All language subtitles for Strange.Evidence.S02E06.The.Beast.That.Ate.Jaws.1080p.MAX.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BETHELL_track3_[eng]

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.

Man: there's got to be some
Explanation for what's going on.

Narrator: coming up, what's got
Its claws into jaws?

Woman: I thought sharks were
The king of the ocean.

What could eat a shark?

Narrator: is a demonic
Child-snatcher

Using these lights as a lure?

This lady would come in
And get ahold of children.

Narrator: and, could a local
Deity be venting its anger

On a golf course lake?

♪♪

Bizarre phenomena...

Mysteries caught
On surveillance...

What's the truth behind
This strange evidence?

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

captions paid for by
Discovery communications

Narrator: now, if you're afraid
Of jaws...

How scared should you be
Of the beast that eats jaws?

Man: this is a shark having its
Face eaten by a monster.

Narrator: the shark is supposed
To be

At the top of
The ocean food chain.

But here it is, being attacked
By some strangely shaped,

Unknown beast.

This footage is so rare.

I've never seen anything
Like it.

What in the world
Would be eating a shark?

♪♪

Narrator: the shimmering waters
Off the west coast of florida --

It could be the setting
For another "Jaws" movie.

These waters are teeming

With over 50 different species
Of shark,

Including deadly bull sharks
And hammerheads.

Even the great white shark,
Star of the "Jaws" movie,

Has been spotted
Patrolling the waters here.

Each year, sharks attack
About 80 people,

Killing six.

April 2015 --

Marine biologist
And shark expert brendan talwar

Is releasing two captive
Sharks back into the wild.

The underwater shark cage
Opens to let the predators out.

Man: there were two sharks
In the cage.

they were both in really
Good condition,

So I would expect them
To swim out of the cage

When the door opens.

Narrator: but instead of
The sharks swimming out,

Something else
Swims in to join them --

Something that marine biologists
Have never seen before.

We see the sharks
Swimming around.

And then all of a sudden...

This creature attaches itself
To the shark.

and the shark starts
Thrashing around,

but we can't tell
What exactly it is.

Narrator: scientists realize

They're witnessing
A type of aggression

That's never been seen before.

you can see this creature
Latch on to the shark --

To the face of the shark.

It is not another shark.

It looks like a prehistoric
Creature with a giant mouth,

And it's biting off
The shark's head.

What is this thing that is
Taking on a shark, head-on?

♪♪

Narrator: danni washington began
Her career in marine biology

At the university of miami.

She knows these waters well.

Now she's on the trail

Of this mysterious
Shark-munching monster.

Closely examining this footage,

I can see that the predator
Has some type of exoskeleton,

Right, a compressed,
Almost, like, shell.

And that leads me to think
That this could be a part

Of phylum arthropoda,

Or the arthropods.

narrator:
Creatures with exoskeletons --

With their skeletons
On the outside --

Date back over 500 million years
In earth's history.

Man: we have lots of fossils
Of them,

Because their hard
Exoskeletons --

That armor -- that can turn
To fossils really easily.

Narrator: but there's a problem.

Arthropods are small creatures,
Like cockroaches and scorpions.

The only large ones we know
Of died out

Hundreds of millions
Of years ago,

Way before even the dinosaurs.

There are arthropods
Called eurypterids,

Or sea scorpions, that got
Between eight to ten feet long.

And they had huge claws.

They were the top predators
In the oceans

About 500 million years ago.

narrator: as a result of this
Incredible footage,

scientists are beginning
To think the unthinkable.

It makes me wonder
If ancient arthropods

Still exist in the deep ocean,

And is it the thing
That's attacking a shark?

♪♪

Narrator: at toledo zoo,
Curator jay hemdal

Studies the footage carefully.

For hemdal, the creature's
Hard-looking,

Spherical body shape

Makes him wonder
If there might be some distant

Genetic link
To creatures known as isopods.

He has such a creature
In one of his tanks.

To my eye, this is --
This is the same animal

That was in the video.

But isopod crustaceans
Tend to be small,

And they definitely
Don't attack sharks.

In fact, they don't
Attack anything.

