All language subtitles for What.on.Earth.S07E11.1080p.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.

Revealed from space,

The ancient mega city
The size of minnesota.

Funch: wow, look at that.

It's just another world.

It dwarfs any city
That humans have ever built.

Narrator: the 5,000-year-old
Cannibal chamber.

What happens is medieval
In its brutality.

It's utterly barbaric.

Narrator: and the 10,000-ton
Underwater time bomb.

It's getting more dangerous
Every day.

It's a catastrophe
Waiting to happen.

Narrator: baffling phenomena.

Mysteries from space.

What on earth are they?

*

*

July 13, 2019.

Scientist roy funch is
Journeying to northern brazil.

He's here to investigate
Something bizarre

Revealed from space.

You can't let an opportunity

Like this pass to see
Something that's

Never been seen
In a very real sense.

Narrator: high over the forests
Of the caatinga region,

The geoeye-1 satellite
Captures an expanse

Of barren soil recently
Cleared by ranchers.

You see a semi-arid landscape
With some kind of pockmarks.

It almost looks to me like
It could have been bomb craters

Or some type of
Holes in the ground.

Narrator:
Analysts count more than

300 circles across
Two patches of scrub,

But zooming in reveals
They aren't holes at all.

It looks like
They're not depressions

But are raised areas,
Mounds of some sort.

Krueger: when I look
At the image,

The idea that these structures
Could be some type of

Burial mounds is plausible.

Giant burial mounds have been
Discovered elsewhere

In the amazon,

Dating back as far as
6,000 years ago.

Narrator: if the satellite has
Revealed an undiscovered

Ancient burial site,

Then its scale is unparalleled.

It's so vast --
The possibility that

They could be burial mounds
Is amazing.

Narrator: funch is skeptical
Of the burial mound theory.

There's too many of them,
You know,

The burial mounds are usually
Reserved for, you know, chiefs

And high priests
And rich people.

Narrator: yet what they are
Is hard to tell.

Funch: there's nothing like this
In the world that I know of,

And I've never heard anything
About them.

Narrator: the mounds sit
In a 386,000-square-mile

Wilderness known
As the white forest.

What we call caatinga,
Which is a drier land,

Thorny, deciduous
Vegetation that's...

Really totally intertwined.

You can't see
More than 20, 30 feet in.

*

*

Okay, this should be the spot.

*

Narrator: led by the image
Coordinates, funch treks west,

Seeking signs of the mounds
Among the thorns and scrub.

*

*

Really hot.

It gets sweltering here.

It's in the 90s
Already here,

But it'll get to 100

Quite easily.

I think we're getting near

The mound fields I saw
In the, uh, satellite images.

This is --
This is where they are.

Oh, wow, there we go.
There we go.

Mounds.

Wow.

Oh, boy.

Look at that.

*

*

Magnificent.

These are not burial mounds.

How tall they are,
How evenly spaced they are.

It's just another world.

Narrator:
Having reached the site
In the satellite image,

Funch doubts
These are manmade,

Nor does he believe
They are

A naturally occurring feature
Of the landscape.

It's just actually
Inconceivable that there'd be

A purely

Geological origin,
They're too symmetrical,

They're too even.

They're too well-spaced.

For me, they're pretty
Obviously biogenic,

Almost certainly built
By some sort of a creature.

Narrator: and funch has
Suspicions about which creature.

Funch: I'm more pushed toward
It being a termite mound

Than any other animal
That I can think of.

Termites are famous

For some of
The huge structures

In africa and australia.

You get huge termite mounds,
Very complex structures

Taller than this.

Narrator: but these structures
Look very different from

Termite mounds found
Elsewhere in the world,

And as funch explores further,

He discovers that they cover
A wider area

Than he ever imagined.

Okay, you can see,
There's a mound over there.

It's quite camouflaged --
One, two,

A third one over there.

There's no reason why
They shouldn't keep on going.

This far --
It just goes on and on.

*

Narrator: returning to
The satellite image,

Funch makes
A staggering discovery.

Not hundreds of mounds,
Not even thousands...

