All language subtitles for Strange.Evidence.S07E03.North.Korean.Fire.Blast.1080p.MAX.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BETHELL_track3_[eng]

[narrator] Worldwide,
50 billion cameras
record our daily lives...

in our hands, in our cars
and in our homes.

They capture things
that defy explanation.

[woman screaming]

What the hell
are we looking at right here?

[man on video] Check this out.

Experts carry out
forensic analysis
of these unusual events.

Wow! Now, that's a cracker.

[man] Oh!

[woman screaming]

This doesn't make any sense.

There has to be
another explanation.

So, what could it be?

[narrator] Coming up,
in the world's
most secretive state

is this fireball
the final moments
of an enemy of Kim Jong-Un?

It's possible
what we're seeing here
is another gruesome execution.

[narrator]
Matt Kutcher investigates.

Don't try this at home.

[narrator] In Thailand,
is this a boy
who has been mummified alive?

[Liberty Vittert]
Unlike the ancient
Egyptian mummies,

Buddhist monks
mummified themselves.

[narrator] Then as film
emerges of an apparent fight

between a UFO
and ground forces,

why shooting at aliens
is never a good idea.

23 of the soldiers
that were there

were literally
turned into stone.

[narrator]
Bizarre phenomenon...

[gasps] Oh, my God!

...mysteries caught on camera.

This is just mind-boggling.

[narrator] What's the truth
behind this?
Strange Evidence.

Now Changbai, a Chinese town

on the border between
the People's Republic Of China
and North Korea.

August 3rd, 2020,
a man films
a strange disturbance

on the other side
of the border.

Wow.

This huge fireball,
it's out of control.

It just exploded again.
Every time we have a boom

there's another
big upwelling of flames
up into the sky.

[distant shouting]

Kinda crazy.

[George Kourounis]
You can hear the concern
in the people's voices

as they're watching
this fire rage.

[narrator] The Chinese man
filming, and his
nearby companions,

have no idea what's happening
on the other side
of the border.

[Carlo Munoz]
The North Korean government

really maintains
a stranglehold

on any kind of information
coming out of the country.

So to see footage like this
really is something.

[explosion]

[narrator] Historian
Craig Gottlieb looks for clues

and finds this explosion
is taking place
in a 21st century nation

that's a literal
hell on Earth.

[Craig] Folks,
this is North Korea,

the most dangerous military,
industrial complex
on the planet.

[narrator] The communist
dictatorship is ruled
by tyrant Kim Jong-Un

and his wife Ri Sol-Ju.

Human rights? No.
Public safety? No.

Aggressive nuclear program?
Yes.

[missile whooshing]

[George] The reality is that
there are two North Koreans.

There are the ruling class,
the elite,
Kim Jong-Un and his family,

who live in conditions
of pure opulence.

And then there are
the regular people

who are treated very,
very poorly.

[narrator] No one in the
25 million person state
of North Korea

dares challenge
their supreme leader

because Kim
is a sadistic killer.

Kim Jong-Un
has a long track record

of ordering
executions of people
he disagrees with.

It's possible
what we're seeing here
is another gruesome execution.

[narrator] The so-called
Great Successor

reserves especially cruel,
almost theatrical send-offs

for his greatest enemies.

There was one
reported incident of him
tossing one of his generals

into a tank
of flesh-eating piranhas.

And another incident
where a general,
who fell asleep during parade,

was shot to death
with an antiaircraft gun.

[narrator] Another officer
that fell out of favor

is said to have been executed
by being torched alive
using a flamethrower.

China is extremely wary
of their nightmare
next-door neighbor.

A fiery execution
staged at the border like this

could be Kim
sending them a signal

that he has no intention
of changing
his psychopathic ways.

Is what we're seeing
just another
North Korean example

of how crushing
the regime can be?

[narrator] But Brian Wolshon
believes the film could show

a horrific
engineering disaster
unfolding on the other side.

