All language subtitles for What.on.Earth.S11E04.1080p.DSCP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-BTN_track3_[eng]

NARRATOR:
They're watching you.

More than 6,000 satellites
circle the Earth.

Every day,
they uncover new,

mysterious phenomena
that defy explanation.

From the skies,

the lost kingdoms of
bloodshed and treasure.

It was a place of almost
continuous violence

and conflict.

NARRATOR: The strange tale
of space ape island.

This is a fitting tribute
given they helped us

get to the moon
and back.

NARRATOR: And the curse of
the conquistadors.

Every person in Mexico City
is in danger.

NARRATOR: Baffling phenomena,
mysteries from space.

What on Earth are they?

[theme music playing]

North Wales,

a land of barren mountains
and sweeping valleys.

Mark Horton is trekking
through this ancient landscape,

hooked by a mystery
captured from space.

This is a really intriguing

image with all these
bizarre formations.

It's impossible to work out.

NARRATOR: The image,
captured on July 3rd, 2019,

has revealed a series of
strange shapes

on a mountaintop.

These are like giant
3-dimensional leaves

or feathers --
they're really bizarre.

NARDI: It looks like
there's sort of giant plumes

of smoke on top
of the earth here.

NARRATOR: Yet the strange
patterns aren't

the only thing that's drawn
Horton here.

What really
intrigues me is these

ruins that are located in
the middle.

I wonder whether they're

some kind of fortification,

and the blobby bits are

defensive structures
surrounding it.

NARRATOR: If these are
defensive structures,

Horton speculates they could
be relics of some of the most

fearsome warriors in
British history.

The reason why this fascinates
me is that this is part of

a sort of a landscape

of the lost medieval kingdoms
of Wales that

we actually know
very little about.

NARRATOR:
For long periods of history,

the country we now call Wales

was ruled by several different
warring kingdoms.

During this era,
they gain a fierce reputation

for resisting all attempts
to conquer their lands.

Wales has a rich history of

rebel factions and warriors
fighting for independence.

The Welsh repelled invaders
for centuries,

forcing everyone
who attempted it back over

the mountains,
whether it was Romans,

Anglo-Saxons,
or the Normans.

And what they did was to use

their knowledge of
the mountainous terrain against

far more heavily
armed opponents.

This is Guerilla warfare.

NARRATOR: The structure
in the image sits in

perhaps the most formidable of
these realms, Gwynedd.

In the ninth century,
its ruler repeatedly defeats

hordes of invading Vikings

before uniting the three
main kingdoms of Wales.

HORTON:
In the Middle Ages,

this was a place of almost
continuous violence

and conflict,

and I just wonder whether
our structure

is part of this story.

NARRATOR: As Horton heads
to the image coordinates,

he encounters another possible
relic of this kingdom's

bloody history.

Wow, that's amazing!

NARRATOR: This is one of over
600 castles in Wales,

meaning this tiny country has
more per square mile than

anywhere else on Earth --
to Horton,

its design suggests
it dates from

the final days of
Welsh independence.

HORTON: This is a square keep,
and these type of castles were

only being built in the late
12th and early 13th centuries.

NARRATOR: In 1282,
King Edward I of England,

enraged by the continual Welsh
resistance, vows to finally

conquer its kingdoms.

After storming this castle,

his troops capture the last
king of Gwynedd,

an event which marks
the beginning of

more than 700 years
of English rule here.

He was taken from here,
and he was hanged,

drawn, and quartered,

a grisly fate to teach
the rebellious

Welshmen a horrible lesson.

Maybe this castle
and the structures I can see

on the satellite image
are the last strongholds

of the Kingdom of Gwynedd.

NARDI: So at the time
this castle was built,

it was common to have
smaller outposts.

And it's possible
that this is

what we see in
our satellite image.

NARRATOR:
Horton continues north.

But as he approaches
the ruins, the mystery deepens.

This must be the buildings
on the image.

They're really odd.

Look, it's not been mortared,
and that's

not what you expect in
the medieval period.

This is not medieval.

Actually, it's probably
a lot more recent.

NARRATOR:
The ruins have thick walls

and occupy an elevated
strategic position.

Yet Horton doubts they once
served a military function.

HORTON:
What really puzzles me

is why anybody would construct
something so large

and so substantial up here in
this remote mountainside.

NARRATOR: Horton explores
the wider area for clues.

