Our journey into the world of volcanoes brought us face to face with the most lethal of all eruptions...(image). The pyroclastic flow. From Ecuador to Montserrat, we encountered these deadly explosions... (image). Unlike lava volcanoes (Sicily's Etna or Hawaii's Kilahuea), which are spectacular but rarely lethal, pyroclastic volcanoes are killers... these look like gray clouds... but they are clouds of fire and rock... superheated avalanches of gas and stone... (image) traveling downhill at speeds in excess of 100 miles an hour... Tungurahua --the Black Giant-- is one of the breed that generates these violent pyroclastic eruptions, storing up tremendous energy... until it explodes in a series of blasts... that can shoot 20 miles in the sky... (image). Tungurahua towers above the tourist town of Banos in Ecuador.... with thousands of residents and visitors in jeopardy, volcanologists Patty and Peter Hall, are worried that such a major pyroclastic explosion could come at any moment (image). They are racing around the world to investigate a new generation of state of the art equipment that will help them save lives... letting them predict exactly where--and how--the volcano will erupt.

The most recent pyroclastic tragedy happened just five years ago on the Caribbean island of Montserrat....day turned into night as a great wave of rock and ash poured out across the island and blotted out the sun... (image). In the melting, suffocating heat of nearly 600 degrees, 19 people were killed....visiting Montserrat, Patty and Peter vow to “honor these tragedies by learning from them.” For Peter, it's a terrifying reminder of exactly what's at stake: "these clouds get up to velocities well in excess of 100 miles an hour and because of that nobody can outrun them. You’ll be cooked if you’re caught in the path of the pyroclastic flow." Death by pyroclastic flow can be terrifyingly brutal. In less than a second, the body is submerged in fire... the first breath vaporizes the internal organs... the pain barely has a chance to register... the body is almost instantly reduced to charcoal.... This was the fate of the victims of Montserrat; this was the fate of the victims of the most famous pyroclastic explosion of all, the deadly eruption of Mount Vesuvius....

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Produced and Directed by Brando Quilici Written by Robert Goldberg, Edited by Greg Smith Music by Don Grady Photography by Doug Allan, John Davey, A. Ojetti, A. Signori Art Director Mark Dubeau, Associate Producer Sarah Harvey For the Discovery Channel Executive Producers Steve Burns and Steven Manuel Executive in charge of Production W. Clark Bunting

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