The story that
North Korean propaganda
likes to tell

is that the North Korean
people are well-fed,

they have quality housing
and they're genuinely happy.

But in reality, we know
this is not the case.

Housing, in particular,
is of poor quality

and in some cases
it's actually dangerous.

[Carlo] Families live
in a single 250 sq. ft. room.

Now, because
of the cramped conditions

and sort of this
shanty town-like atmosphere

fires are extremely common.

[narrator] Hollywood
pyrotechnics expert
Matt Kutcher

has over 35 years' experience
with explosions.

He believes the film
shows not one blast
but many.

In this case, you definitely
see an explosion, right?

And then that explosion
seems to be setting off
other explosions throughout.

So I think
what we're witnessing here

is cylinders have filled up
with compressed gasses,
and they're blowing up.

See, I think each one
of these bursts
is another bottle going,

or another
pressurized vessel, right?

I think that's what
we're witnessing here.

So calmness, calmness,
calmness and then bang,

another burst,
another bottle goes off.

Or something else
that's under pressure, right?

I think the way it goes up
and dissipates,

I think it's probably either
natural gas or propane.

I think we could
take some bottles

and actually
try to blow them up

and see if we can recreate
something that looks like
this video.

[narrator] Reports from 2019,

suggest that just over
a quarter of North Koreans
have electricity,

and those that do
are reported to be limited
to a few hours each day.

People in the North Korean
countryside have to
come up with other solutions

if they want to heat
and cook to stay alive.

In that video,
it's certainly a mystery

-to what's blowing up
there in North Korea, right?
-Yeah.

But in rural areas,
probably in that country,

they're actually using
some kind of propane systems
for either cooking

-or whatever else
they have to do, right?
-Right.

So if we use these
to simulate
the propane bottles,

high-pressure gas,
and there's a cooking fire
for instance,

that fire generates
enough heat,

that heat
broaches this bottle.

Once it does that
the bottle explodes.
You see that in the video.

-Right.
-But maybe the heat
from this one

sets of the next one
and the next one...
Pause,

heat generates again,
blows up the rest of 'em.

So I think what we're gonna do
is break these bottles,
create a flame source,

a safe place to stand,
and see if our experiment
will work.

-Big chain reaction.
-Big chain reaction. Exactly.

-Nice.
-Well said.
All right, son. Let's go.

We're gonna need to build
just two sets of kickers.

Peel off all the paint
and that'll be the safe zone
of which we'll hide behind.

Then we're gonna take
a yellow and blue bottle.

Bring me
three of each, please.

[narrator] A propane tank
holds more than 30 kW
of energy

for every pound
of compressed gas inside.

So, what I'm about to do
you shouldn't film.
Don't try this at home.

[narrator] Matt
makes a fuse on the floor,

simulating an accidental
cooking fire
in a North Korean apartment.

[Matt] Okay, here we go.
Something's definitely
gonna happen.

[narrator] The team
take shelter.

[Matt] All right, ready?
Is everybody rolling?

Nice. Go ahead
and light the pilot, son.

[Matt] Yeah, look that heat's
starting to build.

[narrator] Coming up,
can Matt and his team
simulate a kitchen nightmare?

-I can feel that heat.
Can you feel the heat change?
-Yeah.

[Matt] That's pretty cool,
right? Wow!

[narrator] And this is
no ordinary statue.

Thai villagers
make a disgusting discovery.

The face of this child,
it looks like an expression
of fear.

Utter fear
and almost desolation.

[narrator] On the Chinese,
North Korean border

a Chinese man
films a mysterious explosion

rocking the secretive nation
on the other side
of the Yalu River.

Explosives expert Matt Kutcher
suspects the blast
could be evidence

of a terrible
propane tank disaster

in the cramped
housing projects

dictator Kim Jong-Un
forces on his people.

All right,
light the accelerant.

[explosion]

[Matt] Wow,
that's getting hot.
Look at that smoke.

You can really
feel the heat now.

[narrator] Matt puts
six propane tanks
into a burning ring of fire.