Man: they're scavengers.

They wait for food, like a fish
From above to die

Or pieces of a fish,
To fall to the bottom.

and then they move to that
And consume it.

We see isopods in captivity
That go months without food,

And to have something be
So reactive to a food item

Like that in the wild
Was just amazing to see.

♪♪

Narrator: to marine biologist
Danni washington,

This sounds like some sort
Of b-movie mutant monster.

She wonders if something
In the water

Is transforming tiny,
Docile crustaceans into mammoth,

Angry shark-munchers.

in april 2010, the deepwater
Horizon oil platform

Collapsed into
The gulf of mexico

After a catastrophic explosion.

An estimated five million
Barrels of crude oil

Spilled into the waters,

Creating an oil slick
The size of west virginia.

Washington: it was bad enough

That over five
Million barrels of crude oil

Escaped into the gulf of mexico.

But what's worse were
The chemical dispersants

Used to clear
The oil afterward.

Narrator: two million gallons of
Chemical dispersant

Were used to clean up the spill.

Dispersants break up
The surface oil

Into smaller droplets
That mix with the water,

So that the oil sinks
Deeper into the sea.

Local fishermen report

Devastating side effects
On the fish population.

Frankenstein mutations include
Shrimp born with no eyes,

Crabs with extra claws,
And fish with visible tumors.

Even deep sea creatures
Like isopods

May not have escaped
The chemical fallout.

Washington:
The bodies of those animals

Will sink to the bottom,

And scavengers like the isopod
Will feed off of the carcasses.

But what that means is,

The isopod will also ingest
Those chemicals

And the oil,
Accumulating the toxins.

narrator: did a mutation turn
The isopod

into an underwater
X-beast monster?

Washington: is it possible that
A passive scavenger like

The isopod could mutate
Its behavior

Due to exposure
To the chemicals,

And transform
Into an active predator?

narrator: the fight to the death
Continues outside the cage,

with the shark appearing
To be finished.

The hunters are now the hunted.

Man:
Yeah, it's a bit frightening.

I mean, these things,
They resemble storm troopers.

They're really pretty incredible
Animals, pretty terrifying.

Narrator: experts can't be sure

If the behavior of this
Giant isopod

Is a one-time event,

Or if sharks face
A genuine challenge

To their underwater supremacy.

♪♪

Now, developers agree to build
A golf course on chippewa land.

Then, weird things
Start to happen.

When we got out here,

You could feel
The ground moving.

Narrator: a town under threat

From a real
Underground monster.

Man: I don't think the guy
Who shot this video

Fully understands
The peril that he was in.

♪♪

Narrator: lake huron sits
Between michigan and ontario.

On its banks,
For countless generations,

The chippewa occupied
And worshipped the land,

Its rocks, rivers, and hills.

Developers build a gulf club
Called indian hills

On ancient chippewa land.

On june 17, 2015,

A camera captures strange things
Starting to happen here.

Strange sounds,
Strange rumblings --

Then this.

♪♪

Man:
I don't know if you can see it,

But if you look right across
Right above the green,

There's this haze.

Narrator: a water hazard
On the golf course

Turns into a bubbling cauldron.

And whatever it is,

It's affecting
The wildlife around it.

Man: the question is, could it
Potentially, actually be toxic?

Man: the guy that's shooting
This video

Probably shouldn't
Be standing so close.

Narrator: coming up...

Are lights from the heavens
Luring children to their death?

When I was young,
We'd get scared

Because they're gonna
Come after us.

♪♪

Narrator:
In the forests of russia,

A sinister cloud rises
From a mysterious machine.

Man: maybe we've stumbled on
A video

That we're not meant to see.

Narrator: and, is the exploding
Lake a chilling warning

From the other side?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: a golf course
Violently erupts in canada,

Spreading mud, panic,
And confusion.

♪♪

Authorities
Move to warn residents

Of the neighboring town
Of ravenswood.

Man: at that point, the office
Of the fire marshall

declared it
A state of emergency.

The entire valley was a massive
Quarantined area.

Narrator: ravenswood becomes
A ghost town

As locals flee
From the mysterious threat.

