All language subtitles for Phantom.Signals.Series.1.3of6.Soviet.Doomsday.Warning.1080p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org_3_text

Narrator: One phantom signal has
been broadcasting

24 hours a day,

Seven days a week
for the last 40 years.

And we don't know why it exists.

Dr. Kislenko:
If the signal suddenly stops...

We will all be dead
inside a few minutes.

Narrator: 2003, china sends
their first person into space.

Yang liwei is only in space
for 21 hours

And is completely alone --
and then...

Suddenly there's a knock.

I would have been scared
out of my mind.

Narrator: Did yang liwei
have a visitor?

An international team
of earth scientists

Are studying ice cores taken
from antarctica and greenland.

They make
a startling discovery --

A strange signal
buried deep in an ice core.

There had been a large eruption
of a volcano

That hadn't been documented.

The vast majority of people
who actually witnessed an event

Of that scale
were likely killed.

Narrator:
Endless streams of data,

Information bombarding
the planet from within

And from the furthest stretches
of the universe.

What messages do these
phantom signals hold?

-- Captions by vitac --
www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by
discovery communications

Some signals are temporary --
quick blips on the radar,

Hums is that last minute
then fade into the ether.

But one phantom signal has been
broadcasting for 24 hours a day,

Seven days a week
for the last 40 years...

But no one knows why.

Uvb 76 is affectionately
known as "the buzzer."

It is an a.M. Signal.
[ radio buzzes ]

It's mostly a hum.
It's mostly a buzzing noise

That emanates,
as one would expect from,

Let's say, a radio transmitter

That has emanated out
of the soviet union and russia.

And we don't know why it exists,

But we know that it came out
around the cold war.

Narrator: Russia has stayed
silent about the buzzer,

Never stating its purpose or
even admitting to its existence.

But the buzzer
has a huge following

Trying to interpret
its random signals

With the growth of the internet,

We have people that are
actively monitoring

This thing all the time.

People have cataloged
all the little changes

That have happened
through the years on this thing.

But at its very core, it's this
buzzing noise that turns on,

Turns off...

Frequently intermixed
with unusual

And frankly really creepy
commentary all in russian.

[ male voice speaking
in russian ]

And human voices have been heard

In the background
saying different things.

And it's that kind of
creepiness which has allowed us

To entertain
all sorts of possibilities.

Narrator: Is this phantom signal
a meaningless remnant

From a cold war system,

Or does this simple
tone foretell

Something far more sinister?

When it comes to the buzzer,

There are four
prevailing theories.

The first one is really that

This is a ionospheric
scientific test.

Not a lot of people buy it
because that's not consistent

With scientific protocols
at that time,

And that doesn't seem
to be a logic behind it.

The second one is the idea

That this is what's called
a numbers station,

Which is an intelligence term
to describe

How intelligence agencies
would communicate with spies.

Third possibility
about the buzzer,

What's often referred
to as a placeholder,

Meaning that the russian
military reserves

Various radio frequencies
for emergency,

Whether it's civil or military.

And then, of course,

The one that I think
most people are interested in

When it comes to the buzzer is
a possible fourth explanation,

And that's what's often referred
to as the dead hand signal.

Narrator:
The dead hand was a fabled
automated destruct system.

In the case of a nuclear war,

If the dead hand did not detect
any remaining member

Of the russian
military hierarchy,

It would trigger a full scale
missile launch against the west.

Nass: So if that buzzer stops
for x-plus minutes,

It would start world war three
and the soviets

Would start
launching their missiles

At the united states
or everywhere.

Narrator: The russians claimed
it was dismantled in the 1980s.

Is the buzzer proof that the
dead hand is still in operation?

So the question is why?

What's the purpose to keep it

Going for 40 years,
to keep it powered?

We don't know.

Narrator: Uvb 76 first came
on the air waves

In the wake of the cold war
in 1982.

Though it seems to be coming
from a military base,

Why does its signal intensify
after aggressions have cooled?

This is the era
of ronald reagan,

Who, of course,
beefs up the u.S. Military,

Invests heavily
in existing systems

And then non-existent systems --

Things like the strategic
defense initiative, sdi,

Predicating anti-missile defense
is on satellites in space.

So if you frame it
in that light,

The construction
of a dead hand signal,

Sadly, it kind of "makes sense"

From a russian perspective.

Narrator:
But what if the buzzer has
a simpler, more direct purpose?

In 2010, the fbi announced
the breakup of a secret

Russian intelligence ring
operating via shortwave radio.

The use of shortwave for spies
is really important

Because of the distances
it covers, the accuracy,

The sort of stability
of the signal.

