Original subtitles

Narrator: worldwide, six billion Cameras are watching us.

On our streets, at work, And in our homes,

They capture things That seem impossible.

It defies the laws of physics.

Man: Oh, this is unbelievable, man.

Narrator: experts carry out Forensic analysis

Of these unusual events.

There's got to be some Explanation for what's going on.

Woman: [ screams ]

Narrator: coming up,

A jurassic world In an american lake...

Imagine 60 pliosaurs swimming Around in lake champlain.

That would be Completely terrifying.

Whatever that thing is, they're Gonna need a bigger boat.

Narrator: ...An army of vampires...

There'd have to be billions Of these things in there.

It really is a horror movie.

Narrator: ...And what beast came Out of the shell from hell?

This would be way off the scale For even a dinosaur egg.

Narrator: bizarre phenomena, Mysteries caught on camera,

What's the truth Behind this strange evidence?

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

captions paid for by Discovery communications

The night sky in russia Blazes with a fiery light,

Terrorizing people below.

It's really big And it's really powerful.

It could be something terrible.

Narrator: The light is huge and intense,

But scientists are still Struggling to find the cause.

If I was gonna imagine The beginning of the apocalypse,

This wouldn't be far off.

♪♪

Narrator: november 14, 2014, Night falls in sverdlovsk,

A rural corner Of eastern russia.

Then, without warning, A giant blinding flash.

not knowing what that is And seeing that much energy

and power put out like that, That can be very terrifying.

Narrator: the burst of light Causes confusion and panic.

You almost want to shout out To the drivers,

"Stop driving towards it And turn around!"

♪♪

Narrator: footage of the event Comes to the attention

Of astrophysicist Hakeem oluseyi.

He has spent 30 years Studying the night sky.

He considers if the light Could've been given off

By a meteor.

Meteors are moving Incredibly fast,

Tens of thousands Of miles per hour,

So this means that they have A lot of kinetic energy,

And this thing can slam Into our atmosphere,

And some of that kinetic energy Gets converted into heat.

♪♪

Narrator: Meteors can enter the atmosphere

At up to 160,000 miles per hour And burn at 3,000 degrees.

♪♪

These enormous forces Can literally blow them apart.

♪♪

The front side is under A massive amount of pressure,

And the back side Is under low pressure,

And that can break it apart,

And these things can Actually explode in the sky.

♪♪

Narrator: russians have already Suffered one close encounter

With a supersized space rock.

It was over 100 years ago,

And it's what we call The tunguska event.

Narrator: when a meteor explodes Above this remote part

Of siberia in 1908,

It releases energy equivalent To 15 megatons of tnt.

That's over 150 times More powerful

Than the atomic bomb That destroyed hiroshima.

The tunguska event flattens Around 80 million trees

Across an area Twice the size of los angeles.

The devastation of tunguska Was on a scale

That the only thing It could've been

Was something from outer space.

Narrator: but science journalist John farrow believes

That the weird flash Caught on the dashcam clip

Is not a meteor.

with a meteor, you always see A streak before the explosion,

But that's missing in this case.

There is no streak Before this big flash of light.

No matter which angle you see, There's never any trail,

So that tells you It's probably not a meteorite.

♪♪

Narrator: it is known that The russian state

Has a secret Advanced-weapons program.

Is this a test of Some new secret weapon?

Former cia agent lindsay moran

Spent three years Undercover in eastern europe.

my first reaction is, "That's some kind of bomb.

that's some kind of explosion."

I mean, it's really big.

It's fiery orange.

It's got to be some kind Of weapon detonating.

Narrator: If this is a new russian weapon,

The intensity of the blast Is a worrying sign.

For something that size

And to expel That amount of energy,

It has to be nuclear.

Narrator: Over the past 70 years,

Russia has detonated Hundreds of nuclear weapons.

To john farrow, the pyrotechnics In the dashcam footage

Resemble a high-altitude Atomic test.

These high-altitude Nuclear explosions

Don't create the characteristic Mushroom cloud

That you associate With nuclear bombs.

Instead, they're more like Orangey clouds,

Which is quite similar to what We're seeing in this footage.

[ alarm blaring ]

Declassified files Show that in 1962,

The u.S. Carried out the world's Largest high-altitude

Nuclear test, Code-named starfish prime.

One and a half megatons Of atomic energy

Was released 250 miles Above johnson island

In the pacific ocean.

