All language subtitles for Strange.Evidence.S02E07.Doomsday.at.Yellowstone.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:
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 screaming ]

Narrator:
Coming up, does a demonic blaze

Signal a genuine threat
Of total destruction?

It's the ultimate disaster.

It could be an extinction event.

Davis: that is the
Craziest thing I've ever seen.

Narrator:
In the land of the witches,

Possessed turkeys do
A disturbing dance of the dead.

This looks like
Some kind of satanic ritual.

Woman: look!

Narrator:
And the ghosts of gettysburg

Finally caught on camera.

-right there!
-super creepy!

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

A terrifying blue inferno
Erupts from the ground.

Pojman:
It looks like the firefighters

Have shown up
To a portal of hell.

It's really a chilling sight.

Narrator:
Investigators race to find out

The cause of the bizarre blaze.

Youngquist: I've never
Seen anything like it,

And I likely won't see
Anything quite like it again.

Narrator: what's behind
This sinister firestorm?

What created this?
It's a blue flame of death.

Narrator: july 7, 2017.

Worland, wyoming.

A tiny town on the banks
Of the big horn river.

[ radio chatter ]

It's 10:30 at night
When the local fire department

Gets an emergency call.

You don't know
What you're getting into.

This could be anything.

Firefighters
Race to the location

On the outskirts of town.

As they approach
The danger zone,

They witness a disturbing sign
Of what lies ahead.

You could see kind of
The blue glow on the horizon.

Youngquist: it's a
Little bit more adrenaline

and a little bit
More fear and concern.

Narrator:
Nine miles out of worland,

The firefighters arrive
At the apocalyptic scene.

[ sirens wailing ]

Horrified, they record
The searing inferno,

But they don't know what kind
Of fire they're dealing with...

...Or what could have caused it.

Yule: I've been
A firefighter for 10 years,

And I've never seen
Anything quite like this.

This is a hellish scenario.

What created this?
It's a blue flame of death.

yule: my first thought is,
"How do we put it out?"

what's gonna happen
When we hit it with water?

Narrator: the footage
Comes to the attention

Of geologist sian proctor.

She believes
The color of the flames

Could point
To a terrifying possibility.

Proctor: in indonesia, there's
A volcano called kawah ijen,

and it produces
A similar blue flame

to what we see in the video.

And that is produced
By the burning of sulfur.

Narrator: kawah ijen
Pumps enormous quantities

Of sulfuric gases
Out if its vents.

Super-heated up to
1,112 degrees celsius,

The gas erupts into
Bright blue flames

16 feet high
When it hits the air.

What looks like blue lava
Pouring down the mountainside

Is burning liquid sulfur.

The similarity to the fire
In worland is striking.

Investigators test to see
What gas is present at worland.

Analysis confirms
Proctor's worst fears.

It's toxic sulfur dioxide.

There is the potential that
It could be a volcano forming.

Narrator: science journalist
Jeff wise investigates.

He checks the location
Of the wyoming fire

And uncovers
A dreadful connection.

Wise: in geological terms,

Yellowstone's not
A terribly huge distance.

Narrator: the town sits
In the bighorn basin

In the shadow of
The absaroka mountain range,

The remnant
Of a large volcanic field

That extends
To yellowstone national park.

The demonic blue fire
Is geologically linked

To one of the biggest natural
Threats to life on earth.

Wise:
Yellowstone is, in fact,

The top of an
Ancient supervolcano

that is due to explode sometime,
More or less, around now.

Proctor:
If yellowstone goes off,

It's not just a disaster
For wyoming.

It's a disaster for the entire
United states and the world.

Narrator:
The yellowstone supervolcano

Erupted 640,000 years ago
With a mega-explosion

That produced enough debris

To bury texas
In five feet of ash and rock.

When the next
Super eruption strikes,

It could cause a global winter

Even worse than
A thermonuclear war.

Proctor: our worse nightmare
Is that we have

Volcanic activity
anywhere near yellowstone.

