All language subtitles for What.on.Earth.S07E03.1080p.DSCP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-BTN_track3_[eng]

Narrator:
They're watching you.

More than 4,000 satellites
Circle the earth.

Every day, they uncover new,
Mysterious phenomena

That defy explanation.

The reindeer cyclone.

Christmas is canceled.

They're moving en masse.
It is chaos.

Are they about to kill
All these reindeer?

Narrator: the $3 trillion
Treasure trove.

Maybe this image is the real
King solomon's mine.

Narrator:
And dracula's frozen tomb.

It looks like a giant coffin.

[ beeping, distorted music ]

Baffling phenomena.

Mysteries from space.

What on earth are they?

-- captions by vitac --
Www.Vitac.Com

[ beeping ]
[ camera shutter clicking ]

[ whirring ]

Captions paid for by
Discovery communications

**

[ frequency warbles ]
[ whirring ]

February 21, 2019.

480 miles above northern sweden,

The worldview-2 satellite
Captures a series of circles

In the frozen tundra.

This is really bizarre.
Perfect circles in the snow

In one of the most
Remote places on the earth.

It almost looks like
Giant bubbles

Emerging from two large circles
In the ground.

I've never seen
Anything quite like it.

Narrator: the unusual image
Intrigues meteorologists.

Because of global warming,
What we are seeing is

The melting of the permafrost.

When the permafrost melts,

What we will have are
Sometimes eruptions of methane

Explodes out in almost a bomb
Blast-type formation,

That produces these very
Circular type of formations.

Is this the kind of pattern
That we are seeing here?

Narrator: but the only
Methane craters

That have been recorded on land

Are on the siberian tundra,
Thousands of miles from sweden.

Closer analysis suggest
This is something else.

The two large circles
Are so regular.

They can't be occurring
Naturally.

This is human made.

Who would build a series
Of interconnected circles?

This is northern sweden.
This is viking territory.

Looking into military history,
You'll see that the vikings

Built huge fortified circular
Structures called ring forts.

Narrator: satellites have
Captured ring fort remains

All over viking territory,
But this image is different.

A viking ring fort would have
Stood on its own,

Not huddled right up to
Neighboring viking round forts.

This structure does not make
Sense at all to me as a fort.

Narrator: karen bellinger
Searches for something

To explain
The conjoined circles

And finds a possible clue
In nautical records.

Perhaps what we have here
Is a set of blubber ovens.

Blubber ovens are
Giant circular structures,

Not dissimilar to what we have
In our satellite image here.

They were used
To render whale fat.

Narrator: there are accounts
Of arctic whaling

Going back
To the 16th century,

And it thrived
For hundreds of years.

[ whales bellowing ]

At one time, as many as
3,000 ships in this region

Are hunting whales.

For locals, a valuable source of
Meat, oil, and other products.

Whale oil used to fuel lamps.

If you think about it,

Living in these far northern
Climes in these long winters,

The gift of light was life.

Narrator: these gentle,
Giant creatures are butchered

And rendered in the ovens,
Boiling copper vats,

Cooked on circular foundations
Of bricks and a mix of sand,

Gravel, and whale oil
Called blubber cement.

It would have taken
A whole team of men

Up to their eyeballs in blubber,

Clambering all over this messy,
Bloody, fatty carcass,

Making the waves run red.

[ birds squawking ]

Narrator: all that remains
Of scandinavia's mammoth

Mammal cookouts
Are blackened circles,

But there's a whale-sized hole
In the blubber oven theory.

Looking more widely
At the location,

I don't think these can be
Blubber ovens,

Because they're too far
From the coast.

They have nothing to do
With the sea.

I think this is something
More modern,

Because when I punch in
On the image,

I see large perimeter fences
Around these circles.

Kays: this could be some kind of
Livestock enclosure,

But it's so far north.

Temperatures here on
The swedish tundra

Can drop to 30 below,
So this is no cattle ranch.

There are bears, wolves, lynx,

But very few species
Can survive this far north.

One animal that it might be
Is reindeer.

Narrator: reindeer are
Sub-arctic super beasts

With a nose that warms air
On its way to the lungs,

Eyes that change color with
Seasonal shifts in the light,

And knees that click so animals

Don't lose each other
In a blizzard.

