All language subtitles for What.on.Earth.S07E08.1080p.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.

*

Desert cipher --

Cracking the code
Of the world's oldest pyramid.

There's something
Underneath the sand.

What it is, is a mystery.

Narrator:
Investigating the underwater

Communist terror camp.

What happened there?

Are they trying
To hide something?

Narrator: and hitler's
Invisible mega ship.

It was nicknamed the beast
And the british

Were terrified of it.

Narrator: baffling phenomena,
Mysteries from space

What on earth are they?

*

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

Captions paid for by
Discovery communications

June 20, 2016 --

More than 400 miles above
The eastern european country

Of estonia an orbiting camera
Captures this down below.

Well, this is
A fascinating image.

You see this sort of
Lost city of atlantis

Under the waves here.

Next to the buildings

You can see this large
White blob streaked with lines.

Something very strange
Is going on in the water here

And I want to know what it is.

Narrator: structures to
The north offer a clue.

On further examination,

You see this what appears to be

A fence
With watchtowers along it.

Maybe these submerged buildings
Are connected.

But why are they underwater?

*

Narrator: stewart johnson
Has lived in estonia

For over two decades.

He's journeying to the site
To investigate the strange

Set of structures
Captured from space.

I have no idea what
This thing is,

What happened there.

The only way that I'm going
To find out anything

Is if I actually physically
Go there myself.

*

Narrator: the satellite image
Guides johnson to an area

25 miles southwest
Of the capital tallinn.

*

He soon gets his first clue
To the site's purpose.

Obviously,
This is an old prison.

*

Look at these walls.

And then there's another fence
With barbed wire

In front of that.

And then a third fence
An old fence here.

*

Narrator: johnson estimates
The prison walls

Are around 20 feet high

And stretch over 600 yards
Into the distance.

*

Johnson:
The feeling that I get here

Is just complete desolation.

Whoever was kept here,

Must have felt like
They were in hell.

*

Most people try to break out,

I'm trying to break in.

*

There's a building over here
Maybe I'll...

Find some hints in there
Of what happened here.

*

Narrator: as johnson approaches
The building

He begins to establish
When the prison was built.

*

It's been abandoned
For so long

They have trees
Growing out of the wall.

*

When I look at these buildings
They must be

From the 1960s or '70s.

Right smack in the middle of

The soviet occupation of
Estonia.

Narrator:
Historical records confirm

Estonia is ruled by russia

For much of the 20th century.

Its communist nightmare begins

When stalin orders
500,000 red army soldiers

To annex the country
In 1940.

*

For the soviets,

Estonia was always a keystone
Of their naval power,

Guarding the approaches
To st. Petersburg.

Then the whole soviet
Position on the baltic.

Up until the time that
The soviet union

Dissolves in 1991,

Estonia is a subservient state
To mother russia.

*

Narrator:
Cold war era files suggest

That during their decades
Of tyrannical rule,

The soviets inter tens of
Thousands of estonians

In prisons
Such as the one in the image.

Estonia was very
Heavily repressed.

Their nationalism is ferocious

So the surveillance of them
Was even more intense.

*

The prison appears to be
A legacy

Of joseph stalin's
Brutal gulag system.

*

Johnston: but the gulag system
Itself continues until the 1950s

And ended with stalin's death.

This building looks
A little bit newer than that

But the rest of the prison,

Maybe it was part
Of the gulag system.

*

Narrator: studies suggest that
Between 1920 and 1953

Gulags claimed the lives of over
One million people

More than the number of
Americans killed in every war

The u.S. Has engaged in.

Johnson:
What kind of soviet

Horror stories were hidden
In this building?

Narrator: johnson hopes
The weird white mass

Next to the prison
Could provide some answers.

*

Johnson:
So this must be that mountain

I saw from the satellite image.

*

There are whole lines
Of ridges everywhere.

Crevices that have been formed
By running water

So rainwater itself
Must have shaped this.

It's gotta be -- I don't know
40, 50 feet high

Maybe even higher.

I can't imagine that anything
Would naturally exist

That looks like this.

*

Narrator:
Closer analysis appears

To confirm
Johnson's suspicions.

So this all consists
Of exactly the same material,

But it is not quite sand.

Now I'm guessing that it might
Be some sort of limestone.

This must be
Connected to mining.

*

We have this prison camp
Right here.

And quite often
In the soviet system,

They had forced labor.

And so I'm willing to bet
That this is a product of that.