Records reveal an invisible side Effect 900 miles away in hawaii.

♪♪

With starfish prime in 1962, The electromagnetic pulse

That it created actually knocked Out electronics in hawaii,

So with this explosion, If that's what it is,

We would definitely expect To see

Some kind of disturbances In the electricity

Or some kind of massive Breakdown in the area.

♪♪

Narrator: Image analyst william dranginis

Checks the footage For telltale glitches

That might indicate An electromagnetic pulse,

Or emp.

from what I'm seeing here

is that there's No static electricity

being introduced Into the camera,

And the camera Is filming constantly.

There's no break.

It's not the nuclear explosion.

♪♪

[ whirring ]

Narrator: mike sansom Is an expert in explosives.

He checks for clues In the landscape.

He believes there's A possibility

That the light in the sky Began on the ground.

Sansom: There's a massive bright light,

And it comes from behind a hill.

What can it be?

Because it makes that Ferocious bright light,

My thinking is An explosive fire.

Narrator: Sansom devises an experiment

To test his theory.

He plans to recreate The explosion

Using only household items.

So I've got my fuel, And I've got an oxidizer,

which is gonna provide The oxygen

for the explosive fire.

They're all combined In this bag.

We've got a remote Firing system,

And we're gonna see If we can replicate

What we saw in that video.

Narrator: because the explosion In the clip

Occurs behind a hill,

Samson sets up a similar Obstacle for his test.

I've got my explosive fire Set up just behind this hill,

The hay bales.

I've got my firing system, And it's armed.

Let's see what it produces.

[ explosion ]

Look at that! It's lighting up the sky.

It's lighting up All the surroundings.

Narrator: sampson believes that If this ground-based explosion

Was scaled up By a factor of 50,000,

He might recreate the weird Scene captured on the dashcam.

But even if this were true,

What could've caused such A gigantic explosion

On the ground beneath the flash?

That's a ferociously Bright light,

And I'm thinking, "What else Has fuels and oxidizers?"

Munitions.

And if you were To burn a load of these

All at the same time Just beyond a hill,

You'll get an explosive fire Just like that.

Narrator: across russia, there Are many stores of ammunition,

And there is one in this region.

So it's possible that one Of these stores of ammunition

Was set alight,

And that would create A very large explosion,

Releasing a lot of light.

Narrator: but according to Russian government officials,

There was no accident Or explosion in this area

On that night.

The strange blast in the sky

That terrified the people Of sverdlovsk remains a mystery.

♪♪

Coming up, something massive is On the move in lake champlain.

I was just totally amazed. I didn't know what to do.

Narrator: Scientists fear the return

Of a jurassic monster.

Some believe that a plesiosaur Still lives in this lake.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: camera footage Captures something large

And leathery In a new england lake...

And all of a sudden, That hump came up

And just started Crawling along.

It was just totally amazing.

narrator: ...Film of what looks Like a creature long associated

With this 500-square-mile lake.

Everyone is talking About champy,

This mysterious monster that Supposedly lives in the depths.

♪♪

Narrator: Lake champlain, vermont,

One of the largest Freshwater lakes in the u.S.,

120 miles long And up to 400 feet deep,

There's enough water here To supply new york city

For 20 years.

Local resident Katy elizabeth goes back

To where she was By the lake in august 2014

When she captured an image On camera

She'll never forget.

I saw a disturbance and then, All of a sudden,

this hump rose to the surface Of the water, dark in color.

I just couldn't believe What I was seeing.

Man: oh, my god.

-it's champ. -I know. I see it.

Man: we got it on tape.

Narrator: katy believes She caught a glimpse

Of a living creature that Belongs to the prehistoric past.

If she's right, this could be Rare video footage

Of the monster Of lake champlain,

The legendary champy.

It has been My childhood dream to,

I mean, just even have A sighting of champ.

I never thought it would Even happen.

Mardis: Going back almost 150 years,

There have been steady reports Of some kind of a monster-ish

Or dinosaur-ish Creature in the lake.

there is somewhere between 250 And 300 sightings of this thing,

And there are also Bits and pieces

Of impressive photographic And video evidence.

Narrator: katy elizabeth's Footage comes to the attention

Of security expert William dranginis,

An analyst who specializes In decoding blurry images.

His first task is to calculate The size

Of the object That katy elizabeth filmed.