If these are reindeer pens,
They could be the work

Of one of the oldest
Nomadic people on earth.

This is an area

Where historically
The sami people live.

The sami have roamed
The tundra for 7,000 years.

They're also known as lapps
For this is lapland,

The home,
According to legend,

Of saint nicholas
Or santa claus.

And the lives
Of these lapland nomads

Are intertwined
With the reindeer.

The reindeer are such a big part
Of sami culture.

They not only are food, but also
For milk, transportation,

And the hide of these reindeer
Are used for clothing.

Nelson: these reindeer
Are their lifeblood.

That is what they depend on
For their livelihood.

Narrator: in the darkness
Before dawn,

Sami tribesmen
Of the 21st century

Operate no longer with dogs
And sled, but with snowmobiles.

[ men calling ]

This part of northern sweden
Has very little light.

It can be very difficult to see,

So they're using verbal calls
To each other.

Narrator: as the sami weave
In and out of the forest,

It's as if the land is moving.

However, the shifting landscape
Is, in fact,

Hundreds of reindeer

Being driven towards the circles
In the satellite image.

[ men calling ]

But as science journalist
Haley chamberlain observes,

There's something not right
About these images.

Reindeer in this area
Are usually let to roam free.

Seems really strange
That hundreds of them

Are being herded into one spot.

Narrator: the sami arrive at
The circles seen from space...

[ calling ]

...And all hell breaks loose.

**

It's chaos.
All of these reindeer,

They're moving en masse
In a counterclockwise rotation.

Narrator: this phenomenon
Is known as a reindeer cyclone.

It's the sign of
A herd in peril.

Chamberlain:
This is really ominous.

A reindeer cyclone
Is a protective measure

That reindeer take so

That they can keep
Predators out.

This has all the markings
Of an animal cull.

Are they about to kill
All these reindeer?

**

Narrator: coming up,
End game for rudolf?

We slaughtered all
The reindeers. Thousands.

What on earth is going on here?

Narrator:
And winston churchill's

Two million-ton ice ship.

You think that sounds
Absolutely he crazy, but no,

It actually makes
A lot of sense.

**

Narrator: in the sub-arctic
Lapland region,

In circles seen from space...

[ calling ]

...Sami herdsman are at
The center of a stampede

Called a reindeer cyclone.

But something's wrong.

The sami normally
Let reindeer roam free.

There are hundreds of reindeer
In these huge circular pens.

What on earth
Is going on here?

Could this be in culling?

[ men yelling ]

Narrator: but the sami
Approached

Not with knives or guns,

But something else.

[ reindeer grunting ]

I've seen this kind of
Equipment before.

These guys are probing
For radiation.

Narrator: sensors on the abdomen
Test the tissue

For radioactivity,

But why?

This is an utterly remote corner
Of sub-arctic wilderness.

Chamberlain: I'm looking
At this area,

And there is no nuclear plant.

There's no nuclear
Testing facility.

Why are they testing these
Reindeer for radioactivity?

Narrator: according to the sami
Tribesmen here,

The problems began
More than 30 years ago.

[ crowd shouting ]

In fact, they know
The exact date in 1986.

This is the year of chernobyl.

[ alarm blaring ]

Narrator: in communist russia,
On april 26th,

Poorly trained engineers begin
Safety tests

At the badly designed
Nuclear plant

Outside the city of chernobyl.

A drop in power
Causes a chain reaction

And reactor four explodes...

[ explosion ]

...Firing a deadly cloud
Of caesium-137

Into the atmosphere,

Radiation equivalent
To 400 nuclear bombs.

Chernobyl is the single
Worst disaster

In the history of atomic power.

It's the world's first-ever
Level-seven nuclear incident.

But how does a disaster
At a soviet nuclear power plant,

Have any bearing
On radioactive reindeer

More than a thousand
Miles away in sweden?

Narrator: weather satellites
Point to the answer.

Cerveny: up in the latitudes
Of parts of europe,

The winds are actually
Flowing from east to west.

Narrator: following
The explosion,

The radioactive cloud above
The decimated power station

Begins drifting westwards

Over ukraine,

Finland,

And on to sweden.

