, otherworldly landscape.
06:26There are literally no humans within 90 miles around it, except for some volcanologists.
06:32Lestaria is absolutely wild, constantly breathing out hot gases and steam.
06:38The air seems almost alive there, shimmering with plumes of vapor escaping from cracks
06:43in the ground.
06:44These vents, called fumaroles, are more than just hot steam – they're basically chemical
06:49labs.
06:50They spit out tons of various gases, all of which react with the air and rock around,
06:55and what's left behind is something otherworldly.
06:58It's like someone spilled a painter's palette – bright yellows, fiery oranges,
07:03and rusty reds.
07:05But the wildest part are molten sulfur rivers – streams of bright yellow liquid bubbling
07:11and flowing down the sides of a volcano.
07:14Some of it is still burning, darkening, like some sort of weird s'mores.
07:19All that because the sulfur is getting heated to its melting point by the intense heat below
07:24and turns into a thick, glowing liquid.
07:27Then it starts flowing, cooling, and hardening.
07:30You can't tell if you should be fascinated or disgusted by this sight.
07:35And if that's not enough to make you feel like you're on another planet, the place
07:39itself is just as extreme and crazy.
07:42Lestaria is perched high on the Altiplano, at the edge of the Atacama Desert, one of
07:48the driest places on Earth.
07:50Pretty much no rain, and temperatures can plummet to minus 11 degrees Fahrenheit.
07:56At least some volcanic ash enriches the soil, so there are some hardy plants here and there.
08:02The weirdest part is a salt pan nicknamed Lake of Sulfur.
08:06It's fed by those sulfur rivers.
08:10It shimmers with minerals all along its shores.
08:13This lake used to be way higher in ancient times, but now it's just a shadow of its
08:18former self.
08:21Thousands of years ago, it witnessed a catastrophe of unimaginable scale.
08:26The southeastern side of the volcano, a huge part of it, crumbled and fell in an instant.
08:31The ground just gave way, and an avalanche of volcanic rock and ash thundered down the
08:37slopes.
08:38The landslide raced at terrifying speeds, faster than the fiercest storm, tearing apart
08:43everything in its path.
08:45It tumbled for 5 miles.
08:47When the dust settled, all that was left was a massive scar, about half a mile wide.
08:53We learn this story from the debris around the place.
08:56Ash, pumice, and lopele, all are the shattered remnants of the volcano itself, lying now
09:03at its base.
09:05That's it for today, so hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like
09:11and share it with your friends.
09:12Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!