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Two Explorers Descend Into An Active Volcano, and Live to Tell About It

Posted by timothy on from the you-literally-cannot-try-this-at-home dept.

Discover reports on the unlikely adventure of explorers and daredevils Sam Cossman and George Kourounis, who (with caution employed at least in their choice of gear) "rappelled down the crater inside Mount Marum, which is situated on one of 80 islands that make up the Pacific Republic of Vanautu. And they’ve just uploaded video of this up-close encounter with one of the world’s most volcanically active locations." Warning: the linked video may inspire envy and wanderlust, even if it doesn't expose any deep new science.

66 comments

  1. Grandparents... by solidraven · · Score: 3, Funny

    And I can totally imagine them coming home and their grandparents asking them "Where did you go this year?" in the most obnoxious wasy possible, like all grandparents do. Good luck explaining this one!

    1. Re:Grandparents... by Savage-Rabbit · · Score: 1, Troll

      And I can totally imagine them coming home and their grandparents asking them "Where did you go this year?" in the most obnoxious wasy possible, like all grandparents do. Good luck explaining this one!

      Well they'd be right to be obnoxious and I hope they give these geniuses hell. I watched that video and all I saw was two stupid idiots climbing into a Volcano doing a whole bunch of things you could also have done with a drone and probably better too. I know science sometimes requires risk taking but this was just a dumb stunt.

      --
      Only to idiots, are orders laws.
      -- Henning von Tresckow
    2. Re:Grandparents... by solidraven · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well, its still less stupid than throwing a bucket of ice water over your head and then posting it on Facebook.

      But building a drone that could work in a volcano would be pretty challenging, lets give it a go!

    3. Re:Grandparents... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 0

      How fortunate for you that you didn't live in 1969; you probably would have gotten lynched.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    4. Re:Grandparents... by rastos1 · · Score: 2

      bunch of things you could also have done with a drone

      Yeah. And clicking on Street View or Wikipedia is sooo much better then visiting Louvre, Egyptian pyramids or Kennedy Space Center in person ... And you don't even have to leave your mom's basement.

    5. Re:Grandparents... by Intrepid+imaginaut · · Score: 1

      I think these are thrillseekers rather than scientists. Not really my cup of tea but if that's what they want to do with their weekends, why not.

    6. Re:Grandparents... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, its still less stupid than throwing a bucket of ice water over your head and then posting it on Facebook.

      No, not really. Which one is more likely to get you killed?

    7. Re:Grandparents... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I think these are thrillseekers rather than scientists. Not really my cup of tea but if that's what they want to do with their weekends, why not.

      Why not? When these morons get themselves into trouble they have to be rescued. Now it is certainly true that rescue workers get paid risking their lives to get people out of trouble but that does not mean that they like to risk death when their helicopter gets blown into the side of a mountain trying to rescue some idiot base-jumper or in this case being burned alive by lava or choked by acrid fumes trying to get one of these idiots out of the area after he gets himself hurt or if they need a quick evac when that mountain erupts because you can bet your bottom dollar that that bush pilot who flew them in is not dumb enough to fly his chopper into the danger zone of an erupting volcano. That burden will land squarely on the shoulders of the SAR team. They'll not hesitate to rescue the dare devil but they also won't hesitate to call him an irresponsible berk, especially if a patient died in an ambulance en route to hospital because the SAR chopper wasn't available because it was out rescuing a 'dare devil'.

    8. Re:Grandparents... by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      Do you realize where this volcano is? Hint: look at the natives in the grass skirts. They're out chasing forest critters for dinner, not gearing up to rescue stupid rich tourists. I really doubt that anybody would come out and rescue them.

      Now, if you looked at their camp, it's obvious that they have a number of support folks. They most likely have some capability for self rescue (another fire suit, extra ropes, some burn cream). But they're going to have to do it themselves. Historical factoid: Over the course of human exploration, most groups either rescued themselves or didn't get rescued. Sure, you can push the button on your SPOT or InReachbut that doesn't mean anybody is coming.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    9. Re:Grandparents... by FireFury03 · · Score: 1

      Well, its still less stupid than throwing a bucket of ice water over your head and then posting it on Facebook.

      No, not really. Which one is more likely to get you killed?

      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new...

