All language subtitles for What.on.Earth.S09E08.1080p.DSCP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-BTN_track3_[eng]

NARRATOR:
They're watching you.

More than 5,000 satellites
circle the Earth.

Every day, they uncover new,
mysterious phenomena

that defy explanation.

Near Area 51,

the mystery desert
mega weapon.

ALBERTSON: This is a reminder
that some

powers are wielded at
humankind's own peril.

NARRATOR: The horrors of
Dead Man's Island.

They've seen hundreds of
bodies just laying on the beach.

ZAHN: And Louisiana's
cannibal swamp.

It looks like there's
some giant monster

who's just sucking down
entire sections of forest.

NARRATOR: Baffling phenomena,
mysteries from space.

What on Earth are they?

**

**

**

Nye County, Nevada,

18,000 square miles
of sand, scrub,

and not much else.

Trevor Albertson is journeying
into these desolate

lands to investigate a mystery
revealed from space.

There's nothing out here.

I mean, nothing.

Then you see this.

NARRATOR: This image, taken
in July 2015, has uncovered

something strange
in this empty desert.

JANULIS: You can
see a series of

concentric circles
and a sort of bull's-eye

in the middle.

MORAN:
This is massive.

It would have taken
quite some time

to build this
or to create this.

MUNOZ: It looks like
it's been abandoned,

but there's no telling for how
long and what it was used for

before everyone left.

NARRATOR: Albertson believes
the 20-million-square-foot

patterns are evidence of
clandestine military activity.

But that's not all that

intrigues the former
intelligence officer.

What's really interesting
about this is the nearest base

is Groom Lake test facility,

which is more commonly known
as Area 51.

The fact that this is near
Area 51, of course,

raises all kinds of red flags
and questions.

NARRATOR: Area 51,

a facility
so secret that its existence

was only officially
acknowledged in 2013

and whose workers commute to

and from the site in unmarked
private planes.

This is where the government
tests their most

secretive projects
throughout the Cold War,

things that the government
doesn't talk about or admit to.

There is a possibility this
could be associated with that.

NARRATOR: Reports of strange
experiments in these deserts

date back to the 1950s.

During this decade,

the U.S. military begins
using the Groom Lake runways to

launch a series of incredible
new experimental aircraft

known as X-planes.

But much of what else has
taken place there

remains classified.

Groom Lake was
the test facility

for its most
secretive projects,

things that they didn't want
the Soviet Union or other

powers to know about.

NARRATOR: Since the Cold War,
Area 51 has continued to expand.

Area 52
is rumored to conceal

an underground base big enough
to hold 25,000 soldiers.

And reports persist
of strange experiments

in these remote
desert valleys.

Looking around here,

it becomes readily apparent

it's the perfect place for

a secretive military
or government test.

NARRATOR: If this was a secret
test site of some kind,

the image suggests
a lot of effort

has been made to erase
evidence of it.

Whoa!
Check this out.

We're out in the middle of
nowhere here,

and now I got cables
coming out of the ground.

Clearly,
somebody is trying to

gather data out here
about something.

That is curious.

That is really strange.

NARRATOR: From ground level,
it's impossible to make out

many of the patterns
revealed from the skies.

But there is something weird
that wasn't visible

in the image.

ALBERTSON:
What on Earth is that?

We're out in the middle of
nowhere, desert for miles,

and right there,
some kind of steel tube.

NARRATOR: The metal monolith
sits dead in

the center of the site in
the image.

ALBERTSON: It's very,
very mysterious.

I can clearly see that this is
sunk into the ground.

How far, there's no way
of telling.

I'm gonna fire up the drone.

Let's get a look and see
what's inside this thing.

[beeping noise]

Here we go.

[Albertson laughs]

I actually see nothing,
because

the cylinder is filled
with concrete.

I'm in the middle
of the central Nevada desert.

There's nothing out here
except this giant tube

filled with concrete.

NARRATOR: Albertson can only
think of one reason

why the military would put
this here.

Concrete means
you're either trying to

keep something out
or something in,

and something you might want
to keep in is radiation.

This whole thing
just got a whole lot spookier,

because that means
I'm standing on

top of an underground
nuclear test.

NARRATOR: During
the Cold War, Nevada

was ground zero for the U.S.
military's nuclear test program.

