Killer Earth
Killer Earth
Jacob's Well and Mount Tambora
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Kat and Vanessa cover Jacob's Well in Wimberley, Texas and Indonesia's Mount Tambora eruption.
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Earthquakes, lightning, foreign rain, tornadoes, tsunamis in a hurricane.
unknownKiller.
SPEAKER_00Hi, Kat. Well, hello, V. How are you? I'm good. How are you?
SPEAKER_01I'm sick. Uh yeah. I'm so sorry. That's terrible.
SPEAKER_00It's not the Rona, don't worry.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I know, right? Yeah. It's like that's thank God for that.
SPEAKER_00It's like a strep thing that I've been getting over by myself. Oh. No help from anyone.
SPEAKER_01Well, that's good. You're independent.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Independent woman. How are how is your weekend?
SPEAKER_01Um, it's very chill, actually. I made a big pot of soup yesterday. Ooh. Um, and brought some to my mother-in-law and brought some to my sister. She um also has a two-year-old. So I brought some soup and you know, played with Colby a little bit, my nephew, which gave her some time to like take a nap. So that was good.
SPEAKER_00Good.
SPEAKER_01And then today I've done absolutely nothing, and it's been amazing. That's okay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I love those days.
SPEAKER_01I know.
SPEAKER_00So you when we were talking last week, you said that you noticed that we never like introduced ourselves on the first episode. Yeah, like we didn't say our names.
SPEAKER_01We're we're mystery podcasters, you'll never know. I'm sure we like said V and Kat, which is kind of like what we call each other, but I'm Catherine Gifford. Hello, everyone.
SPEAKER_00I'm Vanessa Hill.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so that's our real names.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, those are our names. This is the second episode of Killer Earth.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's coming along. We're doing it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we're learning so much about the world.
SPEAKER_01We are, and I'm learning so much about this equipment.
SPEAKER_00Podcasting equipment. Yes, yeah, me too.
SPEAKER_01It's like there's some kind of troubleshooting every single time before we even can hit record.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, and I'm still like learning about my mic. I might have to get a new one. Last episode, I sounded a little kind of far away, but you know, we're working on it. You could still hear me. We still told you our stories.
SPEAKER_00I think it went well. When we first started working on the podcast, you could not order electronics in this country to save your life. Like there was nothing available, so we had to order like random microphones.
SPEAKER_01And didn't you order like five microphones because every single one like didn't work for some reason?
SPEAKER_00I ordered three total. The first one just died, and I it's an expensive microphone, and I can't figure out how to fix it. The second one um is the one I'm using now, and it's awesome. But like the Yeah, you sound so clear on it. Good. The equipment that came with it, I couldn't like I couldn't figure out the holder. Then the third one I ordered, it says on Amazon compatible with MacBook Pro. And then you open the user manual when it comes, and it's like not compatible with any Macs.
SPEAKER_01Oh my gosh. So annoying. Yeah, it's like you know, guys, it's it takes a village to do a podcast, believe it or not. It really does. And unfortunately, our village is just you and I right now. So yeah, we're getting by.
SPEAKER_00Googling random things, yeah. But we're figuring it out, yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so um, and we have a really awesome logo that um our friend Leah did for us. She's amazing.
SPEAKER_00Uh my brother doesn't like it.
SPEAKER_01He thinks it's like cartoonish, like too cartoonish, which it is, but like it's our vibe.
SPEAKER_00We that's what we wanted, and I think Leah did exactly what we asked her to do.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's great.
SPEAKER_00Owen, you can just you can just buzz off with your opinions, you little bitch.
SPEAKER_01Oh man. Well, yeah, so we've come far, and we're excited to be bringing you more stories um about weather um related disasters.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_01And I guess it's not just weather, it's just anything like super like not supernatural.
SPEAKER_00No, not ghost stories.
SPEAKER_01I mean, there might be some ghost stories that would be awesome, but we'll see. Um, but yeah, anything like natural disaster ish, we're gonna we're gonna cover eventually.
SPEAKER_00So oh, also before I forget, I had a little correction to make from the first episode.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah, please tell us.
SPEAKER_00It's so not a big deal, but I said on the la on the first episode that I was a uh sophomore. No, that I was a freshman in college when Katrina happened. Oh, okay. I was a sophomore, and you were a junior, and that doesn't even matter, but it bothered me because I like didn't it was 2005, so I was definitely a sophomore.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Well, that's that's great that you're not even that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's not even important, but I felt the need to you know what that it's you have to tell your truth. I do, I try to on the regular.
SPEAKER_01Yep. Well, do you who's gonna go first? I mean, you went first last time, so do I go first this time?
SPEAKER_00I think you should.
SPEAKER_01Okay, cool. Well, um, this is the story about Jacob's well, um, which I found really interesting. Um, it's probably considered one of the most dangerous places to dive in the world. Um, and it is uh right outside Austin, Texas. Um, before I get started, I'd like to cite my sources. Um, got some really great articles um from the following treehugger.com, uh Wikipedia, of course, Texas Water Development Board, because I had to kind of dive deep and wowstanding this. You're so scholarly. I know. Um, all that I'm doing like more homework on my podcast than I ever think I did in my life. So um, all that is interesting and crone.com. Um so obviously, like this is a uh well that's kind of right outside of Austin, um, about an hour southwest of Austin, um, in a place called Hayes County. Um, and it's basically a really popular swimming hole um for people who want to cool off in the summers. It gets super hot there. So um, you know, it's a big kind of touristy attraction. I've even heard of it. For some reason I've never been, but I've always wanted to go because it looks so beautiful. It's like this turquoise water, it almost looks like Caribbean-esque. Like it's just really, really pretty.
SPEAKER_00Um, um, but I never made it. Just to just to um interject here.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00When we had talked about this before, I had a really hard time visualizing this. So I did Google a photo of it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I was thinking, because here in Vermont, we everyone has a like a well for our water.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So I was like, I'm like having a hard time picturing a well where you would swim, but basically it's like I don't know. It's like a hole in the big hole in the ground with like stones, like stone stacked like on the sides of it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Right. Yeah, exactly. So it's not like a drinking water well, and actually, you know, when you it's it's kind of like when you have a hole in the earth, the water usually is pulled down, you know, because of gravity and it just goes down the hole.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_01This is an interesting swimming hole because the water is actually pushed up.
SPEAKER_00And it's like up to the surface.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like it's like the the rain and the store stuff that comes from storms like sink into this ground. And I'm gonna get into like how this works, but it sinks into the ground, and then the pressure of the earth basically is pushing this liquid up, and liquid like wants to always be released out of pressure. That's just like how it works. Um, right. Again, not a scientist, but I'll try to do the best I can to explain how it works. Um so Jacob's well is called a karst spring. Um, and I didn't know what that was, so I had to look it up. So basically, it's an outflow of groundwater formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. Um, and those rocks, like limestone happens to be very, very porous, and we have a lot of limestone um in Texas. So basically, like the water underneath the limestone and all of that, um, if you know, if it can find a way to shoot back up to the earth at will. And that's kind of what this well is.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01Um, if that makes sense.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that makes sense. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Um, and I actually wrote down this is kind of my like scientific explanation. So, you know, stop me if it sounds weird. I I tried my best. I did not do well in science, everyone.
SPEAKER_00So I didn't either.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that was like really hard for me.
SPEAKER_00I could memorize everything, but when it came to like the labs, I was like, I'm gonna light something on fire with like this crucible bunsen burner contraption. What is this?
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah, it was it was not good grades in in those times at all for me. Um, the only like science class I actually really did well in was um physiology and anatomy.
SPEAKER_00That's like the hardest class, anatomy and physiology.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I really liked it because I guess I'm such a visual learner, and so like because I had a body, I could like look at things and I took that if that makes sense.
SPEAKER_00I took that in college too, and I got straight A's in it. But the only reason is because I studied my ass off.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a lot of memorization. So if you say you can remember things well, that's like really amazing. But when it came to like cells and like things growing like cellularly, I was like, no, I do not understand this. I still don't understand it.
SPEAKER_00Do you remember what the powerhouse of the cell is?
SPEAKER_01Wait, hold on.
SPEAKER_00Don't Google it.
SPEAKER_01No, I won't. Nucleus?
SPEAKER_00No.
SPEAKER_01Wait, no, wait. Give me one more guess. Um the proton?
SPEAKER_00No. Of the cell.
SPEAKER_01I know. I don't know. What is it?