But millions,

200 million mounds
Stretching through

The white forest
For 90,000 square miles.

If you zoom out a little bit,

You can see the huge scale
That we're talking about,

More than the state
Of michigan.

Funch: it's unbelievable.

Narrator: if this is the work
Of termites,

It's easily the largest colony
On earth.

But what baffles funch
Is that

This land appears
To be lifeless.

Funch: I don't see any
Termite activity.

I haven't seen
A lizard, a snake, or an ant

Or anything crawling
Around here.

But this is the kind of
Environment that

You just don't want
To be active during the day.

Narrator: to learn more,
Funch waits for dusk.

*

At night, the white forest
Is a hunting ground

For various wild animals,

[ animal cries out ]

But funch's prey is smaller.

[ animal cries out ]

Funch: now,
You have to be quiet

When you're looking
For termites.

You have to tread softly,

Because they're very
Sensitive to vibrations

On the ground.

There's the guys.

Lots of 'em around here.

Narrator: termites are
Earth's great survivors.

They were here before
The dinosaurs

250 million years ago.

Now, there's the hole --
I found the hole.

I see the guy
Popping in and out.

Narrator: but there's
No building activity.

This seems to be
A foraging party

Rather than
A construction team.

That's a leaf
They chewed on.

They probably have chambers
Where they -- where they

Store this food
For future.

Narrator: after several hours

Observing in the dark,
Funch is no closer

To understanding
The hills seen from space.

Funch: the only way we'll
Ever know that is

If we come out
During the day

And dig 'em up.

Narrator: coming up,
A truly ancient mega city.

As far as I know,
There's nothing like this

Anywhere in the world.

Narrator: and the human bullet.

It's insane.

It's absolutely
Crushing pressure.

Narrator:
Roy funch is in brazil's
Arid caatinga forest

Investigating mysterious
Mounds revealed from space.

These mounds are all over
The place, millions of them.

Narrator: 200 million of them.

Funch suspects

They're the work of
A monster termite colony.

The only way we're gonna
Get to them is to dig.

Narrator: and he's bound
For the nearest town,

Looking to hire a crew
To dig one up.

*

*

[ dog barking ]

Funch estimates that each
Mound is up to 30 feet wide

And 13 feet tall
And as hard as rock.

[ speaking foreign language ]

Narrator: breaking into it
Will take serious manpower...

[ speaking foreign language ]

...Or horsepower.

*

*

Narrator: termite mounds are
Normally riddled with

Ventilation shafts leading
To numerous chambers.

At the very heart sits
The royal chamber.

Here resides the queen.

One of the most extraordinary
Females in all nature,

She can lay 25 eggs a minute
For up to 50 years,

Time enough to have a family
Of 250 million.

[ creaking noises ]

Narrator:
Paydirt would be a series
Of labyrinthine tunnels.

*

[ grunts ]

Okay.

This is --
This is pure clay.

This is what's
Under the mountain.

Narrator: but they've hit
Plain dirt.

We've dug into
What appears to be a...

Um, mound of dirt,

All right, this is --
They're not living here.

I'm bamboozled a bit -- I was
Expecting some sort of, um,

Chamber underneath here.

Narrator: for entomologist
Eleanor spicer rice,

The absence of a chamber
Is fascinating.

These termites are
Really unique.

Many species will build
These structures to live in,

But because the forest
Is so dry in this area,

These termites are constantly
On the move to find more food.

These mounds are just them
Piling up the trash

As they tunnel
Through the earth,

Looking for leaves to eat.

Funch: there seems to be
No construction involved in it.

This is just a --
A slag heap.

Narrator: these aren't nests,
They're waste dumps

For a truly monster
Tunneling project,

A termite mega city
The size of great britain.

It dwarfs any city
That humans have ever built --

It's mind-boggling.

Narrator: analysis suggests
That every year,

The insects here excavate
Over 50 million tons of soil.

Rice: the amount that's
Been moved around to build

These tremendous mounds

Is the equivalent of
4,000 great pyramids of giza.

This is a huge structure
Built by tiny insects.