*

Narrator: soviet prison diaries
Reveal that inmates or zeks

Are often put to work
For 14 hours a day.

While constructing a canal
Northeast of estonia

In the 1930s,

200,000 died
Many buried in the banks

They helped to construct.

The level of calories
You received was correlated

To how much work you did.

So you were producing less,
You were fed less.

Which leads
To a vicious circle.

You get weaker and weaker
And sicker and sicker

Fade away and die.

Johnson: I'm willing to bet
That prisoners were forced

To work in this quarry,
In this open pit mine.

And this is what
You would call a spoil tip.

And at some point this quarry
Flooded and that would explain

Why they have the buildings
In the water.

*

The only thing
That I can't figure out

Is why they would flood
That quarry.

[ air hisses ]

I want to find out the answer

So I'm going to actually
Get into that water.

*

Narrator: coming up --
Into the underwater prison.

There's an entire hidden world.

Narrator: and the riddle of
Ancient egypt's lost catacombs.

It's just extraordinary.

I want to know what this is.

*

*

Narrator: stewart johnson is
In northern estonia

Investigating a drowned
Communist era prison

Captured from space.

Johnson: were they trying to
Hide something?

Which would not surprise me
Or did it happen naturally?

Narrator: he wants to explore
Its submerged structures to see

If they can shed light
On what happened here.

*

It soon becomes apparent
That the buildings visible

From the skies
Conceal a vast underwater world.

*

Its scales suggest hundreds
If not thousands of inmates

Once worked here.

*

Equipment seems to confirm
That this was once

A large scale
Industrial operation.

The number of tools
And bits of furniture

Indicate the structures
Were suddenly abandoned.

Yet why this happened
Remains unclear.

*

Johnson wants to scan

The underwater
Footage for more clues.

*

Inside one of
The larger buildings,

He spots something.

It looks like
A pump completely underwater.

Clearly it had something
To do with mining.

So as they dug deeper,

Maybe they were
Trying to pump the water out.

Narrator: johnson speculates
That as the prison inmates dug

Down into the quarry,
They hit the water table.

I'm thinking
The pump stopped working

And it started flooding
Really quickly

And they had to escape, they had
To evacuate as fast as possible.

*

Narrator:
To establish the events

Leading up
To the prison's evacuation

Johnson wants to speak
With an ex-inmate,

But he knows
That's not going to be easy.

People in estonia don't talk
Very much

About what actually happened
During the soviet occupation.

But I need to find out more

About what actually
Happened here.

Narrator: it takes a number of
Calls before he finally tracks

Down a former prisoner
Who is prepared to talk.

*

Ivar golev was incarcerated
At the site in the image

During the 1980s.

[ speaking foreign language ]

Narrator:
Ivan reveals that in 1982

He is working as a conductor

When kgb agents infiltrate
His orchestra.

On december 27, without warning,
The secret police arrest

Ivar and falsely accused him
Of stealing from the state.

Forced to share a cell
With murderers and rapists,

The soviets transfer ivar
To the flooded labor camp

In the image called rummu.

Narrator: ivar tells johnson
That communist overseers

Forced many inmates

To hew huge blocks of limestone
In the prison quarry.

The spoil from 50 years
Hard labor

Creates the weird mountain
Visible from space.

Ivar reveals that
The structure's drowning

Follows the election of
Reformist russian president

Mikhail gorbachev in 1985.

Narrator: gorbachev dismantles
The vast soviet empire.

Estonia is liberated
From communism

And the prison shuts down.

When the final inmate leaves

The pumps in its slave
Labor camp falls silent.

As the groundwater rises,
It swamps the quarry

Shrouding the evidence
Of decades of oppression here.

*

But for ivar,
The scars of his experience

At the hands of the soviets
Cannot be so easily concealed.

Though the water has inundated
And covered up this camp,

You can't hide history
The crimes against humanity

That occurred here are now known

And the world
Won't soon forget them.

These stories need
To be recorded

They need to be preserved
Future generations

Need to be made aware of them

So it doesn't happen again.

*

Narrator: coming up --

Pharaoh fight club in the land
Of the dead.

It looks as if this is

A physical assault course

For the soul.

Narrator: and the hunt for
The disappearing nazi mega ship.

Churchill's obsessed
With finding and sinking it.

[ explosion ]

*

*

November 29, 2017 --

The world view 3 satellite
Passing south of cairo, egypt

Captures a structure in the sand
Well known to archaeologists.

*

Looking at the image,
It's immediately apparent.

