All language subtitles for What.on.Earth.S09E09.1080p.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.

Pagans, Vikings, Nazis,

and the mystery structures
that bind them all.

This could really shed
some light on our earliest

human history.

NARRATOR:
Stalin's Atlantis.

The scale of this is
absolutely phenomenal.

And the $15 billion
treasure hunt.

There was a reason why
they called this

the Wild West.

NARRATOR: Baffling
phenomena, mysteries

from space.

What on Earth are they?

[theme music playing]

**

July 2020 -- a NASA Earth
observation satellite scans

the Orkneys on the far
northernly tip

of Scotland...

...a desolate archipelago
of some 70 islands

and one of the most

mysterious archaeological
sites in the world.

The Orkneys have been
occupied by

human beings for thousands
of years.

KOUROUNIS: Even though
these islands are remote,

they have a deep
archaeological history,

and there's evidence
in the Orkney Islands

that goes back to

the Iron Age
and even Neolithic times.

NARRATOR:
Throughout ancient history,

these strategic islands
were fought over

and ruled by an astonishing
number of warrior tribes

and civilizations.

Many of them left coded clues
to their lives and battles in

the form of strange,

enigmatic structures that
pepper the hills

and coastline here.

CAVELL: All over Orkney,

there are ancient sites that
are quite extraordinary.

It was clearly a place of
great importance.

NARRATOR: Karen Bellinger has
traveled to Orkney hoping that

aerial images can help
decipher this coded landscape.

BELLINGER: There aren't any
written records of life in

ancient Britain,

so this could really shed
some life on our earliest

human history.

NARRATOR: A satellite image
taken on July 31, 2020,

is of particular interest
to the archaeologist.

BELLINGER: The circular shape
on this satellite image is

really exciting.

It's seven circles making
a large circle in and of itself.

NARRATOR: The image appears to
show a cluster of ancient ruins.

Yet how they fit into

these islands' twisting
history is unclear.

Circular structures
are really meaningful,

and so there's actually a lot
of exciting possibilities

for what this circle in
the satellite image could be.

NARRATOR: Guided by
the image coordinates,

Bellinger heads south.

As she makes her way across
the center of the islands,

she encounters a relic of
perhaps the most extraordinary

ancient peoples of Orkney.

Wow!

This is a magnificent
standing stone circle.

NARRATOR:
This is the Ring of Brogdar,

built by a race of
Pagan warriors

and Druids who arrived on
Orkney around 6,000 years ago.

During their reign here,
they established one of

the earliest civilizations
in European history,

transforming a land of
primitive hunter-gatherers into

one filled with giant stone
monuments and temples.

Many of them predate
the great pyramids of Egypt.

Yet,
despite extensive study,

their exact purpose
remains a mystery.

It's just really mind-boggling
to imagine what was so

important to these people
to invest this kind of time

and energy --
it's absolutely phenomenal.

NARRATOR: The structures in
the satellite image resemble

ritualistic sites built by
this pagan civilization.

But what puzzles Bellinger is
its precise layout.

I don't know,
it's a little bit weird.

It -- it's
a little more regular.

It just doesn't look quite
[indistinct].

NARRATOR: If the structures
aren't ceremonial,

they could be a legacy of
another momentous period in

Orkney's distant past.

One thing you can't help
but think of around here,

Orkney, is Vikings.

That's an exciting
possibility.

NARRATOR: The Norse
sea pirates arrive in

Orkney in the late
8th century A.D.

They remain here for 500 years,
using it as

a base to launch raids on
England, Ireland, and beyond.

[weapons clashing,
people shouting]

Even today, one in four
islanders have Viking blood

in them.

KOUROUNIS: There was actually
an entire set of Viking sagas

written about their time
here in the Orkney Islands.

So that tells you
how important

their occupation of this area
was to them.

What we're looking at
in this image could be

a Viking settlement of some
kind, where the houses are

clustered together.

Oh, this has gotta be it.

It doesn't look quite like
I expected it would

from the satellite image.

It's definitely not Neolithic.

In fact,
it's not ancient at all.

NARRATOR: The mystery
structures sit on

a hilltop and are
heavily fortified.

But it's not apparent when
they were built or why.

