Volcanic eruptions have shaped life on Earth. They are also blamed for several mass extinctions in Earth's history. Such so-called supervolcanoes devastate entire continents and change the world's climate for centuries. Quarks shows how the eruption of a supervolcano would affect us here in Germany today and how we could deal with such a global catastrophe. The last eruption of a supervolcano was a long time ago. But a super-eruption is also possible today - for example the Phlegraean Fields near Naples. Such an eruption of a supervolcano could bring humanity to the brink of extinction. The Phlegraean Fields to the west of Naples are Europe's supervolcano. In recent centuries the volcano has remained quiet, but there are increasing signs that there is rumblings beneath the "burning fields". Signs of an impending eruption? After mysterious discoveries, scientists around the world are searching for traces of a supervolcano that caused a global climate catastrophe in the Middle Ages and claimed 10,000 lives - right in the middle of Europe. Supervolcanoes form where particularly large magma chambers form underground. But how does this happen and how do volcanoes form? To do this, Quarks travels deep beneath the earth's surface. The search for the mysterious supervolcano that caused global climate chaos in the Middle Ages leads a team of volcanologists to the most active volcanoes on earth - to Indonesia, to the Pacific Ring of Fire. They prove that it is a previously unknown volcano and show what happened when it erupted. A supervolcano eruption would have catastrophic consequences worldwide. What exactly these would look like and how our modern society would be prepared is unclear. We met two disaster researchers who are thinking about exactly this topic. Supervolcanoes leave huge craters in the landscape, so-called calderas. Ranga Yogeshwar shows how they are created in an impressive experiment. Authors: Jakob Kneser, Daniel Haase, Pascal Guérin, Larissa Richter, Ulf Kneiding --- Thanks for watching! Did you like the video? Then subscribe now to the only official Quarks channel on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/Quarks?sub_co... Quarks on Facebook: / quarks.de Also visit: https://www.quarks.de #Quarks on Instagram: / quarks.de / beautyquarks Here you can find the clip in the WDR media library: https://www1.wdr.de/mediathek/video/s... #Quarks #Vulkan #Supervulkan