The soviet government is
Covering up the entire incident.

This toxic cloud of caesium-137
Is propagating across europe,

And most people have no idea.

Narrator: in the atmosphere,

Chernobyl's deadly radioactive
Ash cloud,

Turns to radioactive rain
And snow.

Radioactive ash
Is a really good,

What we call
Condensation nucleus.

It's something that the water
Can collect around,

And form a raindrop.

Each raindrop is then
Going to have millions

Of these little
Radioactive seeds.

Narrator: nuclear rain
Spells disaster.

[ thunder rumbling ]

And in this game of
Russian radiation roulette,

The loser is lapland,

Home of sami reindeer herdsman
Like tomas standland.

Standland: my family has been
Involved in reindeers

Many generations.

I know every rock
In this landscape.

Yeah, we are living
With the reindeers,

And we are living in nature.

It's a special life.

After chernobyl, it was --
It was very tough.

It was a new life.

Narrator: 1,000 miles
From chernobyl,

The radiation in reindeer
Is 250% over safe limits

And standland's herd is doomed.

All the reindeers,
We slaughtered them

And then digged them
Down in the ground.

It was a waste.

Thousands of reindeers
The first year.

Narrator:
Yet the mystery remains

As to why the sami's herd
Is radioactive,

Three decades
After chernobyl.

Analysts consider if the answer
Lies in the tundra's vegetation.

This area is very rich
And lichen.

Lichen don't have
A root system.

They get all of their nutrients
From the atmosphere.

Cerveny: lichen acts almost
Like a sponge

And absorbs
That radioactive material.

Fanara: and lichen is reindeer's
Favorite food.

Narrator: lichen covers vast
Tracks of the tundra

Where stanland's
Reindeer roam and feed.

And tests indicate it will
Be potentially lethal

For decades to come.

You have to wait for the
Radioactive material to decay.

And in the case of caesium-137,
The half life is 30 years.

That means by now,
About 30 years after chernobyl,

Only about half of it is gone.

Narrator: the burden
On the samii is unrelenting.

They face years
Testing reindeer for radiation

Released three decades ago,

Probing for the toxic legacy of
Our worst-ever nuclear accident.

**

Coming up, history's
Biggest treasure horde.

You're dealing with one of the
Absolute giants

Of biblical history.

Narrator: and hitler's
Underwater terror fleet.

Morgan: they're operating
With a vengeance.

Sinking ships constantly.

[ explosion ]

**

**

Narrator: january 24th, 2012.

The worldview-2 satellite scans
The deserts of the holy land,

An area of special interest
To archeologists.

It's an absolutely
Barren landscape.

It looks like
The surface of mars.

Narrator: yet, far from any
Signs of human life,

It detects this.

What stands out
Is a four-walled structure

Right in the middle
Of the desert.

Hunt: the waning of corners.
The rubbing away of details.

This looks like
A really old structure.

It begs the question,
Why is it there?

Why did people bother
To build it

In this very dry,
Remote part of jordan?

Narrator: historians consider
If the structure's

Isolated location
Offers a clue.

Krueger: this could be a site
Known as a caravanserai,

Which is kind of a way
Station for travelers.

Narrator: a caravanserai
Is like a truck stop

For ancient caravans.

They grew along treasure-laden
Trade routes

At roughly 20-mile intervals.

Caravanserai were separated
By about a day's journey

Between each of them.

They would have
A squared-off perimeter,

And on the inside you would have
A stall to put your camels,

And you would have a building

Where you would have access
To water and food.

Narrator: archeologist
Patrick hunt

Agrees it looks ancient,

But it's not a caravanserai.

Hunt: going in on a zoom,
What you actually see

Is an enormous amount
Of smaller squares all around,

A lot higher density
Of activity

Than a caravanserai
Would support.

Narrator: he scans
The surrounding land

For further clues.

Hunt: there's a soil color
Difference that's dramatic.

You can see greenish oxide,

The patination
Of copper oxide soils,

So we know that copper is here.
Maybe they're copper mines.

Narrator: tribes in jordan,
Where this image is taken,

Are thought to have mined copper
As early as 5,000 years ago.

It's one of the largest copper
Mining extraction areas

In the ancient world.