Narrator:
Proctor fears the signs of
Volcanic activity in worland

Could be an omen
Of a terrifying scenario...

That the yellowstone
Supervolcano

Is about to blow again.

It could be an extinction event.

Narrator: journalist jeff wise
Examines seismic surveys

For further signs
Of volcanic activity.

Right now
It's not an active volcano.

You do have things like hot
Springs, geysers, and so forth.

So it's not impossible, but
We don't have active volcanos

Right now as such in wyoming.

Narrator:
John pojman is a chemist

At louisiana state university.

He looks at the map coordinates
Of where the video was filmed.

Records show that the location
Of the video was a sulfur mine.

Sulfur has been used
Throughout history

for making things like gunpowder

or for making strong acids,
Like sulfuric acids.

Narrator: working in
A volcanic sulfur mine

Is one of the most hazardous
Jobs on the planet.

At the summit of the
Ijen volcano in indonesia,

Locals extract
"The devil's gold,"

As it is known,
From the edges of a lake of acid

That can dissolve human flesh.

The villagers go up
There without any
Protective equipment,

Collect this, chip it away,
Put it in baskets,

And carry it out of the caldera.

Narrator: workers carry
200-pound baskets of sulfur

Two miles down the volcano
For about $5 a day.

Their average life expectancy
Barely exceeds 50 years.

This is a terrible,
Toxic environment.

Narrator: in march 2018,

Mount ijen belches out
Thick clouds of sulfuric gas,

Sending 30 people
To the hospital.

When you burn sulfur,
You get it into your lungs,

And it will scar them.

Mixed with water,
It turns into sulfuric acid.

Nasty stuff.

Narrator: the huge sulfur mine
In worland closed in the 1960s,

But its sulfurous remains
Are a ticking time bomb.

Proctor:
When you mine sulfur,

It pretty much gets everywhere
And contaminates the soil.

Pure sulfur
Is very easy to ignite.

All you can do
Is just put a match to it,

And once it starts burning,
Then it will melt

And produce the gases
And keep burning.

Narrator:
Armed with the knowledge
That the blue flame is sulfur,

Firefighters tackle the blaze
With water.

The cooling liquid reduces
The surface temperature.

At 239 degrees fahrenheit,
The sulfur solidifies,

Forming a crust
That extinguishes the flames.

The cause of the fire

Is eventually identified
As an off-road vehicle.

Yule: they were riding
Around on the mound,

And they got the atv
Up on the pile of the sulfur

And actually got it stuck.

high throttle heated up
The exhaust on that atv,

and because it was in
Direct contact with the sulfur,

it ignited the sulfur.

Narrator:
This time, the fire crew
Manages to control the blaze.

Worland remains on red alert.

Next time,
The unpredictable sulfur

Could wipe out the whole town.

They never know when to expect
The next raging inferno.

When a call comes in,
You just don't know
What you're getting into.

[ siren wails ]

Davis: bro, this is wild.

Narrator: in an american state
Notorious for witchcraft,

Bizarre footage stops zoologists
In their tracks.

Something seems to have
Possessed these birds.

This is definitely the weirdest
Animal behavior I've ever seen.

A circle of death
Around the body of a cat.

This looks like
Some kind of satanic ritual,

With the uniform circle.

Narrator:
Randolph, massachusetts.

The town sits within
Striking distance of salem,

A place synonymous with
Satanic rituals and witchcraft.

[ crows cawing ]

March 2017.

6:45 a.M.

Jonathan davis heads to work.

I came to a stop sign right
About down the street there.

Narrator: it isn't the sign that
Stops davis dead in his tracks.

I thought to myself,
"Nobody's gonna believe
What I'm actually seeing,"

so I was like,
"Let me get some video."

[ turkeys gobbling ]

Narrator:
20 wild turkeys are circling

The lifeless body of a cat.

Davis: yo, this is the craziest
Thing I've ever seen.

what the heck are these turkeys

doing walking in a perfect
Circle around this dead cat?

