Welcome To Earth – Episode 2, The Silent Roar

Will Smith (“Fresh Prince”, “Seven Pounds”), and director Darren Aronofsky (“Black Swan”, “The Wrestler”) are back for episode two of their series, Welcome To Earth.

This time round, it’s all about the world we hear, and the world we do not. Will kicks things off on Tanna Island in Vanuatu at the Mount Yasur volcano.

This is an active volcano, constantly throwing up lava that comes down as rocks, some small, some not so small. Will heads there with Erik Weihenmayer, the first blind person to ever summit Everest.

Will admits he’s never climbed a mountain, never slept in a tent, but has always fancied climbing Mount Everest and with Erik being just two days older than him, he says he should do.

The loudest sound ever recorded was from a volcano (Krakatoa), though Will is listening for a different type of sound, the type you don’t so much hear, but feel.

Meanwhile Diva Amon is back, this time freediving with sperm whales in order to better hear the clicks they make, used for communication as well as echo-location.

The clicks are so loud, they would drown out a chainsaw and, if close enough, you can feel the pressure wave coming from them.

In San Juan De La Vega, we see the festival of the exploding hammers. No, you read that correct. This is, as the name suggest, where a bunch of local townsfolk hit violent explosive powder with massive sledgehammers, the results of which literally blow them off their feet.

It’s crackers to see, but shows the soundwaves that are emitted, that sound is movement, which is what Erik uses to ‘see’. And, back at the volcano, the trio are descending to place sensors to record infrasound, a very low frequency sound made by the volcano.

Meanwhile in the Dolomite mountains in Italy, a group head into a cave and then descend 820 feet. It’s quiet here, really quiet, but not quiet enough as they can hear the water dripping from the roof.

So, they go further, some 1,500 feet down and now there’s no sound. Nothing. They setup some recording devices and leave, which may seem odd, but they do record something.

The sound is hard to explain, but it is believed to be the sound of the Moon’s gravity dragging the mountains, like it does the sea. You may find that hard to believe but it happens everywhere. New York, for instance, twice a day, every day, rises and sinks some 14 inches from the Moon’s pull.

Once again this is another spectacular looking episode and, of course, as you’d hope, it sounds amazing with music courtesy of Daniel Pemberton (composer on Birds Of Prey, Yesterday, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (TV) and more).

It’s also fun to see Will Smith out of his comfort zone (again) as he really doesn’t want to go down into that volcano!