      --
      http://blog.nexusuk.org
    10. Re:Grandparents... by VicVegas · · Score: 1

      You meant, throwing a bucket of liquid nitrogen over your head and then posting it on Facebook, right?

    11. Re: Grandparents... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      How far would you go for the ultimate selfie?

    12. Re:Grandparents... by solidraven · · Score: 1

      Whatever floats their boat, it's still stupid.

    13. Re:Grandparents... by vandelais · · Score: 1

      Good thing they didn't forget the burn cream.

      --
      Game: Player 'Donald J Trump' now has AI skill level 'experimental'.
    14. Re:Grandparents... by grcumb · · Score: 2

      Do you realize where this volcano is? Hint: look at the natives in the grass skirts. They're out chasing forest critters for dinner, not gearing up to rescue stupid rich tourists. I really doubt that anybody would come out and rescue them.

      Howdy, commentator! I just read your comment about the people of Vanuatu, where I live. Guess what? This whole country is full of 'natives'! Isn't that cool?!

      One thing though: Promise me you will never, ever, EVER come here. Because witless, condescending fucks like you tend to get killed and cooked for dinner.

      (We're not really cannibals, but we'd do it just to spite you.)

      --
      Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
    15. Re:Grandparents... by JayTech · · Score: 1

      Actually, the link does not apply since the unfortunate victim in that case jumped off an 80ft cliff into a quarry. I am not aware of any account where the original challenge, a bucket of cold water to the head, actually caused the participant to expire and go to meet his maker. http://www.snopes.com/horrors/...

    16. Re:Grandparents... by FireFury03 · · Score: 1

      Actually, the link does not apply since the unfortunate victim in that case jumped off an 80ft cliff into a quarry. I am not aware of any account where the original challenge, a bucket of cold water to the head, actually caused the participant to expire and go to meet his maker.

      http://www.snopes.com/horrors/...

      The link I posted does mention some idiot woman who decided to chuck a bucket of water over herself while sitting on a horse. The expected thing happened - the horse bolted and the woman was killed.

      --
      http://blog.nexusuk.org
    17. Re:Grandparents... by findoutmoretoday · · Score: 1

      They call it waterboarding and yes it can kill.

    18. Re:Grandparents... by solidraven · · Score: 1

      Killing yourself while climbing into a volcano sounds less stupid than throwing a bucket of water over your head and claiming it is good for research into a diseases.

  2. Lame by JockTroll · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Haroun Tazieff did that way before. Of course, Tazieff was a world-class jock: he would climb up an erupting volcano, lower himself into the crater and fart into the lava just to see what happened. A great lover of physical activity and a competitive fellow who had engaged in sabotage tags against the Nazis (with the Nazis always being "it" because they couldn't catch him), he would take no shit from no-one and would, instead, shovel shit by the metric ton upon the wannabe shitters. Too bad he died but this kind of stuff just happens. Just remember than while Steve Irwin would poke tree branches up crocodile's butts to see what happens, Haroun Tazieff would poke a humungous Avatar tree-of-life branch up an active volcano's butt just for the lulz. And then he would pull the volcano's pants all the way to its fire-spitting head.

    --
    Geeks are so full of shit that "beating the crap out of them" takes a whole new meaning.
  3. They descended by phantomfive · · Score: 3, Interesting

    They descended.......and shot a movie with a telephoto lens that made it look like they were closer than they actually were. It's not like they were lava diving or anything.......that would be a story. Build a submarine that can enter lava.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    1. Re:They descended by Anubis+IV · · Score: 4, Informative

      I watched the video at the link. There definitely were some tricky camera angles at play that made them look closer than they actually were, but there was one shot from immediately behind one of the daredevils, and that one seemed to me to make it pretty clear that they actually were rather close. I also thought it was rather telling that there was only one shot from that angle, whereas there were loads from higher up the cliff with a telephoto lens. Seemed almost to me like the camera guy decided to get the hell out.

    2. Re:They descended by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      At what time is that particular shot that makes it clear they were close?

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    3. Re: They descended by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just go there.

    4. Re:They descended by rastos1 · · Score: 1

      1:38 and possibly 2:00. On the other hand 2:20 was obviously "improved" in computer for "better artistic value" or something.