Narrator: in the 1690s in salem
And the surrounding towns,

200 people are accused
Of practicing witchcraft.

20 of them are put to death.

At the trials,
Ownership of a cat

Was seen as evidence
Of devil worship.

Condemned witches
Were said to return as cats.

In the footage,
It is the lifeless body of a cat

That provides the focus

Of what looks like
Some weird animal ceremony.

Kays: this looks like
Some kind of satanic ritual,

With the uniform circle.

Narrator: witchcraft is no
Longer a punishable crime,

And there are now estimated

To be 800 self-proclaimed
Witches in salem, alone.

It seems far-fetched to link
The behavior of these animals

With superstitious
Pagan practices,

But scientists
Are having difficulty

Explaining the turkey behavior.

I've never heard of anything

Such as what I saw
That morning happening.

Did they kill this cat
Or are they trying
To bring it back to life?

[ turkeys gobbling ]

-woman: look!
-narrator: coming up...

Ghostly figures strike fear

At america's
Bloodiest battlefield.

Woman: right there!

Hyde: thousands of men
Died on this spot,

So maybe one of them's
Come back.

Narrator: and the mystery around
The creepy turkeys deepens.

Could these turkeys be stuck

In some kind of circular
Scent trail of death?

♪♪

Narrator: a macabre scene
In a massachusetts town

Conjures up images
Of witchcraft.

[ cat growls ]

A circle of wild turkeys
Walks slowly around a dead cat.

I was freaked out. It was
Something out of a scary movie.

Narrator:
Cryptozoologist scott mardis

Has an encyclopedic knowledge

Of mythical animals
And their supposed powers.

He doubts
The turkeys are possessed.

But what he sees at work
In the footage

Could be a different form
Of mind control.

the turkeys
Are not looking around.

they're all just staring at
The turkey in front of them.

It's possible these animals

Could have
Hypnotized themselves.

♪♪

Narrator: zoologist roland kays
Explores the theory

That the turkey gang

Have entered into
A trance-like state.

we don't really know why,
But chicken and other poultry

can kind of be hypnotized

or become really, really fixated
On certain things.

So, one example is you can
Draw a line on the ground,

And they'll just become fixated
And just stare at that line

Kind of like they're hypnotized.

Narrator: scientists
Think this chicken trance

Is a form of tonic immobility,

A defense mechanism
In which animals play dead

In order to confuse a predator.

Kay:s so, it makes you wonder
If there's something like that

Going on with these turkeys.

Narrator: but wildlife biologist
Mark hatfield

Has been studying the behavior
Of the wild turkey for 15 years

And is not convinced.

Hatfield: turkeys follow
The leader a little bit.

They learn from each other.

But I wouldn't say
That they get hypnotized.

Narrator: hatfield instead
Believes that the turkeys

Are keeping their distance
From perceived danger.

Hatfield: they identified that
Cat as a potential predator,

but they did not recognize
That the cat was deceased.

narrator:
Hatfield observes in the footage

That the turkeys keep a constant
8 feet away from the cat.

They never cross that threshold,
And they never got real close,

But they were still far enough
Away that if the cat moved,

Then they would have
Probably fleed.

Narrator:
But this still doesn't explain

Why the turkeys are in a circle.

Zoologist tara pirie
Comes up with another theory.

this unusual
Circular behavior --

you don't see it very often,

But it has been seen
In other species.

Ants, for example,
Use pheromones,

And they put this
Chemical track down

So that ants can
Actually find the food.

Narrator:
It's the ant equivalent
Of a trail of breadcrumbs,

And each colony has its own
Unique chemical signature.

However, if one of these trails
Gets drawn in a perfect circle

And loops back, the ants will
Walk around and loop back up

And continue on the loop again
And again and again and again.

They don't realize that they're
Stuck in this continual loop.

Pirie: these ants can go 'round
And 'round and 'round and 'round

Until they die.

