our earth was born of fire for two billion years volcanoes spewed forth the magma which the waking earth would use to build itself into being [Music] [Music] volcanoes also vented the gasses which would form the Earth's atmosphere and the oceans where life itself was born [Music] then in the last seconds of geologic time a life-form emerged that would seek to understand creation itself today more than 400 active volcanoes shaped life on the Pacific Rim geologists call it the Ring of Fire from Navidad in Chile volcanoes of the Andes to the ancient ash covered empires of Mesoamerica past San Francisco on the San Andreas Fault Mount st. Helens and the Cascades of America's Northwest to the great volcanic island arcs of the Aleutians Siberia and Japan with sacred Mount Fuji and explosive Mount Sakurajima to Indonesia home of Krakatoa Roma and Canoga come here we're half a billion people dwell is a window on the awesome geological forces that shape our planet at the very center of the Ring of Fire on the Island of Hawaii exists a lake of molten lava in this fiery Lake can be seen a likeness of the Earth's crust and a geologic forces that shape it the Earth's thin crust is formed of great tectonic plates which are in constant motion spreading colliding grinding past one another and plunging back into the molten interior around the Ring of Fire collisions of the Earth's tectonic plates produce earthquakes and the most violent natural phenomenon on earth this is navidad volcano in southern chile which burst from the earth on Christmas Day 1988 and grew to a height of 1,000 feet in a month few people died in this sparsely populated region yet the immense geological forces on the Ring of Fire can just as easily strike at the height of civilization 7,000 miles north on the Ring of Fire two tectonic plates meet at a great fault called the san andreas which lies like a time bomb beneath the city of san francisco [Music] in 1906 a massive earthquake destroyed this city and in the years that followed San Francisco waited as the stresses again built up along the fault until one October day in 1989 the third game of the world series was about to begin between the two Bay Area teams the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland A's [Music] [Music] [Applause] serious damage on the fav voyage over the upper deck east side collapsing below completely collapse [Music] the earthquake lasted less than 15 seconds but 62 people were dead and nearly four thousand injured 42 died in a collapse of the Nimitz freeway [Music] more than 20,000 homes and buildings were damaged or destroyed during the quake [Music] yet it struck with one 30th of the energy of the great quake of 1906 [Music] Engineers learned a great deal from what structures survived the quake and what failed a 50-foot section of the Bay Bridge collapsed where the forces generated by the earthquake sheered the bolts on one side of the span the bridge was repaired and reopened in a month built on landfill dwellings in the marina district broke apart the unstable ground beneath them actually magnifying the effects of the great buildings engineered to withstand the greatest earthquakes stood strong and so did the people it's a beautiful city ten days after this quake we went back to baseball now that's that's a San Francisco though the flags flew at half-mast the fans reunited at Candlestick Park to resume a World Series and the game turned into a celebration of renewal [Applause] 600 miles north of San Francisco is the site of the greatest volcanic eruption in modern American history mount st. Helens near where he stood that Sunday morning in 1980 photographer Gary Rosenquist recalls the moment at dawn I noticed through some trees steam at the very top of the mountain I got my camera and I just started taking pictures and the whole side of the mountain was sliding away I was so excited at that time I couldn't concentrate it's just it was just amazing I'd never seen anything like that before 240 square miles of woodland were devastated in the eruption 57 people and millions of animals were killed today a ghostly forest still floats on the surface of Spirit Lake [Music] across the landscape of fallen timber life is reappearing at a rate that has astonished biologists [Music] deep within the crater a lava dome formed in st. Helens volcanic throat has risen over a thousand feet the mountain is rebuilding itself with his fellow geologists from the Cascades Volcano Observatory dr. Norman banks is credited with saving thousands of lives our monitoring data convinced the governor who was also a scientist that an eruption possibly of significant magnitude was developing since the explosive eruptions of 1980 we have had to work very close to the center of activity that is the dome itself to detect the changes that allow us to forecast the next eruption [Music] [Music] you can't predict future eruptions of a volcano until you know its character some of the instrumentation we use can be as simple as our own senses but really to provide data that's quantifiable we have to resort to high-tech equipment such as seismometers deformation equipment and gas analysis what we're after here is to obtain the ability to save thousands of lives repeatedly around the Ring of Fire several weeks after the team left the mountain the lava dome exploded without warning volcanologist foresee even greater eruptions in the future for the forces which created and destroyed mount st. Helens continued powerful beyond our imaginings deep within the earth above a core of iron and nickel is a mantle of lighter elements heated by natural radioactivity over millions of years the mantle behaves like a heated fluid the thin plates of the Earth's crust float like huge rafts adrift on the fluid mantle the heavier plates of the spreading seafloor sink beneath the continental plates creating earthquakes around the Pacific Rim the sinking plates release super hot fluids which melt the mantle above them [Music] the lighter magma rises forming complex volcanic conduits and immense magma chambers on its way to eruption through repeated eruptions this tectonic process has formed the volcanoes of the Ring of Fire Mount Sakurajima is one of hundreds of