♪♪

a passing bird provides a clue.

What I'm observing In this footage

Seems to be some type Of moving object

that's moving along The surface of the water

from our left to right.

it seems to be about 15 to 20 feet long.

Narrator: zoologist Roland kays studies the film.

If dranginis' size calculations Are correct,

The image might show The anatomical and behavioral

Characteristics of a monster But not a monster of legend.

Kays: what we see in this Footage is something

Underneath the surface, Just kind of breaking

The surface of the water A little bit,

Which is kind of what A alligator looks like

When it's swimming Along in a lake.

When alligators swim, they often Have their back and nose

And tail sort of out On the surface of the water,

so we might think, "Could this be an alligator?"

Narrator: the american alligator Can grow up to 15 feet in length

And has one of the most Powerful bites in nature.

They have been known to kill And eat humans,

But alligators Are normally found

In warmer southern states Like florida.

Marine biologist Danni washington suggests

That even this Thick-skinned superpredator

Isn't tough enough For lake champlain.

vermont has extremely harsh Temperatures during the winter,

and the lake could be frozen For months at a time,

So it's very unlikely That an alligator

Could survive That type of condition.

Narrator: Biologist bradley young

Works for u.S. Wildlife And fisheries.

He considers what kind Of beast

could survive In champlain's freezing waters.

the series of ridges on The creature's back suggests

another kind of ancient beast.

out of all the fish In lake champlain,

the most likely fish That could be mistaken for champ

would be a sturgeon, In my opinion.

Sturgeon are a primitive fish.

They've been around for Several hundred million years.

Its back has what are Called scutes on it.

They're a bony structure.

Narrator: sturgeon are commonly Known as bottom-feeders

And generally stick

To the deepest parts Of rivers and lakes.

♪♪

So if somebody sees one of those In shallow water,

They certainly Would be surprised.

Narrator: roland kays believes There's a scientific way

Of testing if the creature Katy elizabeth saw

Was a sturgeon Because, astonishingly,

Sturgeons can talk.

Sturgeons do make a noise,

Something some people Call sturgeon thunder.

It's a really, really Low-frequency noise.

It's such a low-frequency, Infrasonic noise

That humans can't even hear it.

Narrator: katy elizabeth returns To the lake to try

And find out What's lurking under the water.

If there are sturgeon here, Then this sensitive hydrophone

Should pick up Their ultralow-frequency calls,

But instead of so-called Sturgeon thunder,

She hears something else.

♪♪

I just heard this sound, said, "What in the world is that?"

It just, like, made the hair On the back of my neck stand up.

Narrator: Katy elizabeth's lake champlain

Recording leaves fishery expert Bradley young baffled.

Hearing the sound, I can't tell you what it is

Or what's causing it.

Narrator: he confirms it isn't Sturgeon thunder

Or any other underwater noise He knows.

Fish I'm familiar with Wouldn't emit a sound

Like what I heard On the hydrophone.

If it doesn't match any known Species, it makes you wonder,

"What other species Could it be?"

♪♪

Narrator: william dranginis Returns to the footage.

When he reanalyzes The image frame by frame,

He believes He may have underestimated

The true size Of the object in the water.

It makes me wonder if what We're seeing on the surface

Is just the tip of the iceberg, So to speak.

There could be more of The creature's body

Below the water.

Whatever that thing is, they're Going to need a bigger boat.

♪♪

Narrator: coming up, A rancher wants to crack

The mystery of a monster egg.

This is weird and terrifying.

Narrator: holy smoke, a dance of Death in the desert.

Kind of has a spooky, Almost supernatural feel to it.

♪♪

Narrator: and scientists ask If a jurassic monster

Could be living In north america.

It's one of the biggest lakes In the united states.

Anything could be hiding In that water.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: Experts analyze footage

Of what some believe Is the legendary

Lake champlain monster.

-it's champ. -I know. I see it.

♪♪

Narrator: Cryptozoologist scott mardis

Collects reports from the lake

That go back over 150 years.

♪♪

And he sees An astonishing pattern emerge.

♪♪

What people are describing Seems to resemble

This prehistoric marine reptile From the age of the dinosaurs.

They have long necks With a small head at the top

With four paddle-like flippers.

Mardis: when you put together The whole image,

The composite you come up With looks very much

Like a prehistoric plesius.