I mean, that is
Absolutely crazy.

Narrator: because of what
Can happen to circling ants,

Tara pirie wonders

If the turkeys
Are marching to their death.

Pirie: if these turkeys
Cannot break the circle,

I mean, this really could be
A turkey death dance.

Narrator: ultimately, nobody
Has a satisfactory explanation

For why these birds are behaving
In this extraordinary way.

Woman: what is that?

Civil war specters...

They had
Light-colored clothing on

That appeared to be a uniform.

Narrator: ...A bloodbath that
Changed the course of history...

Hyde: thousands of men
Died on this spot,

So maybe one of them's
Come back.

Narrator: ...And a video image
That defies logic.

There's really
No easy explanation

To what
Would cause that.

What is in that wood?

Narrator: october 2001.

Gettysburg, pennsylvania.

Sight of the greatest battle
Of the civil war,

A battle that changes the course
Of american history,

Immortalized in
Lincoln's gettysburg address

Where he promises
That these dead

Shall not have died in vain.

It is also the bloodiest battle
Ever fought between americans.

there were 51,000 killed,
Wounded, and missing.

one author said
It was a vast sea of misery.

And it really was.

Narrator: delia underwood
Is a civil war enthusiast.

underwood is studying
The isolated location

of one particularly
Brutal massacre.

a long-abandoned site,
It's known as "Bloody run."

[ men screaming ]

Narrator:
As night closes in,

Underwood sets up her camera
To take a shot of bloody run.

She is expecting these
Remote woods to be empty,

But her camera
Captures something.

-right there! See it?
-uh-huh.

-you see what I'm seeing?
-what's that?

Narrator:
There is no path here,

And the figures, or lights,

Appear slightly elevated
Off the ground.

woman: what is that?

look!

narrator: the dull, gray lights,
Or figures, appear briefly

and then are gone.

woman: what is that?

is it something inanimate?

is it real? Is it chemical?
What could it be?

what is in that wood?

Narrator: coming up...

How can a tree
Burn from the inside?

When you look at this tree, it
Looks like something pure evil.

Narrator:
And experts get spooked
By the gettysburg ghosts.

Super creepy!

Narrator:
With no obvious explanation

For ghostly images
Captured at gettysburg,

Some refuse to rule out
The supernatural.

there is a real spiritual power
In a place like gettysburg.

narrator:
Terri forest lives in the area

and believes
That there's something eerie

about the gettysburg site.

there are a lot of unexplained
Things that go on in gettysburg.

Narrator:
For more than a century,

There have been sightings

Of the ghosts
Of the restless souls.

But evidence of any paranormal
Activity remains elusive.

But the strange images
Recorded by the camera

Aren't necessarily ghosts.

♪♪

Anthropologist deborah hyde

Warns that people will often see
What they hope to see.

Hyde:
With gettysburg, the fact

That so many people
Died violently

And died before their time

make it a perfect candidate
For a ghost-hunting site.

Narrator: she wonders
Whether these aren't just

Ghostly shots of living humans.

You can see that there
Are two white figures there,

And they're going
In opposite directions.

They look, to me,

Like people walking backwards
And forwards behind the trees.

Woman: right there!

Narrator: in virginia, security
Analyst william dranginis

Examines the footage.

He uses specialized software

To enhance and decipher
Low-resolution images.

dranginis:
What the enhancement shows us
Is a much brighter shape.

and it's much easier
To track its movements

as it goes through the trees.

narrator:
Whatever these things are,

He believes they are not
Living human beings.

Dranginis: if these are people
That we see in the images,

That means they're walking
15 to 20 feet through the air

And through the trees,
Which is impossible.

These shapes
Seem to be floating.

There's really
No easy explanation

To what would cause that.

Narrator: physicist simon foster
Of imperial college london,

Reviews the footage
And suspects that clues

May lie in how transparent
The ghostly figures are.

foster: what could be
Happening in gettysburg

is something called
"Pepper's ghost."

narrator: foster believes
The ghostly images

Could be the result
Of an optical illusion

Named after its inventor,
John henry pepper.