As the flames leap higher
the temperature
of the cylinders increases,

the gas pressure builds,
until...

Okay. Yeah,
that's what we saw
in the video. That's great.

[narrator] At temperatures
as low as 120 degrees
the propane tanks breach

releasing a devastating, oily,
liquid-expanding
vapor explosion

known as a bleve.

[explosion]

-[Matt] That worked out
pretty good, huh?
-[man] Yeah, really good job.

[narrator] The explosion
releases a burst of flames

very similar to
the conflagration
seen in North Korea.

The fire starts
and it's gonna start
to create heat.

You can see it developing
really well.

[Matt] The heat's building,
which is creating pressure
in those vessels.

So it's building and building
and building, and bang,
now they explode.

The pressure's released,
the flame there captures it.
What an explosion!

Great experiment
to do here in the shop,

but not something
you want to happen
inside your house.

[narrator] Engineer
Nick Householder
consults maps of the area

and finds a cramped
and overcrowded
housing project

located near the source
of the blast.

Reports from
those on the ground

indicate that this
was a house fire

that spread to
a liquid propane gas cylinder
on the side of the house.

This caused a chain reaction
with the other houses
around it

resulting in a series of fires
and a series of explosions
of compressed gas cylinders.

In this particular case,
the entire row of houses
was leveled

with nine fatalities.

Nine people died,
but guess what the authorities
were concerned about?

Well, in North Korea
one thing, their leader.

[narrator] Every home
in North Korea

must display
portraits of their leaders
on its walls.

What they wanted to know
was did the families
go back into the houses

during the fire
and rescue portraits
of their former leaders?

And to add a twist
to this story,
in typical North Korean style,

the owner of the house
where the fire started

was actually arrested
by the government
for embarrassing the nation.

[narrator] Now Thailand's
remote Surin province.

January 27, 2021.

A person with a camera
follows villagers
into the jungle

to find an extraordinary
makeshift shrine.

It looks like it's a statue
of a little boy.

It's got a head, two eyes,
two ears and a mouth.

[narrator] But this image
hasn't been carved
by human hands.

Locals claim
it was discovered
fully formed in the forest

by a villager out looking
for wild mushrooms.

[Linda] It's really uncanny.
The more you look at it,
the more it looks like a boy

actually just
sort of sitting there.

[Liberty]
The face of this child,

it looks like
an expression of fear.

Utter fear
and almost desolation.

It looks like the figure
was kneeling,
maybe begging for life.

Where did this come from?

I mean, this is creepy.
I don't wanna
call it repulsive

'cause it looks like the body
of a young boy,

but the skin,
it looks mummified.

[narrator] Journalist
Linda Rodriguez McRobbie

finds evidence
of a gruesome
religious practice

which might explain
the strange shrine.

There's a phenomenon
in Buddhism
called sokushinbutsu,

and essentially it refers to
someone who's been able
to mummify themselves.

[narrator] Mummies
are found in cultures
all over the world

from ancient Egypt to Peru.

But in Southeast Asia
these Buddhist bodies

are mummified
in a very different fashion.

[Liberty] Unlike
the ancient mummies of Egypt

these guys weren't involved
after death.

These Buddhist monks
mummified themselves
when they were alive.

[narrator] Monks
practicing sokushinbutsu

put themselves through
unimaginable torture

with the aim
of helping humanity

reach a state
of enlightenment.

Sokushinbutsu
is a sacrificial act

and it's done in emulation
of a ninth-century monk
called Kukai.

The practitioners,
the people who are
successfully able to do it,

believe that they are sort of
carving a path to salvation
for all of mankind

through this personal,
very extreme sacrifice.

[narrator] Biologist
Leslie Samuel

finds an extraordinary account
of one Buddhist holy man
who undertook the ritual.

It's really extraordinary,
over a number of years

the monk basically
eliminated fat from his body
through a strict diet.

Things like nuts,
wood and berries.

Severely limiting
his water intake,

he'd drink a kind of tea
that was made from
a poisonous tree.