Funch: as far as I know,
If there's nothing

Like this anywhere
In the world,

Narrator: and funch's
Investigation reveals

This ocean of mounds has been
Millennia in the making.

Funch: given their level of
Preservation here

In the dry lands,

These mounds could be
Older than christ.

Narrator:
Soil analysis confirms

Some of these insect mounds
Are 4,000 years old,

Built more than 2,000 years
Before the rise

Of the roman empire,

And the excavation that
Produced them is the most

Extensive
Bioengineering effort

By a single insect species
Anywhere on the planet.

Bellinger: this is
Actually a mega city

As old as the great cities
Of antiquity.

Absolutely incredible.

Narrator: coming up,

The subsea super bomb
Threatening millions of people.

Kourounis: it has the potential
To be one of

The largest non-nuclear
Explosions in the history

Of mankind.

Narrator: and a new aquatic
Threat to our planet.

The need for studying this
Is really urgent.

[ helicopter blades whirring ]

Narrator: london,

The world's financial capital,

With a population larger
Than new york city,

But a city that may be
Under mortal threat.

Satellites constantly monitor
Ocean traffic around the world.

Ships ping their position
Using automatic

Identification system
Transponders, or ais.

Albertson: ais is the vessel
Tracking service,

Which allows you to map
The location of vessels

In real time to see
Where they're going.

Narrator: the ais system tracks
Thousands of vessels every year

Entering and leaving the river
Thames', the mighty waterway

On which london is built,

And reveals a mystery.

Everybody's staying away
From this one spot.

There is a dead zone,
A place where

All of these ships are
Avoiding like the plague.

What is so dangerous
That these ships have

To give this area
Such a wide berth?

Narrator: military historian
David silbey turns to

A high resolution image
Of the area.

There's clearly some kind of
Structure there.

It's almost a diamond shape
Of buoys,

And then in the middle, there
Are other structures that seem

To be sticking
Out of the water.

So perhaps there's actually
A shipwreck of some sort here.

Narrator: silbey crosschecks
The spacing of

The submerged structures
With known vessel designs.

The shipwreck there is
Of a liberty ship,

And the three shapes

In the middle are the masts
Sticking up out of the water.

Narrator: liberty ships hail
From world war ii,

Built by america
To save britain.

Britain is under siege, because
She's being bombed from the air,

And you've got the u boats,

The german submarines,

And there's a severe danger
That britain could be

Entirely cut off
And run on empty.

Narrator: during the war,
American shipyards

Crank out 2,000 liberty ships,

Each capable of carrying
10,000 tons

Of vital supplies to
The beleaguered nation.

Silbey: they're slapping them
Together as quickly as possible.

By the end of the war,

One liberty ship takes only
42 days to build.

Walters: these liberty ships,
That are absolutely vital to

The lifeline of britain
During her darkest hours.

Narrator:
But the liberty wreck revealed
From space puzzles analysts.

Kourounis:
Other ships are giving it
An extremely wide berth,

More so than they would
Really need to

If it was just a regular
Navigational hazard.

Silbey: checking further,
Things get even stranger.

The whole area is designated
As a foul area,

Which means not only is
Navigation restricted and ships

Banned from it, but all human
Activity is disallowed.

Narrator:
Experts turned to declassified
World war ii defense records.

Nautical logs reveal that
What lies at the bottom

Is actually
The ss richard montgomery,

Which sank in 1944.

[ boat horn blows ]

Narrator: in july that year,
America sends the ss montgomery

Laden with heavy munitions
To liberate europe

From the nazi terror.

The ship had been packed
With about 9,000 explosives,

Of which about 300
Are 2,000-pound bombs.

Silbey: montgomery makes it all
The way to the thames estuary

And anchors there safely...
Or so it seems.

The ship began to drag
Its anchor, drifted out

Over a sandbar,

And as the tide went down,
It settled on the sandbar.

The keel wasn't able
To withstand

The weight of
All this stuff on it.

And so it snapped in two
And sank

With the munitions on board.