Foster: it was actually used

To project ghosts
Up onto the stage.

The thing about pepper's ghost
Is it may be 150 years old,

But it's good enough
To even be used today.

Narrator: to test his theory,

Foster erects scaffolding,
Bright lights,

And black-out fabric

To construct areas
Of light and dark

To replicate conditions
At gettysburg.

For this to work, the setup
Needs to be really precise.

Everything needs to be
In the exact position.

By carefully positioning
A source of light,

You can make objects appear
In different positions.

If there's anything
Even slightly out,

The illusion is ruined.

Narrator:
With his equipment

Set up in exactly
The right position,

Foster steps into place,

And his ghost appears.

Foster: this is because glass is
Actually partially reflective.

You may have seen this
When you've looked out

Of a window on a dark night.

When the light's on in the room,

The glass actually
Looks like a mirror.

Narrator: it's possible
Hoaxers could exploit

This property of glass
To deceive.

Foster: this gives this effect
Of ghosts appearing.

Now, I believe this is
What could be occurring

Here in the gettysburg ghosts.

Narrator:
Image analyst william dranginis

Wants to test the theory.

He looks for clues
That illusionists

Have used
The pepper's ghost technique.

Dranginis:
The problem with that

Is that the size
Of the glass plate

Would have to be enormous.

Pulling off a hoax like this
Would take many people,

Possibly a crane
To lift the glass.

I don't think
This video is a hoax.

So whatever they filmed there
Is still unexplained.

Narrator: coming up, a tree
Inferno baffles fire experts.

Nobody expects to see a tree
Burning from the inside out.

-right there! You see it?
-uh-huh.

Narrator: and has paranormal
Activity at gettysburg

Finally been captured on camera?

Bundy: it's tough to tell
What's making the shapes

That appear to be
Moving in the tree.

Woman: what is that?

Narrator:
Gettysburg, pennsylvania.

On the site of america's
Bloodiest civil war battle,

Ghostly images
Are caught on camera.

Is it something inanimate?
Is it real? Is it chemical?

What could it be?

Narrator: chemist andrea sella
At university college london

Examines the footage.

initially, I thought,

"Somebody's manipulated
This image."

but there's got to be
Another explanation.

Narrator: sella suspects
The location of the recording

Holds vital clues.

He analyzes the foreground
And discovers that it's marshy.

Sella:
Scientists have suggested

That the decaying
Organic matter in the mud

Produces this strange,
Ghostly, white-ish light

Which comes and goes.

Narrator:
It's not the first time

People have seen mystery
Apparitions over marshy ground.

For centuries, people have been
Spooked by ghostly lights

In marshes, bogs, and swamps.

Decaying organic matter

Might produce
A mixture of methane

And then traces of
A highly inflammable gas

Called phosphate.

And the two together
Catching fire in the darkness

Might actually give rise
To a ghostly light.

♪♪

Narrator:
Anthropologist deborah hyde
Re-examines the footage.

But for her,
The behavior of the lights

doesn't suggest swamp lights.

the movements they're making
Are repetitive.

and they're the same.
They're similar.

If this was some
Naturally occurring phenomenon,

I would expect it
To be a bit more random.

Narrator:
Hyde returns to the footage

And discovers
That delia underwood

Didn't just capture ghostly
Humanoid shapes on camera --

She also recorded something that
Deepens the mystery further.

You can't really say what it is,

But there are little
Flashes of something,

Something white.

Narrator: underwood is sure
She knows what she saw.

[ gunshots ]

♪♪

Narrator:
The basic infantry weapon

During the battle of gettysburg

Was a muzzle-loading musket
That a good soldier

Could load and fire
Three times in a minute.

It is said that during the
Three-day battle of gettysburg,

Seven million rounds of ammo
Were fired.

But what alternative
Rational explanation

Could there be
For the flashes?