SPEAKER_00It's the mitochondria. Wait, I thought that was that's all I remember.
unknownOh my god.
SPEAKER_01Anyway, I have no idea. But that thank you for the fun trivia because it's you're welcome. Yeah, I could have kept kept guessing.
SPEAKER_00You're so welcome. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Well you you go, you scientists out there, go cure some things. Yeah. Um, okay. So my scientific explanation is um it's called hydrostatic pressure, is the reason why this well is getting water from the underground. Um and basically uh hydrostatic pressure is when um water pressure, it's water pressure that is static because for the most part it doesn't move because it just sits there unless it has a release of pressure. So again, like the weight of the earth is like pressing down on this on this thing called an aquifer. And the aquifer is basically um bodies of water that sit underground. And Texas actually has a um a lot of them, and it's called the Trinity Aquifer, and it extends across much of the central and northeastern part of the state. Um, it is composed of several smaller aquifers contained within the Trinity group. And the aquifers, if you'd like to know, are the Antlers, Glen Rose, which also everyone should go to Glen Rose, Texas. It's awesome. I love it there. There's like the safari animal park where you can like feed the animals. Yes, and they and they actually have um dinosaur tracks like that you can go see in the like the mud. Yeah, it's amazing. So let's go there. Yeah, I think I'm gonna try to go over Christmas because I just love feeding the animals and listening to like the theme song of Jurassic Park as we're like driving through.
SPEAKER_00Oh, like on your car stereo. Yes, yeah, that's amazing. That's like my dream.
SPEAKER_01Oh okay. So the Antlers, Glen Rose, uh Paloxi, Twin Mountains, Travis Peak, Hinsel, and Hostin Aquifers. Just a little education for all of you. Um, but again, these are the bodies of water that sit underground, and basically Jacob's well um had you know, the water found a way to get out and like created this like hole. And that's like what the well is, if that makes any sense to everybody. But yeah, it's really beautiful though. Again, water's super cold because the water's coming from deep underground. Um and it's a 12-foot wide opening in the creek bed of Cypress Creek. So that's um, you know, so it's like 12 feet wide, um, but the hole goes down vertically 30 feet, but that's only what you can see from the surface. So you like you look into this giant hole and you could, you know, it goes down 30 feet. And then if you go farther enough uh under um the tunnel then turns at an angle and continues downward for another hundred feet. So, like, no thank you. I I think it's really awesome that people like to like scuba dive and go do all that, but no thank you. I would literally have a heart attack trying to go down there.
SPEAKER_00No, I wouldn't, I don't even want to scuba dive in open water.
SPEAKER_01No, I mean I really, really do, but like I don't I think it freaks me out.
SPEAKER_00I want to breathe just regular air. I don't my I don't need my air in a tank. One of my one of my um closest friends, Alex, who oh yeah, she's a like a pre a professional scuba diver basically. And I just can't when she tells me stories about like she almost like died like several times.
SPEAKER_02Oh, that's so awful at work.
SPEAKER_00How at work, like just things that go wrong with the equipment, or like a boat propeller, or like someone is freaking out underwater. It's it's just sounds like the worst. I just I just don't want to ever scuba dive.
SPEAKER_01No, I don't either. Like it's like too claustrophobic in that mask. Yeah, I kind of do, but I like don't like maybe I've considered it, but it's like you know, my dad had an acquaintance that um he and his you know buddy were out scuba diving and um they were like deep down, and the guy like went up because something was like malfunctioning with his mask or something, but you're never supposed to leave your partner, but he did anyway. And then my dad's acquaintance like was never found again. He like never came up.
SPEAKER_00Well, and also if you're deep enough, you can't just pop up to the surface or you'll get the bends, which is when you mean it means you get like gas. It just sounded bad, so I didn't know what it was, but I was like, oh yeah, it's called the Benz, and it's when you get like gas bubbles in your blood, I think, and you basically become oxygen deprived and you die. Okay, like you have a heart attack and die. It's like so, yeah. They I mean, I've Alex has told me about it and I've heard about it, but yeah, the idea that like if there is an issue, you can't just pop up to the surface if you want to get the fuck out of there. You have to like slowly come up. I don't know. I'm just never trying to do that.
SPEAKER_01No, me either. That sounds awful, yeah. Um, okay. So, anyways, but people are flocking to this well because you know, they're it it goes down so far and then all of a sudden it like splits into these two caves. Um let's see, sorry, I'm just looking at my notes that I look at.
SPEAKER_00And the caves, the caves are all full of water, right?
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, it's completely like the caves are there's like two tunnels, like one jets out like 0.85 miles one way in a straight direction, and then um the other um tunnel goes down 1500 feet. Um, and as the tunnel like snakes off in either direction, the average depth of the well stays around 120 feet, but reaches all the way down to 137 at its steepest point. So you're like, you're pretty down there. I mean, yeah. Um, but people are like fascinated because they're like, oh my god, there's so many like and okay, so I watched a video of um this guy, and I'll get into kind of his story, but um, you know, he had um what are those cameras you call again on your head? They're um pro GoPro. Yeah, like a GoPro, yeah. And um the tunnels are so tiny. I'm telling like some of them, so basically it's known there that you have like to get through some of these tunnels, you have to take off your scuba equipment just to get through them. Like you can't just like free swim into them.
SPEAKER_00So it's uh so your oxygen tank is on your back and you have to take it off and like drag it behind you or something?
SPEAKER_01Or like yes, exactly. Because the tunnels are so slim. It's it's terrifying. I don't I don't know why anyone does it. Um so the cave has been Jacobs Well has I keep calling it a cave, but I mean Jacob's well has been explored by divers since the early parts of the 20th century. Um, there are even reports of divers in the 1930s attempting to use a milk butt bucket and a rubber hose to create a makeshift diving helmet. So what we're talking like 1930s, people were so fascinated to try to go and explore these caves, just find out what was really down there, but you know, they did not have the equipment, like a milk bucket.
SPEAKER_00Like a milk butt bucket isn't clear.
SPEAKER_01So how do you I don't know, like in a rubber hose with a I don't I don't get it.
SPEAKER_00I don't get it.
SPEAKER_01I mean, maybe they had a glass, was it a glass milk bucket?
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah, I don't think plastic was invented, but also like a bucket.
SPEAKER_01I I'm just so confused, but someone tell us if you know how that works.
SPEAKER_00Well, they they used to use diving bells, which are those like metal things that go over you.
SPEAKER_01It's like, how did they even ever like swim back up with all that weight?
unknownI don't know.
SPEAKER_00There's so many things we don't know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we're gonna find all of it out though. Um, okay, so however, it wasn't until 2000 um that professional cave divers with proper scuba gear um began to explore these caves, and the um goal was to map out um the entire cave network underneath the well. Um, and this was called the Jacobs Well Exploration Project. Um, the project revealed that the central passage of Jacobs Well eventually breaks off into the two main tunnels, and then they kind of like map it from there.
SPEAKER_00So what sorry, what year was this?
SPEAKER_01Um in 2000.
SPEAKER_00Oh wow, so recent.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, because like that's how like that's how crazy these caves are. Like it's really wow. You have to be super like an expert diver if to like try to go through these and survive. Um again, I don't know why anyone would want to. Um, also it's just like really, really obviously dark, but it's also the um when you're like your flippers are like kicking around in these small little crevices, the water can get really, really like milky fast. And it's like you the visibility is so hard to like you can't see anything. So that's like another reason. But I mean, we're talking about like extreme, you know, adventures that you know are just like into it, like the best divers are like, oh, I'm gonna conquer that. You know, it's kind of like mountain climbing, like let's climb the craziest mountain ever. Um, so people are still doing it.
SPEAKER_00Um well there people like that have to have some kind of inner calm.
SPEAKER_01You really do, and I really wish I had that.
SPEAKER_00Me too, but I would have a panic attack like 10 feet in.
SPEAKER_01I wouldn't even be able to stay like go. I don't I think the reason I didn't go is because I was like afraid I was gonna get sucked down the well, which is not how it works, but like yeah, it's just so scary.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, yeah. So I I want the inner calm. Like, how can we get that? A lot of medication.
SPEAKER_00Like a lot of medication.
SPEAKER_01A lot of I said meditation and you said medication.
SPEAKER_00Medication, not meditation. I mean, maybe both, but like something that numbs to the point where I like don't care.