Narrator: copper was
The first metal used

By early civilizations.

Its discovery drags
Primitive humankind

Out of the two and a half
Million year-long stone age.

When you alloy tin to copper,
You get bronze.

Bronze can be used to make
Swords and other weaponry.

[ soldiers shouting ]

Narrator: copper creates
The sumerians' battle axes,

The spartans' shield wall,
And the roman sword.

Once you master copper,
You now have civilization.

Narrator: in antiquity,
Copper is an incredibly

Highly valued commodity
And scale analysis

Suggests
An ancient mine of this size

Could have produced hundreds
Of tons of it every year.

If you are the owner of a mine
Like this, you are powerful.

You could arm large groups
Of people with weaponry.

You were the top
Of the food chain.

Horton: the question is who
Is actually running this mine?

Who is actually
Getting rich from it?

Narrator: when archeologists
Test artifacts

Recovered from the site,
It reveals something intriguing.

Hunt: radiocarbon dating hits
A narrow window for this site.

What's exactly coinciding
With the reign

Of a very important king,
Just to the north --

Solomon.

Narrator: born around 1010 bc,

The great king solomon rules
Over the kingdom of israel,

Which extended into jordan.

The tenth son of king david,

Famous for his wisdom
And his fabulous wealth.

You're dealing with one of
The absolute giants

Of biblical history.

Narrator: for each of
The 40 years of his reign,

It is said solomon grows richer
By 25 tons of gold.

He builds the first temple
In jerusalem on temple mount,

Where some believe the arc of
The covenant still lies hidden.

Hunt: the temple is adorned
With a huge bronze cauldron,

A bath, that's mounted
Upon 12 bronze bulls.

Horton: king solomon is mostly
Known from biblical sources

As this very rich
And powerful king

And, in particular,
Had and controlled gold mines.

Narrator: according to
The bible,

Solomon's mines contained
$3 trillion,

Not of copper, but of gold,

The ultimate prize for
The world's treasure hunters.

Walters: archeologists,
Historians,

Explorers have spent
The past 3,000 years

Looking for king solomon's gold.

They've gone to peru,
The philippines, india.

Narrator: the ancient greeks,
Renaissance explorers,

And victorian adventurers
Have all obsessed

Over finding solomon's
Vast horde of gold.

It's never been found.

Narrator:
Solomon was rich in gold,

But what if his famous minds
Were producing, not gold itself,

But some other
Highly valuable metal?

Walters: this great mining
Operation

That we see in these sites

Would have produced
Enormous wealth.

What is intriguing is that,

Possibly, king solomon's wealth
Didn't derive from gold,

But actually derived
From copper.

Hunt: maybe king solomon's mines
Are copper mines,

Not gold mines.

Maybe this image
We're looking at

Is the real king solomon's mine.

Narrator: if so, then surveys
Of the site suggest

That not only was solomon
A powerful king,

He was a great visionary.

You've got smelting facilities,

You've got furnaces,
You've got pipe work.

I mean, this is a proper mine
That would work today.

**

Narrator:
Coming up, the ice coffin...

This is extraordinary, isn't it?

Narrator:
...And the ring of fire.

The blast blew people
Hundreds of feet in the air,

It was absolute carnage.

**

**

Narrator:
September 23rd, 2018.

The international space
Station orbits

Earth every 90 minutes at speeds
Of almost five miles per second.

As it passes 220 miles
Above remote

Southern ocean off antarctica,

An astronaut
Captures this image.

This is extraordinary, isn't it?

The only way to describe it is,
It looks like a giant coffin.

This is obviously ice, but this
Doesn't look like anything

That I ever saw
In the antarctic.

Narrator: analysts struggle to
Find an explanation

For the ice's symmetry
And geometric lines.

When you see a chunk of ice

That has really precise angles,
That tends to say,

"Well, maybe there's
Something weird going on."

It definitely has
A manmade shape to it.

Narrator: it's clearly not
A giant coffin,

And military historian
Martin morgan

Points to one bizarre
Possibility.

Human hands have manipulated ice
On a large scale in the past.

During the second world war,

Particularly in the battle
Of the atlantic,

One of the things that was
Considered was taking an iceberg

And turning it into
An unsinkable aircraft carrier.