All this starvation,
dehydration, poisoning,

the goal being
to prevent his body
from decomposing after death.

[Linda] Once he's reached
a sort of state of emaciation
and dehydration,

he is buried alive
in a pine box
for his last days on Earth.

He had a bamboo shoot
for a breathing tube,
it allowed him to breathe.

And he had a bell that
he could ring to signal
that he was still alive.

[bell ringing]

Once the bell stops ringing,
then the other monks
seal up the tomb.

[narrator] The bodies
of these self-made mummies

are left underground
for a thousand days.

After the thousand days
were up,
they'd bring the body back up

and check to see
whether or not it had decayed

and if the body
was preserved well enough

then they would
go ahead and enshrine it.

[narrator] Self-mummification
is outlawed
in some Buddhist countries,

but one famous Thai monk
is said to have
gruesomely succeeded in 1973.

On the island of Koh Samui
there's a shrine to a monk
named Luang Pho Daeng,

and he's believed
to have mummified himself
and died while meditating.

[narrator]
Luang Pho Daeng's remains

are displayed in a glass case
at Wat Khunaram.

The only part of his body
seen to fully decay
are his eyes.

Monks decide
to cover the empty sockets

with a pair
of designer sunglasses.

You know, if this thing
is not a statue,
is it mummified?

Has it been there forever,
is it ancient?

[narrator] Biologist
Steve Potvin looks closer

at the bizarre boy
in the jungle

and believes he sees
signs of life.

[Steve] Zooming in close
on its shoulder

it almost looks like
there's something alive there.
Maybe that's an egg sack.

Maybe something
burrowed in it.

[narrator] Coming up,
eaten from the inside out.

Are villagers looking at
the husk of a human?

[narrator] And although
the U.S. military are ordered
not to fire on UFOs,

Arizona citizens
seem to have other ideas.

This thing definitely
flew into the wrong valley.

In the Thai jungle,
a weird object shaped like
a young boy in agony

is full of tiny insects.

[Steve] Are these people
looking at an empty shell

of what used to be
a human being?

[narrator] But entomologist
Kevin Kasky looks at
the texture of the object

and believes these insects
didn't set up home in a boy,

they built the boy-shaped
structure themselves.

Thailand is home
to over 150 species
of termites.

Some of them create
very extravagant,
very large termite mounds.

This could be
one of those structures.

[narrator] Termites
are unsung under lords
of the Earth.

For 250 million years,
these tiny tower builders

have survived in colonies
up to three million strong.

They operate collectively
like a gigantic hive mind.

Termite mounds can take
four to five years to build

and they're incredible
feats of engineering.

The tallest
termite mound recorded
was 42 feet high,

found in
the Republic of Congo.

From their perspective,
it's taller than
any skyscraper

that we have
in our big cities.

The mound
is a continuously-morphing,
complex contraption,

specifically designed
to regulate temperature.

A, for instance,
one section of the mound
is too warm,

the termites will
follow their senses
to that section

and adjust the mound
to reduce temperature.

By creating
tiny ventilation passages,

the pores of the nest
manage gas exchange

in ways that are similar
to how human lungs function.

[narrator] There are millions
of termite nests
all over the world.

One of the oldest
has been dated
to as early as 2000 BC,

making it as old
as the pyramids of Egypt.

But none have been recorded
taking on the shape
of a human.

[Steve] There's no
specific shape

that the termites
try to make these things,

it's really just chance.

[narrator] The random shape
created by these termites

seems to have
grown into something
that looks like a boy.

It's not about the termites.
The termites haven't made
a statue of a child,

it's about us
and what we want to see.

[narrator] Locals believe
this bug-built boy

is a magical manifestation
of Ai Khai...

a popular prankster spirit
who brings good fortune.

This termite mound
might look like a boy
for now,

but termite mounds
are a work in progress
constantly.

So, while this looks like
a boy or a child now,

in a few months, it might
look like something
completely different.