That this is the soccer
Mortuary complex

Of the stepped pyramid of
Djoser.

The pyramid is 4,700 years old

Making it the oldest pyramid
In the world.

Narrator: but to a trained eye
There's something in the image

That doesn't look right.

You can clearly see from above

Something that I think
Would not be

Visible at all
From the ground.

Looking at the image,

There is a faint outline of
Something underneath the sand.

*

Narrator: further analysis of
The image compounds the mystery.

If you look closely
At this image you can see

That this is actually around
The entire pyramid

And not just on the west side.

Narrator: the satellite appears
To have revealed

A series of massive
Hidden structures surrounding

One of the wonders
Of the ancient world.

This image is
Absolutely incredible

How intricate
This whole system is.

What are those things for?

Narrator: when teams of
Archaeologists begin excavating

What they discover shocks them.

It's extraordinary what
These teams are finding

Is that this is
Actually a trench.

It's a continuous rectangular

Enclosure for want
Of a better word.

Narrator: analysis suggests
The giant trench

Stretches nearly 2,500 feet
By 2,000 feet.

This raises a whole host
Of questions.

What is this trench?
Why was it dug?

And does it relate somehow

To the ceremonial function
Of this site?

*

Narrator: archaeologists turned
To the construction

Of the main pyramid for clues.

The exact dates of
Pharaoh djoser's reign

Are a mystery.

What is known is that
He entrusts the creation

Of his vast mortuary complex

To his priest and vizier,
Imhotep.

Many people know the name
Imhotep

From the famous movie
"The mummy."

But the imhotep
We're talking about here

Was more about brains
Than magic.

Narrator:
Excavations suggest imhotep uses

Tens of thousands of workers

And blocks weighing over 60 tons
To construct the pyramid.

*

These seals djoser's
Burial chamber

With a three and a half-ton
Door.

*

Surrounding it are more
Than three miles of tunnels

Connecting 400 rooms
Filled with grave goods.

*

It's an incredible advance

A form of burial methods
Which were much simpler.

They involved inhumation
In the desert in a pit

Or at most the placement
Of a stone slab

Called a mustaba
Over the body.

Narrator: the extraordinary
Scale of imhotep's construction

Offers a possible clue

To the purpose of
The giant trench in the image.

One possibility is that
This trench was created

Inadvertently
By quarrying the stone

That was actually used
For the pyramid.

Narrator: yet when
Archaeologists continue

To excavate the trench

They discovered that there is
Much more to the mystery.

Kinkella:
This is not just a trench.

This is a trench that includes
A little alcoves and rooms

Associated with it
And stairways.

This is a real
Architectural construction.

Narrator: in 2018,
A polish team uncovers

Yet more areas and recesses.

And in one of
The subterranean structures

Hidden corridors, they find
Something unexpected.

It ends in a chamber filled
With animal bones

And they found a casket in there
An unopen casket

Which was found
To contain a harpoon

Decorated with
An undulating serpent.

*

Narrator: analysis reveals
The serpent on the harpoon

Is a representation of
A malevolent deity called apep.

He's a fearsome serpent

Thought to guard the entrance
To the underworld.

Narrator: the discovery provides
Another clue

To the purpose of the buried
Complex revealed from space.

The serpent god is mentioned
In the book of the dead,

A guide to help pharaohs through
The trials they must complete

Before being granted immortality
In the field of reeds.

As pharaohs
Would make their way

On that journey
Through the underworld,

They would have to go through
The 12 chambers of hell.

This serpent was one of

The battles
They would have to face.

These researchers
Have postulated

That perhaps this harpoon

Represents a weapon that might
Have helped the pharaoh

At the gates of death.

Narrator: the labyrinthian
Layout of imhotep's trench

And the discovery
Of the serpent headed harpoon

Leads archaeologists
To a theory

That seems extraordinary.

This polish team are suggesting
That this trench

Actually represents
A 3d model of the challenges

That a pharaoh would need
To overcome in order

To enter the afterworld.

It looks as if this complex

Is a physical assault course

For the soul.

Narrator: if djoser completes

This kind of
Afterlife assault course,

He faces judgment
Before the green skin lord

Of the underworld osiris.

The final test was a weighing
Of the pharaoh's heart

Against a feather.

If the heart was found
To be lighter meaning

That the pharaoh
Had been good and pure,

He could pass on
To the field of reeds.

If however his heart was found
To be heavier,

A fearsome beast called amut
Would gobble his heart up

And that was the end of it
Game over.