[explosion blasts]

Hundreds of explosions
with a combined yield of more

than 85,000 tons

of TNT rock the desert
and release untold amounts of

radiation into the skies.

They would bore out
these holes,

sink them over 3,000 feet
deep in many cases,

and detonate a nuclear weapon.

I mean,
this is a real piece

of history we're looking at
right now.

NARRATOR: But to Albertson,
something doesn't stack up.

The official
Nevada nuclear test site

is 100 miles away from here.

This makes no sense at all.

I don't know why anyone
would want to come here.

There's no good reason for it.

This indicates something was
different about this test,

and I'm really curious
as to what that was.

What was different that forced
them to do this here, this time?

NARRATOR: Coming up,
the billionaire, the bribe,

and the one megaton
nuclear bomb.

This is just too suspicious
not to ask questions.

NARRATOR: And
massacre of the Norsemen.

Could this be a long-lost
Viking ship

and some of its crew entombed
in the mud?

NARRATOR: In Nevada,
Trevor Albertson

is investigating
a secret government test site.

Something big happened here,
something very big.

NARRATOR: A steel monolith
penetrates its center.

It's clearly going into
the ground, and I think this

is the chamber for the test of
a nuclear weapon.

NARRATOR:
At some point in the past,

an apocalyptically powerful
weapon was detonated

under these sands.

But this is civilian land,
far away

from the official
Nevada test site.

ALBERTSON: I want to know more
about this.

I mean, this is just
too suspicious not to

ask questions.

**

Hey, it's Trevor.
How are you?

NARRATOR: Albertson's old
agency contacts provide a lead.

All right.
I'll give him a call. Bye.

Jerry Rossi was a radiation
expert at the site back

in 1968.

I was there the morning
they set the device off.

What do you remember
from that experience?

The device is brought
in under cover,

and then they start lowering
it down the hole.

That's when they bring on
radiation safety crews

like mine.

NARRATOR: Rossi reveals that
the patterns in the image are

the legacy of a bomb

almost 70 times more powerful
than the one that

destroyed Hiroshima.

ALBERTSON:
Jeez, one megaton, man.

-That's insane.
-Yes, yes, it was.

And it was all hush-hush,
top-secret.

But what I don't understand is
that we are miles and miles,

over 100 miles, from
the nuclear test site down in

southern Nevada --
I don't get it.

NARRATOR: According to Rossi,
the bomb's

extraordinary journey to this
remote patch of desert begins

in Las Vegas
during the 1950s.

What can you tell me about
Vegas during that era?

Las Vegas was
Wild West, and, oh, man,

it was a crazy, crazy time.

It was unbelievable.

In the '50s,
many of Sin City's

hotels were funded by
organized crime,

and the mobsters soon realized
that they could make

big money from the explosions
lighting up the Nevada skies.

[explosion blasts]

MORGAN: It leads to
the ultra-weird reality

of this spectator sport

of people gathering in
Vegas to watch nuclear tests.

ANNOUNCER:
...Minus one minute.

Put on your goggles.

JANULIS: Imagine
sipping a martini,

watching a mushroom cloud.
That's insane.

NARRATOR: Tourists keep
flocking to watch the nukes

until 1963,

when the Limited Test Ban
Treaty puts a halt to

atmospheric explosions.

Tests are
forced underground...

[explosion blasts]

...shaking the Vegas casinos
till their chips rattle.

JANULIS: Aside from a normal,
everyday people,

you had one really influential
person complaining

about the explosions.

That was reclusive
billionaire, Howard Hughes.

CAVELL: And when Howard Hughes
got upset about

nuclear testing,
something was bound to happen.

NARRATOR: By this point in his
life, the playboy movie mogul

and aviation pioneer
had become a recluse,

refusing to leave his
penthouse on the Vegas Strip

for two years.

JANULIS: Despite that, he still
had a lot of influence.

So he goes right to the top --

Lyndon Johnson --
he writes

a letter directly to
the president, demanding

he stopped the nuclear testing
outside Vegas.

NARRATOR: Rumors persist that
the eccentric billionaire also

offers President Johnson
a $1 million dollar sweetener.