Nass: It bounces
off of the atmosphere,

So we get
an enhanced propagation

By using the atmosphere
in the ionization therein

To extend our signal out.

Dr. Kislenko:
It is generally not detectable,
meaning that it can be operated

From outside
a particular country

And broadcast inside a country.

That's imperative

So that the enemy
doesn't come after you.

So it has been
the medium of choice

For a lot of intelligence
networks throughout history,

Including today.

And that's important
because in today's world

Of particularly
computer-based technology,

We often forget everything
can be hacked.

So to some degree,
you're kind of going back

To old-school stuff,
which makes it more problematic

To intercept communications
like this.

So there's an idea
that the buzzer is actually

What's often referred to
as a numbers station,

Which is an intelligence term.

The way you receive numbers
stations is

You just turn your radio,

Likely just a little
hand-held shortwave receiver,

To that frequency
at the right time of day,

And you will hear a human
being come over the line

And just say numbers and
those numbers can get decoded

To display a message.

Narrator: Is uvb 76 a secret
russian numbers station

Communicating
sensitive intelligence

That could affect the world,

And how is it managing to do
this under everyone's nose?

Most people have this idea
when it comes to anything

Intelligence that is this world
of james bond and secret devices

And super sexy women
and guys with fancy cars.

And that's quite laughable,
right?

Anybody who's worked inside
the intelligence community

Knows that's not the reality.

Intelligence sometimes functions
really simply.

It's not as high tech
as you imagine.

And when it comes to shortwave,
that's particularly true.

It's the cheapest, most
efficient way to communicate.

Nass: The important thing
to remember with radio

Is as long as you're supplying
power to the transmitter

And the antenna system,
it'll keep working.

What's nice about that is even
though everyone can hear it,

It's robust.

It doesn't depend
on the internet.

It doesn't depend on
a complicated scheme

Of being able to send data
back and forth.

Narrator:
The fact that radio is so easy
to receive really is the secret

To a numbers station's
effectiveness

As an espionage tool.

Because they're using
these one-time pads.

Dr. Kislenko:
Which are uniquely constructed

Alphanumeric sequencing

That's literally used once.

Narrator:
The one-time pad is known

As the only mathematically
unbreakable system.

The letters of a message
are converted into numbers

And added to other numbers in
a process called false addition.

The recipient uses the same page
from his own one-time pad

With false subtraction
to translate the message.

There is nothing to crack.

There is no aspect of it that
we can figure out and get it

And then we will now be able
to crack all these messages.

No, they'll just make
a different one-time pad

And give that
to the next person.

And then we've
lost the trail.

Dr. Kislenko:
So it's like you and I speaking
a new language every single day.

And that's why
in the world of cryptology,

It's almost impossible
to break them.

Narrator:
Is the russian military
still sending out messages

Encoded using a one-time pad?

If so, what could these messages
have said,

And who were they meant for?

So, I'm listening to buzzer.

Mikhail. Demetri. Zhenya.
[ indistinct ]

Mikhail. Demetri. Zhenya.
[ indistinct ]

Three numbers. 25.

[ man speaking in russian ]

919.

[ man speaking in russian ]
zero, zero.

So he said three times
[speaks in russian]

[ man speaking in russian ]

Which is
"cancel, cancel, cancel."

And then he says, "over."

The tone of his voice
doesn't change.

It's probably a list
that he's reading off.

It does sound like
it's a communication

That is destined
for someone.

Narrator:
Though it's possible russia is
transmitting coded messages

To russian intelligence abroad
via uvb 76,

That doesn't explain
the constant buzz and the tones.

Do these noises
also serve a purpose?

Some think so.

The big speculation,
of course,

Is that the buzzer
is a dead hand switch.

Narrator:
The dead hand is a legendary
russian detonation signal

Meant to launch a full scale
nuclear attack on the west.

So if the signal suddenly stops,

There's going to be
one of two reasons.

Narrator:
Is the buzzer proof that
the dead hand signal is real?

Dr. Kislenko: Let's all pray to
whatever you believe in

That they've dismantled it
altogether.

The other option is we will all
be dead inside a few minutes.

♪♪

Narrator: A series of buzzers
and tones has been broadcasting

At 4,625 hertz

For 24 hours a day
for nearly 40 years.

Though we know the station
broadcasting the signal

Is somewhere
in russia near estonia,

The content of the messages

And the significance
of the tones remains unknown.

While some speculate the station
is a relic from the cold war,

A numbers station barely in use,

Its continued activity
raises questions.

This is what's fascinating to me
about the buzzer

Is it's not like
a traditional numbers station.