SPEAKER_01I guess. I mean, hey, but then I don't think we'd function too well being adventuring these caves. No. Um okay, so at least eight or nine people have died at Jacob's. Well, but the exact number is hard to come by, which has prompted some of some people to call it one of the most dangerous diving spots in the world. Two young Texas men were caught in one of the well's caves and drowned in 1979. One diver's remains were flushed out of the well in 1981.
SPEAKER_00So do you think these divers were like what happened? Like they got lost and ran out of oxygen or something?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like, and I have that story um coming up on like how it happened. I don't know exactly how it happened, actually, but um I'll go through their story. Um, but it's really, it really bothers me when it says like one diver's remains were flushed out of the well. So again, the water, like, you know, they probably got stuck in one of the holes or they lost or they blacked out. They like you said, the Benz thing, because I did read something about that where, like, um, you know, you you can black out um in oxygen situations when you're diving or whatever. Right. Um, but like the thought of like water, like, because the water is coming from the caves and up through the well, so like flushing a body out like really bothers me.
SPEAKER_00So like a body just like popped up on the surface. Yeah. And that that's okay.
SPEAKER_01But it but like it was from 1979 and it didn't come up till 1981.
SPEAKER_00Oh my god. Okay, I missed that part. Wow. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_01The others remains weren't recovered until 2000.
SPEAKER_00Oh my god.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So it's like it's really disturbing, and that's why they don't really know um how many people have died. Like, you know, were there are there still people like under there that like never came up that we don't know about?
SPEAKER_00Oh, maybe.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um, so the video I watched with the guy with a GoPro, his name is Diego um Adim, A-D-A-M-E. Um, he's a free diver daredevil. Um, and he went into the well in 2015. Um, he was 21 years old. Um, and you can go watch it. It's called Jacob's Well Free Dive to 100 feet um on YouTube if you're interested. It's a short video, but it's really terrifying because you can see the whole thing. Uh, the video shows Diego diving into the uh Jacob's well without any supplemental oxygen. Um, after reaching the bottom of the initial opening, he loses one of his flippers when it slips off his foot at about a hundred feet below the surface. And I guess um, I read without a flipper and being that far down the water, it's really hard to get back up. I always thought flippers were really annoying because they never they seem to slow me down, but that's like me swimming around with them. Yeah, I didn't realize how important they are for diving.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah. They like turn they turn you into a fish.
SPEAKER_01Oh my god. I mean, that makes so much sense. But every time I put them on, I'm like, it it weighs me down. Maybe I just this is another reason why I don't dive.
SPEAKER_00Well, they don't feel normal when no, they do feel heavy, but they yeah, they do increase your speed and yeah.
SPEAKER_01So like think about like being down there and like losing your flipper, and you're like in you're like you just entered this like crazy cave without an oxygen tank.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, what the fuck? How does he do that? I don't get that.
SPEAKER_02I don't know, it's so weird.
SPEAKER_00I mean, how long how many minutes can you hold your breath for if you're super in shape? Like what four or five minutes?
SPEAKER_01I like if you can, that is incredible. Like, I don't know, I can't even hold my breath for like 10 seconds. I yeah, it makes me panicky.
SPEAKER_00I have an uncle who's like super fit, and he, I remember when I was younger telling me that he held his breath for like four and a half minutes, but that was like him like almost like blacking out, trying to like see how long he can hold his breath.
SPEAKER_01That's a really good question. I wonder for like free divers, like what that and think about all the pressure from being that far down and not breathing. I just don't understand, but people do it, I guess. Um so some divers in that very situation um have blacked out while trying to get back up. Um Diego reacts immediately, um, turning around to make matters worse. He loses his flashlight when pushing off the case wall cave's walls.
SPEAKER_00Great, Diego. No flipper, no flipper. You had one job. You had one job, Diego. Keep your fucking flashlight and your goddamn flippers. What the fuck?
SPEAKER_01And to maybe get an oxygen tank next time. Like, I don't know. Um, and he said, he quotes uh for a split second, I thought of death and myself dying that day. Um, luckily, Diego did not panic because he had his inner calm.
SPEAKER_00Uh huh.
SPEAKER_01Um, maybe he was very medicated.
SPEAKER_00Diego is like a sociopath because that's what he's doing in the first place.
SPEAKER_01Um, and he kept his breath, his breaths controlled it like from this article. I don't know, like, how is he keeping breaths controlled if he's holding his breath? But maybe it's like maybe it's something I don't know how they work do it. I don't know. Um, and he didn't deplete the precious oxygen. So um he immediately cut off his supply belt to eliminate extra weight and rapidly made um his way back up to the surface before running out of air.
SPEAKER_00Wow.
SPEAKER_01So he was very, very lucky. And again, you can go watch this video on YouTube. Um, it's really terrifying, actually. Um and then there were two um two people who also decided to um go down the well. This is the 1979 two uh people, you know, the people I was talking about earlier from 1979. Um Kent Maupin, who was 20, and Mark Brushier, who was 21. Um, they like went with a group of like 20 other people from Pasadena, California to go like you know, camp out and explore this cave and whatnot. And again, it's it's like near San Marcos too. Um my sister actually bartended there and went to school there, and it is such a fun town. It is really oh, it's a college town, it's a party town, and then you have like all these rivers and like yeah, swimming spots, and oh man, I highly recommend just like going into hill country and checking out hanging out with all these beautiful college kids. Yeah, oh so fun. And I was like in college when that's fun. Yeah, I was like in college when my two of my sisters lived, one lived in like Austin and one lived in San Marcos, so it was like party central when I went down on the weekends. It was so fun. Um, yeah, so, anyways, they went with a groupie people. Um, Kent had been diving since he was 12 years old and was a certified dive instructor and a very experienced scuba diver for his age. Um, apparently, however, age may have contributed to Kent's death and he and his friend with the confidence of youth ventured beyond the realm of safety, which is so true because the older I get, the more anxious I am about everything.
SPEAKER_00Oh my god, me too.
SPEAKER_01I was invincible when I was younger. Like heights didn't bother me. Like, give me all the thrills, and I could do it. I remember being being like, Oh, if I was in that situation, I would have just been fine.
SPEAKER_00Or even like making shitty decisions, like being too drunk around sketchy people, or like just like letting your guard down in a way that like I just wouldn't now in my wise old way.
SPEAKER_01And I I think like, how did I survive? I have no idea.
SPEAKER_00I know we all probably should have died like 17 times.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but we're like a cat, we have like nine lives. Yeah, I might have 20 after my youngin' days, but um, anyways, so yeah, um, so Moppin and Bershier arrived at the campground around 11:30 p.m. on September 9th, uh, determined to make a dive. Like they couldn't even wait any longer. They were like, Okay, it's nighttime, let's go make a dive.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, what the hell?
SPEAKER_01Were they on some like the inner calm medication, you know?
SPEAKER_00Or maybe they were on something else.
SPEAKER_01Maybe, but like they're such experienced divers, and they probably just had that, like, oh my god, we have to get this in now. Oh, I didn't know they were throwing.
SPEAKER_00Did you say that they were experienced divers before?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, oh, okay, yeah, yeah um, like he was the remember because like one of them was a certified diver instructor.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, um still seems irresponsible for yeah, nighttime.
SPEAKER_01I mean, I guess it's dark there anyway, but ooh, no thanks. Um, according to those who were there that weekend, the two boys were not alone in the well at the time and were seen by other divers going into the dangerous fourth chamber. So I guess like there's two tunnels, but it and this kind of got complicated for me. I was trying to understand it, but anyway, the first chamber of the well drops straight down approximately 25 feet, the second descends another 35 feet, and the third chamber slopes gently down, narrowing to a depth of 75 feet. This so this is like one of the tunnels that are categorized by chambers, I guess. Um, at the end of the third chamber chamber is an opening leading to the fourth chamber. At the time, the entrance to that chamber was about 18 inches wide and 15 feet long. What?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, 18 inches wide.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like I don't even think my butt could get through. Yeah, how does your what the hell? Oh, geez, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00Why would you want to go through that?
SPEAKER_01Uh I know what the fuck?
SPEAKER_00What are you trying to prove?
SPEAKER_01I'm these guys. They're like, we got to go into the dark.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I just am so different from them. I can't relate to them at all.