The footage is analyzed

By scott bundy
At new mexico university.

Bundy is an entomologist,
An expert on insects.

He thinks he's seen
A similar light show before.

it indicates to me
It might be fireflies

as the males move around
And search for females.

Narrator:
Fireflies, or lightning bugs,

Are flying beetles with
An extraordinary characteristic.

Bundy: fireflies have
Enzymes and proteins

That react with one another,

And they cause
This light reaction.

Narrator:
Firefly light is the most
Efficient light in the world.

Pound for pound, these bugs
Are brighter than the sun.

People have always
Been impressed with the amount

Of light that's generated
By these tiny, little insects.

Narrator: but local terri forest
Is used to seeing fireflies,

And she's not convinced.

no. They're too big.

fireflies just flicker briefly
And go out.

This was --
This was totally different.

-right there! See it?
-uh-huh.

Narrator:
Underwood remains convinced

That she has captured
A ghostly echo

Of one of the most traumatic
And bloody events

in american history.

Yet one more report of ghosts
At gettysburg.

-now...
-what the [bleep]?

Narrator:
...An ancient oak tree

Spontaneously erupts into flames
From the inside.

You do not expect to see
The inside of a tree burning

And the outside
To be perfectly fine.

Narrator:
Investigators wonder

If more trees will combust
In this freaky way.

Nobody expects to see a tree
Burning from the inside out.

Narrator: is this hellish fire
From beneath the earth?

♪♪

Defiance, ohio.

[ bell clanging ]

A small midwestern town named
After the 18th-century fort

Built by general
"Mad" anthony wayne.

he built this fort,

claimed it was the best fort
He had ever built,

and defied the british,
The indians,

And all the demons of hell.

Narrator:
December 21, 2015.

Warehouse owner scott olsen
Is battling the christmas rush.

He hears a cry outside
And runs out to investigate.

What he sees
Takes his breath away.

Olsen: what the [bleep]?

Narrator: he's met by what looks
Like a scene from a horror film.

Olsen: we stood there in
Disbelief watching this thing,

Trying to figure out
What is going on.

Narrator:
The tree is burning,

But it's burning
From the inside.

it really looks like the fire
Is coming up through the ground.

olsen:
How is this happening?

narrator: to some, the footage
Looks almost demonic.

to look at something
This peculiar,

you may well think that
It's been touched by evil.

It looked like the devil tree.

Is satan rising up?

Narrator: the residents, just
Like their town, are defiant.

We don't allow demons in town.

Narrator: coming up,
A crazy giant column of water...

It's not like any rain
That I've ever seen.

Where is all this water
Coming from?

Narrator: ...And scientists
Look for the strange force

Behind ohio's
Towering tree torch.

Olsen: what the [bleep]?

What has enough power
To really make this thing burn

And create the fire
That I see here?

narrator: in ohio, cameras
Capture an oak-tree inferno

burning from the inside.

hyde: how can a tree
Suddenly burst into flames?

there has to be an explanation.

narrator:
The footage is analyzed

by botanist jeffrey dean
At mississippi state university.

he knows that it's possible
For organic matter

to burst into flames
Without warning.

dean: this is a phenomena
That's pretty well known

in composting facilities.

these things catch on fire
Spontaneously.

Narrator:
With spontaneous combustion,

An object ignites without
Any apparent external cause.

There have been
Unconfirmed reports

Of spontaneous
Human combustion.

In 1980, the charred body
Of henry thomas

Is discovered in his home.

Just his legs below the knee
Remain.

It is suggested that
A human body can burn

Like an inside-out candle --

Clothes are the wick,

Body fat is the wax
Keeping the blaze going.

♪♪

Studying the footage,

Dean thinks the center
Of the tree looks dead

And speculates that this
Might be a possible trigger.

As it rots, heat is being
Generated by the microbes

That are breaking
That material down.

And if the heat is not able
To escape rapidly enough,

It can potentially
Set the material on fire.