[narrator] Now...

...the high desert

outside Wikieup, Arizona.

March 23rd, 2019.

A mysterious object
appears in the darkness.

There's something white
and bright flying through
the night sky.

[Tim] It's moving erratically,
it's changing direction.

It's speeding up,
slowing down.

[narrator] Then,
gunfire erupts.

[gun firing]

Wow! That's a lot of
[chuckles] gunfire.

It's just like bullets
flying everywhere.

[gun firing]

It looks like a war zone.

[narrator]
But the unidentified object

easily dodges the fire
coming up from the ground.

It's like it's taking
evasive maneuvers

to avoid the tracers.

There's an intelligence there.

[Carlo] It's almost dodging
the bullets,

just flying in between them

seemingly unscathed.
It's pretty amazing.

The big question is what
is that white glowing object?

Who's firing at it and why?

[narrator] Journalist
Jeff Wise believes
this flying object

is not a normal aircraft.

[Jeff] This hovering
white dots

seems to be moving in a way
that we can't really explain.

To have to ask,
"Is this a UAP?"

"Is that an alien craft?"

What are we looking at?

[gunshots]

Is this the military reacting
to maybe a UFO?

[narrator] UFOs are no longer
regarded as myths.

The US government now admits

that weird objects
with unexplained capabilities

have been known
to the military for years.

There have been a number
of sightings in the sky

by military pilots
that have not been
able to be explained.

Could this be something else

that is one of these
Unexplained Aerial Phenomena?

[narrator] As the US
government throws open

previously classified
UFO files,

there is increasing
evidence that firing

on one of these objects
is not a good idea.

A recently declassified
CIA document,

recorded an incident
similar to this

that took place in Siberia
in 1993.

[narrator] The report
describes a low-flying

saucer-shaped object

that crashes near
a military unit

out on a training exercise.

As the soldiers
approached the wreckage,

they reported that five
small humanoids

got out with large heads
and black eyes.

[narrator] Then it gets
even weirder.

The five beings merge
into a buzzing, hissing
ball of white light,

which becomes a bizarre
and devastating weapon.

The reports says
that 23 of the soldiers

that were there,
were petrified.

They were literally
turned into stone.

Only two soldiers
survived the incident.

[narrator] The report claims
that petrified soldiers

are transferred to a secret
research unit near Moscow,

where scientists determine
their remains

have a molecular structure
like limestone.

[Tracy] I think, the fact
that they were unable

to figure out what this was,
is very unnerving

and unsettling
to a lot of people.

[narrator] Coming up...

a citizen army
prepares to fight
the ultimate intruder.

[explosion]

Is what we're seeing, uh,
some kind of militia?

That we came across
a UFO invader?

[narrator] And in Loch Ness,
a shadowy shape

seems to be targeting
kayakers on the beach.

It's moving towards the shore
where there's a lot of folks.

[narrator] In the night-time
skies of the Arizona desert,

-a man films as a bright
object appears.
-[bullets whizzing]

And gunmen on the ground
open fire.

[Carlo] Whoever's shooting
at that thing,

they're not doing
a very good job of it.

They're pretty much
missing very badly.

[narrator] Military journalist
Carlo Munoz

suspects these shooters
are not soldiers,

but could be members
of a militia.

[gunshots continue]

The have the body armor,
they have the weapons.

They sometimes participate
in very military-like
training operations.

Is what we're seeing, uh,
some kind of militia

that came across
a UFO invader?

And decided to shoot first

and ask questions later?

When people get scared,
they wanna defend themselves.

It's natural.

[narrator] American
neuroscientist, Sam Harris

says he's been
approached by people

connected to the US government

seeking advice about
how best to disclose

an alien presence
on earth to the public

without the news
inciting panic or chaos.

UAP events being
not from this planet,

I don't think
we're ready to hear that.

That would shake the science
community to its core.

[narrator] Official
confirmation that aliens
are here

would be the greatest event
in world history,

upending not just science,
but religion,

politics and the entire
global economy.