SPEAKER_01I can't either. Um, several who had previously entered the fourth chamber had not returned alive. So it's like really dangerous to go into the fourth chamber. And I guess, like I said, they weren't alone, so witnesses saw them go in there.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01Um around midnight that night, the two young men were seen at the entrance to the chamber backing into the opening and pulling their tanks behind them. Um, Joe Moy, so they like removed their tanks just to get through the 18 inches, I guess. Yeah. Um, Joe Moy, a diver who said he was stunned to witness the scene, remembered that the two had no backup lights and no safety line. In a Texas Monthly report from 1980, Moy said he flashed his light back and forth trying to get Burchier's attention, who had gone in last, but Burchier would not look at him. Moy remained submerged as long as he could, hoping the two divers would come back out, but finally ran out of air and was forced to head to the surface. He said at that time he knew the boys were dead.
SPEAKER_00Oh, he knew they were dead.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, because I guess he was trying to be like, don't go in there. You have no backup, you like you don't have a safety line, you have no like really trying to help. Yeah. And he was like, Don't go in there. Like people like you just shouldn't.
SPEAKER_00Like that's so nice that he waited for them. I know traumatized.
SPEAKER_01I know. Um, so obviously, like they never came up, and Ken's parents stood on the banks of the river for a week waiting for his remains to be brought up. Um, over a week later, after extensive effort, the recovery work was called off when entry into the corridor was proven to be impassable.
SPEAKER_00What like why?
SPEAKER_01Um, okay, so so here's why. Um, Don Dibble, uh, one of the main recovery divers on the case, was seriously injured in the attempt to locate the remains. Um at that time, um, you know, he didn't want anyone else injured to um oh, sorry, okay, at that time uh Malcolm said he didn't want anyone else injured in order to find his son. So Malcolm was like the dad of either Kent or Brashere. I'm not sure which one, and I apologize for that.
SPEAKER_03Wow.
SPEAKER_01Um, but basically he, you know, he's wait, he knew that like people were gonna die like or get majorly hurt again if they kept trying to go in there and get the remains out. Um, and he didn't want to continue trying to get him. Um, so uh he said, in quotes, um, I told Don, who was the recovery diver, I was afraid someone else might get hurt or even die, and I just didn't want that to happen. Um Dibble, who is a uh sorry, I already said that. Uh Dibble later went back to the well with a team of divers and cemented a grate over um that part of the cave, the fourth chamber, so no one else could get in.
SPEAKER_00Um do you do that underwater?
SPEAKER_01I don't know. I was literally trying to picture that. So, like, okay, cemented a grate. So, like, first of all, cement like doesn't it need to dry?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it sure does.
SPEAKER_01There's so many questions, and I'm sorry I don't have all the answers.
SPEAKER_00I'm not a scientist, but we're not like construction workers, laying the cement.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I found that to be interesting, and um, that was really you know good of the Dibble guy, um, recovery driver to like do that.
SPEAKER_00But but then it's also like okay, but now you've cemented over the opening, so we can't get their bodies out. I know it's weird.
SPEAKER_01Um so anyway, like um weather so it didn't really last long because um uh it eventually um w washed away the the grate. So like now it's now you can still go in it.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01So it's not there anymore, but he he tried. Um and then that's when um you know we found out that um uh I believe hold on, let me just look at my notes really quickly here. Um okay, so yeah, basically Kent um was the one who was flushed out of the well in 1981, finally, after you know, three years of um trying to like figure out where his body was. And then um Brochier um was the one discovered in 2000. Oh way later, Mark Bruchier. So it's really tragic and it's really dangerous. Um, but I found this whole thing to be interesting because of the way um the well um is like the whole Karse Spring situation, and also um that it's like one of the most dangerous spots to dive in the world. Um, and that is my story about Jacob's well.
SPEAKER_00Oh my God, I love it. Did you learn a lot? Yes, and so I would say that you and I should go there sometime.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I want to go to all the places we can. I know, like all the disaster places.
SPEAKER_00I do want to like float on the surface, you know, swim on the surface just for a minute and then I would do it. You know, I'm an excellent swimmer.
SPEAKER_01No, yeah, Vanessa is literally an excellent slipper. You're like a fish, you like don't even need flippers, probably.
SPEAKER_00I could I could tread water for hours, like there's no issue. But it would be cool to go and see because when I did Google the photos, it does gorgeous gorgeous, and there are people gorgeous. There's people like sitting on the edge with their feet in the water, and it's you know, it's like level with like the like rest of the swimming area, kind of that you like walk on.
SPEAKER_01Would you jump? I apparently there's like and quote don't quote me on this, but uh I think what I read is that there's like places you can jump from up high like a cliff, not a cliff, but did you see like the kind of rocks around the well, like with the vines?
SPEAKER_00Um, I think so.
SPEAKER_01Well, you can jump, I think, at some points into the well. Like if you could, would you try to jump and get down 30 feet to touch the ground?
SPEAKER_00No, but also I have like I have a fear of heights, like I'll never jump off anywhere. Oh, me too. But I'll swim anywhere. I don't care.
SPEAKER_01I used to jump off a lot of things, but I I only jump off no, I can't not a lot anymore.
SPEAKER_00That's just not for me.
SPEAKER_01Cool. Well, I hope everyone learned everything and definitely go visit it. It is gorgeous, and I know I've been like in the vicinity, I just never made it there.
SPEAKER_00So um, yeah, maybe next time if you Google it, you will see how gorgeous it is. It really does look like a really cool place to hang out and go swimming. And I'm sure even though it's freezing, it's so fucking hot there.
SPEAKER_01It's so hot. Yeah, you will like, oh yeah, you'll need that water. Yeah, you'll enjoy it.
SPEAKER_00It probably feels amazing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, definitely.
SPEAKER_02All right, well, great.
SPEAKER_00I love it. You did so much, you did so much like crazy research.
SPEAKER_01You were like at the water board, the Texas Water Development Board and the technical deets. I had to find out, like, you know, that's what this is about. We're gonna be experts eventually.
SPEAKER_00We're probably gonna try to.
SPEAKER_01We're probably like failing.
SPEAKER_00Probably every seventh classes, every other thing we say is probably inaccurate.
SPEAKER_01I know. Hey, you know. Um, should we take a break and then come back?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, let's take a little short break. And we're back.
SPEAKER_01Why? Hi.
SPEAKER_00Hi, we're learning so much about this Zoom.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's awesome. And I will give all the props to Vanessa because she's editing the podcast. She's learning so much. I really good job.
SPEAKER_00Getting some marketable skills, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Let's do it.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so today we're going to talk about the Mount Tambora volcanic eruption.
SPEAKER_01Dun dun dun. That sounds so scary.
SPEAKER_00The largest and most destructive volcanic eruption ever.
SPEAKER_01Nah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I don't even know this story.
SPEAKER_00Okay, I didn't either. And many people that I read about geologists were like, I never even heard of this.
SPEAKER_01Oh. Did it like happen? Okay, I'll just let you talk. I was gonna say, did it happen a long time ago? Is that why?
SPEAKER_00Okay. Kind of.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00Um, it's also the most destructive explosion of any kind in the last 10,000 years.
SPEAKER_02Ooh, that's scary.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um, so I got my information from Britannica. Yeah. Um, this channel horror story is on YouTube. And I found this really well-written article published in the Smithsonian um by I think it's a journalist who specializes in geology or is a geologist who is also a journalist, um, by the name of Robert Evans. He wrote a really amazing piece about like hiking up Mount Tambora.
SPEAKER_01And wow.
SPEAKER_00You'll you'll hear. You'll hear about it.
SPEAKER_01Just really quick, aren't you so glad we have the internet?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Can you imagine trying to do this podcast like back when we were like using an actual encyclopedia? Yes. When you said Britannica of the encyclopedia, I was like, oh my gosh. I remember having to do book reports and being like, there was like a paragraph on the thing I chose, and I was like, Great, how am I gonna turn this into like a five-page paper?
SPEAKER_00I feel like I probably like fluffed up every paper back in the day.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I did too.
SPEAKER_00Like write like just like lies, lies about everything.
SPEAKER_01Yes. I mean, we had to get by somehow. So anyway, I know I'm ready.
SPEAKER_00So before we get into it, I'm just gonna give you two words, okay? Okay, and I'm gonna ask you to remember these words.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_00The first one is bicycle.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00The second one is Frankenstein.
SPEAKER_01Bicycle and Frankenstein. Okay, I'll remember.
SPEAKER_00Bicycle's the first word, Frankenstein's the second. Okay, okay, got it?
SPEAKER_01Got it.
