Forces of Nature

At the Kawah Ijen

Clip: Episode 2 | 2m 50s | Video has closed captioning.

At the Kawah Ijen volcano in Indonesia, bright yellow elemental sulphur is mined, but the valuable sulphur is also flammable and easily catches fire. It burns with a blue flame but also produces choking fumes of sulphur dioxide. Each night a team of workers must brave the harsh conditions and put out the flames to keep the mine active and the sulphur pure.