Whatever the truth,
on January 19, 1968,

Jerry Rossi and his colleagues
find themselves 180 miles from

Hughes's penthouse,
preparing to

lower a nuclear bomb into
the desert floor.

ROSSI: We weren't supposed to
say anything to anybody,

and if anybody asks,

we were working
on drilling a well.

NARRATOR: In reality, the
military wants to see whether

seismic instruments
can be used

to spy on other countries'
nuclear test programs.

The experiment is code-named
Project Faultless.

The idea is that if we can
take a seismic measure

of this nuclear explosion,

we can then monitor other
countries and see if they're

testing nuclear weapons,
as well.

NARRATOR: At 10:15 a.m.,

the bomb detonates

[explosion blasts]

Massive shock waves from
the blasts radiate outwards,

shattering windows 87 miles
away and heaving

40,000 square feet of desert
into the air.

[explosion blasts]

Did anyone expect
it to be this big?

It was far greater
than they had ever imagined.

You know, I had to go home
and change my underwear.

Everybody did.

NARRATOR:
Yet what truly terrifies

the scientists is what's
happening underground.

The blast activates two fault
lines, which rupture the surface

for 3,400 feet

and create a colossal
underground chasm known as

a nuclear chimney.

Scientists and engineers were
so horrified by the effects

of the blast that they ended
up canceling Project Faultless.

They capped the tube
and carried out no

other experiments.

So clearly, Project Faultless
is probably one of

the worst-named
tests in history,

because it left behind it

a huge debris field of toxic
waste that's deep underground.

NARRATOR: Even today,
half a million tons of

atomic rubble remain,
hidden beneath these sands,

with radiation levels similar
to that of a nuclear reactor.

And while Rossi and his fellow
scientists are long gone,

evidence of their
extraordinary experiment

remains,
visible from space.

You know,
this is a reminder that

some powers are wielded
at humankind's own peril.

And this will stand as

a reminder of that for
centuries to come.

NARRATOR: Coming up, the ghost
ships of Dead Man's Island,

They were horrific places,

very, very hellish indeed.

NARRATOR: And New York's $2
billion dollar time machine.

The discoveries
being made there

are making history every day.

NARRATOR:
August 7, 2020.

A satellite scanning
a riverbank east of

London captures
a strangely patterned island.

And emerging from its sands,
a mystery shape.

HUNT:
Smack in the main watercourse

is a gigantic imprint
of a boat.

And it's not just any boat.

This is a big ship.

WALTERS: It looks like
it's fossilized or something.

It's been there
for a very, very long time.

NARRATOR: What intrigues
analysts is that the island

the wreck sits on is strictly
off limits to visitors.

Footage taken by the few
who dare visit

the mystery wreck
reveals why.

They have seen dozens,
if not hundreds,

of bodies in the form of old
bones just laying on the beach.

The locals call this place
Dead Man's Island.

It's like a mass grave sitting
right next to London.

NARRATOR: London's Thames River
has a history stretching back

some 10,000 years,

and its waters have claimed
countless ships and lives.

Accounts from 9th century
monks provide a clue

to the carnage discovered
on Dead Man's Island.

We know that Vikings invaded

this particular
part of the coast,

so could this be a long-lost
Viking ship

and some of its crew entombed
in the mud?

NARRATOR: The monks' chronicles
describe how, in 835 A.D.,

Norse warriors sail into

the Thames estuary
in search of plunder.

HUNT:
In the Viking period,

London is a magnet, because
it's a huge, rich trading port.

They're interested in
acquiring the luxuries that

were contained in
the monasteries,

but also were seeking
out slaves.

[voices clamoring]

NARRATOR: Due to a shortage of
women in Scandinavia,

the Vikings kidnapped
thousands of slave wives,

slaying their menfolk
and burning their homes

to the ground.

In 1894 A.D.,

close to the site
in the image,

the English reek a bloody
revenge on their

Norse invaders at
the battle of Benfleet.

HUNT: Benfleet is just across
the river, and there was

a huge loss of Viking wealth,
ships, and life.

HORTON: So it's possible
these remains might

be associated
with these skirmishes

between
the Vikings and the Saxons.

NARRATOR: But the latest footage
of the bodies buried on

Dead Man's Island doesn't fit
with the Viking

massacre theory.

Looking closer, you can
actually see wooden coffins.

