ZDF Enterprises

Every day on Earth, around 30 volcanoes violently erupt. By meeting the people and wildlife that live alongside the planet’s volcanoes, we reveal the ways in which they affect life on Earth. Despite their destructive nature, volcanoes are actually the life givers of our planet.

At the heart of this story is a ground-breaking expedition to one of the world’s most active lava lakes. Biologist Jens Kallmeyer wants to find out how extremophiles, the toughest life forms on Earth, can survive next to a boiling lake of lava in Vanuatu. Along with a team of adventurers and mountaineers, Jens descends into the volcano’s crater to collect rock samples. He hopes to find life forms living inside the volcano that can tell us more about the origins of life on Earth as well as the likelihood of finding life elsewhere in our universe.