Narrator: but roger williams
Is an expert on wildfires

At ohio state university.

When he analyzes
The video evidence,

He spots something
That he believes

Rules out
Spontaneous combustion.

Williams: all the foliage
Is going off of the trees,

So that would tell me
That it's in the winter.

One of the critical ingredients

that we are lacking
For spontaneous combustion

is heat.

From my point of view,

This could not be
Spontaneous combustion.

Narrator: terrifyingly,
Williams suspects

The hellish tree fire

Could have been ignited
From below.

We had a peat fire here in ohio
Not too long ago

Where all the fire
Was all underground.

You saw no flame.

Narrator:
Unseen beneath the surface,

Peat fires can smolder for years

Before flaring
Into raging flames.

♪♪

Only recently in indonesia,
Such a fire

Devoured an area
440 times the size of manhattan

With the loss of 100,000 lives.

Vast clouds of smoke from the
Blaze reached as far as china.

♪♪

It's very possible
For fires to move underground,

And it can work its way up
Into some of those trees.

♪♪

Narrator:
But there's a problem.

Analysis of the soil
In this part of ohio

Shows there is no peat deposits.

And scott confirms there were
No signs of an underground fire.

in the weeks
Leading up to the fire,

there were no signs of smoke,
No signs of fire.

Narrator:
At mississippi state university,

Electrical engineer
David wallace

Re-examines the footage.

Wallace:
When I started looking closer
At this tree in the video,

You sort of see
A break in the bark

Coming down the side
Of the tree.

now, this is
A very strong indication

of a lightning strike.

[ thunder crashing ]

Narrator: lightning strikes kill
Thousands of people every year.

They ignite deadly forest fires

And cause billions of dollars'
Worth of damage.

To have ignition,
You have to have a heat source,

And the lightning is certainly
Going to provide enough heat.

Narrator: a lightning bolt
Heats the air around it

Up to 50,000 degrees
Fahrenheit --

Five times hotter
Than the surface of the sun.

When you have
A lightning strike hit a tree,

Current is gonna flow
From this bolt

Down to the center of the tree,

Heating it to
Extreme temperatures,

And it gets to the point

Where the sap will
Actually explode outward,

Creating the pattern
Of the lightning going down it.

So, when you look at this tree,

It looks like something
Pure evil.

Narrator: studying the
Burnt-out stump of the tree,

Roger williams tries
To find more evidence

To support his lightning theory.

Williams: you can see
Where you have charring.

Have a definite line here.

I believe that
Lightning struck this tree.

Narrator: but a cross-check
Of local meteorological data

Shows calm conditions
On the day

Scott olsen
Witnessed the terrible fire.

I do not remember
Any lightning storms that day,

And I do not remember
Any lightning storms

Leading up to that point.

Narrator:
With no conclusive evidence,

The mystery of ohio's
Burning devil-tree fire

Remains unsolved.

We still don't know, to this
Day, exactly what caused it.

Narrator:
The tree is more than a mystery.

To the residents of defiance,
It's a cause of anxiety.

If it happened once,
It can happen again.

And if it occurs in
The tinder-dry summer months,

Their whole town
Could be consumed.

And now, an immense,
Perplexing pillar of water.

What's surprising
About the footage

Is simply the
Sheer amount of water.

Narrator: experts fear
An apocalyptic weather event.

It's not like any rain
That I've ever seen

In 20 years of storm chasing.

Narrator:
Yunnan province, china.

A peaceful mountainous region
Bordering vietnam.

July 2017.

A bizarre and terrifying event
Caught on a tourist's phone.

In the...Valley,
A thundering plume of water

Rising from the ground
Into the sky.

Is someone messing
With mother nature here?

That's a heck of a lot of water
Falling in one location.

Narrator:
When the mystifying image

Is made available in the west,

Experts struggle to explain it.

at first glance,
It's kind of hard to tell

whether this is man-made
Or naturally occurring.