The formations that
I can see on the image

that's the buildings must be
these mountainous heaps

of rock.

It's just extraordinary.

NARRATOR: The strange gray
shapes in the image are millions

of tons of carved rock
in piles up to 60 feet deep,

evidence Horton believes of
many years of human toil.

This type of rock is a typical
byproduct of mining operation.

But what were
they mining so far

up here
in the Welsh mountains?

NARRATOR: The Welsh mountains
are known to contain silver,

tin, and gold,
riches that lured

invaders here
in ancient times.

But Horton believes
this mine is different.

Look, I can see a tramway going
across this top flat plane,

and that tells me that this is
an industrial landscape.

NARRATOR: Several faint tracks
line the site,

and they all converge
at one place.

This huge chasm.

It just goes on endlessly into
the center of the Earth.

NARRATOR: Coming up,
death in the darkness.

It must have been
terrifying for

children to be down here,
as well.

NARRATOR: And the man who took
on the mega storm.

Seems like a crazy idea,

but he managed to pull it off.

NARRATOR: Lured by strange
patterns on a mountaintop

in Wales,
Mark Horton

has discovered
monumental ruins surrounded

by millions of tons
of hand-cut rock.

The question is,
what were they actually

mining high up
in the Welsh mountains?

NARRATOR: A hidden tunnel
could offer clues.

Wow.

It just seems to go on
for -- forever

and ever into the very bowels
of the earth.

NARRATOR: Horton follows
the tunnel for nearly a mile,

descending hundreds of feet.

This place is
an incredible time capsule.

The miners must just have

downed tools and abandoned all
their machinery on the ground.

NARRATOR:
At the end of one tunnel is

a chamber with sheer walls
over 100 feet high.

I think I can now understand
what's coming out of here.

What they're looking for is
this material here.

Well,
I can see that it's

a fine deposit.

This is slate.

NARRATOR: Geological records
reveal that this corner of Wales

contains the highest quality
slate reserves in the world.

And it's been plundered
by warriors

and wealthy landowners
for millennia.

Slate was a vital
construction material

throughout most
of building history.

It's used for Roman barracks
as they conquered Europe 2,000

years ago, medieval castles for
kings and noblemen,

vast churches,
cathedrals, were kept dry

by roofs made from slate.

NARRATOR: Welsh slate mining
remains small-scale

until the 18th century,

when a seismic event begins to
reshape the mountain into

the strange patterns
seen from space.

The onset
of the Industrial Revolution

catapults Britain
into the modern age.

This was the dawn of
mechanized manufacturing,

which, of course, transformed
societies all over the world on

a huge scale.

NARRATOR: The Industrial
Revolution doesn't just

transform world economies,

but also where we build
our homes and where we work.

When it begins, only 15 percent
of people live in towns.

Yet by 1900, this figure
has left to 85 percent.

This means the slate industry
in Wales explodes.

[explosion blasts]

WALTERS: What we start to see
with the Industrial Revolution

are all these quiet,
rural areas

undergoing really rapid
transformations as quarries are

quickly developed to feed
the revolution's need for slate.

AUERBACH: So this mine, which
once supplied the local region,

now was supplying this really
important material to the whole

length of the British empire.

NARRATOR: By the late
19th century,

there are 23 slate mines
around the site

in the image alone,

connected by 25 miles of
underground tunnels.

The industry employs
17,000 people,

transforming a land of farmers
into one of machines

and manufacturing.

AUERBACH: The growth
of the slate industry clearly

is of huge economic benefit
to the region,

but it comes at a cost,
as well.

NARRATOR: As the industry grows,
mine owners

ruthlessly exploit
their workers,

paying them as little as $120
a week in today's money.

Mine owners also forced
the workers to pay

for their own housing,
candles, and tools...

tools which often kill them.

So this is how they clearly
extracted the rock.

They must have drilled down

deep into the rock and packed
it with gunpowder

that then would have
been exploded.

[explosion blasts]

NARRATOR: Explosives and lack
of safety procedures

mean that in this mine alone,

some 20 people lose
their lives each year.

Another hazard is slate dust,
which you're constantly

surrounded by
and breathing in,

and this can cause
silicosis, which,

after a fashion has your lungs
turning to stone on the inside.

WALTERS: The life expectancy
of these miners is shocking.

An average worker would have
done well to reach just 45.