BELLINGER: Kind of has
the feeling of World War

architecture, but it's such
a weird shape.

NARRATOR:
What puzzles the archaeologist

is that only some of
the circles

in the image have been
built on.

BELLINGER: Half of these circles
actually are different.

They're the same size
as the others,

but they don't have any of
the concrete structures that

the others do --
it's really odd.

NARRATOR: The structures'
fortified walls and hilltop

position suggests they

were put here to protect
something of great value.

BELLINGER: If this is
a defensive structure,

what were they defending?

This place is desolate.

NARRATOR: As Bellinger
explores a nearby beach,

she discovers a possible clue
to the purpose of the strange

site revealed from space.

**

Some kind of ruined ship.

Two of them,
it looks like.

Weird.

**

NARRATOR: When Bellinger deploys
a drone to scan the wrecks,

the story of these historic
islands takes a bizarre turn.

BELLINGER: I wasn't expecting
to see anything like this.

NARRATOR: Coming up,
the ghost ships

and ruins reveal
their strange secrets.

It's really kind
of astonishing.

NARRATOR: And a mystery from
the bowels of the Earth.

Wow, it looks like
an intestine

or a brain-like pattern.

NARRATOR: Drawn by a cluster
of mystery structures

revealed from space,

Karen Bellinger is in
the historic Orkney Islands

off the northern coast
of Scotland.

I'd say this is World
War architecture,

you know,
but it's really weird.

NARRATOR:
The mystery fortifications

overlook a stretch of water.

[drone buzzing]

Bellinger discovers
that it is strewn with

sections of ships and other
submerged structures.

BELLINGER: There's no rocks
or anything like that.

This is a number of ships that
have been sunk purposefully.

NARRATOR: It appears
great effort has been

made to protect
this narrow waterway.

What were they defending here
in the middle of nowhere?

NARRATOR: The wider image
provides a clue.

BELLINGER: Zooming out,
the islands themselves enclose

an enormous natural harbor

and a deep one, too,
just as deep

as in the open ocean beyond.

NARRATOR: The deep harbor,
protected by

the fortifications and wrecks
is called Scapa Flow,

and declassified military
records reveal that it has

witnessed some of the most

momentous events of 20th
century military history.

Scapa Flow is one of
the most strategically

important waterways

in the world and has been
for a long time.

Scapa Flow has played
a very important role

for the Royal Navy throughout
the 20th century,

starting in World War I.

NARRATOR: What makes Scapa Flow
so valuable to military leaders

is that it provides fast access
to both the North Sea

and Atlantic Ocean.

In the run up to World War,
the British choose it as

the base for the Royal Navy's
Grand Fleet,

the largest, most powerful
armada in the world.

The islands themselves
protected seafarers from

all but
the absolute worst weather,

so it was a perfect spot
to drop anchor.

HYMEL: In that same element,

the British know that,
as well as it's

defended from weather, it's not
defended from the enemy.

NARRATOR: The Royal Navy
realizes that Scapa Flow's

biggest vulnerability

are the seven channels that
provide access to the sea.

So it barricades them
to defend

the Grand Fleet from
submarines or surface attack.

The British know
the value of this area,

and they're gonna defend it
to the teeth.

CAVELL: There was all sorts of
activity taken to block

the seven main channels

that would get into Scapa Flow
to protect the fleet.

NARRATOR:
Scapa Flow's Grand Fleet

plays a vital role
in World War I,

including
the Battle of Jutland,

the biggest naval engagement
of the conflict.

And just a few months
after the Allies' victory,

an extraordinary incident sees
more ships being claimed by its

freezing waters.

MORGAN: At the end
of World War I,

the German imperial fleet is
moved to Scapa Flow while

they're negotiating the final
settlement of the war

that will ultimately emerge
as the Versailles Treaty.

NARRATOR:
During these negotiations,

the commander of the German
fleet learns that he

will soon be forced to hand
his ships over to the Allies.

The Germans realize what's
going to happen, and they decide

that they don't want to allow

their vessels to fall
into enemy hands,

and so they scuttle their ships.

NARRATOR:
Following a coded message,

the Germans sink 52 of the 74
warships anchored at Scapa Flow.