Narrator:
The clip comes to the attention

Of expert meteorologist
Karen kosiba.

She believes
It could be evidence

Of a rarely seen
And extreme weather event.

this event has a large
Concentration of water
Over a very small area,

which might make you
Initially think a microburst.

Narrator: microbursts
Are a terrifying phenomenon

That occurs when rapidly
Cooled air in a storm cloud

Rushes to the earth like a bomb.

Storm chaser george kourounis

Confirms that localized rain
Is also often a feature.

And that falling air can
Quite often drag a lot of rain

With it in a very small area.

Narrator: rain bombs can drop
Seven inches of water

In just 30 minutes
With catastrophic consequences.

Microbursts can be classified
As severe-weather events.

They impact structures
And people at the ground,

But they also can cause
Problems for air traffic.

Some of these microbursts

Can have wind speeds
That rival small tornadoes.

Narrator: coming up, man-made
Mayhem in communist china.

This is not how rain works.

Narrator: expert storm chaser
George kourounis

Fears that a gushing torrent
Of water filmed in china

Is a microburst,

One of the smallest yet
Most lethal kinds of storms.

microbursts are where air is
Falling rapidly out of a storm.

narrator: he analyzes
The clip for evidence.

A frame-by-frame analysis
Of the footage fails to reveal

The key element of a
Microburst -- storm clouds.

There's no big thunderstorm

That you would associate
With a microburst.

This is not how rain works.
It's got to be something else.

Narrator:
Geologist dr. Sian proctor

Comes across the clip.

She slows down the footage,

Concentrating on the perplexing
Movement of the water.

Proctor:
It looks, at first, as though

It's coming from the sky,
Falling down,

But then you get this other idea

that the water
Is coming from below

and being shot up into the sky
And then falling back down.

narrator:
She suspects another

deadly force of nature
Is the culprit.

my first thought,
As a geologist, is geyser.

this might be a geyser.

Narrator:
Geysers are capable of ejecting

Thousands of gallons
Of superheated water and steam

Hundreds of feet into the air.

Geologist alessandro grippo
Fears a new super geyser

Erupting in this area
Is a troubling sign.

grippo:
When I see a geyser,

I'm thinking of volcanic,
Magmatic activity,

And all of these activities

Can be related to earthquakes.

Narrator: 2014 --

An earthquake in the same part
Of china kills hundreds.

If this is a new geyser,

It could soon be followed
By another deadly quake.

But when alessandro grippo

Analyzes the footage
In more detail,

The volume of water

Makes him doubt
This is a geyser in action.

Grippo: in a geyser,
I would expect water

To go up
And then slowly come down.

What is real surprising to me
Is the speed with which

The water is coming back
On the ground,

Like, really, somebody
Is throwing a giant bucket.

I would not expect a geyser
To be behaving like that.

Narrator: as the water
Continues to gush into the air,

The clip is spotted
By physicist john di bartolo.

He believes
The enormous volume of water

Is not a natural disaster,
But a man-made one.

What I think is going on here
Is a broken water main.

Narrator:
Di bartolo zooms in on the clip

To reveal
A semi-submerged structure.

Narrator: further investigation
Show it to be

A hydroelectric power station
Under construction.

Its turbines are fed from a
Huge dam nine miles upstream,

Which holds
29 billion gallons of water.

The dam releases water and
Directs it to the power station

Via an underground tunnel.

Di bartolo: the water is kept
At extremely high pressures.

a break could result
In water being sprayed out

at such a velocity

that it could reach
Tremendous heights.

narrator:
Di bartolo analyzes the footage

and finds that the water
Reaches a height of 300 feet.

di bartolo:
The pressure can be

10 to 12 times
Atmospheric pressure.

that is easily enough

to send a fountain of water

upward to the heights
That we see in this video.

narrator: countless thousands
Of gallons of water

are pouring into the sky
Every minute.

if chinese authorities don't
Find a way to fix the leak,

somebody is going to get
One hell of a water bill.