SPEAKER_00Okay. And there will be a quiz later. Oh, okay. Okay. All right. So Mount Tambora is a volcanic mountain on the northern coast of the island of Sumbawa. Which is in, yeah, which is in Indonesia.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay. That makes sense. I was like, I know my geography like really well, actually, but I don't know where that is. So, but it makes sense because Indonesia has like all those islands and everything.
SPEAKER_00Yes. So Indonesia is a country off the coast of Southeast Asia, and it's actually technically in both the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
SPEAKER_04Ooh.
SPEAKER_00And it's an archipelago, which is a group of islands, like you mentioned.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Like the Hawaiian, the Hawaiian islands.
SPEAKER_01Archipelago. That's really interesting.
SPEAKER_00Archipelago.
SPEAKER_01Archipelago. Wow. I didn't even know that that was like the term for like a bunch of islands in a place.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. So it's like Hawaii. Yep. That's an archipelago.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Cool.
SPEAKER_00Yes. Um, so for a little bit more placement, um, Indonesia is below the Philippines and Malaysia, but it's above Australia. So it's like wedged in there. Yeah. With all its tons of islands.
SPEAKER_01Definitely on my bucket list to go to Indonesia.
SPEAKER_00Well, it's funny you mentioned that because Bali is in Indonesia and Bali is like my number one destination, like my dream trip. I would want to go there for like a month. I've heard so many amazing things about it. I know. Maybe when COVID is over, we could make our way over there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I would love that. So it's April 1815. Okay. Okay. Mount Tambora is about 14,000 feet elevation high.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00So to put this in perspective, that's about half the height of Mount Everest.
SPEAKER_02Whoa.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Because Mount Everest was is around like 29 something feet, I think. 29,000 feet.
SPEAKER_01Not 29 feet. For the ants, yeah, 100%.
SPEAKER_00Um and it's around the so Mount Tambora is around the same height as Mount uh Rainier in Washington.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00Which also happens to currently be one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world that hasn't.
SPEAKER_01Isn't it like gonna erupt at some point soon or something?
SPEAKER_00I guess, yeah. Yeah. Okay. So um many of the islands of Indonesia are situated on the convergent plate boundary of the Eurasian and Australian plate.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00Um, so a convergent boundary is a boundary where two plates are moving towards one another.
SPEAKER_01So it's like also like could be an earthquake situation too.
SPEAKER_00Well, it is because Indonesia is part of the ring of fire. Ooh. Where so the ring of fire, like if you're looking at a map of the Pacific Ocean, the Ring of Fire, it's like an archway where it like goes down like Australia, the west coast of the US, like down like this coast of Mexico, down the coast, the west coast of South America, and then on the left side, it goes down like you know, Japan, that side, down through um Southeast Asia, and then like out towards kind of Australia.
SPEAKER_01Okay. And they do they call it a ring of fire because that's where like a lot of volcanoes, like volcanoes like exist.
SPEAKER_00So the ring of fire, if you look at a map of where the volcanoes are on it, um it looks like like the ring of fire is like the region where they all like happen to be occurring.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_00So 90% of all earthquakes on Earth occur occur on the ring of fire. And yeah, so it's like most earthquakes. And then I'd like to see.
SPEAKER_01I I I definitely want to Google this and like see the map. Oh, yeah, you should. You should it's pretty interesting. Maybe we can put it on Instagram.
SPEAKER_00It's also called the Rim of Fire.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Um, I like the Ring of Fire better.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, like the Ring of Fire because the rim of fire sounds like a butthole.
SPEAKER_02Like when you hate like spicy salty, like when you eat something, like when you eat like a ghost pepper burrito, and you're hurting. Oh my god. All right.
SPEAKER_00So also 75% of the earth's most most active volcanoes also occur on the ring of fire.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_00Um, so the ring of fire is a direct result of plate tectonics, which you probably remember from high school. Um, so the movement and collisions of lithospheric plates, um, which are massive irregularly shaped slabs of solid rock, um, generally composed of both continental and oceanic matter.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00The lith the lith the lithosphere is the rigid outer part of the earth, consisting of the crust and upper mantle. So it's just like plates fucking banging into each other.
SPEAKER_02Oh wow.
SPEAKER_00Um, so the word tambora means gone in Bawa. Um, and the mountain is named this before the volcano because it was already a very treacherous, dangerous place to climb. And a lot of people just would disappear when they tried to climb up there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. That sounds, yeah, that sounds scary.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um like treacherous because of the rocks or like the elephant, like the elevation. I mean, if it's like if it's like halfway Mount Everest, then that's a pretty high.
SPEAKER_00Um, yeah, I'm not actually, I should have researched that a little bit more, but that was just like the local kind of like the lore in the area of the village at the bottom of the mountain, like whenever they named it. People have just kind of you know gone up there and have never been and never came back, which makes sense for gone. Yeah, like, yeah, yeah. Um, okay, so volcanoes. Um, a little bit about them, because you know, this is a science podcast.
SPEAKER_02So sorry, I made me laugh.
SPEAKER_00Large volcanic eruptions are considered to be the most devastating natural disasters in human to human civilization. Um, they have a you know, they the average um impact they have on the environment is two to four years after they happen. Yeah. Um the intensity and type of volcanic eruption is determined by its magma. So magma is the hot fluid or semi-fluid below or within the Earth's crust. Um, so thin and runny magma gases. Um, I mean, sorry, thin and runny magma means that gases can escape much easier.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00So this is what happens with like an effusive eruption, um, which is just like slower lava flows that persist for many years and it's just like constantly erupting.
SPEAKER_01Right. And it doesn't have as many gases because it's not as runny.
SPEAKER_00So it's like the gases are coming out, like there's no big explosion because the gases are escaping like at a like a you know, a consistent rate.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So um kill away a volcano in Hawaii isn't a volcano. It's just it's just constantly, you know, spitting out lava and which is so cool.
SPEAKER_01I want to say that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so but it's not the the the houses and the communities and the path, like they eventually have to move, but it's not like you have to like shove your belongings in your car and take off. Yeah, like you, it's it's a yeah, it's an effusive volcano, volcanic eruption, just like happening constantly, but like at a lower um intensity level.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, however, if the magma is dense and sticky, it's harder for gas the gases to escape. So it builds pressure in the magma chamber, which results in an explosive eruption.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So this is really interesting. I had no idea. I just thought that like exploded.
SPEAKER_00And I was like, I'm kind of obsessed with volcanoes now after hearing this. Like I was already, but I'm really am now. Yeah. Um, so Mount St. Helens, that was an explosive eruption.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00Which when I lived in Portland, Oregon, I some like girls I knew that waitressed with me, um, they told me so many crazy stories because their parents lived right near the mountain. That's another episode, but oh yeah, that yeah.
SPEAKER_01And that was when that was like um it was in the 80s. 80s, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Early 80s, yeah.
unknownWoo!
SPEAKER_01That's scary.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I don't think, yeah. I think it was like 80, oh whatever. It was early 80s.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so another thing to know about volcanoes is there, you know, just like um with you know, the um like category index for hurricanes or the like, isn't it called like the Vegeta scale for tornadoes?
SPEAKER_02Like, yeah, EF, whatever.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So there's the volcanic explosivity index. And this measures the power of eruptions based on how much material comes out of it and to what height and how long the eruption lasts.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00Um, so the scale goes from zero to eight. And Mount Tambora, what do you think it is? On the an eight. Okay, no, it's a seven.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so I wouldn't want to see eight, but no, no, no, no. The fact that, like, if this is the most disastrous tornado and it was only a seven, like, think about what an eight would be.
SPEAKER_00I know that well, so so okay. So Yellowstone National Park.
SPEAKER_02It would be an eight, wouldn't it?
SPEAKER_00Well, supposedly there's a super volcano under Yellowstone, and if that ever erupts, millions of people would die.
SPEAKER_01I think that you should run over to Maine just to get a couple states like you know, east, if that happens.
SPEAKER_00I mean, I think we'd be okay.
SPEAKER_01I don't know if we're gonna be okay. Like, I thought it was like all the United States was.
SPEAKER_00I think it's most it would mostly, yeah, it would decimate the US, but the coasts would be possibly inhabitable.
SPEAKER_01Not maybe in our lifetime, but I don't yeah, I don't think so.
SPEAKER_00Anyways, it will happen eventually, though, up allegedly. Um, but hopefully people will be like living on other planets and can escape by then. Yeah, maybe okay, so um volcanoes happen when magma rises to the surface of the earth from underground. It causes bubbles of gas to appear in in itself in the magma, and then the gas causes pressure to build up in the mountain and it just explodes.