Two decades later,
at the dawn of World War II,

another historic event leads
to the construction

of the mysterious
circular structures

overlooking the harbor.

What we're actually looking at
is a direct consequence of

a disaster that took place

at the very beginning of
the war in 1939, and that was

the sinking of HMS Royal Oak.

NARRATOR: The Royal Oak
is one of 42 warships

based at Scapa Flow

that are being used to blockade
supplies from reaching Germany,

infuriating Hitler.

And when Nazi intelligence
reveals the crumbling

World War I ships no longer
block access to the harbor,

he senses an opportunity
for revenge.

The Germans are flying
reconnaissance missions over

this area, and what these show
is that there

are openings to get U-boats
into Scapa Flow and make

an attack on the Royal Navy.

NARRATOR: On October 14, 1939,
a U-boat sneaks past

the World War I wrecks
and torpedoes the Royal Oak,

sinking her and killing
835 of her crew.

[explosion blasts]

The attack is one of the most
catastrophic disasters in

British naval history
and a massive propaganda coup

for Hitler.

This is a huge black eye
to Churchill's government.

He's going to prevent
this from ever happening again.

The British have learned
a lesson, and that

lesson is that you must
protect Scapa Flow.

NARRATOR: The British
immediately shore up

Scapa Flow's defenses
by constructing

an anti-aircraft battery and
other fortifications to guard

against the Nazi threat.

Over the years,
they are reclaimed by nature,

joining the hundreds of
other crumbling structures

built by those who have fought

for control of
these islands and its harbor.

For thousands of years,
people have been defending

Scapa Flow,
and the ruins

really highlight
the importance of this

particular stretch of water.

NARRATOR: The aerial images have
revealed that what has made

this remote archipelago
so pivotal

to mankind isn't just
the islands themselves,

but what lies between them.

The satellite images are full
of evidence for how important

this area,

with its amazing natural
harbor, has been throughout

human history.

It's really kind
of astonishing.

**

**

NARRATOR: Coming up,

the world's weirdest
patch of ocean.

Guess who dreamt it up?

Why, none other than evil
dictator, Joseph Stalin.

NARRATOR: And death
and terror in paradise.

It's as if all the people have
been erased from existence.

NARRATOR:
August 13, 2020,

a satellite
scans the 750-mile-long

Caspian Sea,
the world's largest lake.

Far below, it captures
something odd in the water.

It's really
the strangest thing.

There's this structure
with these little dots

interspersed between
each of the lines.

It almost looks
like a giant web.

NARRATOR:
Punching in closer,

the web appears
to be a network

of oil rigs, and it's bigger
than Manhattan.

MORAN: You can see that there's
platforms and some bridges

connecting them, but it seems
a little haphazard.

The scale of this is
absolutely phenomenal.

It's almost like a city
at sea.

NARRATOR:
Declassified Cold War images

reveal the crumbling
rigs are

a bizarre legacy of Communist
rule in this region.

This mega structure
actually has

a name, and it's called
Oil Rocks.

And guess who dreamt it up?

Why, none other than evil
dictator, Joseph Stalin.

NARRATOR: Oil Rocks
has its roots

in the ashes of World War II.

Russia has been
reduced to a wasteland.

1,700 towns and six million
buildings lie in ruins.

In 1946, dictator Joseph Stalin
instigates a brutal

five-year plan to rebuild
his devastated country.

The scale and scope of these
plans were basically insane.

Millions of Russians were
uprooted from their homes

and forced to work
in these mega factories

or collectivized farms.

WALTERS: If they didn't,
they were often imprisoned,

or worse still,

in that classic Stalinist way,
they were executed.

NARRATOR:
Over the following years,

the Russians build
a vast number of factories,

steel mills, towns,
and even cities,

and this explosion
in industrial growth

demands vast amounts
of oil.

MUNOZ: Right at the end
of the 1940s,

oil was discovered
in the Caspian Sea.

Now, this was
a game-changing discovery,

and Stalin was determined to
harness this potential

and exploit it
with all its might.

NARRATOR: The problem is that
the Caspian Sea's oil reserves

lie around 30 miles from land

and 3,000 feet underwater,
and no one has attempted

to drill in deep water before.