NARRATOR: It's not just
grown men who die here.

As the Industrial Revolution
accelerates,

more and more children

are forced underground to work
at the rock face.

WALTERS: It's really hard
to imagine the conditions of

these children.

They would hardly see daylight,
and actually,

often, their eyesight was
permanently damaged.

NARRATOR:
By the early 19th century.

child labor accounts for up to
50 percent of the workforce

in some mines.

Children were a vital part of
this operation.

They would accompany
their fathers and uncles

to work, extracting rubble
from the mine.

WALTERS: There are reports of
children as young as seven

operating carts,
with over two tons of

loose slate on them.

NARRATOR:
At their peak,

the Welsh mines are churning
out up to half a million tons

of slate a year.

But in
the mid 19th century,

slate mining in North America
starts to boom.

A lot of Welsh slate workers
emigrated to the U.S.,

where they could take
the same jobs, but at much

higher positions, because now
they were viewed as experts.

WALTERS: Some of them become
really very wealthy as a result,

and you could kind of
say they're

real-life examples of
the American dream.

NARRATOR:
During the early 20th century,

cheaper products
like concrete

finally sound the death knell
for the slate industry in Wales.

Mines close,
quarries fall silent.

Yet even today, evidence of
their incredible impact on

the lives and deaths
of people here

is still visible from space.

HORTON: This place tells
the story of the heroism

of the men that worked here,

creating this
extraordinary landscape.

NARRATOR: Coming up --
pests in space.

This would have been
a genuinely

terrifying experience.

NARRATOR:
And nature's revenge.

Things did not
go as planned.

NARRATOR:
December 2019.

An aerial survey of
a featureless landscape in

Florida spots
something out of place.

There's this zigzagging line
that cuts

across the green landscape
and divides it.

WALTERS: What this appears to be
is an entire series of mounds,

and all around these mounds
are these kind of

dark channels.

It looks like the dark stuff's
probably water.

So we've got
12 islands that are each

isolated from each other
by these channels.

NARRATOR: Analysts speculate
the water channels could serve

a defensive purpose.

WALTERS: If you look at the way
the canals are positioned,

they surround the mounds
almost like they're barriers.

KAYS: One possibility
is that each of these islands

is a separate little
enclosure for animals.

There are some species
that are not very

good swimmers,
and one of those is chimpanzees.

NARRATOR: Further research
confirms the site

is a primate sanctuary,

but it's not home
to your average apes.

This place was set up to
protect chimpanzees

who played a pivotal role in
the history of humankind.

They helped us get to space.

NARRATOR: The epic story
of these apes starts

in the aftermath
of World War II.

Less than five decades after
humankind's first flight,

the U.S. sets its sights
on exploring outer space.

What we've got to remember is
that space was a big unknown,

a very big unknown,
and a few decades earlier,

even the idea would
have been deemed insane.

NARRATOR:
Exploring space isn't just

an extraordinary technical
and engineering challenge.

It's also a biological one.

No one knows
if living organisms can

survive radiation exposure
at such high altitudes.

To ensure the safety of
their crews,

scientists turned
to a pest -- fruit flies.

They were ideal,
because it doesn't take

much fuel to get them
up there.

But also,
fruit flies are

actually a model organism
for genetics.

So they're able to see if

the radiation was having
harmful effects on their genes.

NARRATOR:
On February 20th, 1947,

engineers pack fruit flies

into a captured
Nazi V-2 rocket

and blast them to an altitude
of 360,000 feet.

The flies survived, and
the genes weren't scrambled.

So the mission continued to
get humans into space.

NARRATOR: Yet there are other
questions about the effects

of space flight that
the flies cannot answer.

KAYS: There was real concern
that the change in

the acceleration was gonna
just screw up the human

body somehow.

WALTERS: Scientists were
concerned that astronauts

might actually suffocate on the
contents of their own stomachs

if it all went kind of
floating up.

NARRATOR: The following year,
a rhesus monkey called Albert

becomes the first mammal
to be launched

into the upper atmosphere.

KAYS: Poor Albert
dies of suffocation

before reaching space,
and so they had to try again.

They actually had
a series of Alberts,

and none of them made it.

NARRATOR: The first simians
to survive space flight

are Miss Baker
and Miss Able,

who, in 1959,

reach an altitude of
300 miles.