-[people shouting]
-When whatever
government entity

adds data dump of information

that was previously
classified,

there always is a chance
that it can create
mass hysteria.

[narrator] If this video
is evidence

of how ordinary Americans
react to a flying saucer,

the government has
a lot of work to do.

This is kind of the nature
of human beings.

When they are feeling
threatened, they fight.

This thing definitely flew
into the wrong valley.

[narrator] Craig Gottlieb
discovers audio files

which reveal
that the machine guns,

this time, are not
being fired in fear.

[man] Yeah! [laughs]

Let's go, plane!

[Craig] It's like a fun shoot,

where someone's flying a drone
at night on purpose

and other people on the ground

with legally registered
machine guns

and they're trying to shoot
the thing out of the sky.

-[bullets whizzing]
-[Jeff] Even though all
these people are just

having the time of their life,
blasting away,

it turns out to be really hard
to shoot down a drone.

[narrator] It takes a fortune
in ammunition,

but eventually the shooters
do manage

to take down the drone.

-[people cheering]
-[man] Oh, all right.

What we're seeing is,
some people that are, uh,

spending a lot of money
to be ready.

To be ready for what?
I... I don't know.

Are these people preparing
for a UFO invasion?

[narrator] Pentagon reports
indicate UAPs

are frequently harassing
US Navy vessels

in the Atlantic, the Pacific
and in the Persian Gulf.

So far, there is no evidence
the military has fired

on these potentially
hostile adversaries.

Perhaps because
the retaliation would be
swift and brutal.

The government truly does take
UFOs seriously.

I do think, perhaps the next
generation of warfare

may originate from Space.

[man] Let's go, Plane!

[narrator] If these people
are preparing

to lead a citizen defense
against alien invasion,

they might be embarking
on a suicide mission.

If this is from somewhere else

and not on this planet,

chances are it's a lot smarter
than we are.

Is it a really good idea
to be shooting guns

and ammo at this thing?
I don't know.

[bullets whizzing]

[narrator] Now, Scotland.

Loch Ness.

August, 2021.

A drone operator films
a party of kayakers

whose boats are on the beach.

Water is so dark.
What's splashing there?

Oh, jeepers creepers.
That's pretty big.

There's something lurking
just off the shore.

[Roland] It look like
it's moving under
its own power.

It really makes you wonder
what it is.

It's moving towards the shore
where there's a lot of folks.

[narrator] The group
on the beach have no idea

there is a huge object
in the 23-mile long Loch.

Apparently, just feet away
from them.

It looks like it could be
a large reptile.

Is there a possibility
that this guy

has captured footage
of the Loch Ness monster?

Here we have excellent
reference points...

canoes on the shore.

We see that the object
is about two canoe lengths.

That makes it
about 30 feet long.

[Eric] If this truly turns out

to be an unknown
large creature,

it's a game-changer.

[narrator] Coming up...
is this proof

the Loch Ness monster
is a descendant

of a shell-backed
prehistoric predator?

Archelon is a real force
to be reckoned with.

[Linda] Not the kind of
creature you'd wanna meet

if it was hungry.

[narrator] And off a tropical
island, is the sea

draining into
a subterranean abyss?

[George] If you were to take
Niagara Falls

and submerge it under
the Indian Ocean,

that's basically what
it looks like here.

[narrator] In the dark waters
of Loch Ness,

by volume,
Scotland's largest lake,

a drone captures an enormous
shadowy shape

near the shoreline.

Journalist Linda Rodriguez
McRobbie wonders

if the creature may be
ready to come ashore.

Interestingly, some
of the sightings of the beast

have actually been on land.

Now that sort of changes
the picture

of what we think this creature
could actually be.

[narrator] July 1933,

George Spicer and his wife
were driving past the Loch

when something huge
blunders across the road
in front of them.

The couple describes what
they said was a gray,

kind of, hump-backed beast
with flippers.