Narrator:
Almost eight decades later,

The wreck remains loaded with
Over 1,400 tons of munitions,

And it is sitting
In shallow water

Not far from one of
The largest cities in europe.

The ship is
Actually deteriorating,

And the sandbar is
Actually shifting.

It's a catastrophe
Waiting to happen.

Silbey:
Bombs and incendiary devices.

The ship is, quite literally,
A ticking time bomb.

Narrator:
The montgomery's apocalyptic
Cargo forces authorities

To keep her exclusion zone
Under 24-hour surveillance.

A ship built to save
British lives now presents

A deadly hazard to
Countless boats and people.

Kourounis: this is
A busy shipping lane,

And at any moment,
Something could go wrong.

It only takes one incident
To literally send

This ordnance two miles
Up into the air.

It can have the potential
To be one of

The largest non-nuclear
Explosions in the history

Of mankind.

Narrator: london and satellite
Towns like sheerness

On the coast face
A deadly threat.

The population could have
A casualty rate far higher

Than anything it suffered
In the second world war.

Narrator: yet a one-and-1/2
Kiloton blast

Isn't the only thing that
Could devastate london.

Worst-case scenario,

This ordnance blows
And causes a tsunami.

Some analysts have concluded
It would race up the thames

And smash into
The center of london.

Narrator:
A city of countless historical
Buildings and monuments,

Nine million people, and one
Rusting ship that threatens

To do to the city what
Hitler couldn't.

We like to think that
World war ii ended in 1945,

But what the richard
Montgomery reveals is that

The war is still going on
Even to this day.

Narrator: coming up,

The hunt for the mad
Dictator's mass graves.

This is just the latest
In a long list

Of horrific offenses
Carried out against

His subjects.

Narrator: and the world's
Weirdest test track.

Picture this thing -- it's
Powered by two jet engines

From a b-36 bomber.

Narrator: july 2019.

Europe is in the grip
Of a brutal drought.

Janulis: in the summer,
Parts of europe recorded

The hottest heatwave they've
Experienced in modern history.

Narrator:
In spain, temperatures climb
To 110 degrees fahrenheit.

Janulis: a consequence of this,
A lot of the bodies

Of water began dropping
At a rapid rate,

Getting lower than
They ever have.

Narrator: as waters recede
In the extremadura region

Of the country,

A ghost from the past is
Captured by satellite cameras.

Suddenly,
Seemingly out of nowhere,

This ring appears
On the shoreline,

An almost perfect circle.

Narrator: the ring-shaped mound
Is around 120 feet wide.

Krueger: it would have taken

A significant amount of effort
To build something like this,

So it must have some
Important significance.

Narrator: the waters here form
Part of a reservoir system.

David krueger looks at
Its history for clues.

Krueger: this was formed
As a result of

A dam project by the infamous
General francisco franco.

Narrator:
Fascist dictator franco

Ruled spain
From 1939 to 1975.

Krueger: he's kind of spain's
Answer to adolf hitler.

He's a really brutal leader
Who ruled

With an iron fist
For decades over spain.

Narrator: franco's reign is
Characterized by

Violent oppression
Of the spanish people.

Krueger:
I wonder if this formation is
Something that general franco

Actually wanted to cover up
By flooding the area.

Narrator: franco's attempt
To seize power causes

The spanish civil war
Of 1936 to 1939.

With support from hitler
And mussolini,

His nationalist rebels defeat
The republicans

In a conflict that claims
Around 200,000 lives.

The spanish civil war is
Particularly brutal, because now

You're incorporating modern
Bombers and tanks into combat,

Killing thousands of soldiers

But also killing thousands
Of civilians.

Narrator: following his victory,
Franco embarks on a campaign of

Violence and terror on those
Who oppose his fascist ideals.

Walters: anybody's an enemy of
The state, you name it --

Liberals, communists,
Christians --

Well, they're all targeted.

Narrator: they call it
The white terror.

Franco's death squads butcher
Another 200,000 people.

What happens in spain
Is kind of medieval

In its brutality.

You hear stories of
Death squads carrying out

Mass public executions,
You know, in bullrings

And grizzly tales of supporters
Supposedly dancing

In the victims' blood.