This is not the ideal place,
because you're right in

the middle of the -- the sea,

it's windy, it's cold,
it's incredibly

hazardous to build.

NARRATOR: The Soviets' solution
is to sink the Zoroaster,

the world's first oil tanker,
and use it as the foundation

for the world's first
offshore oil platform.

It means Stalin
now has a homegrown supply

of some 50 billion barrels
worth of black gold.

MORGAN: The Soviet Union is
drunk with the possibilities,

because that means
that they command their own

oil wealth, and they don't
have to be dependent

on anyone else for it.

NARRATOR:
Over the following years,

a labyrinth of
interconnected rigs,

docks, and cranes
rises out of the sea.

It becomes a floating city,
complete with apartment

buildings and a movie theater,

vegetable gardens,
and a soccer field.

MUNOZ: This was
a huge undertaking.

I mean, all the construction
materials needed to build these

platforms had to be
basically ferried 30 miles

from the mainland.

NARRATOR: By the 1960s,
Oil Rocks has 2,000

drilling platforms connected by
over 186 miles of roadways.

5,000 workers extract
13 million tons of

oil from the lake bed
each year.

CAVELL: This was
an expression of Soviet might.

Stalin wants to show
that the Soviet Union

is so powerful,
it can do anything.

It can even build cities in
the middle of the sea.

NARRATOR: Stalin knows
that American spy planes

regularly fly over Oil Rocks --
for the dictator,

it's a triumphant symbol of
Communist success,

visible from the skies.

CAVELL:
There are multiple purposes

for constructing something
like this.

I mean, there's the purpose of
getting the oil, which is

absolutely necessary to running
a modern Soviet Union,

but there's also
the propaganda factor.

For a few decades,

Oil Rocks was
a phenomenal success,

but nothing lasts forever.

NARRATOR: Like the rest of the
Soviet Union's industries,

Oil Rocks's success is built
on unsustainable state funding.

During the oil crises of
the '70s and '80s,

it hemorrhages
vast amounts of money.

But the Kremlin refuses
to concede defeat.

WALTER: They've got to keep
people in employment,

because that's the kind of
Soviet command economy rule,

everyone's got to have a job,
even if it makes no

economic sense.

So, you know, it kind of
limps on for years.

NARRATOR: In 1991,

the Soviet Union collapses,
and starved of state support,

so does much of Oil Rocks.

Huge pieces of steel rust
and fall off into

the sea, and it really just
starts to become decrepit.

Stalin's Atlantis
is beginning to sink.

NARRATOR: Now owned by
the Republic of Azerbaijan,

2/3 of the once mighty
floating city is disintegrating

into the Caspian Sea,

a strange crumbling relic of
Stalin's Russia revealed

from space.

Dismantling the place is going
to be even more expensive

than just keeping it going
at reduced capacity.

There are still 2,500 people
out there working

these rigs, trying to extract
whatever oil they can.

NARRATOR: Coming up --
mud, murder,

and multimillion dollar mayhem.

Add in a few
bottles of whiskey,

and you're gonna end up
with a lot of trouble.

NARRATOR: And Miami's secret
dens of depravity.

It's the place where locals
can go and have the best,

most epic, crazy time of
their lives.

NARRATOR:
August 29, 2020.

An orbiting eye
in the sky scans

of patchwork of farmland in
central California.

KOUROUNIS: I can clearly see
what looks like farmers' fields,

but then there's
this gray scar

across the landscape
that is filled

with all of
these squiggly lines.

Wow, this is crazy-looking.

It looks like an intestine
or a brain-like pattern,

and look at the size of it!

NARRATOR: End to end,

the weird patterns stretch
for over eight miles.

To Martin Pepper,

their twisting intestinal
features are familiar.

PEPPER: Looking
at the ridge lines,

I think what we're looking at
is a mining operation.

This is not far from
the Sierra Nevadas.

The Sierra Nevadas
are home to one of

the biggest gold belts known
as the Mother Lode.

NARRATOR: Historic records
reveal that the pattern in

the image has been 170 years
in the making.

Looking into the history of
the area,

these piles are not
from recent mining.

These remains are from
the California Gold Rush.