Narrator: Plesiosaurs are predators

From the jurassic armed With razor-sharp curved teeth

Used to devour fish.

♪♪

66 million years ago, They lived in brackish habitats,

A mix of salt and freshwater,

But they are assumed To be long extinct.

they could've come in, A small group of them,

Adapted to freshwater And a cold temperature

And managed to hang on,

And there might be a very small Fragile population of them

In the lake now That we don't know about.

A plesiosaur would be perfectly At home in a place

Like lake champlain.

There is plenty of room in there For a plesiosaur to survive.

Narrator: Zoologist roland kays believes

That if there are Ancient monsters in the lake,

There can't be just One or two of them.

Scientists estimate that,

for a population to survive Long-term,

they need to have, At a minimum, 30 breeding pairs,

So imagine 60 pliosaurs swimming Around in lake champlain.

That would be Completely terrifying.

Narrator: But experts can't explain

What a pack of plesiosaurs Would do for food.

Pliosaurs in lake champlain

Would eat us Out of house and home,

And there wouldn't be Any salmon or trout

Or anything else left In the lake.

the balance, the ecology Of lake champlain

doesn't promote the idea Of supporting animals

Of that size living here.

-it's champ. -I know. I see it.

Narrator: whatever is creating These monstrous sights

And sounds in the lake,

Katy elizabeth isn't going to Give up her quest to find out.

I believe that champ Is out there.

the holy grail would be to get A biological specimen

To prove to science That champ exists,

And I think it is Just the beginning.

♪♪

Narrator: Now surveillance cameras capture

The spontaneous appearance

Of smoke dancing In the desert sky.

You're seeing these things Kind of come into existence

And then vanish.

It's kind of freaking me out.

Narrator: the desert is home to The top secret

Edwards air force base.

[ explosion ]

It's one of the places where The united states

Goes to develop things They don't want people to see.

♪♪

Narrator: the mojave desert,

Stretching Over 50,000 square miles,

It's the driest wilderness In north america.

The desert is a great place For unexplained phenomena,

all kinds of strange things Gone awry,

and it has had that Sort of ghostlike feel to it.

♪♪

Narrator: 150 miles Southeast of death valley,

Near the border with nevada, A fixed security camera captures

Ghostly wisps of smoke dancing Against a blue desert sky.

They're not there. Then they're there.

Then they disappear again.

♪♪

Narrator: the footage comes To the attention

Of solar physicist simon foster.

It seems to show some vapor, Gas or smoke

That appears out of nowhere.

The more you start watching it, It looks, actually,

that these are small objects That seem to be emitting smoke.

now is this fireworks?

are people, you know, Letting something off,

And it's flying by?

Narrator: This location is just 50 miles

From a party city famous For its thunderous sky shows --

Las vegas.

Three-feet-long firework shells

Reach speeds of 320 miles per hour

And rise well over 1,000 feet.

When a firework explodes, Its chemical cocktail burns

In the air To create the light spectacle,

And then it leaves behind A trail of gray gases and smoke.

♪♪

These are like puffs of smoke,

So it's almost like Little explosions.

Things are suddenly catching Fire and leaving a smoke trail

And then disappearing.

Narrator: but when science Writer jeff wise

Studies the footage,

He struggles to link it to Sin city's sky shows.

It's not like a normal, like, A fireworks display,

And it's persistent.

It goes on and on and on.

This is not a minor, you know, Kid's birthday party

Or something.

Narrator: environmental Journalist chris clarke

Live in the mojave desert And knows the terrain well.

When he examines the footage,

He notices that the puffs Of smoke are not static.

Each appears to be moving On its own trajectory.

It looks like smoke emitted From living creatures.

you can actually see some Of them apparently flapping,

flapping their wings, trying to Get out of this dangerous area.

Narrator: It makes clarke believe

Something sinister is going on.

In these videos, we're seeing Birds flying into an area

That is dangerous.

They eventually combust, Burst into flame.

Narrator: Experts try to figure out

What's causing these birds To combust.

♪♪

simon foster works through The images frame by frame.

♪♪

It could be that some natural Or unnatural phenomena

Is somehow increasing the heat That these birds are feeling,

Causing them To basically ignite.

Their bodies boil and they Explode in clouds of steam.

It's not a pleasant way to die.

Narrator: scientist wonder what Force could cause a bird to be

So gruesomely killed.

I have so many questions About it.

It's so hard to figure out What's happening here.