It's utterly barbaric.

Narrator:
Around 140,000 of franco's
Victims have never been found,

Buried in secret mass
Graves around the country.

People who were killed
And ended up

In these mass graves are known
Today as spain's disappeared.

Is it possible that what
We see here is an example

Of a mass grave site that
Franco covered up

Underneath the waters?

Narrator:
Yet for klint janulis,
Further aerial images of

The structure suggest
It has a much older origin.

Janulis: I believe it predates
Any industrial technologies.

You've got these stones
That have been carved

And then placed vertically
In a formation

That looks like
Neolithic sites

We see across
The uk and europe.

Narrator: the neolithic,
Also called the new stone age,

Begins around
12,000 years ago.

It sees mankind evolving
From being hunter-gatherers

To farming the land
And forming larger tribes.

And at sites around europe,

Mysterious clusters
Of standing stones

Begin to appear.

It's an era
In which everything

In the world is
Changing dramatically,

And people suddenly
Have the ability

To build large things
On a big scale.

Narrator:
The exact purpose of these
Ancient edifices is a mystery.

Yet janulis thinks
One section of

The spanish structure
Could offer a clue.

The interesting aspect for me
Is the entryway.

This is a classic shape
That we see in sites made

Of stone from the neolithic
And the early bronze age.

Narrator: janulis calculates
That the entryway is

Precisely aligned

To the rising sun
During the summer solstice.

Janulis: what that means is,
On the summer solstice,

The first light of day
Would have come through there

And lit up
The entire inside,

And that makes it a possible
Ritualistic or ceremonial site.

Narrator: archaeologists think
That the structure once had

A roof, creating a prehistoric
Edifice called a dolmen.

Dolmens are ritual structures
That are related to death.

We have to remember that
With the earth on top of it,

This would have been
A very dark entryway

Into the underworld,

Into a sacred space for
Communing with the ancestors.

Narrator: archaeological records
Offer grim clues as to how

The ancient peoples
At this site communed

With their ancestors.

When your relative dies,
You might

Engage in cannibalism.

This is the idea that you are
Eating a piece of your ancestor,

That you are literally
Taking a piece of them

And incorporating it
Into your body.

Narrator:
Tests reveal that this ritual
Death chamber dates back

Around 5,000 years ago,

When pagans worshiped
At stonehenge and pharaohs were

Being interred
In the great pyramids.

But before archaeologists
Can investigate further,

The waters rise, and its
Ancient secrets are reclaimed

Once more.

How lucky are we to get
This brief glimpse from space

Of this civilization
That lived so many years ago?

Who knows when we'll get
To see it again.

Narrator: coming up,
The human crash test dummy.

His injuries are brutal,

I mean, broken wrists,
Broken ribs,

Fillings sucked
Out of his teeth.

Narrator: and what's turning
Millions of fish into mutants?

This is something that's
Happening all over the u.S.

Narrator: july 4, 2019.

The worldview-2 satellite flying
Over central france captures

A dark feature in
The patchwork of fields below.

Chamberlain: this looks
Very unusual.

There is a stick straight
Black line.

I mean, just as straight
As you can get

Right through these fields.

It's a lot thinner
Than a road --

It's not a road.

If I zoom out and follow
The structure down,

It keeps going.

Narrator:
The arrow-straight streak

Dissects 11 miles of
Verdant countryside.

What is this thing,
And what's it doing

In the middle of
Rural france?

Narrator: journalist
Sara carter studies

The strange black streak
In detail.

Carter: one thing you can see
Are these slats

Equal distances apart
In this structure.

So what it appears to be
Is a track.

Narrator: carter has seen
A track like this before.

It reminds me
Of test tracks

At holloman air force base
In new mexico.

It's actually used to run
Rocket sleds.

Narrator: at 50,000 feet long,

The holloman rocket sled track
Is around

The same length
As the track in the image.

First deployed in 1949,
It plays a critical role

In preparing man and machine
For the rigors of

Supersonic flight.

They put whatever they need
To be tested on this sled

And just shoot it
Off with the rockets.