So if someone took time to
bury these bodies,

that does not look like
the site of a battle.

NARRATOR: If not the Vikings,
then who?

18th-century maritime records
shed more light on

the origin of the wreck
and the bones nearby.

From the research, what we
find out is that this part of

the Thames estuary was
actually used as a mooring area

for prison hulks.

NARRATOR: The ship is named
the Justicia,

one of several
floating prisons

once anchored off
Dead Man's Island.

They were used to house
inmates in some of the grimmest

conditions imaginable.

WALTERS:
They were horrific places,

very, very hellish indeed.

You would not want to
be on a prison hulk.

You better believe it.

NARRATOR: The story of Britain's
floating horror jails begins

during the sweeping prison
reforms of the 1600s.

MORGAN:
In the late 17th century,

the prisons are overcrowded,
and they come up

with a new penalty,
and that's transportation,

and that means that
the convict, instead of serving

time in prison in England, is

sent to the colonies in
North America.

NARRATOR:
Over the following decades,

the policy of convict
transportation accounts for

a quarter of
all North American immigrants.

CADDICK-ADAMS:
Tens of thousands

make that uncertain journey
across the North Atlantic

and find themselves as

the forefathers of
today's United States.

NARRATOR: In 1775,

when war breaks out
between the two countries,

Britain is forced to find
another way to deal with

prison overcrowding.

The solution comes in
the following year,

in 1776, when Parliament
passes the Hulks Act.

NARRATOR: The Hulks Act leads
to old, decommissioned

ships being converted into
privately run floating prisons.

MORGAN: There are no rules
that govern these ships.

They're run by contractors,
and the more prisoners

they accommodate,
the more money they make.

[clanking noise]

NARRATOR: Unscrupulous
contractors cram 600 inmates

into ships designed
to hold just 80.

A crime as minor as stealing
a loaf of bread

could see you thrown
into a cage

with rapists and murderers
for 14 years.

MORGAN: These things
are a living hell.

They're dark, they're dank,
they're cold,

they're disease-ridden.

There are rats everywhere.

Typhus, cholera,
dysentery, diphtheria.

You know, it's no surprise
that the mortality

rate on these prison hulks
was absolutely rocketing.

[sneezes]

Sickened, dying prisoners are
often forced to bunk with

the dead -- it's the most
disgusting place on Earth.

NARRATOR:
Disease and mistreatment

kill up to a third of all
prisoners -- on one ship,

typhus from a single inmate
spreads to claim 176 lives.

[coughing]

WALTERS: What happens if you die
on board of prison hulk?

You would be naive to suppose
you're going to get buried

with your loved ones
around you,

waving you goodbye.

What happens is you get
dragged off board, your body

dumped into a very rough
and ready coffin,

and that coffin is then just
dumped near the boat.

NARRATOR: The convicts' bodies
are swallowed by the marshes.

Today, they are slowly emerging
from their muddy graves,

next to the very ship that

claimed their lives
all those years ago.

MORGAN: What we're seeing here
are the final remnants of a dark

chapter in British
legal history,

where prisoners were held
under the most

inhumane conditions.

NARRATOR: Coming up, inflatable
Nazi killing machines.

MUNOZ: These became vital
for any threats

coming across the Atlantic.

NARRATOR:
And whale apocalypse.

This is a catastrophe
that we're witnessing.

NARRATOR:
August 2019.

As a satellite passes over the
tip of Long Island, New York,

it spots something partially
concealed in the woods below.

MORAN: This is a really
strange image.

It's this enormous,
perfectly circular

structure that

looks almost like an ancient
henge or something.

NARRATOR: The mystery
structure's location

offers a clue.

Long Island has a long history
intertwined with the military.

So I wonder if there could be
some explanation there.

The overgrown quality suggests
that this is an old,

maybe abandoned facility,

maybe even dating back
to the Second World War.

NARRATOR: Declassified
World War II images

reveal other
similar structures

along this stretch of coast.

WALTERS: What this strongly
reminds me of,

and what I suspect it is,

is a landing area for
an airship.

NARRATOR:
The wartime airship stations

form part of
a revolutionary program

to help America defend
itself against the Nazi menace.

WALTERS: America was always
a big pioneer of using balloons

for military applications.

I mean, they were even used
in the American Civil War.

