NOVA: Killer Volcanoes

By Jennifer Robinson / Web Producer

Published October 19, 2017 at 8:34 AM PDT

Stream now with KPBS Passport on KPBS+ / Watch Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025 at 9 p.m. on KPBS 2

Join NOVA and a team of volcanologists looking for an elusive volcanic mega-eruption that plunged the medieval earth into a deep freeze. Investigate the geologic evidence from Greenland all the way to Antarctica to identify the 750-year-old culprit.

NOVA follows a team of volcano sleuths as they embark on a worldwide hunt for an elusive volcanic mega-eruption that plunged medieval Earth into a deep freeze. They look for the signature of a volcanic eruption big enough to have blasted a huge cloud of ash and sulfuric acid into the atmosphere, which chilled the entire planet. Across the globe, it turned summer into winter.

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Franck Lavigne and Jean Christophe Komorowski - Quarry, Lombok, Indonesia.

NOVA: Killer Volcanoes

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