*

Narrator:
Excavations will soon resume

On imhotep's giant underground
Complex revealed from space.

For now the fated
Of djoser's soul

And what else lies buried
Beneath these ancient sands

Remains to be seen.

Archaeologists have been
Digging in egypt

For hundreds of years,
But this trench shows us

There's still a lot more left
To be discovered.

*

Narrator: coming up,
Battling hitler's beast

In the land of the vikings.

All squadron drops hell on it.

And boy, do they wipe it out.

Narrator:
And the infernal portal

At the end of the world.

This image
Is absolutely stunning.

Amongst all the snow

And ice we see this
Bright red glowing spot.

*

*

Narrator: july 19, 2019.

A satellite passing
Over a remote fjord

In the norwegian arctic circle

Captures something
In the clear waters below.

*

When I look at this image
I'm left wondering

What lies beneath

Because something clearly
Is here but I don't know what.

I can see right there

Must be quite
A long rectangular structure.

*

Narrator: scale analysis reveals
The structure

Is 170 feet long.

Ken joyce using maxar
Secure watch technology

Finds other shapes
In the water nearby.

Joyce: I'm starting to see these
Very distinct circular patterns

Right along the coastline here.

They're roughly the same size
And roughly the same shape

And they're nearly along
A straight line.

Narrator: military historian
Martin morgan

Has seen circles
Like this before.

Large craters
Perfectly circular.

There obviously impacts
From bombs.

I think immediately
That points to the 1940s.

The second world war.

Narrator: during world war ii
The north norwegian coast

Is of vital
Strategic importance.

The germans were
Very effective in using this

As a base
For staging operations

Against the allies.

Man: convoy to russia
Fights through.

Even wounded men they say left
The sick bay to get at the hun.

[ speaks indistinctly ]

One of the reasons was because
It was near allied

Shipping routes taking supplies
To the soviet union.

Narrator: the crater's size
And concentration

Provide clues to the origin

Of the mystery
Underwater structure.

The evidence of extremely
Heavy ordnance

Being used against
This site suggests

That there was some sort of
High value target located here.

We do know that this area
Was associated with

One of the most infamous
Warships to see combat.

And that was the german
Battleship tirpitz.

Narrator:
At 820 long and displacing

53,500 tons fully loaded.

The tirpitz is hitler's
Most powerful

And fearsome battleship.

*

The tirpitz had as much
Of a psychological impact

As a military one.

It was nicknamed "The beast"

And the british
Were terrified of it.

Narrator: declassified
Nazi files revealed

That the commander in chief
Of the german navy

Sends the beast to the area
In the image

In january 1942.

In fact, he sent it
To the very fjord

That we found this
Mysterious structure.

The question is are the two
Connected and if so how?

*

Narrator:
Over the following months

An epic game of cat and mouse

Unfolds between
The british royal air force

And the german navy.

If this thing can get out
Of the norwegian fjords

It can cause absolute mayhem

To all those allied convoys.

So for the british, it's one
Of the most important objectives

Of the war.

They've got to destroy it.

*

Narrator: operation source,
Operation tungsten, mascot,

Goodwood, paraven,

And obviate all failed
To sink the beast.

*

Hitler's prized battleship
It seems has magic powers

Making her invincible.

Almost all the bombers missed.

How did this happen?
These were experienced crews.

These were enormous bombs.

Narrator:
Aerial reconnaissance images

Reveal the beast's
Secret weapon --

A giant invisibility cloak.

The tirpitz carries
These big tanks

Of clorox sulfuric acid

Which they then decant
Into the sea.

It reacts with the seawater

And creates this fog
That rises around the vessel.

The smoke screen
Was a perfect disguise

And it was incredible
To believe

That this could shroud
The entire vessel.

The raf was left virtually
Bombing blind.

Narrator: the continued presence
Of the beast

Keeps norway under nazi control
And is starving the russians

Of vital supplies
From america and britain.

By positioning tirpitz
Where they did the ship

Could be used
As a floating battery

To prevent an allied
Landing in norway

And something had
To be done about it.

Narrator: in november 1944,

The royal air force
Launches operation catechism.

Led by one of the legendary
Crack bombing units

Of world war ii.

617 squadron the so-called
Dam busters.

*

Dam busters,
These elite british aircrews

That get the really
Specialized tasks.

They achieve surprise
So the germans

Don't have the opportunity
To create that obscuring cloud.

Man: as the lancs approach,
Her guns open up.