Narrator: to the north lies
The kettle point indian reserve.

The land here still belongs
To the chippewa first nation,

Who believe they know what's
Behind these strange events.

the elders from kettle
And stony point

Think the thunderbird
Was unhappy

And had a hand
In causing this to happen.

[ screeching ]

Narrator: in chippewa culture,

The thunderbird spirit
Controls the world

With his supernatural powers.

Tom bressette,
Chief of the local tribe,

Speculates that modern
Occupation and use of the land

Is the reason
For thunderbird's rage.

♪♪

Narrator: as the lake continues
To explode throughout the day,

The footage reaches
George kourounis,

Who specializes
In analyzing disasters.

Man: this is bizarre.

I've never seen anything
Quite like this.

There seems to be
A geyser of mud

And water coming out of this.

Narrator: kourounis believes
This footage may show

A little-known
But deadly phenomenon.

Kourounis: there are places
Around the world

That experience mud volcanoes.

Could that be
What's happening here?

Is it possible that
A brand-new mud volcano

Is rising up in this
Golf course in canada?

♪♪

Narrator:
Deadly mud volcanoes erupt

When water is super-heated
Into steam

By tectonic activity
Deep underground.

And that steam has to be
Released somewhere.

When it passes through an area
Of volcanic ash or mud,

You can get an eruption
That can be tremendous in size,

Causing widespread damage
And destruction.

Narrator: mud volcanoes can be
Truly terrifying.

May 2006, mud starts erupting
In sidoarjo in indonesia,

Destroying villages
All around.

Incredibly, 12 years later,
It is still gushing mud.

♪♪

If this is the early sign

Of another
Such volcanic mud eruption,

The towns on the shore of this
Great lake face obliteration.

♪♪

Geoscientist sian proctor
Studies the footage,

And finds ominous signs
Of something else deadly

Coming up with the mud.

The clue lies in the terrified
Reaction of the golfers.

Man:
It smells like propane.

Woman: in the video, you can
Hear somebody saying

That they can smell propane,

or some kind of gas.

Something is being released
From underground.

Most likely, that's natural gas.

Narrator: proctor believes
Deadly natural gas,

Rather than steam,
Could be powering the eruption.

If she's right, then
The residents of ravenswood

Could be sitting
Not on top of a mud volcano,

But a vast explosive reservoir
Of flammable gas.

♪♪

The weirdness is just

the narrowness of
These fountains, right?

coming out of the lake.

I mean, it really is
Quite extraordinary.

I think most of us might expect
Kind of big "Bluh,"

which stops quite quickly,

rather than this continuing jet
From down below.

Narrator: to test her theory
That some form of natural gas

Is causing these violent jets
Of muddy water,

Proctor creates an experiment.

the golf course lake sits above
60 feet of clay,

several hundred feet of shale
Rock, and more ancient bedrock.

she creates this geological
Model to see how it reacts

to an outbreak of natural gas.

What we're going to do
Is release some gas

Into this chamber
And see what happens.

narrator: if the experiment
Mimics what is happening

in real life, then proctor
Has evidence

to support her natural-gas
Theory.

whoa!

[ sputtering ]

Narrator: the experiment creates
Narrow jets of gas

Blasting up through the water,
Just like those in the footage.

Proctor: our gas came up through
The rock and the sediment

To the surface
Of the pond,

Causing all of our pond water
To churn.

♪♪

This is what I think
Is happening.

We've got a natural gas leak
Of some sort in that video.

Man:
It smells like propane.

I don't think the guy who shot
This video fully understands

The peril that he was in.

If he had been smoking
Or had lit a match, kaboom.

♪♪

Narrator: the explosive gas lake
Beneath ravenswood

Gets fiercer and angrier
As the hours tick by.

Environmental experts race
To ontario in an effort

To avert a full-scale disaster.

Woman: when we got out here,

You could
Feel the ground moving.

There was a distinct rumble,

And cracks had opened up
On the slopes.

Narrator: the first thing
They spot

Are fresh craters
On the fairway.

The explosive gas is moving fast
Towards the town.