NARRATOR: The Rush famously
begins in 1848,

sparked when a few flakes

are discovered at
Sutter's Mill,

40 miles to the southeast.

Once that happened,
it went into full throttle.

NARRATOR: The following year,
100,000

so-called 49ers pour into
the Golden State.

MORGAN:
The city of San Francisco

has so many people
that show up to begin

prospecting for gold that they
have a problem with abandoned

boats clogging up
the harbor.

NARRATOR: But most
prospectors' road to gold

is the perilous Overland Trail,

where harsh conditions
and disease

claimed 20,000 lives,

an average of
10 deaths per mile.

There are tons of stories of
death and hardship on the way

towards the west,

but it doesn't stop people
from heading out there to try

and make their own fortune.

Man can make a living pleasure
mining and be his own boss.

NARRATOR:
When the prospectors arrive,

the area around the image
is a pristine wilderness.

Almost overnight, it is
transformed into a lawless

tent city where miners

pan for river gold by day
and fight over their share

by night.

There was a reason why
they call this the Wild West.

[crowd clamoring]

You had thousands of people
storming in here to try

and strike it rich with very
poor living conditions,

not a lot of police activity,
add in a few bottles of whiskey,

and you're gonna end up
with a lot of trouble.

NARRATOR:
When mining companies get wind

of California's riches,

much of the area is taken over
by big business, who chased

the veins of gold upriver
and deep into the rock.

Mining companies go straight
to the source, up into

the foothills of the Sierras,
where they bring with them

larger machinery
and new technology.

NARRATOR: In 1853,

the companies introduce a new
mining technology,

which dramatically
accelerates the Gold Rush

and transforms the valley
in the image into the snaking

shapes visible from
space today.

A new technique called
hydraulic mining is devised,

and it changes everything.

It's basically a giant fire
hose sprayed into the sides of

hills and mountains to knock

down all the sediment
and force it into sluices,

collecting all this
precious gold.

NARRATOR: Using hydraulic jets
eight times

more powerful than
a firefighter's hose,

gold miners can reduce a rock
face to rubble in minutes.

PEPPER: It's a brutal method,
but definitely

a quick and efficient way
of getting gold.

FANARA: After destroying
those hillsides,

there is a ton of debris.

They call it slickens,
and they would

dispose of it in the riverbed.

NARRATOR: The slickens contain
chemicals, which quickly

turned the valley
into a toxic wasteland.

The best way to get fine gold

out of sediment
is you use mercury.

It actually gleans onto the gold
and helps you separate it.

NARRATOR: As the noxious
slickens flows

into the Yuba River,

it raises the water level up
by 100 feet, contaminating

vast areas of nearby land.

All of that dirt debris,
that slickens,

it ended up covering
farmland 10 to 40 feet high.

MORGAN: The prospectors,
they didn't care -- when they

looked at the beautiful
environment around them,

they went, "That's nice,
let's destroy it and get rich."

NARRATOR: In just 20 years,
hydraulic mining blasts

nearly $20 million dollars worth

of gold from the Mother Lode.

But in 1884, the state of
California finally brings

an end to
this frenzied destruction.

PEPPER: After dumping
slickens is outlawed,

the state forms a commission
that dredges out the millions

of tons of these slickens,

and that's what
we're seeing in this image.

NARRATOR: Over time,
nature slowly reclaims

the snaking piles of debris,

yet scars visible
in the image reveal

that prospectors have returned
to finish the job

the 49ers started
all those years ago.

Hydraulic mining isn't
100 percent efficient,

and there is gold

that gets washed away with all
of the waste rock.

PEPPER:
Dredges can dig up this dirt

and extract every last flake
of gold in it.

NARRATOR:
By dredging the slickens,

miners extract millions of
dollars worth of gold discarded

in the fevered hunt for
the Mother Lode more than

a century ago.

With people still
mining these slickens,

it's almost as if
the Gold Rush never stopped.

NARRATOR: Coming up,
Florida's floating

gangster paradise.

Powerful people come to
indulge themselves in pleasures

of the flesh
or any other kind of vices.

NARRATOR: And unleashing hell
in the South Pacific.

There's something
a little post-apocalyptic

about the whole thing.

NARRATOR:
March 27, 2020.