Narrator: in world war ii,
The british and russians

Rely on the u.S.
For supplies,

Which were shipped across
The atlantic.

Allied warplanes are able
To defend the convoys

As they leave america
And as they approach britain,

But in the mid-atlantic,
They are vulnerable to attacks

From wolf packs
Of german u-boats.

They're operating very
Effectively with a vengeance,

Sinking ships constantly.

One of the biggest problems
Faced by the allies

Was what was known
As the mid-atlantic gap.

It was an area where aircraft
Didn't have enough range

To reach in order to
Conduct anti-submarine patrols.

Narrator: to bridge the gap,

The allies need
Aircraft carriers,

But there is a chronic shortage
Of steel and aluminum.

Morgan: we can't close the gap.

We don't have any physical
Means to do so.

This is making us think
Of every possible solution

To the mid-atlantic gap crisis.

Narrator: one bizarre suggestion
Bears a striking resemblance

To the ice coffin
Seen from space.

The plan called for taking
A chunk of ice

And flattening off the top
To create a runway long enough

For even the largest combat
Aircraft in the world to land

And take off from this
Structure.

Narrator: code named
Project habakkuk,

Scientist geoffrey pyke

Designs an ice warship
Twice as big as the titanic

That holds 300 planes.

Pyke's biggest challenge isn't
Just building this mega ship.

It's stopping it from melting
Like a 2,000-foot long ice cube.

Pyke comes up with the idea
Of blending ice

And sawdust
Into this new compound

That has a higher
Melting temperature.

They call it pykrete.

Walters: you think that sounds
Absolutely crazy,

But, no, it actually
Makes a lot of sense.

The great thing about pykrete,
Compared to normal ice,

Is that the melting takes place
Incredibly slowly.

So, if you're making
A massive aircraft

Carrier-sized chunk of pykrete,
That's going to last for years.

Narrator: in january, 1943,
Engineers construct

A 60-foot prototype
On patricia lake in canada.

Morgan: this pykrete model
Proves that they can

Scale everything up,

But the costs associated
Were going to be too great,

And so it was
Ultimately abandoned.

World war ii is so filled
With these fascinating moments

Of "What could have been",

And this might be the greatest,
"What could have been",

But alas,
It wasn't to be at all.

Narrator: searching for
A natural explanation

For this ice giant's
Extraordinary shape,

Analysts track
Its historic movements.

The images reveal
That in march, 2000,

A massive iceberg breaks off the
Ross ice sheet in antarctica.

At 170 miles long and measuring
Over 4,000 square miles,

This supersize specimen contains
Roughly 3 trillion tons of ice.

Dennie: this is the size of
The entire state of connecticut

And, incredibly, there's enough
Water within this one iceberg

To match the annual
Average rainfall

For all land area on earth
For an entire year.

Narrator: the tracking data
Reveals this mega berg travels

Thousands of miles around
Our southernmost continent.

When icebergs break off
Of the antarctic ice sheets,

They tend to drift around in the
Currents in the southern ocean.

And as they move further north,
They encounter warmer water,

And as soon as they do,
Their days are numbered.

Narrator: but the ice coffin's
Mother berg

Is so large,
That after 18 years,

It's still afloat
And over 30 miles long.

To put in perspective,
The iceberg that sank

The titanic drifted around
For about two years

Before it eventually
Got into the shipping lanes

And sank that ship.

This iceberg has been drifting
For almost two decades.

Narrator: analysts follow
The ice mass as it arrives

At a treacherous swirling
Patch of the antarctic ocean

That scientists
Call iceberg alley.

The atlantic coastal current
Grabs these icebergs,

And over time, they will rub
And bump into each other

And will eventually break apart.

Narrator: the cataclysmic
Shattering of these giant burgs

Is so loud,

It's picked up by underwater
Microphones 4,000 miles away.

The oceans around antarctica
Are actually filled with

What you could consider to be
Their death throngs of pain

As they melt away into nothings.

Narrator: it might be that once
In iceberg alley,

Violent contact
With other bergs

Causes the ice chunk
To splinter

Releasing
This strange shape.

