REVIEW The Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari – the Netflix documentary that shows you how small we are in front of Mother Nature

The Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari is one of the latest documentaries you can watch on Netflix, and it’s clearly worth your full attention.

The documentary The Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari reignites just how small we are, despite our smugness, in the face of Mother Nature.

The Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari, a tragic true story

As previously mentioned, you can watch this documentary on Netflix right now. That said, I recommend you do so with confidence, whether you knew, or didn’t know, about this case.

The Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari tells the story of one of the biggest tragedies of recent times, although there hasn’t been much of a fuss in the international press about it.

It’s the account of a volcanic eruption in New Zealand in 2019, a story that has been turned into a Netflix documentary.

The documentary is directed by Oscar nominee Rory Kennedy and follows the minute-by-minute unfolding of a tourist trip that ended with a volcanic eruption on an island off the coast of New Zealand that claimed the lives of 22 people.

Whakaari (also known as the White Island) is a small island in the Bay of Plenty and an active stratovolcano, that is, a volcano that is made up of several layers of lava from past eruptions.

In the 1980s, it erupted many times, and a major eruption in 2000 caused a massive crater. Smaller but not insignificant eruptions were also recorded in 2012, 2013 and 2016.

Whakaari has been privately owned by the Buttle family since 1936, and is now a beloved tourist spot.

However, in October and November 2019, geologists at GNS Science noted that gas (sulfur dioxide), steam, and mud were ejected from the crater on the island – the highest levels since 2016.

On November 24, there was even a recorded earthquake with an epicenter just 10 kilometers away from the island.