Volcanoes in the heart of Europe

The picturesque scenery of Bohemian volcanoes and their majestic rocks have attracted the attention of the Czech and international scientists for more than 200 years. Even Alexander von Humboldt and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe directed their studies towards this area.
In the Czech landscape, volcanic rocks created a kind of landmark hills with relatively steep slopes. A great majority of those hills are, in fact, no remnants of regular volcanoes; they often represent conduits of volcanic buttes exposed by selective erosion. Actually, those volcanic rocks are much harder to erode and more resistant than the surrounding deposits of the Cretaceous sea.
How relevant, in fact, is the study of Czech volcanoes, extinct a long time ago, not exposing anyone’s life to danger? The fact is that the Czech volcanoes are affected by erosion or sometimes even by quarrying. Thanks to this, we are able to get quite a deep insight into the Earth’s interior and study the processes going on when the volcanoes were active. By combining this knowledge with data from the active volcanoes, we are able to understand the processes taking place in various parts of the world. With this approach the Czech volcanology can promote a better understanding of volcanoes all over the world. The movie introduces some of the most spectacular Czech volcanoes and explains their origin.