Narrator: coming up, A giant organic structure

Leads scientists to one of The strangest creatures

Ever to walk the earth.

It does actually remind me

A little bit of the dragon eggs Out of "Game of thrones."

Narrator: And investigators discover

The super powerful force

Annihilating life In the mojave desert.

That's not compatible With living things.

♪♪

♪♪

narrator: An unexplained phenomenon is

causing birds to burn up midair

above the mojave desert.

Solar physicist simon foster Returns to the footage.

He focuses in on The towerlike structure

And notices something strange.

You've got these birds Flying across the path

Of this strange central tower.

it's actually glowing At the top.

you can just make that out,

And that's possibly a clue To what's going on here.

You can see it's very bright. It's very hot.

Narrator: Military-tech journalist

Joe pappalardo thinks the heat

Emanating from the tower Could be explained

As a weapon-development project.

This is a military area. Move away from the perimeter.

The interesting thing That you think of when you find

That this happened in mojave

is that, that area In the desert over california

is a fantastic place To test new military equipment.

There are not a lot of people To witness it.

It's great airspace.

It's the best place to develop A new weapon in secret.

Narrator: pappalardo believes That the tower could be creating

Some kind of invisible heat ray.

It's something U.S. Military developed

That's a nonlethal technology,

But what it does is fire Microwaves into the skin enough

So it heats it up.

If you amp that up enough And shot it at a bird,

Then it would catch on fire And fall to the ground.

Narrator: But science journalist jeff wise

Believes that if the military Are developing death rays,

They would not test them In the open desert

Close to surveillance cameras.

this has not been research That's been ongoing.

there's been no chatter or talk In the back channels about,

The defense department Is secretly developing

This kind of technology.

Narrator: experts move in To figure out how

And why this tower Is barbecueing live birds.

♪♪

Physicist ashkan salamat From the university of nevada

Believes the clear blue skies And desert location

Offers a clue To the real culprit.

He suspects the birds as victims Of the most powerful death rays

In the solar system --

The sun.

here in the mojave desert, We've got plenty of sunlight,

and what we're gonna try And do today

is replicate those conditions.

What we have representing The sun is a tungsten bulb.

[ switch clicks ]

It's very bright, and in fact,

If I hold my hand Very close to it,

I can feel The heat being given off.

Narrator: But the heat he's feeling

Isn't hot enough To incinerate birds.

Salamat introduces a lens To focus the heat

Into a 450-degree death ray.

When he directs it towards some Paper, the effect is instant.

♪♪

It's already pretty hot.

If I put my hand in the beam,

It would cause me Serious injury.

You could imagine this intense Light source

Causing severe damage to birds.

♪♪

Narrator: Experts now look to see

What's turning the desert sun

Into a bird-frying death ray.

When investigator chris clarke Travels further into the desert,

He finds The ivanpah solar facility,

A $2.2 billion project To harvest the power of the sun

With over 150,000 mirrors.

when the mirrors Are all aimed at the boiler

on top of these towers,

They create a ring of air That is highly charged

With what the engineers Call solar flux.

Temperatures well in excess Of 1,200 degrees fahrenheit

Are generated In the area of solar flux.

Obviously, that's not Compatible with living things.

♪♪

Narrator: Federal biologists now estimate

That the five-square-mile Area of solar flux

Is incinerating thousands Of birds each year.

The facility is installing High-tech devices

Aimed at deterring Flying creatures,

But any who stray Too close face certain death.

[ birds call ]

♪♪

Now cameras capture This huge egg-shaped object

Buried in the bank of a river.

I don't know what that is,

But it definitely Shouldn't be there.

This is weird and terrifying.

Narrator: it doesn't belong to Any living creature

Known to science.

If it is an egg, I definitely Don't want to meet its mom.

♪♪

Narrator: Buenos aires, argentina,

Christmas day 2015,

40 miles south of the capital,

Farmer jose nieves Walks his land,

Checking on livestock.

♪♪

He spots the edge of something Buried in the muddy riverbank.

Intrigued, He investigates further.

[ speaking spanish ]

whatever this is, It seems really out of context

to have such a big Strange-shaped,

Strange-textured thing

Just laying in the side Of the river like this.

Narrator: desperate to identify The object,

Nieves posts the footage online.

♪♪

It comes to the attention Of cryptozoologist scott mardis.