The buzzer doesn't seem to be
sending any information.

It's not imparting data

Because there's not a lot
of characteristic changes to it.

And it's not varied
in the noise.

The noise is consistent
and the same.

So the question is why?
We don't know.

Narrator: Though some say
the importance of this station

Is in the numbers broadcast
on the station...

Others contend the mere activity
of the station itself

Has significance.

The big speculation, of course,
is that the buzzer

Is a dead man switch --

That if the buzzer were to stop,
it would start world war three.

Narrator:
At the height of the cold war,
the russians believed

America's nuclear arsenal
was so extensive

That it could wipe out russian
leadership in one fell swoop,

Cutting off any possible
retaliation from the kremlin.

To prevent this from happening,

The soviets created what is
called a dead hand signal.

Dr. Kislenko:
In the 1970s, the soviet union
had spent most of the cold war

Trailing
the united states, right,

Playing catch up in terms
of its nuclear capacity.

If you're russian, there is
a sort of they've got a gun

To my hand kind of, you know,
proposition constantly.

And that would in part
explain their desire

To develop the system.

If the buzzer
is a dead hand signal,

Then fundamentally its job

Is to keep the computer thinking
that life exists in russia,

Because the moment
that it thinks that it doesn't,

It activates
and it has one mission,

Which is entirely unstoppable
once it's active,

Which is to retaliate
with a full scale nuclear attack

On presumably
the united states.

Narrator:
Nicknamed the doomsday device,
the dead hand signal

Would almost guarantee
mutual annihilation

In the advent of a nuclear bomb
detonation in soviet russia.

Most experts suspect is that
it has been designed

To detect a mass
of seismic activity,

I.E., an explosion
that can't be explained,

And there has been
an inordinate light flash,

Which is consistent
with a nuclear attack

And that all communications
as it knows them,

Both military and civilian,
have collapsed.

Because those are the hallmarks
of a major nuclear attack.

I'm not scared by the buzzer
from a couple of reasons.

It's already stopped
and then restarted.

Narrator: There have been two
instances of the buzzer

Going completely silent.

One was on June 5, 2010,

And again in August
of that same year.

So is it also a psi ops campaign

That's not connected
to anything?

The mere fact that it's there
is to mess with people like me

That that search about it online
and try to pick it up at home?

Narrator: If uvb 76 is not, in
fact, a dead hand signal,

Then does it serve
other military purposes?

Dr. Kislenko:
I think the vast majority
of intelligence scholars

Believe that this is
a military placeholder,

That basically this is
the military testing

Its own capacity for alertness,
for readiness,

Narrator:
Whether it's transmitting
messages to foreign spies

Or serving as a silent alarm
ahead of nuclear annihilation,

Uvb 76 is doing something.

This one is definitely going
to continue to be a mystery

Because until we are provided
some kind of new evidence,

Things can keep changing

And we're not getting a larger
picture of why it exists.

♪♪

Narrator: 2003, china sends
their first person into space,

An accomplishment
that the world is watching.

Yang liwei is only in space
for 21 hours

And is completely alone
in a way that very few people

Can say they have ever been.

And then,
while orbiting earth,

He hears someone knocking
on the body of the spaceship.

Dr. Proctor:
Space is a vacuum and it's not
supposed to make sound.

Something knocking on
the outside of a spacecraft,

It just doesn't make sense.

Narrator: Sound travels by
vibrations of molecules

Through a medium
like air.

In space, there is only one way

For yang liwei
to hear the banging.

It takes physical contact
between objects in space

To transmit sound energy.

So if I'm, you know, one inch
away from the spacecraft

And I yell as loud as I can,
you won't be able to hear me.

But if I bang
on the outside of it,

Then I create a resonance
in the structure

Which is transmitted

Via sound through the atmosphere
in the structure.

Narrator:
Could a meteorite or other space
debris be hitting the ship?

Most objects traveling in space

Are traveling
at enormous speeds.

We're talking tens of thousands
of miles per hour.

Objects traveling at this speed
don't tend to bounce off objects

And make knocking sounds.

They tend to go through
the object like a bullet.

Dr. Williams: If you look at the
starboard radiator on endeavor

After we landed,
it looks more like a gunshot

Went through the thing.

And that's not surprising

Because
a piece of debris in space

Is traveling in
a ballistic trajectory.

Needless to say, larger debris
would just be catastrophic.

Narrator:
Damage to the ship means that
yang liwei could lose atmosphere

And consciousness very quickly.

As an astronaut, if I hear a
sound I'm not familiar with,

I'm going to very quickly try
and figure out what that sound

Is because I want
to be here tomorrow.