Their success pushes NASA's
animal test program up a gear.

And so the next step
was to go for a chimpanzee.

Chimpanzees could be trained,
so you could see if there was

something crazy
happening in space

that was gonna affect
our cognition or not.

NARRATOR: As part
of its Mercury program,

NASA acquires 40 chimpanzees,

including a three-year-old
male named Ham.

WALTERS: The researchers trained
Ham through a mixture of

giving him mild electric shocks
when he got things wrong,

and when he
got things right,

lucky Ham
got banana pellets.

So, by using this process,

what they taught Ham to do was
to pull a series of levers when

prompted by a series of
blinking lights.

NARRATOR: As training
progresses, the 40 chimps

are whittled down to six
possible candidates.

In January 1961, Ham is
selected to become the first

great ape astronaut.

Poor little Ham is strapped
into his capsule on a Redstone

rocket, and the entire country
holds its breath.

You know, is Ham gonna make it
to space and back alive?

[indistinct talking]

NARRATOR: On January 31st,
Ham launches,

reaching speeds of
5,800 miles per hour.

During the mission,

he experiences
over 14 Gs of acceleration

and six minutes
of weightlessness

While he was up in space,

he performed his lever
pulling job

only a fraction
of a second slower

than he had done so on Earth.

KAYS: Ham returned almost
completely unharmed.

He had a bit of
a bruised nose,

but he showed that hominids
could travel into space

and come back safely.

NARRATOR: Just four months
after Ham's mission,

Alan Shepard becomes
the first American human

to travel into space.

Shepard's flight
would not have been possible

without this special
astro chimp.

NARRATOR: Two years later,
Ham is retired

to the National Zoo
in Washington.

But NASA's other
space chimps are leased

to a biological
research company.

A. MORGAN: Even though
the goal

was to prevent
the loss of human life,

chimps are highly
intelligent creatures.

This would have been

a genuinely terrifying
experience for anybody.

NARRATOR: In 1997, a charity
successfully files a lawsuit

demanding the release of
the chimps, and the forgotten

pioneers of space flight are
finally paid a small part of

the huge debt they are owed.

All the chimps were moved to
an island sanctuary where

they could spend the remainder
of their lives in

peaceful retirement.

And that's what the mounds in
this image are.

This little island refuge is
a fitting tribute, given

they helped us get
to the moon and back.

NARRATOR: Coming up,
code of the Aztecs.

Looks like
this humongous,

spiraling swirl
across the landscape.

NARRATOR: And inside
the mystery mega storm.

They are some of the most
heroic people

that I have ever met in
my life.

NARRATOR:
February 2019.

Satellites scanning
Mexico City

spot something strange among
the densely packed buildings.

This aerial photograph is
so bizarre.

It looks like this humongous,

spiraling swirl
across the landscape.

It's a very geometric shape,

almost reminds you of
the cephalopod nautilus

with that unique spiral.

NARRATOR: The mystery crumbling
structure measures

almost two miles in diameter.

BELLINGER: Buildings seem
to kind of accommodate

the curve of this structure.

Whatever this is seems to
predate this densely populated

city all around it.

NARRATOR: Local records confirm
that the strange spiral

does have its roots in
the distant past,

and it's a legacy of a series
of catastrophic attempts

to play God with the lives of
people who live here.

KOUROUNIS: The history of
Mexico City has been shaped by

different cultures
trying to control

the landscape around it.

And even in modern times, we're
still trying to get it right.

NARRATOR: The structure has
its origins in February 1519,

when conquistador
Hernan Cortes arrives

on the eastern coast of Mexico.

Over the following months,
his army moves inland,

slaughtering its way through
the 80,000-square-mile

Aztec Empire.

HUNT: The Aztecs outnumbered
the Spanish conquistadors

by thousands to one,

and yet,
the Spanish had gunpowder.

[gunshot explodes]

The Aztecs fought with blades
that were stone.

NARRATOR:
In November 1519,

Cortes reaches
what is now Mexico City

and discovers
the extraordinary

aquatic Aztec capital
of Tenochtitlan.

Prior to the Spanish invasion,

this area would have been
completely underwater

and absolutely unrecognizable
to what we see today.

Tenochtitlan was built
directly over Lake Texcoco in

an ingenious set of natural
and artificial islands

joined by causeways.