[shouting]

NARRATOR: The Union Army
balloons lift aeronauts

1,000 feet into the sky,

providing them with a 15-mile
view across the battlefield.

MORGAN: That's more than
a day's march.

So a balloon could function as

a very effective advanced
early warning system.

NARRATOR:
To enrage the Confederates,

many balloons carried portraits
of Union Army generals.

MORGAN: The balloons were
brightly painted,

so they weren't trying to hide,

they weren't going for stealth.

MORAN:
They were somewhat conspicuous

and could very well become
cannon fodder.

NARRATOR: As World War II looms,
military balloons are

resurrected to deal with a much
deadlier threat than

Confederate artillery.

PAVELEC: During
the Second World War,

lighter-than-air dirigibles
and blimps will watch for

and protect against German
submarines in the Atlantic.

NARRATOR: As the war unfolds,
U-boats present

a massive danger
to vital American supplies

crossing the Atlantic.

With millions of tons
of cargo being lost,

the Navy dispatches
150 airships to

conduct anti-submarine
missions out at sea.

MUNOZ: These U.S. airships
really became a vital

lifeline for the U.S. Navy

in terms of providing
early warning of

any threats that could be
coming across the Atlantic.

MORAN: The United States
ended up building over half

a dozen of these stations
all along the coastline.

So could what we're seeing be

a station that once housed
a military blimp?

NARRATOR: Planetary scientist
Pascal Lee studies the image.

He believes that the structure
does have its origins in

the 1940s,

but wasn't built to help in
the fight against Hitler.

LEE: What we're seeing here is
not a military facility,

but a fundamental physics
research laboratory

where we're learning
about the intimate

behavior of matter
in the universe.

NARRATOR: This is
the Brookhaven National

Laboratory,
which opened in 1947.

Over the years,

the work conducted here
has ranged from

research that has won
seven Nobel Prizes,

to pioneering
the first video games.

Today, the circular structure
in the image is

on the hunt for an even
bigger trophy.

LEE:
The circle here in the middle

is their relativistic
heavy ion collider.

It's a particle accelerator
where we can study

the makeup of particles at
the very beginning of

our universe.

NARRATOR:
13.8 billion years ago,

everything we observe
in the universe -- stars,

nebula, black holes -- was
packed into a single point.

A sudden event,
the so-called Big Bang,

then spawned all matter
in the cosmos,

one so cataclysmically
powerful that even today,

the universe continues to
expand at an astonishing rate.

What the state of matter was
at the time was this very hot,

dense gas, if you will,

made up of individual
particles, which eventually,

once they cool down, gave rise
to protons and neutrons

and the other things
we're familiar with.

NARRATOR: The collider
in the image

helps scientists understand
the birth of the universe by

mimicking the aftermath
of the Big Bang.

Inside, 1,740
superconducting magnets,

accelerate ions to close to
the speed of light.

When they collide,
they create temperatures

of around 7.2 trillion
degrees Fahrenheit,

250,000 times hotter
than the core of the sun.

When you collide, the energy
that is exchanged is so...

monumental that you can
actually break up

even the most tightly bound
particles and really see what

matter is made up of.

NARRATOR: By studying this
primordial soup of particles,

scientists hope
to decode the blueprint

of how the cosmos
is constructed.

MORGAN: What we're actually
looking at here is one of

the most important
research laboratories

in the entire world, where
the discoveries being made

there are making history
every day.

NARRATOR: In effect,
the structure in the image

is a time travel machine,

one that may one day help us

solve perhaps the greatest
mystery in science.

LEE: Who would have thought that
we are essentially recreating

the early moments
of our universe

on Long Island, New York?

**

NARRATOR: Coming up, what's
killing nature's giants?

Something is causing hundreds
upon hundreds of whales to die.

NARRATOR: And the swamp
that ate itself.

Whatever is happening here

is basically eating up
the whole surrounding.

NARRATOR:
September 21, 2020,

Tasmania,

150 miles south of
mainland Australia.

A helicopter scans beaches
on the west of the island.

Passing over
Macquarie Harbour,

the on-board camera captures

disturbing images of
the waters below.

There's something funny here.

There's these little specks
along the coastline,

just kind of, like,
dotting it.