    5. Re:They descended by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have to agree that there is nothing that matters, nor is there any news here whenever a bunch of spoiled kids spend their parents trust fund on a trip to an area and publish a video on the Internet for others to see how hip and cool they are. The way the native people were depicted at the start of this video is humiliating to the natives, as is their little stunt where they desecrate the landscape by embarking on this unscientific observation of a volcano; probably without permits from the local jurisdiction having authority. I really feel like slashdot is turning into soylentnews....

    6. Re:They descended by LordKronos · · Score: 1

      I think all 3 of those were the same degree of closeness, just difference camera angles and zoom.

      If you look at the shot at 0:52, you can really see there are only 2 ledges in the volcano. There is the really close one at the very edge of the lava, which you later see getting splashed with lava continuously, and at one point even see a piece breaking off. These guys clearly did not go to that one. Then there is another rim which is probably 80-90% of the way down. That's the one I'm pretty certain they filmed themselves standing on. According to their blog (http://www.stormchaser.ca/News.html) they repelled 1200 feet down to get there. So if my estimate of 80-90% is correct, then they are 100-300 feet above the lava surface at that point.

    7. Re:They descended by KingOfBLASH · · Score: 1

      If you watch the video, there's a part where molten rock spatters out to one side, and were they standing in that spot they would have been hit.

      In another part, a red hot rock (600 C) hit quite close to them and they took a heat reading.

      They weren't bathing in the magma but they came pretty damned close to it (definitely in the danger zone)

  4. The last sentence of the summary is spot on by oobayly · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I am so full of envy right now, with a generous side order of awe. Watch that actually brought a tear to my eye.

    1. Re:The last sentence of the summary is spot on by Dahamma · · Score: 1

      It was mostly the music. And the fire. The trek itself was trivial compared to summiting Everest but the visuals were just a lot more impressive.

    2. Re:The last sentence of the summary is spot on by dkf · · Score: 1

      The trek itself was trivial compared to summiting Everest but the visuals were just a lot more impressive.

      You don't need such fancy protective gear when doing Everest, which is just cold and lacking in oxygen, not outright chemically hostile and hot as hell. (Some volcanoes are even worse. The ones that spew fluorine gas (or hydrofluoric acid) are just awful...)

      --
      "Little does he know, but there is no 'I' in 'Idiot'!"
    3. Re:The last sentence of the summary is spot on by loufoque · · Score: 0

      I personally don't understand why anyone would be envious of people that rappelled down a crater.

    4. Re:The last sentence of the summary is spot on by grcumb · · Score: 2

      I am so full of envy right now, with a generous side order of awe. Watch that actually brought a tear to my eye.

      Well, if you can pay the airfare to Vanuatu (3 1/2 hours away from Sydney for about $US 750), only a couple hundred dollars more will get you a walking tour to the edge of the caldera. It's not really a mountain so much as a high plateau with two (yes, two) active calderas. It's a fucking amazing place, a lunar landscape emerging over the last rise after a morning spent walking through jungle. Pretty primeval.

      But if you're not in an exercising mood, you can simply pay a pilot to overfly the volcano. I did this once. We were actually on our way to Pentecost island in a small twin-prop charter, when the pilot said, 'Hey, the visibility's really good - you folks want to see a volcano?'

      We thought about it for, like, 0.273 seconds and said, "FUCK YES!"

      So he took us over it. Right. Over. The Volcano.

      Was it cool? Yes, it was cool.

      --
      Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
  5. We're worried about CO2 and global warming? by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 2

    FTA: "In the belly of the beast, gases like carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and hydrochloric acid" HYDROCHLORIC ACID GAS? Screw the CO2, the last thing I want anywhere is air that literally eats you alive from the inside out!

    --
    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    1. Re:We're worried about CO2 and global warming? by stoploss · · Score: 5, Informative

      FTA: "In the belly of the beast, gases like carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and hydrochloric acid" HYDROCHLORIC ACID GAS? Screw the CO2, the last thing I want anywhere is air that literally eats you alive from the inside out!

      As you tacitly requested, here's your daily dose of depression:

      BBC: Sulphur mining in an active volcano

      tl;dr: the workers can't afford masks, so the gases cack their lungs and dissolve their teeth while they're working in the volcano.

      You're welcome.

    2. Re:We're worried about CO2 and global warming? by DamnOregonian · · Score: 4, Interesting

      $10 - $15 a day for $400- $900 of sulfur.