The mystery orb's setting along With its enormous size suggests

Evidence of a creature Long thought

To have been The stuff of legend.

dragon stories are often Associated with bodies of water,

and it appears to be A dried-up riverbed.

Narrator: Descriptions of terrifying

Dragonlike creatures

Can be found in the texts of Many different ancient cultures.

This is like something out Of medieval story

About a dragon that lived In a river and laid an egg.

Somebody might extrapolate From that egg

That there are real dragons.

♪♪

Narrator: zoologist roland kays Analyzes the location.

This is an area which was Once densely populated

By the biggest creatures Ever thought

To have roamed the earth.

We know that dinosaurs Laid eggs

Because paleontologists Have found their eggs

All around the world, And argentina, in particular,

Is a hotbed For dinosaur fossils.

In 2012, Scientists found patagotitan,

Which is the largest Dinosaur ever, 122 feet long.

It made t-rex look Like a munchkin.

Narrator: patagotitan Is longer than three buses

And as heavy as A large passenger jet.

a patagotitan could've stepped On a t-rex and crushed it.

That's how big these enormous Long-necked dinosaurs were.

They would've caused many Earthquakes when they walked.

you have the largest-ever Dinosaur

discovered in argentina.

You have the largest-ever Egg-looking thing

Also discovered in argentina.

Maybe it could be The very largest dinosaur

Ever discovered.

Narrator: coming up,

A terror tornado Of flesh-chomping bloodsuckers,

And it's coming this way.

This seems more like something Out of a horror movie

Than a viral video.

Narrator: And does this mystery orb

Point to one of The weirdest creatures

Ever to walk the planet?

It's a very biological type Of texture.

That's a sign that this is Probably something

That was once alive.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: biologists consider If an argentinian farmer

Has unearthed the egg

Of the largest creature That ever lived,

But when paleontologist Steve brusatte

Examines the footage,

He has a problem With the size of the egg.

believe it or not, even these Big long-necked dinosaurs

didn't lay very big eggs.

they laid small eggs,

Only about the size Of an orange or a grapefruit,

And the largest dinosaur eggs We know of

Are only about the size Of a soccer ball or a football,

So this would be Way off the scale

For even a dinosaur egg.

Narrator: when science Journalist john farrow

Analyzes the footage,

He confirms that this object,

Though natural, Is unlikely to be an egg.

the shape isn't a total sphere.

♪♪

It's not all the way around.

It kind of stops about halfway.

♪♪

Narrator: this development Convinces zoologist

Roland kays He's looking at a shell,

But it is no ordinary shell.

upon closer inspection, This object starts to look

a little like a carapace, Like the shell of an armadillo.

The only problem is, Armadillos today

Are a lot smaller Than this object,

So this must have been

Some really Big armadillo-like creature.

Narrator: steve brusatte Reexamines the footage.

He's trying to figure out what Bizarre type of armored creature

This giant shell might belong to And spots a clue in the texture.

That shell is made up of Little plates called osteoderms,

And there are over a thousand Of these that fuse together

In multiple layers To make that shell,

And that's something That's pretty unusual,

And it's something that I've only seen in museums.

Narrator: he believes that this Shell belongs to a creature

That time forgot,

More like a small battle tank Than an animal.

It's the shell, essentially, Of a bizarre type

Of extinct prehistoric mammal Called a glyptodon.

Narrator: Farmer jose nieves has stumbled

On the most complete Glyptodon shell ever seen.

Glyptodons grew to the size And weight of a small car.

They roamed north And south america

Until their extinction At the end of the last ice age.

So our ancestors, humans, Would have actually

Seen and dealt with glyptodons In south america,

In north america, Where these weird,

Shelled mammals Lived before they died out.

Glyptodons were plant-eaters,

But you wouldn't want To mess with them.

A lot of them had tails With clubs on the end,

Sometimes even with spikes That they could swing at you

When they needed To protect themselves.

Narrator: scientists still need To figure out

How a perfectly preserved Prehistoric shell

Shows up 10,000 years

After the beast is supposed To have become extinct.

Glyptodons probably liked To live in burrows

Like armadillos do today,

So we think that this animal Probably crawled into a burrow

To sleep during the daytime,

And then some disaster Happened overhead,

Killed the animal But left it in a perfect place

To be fossilized And be found today.

Narrator: For jose and his wife, reina,

The giant shell they found On christmas day

Is a miraculous gift From god and history.