When you zoom closer,
you can

start to see that
they're actually moving.

NARRATOR: Hundreds of pilot
whales have beached themselves,

and they are fighting for
their lives.

They're sick,
they're dying.

This is a catastrophe
that we're witnessing.

NARRATOR: This is the largest
mass stranding in

Australian history.

Within hours, rescuers
arrive at the scene,

They were able to save 90,
which is great.

But that still meant
that almost 400

animals died on
the beach that day.

NARRATOR: What's more, this is
the 30th mass pilot whale

death on the island in
the last three decades.

What's really unfortunate is
this situation isn't unique.

Something is causing hundreds
upon hundreds of whales to die.

NARRATOR:
The cause of these tragedies

continues to baffle biologists.

When news of
the latest one spreads,

some observers identify
a possible culprit.

KAYS: There's a lot of concern
that military

sonar could have really bad
effects on whales.

And there are companies
near where these whales

stranded that are developing
these types of technologies.

NARRATOR: The military tests are
trying to replicate

one of the whales' most
extraordinary abilities.

Pilot whales have this rounded
forehead that's actually called

the melon, and that is where
they send out their

echolocation calls.

NARRATOR: Like sonar, whales use
echolocation by bouncing sound

waves off nearby objects --
by focusing the echoes,

they can pinpoint prey
the size of

a golf ball in
the dark ocean depths.

But as our oceans become
more militarized,

they're becoming very,
very noisy.

And when you're a whale
that depends on your sense

of hearing, that becomes
a really big issue.

[high-pitched whale call]

NARRATOR: The details of
the Australian sonar tests

are classified,

but similar experiments
involve using underwater

speakers to pump out pulses

of sound that can
exceed 230 decibels.

To put this into
perspective, the human

ear drum shatters
around 140 or 160 decibels.

That is literally
ear-splitting sounds

being broadcasting.

[high-pitched whale call]

NARRATOR: The fear is that
these noises stun the whales,

forcing them into
shallow waters.

KAYS: We don't know if there
were underwater sonar tests

going on at the moment
of this beaching,

but it seems like that is one
of the possibilities of

the causes of this mass
whale stranding in Tasmania.

NARRATOR: But other scientists
speculate that freak

natural phenomenon could
instead be to blame.

When we measure the magnetic
field of Earth,

we can see that there's
an unusually weak circular area

in this part of southern

Australia called
the Coompana Anomaly.

SCHUTTLER: Given that whales use
the Earth's magnetic field

to navigate,

maybe it's confusing
the whales,

messing up their
navigation system.

NARRATOR:
The Coompana Anomaly was first

discovered when planes flying

over southern Australia
reported strange things

happening to their instruments.

It has this weird,
crater-like shape.

Some scientists
think it might be

the result of
an ancient meteor impact.

DENNIE: We don't really know
for sure what causes it,

but something about the geology
in this area is causing

a magnetic field that's weaker
in all the areas surrounding it.

NARRATOR: Magnetic anomalies
are known

to play havoc with spacecraft,

even sending them spiraling
out of control.

In whales, they could interfere
with a mysterious 6th sense,

which enables them to

use the Earth's magnetic
fields to navigate millions of

square miles of empty ocean.

Magnetoreception
is like a superpower,

but it's a superpower
that's still quite a mystery.

[high-pitched whale calling]

It's possible that if
there were shifts in

the electromagnetic fields,

it could cause
a major disruption

to how they could navigate.

[high-pitched whale calling]

NARRATOR: Some scientists agree
that magnetic disturbances

are to blame for the
whale deaths,

but ones originating from
a very different source.

KAYS: When the sun goes into
a period of high activity,

we see big waves of
electromagnetic radiation

hitting the Earth.

Researchers have found that if
you plot the solar activity

with the times that we see
a lot of whale strandings,

it explains some of these
terrible stranding events.

NARRATOR: Solar flares release
10 million times more energy

than a volcano and can knock out
entire power grids.

A particularly powerful solar
eruption could fry the whales'

ability to detect variations
in the earth's magnetic field.

It's kind of like if
you're driving in a snowstorm,

you're more likely to get into
a car accident.

If you have a solar storm,
and you're relying on magnetic

reception to navigate,

you're more likely to make
a navigational error.