Narrator: Yang liwei didn't
admit that he heard the knocking

Until 13 years
after his space flight.

The one thing that an astronaut
is not going to do

Is generally report something
weird happening in space.

You don't want people to think
you're crazy and not fit to fly.

♪♪

Narrator: China launches its
first manned spacecraft in 2003,

Making it the third nation
after russia

And the usa
to send a man into space.

Former fighter pilot,
astronaut yang liwei,

Is manning
the inaugural mission.

Everything is going
like clockwork

Until he hears strange
banging against the ship.

It sounded like a wooden mallet
hitting a bucket.

[ clanging ]

Narrator:
In an interview in 2016,

Yang liwei admitted that
the knocking made him nervous,

So he cautiously looked out the
porthole window and saw nothing.

No space debris.

Our job is to be able
to function flawlessly

In that environment,

Deal with those
unforeseen circumstances

And document what is
actually happening

So that others can learn
from the experience.

We can prepare
for future missions.

Narrator: He checked everything
thoroughly.

There was no damage
to the cabin.

Yet the knocking continued.

[ clanging ]

The whole idea
of being isolated

And just being a human
being

Means that your willpower
and your ability to stay calm,

It can have ebbs and flows.

Every time we're in space,

We're learning more
about the body, about the brain

And how it interacts with space.

How does it change
our perception

Of the world around us?

Narrator:
It is well known that sailors
can experience hallucinations

After long periods
in the middle of the ocean

With no land in sight.

Does being in space
produce the same effect?

We live our daily lives knowing
we're attached to the earth

Because we feel gravity.

So imagine losing all the cues
that place you

And keep your upright stance
or lying down

Or whatever position
you want to leave your body --

And all of that's gone
both from gravity

And from vision around you.

You've got to feel a bit lost,

A bit dislocated
from the world.

Arama: I'd like to think maybe
he actually heard something

That was really there.

I would say that's as plausible
as the other side of the coin,

That he was hallucinating
and panicking

In a state of isolation,
being alone.

Viggiani:
With respect to astronauts,

They're probably the most highly
trained aviators on the planet.

There are no other better
in terms of physical endurance

And visual acuity and just
overall intelligence.

Dr. Proctor: Astronauts
are like the solid rock.

When we think of neil armstrong
and landing on the moon,

They are technically ready,
they're emotionally equipped.

And so something like this

Makes you think something weird
was going on here.

The only thing that
we're left with

Is that somehow
there are beings that can

Be on the outside of a craft.

Narrator: Yang liwei isn't
the only astronaut

To experience strange
phenomena in space.

98% of these astronauts
have expressed

That they were followed
by craft of unknown origin.

Delaney: As he flew his capsule
through orbital sunrise,

He noticed that it looked like
a whole series of fireflies

Were surrounding the capsule.

♪♪

Narrator: Astronaut yang liwei
is piloting

The first manned space mission
launched by china.

While orbiting earth,
he hears a strange banging sound

Coming from outside his
shenzhou 5 spacecraft.

It makes a visual check
inside and out

And can find nothing
making the noise.

It is mind boggling to me
that you could be

In a spacecraft
orbiting our planet

And after years of training,

You know everything
about the spacecraft,

And suddenly there's a knock,

A knock that appears

To be coming outside the craft.

How could you not freak out?

Narrator: Being alone in places
as vast as the ocean

Or space can exacerbate stress
and feelings of isolation,

Even cause hallucinations.

Was this what was happening
to yang liwei?

These are the most expensive
machines that mankind

Has ever assembled
to go into space.

If you put an astronaut
in charge of one of those craft,

You better be darn sure that
you got the right guy there.

And 98% of the situations
that involved astronauts,

They were the right people.

They had, as the vernacular
goes, they had the right stuff.

Narrator: Yang liwei
spent 21 hours in space.

After returning to earth,
he spoke openly

About the noises
he heard

And soon discovered
that he was not alone.

A lot of the research
that I've done,

98% of these astronauts
have expressed

That they were followed
by craft of unknown origin.

Narrator: In 1962,

John glenn becomes the first
american to orbit the earth

And the mercury friendship 7
capsule.

While in space, he sees
mysterious lights twinkling.

As he flew his capsule
through orbital sunrise,

He noticed that it looked like
a whole series of fireflies

Were surrounding the capsule.

It was a little bit
disconcerting.

Viggiani:
What john glenn saw in space

Where the effluent discharge of,
I guess, liquid, urine

Or whatever it happens to be,

And in the the cold
environment of space,

These things light up
as crystals.

And as you move them out there,

There's no telling how these
things diffused themselves.