When they discover it's
Highly flammable methane,

They need to act immediately.

They drill down into
The reservoir of lethal gas

In an effort
To relieve the pressure.

But one wrong move, and all of
Ravenswood could go up in smoke.

So we were drilling
Fairly slowly

Through the various layers.

The floor was shaking.

I didn't even know what was
Happening, and boom.

♪♪

Narrator: coming up,
In tennessee,

Snow is captured
Defying gravity,

Rising up into the sky.

Woman:
I can't actually compute this.

It looks like
It's snowing upwards.

Narrator: has a drone uncovered
A dark secret

In russia's area 51?

Man: what we could be seeing
In this video

Is a chemical weapons test
Gone awry.

Narrator: and, disaster
Threatens towns

By the great lakes.

Man: obviously, a flammable gas
Could cause an enormous danger

To people
In that nearby vicinity.

♪♪

Narrator: a golf course
Violently erupts.

And the explosions spread,

Threatening to destroy
A nearby town.

A team is sent in
To release pressure

From a giant natural
Underground reservoir of gas.

man: obviously, a flammable gas
Could cause an enormous danger

to people
In that nearby vicinity.

if somebody was smoking

or if there was
Another ignition source,

That could really cause
An enormous explosion.

And people could get killed.

♪♪

Woman: once we did finally punch
Into the gas,

the gas came out with such force

that it actually shook
The whole rig.

The gas came out and relieved
The pressure in that bedrock.

Narrator:
With the pressure released,

The eruption begins to subside.

The immediate threat passes,
But ravenswood residents

Now realize that just a few feet
Beneath their homes sits a vast,

Explosive gas reservoir.

is this a ticking time bomb?
Will it happen again?

♪♪

Man: after something like this
Happens, you're shocked

'cause you're not really sure
What's under your feet.

Narrator: the first nation
Elders warn that this eruption

Is a judgment
Of the angry earth gods.

♪♪

Now, a fearful texas town
Under siege...

From sinister, hypnotic lights.

Woman: lights just don't appear
From nowhere.

That's not how physics works.

Narrator: locals fear
They're the work

Of a demonic child-snatcher.

When I was young,
We'd get scared

Because they're gonna
Come after us.

We're seeing malignant spirits

That lead children off
To their death.

♪♪

[ screaming ]

[ train blowing horn ]

Narrator:
Marfa, far west texas...

An old frontier town

In the middle of
The trans-pecos desert.

Local government worker
Minerva lopez remembers

She first saw
These strange lights

When she was a little girl.

they're so mysterious.

that's why for us to sit here
And watch and stare at them.

I've seen the lights maybe
Hundreds of times, maybe more.

I lost count.

They can be there
For five minutes, two minutes.

They're usually unpredictable.

I've seen them zig-zag, and then
All of a sudden, they're gone.

It's a mystery.

♪♪

Narrator: as a girl, lopez heard
The old tales about the lights

And the warnings
To steer clear of them.

♪♪

Lopez: they talked about ghosts
A lot around that area.

There used to be a tale
About the ghost of this lady

That would come in
And ahold of children.

Narrator: child snatchers,
Real and supernatural,

Are the nightmare
Of every parent.

♪♪

Lopez sends her clips
To an expert,

Meteorologist angela fritz.

Woman: the first thing I want to
Know is,

Where is this taking place?

then I start to get an idea
Of what could be going on,

if it has
A natural explanation.

Narrator: the first theory
Is an obvious one.

Couldn't these just be lights
From cars on a highway?

What I think is actually
Happening here

Is we're seeing headlights.

Narrator: this seems unlikely,
Since the lights filmed by lopez

Don't appear at ground level.

They form in the sky.

But fritz thinks the car-light
Explanation could still work.

Fritz:
Marfa is a very special place

Because you can see very,
Vary far off into the horizon.

Texas is also very hot,
Until the sun goes down.

And at that point, you get
The temperature inversion.

Narrator: a temperature
Inversion occurs

When the cooling earth
Chills the air above it,

Trapping cold air beneath
A layer of warmer, thinner air.