      God I love capitalism.

    3. Re:We're worried about CO2 and global warming? by stoploss · · Score: 1

      I wonder what the ideal solution is in this scenario. If proper safety gear were provided (as it should be) would it be worn? We have such problems in the US, for example, during the recovery operation at the WTC many of the workers simply didn't wear their masks even when they were provided.

      Also, paying too high a wage relative to the local economy may cause issues. Imagine if a dangerous job were available here that paid 10x what a median household income is.

      Perhaps the "best" solution would be to pay double the current gross pay for 1/4 the work and spread the risk around. That is to say, cap the number of hours to ~1/4 what they currently work while doubling their current take-home pay. Employ 4x the current number of workers, more benefit to the local economy, less harmful exposure. And, of course, make wearing the employer-provided safety gear mandatory, while doing whatever possible to increase workplace safety (inasmuch as that is possible within an active fucking volcano).

      The guys in this Slashdot post were tourists. In contrast, these people breaking their bodies to work in the volcano are doing it to feed their families, while shortening their lives in the process. They know it's happening, but they do it anyway. That is true mettle. Far more so than descending into a volcano with some cameras and giggling at how daring one is.

    4. Re:We're worried about CO2 and global warming? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://www.energyandcapital.com/articles/sulphur-piles-larger-than-bulidings/1815

      Sulphur doesn't seem to be in high demand and the international transport cost of bulk goods can be amazingly cheap, so these people might not have to destroy themselves, it might be cheaper for the end user to buy it from overseas.

      Then, of course, these people and their families would likely be destitute...

    5. Re:We're worried about CO2 and global warming? by stoploss · · Score: 1

      Ah, I guess the above anti-capitalist was trolling. I didn't check the values that were quoted. That will teach me.

      Looks like $200/tonne is the price ceiling for refined bulk sulfur. Let's say these workers haul 300 kg of *ore* per day. Even if that's pure sulfur that could skip refinement it would only be worth $~70. Suddenly, paying $15/worker/day doesn't seem like a predatory wage.

      Troll overstated the value of the ore by an order of magnitude.

      Still, the workers should be provided with safety gear.

  6. Look what I can do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This hole video is one big "look what I can do" https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    Looks good but it has no value other then - iPenis.

  7. Re:GNAA for life by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    ...

    Slashdot has sunk so low that even the copypasta trolls are just phoning it in now.

  8. kiisel blog by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    www.irfanbarutcu.com/blog thanks :D

  9. Why do blacks never do this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Any answers? It's always white people... those damn, 'racist' whites... How dare they think they can have their own countries!

    1. Re:Why do blacks never do this? by Livius · · Score: 1

      Sure, blame the humans when clearly the volcano is at fault.

  10. Delicious envy. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If I could feed off the envy in some of the posts here, I'd be sated for a year.

    There is no objective reason to live - it's all about satisfying some emotional drive, no matter how much rationalising you want to tack onto it. And here's how these guys satisfied their drive. Well played, sirs.

  11. Re:Fucking morons by penguinoid · · Score: 1

    They're an inspiration to future Darwin award candidates.

    --
    Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
  12. Tourism opportunity by Virtucon · · Score: 1

    Well look at it this way, guys come to Vanautu, spend money maybe get burned up in a volcano. It's a new revenue generating opportunity for the islanders.

    --
    Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
  13. It is spelled Vanuatu, you fucking retards. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Every single one of you didn't even catch the fact that the name
    was spelled incorrectly.

    While you were busy pretending to be intelligent, the world was
    watching you and laughing.

    1. Re:It is spelled Vanuatu, you fucking retards. by jc42 · · Score: 1

      Every single one of you didn't even catch the fact that the name was spelled incorrectly.

      While you were busy pretending to be intelligent, the world was watching you and laughing.

      Wrong; I noticed the mispelling in the summary, and I noticed the misspeling in the article. And I noticed the comment about it in the short "discussion" below the article. So when I came here, I did a scan for "spell" to see how many people noticed. What, no matches? So I slid the little sliders that control the level of comments visible, all the way to the right -- and I found your comment. Of course, with with a score of 0, it might be missed by a lot of readers. But I didn't have mod points, so I replied instead, to tell you that you were wrong to say "Every single one of you" missed it.

