UKTV - Life on Fire (2012)

Volcanoes are one of the most spectacular and powerful forces on our planet. They create new land, change landscapes and destroy civilisations, but more than two billion years ago they also breathed life into our world. From the ocean abyss to snow-covered summits, this ambitious series paints a detailed picture of the struggles and amazing intimacy required to survive around volcanoes. Spectacular scenery provides the backdrop for the extraordinary animals and plants that have learned to juggle with fire. Fragile and engaging, these creatures teach us lessons in survival in a world as fascinating as it is dangerous.

Part 1: Icelandic Volcanoes
A year ago, the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland provoked a vast economic chaos by paralysing one of the world’s major air traffic networks for several days. Through spectacular aerial footage, the film tries to understand which volcano could wake up next and what the consequences of a major eruption are likely to be. The world has come to realize that a colossal power sleeps beneath Iceland but Icelanders have learned to live amongst their volcanoes for centuries.


Part 2: Ash Runners
On a remote island of New Britain, animals and plants have learned to live with the sporadic anger of the Earth. In this apocalyptic realm, when the ash created by volcanic eruptions invades their habitat, the choice is simple: leave or… stay and face the unknown.


Part 3: Volcano Doctors
Whether the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Colombia, Chile, Italy or Iceland, each of these countries is home to active volcanoes that are a threat to the populations settled at their feet. To avoid disasters, volcanologists are asked to anticipate and warn, they are asked to be prophets and to know how to analyze the volcanoes’ slightest tremors. Around the world, these volcano doctors use their tools and knowledge to try and protect those who live in the path of the Earth’s fire.


Part 4: Phoenix Temple
Nicaragua, in the middle of Central America, is home to Masaya; a huge volcano that has been active for over 30,000 years. During its long life it has caused some of the largest eruptions in history. The surrounding landscape has been created from lava, ash and gas while at the centre lies a desolate, empty land. Each time the Masaya volcano destroys everything around it, life returns, re-emerging from the ash at its feet.


Part 5: Pioneers of the Deep
In the vast emptiness of the Pacific Ocean, tectonic movements construct or destroy islands. In the Tongan archipelago, two little-known animals have learnt to cope with these ephemeral lands: the sooty tern, a seabird that never dares wet its wings for fear of drowning and the Alvin shrimp, a blind crustacean that nonetheless manages to find its way around the abyss. When an underwater volcano becomes an island, the fates of these two living paradoxes are linked.


Part 6: The Surprise Salmon
In Alaska, the fresh water that feeds the rivers is snowmelt from North America’s highest mountains and most active volcanoes. Time and again, they erupt and poison the rivers. Scientists have only just begun to piece together what might have happened nearly 2,000 years ago, when one race of salmon faced the death of their natal river and were forced back to the open ocean - on an extraordinary adventure…




Feel free to contact me when links are dead