It just so happens that
This tabular iceberg broke apart

In a manner
That looks like a coffin.

Narrator: which is perfectly apt
Because the drifting coffin

Has reached warm waters
Where icebergs go to die.

Coming up,
Into the fire tornado...

Phoenix: this is literally like

The most destructive forces
On earth

Had a baby and
It's just rampaging everywhere.

Narrator: ...And arizona's
Nuclear condos.

What's really extraordinary is,
It's prime real estate.

**

**

Narrator: november 7th, 2018.

Scientists studying radar data

At a national weather
Service facility spot

Something strange over the town
Of woodbine, georgia.

This is one of the coolest
Radar images I have ever seen.

It's like a giant doughnut

Expanding out from
A single point in the middle.

It is bizarre.

Faylor: this just looks like
An explosion,

And you see it rising,
Growing, spreading out.

Boom.

[ explosion ]

Narrator: if this is
A catastrophic blast,

It won't be the first one
To hit this part of georgia.

Phoenix: this area was known for
Manufacturing weapons

During the vietnam war era,

And unfortunately there was
A massive explosion

That killed a lot of people way
Back then.

[ helicopter blades whirring ]

Narrator: the blast takes place
In 1971

In the thiokol-woodbine factory,

A plant in the southeast
Of the town

Contracted to
Make military flares.

The blast completely leveled
The building,

Blew people hundreds of feet
In the air, killed 29 people.

It was absolute carnage.

Narrator: yet closer analysis
Suggests

The radar hasn't captured
A similarly catastrophic event.

This is not just one image
From a snapshot in time.

It's a time-lapse.

An explosion would have happened
Much more rapidly and expanded

Even quicker.

Narrator: meteorologist
Kelsey ellis has another theory.

Ellis: there can be storms
That are caused by fires

Called fire clouds,

And I'm wondering
If this could be that.

Narrator: fire clouds can form
From wildfires and volcanoes.

They can reach temperatures
Above 1,400 degrees fahrenheit.

The intense heat generates
Violent updrafts

Filling the sky
With an expanding tower of smoke

That resembles
The radar image.

**

Thunderstorms are caused
By a heated surface,

So if a city gets really hot,
It can cause a thunderstorm.

So, imagine what a fire can do.

If the ground is on fire,
They can cause a cloud

That basically creates
Its own weather system.

Narrator: as these fire clouds

Swell up to 30,000 feet
Into the sky,

They can unleash
A different kind of terror.

They can actually produce
Full-sized tornadoes.

Now you've got winds
Of 150 miles an hour

Ripping trees
Out of the ground.

Hurling cars
As if they were toys,

And all of that in the middle
Of a raging wild fire.

[ thunder cracks ]

Phoenix: this is literally like

The most destructive forces
On earth

Had a baby and it's just
Rampaging everywhere.

It is the most metal weather
I can possibly think of.

Narrator: but, something's
Not right about the image.

If we take a closer
Look at this data, it's blue,

And something that's ash or rain
Would be red on the doppler.

So, this is pointing
More towards something

That's biological in origin.

Narrator:
Martin pepper speculates

What biological phenomenon
Could do this?

The final piece of the puzzle
For me is the timing of the day.

This is happening early
In the morning.

So it must be, some organism
Is waking up and taking flight.

So, for me it has to be birds.

Ruben: some birds roost
In massive groups like this

And they all take off
In different directions

Just before dawn to go and feed.

The group captured in the radar
Image is so huge,

It might contain 700,000 birds.

Since this is in
Southeastern georgia,

The bird that makes
The most sense

For these to be
Is the purple martin.

It's the only one that I can
Think of that can literally,

In giant flocks,
Form this perfect ring.

Biologists call this feathered
Swarm a roost ring

And this roost ring
Is 50 miles wide.

Phoenix: it's almost apocalyptic

When you see the sky fill
With that many birds.

It's enough to blot out
The sun almost.

[ birds chirping ]

Narrator: investigators learn
The size of the flock

May be linked to a hoax
Perpetrated back in the 1960s.

Kourounis: one entrepreneur
Convinced people

That these purple martins could
Eat up to

2,000 mosquitoes per day.