NARRATOR:
Scientists continue to search

for answers to explain

the increasing number of whale
deaths reported worldwide,

and time is running out.

Nobody really understands why,
but it's happening

more and more often.

The whales are dying
in massive numbers.

It's a tragedy and a biological
mystery to boot.

NARRATOR: Coming up,
Louisiana's killer abyss.

It was a devastating disaster,

and it looks like history may
be repeating itself here.

NARRATOR:
August 2, 2012.

Eyes in the sky
scan a forested area of

Louisiana, some 35 miles inland
from the Gulf of Mexico.

This image looks like
any normal swamp

that you would see in
southern Louisiana.

You see roads and greenery,
rivers, the usual.

NARRATOR:
But as the camera passes over

the same patch of swamp just
24 hours later,

it captures something weird.

All of a sudden,
there's this hole,

like something swallowed
the swamp right up.

Literally from one day to
the next,

there is this dark patch
coming out of nowhere.

NARRATOR: Footage taken
at ground level reveals

that the swamp has
turned cannibal.

It looks like there's some
giant monster lurking at

the bottom of the water

who's just sucking down
entire sections of forest.

NARRATOR:
Over the following weeks,

the swamp-swallowing vortex
continues to grow,

forcing residents of
the nearby town to flee

their homes.

If I lived in this town,
it would be terrifying.

Whatever is happening here is

basically eating up
the whole surroundings.

NARRATOR: Eyewitness accounts
from the days leading up

to the event offer
the first clues.

RUBEN: Local residents say that
when the hole first appeared,

the ground under their houses
started to shake.

Not only that, but frequent
tremors were reported

in the two months before
the sinkhole opened.

NARRATOR: What puzzles analysts
is that seismological

data shows no evidence of
any earthquakes.

It suggests some other freak

geological phenomenon
is to blame.

It's possible that the unique
geology of Louisiana can

give us some clues as to
what's going on.

NARRATOR: What's unusual about
Louisiana is that it sits

on top of giant mineral
deposits called salt domes.

In some cases,
these salt domes

can be as tall as
Mount Everest.

So there's a tremendous amount
of salt beneath your feet.

In Louisiana,
there are 100 huge salt domes

sitting under
the surface of the Earth.

And looking at the map,

we see that some of them
are right in this spot.

NARRATOR: Louisiana's salt domes
are the remains of a shallow

ocean that covered the state
300 million years ago.

When the waters evaporated,

they left behind vast salt
flats, which were swallowed by

the Earth.

Salt has a lower density
than the surrounding rock.

And so the pressure
around it can

push it up into these, like,
dome-like structures.

And the closer the salt dome
comes to the surface,

the more easily we can mine it
for food and industry.

[explosion blasts]

NARRATOR: They've been mining
Louisiana's salt domes since

the Civil War.

In the last few decades alone,

millions of tons of
the mineral have been chiseled

from the earth.

SALAITA: We have to drill down
sometimes to 10,000 feet

to get at the salt that's
underneath the surface.

CERVENY: So as they've been
mining this salt,

this area has become filled
with lots of tunnels, and that

leads to instability over
the whole area.

NARRATOR: These salt caverns
are normally very stable,

but events in Louisiana
four decades ago

show that things can go
catastrophically wrong.

This happened in
Lake Peigneur in 1980.

Workers were
drilling for oil when the oil

drill became stuck in
a salt dome under the water.

The drilling equipment
and all of

the supporting equipment were
sucked into a giant whirlpool.

It was a devastating
disaster, and it

looks like history may be
repeating itself here.

NARRATOR:
An investigation confirms that

drilling was taking place in

the swamp prior to the sudden
appearance of the giant hole.

This sinkhole is right next to

a mining operation
that was set up

to extract
salt-enriched waters,

which are called brines.

NARRATOR: As the brine is
removed from the salt dome,

groundwater seeps in, creating
a geological time bomb.

When that happens, it dissolves
the salt dome itself.

You're left with an empty
shell, and it will collapse.

NARRATOR: Three companies
were prosecuted for

triggering
the town-swallowing chasm,

but many in this state fear
this won't be

the last time
they see their lands

being swallowed by the swamp.

RUBEN: There are more than 120
salt domes just in Louisiana,

so who knows where or when
the next sinkhole will open up.