SPEAKER_01So, like okay, sorry, this is a stupid question, maybe, but like does the mountain, does part of the mountain explode, or is it just like the lava explodes?
SPEAKER_00Like I guess usually the eruption takes off the top of the mountain, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01But like was this are okay, so um, was this like a mountain that didn't have a top?
SPEAKER_00No, it did.
SPEAKER_01It did have a top, but when it exploded, it like took it off the top. Is that what you know what I'm saying? Okay it uh it ends up I don't know anything about no, yeah, and we'll we'll get to that, but it definitely okay, okay, cool.
SPEAKER_00Okay, and then when okay, so then when magma comes out of the earth and into the air, it it's it's called lava. So you got magma underground, lava above ground, which I did not know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's yeah, really interesting. Again, these are like things that like I know magma, I know lava, I thought they were the same thing, but also I thought I didn't even know what they were.
SPEAKER_00Like, I knew lava was the thing that you see like flowing over, you know, the rocks and like down the mountain, and it's like all molten-y, and it looks like a fucking marshmallow that like is yeah, that's like crispy on the outside, gooey on the inside. Exactly. Okay, um, okay, so it's April 1815. Mount Tambora has been quiet for thousands of years, nothing's going on April 5th. Small tremors start happening and little eruptions come start coming out with pyroclastic flow. Okay, so pyroclastic flow is the worst thing ever. Ooh, um, so it's dense, destructive, it's a mass of hot ash, lava fragments, and gases ejected explosively into the air, and it typically flows down slope at great speed.
SPEAKER_01Oh god. So it's like a bomb that's like with hot lava that's yes, and it's like at you fast.
SPEAKER_00It's coming incredibly fast down the side of the mountain, like it's not slowly flowing like lava in Hawaii, and you're like, oh, that's so cool.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's so scary.
SPEAKER_00Okay, yeah. You can't outrun it, obviously.
SPEAKER_01You can't?
SPEAKER_00No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01I would try.
SPEAKER_00You would try and you would die, but that's okay. Okay, so between April 5th and the 10th, a bunch of loud explosions are heard from as far as 1200 miles away. Um, because this is 1815 and the telegraph hasn't yet been invented. Most people have no idea what's happening. There's no way to get word unless you like go take your sailboat to like the next country.
SPEAKER_01Oh no, that's so awful.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So there's a bunch of like armies in that range, that 1200 mile range that are preparing for battle because they think like an incoming, you know, army or tribe or country is coming to surprise attack them.
SPEAKER_01It was like kind of maybe so scary.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, nobody knew what was going on.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I mean, maybe they did they use the animals back in the day to be like, where are the animals going? Because you know how people like it can do that, but maybe they didn't. I don't know.
SPEAKER_00I don't know. I know a ton of animals end up dying, but oh, I don't know. I think they just, you know, uh the people around the mountain knew what was going on, but they weren't able to get word to the rest of the world.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, okay, so on the evening of April 10th, for three straight hours, three columns of fire shoot from the volcano. The shattering blasts blow the mountain apart.
SPEAKER_01Oh my gosh, can you imagine a mountain just like exploding?
SPEAKER_00No. No, no, I mean I've seen like I like I've seen the video of Mount St. Helens, but crazy. Um, 36 cubic miles of ash, pumice, and other rock, as well as 60 tons of sulfur and other aerosols. Which an aerosol is just suspension of particles dispersed throughout a gas. Like we think of aerosols as like spray.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, so those are all catapulted into the air. Um, and then more pyroclastic flows consisting of ash, magma particles, and gases over 1300 degrees Fahrenheit.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that is so hot. Oh, that like that hurts my skin.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, it would. Pour well, it would. So they put it pours from the mountain into the sea, which is like 12 miles away from the actual mountain.
SPEAKER_01And it's going fast, the the lava.
SPEAKER_00Oh, it's going super fast. It's it's it's pyroclassic. It's not even just lava, it's pyroclastic flow. It's like, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's if you like I mentioned in the first episode, if you have seen Dante's Peak, you know what I'm talking about. Okay.
SPEAKER_01I was gonna actually ask you, is this like is like Dante's Peak like based off of this? Because this sounds horrifying.
SPEAKER_00I think Dante's Peak is probably based off of Mount St. Helens, but in like a much more like picturesque like mountain town.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00With Pierce Brosnan, like being like the sexy scientist.
SPEAKER_01I know I have to watch this.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Oh god, I might write it tonight.
SPEAKER_00So, okay, so the blasts, the pyroclastic flow, and the tsunamis that are resulting in all of this like material hitting the ocean.
SPEAKER_01Oh my god, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And like hitting all these other islands in the area, it ends up killing 10,000 people.
SPEAKER_01Wait, the tsunamis itself or everything going on?
SPEAKER_00Everything combined.
SPEAKER_01So oh my god.
SPEAKER_00So 10,000 people just on the island of Sumbawa are killed by all three of those things.
SPEAKER_01Wait, okay. Yeah. How many people are on the island? Did you say?
SPEAKER_00Oh, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01That's okay. I'm just yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's so 10,000 people die, but then it says it it destroys the homes of 35,000 more.
SPEAKER_01Oh my god, that is so insane. You know, I've never heard of a that's not true, but 10,000 people is a ton of people to die in this. Like, that is just awful. That is mass.
SPEAKER_00And the oh, and I mean, this probably goes without saying, but the village of Tambora, which is like the village below the mountain, is completely destroyed.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and like I was just thinking about it, like, you know how you said, like, I cannot run it. Like, you can't even like climb on a roof or like something to save your life, because it's just gonna burn up and you'll die. Like, it's so terrifying.
SPEAKER_00You can't hide from it in like a reinforced situation, like a hurricane or a tornado.
SPEAKER_01Like, what if you had a basement that like was no, because it would it would come in, like it would suffocate you.
SPEAKER_00You can't go on the roof like a flood.
SPEAKER_01No, you can't.
SPEAKER_00This is why this is one of the reasons they say volcanoes are like the deadliest and most destructive, like, because there's nowhere to go. Like, there's nothing you can do if you're in the path.
SPEAKER_01Oh my god, they need to invent something like a super like like a fireproof, like fireproof, like metal. Well, you don't want it to be metal because you don't want to like no, you'll dive. You'll cook, you'll be you'll be cooked at 1300 oh yeah, Fahrenheit or whatever. Anyway, go ahead.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so um Tambora is ends up being 10 times more powerful than um a very famous volcano, like the one that is more known, which is Krakatoa. Have you heard of Krakoa?
SPEAKER_01Which no, I haven't.
SPEAKER_00So that eruption happens later in 1883, but for some reason Krakatoa is way more um, it's just it's a better known volcano than Tambora.
SPEAKER_01I wonder if it was where where is it located?
SPEAKER_00So it's in it's in Indonesia.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay. But it's like I wonder if like the population's higher there, or like if it was a bigger one.
SPEAKER_00Or it was later, it was later in time when there was like the telegraph and everything.
SPEAKER_01Oh, there you go. So that's probably why, but okay.
SPEAKER_00Also, did do okay. Do you remember probably in well, I would think it was elementary school. Did you guys ever read the 21 balloons? It's a book.
SPEAKER_01Uh I don't know. I didn't really read.
SPEAKER_00You didn't read in elementary school?
SPEAKER_01I hated reading. I literally hated it. Like, you know, when they gave us like summer reading. Oh my god, I like dreaded it. And usually there were books I didn't want to read, but anyways, uh no, I don't I don't remember that. Okay, I did read, obviously, you guys can read, but it's just like I hated it. I was now I love it.
SPEAKER_00I was obsessed with this book as a kid.
SPEAKER_01So should I read it?
SPEAKER_00I mean, you can't, I mean, it's you I don't know, you're an adult now, but it's about a guy in a hot air balloon that lands on the island of Krakatoa and he discovers this like sophisticated secret civilization that's funded by a diamond mine on the island, and like every family on the island has their own restaurant. Oh, it's really cool.
SPEAKER_01Is it fac is it fictional?
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay. I don't I don't like fiction. Well, I definitely do like fictional.
SPEAKER_00And then the volcano erupts and they all have to flee. Oh. Anyway, you're like, it's definitely fictional. It is, it is.
