Unbelievable moment man awakens a volcano after throwing something in

There are - sadly - a lot of ways humans can impact the planet, but a volcano is one of the things we really shouldn't mess with.

They're literally mountains filled with fire. They're big, they're sporadic, and they're capable of burning and melting everything that gets in their path - we should really just leave them alone, right?

That's my opinion at least, but one guy had another idea.

In incredible footage shared online, two people can be seen standing scarily close the lip of a huge pit at the Erta Ale volcano in Ethiopia; a continuously active basaltic shield volcano.

That's their first mistake in my option, but rather than running in the other direction, one of them then threw something into the boiling substance.

The object dropped down into the pit and hit the bottom, where it broke through the hardened crust of the lava.

That was mistake number two.

After the object hit the crust, it opened up a hole which caused hot lava to spurt upwards.

At first there were just a few globules of the molten hot stuff, then the surface of the volcano started pulsing and more lava spewed upwards.

"Oh look it broke the surface, it's made a nice little hole." (YouTube/Photovolcanica)

The impact of the object continued as the hole grew and began spitting out bigger and bigger globs of lava.

Within seconds, what had once been a silent and unmoving surface was a roiling pond of molten turbulence, and the volcano awakens all thanks to one little object being thrown into it.

Though the whole thing seems like a terrible idea, there was actually method to the madness.

The decision to throw an object into the lava came as part of a test by researchers who wanted to work out what would happen if a human being fell into a volcano from such a height that they could potentially break through the surface crust and punch a hole in the lava.

"The hole is much bigger and lava is shooting out of it, let's hope it stops doing that." (Photovolcanica/YouTube)

Since they couldn't get an actual human to test this idea, the researchers instead used a box filled with organic waste weighing about 30kg to take the terrifying 80 metre plunge into the lava.

They believe the sudden awakening of the volcano and the violent expulsion of lava is largely a result of the steam produced due to organic matter falling into the volcano.

Since humans are mostly water, a person into a volcano would probably have pretty much the same effect - though hopefully we'll never get to know for sure.