Visibility is good,
There's no smoke screen.

A whole squadron

Of lancaster bombers flies
Over the tirpitz

And it drops hell on it.

Hell comes in the form
Of these huge bombs.

They're called tallboys.
And boy, do they wipe it out.

Man: watch for the 12,000
Pounder that stopped those guns

Once and for all.

Two of these things
Hit the tirpitz

It's causing a massive explosion
All the way through it.

And of course
It's goodbye tirpitz.

That suggests an explanation
For those bomb craters.

There the explosions of those
Giant bombs

That the british
Used against the tirpitz.

Narrator: yet the mystery
Of the sunken structure

In the image remains.

That's not the tirpitz,
But it's in the exact location

Where the tirpitz was sunk.

What is it?

Narrator: norwegian nautical
Records reveal that

After the war
Work begins on dismantling

Hitler's terror ship,

A job so big it takes
Almost a decade to complete.

The object we see in this image
Is actually a metal platform

That was built to conduct
The hugely dangerous operation

Of scrapping the ship.

This once mighty battleship
Was torn apart for scrap

And then just effectively
Ceased to exist.

What we have left today
Is still seen from satellite

Basically is all of that
Is there to remind us of

What was at one time
The pride of the german navy.

*

Narrator: coming up, something
Big and weird in the woods.

This looks incredible.
Trees don't do that.

Narrator: and the answer
To science's greatest mystery?

It may have led to the creation
Of all life on earth.

*

*

Narrator: september 1, 2017.

The world view 3 satellite
Passing over southern japan

Spies something
In the forest below.

*

It looks almost like
An owl face

Looking right back at me.

This looks incredible.

There's this sequence
Like a biological sequence.

Narrator: but there's nothing
Natural about this.

There are many patterns
In nature.

They're all over the place,
But trees don't do that.

Narrator: researching
The location further

Karen bellinger
Discovers something.

*

This is a sacred forest.

Nearby sits a temple at
The birthplace

Of the first emperor jimmu

Over 2,500 years ago.

In japan,
There's a deep seated

And very strong vain
Of emperor worship.

*

Is this object in the forest
Some sort of link

To the imperial family

Some kind of dedication,
A shrine of some sort?

*

Narrator:
Historical texts confirm

That the japanese have performed
Extreme tasks

To display their dedication
To the imperial family.

During hitobashira,

Volunteers are buried alive
In large buildings

To protect against
Their future destruction.

Japanese emperors were said
To be descended

From gods people worship them
And revered them as such.

*

Narrator: bellinger considers if
The trees have been planted

To represent a revered symbol
Of the japanese emperors.

*

The chrysanthemum is perhaps
The most potent symbol in japan.

It looks just like
This satellite image.

Narrator: yet japanese emperor
Worship ended in the 1940s.

These trees
Don't look old enough.

The problem with this idea
Is that

They'd be a lot bigger by now.

So I think it must be
Something else.

Narrator: roland kays has
A different theory.

The symmetrical nature of this
Actually looks like

What you would see
In the atomic gardens

Where they would actually have
Radiation as part of the garden.

*

Narrator: like a real life
Horror movie after world war ii

Scientists begin using
Atomic radiation

To create mutant plants.

They call it atomic gardening.

Atomic gardening
Actually arises

From something
Called atoms for peace.

It's crazy to think
But this atomic gardening

Actually became a kind of
A popular hobby for people to do

To take some radiation
Into their own backyard

And see what it did
To the plants.

Narrator: japan, a nation almost
Destroyed by nuclear bombs

Soon joins the quest

For radiation boosted
Super fruit and vegetables.

Kays: some atomic gardens
Had this circular shape

So it makes me wonder
If this was the cause

Of the shape in these trees.

They actually take a source
Of radiation like cobalt 60

Put it in the middle
And then look

At how this radiation affects
The plant as it radiates out.

*

Narrator: around the world,

Glowing
Green-fingered gardeners

Succeed in creating over
3,000 varieties of atomic crops.

*

Packets of irradiated seeds

Were being shipped out
To housewives.

Now go ahead have a go
And it's just extraordinary.

But people did.

Narrator:
But scientist tracy fanara

Thinks these
Are not mutant trees.

*

With atomic gardening
A lot of times

Those plants right around
The center

Get too much of a dose
And end up dying.

So you'll see in the center

There would be
A lot of dead vegetation.

Narrator: fanara's analysis
Yields another clue.

You see the trees
In the center,

They're shorter but they're also
Much more close together.