NARRATOR: Within a year,
the conquistadors have razed

Tenochtitlan to the ground,
and in its place,

begin constructing
their own capital,

a city that will one day cover

the entire 2,000-square-mile
lake basin.

OKEREKE:
The Spanish wanted to make

Mexico City their crown jewel.

So they set out a plan to
drain the entire Lake Texcoco,

which was an incredibly
ambitious idea.

NARRATOR: The Spanish call
this mega project

El Gran Desague,
or the Great Drain.

OKEREKE: An incredible
engineering plan is put forth,

including changing the course
of the rivers that feed Texcoco,

and even constructing tunnels

through the balance
to drain the water.

NARRATOR: Over several
centuries, the lake recedes,

and Mexico City begins to rise
from the lake bed.

By 1900,
half a million people

live on land that was once
500 feet underwater.

OKEREKE: Draining a lake
of this size is no easy task,

and things did not
go as planned.

NARRATOR: As the metropolis
grows, torrential rains

repeatedly refill parts
of the ancient lake,

flooding entire neighborhoods
for five years at a time.

Engineers attempt
all kinds of different

methods to drain
the water away.

OKEREKE: All the while,
the city was getting flooded

over and over again.

NARRATOR: By 2020,
Mexico City has

a population of more than
21 million people.

And the ghost of Lake Texcoco
returns to haunt them.

The Spanish were successful
in draining the water.

However, given that Mexico
City sits at the bottom of

a basin, water is going
to be an ongoing problem.

KOUROUNIS: When the rains come,
particularly during

monsoon season
at the end of summer,

all that water
goes to the lowest point,

which happens to be
the streets of Mexico City at

the bottom of the old lake bed.

NARRATOR:
A massive 30 inches of rain

falls on the city
every year.

These catastrophic deluges
caused billions of dollars

worth of damage and kill
thousands of people.

The Valley of Mexico has
no natural water outlet.

All the water running off those
mountains drains down

to this valley.

Floods are
incredibly costly,

resulting in landslides,
and they can even bring toxic

sewage into the streets.

Every person in Mexico City is
in danger.

NARRATOR: To save lives,
authorities have converted

a salt evaporation pond

on the lake bed into a giant
flood defense system.

KOUROUNIS: Its size,
over two miles wide,

will allow it to act like
a giant reservoir,

holding water that would
otherwise end up in the streets.

OKEREKE: The spiral is fitted
with these huge pumps

that push the water away from
the city

when in crisis.

NARRATOR:
The site in the image is

the last line of defense
against an unstoppable force

and a stark reminder of
seven centuries

of misguided attempts to
manipulate Mother Nature.

It's kind of remarkable that,
700 years after the Aztecs

successfully managed

water in this region, that
modern engineers are trying to

match their success.

NARRATOR: Coming up,
the secret government planes

spying on you.

They'd hoover up
text messages and photos on

a massive scale.

NARRATOR:
And the strange sea cipher.

It's really difficult to tell

what's going on underneath
the surface.

NARRATOR:
September 7th, 2021.

GPS satellites track over
45,000 aircraft

across 30 million
square miles of U.S. airspace.

But at 3:30 p.m.,
investigators spot one plane

doing something weird.

What we're seeing here
is a flight path,

but it's unlike
any flight path that

I've ever seen before.

RODRIGUEZ McROBBIE:
The pilot appears to be flying

in some sort of
flower pattern almost.

It's like a star.

NARRATOR: Aircraft investigators
watch the plane as it covers

2,500 miles in
a seven-hour flight.

RODRIGUEZ McROBBIE: It's almost
as if they're sort of

sweeping the skies,
trying to get as much

information about
this particular area

as possible.

NARRATOR: Leaked reports from
international intelligence

agencies could explain

the strange flight pattern
captured from space.

All over the world,

authorities have started using
planes to collect digital

data from the ground,

and that includes
here in the United States.

NARRATOR: Light aircraft are
fitted with equipment,

which gathers vast amounts
of cellphone data

from oblivious people below.

These devices
are called dirtboxes,

and they mimic cellphone towers,
and they actually

trick cellphones
into connecting with them.

KOUROUNIS:
They don't just hoover up

criminals' information,
they gather location data,

text messages, and photos on
a massive scale.

So when you have a dirtbox
flying over a densely

populated area,

the scope of what they can
actually pick up is

incredibly vast.