You need these tracks to test
These new technologies,

But you also need human
Guinea pigs who will

Subject themselves
To this kind of stress.

Narrator:
Human rocket sled tests are
Pioneered by colonel john stapp.

On december 10, 1954,

He straps himself
Into sonic wind 1.

If you're going at jet speed,

It's not the speed that's
Dangerous for humans,

It's the acceleration
And then the deceleration.

And this is what
Designers were testing.

Narrator:
The sleds' rockets erupt
With 40,000 pounds of thrust.

Stapp accelerates to 632 miles
Per hour in five seconds

Then slams to a standstill
In just 1.4 seconds,

The equivalent of 46 gs.

That's more than 10 times what
Astronauts feel on liftoff

To get out of
The earth's atmosphere.

It's insane -- it's absolutely
Crushing pressure.

Wawro: his injuries
Are brutal, I mean,

Broken wrists, broken ribs,

Fillings sucked
Out of his teeth.

Narrator:
Yet when geoffrey wawro
Reanalyzes the satellite image,

He decides this can't be
A rocket sled track.

Wawro: it's not actually
Flush with the ground.

It's raised -- we see shadows
From the struts of

These stanchions
Holding it up.

It looks much more like
The classic raised

Monorail platforms.

Narrator:
Historian wawro suspects
The remote monorail is a relic

Of a bizarre abandoned
Engineering project.

In the mid to late sixties,

This french designer,
Jean bertin,

Had this idea for
A hovertrain.

So it looks to me that
This is part of

That initial architecture for
What he called an aerotrain.

Narrator: bertin's hovertrain
Is born of

A desire to radically
Modernize france's

Creaking railroad network.

An aeronautical engineer
By training,

Bertin forsakes
Conventional steel rails

And designs his train to
Work more like an aircraft.

It's powered by these engines
That also power compressors

That create this cushion of air
Underneath the train.

So the train is guided by
This concrete platform

But not actually touching it,

So all friction is eliminated.

Narrator: bertin builds
The 16-foot-high test track

At a cost of $30 million
In today's money.

On july 7th, 1969, he unveils
His prototype aerotrain.

Weighing 11 tons,

She's powered by a pair
Of 1,600-horsepower turbines

Driving a seven-foot
Ducted fan.

Hymel: these trains at the time
Looked like something

Out of buck rogers,

And this was gonna be
The next stage of trains.

You were gonna travel in class

And comfort and style
At high speeds

All across europe.

Announcer: modern interior decor
And luxurious seating

Give passengers
Much the same feeling

As riding in a jet aircraft.

Narrator: hovering four inches
Above the track,

Bertin's floating train
Travels at 155 miles per hour

On its first test run.

It goes on to smash
The rail speed record.

Wawro: they tested this thing up
To, like, 267 miles per hour.

This was
A stupendous achievement.

Narrator: bertin's success
Pushes others around the world

To design even more extreme
Versions of his hovertrain.

In the u.S., railway engineers
Create this monstrous

Jet-powered railcar
Called the black beetle.

Ruben: the black beetle
Is amazing.

It's a train with wheels
Powered by

Two jet engines
From a b-36 bomber.

Narrator: following
His triumphant test runs,

Bertin draws up plans to build
A 500-mile-long track

Connecting brussels
With geneva.

But in 1974, bertin's dream is
Derailed when the french elect

Valery giscard d'estaing

As their president.

Wawro: giscard d'estaing
Sees an opportunity

To shift funding away

From bertin's aerotrain
And into the tgv,

The train
A la grande vitesse.

It travels up to
200 miles per hour.

[ whining noise ]

Narrator: giscard d'estaing
Cancels the aerotrain's funding.

The following year,
Jean bertin dies and, with him,

His jet-powered
Hovertrain dream.

Chamberlain: so now there are
These concrete rails.

You can see them
From space,

Standing here as a monument
To jet train ingenuity.

Narrator: coming up,
Weird science in the water.

There are rumors of
Government scientists

Coming in
And lakes changing color.

Narrator: august 9, 2018.