The less dense, warmer air
Now acts like a mirror,

Deflecting car headlights
Back down to earth

And into the eyeline
Of any observers.

What I think is happening is,
We're seeing headlights

That are being angled above
The horizon into our eyesight.

That's actually the effect
Of a temperature inversion.

♪♪

Narrator: but the car-light
Theory can't explain

Historical records
That date back

Before the invention of
The automobile.

Folklorist deborah hyde
Has studied this phenomenon

That has become known
As the marfa ghost lights.

Woman: these lights
Were first seen

in 1883 by a cowboy called
Robert reed ellison.

He thought that the lights
May have been made by apaches.

The apaches themselves were said
To believe

That they were stars
Coming down from the sky.

And others were said to believe
That it was malignant spirits

That lead children off
To their death.

♪♪

Narrator: coming up, is this
Mysterious russian machine

Pumping out a deadly chemical?

The possibilities can be really,
Really terrifying.

Narrator: the world is turned
Upside-down in tennessee.

Man: these little particles
Seem to be rising upward

From the ground,
Like reverse gravity.

Narrator: and the marfa lights
Get even weirder.

Man: what was fascinating was,
The orientation of the lights,

They move.

♪♪

Narrator: hypnotic lights appear
Frequently in they sky

Outside a small texas town.

According to local stories,
There appearance has,

In the past, coincided with
The disappearance of children.

♪♪

Now texans keep vigil

On these creepy
Apparitions.

Woman: I don't know what it is.

there were little dots of light.

and they were more white
Or yellowish.

I've heard other people
Talk about seeing them,

They were orange and green.

But I think it's different
For everybody.

♪♪

Narrator: third-generation
Oilman harvey howell

Owns the drilling rights
To the land.

He thinks the answer
Might be buried in the dirt.

The area where we now know
The lights to have occurred

Is geologically
Very interesting.

I've always thought that
The lights

were somehow related
To the terrain.

♪♪

Narrator: howell conducts
A detailed survey of the land.

He tries to chart the location

Of confirmed video
Recordings of the lights.

He believes the locations
Might correlate

With pockets of natural gas.

Howell: we have light gas --
Light hydrocarbon gas:

Methanes, ethanes,
Some butanes, some propanes,

That we can measure
That are seeping up in the area

Where the lights
Have been mapped.

They gotta be related.

Narrator: hydrocarbons are
Usually trapped

Deep underground,

But seep out of the earth
Naturally at a handful

Of locations worldwide.

Depending on oxygen supply

And the presence
Of other chemicals,

They can burn blue, orange,
And even green.

Howell believes
Burning chemicals

Lie behind the legend
Of the marfa lights.

But howell admits there's
A problem with this theory.

How they ignite,
What actually illuminates,

That I don't know.

Narrator: scientists agree

There is
No satisfactory explanation

For the mysterious
Marfa lights.

until we get more information,

this mystery
Is gonna go unsolved.

♪♪

Narrator:
Now, in russia's area 51,

A drone captures what may be
Some kind of experiment or test.

I wonder if we stumbled
On something covert.

Narrator: investigators fear
Some new chemical weapon.

Woman: what if there were some
Kind of toxic element there?

The possibilities can be really,
Really terrifying.

♪♪

Narrator: the wilderness
Of central russia...

Over three million
Square miles of woodland,

Nearly as large
As the entire united states.

But hiding within these
Impenetrable woods,

Numerous top-secret
Military bases

And weapon-development labs --
Home to russia's area 51.

♪♪

September 2017, an amateur
Drone operator

Accidentally captures
This menacing, manmade cloud.

It just keeps getting bigger
And bigger and bigger.

Man: I've never seen
Anything generate fog like this.

I wonder if we stumbled
On something covert.

Narrator: when investigators
Observe how dense

And long-lasting it is,

They fear
It's something dangerous.

Hari:
This isn't acting like smoke.

It's not sort of dynamically
Moving through the air,

Rising quickly.

Man: what we could be seeing
In this video

is a chemical-weapons
Test gone awry.

♪♪

Narrator:
Just 500 miles from here,

The city sverdlovsk of suffered
An accident so lethal,

It became known
As the chemical chernobyl.