[narrator] Spicer estimates
the beast to be some
25 feet long,

close to the size of the shape
in the drone footage.

Other accounts have described
something that sort of,

waddles along in what could be
flippers or webbed feet.

[narrator] Marine biologist
Eric Hovland

discovers a remarkable theory.

Professor Henry Bauer
of Virginia State

studied life in the Loch,

which was carved out
by glaciers during
the last ice age.

He believes Nessie could
be a super-sized

versions of a well-known
shell-backed reptile.

Professor Bauer leans
toward the theory

that this was, in fact,
a giant sea turtle.

Now perhaps sea-level
changes over time

have trapped this species

and established it
in Loch Ness.

[narrator] Turtles can live
for more than a century

and are able to navigate
both on land and in the water.

Let's explore further
the theory that this
is a giant sea turtle.

Wouldn't we have
seen it by now?

I mean, it is giant after all.

[narrator] But sea turtles
have special powers

which could allow them
to stay hidden.

An amazing thing
about sea turtles is they
can stay under water

for up to seven hours
without taking a breath.

[Eric] That means you only
have a brief moment to see

a turtle when it comes
to the surface,

takes a breath
and dives back down.

[narrator] Some sea turtles
can manipulate

their metabolism
to conserve oxygen,

slowing their heart rate
to just one beat every
nine minutes.

When turtle species hibernate,
say to the bottom of a lake,

they can remain submerged
and buried in the substrate

for months at a time.

Turtles, even giant turtles,
are pretty perfectly designed

to hide out in the muddy
bottom of Loch Ness.

[Hannah] So if the Loch Ness
monster

is of the same lineage
as a sea turtle,

then it's... it's not really
that surprising

that it's quite hard
for us to find.

[narrator] Former NYPD
Image Analyst, Conor McCourt,

looks for evidence
this image could show

some kind of titanic turtle.

So the kind of things
you would look for

is some kind of shell,
some kind of flippers.

Uh, right here, we see
what could be a flipper

and this area which
could be a shell.

Well, when compared
to the canoe on the beach,

it would mean that the shell

is between
10 and 15 feet long.

If this is a turtle,
this is a very big turtle.

[narrator] Zoologist
Roland Kays

wonders if the monster
could be related

to a giant prehistoric
sea turtle,

the mighty Archelon.

Archelon weighed something
like 5,000 pounds

and was an omnivore.

Archelon is a real force
to be reckoned with.

[Roland] Archelon
had a sharp beak

that scientists think they
used to attack giant squid.

It must've been quite a scene
in the prehistoric seas.

Not the creature you'd wanna
meet if it was hungry.

[narrator] A sonar survey
in October 2020,

seems to confirm the presence
of a single animate object

up to 20 feet long.

[Linda] In the sonar image,
you can see this kind of...

oblong, whitish shape

that's at the bottom
of the lake, 600 feet down.

[Hannah] This huge creature
was keeping pace

with the boat as it was
tugging the sonar equipment.

So there are actually some
really exciting evidence

to suggest that maybe
there is living in Loch Ness.

[narrator] The object captured
on the drone

never broke the surface,

so the oblivious kayakers
on the beach could not confirm

what the monstrous shape
really was.

[Linda] Maybe there
is something there.

And maybe with
all the technology

that we have
available to us now,

we'll finally find out
what it is.

We are not giving up
on the Loch Ness monster
and Nessie quite yet.

[narrator] Now, Mauritius,

a vacation-paradise island

in the middle
of the Indian Ocean.

2018...

A passenger is filming
from a small aircraft.

Whoa! Oh, my!

[George] It looks like
the bottom of the sea

has just opened up and then
water seem to be just...

pouring down into the abyss.

[Sarah] We're staring into
some sort of hole

which is sucking the ocean
down into it.

[narrator] The island itself
seems to be falling away

as the water around it
gushes down.

The sea is just disappearing.

So what exactly
are we looking at here?

[narrator] Coming up...

mysterious Mauritian pyramids

and the legend of an
Atlantis-style apocalypse.