Passing 380 miles
Above ontario, canada,

The worldview-3
Satellite spots

Something strange
In a body of water below.

Fanara: so this image,
We see this beautiful lake

In the middle of nowhere,

But then we see these nine
Ring-like structures.

Narrator: whatever these are,

Analysts don't think
They're fish farms.

Phoenix: there's no signs of
Civilization near this lake.

It's almost like these little
Circular things

Were just dropped
Out of the sky.

It's really strange.

Joyce: this lake is in
A very remote area.

It makes me wonder if
The activity I'm seeing

At the lake is meant to be
Hidden from public view.

Narrator: local social media
Posts seem to confirm this.

They have rumors of
Government scientists

Coming in
And lakes changing color.

Narrator: analysts turn to
Historic images of the lake.

This really gives us
Insight into

What the population
Was talking about.

You see this lake, and it's
Two-tone, two different colors

Phoenix:
Because it's such a dramatic
Difference in water color,

This really reminds me of some
Other areas I've seen

Where there have been
Algae blooms.

Narrator: left unchecked,

Algae blooms constrict
The oxygen from a body of water

In days.

It looks like as if the lake
Was partitioned in order

To maybe do something like
Prevent the algae bloom

From spreading.

Maybe it was for some type
Of experiment.

Narrator: environment department
Records confirm that

For half a century,

This lake, and 57 others in
The area, are used as giant

Outdoor aquatic laboratories.

This is an actual
Experimentation center

Where scientists can find out

How different chemicals
And different land use changes

Can affect these lakes.

Narrator: records confirm
That during the 1970s,

Scientists partition
The lake to investigate

The cause of killer
Algae blooms.

They had the hypothesis
That it was phosphorus,

A common nutrient
Found in fertilizers.

They found that the half
With the phosphorus loading

Proliferated a bloom
Almost immediately.

I would guess that
These floating circles

Are most likely
Their next experiment.

Narrator: a detail
In the image provides

A clue to the experiment
Taking place here.

Up close,
Inside these circles,

You can actually see a sheen
A lot like when you see

Oil on blacktop.

It makes me think that perhaps
There's some oil in there

That they're trying to keep
Separated from the rest

Of the lake water.

Narrator: since 1990,
Approximately two million tons

Of oil have been spilled
Into oceans and waterways.

Dennie: by spilling oil
In these pens,

We can observe how it reacts
With its natural environment.

Narrator: the satellite
Has captured evidence of

The ingenious ways scientists
Are tackling

This catastrophic problem.

Brensberger:
They figured out that there's
A type of oil-eating bacteria

As well as filtering plants
That can actually help

Clean all this up,

One of the best solutions
We found this far.

Narrator: the giant lake
Laboratory revealed from space

Is also investigating why
Something fishy is happening

To waterways around the world.

In areas with high
Population density,

Scientists have found that
Fish present in the waterways

Experience some degree
Of feminization.

Narrator: in waterways
Around the country,

Male fish are mutating
Into females,

And our sexual habits
May be to blame.

When birth control pills
Are used,

They're not completely
Absorbed into the body,

Thus they end up in our waste.

So human waste
Goes back into sewage treatment

And then back
Into our water supply.

Narrator: 151 million women
Across the globe

Use the contraceptive pill.

Studies suggest that
As estrogen levels

In water supplies increase,

It could reduce sperm counts
And fertility levels worldwide.

The need for studying
This is really urgent,

Because this is something
That's happening

All over the u.S.

Narrator:
To test their hypothesis,

Scientists bombard minnows
With synthetic estrogen.

The estrogen feminized
The male minnows so much so that

They could no longer even
Fertilize the female minnows.

In some cases,
They produced eggs themselves.

Narrator:
The prospect of egg-laying
Humans is mercifully remote,

But from killer algae blooms
To lethal oil spills,

The giant aquatic labs seen
From space are tackling

Some of mankind's
Biggest challenges,

One bizarre experiment
At a time.

This is a pretty wacky place,
But the reality is,

Is that, as a scientist,

This is a great way
To truly understand

How we're affecting the earth.