[ speaking spanish ]

Narrator: coming up, a tornado Of what looks like black smoke.

This is a really bizarre event Happening here,

Smoke rising From the middle of a lake.

Narrator: but experts think this Thing is alive and hungry.

It's a horror movie. It really is a horror movie.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: When is a tornado not a tornado?

When it's a twisting hurricane Of a billion bloodsuckers

Threatening any human Caught in its path.

If I was there, I'd be like,

"Is that thing coming Towards me?

Because if it is, I'm out of here"

♪♪

Narrator: The rift valley, east africa,

The cradle of mankind,

Lake malawi, 350 miles long,

The third-biggest lake In africa.

♪♪

December 23, 2015,

Another perfect day in paradise,

But travelers suddenly see What appears to be

A spiral of smoke Rising from the lake.

They film the phenomenon.

Scientists can hardly believe Their eyes.

with smoke, you always need A fuel source

to generate that smoke,

And water is never That source of fuel,

So to see that rising From the middle of the lake

Is really surprising.

♪♪

Narrator: Geologist sian proctor considers

Whether the turbulent geology Of the region may be to blame.

lake malawi is located In the east african rift zone.

The continent is being rifted, Or pulled, apart.

That means it's in A volcanic area.

Narrator: volcanic activity Produces molten rock,

Or magma, Heated to over 1,500 degrees.

When magma meets water,

It creates an effect That could explain this smoke.

When groundwater comes In contact with a heat source,

Usually magma, well, that water Becomes superheated,

And then it comes up to The surface and creates steam,

So maybe there's Some kind of activity

Happening under the lake Causing what we're seeing.

♪♪

Narrator: But explorer george kourounis

Speeds up the footage.

If this sinister plume were Coming from a volcano vent,

It shouldn't be moving.

Kourounis: The air is moving very rapidly

But in a cylinder That is sort of contained.

at first glance, this looks like

it's some kind of Weather phenomenon.

It's happening Overtop of a lake,

So the first thing that comes To mind is a waterspout.

Narrator: kourounis has seen Such spinning waterspouts

Develop in warm, Humid areas like lake malawi.

♪♪

They are vortices Just like tornadoes.

You have some towering Cumulus clouds

Or a thunderstorm That's already in place.

You got instability At the ground.

You got spin from Some wind shear,

And the next thing you know, You've got a tornado

But, in this case, not going Over farmland but a lake.

♪♪

Narrator: waterspouts can reach 150 miles an hour.

Over the centuries, They've sunk hundreds of ships

And killed thousands of people.

Waterspouts are notorious For ripping apart the landscape

And lofting all kinds Of debris up in the air.

Narrator: material scientist Kishore hari

Reviews weather data For lake malawi

On the date the footage is shot.

It doesn't yield the kind Of atmospheric conditions

That typically Spawn waterspouts.

This is certainly not A waterspout

Or a weather pattern

Because it seems like A clear and calm day.

It must be some sort of Other natural phenomenon.

♪♪

Narrator: when more footage of The same event comes to light,

Entomologist dr. Scott bundy Analyzes it.

He recognizes The swirling movement

As something From the natural world.

when I looked closer, It looked like maybe

there was something Living associated with it.

The dark appearance of The components of that smoke

Indicate that it's likely Just a lot of insects.

♪♪

Narrator: when bundy zooms in On the footage,

He recognizes the bloodsucking Culprits by their flying motion.

Bundy: it is definitely A swarm of midges.

It's on a much larger scale Than I've ever seen.

There would have to be billions Of these things in there.

It's not just a million flies.

It's billions of flies Emerging from this lake.

♪♪

Narrator: although only the size Of a pinhead,

Midges use Their scissorlike jaws

To suck the blood of humans.

They spend much of their lives As larvae

At the bottom of the lake.

They rise to the surface At the same time to partner up.

It seems somewhat random,

But they are kind of Circling around one another

To find each other and mate.

Narrator: Bundy researches what's behind

This billion-midge horror swarm

that threatens to turn Any human in its path

into an all-you-can-eat buffet.

what these numbers and the size Of the swarm tells me

is that conditions were Just perfect so lots of food,

reduced predation, temperatures Just how they want it.

everything is just right For this event to happen.

disgusting, I am not An insect person,

and the thought of that swarm Coming towards me, hell no.

I'm out of there.