This Is the Weirdest Volcano on Earth | Astrum Earth
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What makes these volcanoes look so different from ordinary eruptions?
Spectacular eruptions. Orange lava spewing across the surface of our planet. Ash clouds filling the skies. That's what volcanic eruptions look like. Or is it? Because not all volcanoes are like this. In fact, some break the rules entirely, and I want to tell you about the most brilliant ones. One burns with a ghastly blue flame beside a lake more extreme. Acidic than battery acid. Another erupts with black lava that flows almost like oil. A third sits in Antarctica, the coldest place in the world, yet keeps an open lake of molten rock glowing inside its summit. And then there's a volcano you can barely see at all. But whilst they may be strange and particularly deadly, these volcanic outliers are a scientific gift.
Each one reveals something strange and fundamental about how our planet works. Because a volcano isn't just a mountain filled with lava, it's chemistry, pressure, heat, water, gas, and time, all forced through a small weakness in the crust. And sometimes. With just the right mix, you get astounding results. I'm James Stewart and you're watching Astrum Earth. Join me in this video as we journey around the world to find the weirdest volcanoes our planet has to offer. We'll unpack how they came to be, delve deep into the science of their inner workings, and marvel at the sheer power and beauty they add to the planets we call. home. Just don't get too close. First up is a volcano that spews out bright blue lava.
Indonesia is home to more than 400 volcanoes, but this one, called Kawa Egen, lies in Java, right at the eastern end of the island, not far from the strait that separates it from Bali. It sits inside the larger Egen Volcanic Complex, an alien landscape of cones, craters. Old Caldera walls, lava flows, and sulfur-stained rock. Now, during the day, this volcano looks pretty ordinary, unremarkable, forgettable even. But at night time it completely transforms. The dark sky is illuminated by vivid blue lava rolling down the hills of the volcano, shimmering against the pitch black. Or at least that's what it looks like is happening, because what's actually happening here is chemistry. You see, the lava itself isn't really blue.
Instead, what we're seeing is the combustion of sulfuric gases as they come into contact with air at high temperatures. Which, okay, might not sound as exciting as Smurf-coloured lava porrea of a blistering volcano, but trust me, it's just as Fascinating. The fumaroles, those openings in or near a volcano that emit steam and other volcanic gases, regularly output sulfur crystals that enrich that lava. At Kawa Egen, unusually large amounts of sulfuric gases are released alongside the lava at high pressure and high temperature, sometimes exceeding 600 degrees Celsius. Now, in its elemental form, sulfur Sulfur is yellow. But when these gases come into contact with oxygen in the air and are ignited by the lava, the sulfur burns easily due to a relatively low ignition point, just 232 degrees, producing these vivid blue flames, which I'm sure you'll agree are mesmerizing.
But why does it turn blue? Well, it's about to get quantum here for a moment, so bear with me. Atoms, as we know, have electrons in them, and those electrons can only be at very specific energy levels within the atom, called quantized states. Think about walking up a staircase. If you try to stand somewhere between two stairs, you're just going up on the lower step. Well, it's the same thing with electrons in the atom. Now, if You give an electron enough energy, it can make it up to that next step, that next energy level. But pretty soon it's gonna drop back to its original lower energy level. And when it does, it releases a very exact amount of energy as a photon. The energy that photon has corresponds to a specific wavelength of light, which corresponds to a particular colour.
And in the case of sulfur, that just happens to be. This enchanting blue colour. In fact, there is so much sulfur coming out of this volcano that it can sometimes flow down the rock face while still burning, creating the illusion that blue love is pouring down the mountainside.
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