Is it possible that the island
of Mauritius

is being sucked
into the ocean?

[narrator] A man flying
over the tropical paradise
of Mauritius

films what appears to be
the ocean falling
into an abyss.

[Sarah] It's a powerful,
powerful video.

Is there like a waterfall
within the ocean?

[George] If you were to take
Niagara Falls,

and submerge it
under the Indian Ocean,

that's basically
what it looks like here.

[narrator] Incredible
as it may sound,

scientists have found evidence
of titanic waterfalls

under the surface of the seas.

In the swirling currents
between the Greenland Sea

and the open water
of the North Atlantic,

oceanographers have uncovered
an incredible secret...

the Denmark Strait cataract.

[Hannah]
In the Denmark Strait,

many currents converge
and they actually create

the world's largest
underwater waterfall.

[Orelon] You have very,
very cold water

that's flowing
into warmer water.

That cold water is going
to dive beneath

that warmer water,
simply because of density.

[narrator] At below
36 degrees,

the cold waters streaming
from the east

is significantly denser
than the warmer Atlantic
waters to the west.

The icy cascade plunges
some 11,500 feet

down into the frigid depths,

carrying 123 million cubic
feet of water every second.

That's more the 12,000 times

the flow rate
over Niagara Falls.

But to go look for it,
you'll need a submarine.

It starts 2,000 feet
below the surface.

It's three times the height
of Angel Falls in Venezuela.

Uh, this is an enormous thing
that's under water

but hardly anyone sees it
because of where it is.

[George] This thing
is absolutely massive.

And you could sail a boat
right over top of it

and never know it was there.

[Sarah] Could there be
something similar
going on in this video?

Could this be another
waterfall under the ocean?

[narrator] But
George Kourounis is skeptical

that a sub-surface waterfall

can explain
the extraordinary video

from tropical Mauritius,

where the sea maintains
an average temperature

of between 72 and 84 degrees.

The only reason why we have
an underwater waterfall

in the North Atlantic

is because we have two
different densities of water

interacting with each other.

In the Indian Ocean,
off the coast of Mauritius,

we don't have that effect.

[narrator] Meteorologist,
Orelon Sidney

looks at Mauritian archives

and finds that although
the island officially

was first settled in the early
17th century,

it has a much older
secret history

that has been lost
to the ocean.

In the past, Mauritius
has been a lot bigger.

Back in the day, we're talking
about an island

the size of Japan.

Today, we're talking
about an island

that's 30 miles by 40 miles,

so much, much smaller.

[narrator] Mysterious pyramids
dot the landscape

on the southern side
of the island.

Local Mauritian historians

insist they date
to the 19th century.

But researchers
like Antoine Gigal

identify them as much older.

Some link them
to Kumari Kandam,

a legendary land mass

said to have been
lost to the sea

like an Indian Ocean Atlantis.

Most of the undiscovered
things on this planet,

are actually under the water.

Is it possible that the island
of Mauritius

is being sucked
into the ocean?

[narrator] Historian
Tony McMohan

finds geological reports
that show the island

home to over
one million people,

is indeed in peril.

[Tony] What's actually
happening here

is that Mauritius is literally
crumbling bit by bit,

from it shelf deep down
to the bottom of the ocean.

[narrator] But it's a gradual
process

of sediment
running off the shelf.

A process that creates
an optical illusion

as you fly over the clear,
blue waters of its coast.

[George] When you look
at this stretch of water,

particularly from above,
in a helicopter,

it really takes on
that appearance

that the water is tumbling
into a deep trench

and it's a bit of an illusion.

Mauritius will eventually
disappear.

The only good news is,
it'll take million of years.

[narrator] Slowly but surely,
all of the island

will slide down onto
the deep ocean floors

some 13,000 feet below.

And this erosion
is visible from the air.

This is actually quite
a scary thing to look at.

[Orelon] Don't buy
beach-front.

'Cause it look like the island

is literally sliding away
into the ocean.