Supervolcano (DVD)

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Liked it
Story	Outstanding

Advantages:	Very factual
Disadvantages:	Could cause sleepless nights, Lack of human interest possibly .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

We know from our history and geography and geology lessons that the continents of our planet floats around on a thick liquid magma layer.

Most of us take the ground for granted. Rock solid we say, but what happens when the rock is not solid? There have been some rather large volcanic eruptions and earthquakes in the past.

Tambora in Indonesia in 1815. Krakotoa again in Indonesia in 1833, but the history records that there have been some that have changed the face of the planet and some that have nearly wiped it clean of life. These are the super volcanos.

With our fast moving modern way of life, how would we cope with a super quake or eruption?
Disaster has always fascinated us. We all know, thanks to the" Jaws" film, that the bringer of news of a disaster to come will not be believed. Commerce and/or tourism will have to go on as usual whilst underground are forces greater than the largest atomic warhead just waiting to be released on an unsuspecting world.

Yellowstone National Park in America long fascinated the scientists. There are hot springs that show there is volcanic activity somewhere near by. Lots of diligent work showed that there had been some vast eruptions in the past and there were layers of volcanic ash found very large distances from the park. So the big question was" Just where is this volcano?"
After all we were used to volcano's being rather large mountains. But there are others and when they blew and collapsed they left rather a large whole in the ground called a caldera. But there was none that could be identified!

Then it finally dawned on scientists. The whole park was the volcano!! An area some 34 miles by 44 miles was the volcanic caldera. To put it roughly in perspective. Centre a circle of 45 miles on London and you nearly reach Oxford. Brighton is just outside, but not by much. Or take Bath where we know there are hot springs, fortunately not on the same level of magnitude. A similar size circle almost reaches Hereford. Bristol, Swindon, Salisbury, Taunton, Cardiff and Barry are all within the radius. The circle almost reaches the junction of the M4 and M50.

I didn't know it either but Glen Coe is an extinct volcanic caldera. Much smaller than Yellowstone. Ice has shaped it somewhat but it is a dead volcano!

So let's look at this programme.

It is what they are calling a docu-drama about a hypothetical eruption. It is described as a true story, it just hasn't happened yet. It is in two parts. The events leading up to the eruption and the aftermath. The first part is to introduce you to the problem and to rack up tension.

The style is for the action to be interspersed with the actors who have roles in the docu-drama giving an explanation of happenings. There is also included archive film from volcanic disasters that have happened across the world. Naturally there is no film of the supposed disaster as it has not happened yet. What there are are some spectacular CGI effects.

Unfortunately I do not know anything about the actors who took part in this. I can detect no big name stars. Perhaps it is better that way as we are not distracted by some big name stars acting the parts of worried officials and scientists. By using the, to me, unknown persons I was able to concentrate on what they were actually saying rather than rate a performance. Generally speaking the actors play their parts quite well and believably. Because of the nature of the type of programme, I did not feel especially attached to the players. Your emotions do get a bit engaged but not as much as with some films where the human interactions are important and the disaster is the backdrop against which these dramas are played. The programme could have been made this way and then it would have been just another disaster programme.

Neither did the programme concentrate on the CGI effects of such a disaster. The makers could have included far more time and images of disaster but to what point? The makers are trying to tell a story of what might happen without playing on either the human costs or over dramatising the natural effects. This can be a difficult balancing act. On the whole, I think they did a good job.

Some persons may be a little disappointed with the ending. They may feel that it is rather weak. The programme could have gone on longer about the global effects of such an occurrence and the possible/probable consequences to the economy of the planet and the human costs. I do not feel that it was necessary to dwell on these consequences. This aspect has been covered in many other forms from radio, TV, films and books.

One point for me is the difficulty of the scientist who has to predict such events. If there are too many cries of "Wolf" then they will tend not to be believed. The role of the broadcast media in creating a panic with sensational reports has also to be thought about as is the role of the officials who have responsibility to manage such a disaster.

Personally I found this very interesting. I was interested enough to make an internet search for more information and read several interesting articles. I could say that I enjoyed the programme. It roused my interest and made me think and want to know more and that is what I believe the programme was intended to do. As the scientists say, It hasn't happened yet. As a keen amateur photographer I would like to photograph such a spectacle. Perhaps from the Moon if I can get a strong enough lens.

If you do want to know more about the cast and crew you can always visit IMDB.
This was originally shown in March 2005 on BBC. More information may be obtained from
BBC at http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/supervolcano/
Also at http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/supervolcano/under/under.html

This DVD was produced for the BBC and shown in conjunction with Discovery Channel.
Getting copies. I have not seen it in shops. I got mine through Amazon, Jersey at a cost of
£9.75 I believe that you can get it through BBC also, (but do not know price)
Amazon.co.uk price is £14.24 a saving of £1.75 from normal price.
Running time 118 mins
Extra, The truth about Yellowstone. This is in two segments of about 29 mins each.
Rated 12 for some brief gruesome images.
Subtitled in English.
Dolby 5.1 + Stereo

The attached photographs are from the BBC website where they and some others are available as wallpaper.

Final words. This is a very interesting programme. It will probably appeal to those who like plenty of facts, it will probably not appeal to those who want human interest.