The WorldView-2 satellite
passes over

Biscayne Bay on Miami's
Atlantic coast.

Biscayne Bay is
an extremely wealthy area

known for its big mansions
and casinos.

It's kind of like a play land
for the very rich.

NARRATOR:
But a mile from shore,

there's a different kind
of architecture,

one that doesn't fit with
this millionaire's paradise.

CHAMBERLAIN: This is really
kind of strange.

There are these white
structures just standing in

the bay.

MORAN: You have several of
these mysterious shapes.

Some of them are kind of
square, some are rectangular.

NARRATOR:
According to local records,

the weird structures first
appeared during the 1920s,

a decade when vast numbers of
criminals flocked to Miami,

looking to profit from
Florida's lax

prohibition laws.

Smuggling with super big
during the prohibition era,

especially off the coast
of Florida.

CHAMBERLAIN: So perhaps
what we're seeing here

is some kind of safe house.

NARRATOR: Prohibition is
supposed to reduce

crime and corruption.

Instead,
it turns bootlegging

into a multimillion dollar
business

and triggers the most lawless
and debauched period in

Florida's history.

It's the law of
unintended consequences.

The 18th Amendment actually
leads to the organization

of criminals
or organized crime.

NARRATOR:
To quench America's thirst,

gangsters smuggle vast amounts
of booze from the Caribbean to

lines of ships known
as rum rows, anchored off

Florida's coast.

Positioned out of the reach

of the law
and international waters,

each can carry the equivalent
of up to

a quarter of $1 million
dollars worth of

illegal liquor.

Those cargo ships
would dock just

short of the coastal waters
of Florida.

What some smugglers
decided to do was

set up sort of
a distribution chain.

NARRATOR: The smugglers
deploy speedboats,

many fitted with
400-horsepower World War I

aircraft engines

to evade the Coast Guard
before disappearing into

Miami's waterways.

MUNOZ:
It was really dangerous.

You know, you're trying to
dodge federal authorities

constantly patrolling
those areas,

looking for smugglers.

[airplane engine whirring]

NARRATOR:
In 1928,

Al Capone moves to Miami
and is rumored to

have set up an operation at
the structures in the image.

But other sources suggest
they were constructed some

five years later

to satisfy demand for
a different kind of vice.

In Florida law at that time,
if your building was a mile

off the coast,
gambling laws did not apply.

So what individuals decided to
do was turn these sort of

stilt homes into small casinos.

NARRATOR: Such is the success
of these offshore casinos

that 27 soon dot the waters

of Biscayne Bay.

MORAN:
Criminals find loopholes,

so to set up something just
outside of

the bounds of legality,
it's very clever, in fact.

NARRATOR: Locals call
this place Stiltsville.

Hidden from prying eyes,

they become invite-only
private members clubs, hosting

secret wild parties for Miami's
rich and famous.

This became kind of anything
goes, the kind of place where

very wealthy, powerful people

come to indulge themselves
in pleasures

of the flesh or any other
kind of vices.

Ted Kennedy had a bachelor
party there, and it's a place

where locals could go and escape

the eye of the law,
have the best,

most epic, crazy time of
their lives.

NARRATOR: Over the years,
hurricanes

and fires destroy much
of Stiltsville.

Yet it continues
to play a key role

in the evolution of
Miami's criminal side.

MUNOZ:
Things really took a dark turn,

and a lot of the illicit
activity shifted more

towards narcotics.

[sirens wailing]

NARRATOR:
During the 1970s and '80s,

Miami becomes known as
the drug capital of the world.

NARRATOR:
70 percent of all cocaine

and marijuana entering the U.S.

passes through the city,

earning individual cartels up
to $20 billion a year.

MUNOZ: The cartels were said to
use these homes as sort of

waypoints to drop off

massive amounts of cocaine
on their way into Miami for

distribution across
the United States.

NARRATOR: Like their gangster
forerunners of the 1920s,

the narcos turned
to customized 80mph

speedboats to smuggle drugs
to shore.

At one point, the authorities
actually conducted

a drug bust where

they netted about $24 million
dollars being brought into

the United States.

The drug running still
continues to this day,

but it isn't nearly
as bad as it was

at its height in the '80s.