NARRATOR: According to
the leaked documents,

a single dirtbox can track
up to 10,000 cellphones,

putting hundreds of millions
of ordinary Americans at risk

of being spied on.

This is
a civil liberties issue,

the kind of thing that
we see in other countries,

and we disapprove of.

It's the kind of thing
that could easily

and is happening in
the United States.

NARRATOR: Meteorologist
Randy Cerveny has

a different take on
the satellite data.

He believes the aircraft
is tracking

something much deadlier
than cellphone data.

CERVENY:
This is hurricane research.

What we're seeing here is
the plane

making different passes over
top of the hurricane.

This is what we commonly
consider hurricane hunting.

NARRATOR: In 2021,
seven hurricanes

kill over 100 people
in the U.S. alone,

causing $70 billion dollars
in damage.

For scientists,
forecasting their path

and intensity is a
massive challenge.

What we need to know is what's
going on inside the storm,

what are the dynamics of
the air and the moisture,

and the only way to really
get that data

is to go there
and measure it.

NARRATOR: In the U.S., this
highly dangerous task falls to

aviators at the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration, or NOAA.

Their mission
is to get up close to

the storm to gather vital data
to feed into

their supercomputers.

Every little piece of data
that we're able to gather helps

us to predict where these big
storms are gonna go,

and that, in turn,
helps to save lives.

NARRATOR: Each year, NOAA
flies over 50 operations.

And each of these missions
traces its roots

to a strange wager
made back in the 1940s.

RODRIGUEZ McROBBIE: An American
officer bet a British officer

that he could fly
his single engine plane

right into the eye
of the storm.

KOUROUNIS:
It seems like a crazy idea,

but he managed to pull it off,

flying through torrential
rains and incredible winds

and managed to somehow make it
back all in one piece.

Not only had he won the bet,

but he'd also inadvertently
kicked off hurricane hunting.

NARRATOR: 80 years later,
in September of 2021,

satellites spot Hurricane
Larry forming over

the Atlantic.

This is the type of storm that
could threaten the U.S.

So two teams of hurricane
hunters deploy from

the U.S. Virgin Islands
to intercept it.

Most people don't think of
meteorology as being

a life-threatening job,
but in

the case of
the hurricane hunters,

they are true heroes that
risk their lives to try to

help us figure out
what's gonna

happen in terms of
our weather.

NARRATOR: As the planes approach
the storm, they split up.

The faster, more agile jet,

a Gulfstream IV, flies above
the hurricane, tracing

the star pattern seen in
the satellite data.

By skirting the periphery of

these storms
in very specific patterns,

the scientists are able to
maximize their efforts

and gather the important
bits of data as quickly

as possible before they have
to return back to base.

One of the critical
instruments on

the Gulfstream is what
we call a radiometer.

It is looking at the heat

that's being put out by
this hurricane.

NARRATOR: One hurricane can
release heat energy equivalent

to a 10-megaton nuclear bomb
exploding every 20 minutes.

Measuring it helps predict

the hurricane's intensity
and its destructive power.

CERVENY:
As our image shows you,

we actually go through
multiple passes, because we want

to get quite different views of

what actually all parts of
the hurricane are doing.

NARRATOR: Meanwhile, NOAA's
sturdy Orion P-3 aircraft

heads straight into the eye of
the storm.

We're gonna be studying
the area right around the eye,

the thing that we call
the eye wall.

That's the most intense,

the most dangerous part
of the hurricane.

NARRATOR: After battling
180-mile-per-hour winds,

the hurricane hunters
enter the eye of the storm,

a circular patch of calm
weather up to 40 miles wide.

Precisely how the eye forms
remains unclear,

but tracking the way
it moves and evolves

helps to estimate the storm's
path across the Atlantic.

This is knowledge that we can
only get by sampling

directly in the hurricane

by using
these kinds of planes,

and so it's absolutely
critical work.

NARRATOR: The data gathered
by the plane accurately predicts

Larry will swing north, making
landfall in Canada.

Thanks to
the hurricane hunters,

such forecasts have improved
threefold in the last 20 years.

During this period,
some hurricanes

have mysteriously intensified
just before landfall,

meaning their work
is more vital than ever.

We're getting a better
knowledge of hurricanes

in general,
and that's helping us with

things like climate change and
understanding what's gonna

happen to hurricanes
in the future.