      There are probably others, too, but they just shrugged, mumbled something about the poor knowledge of geography in the kids these days, and read on.

      (And I do have a general policy of mispeling the word "misspell" during spelling flames, but so far hardly anyone has ever called me on it, so I conclude that it's a futile exercise in meta-humor. ;-)

      --
      Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
  14. prior art by ihtoit · · Score: 4, Interesting

    National Geographic, "Man Vs. Volcano", part of the Explorer series which aired in 2010. A team of explorers descended three steppes into the mouth of Nyiragongo and took a virgin sample from the world's largest lava lake. When you've seen that show... this is kinda tame.

    --
    Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
    1. Re:prior art by rossdee · · Score: 1

      Even before that, professor lidenbrock and his nephew Axel descended into Mt Snaeffells in Iceland

    2. Re:prior art by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A sample of sacrificed virgins?

    3. Re:prior art by Argos · · Score: 1

      A sample of sacrificed virgins?
      (mistakenly posted as AC previously)

    4. Re:prior art by ihtoit · · Score: 1

      ooh, almost funny :) A virgin sample of lava, as described in the same documentary, is one which has not been contaminated by contact with terrestrial regolith. It is thought to contain if not predominantly then exclusively, the same chemical composition as Earth during its Hadean Phase (when the crust was still molten).

      --
      Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
  15. Would we be encouraging more stupid stunts? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sure the vid is impressive

    Sure I'm envy

    But by watching the vid and talk about how envious we are, will be be encouraging others to do similar things --- which might end up in tragedies ?

    1. Re:Would we be encouraging more stupid stunts? by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      Sure the vid is impressive

      Sure I'm envy

      But by watching the vid and talk about how envious we are, will be be encouraging others to do similar things --- which might end up in tragedies ?

      Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk in to an opensewer and die." -- Mel Brooks

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  16. I did this before your grandparents were born... by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 5, Informative

    And I can totally imagine them coming home and their grandparents asking them "Where did you go this year?" in the most obnoxious wasy possible, like all grandparents do. Good luck explaining this one!

    Yeah, yeah. Been there, done that. About 375 years ago.

    Back when Vesuvius was actively erupting in the 1630s, I decided to take a closer look. While the volcano was still smoldering and active, I hired a local guide to take me to the top, then was lowered into the crater to take some scientific observations and temperature measurements. You wanna read more about it? Here's some info on my book. (Of course, science has progressed a lot since then.)

    We didn't have fancy videocameras back then, so I had to make make my own drawings of what I saw.

  17. Sam and George are only tourists by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sam and George are tourists. The real daredevils are Geoff Mackley and Brad Ambrose who did it before couple of times:

    http://www.emergency.co.nz/archive/marum.html
    http://www.emergency.co.nz/archive/marum2009.html
    http://www.emergency.co.nz/archive/marum2010.html

    According to huffingtonpost Geoff and Brad worked as tour guides for Sam and George this time:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/05/volcano-gopro-george-kourounis-sam-cossman_n_5774706.html

  18. hum, excellent for them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How old are you people? You do realize that humans have been doing these kind of activities for decades before computers or drones became mainstream. It sad how new generations are getting dumber and pussier by the next and it's no wonder people around the world including here in this country allow their governments to control every aspect of their lives. All animal instincts(being able to survive and defend oneself) are dissipating leaving us vulnerable thanks to laws and religion. Thank the brainwashed pussies of this world for allowing nanny states to take over and tell you what you can and can't do with your life.

  19. Cannonnnnnnbaaa... by jpellino · · Score: 1

    ... *LOS*...

    --
    "Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
  20. What of the one ring? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Did they cast it into the fires? I have no doubt that if the ring survived that one of them will soon turn up dead...

    1. Re:What of the one ring? by Stan92057 · · Score: 1

      Yes they did, but Godzilla ate it while he was down there.

      --
      Jack of all trades,master of none
  21. mute the audio by BradMajors · · Score: 1

    Play the video with audio muted. The music is really bad and annoying. There is nothing on the audio track other than the annoying music.

  22. In an alternate dimension.. by danknight48 · · Score: 1

    - Two Explorers Dead after trying to improve their ePeen.
    - Two Scientists visit active volcano and discover new elements.

    Why do we always end up with the retarded one?