NARRATOR:
Yet while the rum runners,

gamblers, and narcos are long
gone, Stiltsville remains,

evidence of Miami's
long criminal history

visible from space.

Pablo Escobar, Al Capone.

The city has always had
kind of

a love-hate relationship with
these types of characters.

Miami and its residents
will never admit it,

but a lot of their economy

is based on these types
of businesses.

NARRATOR: Coming up,
the volcanic tomb.

We're basically combining
multiple natural disasters

into one here.

NARRATOR:
High above the South Pacific,

an Earth observation satellite

scans the island
of New Britain.

As it passes along
its northern coast,

it spots something strange.

We're seeing a town,
fairly ordinary things --

roads, buildings.

But then over on the edge of
town is this area that

has roads but nothing else.

NARRATOR: The ruined town is
called Rabaul and was

once known as
the Jewel of the Pacific.

Parts of the road seem to
have been buried,

roofs are collapsed.

It's almost as if all

the people have been erased
from existence.

There's something a little
post-apocalyptic

about the whole thing.

NARRATOR:
A clue to the devastation

revealed from space could lie

in this island's turbulent
World War II history.

During the conflict,
its deep harbor

and strategic position means it

plays a key role in the battle
for control of the Pacific.

KOUROUNIS: It makes sense
that everybody was trying

to get a piece of this island.

It was a great staging
point for

any of the navies,
both Axis or Allies.

NARRATOR:
In January 1942,

a month
after attacking Pearl harbor,

Japan seizes control of
the island and begins

transforming it into the most
heavily defended in the region.

RUBEN: They built barracks
and bunkers.

They very quickly and massively
expanded this whole area.

This was a prime target
for the American forces.

NARRATOR: A year later,
they learned that

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto,

the architect of the attack
on Hawaii, is on Rabaul.

RUBEN: The U.S. intercepted
coded transmissions

about General Yamamoto's
schedule and itinerary,

and the opportunity was too good
for them to pass up.

NARRATOR: On April 18,
the admiral takes off

from Rabaul to visit
a neighboring island

and is taken out of the air by
American fighter planes.

RUBEN: It was a huge boost to
American morale to

finally get some payback for
the tragedy of Pearl Harbor.

NARRATOR: However,
geological records reveal

the wasteland visible in the
image has a different origin.

It turns out that it wasn't

war that destroyed
this area at all.

It was nature.

NARRATOR: Rabaul sits in
the shadow of not one but two

stratovolcanoes,

conical peaks known for
their explosive eruptions.

We know that the island was
volcanic in the past,

but what unfortunately
the residents of this island

discovered is,
it's still volcanic today.

NARRATOR: In 1994,
both volcanoes

wake from their long slumber.

DENNIE:
Imagine yourself in Rabaul,

and these two volcanoes
explode simultaneously.

It must have been terrifying.

The residents would have
experienced something akin

to what people in Pompeii
or Herculaneum experienced.

NARRATOR: Giant superheated
clouds of ash fall onto

the town in layers up to
six feet thick.

But for the people of Rabaul,
the worst is yet to come.

Mother Nature decided
to add insult to injury

by having
a massive thunderstorm

take place afterwards.

That thunderstorm, of course,
put an immense

amount of water down
on the volcanic ash.

NARRATOR: The rain and ash
combine to form a kind of muddy

volcanic tsunami,

which consumes everything in
its path.

You get these volcanic
mudslides called lahars,

and think of them
as swift-moving

rivers of concrete and rock
that can come barreling down

the side of the mountain.

We're basically
combining multiple

natural disasters
into one here.

NARRATOR:
Meteorological records reveal

that when the ash cloud erupts,

gusts of wind force it towards
Rabaul, sparing the neighboring

town and its inhabitants
from volcanic annihilation.

They escaped relatively
unharmed, mainly because

the prevailing winds
carried all

the ash
in a different direction.

NARRATOR:
Today, the people of Rabaul

continue to rebuild their homes

in the shadow of the volcano
that could yet destroy

their lives once again.

Tens of thousands of people
continue to

live there,
in the volcano danger zone.

It seems
the Jewel of the Pacific

is just too tempting to
abandon to nature.