And as you go out you can see

That the trees are more
And more spaced.

Narrator: fanara uncovers
Forestry records

From the early 1970s

Which could explain this strange
Precise arrangement.

This report shows
That japanese scientists

Were running an experiment

To see how space
Affects tree growth.

So what they did was plant
10 concentric rings of trees.

They had the same amount
Of trees in each ring.

So when you were closer
To the center of course

They were closer to each other.

Narrator: in a feat of
Superhuman scientific endurance,

Over the next half century
Botanist painstakingly monitor

How each ring of trees
Develops.

And as you get out
From that center

They get more spaced,
More room

For sunlight and more room
For their roots to grow

And get water so, of course,
They grew taller.

Narrator: while the scientific
Importance

Of this strange experiment

May be debatable, its impact
From space is hard to deny.

*

Coming up,

Something other worldly
Is stirring in the antarctic.

It lives and breathes
And evolves over time.

*

*

Narrator: january 31, 2018.

Nasa's $855 million
Lansat 8 satellite captures

This image of saunders island
Near antarctica.

Nothing unusual

Until it reveals
Its thermal infrared data.

*

To me, this image
Is absolutely stunning.

Amongst all the snow
And ice on this island

We see this bright red
Kind of glowing spot.

Narrator: the data shows this
Red dot is red hot.

How could there be
A thermal anomaly

On the top of an icy mountain?

The data we have from
Satellites shows us

That the temperatures here are
Around 2,000 degrees fahrenheit.

There's only one thing
On this planet that it could be

And that's lava.

Narrator: but this is
No ordinary volcano.

And this is no ordinary lava.

The thermal data
That we've collected

Via satellite has shown us

That this area
Doesn't change in size,

It doesn't change in shape.

This spot has been about 2,000
Degrees fahrenheit for decades.

Usually if lava erupts it
Solidifies pretty quickly.

It points to one thing
That is super rare on earth

And that's a lava lake.

It's basically
A cauldron of molten rock.

Narrator: worldwide there are
Around 1,500

Potentially active volcanoes

But only half
A dozen lava lakes.

For one to be found
Under the ice and exist

For such a long period of time

Is almost unprecedented.

Lava lakes
Are normally short lived.

To get a lava lake,

You need a situation
Where you can continue

To have a persistent supply
Of new magma into the chamber

And so that heat
Is continually replenished.

That lava lake stays lava.

Narrator:
Geologists speculate that

As the magma rises
Pressure decreases

Releasing clouds
Of superheated gases.

This creates a kind of blanket
Insulating the lava lake

From the ice.

That's kind of
Like a convection oven, right?

And so,
The heat just circulates.

And you can basically
Keep that area superheated.

*

Narrator: studies suggest
The lava lake in the image

Could be up to 700 feet across

And contains millions
Of gallons of lava.

These are unique windows
Into the very guts of our planet

And how it lives and breathes
And evolves over time.

*

Narrator: research also suggests
These hellish portals

Could have played a vital role

In the evolution of life
On earth.

*

Three and a half billion
Years ago,

Volcanic activity
May have provided the heat

And gases necessary

For the creation of amino acids,
The building blocks of life.

We owe our existence
To volcanoes.

These are the processes
That supported the first life

On planet earth.

If it weren't for volcanoes
We wouldn't even be here.

Narrator: what's more,
During the cambrian period,

600 million years ago,

Volcanoes are the catalyst for
The next big leap in evolution,

Multicellular organisms.

Over time, bacteria adapted
These cellular membranes to try

And protect them
From that extreme environment

And allowed it to divide
Allowed it to then evolve.

And that may have led to

The creation
Of all life on earth.

*

Narrator: this theory also helps
Astronomers zero in

On potential homes
For extra terrestrial life.

And nasa images suggest
A likely candidate

Isn't too far away.

Jupiter's moon io
Is the most volcanic world

In the solar system.

It's covered in volcanoes.

And what's really cool about it
Is it also has lava lakes.

*

Narrator: io's powerful volcanic
Forces create jets of lava

250 miles high,

A lava lake over
120 miles wide,

And some of the key conditions

That led to the explosion
Of life on earth.

*

So by studying lava lakes
Here on our own planet

We might start to find life
Beyond earth

Elsewhere in our solar system

And maybe even beyond
Our own solar system

And to other planetary systems.

Narrator: scientists have yet to
Explore the giant lava lake

Discovered from space.

For now what lies hidden
In its infernal depths

Remains a mystery.