SPEAKER_01Um and like correction, I do like fiction, it just has to be the right thing. I'm more of a documentary, like I am too, real kind of thing. Anyway, but there are some great stories out there that are fictional.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_00So meanwhile, in the surrounding region in the days after the blast, um, the sulfur, the gas that is propelled into the smell really bad too. Yeah, because it sulfur smells like like frozen.
SPEAKER_01Frozen eggs. Yeah, it's just eggs. It's disgusting. That's why you can't eat hard hard-boiled eggs. It's like smells like that.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I I eat hard-boiled eggs every morning.
SPEAKER_01I feel like everyone does, and I wish I like them because they're such great protein. But like I eat them smell so terrible.
SPEAKER_00I don't ever I don't know. I don't ever really smell them. I eat them with like really good sea salt and olive oil, sometimes like good hot sauce, but no. Um, so the sulfur mixes with the air and the water. Let's back up. The water and the air. Um, and it creates sulfuric acid clouds, which is really bad.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, it blocks out large amounts of sunlight, which later causes unpredictable weather events in other places in the world. So, like there were other there were places in Europe, Asia, the United States where it's like a hundred degrees and then it All of a sudden freezing in a few hours.
SPEAKER_01Oh, because there's like it's like no sunlight and like no one can get, oh, that's like yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, people from this time report that, and there's like art that was painted, depictions of the the sky. Um, the clouds turn pink, purple, and red. There are blood ride, blood-red sunrises and sunsets every night. There's massive red fog that obstructs the sun, settles over the land, um, and makes sunspots visible to the naked eye, which sunspots are dark blemishes on the sun's photosphere, like the first layer of the sun. Okay. And you can't see them with the naked eye normally. But for some, yeah, for some reason the red fog made this, made this a thing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um, I mean, the sunsets sound absolutely gorgeous, but like the red fog.
SPEAKER_00And it was gorgeous, but then there were all these other issues.
SPEAKER_01It's like terrible, yeah, at the same time. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, the fog is so thick that wind and rain can't even disperse it. Like nothing can move it. Um, many ships are forced to stay in port due to reduced visibility, which causes major issues with trade around the world.
SPEAKER_03Of course.
SPEAKER_00So 1816, the next year after the blast, becomes known as the year without a summer.
SPEAKER_01Oh my gosh, just kill me. Yeah. I live for summer, like you know, that's my favorite thing in the world.
SPEAKER_00Oh so, in some parts of the world, there's no summer, which means heavy snow, frost um occurs during the summer. It just destroys food crops in Asia, Europe, North America. There's famines, livestock die in mass. Oh my gosh. Starvation, there's lung infections caused by the sulfur in the air, diseases spread like wildfire. It's a fucking mess.
SPEAKER_01That is, yeah. Like, can you imagine like it's snow like a blizzard in like Maine in the summers?
SPEAKER_00It did, it literally did. There literally was like a snowstorm at that time.
SPEAKER_01That's insane.
SPEAKER_00Do you remember the first word I told you to remember?
SPEAKER_01Bicycle. Yeah, you're so fucking smart. Well, you were like, you're gonna get quizzed. So I was like, remember it, remember it, say it five times in your head.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Oh, yeah, you didn't drop the ball, you got it.
SPEAKER_01No, I got it.
SPEAKER_00So, um, due to widespread crop failures such as oats, it becomes super expensive to own and travel by horse.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00So this inventor, Carl von Drace, Drais Drace, he invents the bicycle.
SPEAKER_01No way. That's how the bicycle was created. Yes. How crazy.
SPEAKER_00And he calls it the dandy horse.
SPEAKER_01The dandy horse. Amazing. It's basically so because of the volcano, like this invention that everyone uses all the time today is still around. Cool.
SPEAKER_00Because you had you had to get around, you couldn't take your fucking horse, there were no cars, and your horse was probably dead because it was like nothing.
SPEAKER_01Probably drops, right?
SPEAKER_00So yeah. So I the image, the drawings of the first dandy horse. Um, it's like a wooden bicycle without pedals, like you just walked it, but you know that sounds miserable.
SPEAKER_01How is that faster?
SPEAKER_00I don't know.
SPEAKER_01But then they added pedals later, but that was maybe maybe like there were hills, so like they had to walk it and then they got a hill, so they just had a balance on the wall.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and then they just rode down it.
SPEAKER_01But then like going up a hill would really suck. Yeah. It's like it already okay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Isn't that funny?
SPEAKER_02That's crazy.
SPEAKER_00So the monsoon season in the Pacific is altered. Um, there's widespread flooding and cold weather in China and Tibet. There's terrible droughts in Africa and starvation is rampant, and thousands of people have to move their home to many miles away.
SPEAKER_01And like also the trade is like are the ships at like a year later still.
SPEAKER_00No, but if it I think the months after it happened, they were just not able to leave. So it just fucked a lot of shit up.
SPEAKER_01That's really terrible.
SPEAKER_00Um, so in the northeastern US, in 1816, in mid-May, the weather turns backwards with frost from New England to Virginia. There's snow in June, and on July 4th, there are freezing temps and more snowfall. Um Thomas Jefferson, he had just finished his second term as president. He goes to retire um at Monticello. Is it Monticello? Monticello or Monticello?
SPEAKER_02I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_00We should know is it in Washington? We're American. No, it's in Virginia.
SPEAKER_01Oh.
SPEAKER_00It's his okay.
SPEAKER_01Also, one more thing. I did terrible, terrible in government and politics classes.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01History, I didn't really care about until I got into college. I was just like not, I just wanted to like make art. That's like all I wanted to do. So that was my life.
SPEAKER_00But yeah, I mean, you don't have to justify that to me.
SPEAKER_01I went to the only time I like got some kind of education was when I went to I don't remember where where was George Washington's house? Was that also in Virginia? Mount something, Vernon, right?
SPEAKER_00You know, unclear, unaware, not sure.
SPEAKER_01The only thing I remember from visiting George Washington's house was um some like fake dead ducks hanging in the kitchen.
SPEAKER_00Really?
SPEAKER_01So that was like the education that I got. But I was also like really little when I learned.
SPEAKER_00So oh yeah. It is, I think it is Mount Vernon, but um I think it is too.
SPEAKER_01But if I want to go back, maybe that's another place we need to go and like relearn our American past.
SPEAKER_00I think it's Monticello. I don't fucking know. So anyway, Thomas Jefferson has to apply for a thousand dollar loan from the government because his cops fail. Oh. And he has no money.
SPEAKER_01So he's the president and he has to apply for a loan.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Why didn't they just give it give him a thousand bucks?
SPEAKER_00No, he was the president. He was back retired. Like he had just got it.
SPEAKER_01Wow, that's interesting.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So failing crops and rising prices force farmers to flee New England. Um, which this is another kind of it's not just because of the volcano, but it a large part is due to this. To the volcano, rather. Um, this is basically the start of the American heartland of farming, because all these people were farming in New England, and then they were like, this isn't working, it's freezing here and we're dying. So they all moved west of the Ohio River.
SPEAKER_01Oh my gosh, this is like so fascinating.
SPEAKER_00I know. Indiana becomes a state in 1816 because of this, and Illinois becomes a state in 1818, partly due to all of this. Cool. Yeah. Um, and um, this is another thing that strikes home for me. Um, Vermont, like tons of people, thousands of people, I think it said 15,000 people, they all leave Vermont to go farm in the heartland. Um, oh, okay. So, you know, our friend Kate was just here. Yeah. And we went on a hike.
SPEAKER_02Hey Kate, we love you.
SPEAKER_00We went on a hike with Lola, my daughter, and we came across like a random stone wall in the woods.
SPEAKER_02Love it.
SPEAKER_00And I remember Kate saying something like, Why is that there? So growing up, my dad, who's an outdoorsman, he would always tell me, you can hike anywhere in Vermont, especially southern Vermont. You'll come across a random stone wall in the woods, in the middle of the woods. And it's like, who even owns this property? Like, so I so Vermont was all farmland back then. But then all these people left and the forest grew back in. And that's why when you're hiking in Vermont, it's like, oh, cool, a random fucking stone wall that makes zero sense.
SPEAKER_01Yes, and we have actually the same things in Maine. Yeah. Um, there's like one behind my sister's house. Um, you can find them like everywhere in the woods, and it's it, I don't know necessarily like if I'm sure they were farms at some point, but yeah, it's like a property divider. It's like this is my property.
SPEAKER_00Yes, it was. And then they all they all left.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's so cool.
SPEAKER_00It's so cool.
SPEAKER_01It's I didn't ever really know the origin, and it was just interesting to and I didn't even realize that like all of the farming was in New England back then.
