Life On Fire

On the volcanic island of New/Britain off the coast of Papua New Guinea, a handful of animals have to live with the Earth's moods. When ash from a volcanic eruption invades their habitat, the choice is simple: leave, or stay and adapt! Watch how animals and insects cope in the midst of an eruption.

To avoid disasters, volcanologists are asked to anticipate and warn, they are asked to be prophets and to know how to analyze the volcano's slightest tremors. Around the world, these "volcano doctors" use their tools and knowledge to try and protect those who live beneath the Earth's fire.

Tectonic movements construct or swallow islands in the Pacific. In the Tonga archipelago, two little-known animals have to cope with these ephemeral lands risen from the ocean depths: the sooty tern, a seabird that never dares wet its wings, and the Alvin crustacean, a blind shellfish.

Through spectacular aerial footage of Iceland, a country formed by an accumulation of lava and ash into a maze of craters and faults, we work to understand which volcano could wake up next. What would the consequences of a major eruption be for Iceland - and for the rest of the globe?

Around the Masaya Volcano in Nicaragua, life has struggled for thousands of years to re-emerge from the ashes after each eruption. Captured by filmmakers risking their lives underground in caves, we see vampire and other bat species that colonize miles of tunnels created by hot flowing magma.

This incredible story illustrates a rare case where scientists have been able to show fish adapting to a natural change in their environment. Alaska's Sockeye salmon have had an epic adventure from lake to ocean adapting to a new environment created 2000 years ago by volcanic activity in Alaska.