volcanoes which make up the island arc of Japan [Music] [Music] the fire drummers of Mount Sakurajima enact the fury of the volcano [Music] [Music] each year Sakurajima explodes in scores of ash eruptions which blanket the island and the port city of Kagoshima an annual evacuation drill commemorates the terrible eruption of Sakurajima volcano in 1914 [Music] [Music] the Islanders live in harmony with an active volcano which affects nearly every aspect of their lives across the bay in the city of Kagoshima even the shopping malls have been designed with domed skylights to keep out the regular storms of Ash life goes on for a people living in the shadow of destruction the go Shima survives in part because of the vigilance of the scientists who live and work at the center of the bay on the very flank of the volcano here every fluctuation of the volcano is carefully monitored by a team of volcanologist headed by dr. Kazuki kamo vigilance is a way of life in a country with more than 50 active volcanoes and more than 10,000 earthquakes every year in the great Tokyo earthquake of 1923 more than 140,000 people perished mostly from the fires started by the quake [Music] today the people of Tokyo are part of a national earthquake preparedness program designed to save thousands of lives buildings are structurally engineered to survive the tremendous forces generated by earthquakes no people on earth are as prepared for natural disaster as the Japanese humans are not the only primates adapted to life on the Ring of Fire heat from volcanic sources warms the hot springs of Nagano allowing the Japanese snow monkey to survive as the world's most northerly species of monkey [Music] in bay poo people have also learned to live with volcanic powers harnessing their geothermal energy for health and relaxation the therapeutic hot springs of kurushima and the lava sandbags of a pool have become popular health spas a respite from the relentless pace of modern life which in Japan is always just a step away [Music] [Music] 3,000 miles southwest where the ring of fire crosses the equator Buddha's keep watch over the volcanoes of Indonesia at the temple of Borobudur writer anthropologist Lawrence Blair has lived in Indonesia for many years studying the ancient bond between its volcanoes and its people the temple of Borobudur it was built in this highly unstable Valley to commemorate the achievement not of architectural engineering but of serene harmony in the human heart for ten centuries it has survived earthquakes and eruption which have long since eclipsed to the enlightened Empire which built it the Indonesia is the most fertile and eruptive nation on the planet perhaps the long memory of a shifting unstable earth has taught the Indonesians to rely less on the physical world than on the unseen forces behind it deep within the crater of the notorious volcano of kawah ijen there are those who seek their living directly from the cauldrons of hell for here is a rare surfaced source of pure sulfur to be mined by hand and borne on their backs for 15 miles down the volcano's slopes within their lungs the poisonous fumes turn into sulfuric acid condemning them to a life of less than 30 years still they accept kawaii Jen's terms grateful for the volcano's gift confident of their destiny beyond this world of shadows on the Indonesian island of Bali towers the sacred volcano of ganon Lagoon a navel of the universe worshippers still climb the flanks of the sacred mountain where in 1963 thousands died in an eruption of superheated ash flows I on the slopes of the sleeping volcano at the surviving mother temple of all Bali the catch act dance unfolds a ring of fire pulsates as a single organism but is soon divided by strike to God Kings emerge leaders of the warring opposites the king of the monkey-people and the king of the demons [Laughter] [Applause] their battles voluntee divided then reunite the community restoring its balance just as the holy mountain above regularly destroys and renews [Applause] [Music] the rich fertile land which is the wealth of Indonesia is a gift of the volcanoes a deep and ancient understanding of the connection between life and death gives Indonesians and easy intimacy with both the creative and the destructive powers of the earth and with their own mortality in Bali even the bodies of the dead together with their finest funeral arts are returned to fire to God Shiva's purifying furnace of renewal and rebirth [Music] [Music] [Applause] the fire-god in different forms is alive atop nearly all of Indonesia's some 140 volcanoes reflecting an ancient understanding that paradise and catastrophe go hand in hand to witness creation in all its power we return to the very center of the Ring of Fire [Music] a volcanic island of Hawaii has been created in just a few million years measured from its base on the Pacific floor man Aloha is the tallest mountain on earth and together with its sister volcano Kilauea it is among the most active in 1984 Moana Laura and Kilauea came to life in rare simultaneous eruptions for 21 days and nights Pele the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes danced unlike the explosive stratovolcanoes on the Pacific Rim the more fluid lavas of most Hawaiian volcanoes form fiery lakes and rivers which float down the broad slopes of the great Hawaiian shield volcanoes toward the sea [Music] the Mauna Loa eruption ended but Kilauea continued to erupt and between the volcano and the sea lay the village of Kalapana [Music] beneath the cooled surface the lava continued to flow forming its own underground arteries as it rushed toward the sea [Music] where the lava flows into the ocean the island grows this is the newest land on earth in less than a year life will emerge [Music] in less than a decade hundreds of species of plants and animals have returned to Mount st. Helens [Music] in less than a century forests filled with life will once again dominate the land creation did not happen just once creation continues as a beginning without end [Music] the earth is alive we recognize it in the volcanoes of the Ring of Fire and we bear witness to it in the indomitable spirit of its people's [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]