♪♪

In 1979, the soviets
Illegally developed

Their most deadly strain
Of the infection anthrax.

According to u.S. Intelligence,

They planned to arm warheads
With this lethal bacteria

And fire the missiles at
U.S. Cities,

Causing chemical armageddon.

But anthrax leaked
From the plant,

Killing at least 60 people.

This could be
The unintentional release

Of some sort
Of chemical agent,

Which forced the russian
Military to respond.

♪♪

Narrator: coming up,

Freak weather
In the tennessee summer...

It looked like snow,
But in reverse.

Narrator: and have investigators

Unmasked the russian weapon
Of mass destruction?

This definitely looks like
It could be a chemical weapon.

♪♪

Narrator: in the russian
Military's area 51,

A menacing fog fills the sky.

Ex-cia agent lindsay moran
Operated undercover

For three years
In eastern europe,

Spying on their black ops.

When she sees how the smoke
Hugs the terrain,

She fears the russians are
Preparing for something ominous.

seeing something like this
Intentionally creating smoke,

Some kind of horrific thoughts
Jump to mind.

What if there some kind of toxic
Or chemical element there,

And what's actually being tested

Is a method to deploy it?

Narrator: the geneva convention

Bans the use of
Chemical weapons.

Despite this,
U.S. Government officials

Accuse russia of responsibility

For chemical attacks
In syria.

Military analyst carlo muñoz
Uses his contacts

To source another copy
Of the drone footage,

And this one captures the start.

When he zooms in, he spots
A detail that casts doubt

On the chemical-weapon theory.

Muñoz: looking at the video
And recognizing

What the russians
Have in their military arsenal,

to me, this looks like
A russian tda-3.

Narrator: the tda-3 is
A russian army vehicle,

The official purpose of which
Is to generate smoke

To obscure various
Military activities

From the prying eyes
Of foreign powers.

Even some infrared cameras
Cannot penetrate the cloud.

Military smokescreens are not
Classified as a chemical weapon.

However, what military
Analysts call combination smoke

Is used to carry other chemical
Agents from tear gas upwards.

The tda-3 is a potentially
Terrifying weapon

Of mass destruction.

Muñoz suspects the function
Of this thick,

Heavy smoke could also be
Connected to the united states'

Latest
Military development --

Death lasers, known
As directed-energy weapons.

Muñoz: the benefits of
Direct-energy weapons

Are twofold -- one, you don't
Run out of bullets

With a directed-energy weapon.

Two, they're very easily hidden.

They can be fired
From miles away,

Towards an enemy
Who will never see it coming

And never know
Where it came from.

Narrator: but muñoz believes
The tda-3's cloak of smoke

Could turn the tables
On a laser attack.

Muñoz: smokescreens can be used
To identify the location

Of where the laser
Is coming from.

While normally invisible
To the naked eye,

Once you apply
A heavy screen of smoke,

You can very easily track

Back the source
Of the directed-energy shot

And hopefully,
Take out the weapon itself.

Narrator: russia has made no
Comment on this footage,

Leading some experts to believe
We should never have seen

This defensive smokescreen
In the first place.

so maybe we've stumbled
On a video

that we're not meant to see.

♪♪

Narrator: now, under the cover
Of darkness,

Surveillance cameras evidence
Of nature gone wrong.

I can't actually
Compute this.

It looks like
It's snowing upwards.

Narrator: did a blizzard
Hit tennessee

In the middle of the summer?

I can't believe my eyes.

It looked like snow,
But that don't even make sense.

♪♪

Narrator: tennessee...

Home of country music,
Dollywood,

And world-class bourbon.

In rural tennessee,
Away from the glitz,

Locals value their privacy
And security.

Man: we've installed probably
14 different cameras

all over this --
This property.

Normally, we see different
Critters running around:

Rabbits, birds, butterflies,

You know, nothing out
Of the ordinary or unusual.

Narrator: july 2, 2013,

Peyton installs
Closed-circuit cameras

At the gates of a property.

Next day, he checks the feed.

Peyton:
I can't believe my eyes.

