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The circle visible from space

Tom Scott | December 14, 2025



Mount Taranaki, on the North Island of New Zealand, is a large-scale circle that’s visible from space: a stratovolcano with six miles of forest around it. But that didn’t happen naturally. Oh, and there’s a good chance that, in the next fifty years or so, it might explode.

GOOD VIDEOS ON NATURAL PERSONHOOD:

Law professor Jacinta Ruru at TEDx Christchurch, for a formal talk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zAPwaOYjQU

Leonie Hayden at The Spinoff, for a more vlog-style approach:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbS-bOUgotU

SOURCES:

Taranaki Civil Defence and Emergency Management https://cdemtaranaki.govt.nz/taranaki-hazards/natural-hazards/volcanic/

McWethy, D., Wilmshurst, J., Whitlock, C., Wood, J., & McGlone, M. (2014). A High-Resolution Chronology of Rapid Forest Transitions following Polynesian Arrival in New Zealand. Plos ONE, 9(11), e111328. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0111328

Perry, G., Wilmshurst, J., & McGlone, M. (2014). Ecology and long-term history of fire in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal Of Ecology, 38(2), 157-176.

ME:

🟥 MORE FROM TOM: https://www.tomscott.com/
(you can find contact details and social links there too)

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Written by Tom Scott

Comments

This post currently has 32 comments.

  1. @TomScottGo

    December 14, 2025 at 4:54 pm

    For the second time this month, I've been filming with a static camera and odd lighting and it looks a bit like I'm on a greenscreen. I'm not; but the next time I'm doing a solo piece to camera, I'll use the GoPro on a stick instead. And the steam behind me isn't anything volcanic; it's just backlit morning mist as the night's rain is boiled off by the sun!

  2. @yanSolo224

    December 14, 2025 at 4:54 pm

    No one can be sure that humans only settled here 700 years ago. We’re so quick to throw our eggs into that basket that we don’t allow for any other possibility. Suspicious

  3. @TheeRealHuman

    December 14, 2025 at 4:54 pm

    Am looking for work. Fluent English speaker both written and spoken and I have a bachelors in bba but willing to take on any unskilled work out there. Reply to me on here and I will give you my email. Am in East Africa currently

  4. @bartdeking

    December 14, 2025 at 4:54 pm

    You forgot to mention that the people who lived here before the Europeans which some group and named them maori dispite coming from various places in the world, already burned down forest to catch a few birds to eat as they were desperate for food.

  5. @Mike-s1l7z

    December 14, 2025 at 4:54 pm

    Everything on the planet is visible from space

    I laugh everytime I hear the comment that it can be seen from space,

    Well if it's on the planet, (not underground) it can be seen from space,

    Everyday all day long there are snap shot pictures and videos taken of the planet from space,

    The resolutions, the degree of the resolutions of those pics and vids is all that matters, and the quality of cameras in the recent past, makes everything that is ON the planet visible from space…

  6. @mmaniack

    December 14, 2025 at 4:54 pm

    i dont know why i got recommended this after 6 years, but it feels incredible to see a tom scott video again, even though its an old one. you have always been the best at this, and will always be.

  7. @st-ex8506

    December 14, 2025 at 4:54 pm

    Of course such a circle is visible from space. Plates, set up for lunch on my garden's table are visible from space on a Google Earth picture of my house.

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