As you might imagine,
If you're living in the south

And being pestered
By mosquitoes constantly,

It would be very enticing
To keep as many of these birds

Around as possible.

Narrator: but research reveals
That purple martins

Rarely eat mosquitoes.

It appears that some suspect
'60s salesmanship has led

To the creation of a gigantic
Mega colony of birds.

So, unfortunately this isn't
A giant doughnut,

But it is a whole
Bunch of birds.

That's cool.

**

Narrator: coming up, the cia
Devices stealing your secrets.

Moran: this is a massive
Security dragnet

And any one of us could be
Caught in it multiple times.

**

Narrator: june 6th, 2017.

Above black canyon city,

Central arizona, an orbiting
Camera takes this image.

So, there are several circular
Structures here

That have three smaller square
Structures associated with them.

What could have possibly caused
These circles in the desert?

The structures outlines
Are familiar to some analysts.

Dennie: when I see these
Circular shapes, to me,

They resemble water
Treatment facilities.

Ruben: in this part of arizona,

Water treatment
Is especially important

Because the water
Has high levels of arsenic.

Narrator: the bedrock here
Is saturated

With this lethal element.

Test show that one
In five drinking water wells

In the southwestern u.S.
Is classified as poisonous.

Dennie: water treatment plants
Have these circular shapes

Where water is brought in

And the solids
Are allowed to settle.

So, from a high altitude,

These could be that kind
Of settling facility.

Narrator: yet, military analysts
Think the flat circular shapes

Have a different origin.

During the cold war, the state
Of arizona had launch silos

For the american titan ii icbm.

They had a blast resistant cover
Over the silo itself,

And so maybe these pads
That we are seeing

Are simply the covers
Are the launch silos.

Narrator: the titan ii
Nuclear missile

Can hit a target
6,000 miles away

And carries
A nine megaton warhead.

Moran: this is an astronomical
Payload.

The largest, most destructive
Nuclear warhead

That the united states
Ever develops.

Narrator: 30 years after
The titan ii threatened

To unleash the apocalypse,

Their abandoned silos are being

Put to a very different use
In arizona.

Moran: what's really
Extraordinary

Is that some of these sites
Are actually for sale.

It's kind of prime real estate.

For $340,000, you can have
Your own underground bunker.

It's like a survivalist's dream.

If you ever had the ambition
To actually be dr. Evil,

You can buy one of these
Titan ii missile facilities,

But the nuclear bomb
Is not included.

Narrator: however,
When journalist sarah carter

Takes a closer look,

She spots a detail that suggests
This site has another purpose.

Carter: there is actually
A shadow

Being cast against
The desert ground,

And it looks like it's coming
From a very tall mass.

This appears to be
A communication tower.

Narrator: carter learns the site
Plays host to seven towers.

What's weird is that locals
Have tried to break

Into the compound
And destroy them.

They entered the facility

And actually burned down
Four of these towers.

Narrator: a clue to what
Motivated these attacks

Comes from a covert recording

Of an intelligence services
Meeting in 2015.

Moran: a video was leaked
Showing then fbi director

James comey
Discussing stingray devices.

These devices actually
Mimic cell phone towers,

To unbeknownst to anyone
In the area,

Their cell phones
Are pinging to this network

And pinpointing their precise
Location or movement.

Narrator: leaked reports reveal

That every day,
The national security agency

Harvests data
From a billion cell phone calls

And 200 million text messages.

It does so by using aerials
Which resemble

Those photographed
From the skies over arizona.

Seven towers in a cluster.

Imagine the power
Of this radio signal.

People that lived in the area
Were so deeply concerned

That some of them went out and
Destroyed some of these towers.

Narrator: the arson attack
Is one of several

On suspicious masts
Across the world.

These stingrays are deployed
Throughout the united states,

Canada, and the united kingdom.

This is a
Massive security dragnet,

And any one of us could be
Caught in it multiple times.

Narrator: it transpires that
In this instance,

The local suspicions
Were misplaced.

The masts are used for
Commercial radio transmissions,

But the public knows that
The threat to their freedoms

Posed by illegal spy towers
Is very real.

At least two states have ruled
Them unconstitutional,

And it brings up something
That we've been grappling with

For years now.

That balance between security
And privacy.

**