SPEAKER_00I thought it, I guess it makes sense when I think about it, but um it wasn't all in New England, but it was a lot, it was concentrated.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00Allegedly, according to the things I read. Okay, so over in Europe and Great Britain, um there is a ton of rain in the summer of 1816. In Ireland, it rained for eight weeks straight. Potato crops fail. There's a famine.
SPEAKER_01It that's the potato famine, right? I don't know. I think there was like this huge, I I don't know either, but there was this huge potato famine, and I'm wondering what year was all this happening? Like like the it was the year after the volcano.
SPEAKER_001816.
SPEAKER_011816.
SPEAKER_00Let's look that up later and see if I think there was another potato famine that was more politically motivated, like more motivated, but this there was a famine, but there was a famine like in a lot of everywhere.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so maybe it isn't like the actual potato famine, but I've heard about that in Ireland.
SPEAKER_00Um, interesting.
SPEAKER_01We'll have to look that up.
SPEAKER_00Um, so typhus breaks out in Ireland, it kills thousands, it spreads the rest of the British Isles. It's a horrible disease. That's all I know. Oh we'll leave that up to this podcast, will kill you. I know I love I fucking love that podcast.
SPEAKER_01You guys, it's a really good podcast.
SPEAKER_00I'm sure they have a typhus episode.
SPEAKER_01Oh, let's yeah, we'll probably check it out. But yeah, check out that podcast. This podcast will kill you. It's on the exactly right network, yeah. Um, which we're obsessed with because our favorite podcast is my favorite murder.
SPEAKER_00Um, shout out to the um so climatologists today say don't be so quick to blame Mount Tambora's eruption on all of these things because there was already a cooling trend setting in, but um Mount Tambora was a big part of why all of these things occurred.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah. I mean, I'm not like yeah, I wouldn't blame the whole thing on it, obviously, because our our world does tend to go into cooling heating. I mean, like, look at us in global warming right now, it's like insane.
SPEAKER_00So yeah. Um that's insane. The southern hemisphere doesn't really get any effects of the eruption, by the way. They're pretty much regular and fine and nothing.
SPEAKER_01I was wondering about that because you mentioned like Europe, North America, yeah. Um, but nothing about like South America or like Australia. So is it like did it all just stay above the equator?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Interesting. It was mostly northern hemisphere-based. Okay, so do you remember the second word?
SPEAKER_01Frankenstein.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so I do good. You did so good. I'm very impressed. So it's cold and rainy in Switzerland in the summer of 1816. And the author, Mary Shelley, is chilling by her little lake resort um with her other author friends and her husband, who is also an author, and her friend Lord Byron, who wrote that really long poem, Don Juan. You probably read it in high school. Maybe not.
SPEAKER_01Uh maybe not.
SPEAKER_00He's he's like, yo, you guys, this fucking sucks. This weather sucks. I challenge all of you to write something macabre that reflects how gloomy and dark and cold and rainy and shitty it is here.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So this inspired Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_00She wrote like a dark, fucked up story.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00About, and you know, Frankenstein is basically a morality tale about messing with nature.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00So that inspired her.
SPEAKER_01That's interesting. So, and that was that directly because of the volcano?
SPEAKER_00Yes, the volcano, the eruption made the weather in Europe, the whole thing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So they, yeah, so that's it was her inspiration.
SPEAKER_01That is so interesting. I love this story. I know. It's really sad also, but it's really interesting.
SPEAKER_00Um, so in these areas that are affected, um, like specifically Europe, the like crime rates go up, people are thrown into panic, civilization begins to crumble, disease flourishes, um because without a lot of you know, food and work, people are just like huddling up in major cities, um, people are dying, so there's fewer military available. A lot of people are questioning whether this is like a punishment from God because it's you know Mother Nature and it's you know inexplicable at the time. Society is weakening. Um, and you know, if when Tambora did erupt, um as fast as a sailing ship is like when people got worried about it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So its notoriety was buried to a certain extent. Um, but it its effects were just so long-lasting. It really altered a lot of things in the the continents that it that it hit.
SPEAKER_01Um well now I'm more scared of volcanoes than I think of tornadoes.
SPEAKER_00They really they really screw a lot of shit up. Yeah. Um there's nowhere to go. No, no, and they have like I remember, do you remember that volcano that erupted in Iceland?
SPEAKER_01Yes, and like if people were stuck in Europe for like weeks because the it was so bad.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um I remember, yeah, it just it hangs in the atmosphere, the things that come out of the volcano, the matter, like it really does affect weather all over, and like depending on where like the wind blows it.
SPEAKER_01Can it like not get up into space? Is there like a reason like if that makes sense?
SPEAKER_00Like I don't know, I don't think so. Oh, probably not. I don't know. Um so today, Mount Tambora stands 9,350 feet tall. So the blast took off like 5,000 feet.
SPEAKER_01Oh my god.
SPEAKER_00Um if you hike up it, you can hike up it, but the the bowl that is resulting from the blast, uh-huh, there is not a blade of grass in it, nothing can grow there. It's 3,000 feet deep, three miles wide.
unknownWhat?
SPEAKER_00Okay. That's huge. Yeah, yeah. That's what it did. It blasted it. Um, enormous piles of rubble, also known as scree, lay at the bottom of it. It's just like a dry brown bowl. So, this this author I told you about, Robert Evans in the beginning, um, he hiked up there with a bunch of people, and he this is like his um account of what it's like up there. Yeah, you can still smell the sulfur, which means the volcano is still technically active.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And it's now shaped like it was once a cone. Like it was actually like a double cone, but now it's just like looks like a turtle shell from far away.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_00Um, and then when you hike up it, there's like thousands of boulders that are the size of small cars that are just all over the sides of the mountains from the blast, they're still there.
SPEAKER_01Oh my gosh. Um, would you hike up it with me?
SPEAKER_00Maybe. I I don't know. It seems a little sketchy.
SPEAKER_01I know.
SPEAKER_00So um, Mr. Evans, the journalist, um his closing remarks, and you're not closing remarks, but he's in his article, he says, and I like this quote few events in history show more dramatically how Earth, its atmosphere, and its inhabitants are interdependent, an important matter given concerns such as global warming and destruction of the atmosphere's protective ozone layer. And I really liked that.
SPEAKER_01And that's deep.
SPEAKER_00And that's the story of the eruption of Mount Tambora.
SPEAKER_01Wow, that was amazing. I feel a hundred percent smarter right now.
SPEAKER_00Don't you? Don't you?
SPEAKER_01I do. That is incredible. I had okay, A, I had no idea about that volcano at all. B, I didn't like know all the other things that went like happened after the fact that like really greatly affected our planet and also created some amazing inventions like the bicycle and like a great story. Frankenstein, which I remembered both.
SPEAKER_00You really did.
SPEAKER_01Um, wow, that is cool. Thank you so much for all that research. You're welcome. You did a really good job.
SPEAKER_00You're welcome. And I really love volcanoes.
SPEAKER_01And well, I I am definitely more scared of them now than I ever was because yeah, you don't want a volcano erupting near you.
SPEAKER_00No, okay.
SPEAKER_01So wait, is the island like still populated? Like, did people eventually move back? And like, why would you do that?
SPEAKER_00It's a big island, so like people were able to survive and still live there to this day. And you know, Instagram is always a great place to find photos of a specific geographical location. So I went and looked at Mount Tambora and like the area, and there's you know, tons of people visiting and hiking up there, and it looks cool. It's beautiful it's beautiful, it's in in Indonesia.
SPEAKER_01Oh, of course, gorgeous, gorgeous.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, definitely a place to go one day.
SPEAKER_01Wow, that is so great. Uh it's like so educational. Thank you again for all that.
SPEAKER_00You are so welcome.
SPEAKER_01All right. Well, thank you all for joining us, and I hope you guys both learned something today.
SPEAKER_00I love how you say I hope you guys both learn something. Sorry, I hope I hope the two people that are listening both learn something.
SPEAKER_01I hope the two of you who are listening to her podcast. That's probably what it will be. I mean, maybe it's new.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01But yeah, no, thanks again. Um, thank you, Vanessa, for a great story.
SPEAKER_00And thank you, Catherine.
SPEAKER_01You guys soon with our next episode.
SPEAKER_00With our next story. Sorry. Okay. All right, love you, bye.
SPEAKER_01All right, well, love ya bye bye.
SPEAKER_00Let's do it again.