It seems to be snowing upwards.

That don't even make sense.

♪♪

Narrator: during the red-hot
Tennessee summer,

A surveillance camera
Captures the impossible.

Peyton:
I can't believe my eyes.

It seems to be snowing upwards.

That don't even make sense.

Narrator: the footage reaches
Video analyst conor mccourt.

He wants to figure out
Why the snow is rising up

Rather than falling down.

He spots a clue
In the location of the camera,

At the top of a curved wall.

Man: what's very likely
Happening here

is we're getting upward
Wind current

That's kicking
Those particles up.

And that looks very strange.

And that may be the explanation
Of the snow going up

In the air the whole time.

Narrator:
What mccourt doesn't know

Is the footage
Was recorded in july.

No one alive recalls snow
Falling during the sticky

Tennessee summer.

Peyton: it looked like snow.

I mean, it did.

I showed it to some
Other people,

and they said
It looked like snow.

But it was in the middle
Of july.

Narrator: meteorologist
Karen kosiba

Believes the snow theory
Isn't as crazy as it sounds.

She points to a geological event

That can dramatically
Alter weather.

Woman: something like an extreme
Volcanic eruption,

Which puts a lot of soot
In the atmosphere,

Could impact
Global temperatures

by impacting the amount
Of sunlight, um,

that gets into
The earth's atmosphere.

Narrator: history shows how
A volcanic eruption

Can cause spectacular
Global cooling.

Mount tambora in indonesia

Blasted 36 cubic-miles of ash
Into the atmosphere in 1815.

The cloud travelled 9,000 miles
To cloak north america

In a dry, red fog
For an entire year.

And just like in
Peyton's footage,

Snow fell in tennessee in july.

Kosiba: there have been examples
Globally of freak events

That occur, things that we refer
To as the little ice age.

♪♪

Narrator: but jeff wise believes

That if a mini ice age
Froze tennessee,

He'd have heard about it.

I've never heard of any weather
That involves freak snow

In this part of the world
At that time of year,

So it's definitely not snow.

♪♪

Narrator: the bizarre footage

Reaches biologist scott bundy.

He suspects that the particles
In the footage are alive.

Man: it looked like it was
A wooded area.

There's lots of vegetation
Around, which is great habitat.

the movement is, um --
It's a bit random,

but that's kind of how some
Of these insect swarms happen.

Narrator: insect swarms can
Number in the trillions

And devour everything
In their path.

In 1874, a swarm of locusts

Estimated to weigh
27 million tons

Obliterated crops
Across the u.S.

And even ate the clothes
On people's backs.

Thousands starved to death
As a result of the devastation.

If a great plague of locusts
Is loose in these farmlands,

The results
Could be devastating,

And not just for crops.

Bundy: if they swarm at the
Wrong place in the wrong time,

They have a potential
To kill people

Because there's, you know,
So many of them around.

Narrator: but plant expert
Jeffrey dean

Believes a swarm of locusts

Would've left their mark
On the land.

The snowy storm reminds him
Of another type

Of deadly critter.

Man: the one type of insect
That I can come up with

that might fulfill
All of the criteria we see in

that video is a very tiny,
Weak flyer

That's called the asian
Hackberry wooly adelgid.

Narrator:
The wooly adelgid parasite

Invaded from japan
In the 1950s,

And now looks set to wipe out
An entire u.S. Tree species.

They attack hemlock trees
From new england to georgia,

And their march
Appears unstoppable.

A female adelgid can generate

90,000 clones of herself
Each year

Without the assistance
Of a male.

Man: it's able to reproduce
Into huge numbers of insects.

They can exhaust the food
In a particular area

And, um, when that occurs,

they start looking
For some place new to travel to.

narrator: but dean expects them
To stick around

because of their poor
Flying ability.

hours after the plague arrives,
Peyton returns to the scene.

I would've thought that
The number of particles we seen,

if it'd been insects,
I think we would've seen those.

'cause we were out here, like,
The next few days after that,

and I seen no evidence of it.

narrator: and so the summertime
Blizzard that blitzed tennessee

remains a bewildering mystery.