NARRATOR: Coming up,
a $100 million dollar mystery.

Reports suggest
that this could be

devastating
to the local environment.

NARRATOR: May 2021.

Eyes in the sky surveying

a coastal area of
Fujian Province,

Vietnam, capture
something strange.

There are all these little
squares with white circles at

the corners,
lots of them in a row.

linked by something long
and thin,

and then every now and then,
there's a larger structure

with deep circles around it.

SCHUTTLER:
It's really difficult to tell

what's going on
underneath the surface.

NARRATOR: The mystery pattern
covers around

4.5 football fields
worth of ocean.

It reminds some analysts
of a tech innovation

aiming to solve
an impending energy crisis.

There's a technological race
going on to find innovative

ways to cool data centers
and even avoid meltdowns.

RODRIGUEZ McROBBIE:
On a small scale,

it's your laptop working
too hard, maybe overheating,

maybe even shutting down,
but on a larger scale,

a server meltdown can render
internet services

inoperable for days
at a time.

[alarm sounding]

NARRATOR: From social networking
to stock markets,

we produce over one million
petabytes of data a day,

which is stored in
energy-hungry data centers.

Much of this energy
is used to prevent overheating,

which can crash vital
computer infrastructure.

[alarm sounding]

The latest solution
to this problem

is to move server
farms underwater.

If you can harness naturally
cold ocean temperatures and use

them to cool servers,
even just by a few degrees,

you can avoid meltdowns.

NARRATOR: Zoologist Roland Kays
studies the image.

He thinks the mystery
structures are designed to

satisfy our hunger
for luxury food,

not phones.

I think this is evidence of
some kind of aquaculture.

Vietnam has over 2,000 miles of
coastline, and one of

the most valuable industries
there is raising lobsters

for sale
in the seafood market.

NARRATOR: Lobsters are aliens of
the deep with two stomachs,

blue blood, and the ability to
pee out of their heads.

Yet we still crunch
our way through 400,000 tons

of these cockroach-like
critters every year.

The most highly prized
species of lobster

in Vietnam is
the ornate lobster.

It's demanded in Europe,
North America, Asia.

In fact, in China,

one pound of ornate lobster
costs over 90 U.S. dollars.

NARRATOR:
But there's a problem.

Wild lobster are overfished,

and the number caught
worldwide is plummeting.

KAYS:
A few centuries ago,

they were very plentiful,
and they were even

fed to prisoners, because
nobody else wanted to eat them.

Now, the situation is
completely different.

In Vietnam alone,

it's a 100-million-dollar
industry.

NARRATOR: Vietnamese farms,
like the one captured from

the skies, produce around 1,600
tons of lobster each year.

They have a disturbing
tendency to eat each other,

but the farmers here face
bigger challenges than that.

You can't actually breed
lobsters in captivity.

So smaller lobsters, called
seeds, are captured so

they can fatten up and reach
larger sizes.

Demand for these juvenile
lobsters is so high that

they are routinely smuggled
from abroad into Vietnam.

RUBEN:
Smugglers pack thousands

of lobster seeds into bags
or styrofoam containers,

and some have even tried to get
them in through the airport

in their luggage.

Authorities have even
set up a special task force

to crack down on lobster
seed smuggling.

NARRATOR: Organized crime
is not the only

dark side of the industry.

SCHUTTLER: Reports suggest that
this growing aquaculture

could be devastating to
the local environment.

RODRIGUEZ McROBBIE: Much like
industrial farming on land,

industrial farming in the sea
will have an impact.

RUBEN: Aquaculture is not
limited to lobster farms

in Vietnam -- in fact,
in the past decade or so,

we have actually been farming
more fish by weight than beef.

NARRATOR: Each year,
the aquaculture industry uses

over 3.5 million tons of
fish food.

KAYS: All the food that
goes in for the fish,

and all the waste
that comes out,

ends up being fertilizer
for the ocean for the algae

that grows around there.

You have all sorts
of algal blooms, which

then caused their own problems
for the environment.

NARRATOR: The poisonous algae
can accumulate in shellfish

like lobsters.

If they're eaten,
they can cause anything

from stomach upsets
to paralysis and death,

a high price to pay
for a lobster dinner.

The human population around
the world is going to continue

to grow,
so we need to find ways

to do aquaculture
in a sustainable manner

so that it doesn't cause
more problems than it solves.