And it's very easy
to see a conglomeration

Of these things
doing strange things.

Narrator:
John glenn's fireflies had
a rational explanation,

But other astronauts
have not been able to explain

Their strange
encounters in space.

Viggiani:
One of the astronaut stories
that we have on record

Is a shot of the earth.

And then we see a trail
of a ufo and going this way.

This particular instance has
been described by the air force

And by other pilots
as something very significant.

But as it would be told by nasa,

It was water
coming off the spacecraft.

But it doesn't explain how this
ufo -- what looked to be --

Just shot off into
the distance at blinding speed.

I think a lot of people at nasa
and in the general public

And in the government
completely discount this.

So as soon as you start
talking about ufos, you're nuts.

The one thing that an astronaut
is not going to do

Is generally report something
weird happening in space

Because you want to go up again.

You don't want people to think
you're crazy and not fit to fly.

Narrator:
Perhaps that's why yang himself
didn't talk about the incident

Until 2016,

13 years after he heard
the strange knocking in space.

Do space agencies
have a vested interest

In keeping these
strange sightings quiet?

In the last 20 years,

We've really learned through
great pieces of equipment

Like the hubble space telescope
and the spitzer space telescope

That a large percentage
of the star systems

In our universe have planets.

We're starting to get to
the point where now we can see

It's likely there's life
in other parts of the universe,

But the distances are so vast,

It's just really unlikely
that some alien's

Going to come up
and bang on our door.

Dr. Fallah:
Any alien who could reach our
spaceship doesn't need to knock.

I fall on the rational.

I think that if it's not
something expanding or shifting

Due to temperatures
going on in space,

Then it's going to be
something very physical.

And when you're in an earth
orbit, low earth orbit,

Every 90 minutes is one day.
That means every 45 minutes

You're going through
sunrise and sunset.

The side of a spacecraft
facing the sun

Can experience temperatures
of hundreds of degrees.

The side facing away
from the sun will drop

To temperatures approaching
100 degrees below freezing.

There are many,
many opportunities

For the spacecraft
to be creaking, shall we say.

Narrator: Thermal expansion
is a well known phenomenon.

It's hard to believe
that an astronaut

Would not have known about it,

Or at least considered
the possibility.

We can't prove
that's happening.

But I'd be very surprised
if there was no sort of noise

At all just from the material
changes in spacecraft

As they're exposed
to light and dark.

Narrator: With a lack
of concrete evidence,

We may never know what exactly
knocked on the outside

Of yang liwei's ship in 2003.

You know, I think we would be
very naive

To assume that we understand

All of the elements
of exploring space,

Particularly as we go
farther away from the earth.

There's going to be
unexplained things

That will happen to individuals

As they go back to the moon
and ultimately explore mars.

And whether it's exploring space
or exploring

The underwater world,
you still bump into the new,

The unforeseen,
the inexplicable,

And that's the excitement
of doing what we do.

Narrator:
In 2009, an international team
of earth scientists

Are studying ice cores taken
from antarctica and greenland.

They make
a startling discovery.

A discovery was made that
basically showed us

There had been
a large eruption of a volcano

That hadn't been documented.

This deposit was substantial.

There was enough material

That had obviously been produced
by a volcano

For scientists to say, "hmm,
this probably correlates

With a pretty major eruption."

Moore: When a volcano erupts,
there's a huge amount of energy.

So you can see all these kind
of big cloud of gray ash

Kind of being ejected vertically
right into the stratosphere.

It's likely that this eruption
occurred in the early

1800s,
so not a time when we had

A lot of very good
monitoring of worldwide events.

Narrator:
By counting backwards through
the layers of ice in the sample,

Scientists were able to estimate
that this mega volcano

Erupted some time during 1808
and 1809

With enough massive force
that the ash it produced

Travels all the way
to greenland and antarctica.

Volcanic eruptions
can put tens,

Hundreds of cubic kilometers
of material into the atmosphere.

Moore: The stratosphere,
it's about 10 or 12 miles

Up in the atmosphere.

And if you can inject particles
into the stratosphere,

They will live there for months
or even years.

Over time, that single source
of ash will be distributed

All the way around the globe.

Phoenix: A volcanic eruption of
this size could very well

Alter global effects that people
are experiencing with weather.

It could essentially blanket
the planet for a period of time

And actually help cool

The planet
for a couple of years.

Narrator:
A volcano that catastrophic
would be the largest

Ever seen in human history.

And up until 2009,

There was only one volcano
that held that title.

There was a volcanic eruption
at tambora,

And that was
a pretty large one.

It's absolutely cataclysmic.

Narrator: In 1815,

Mount tambora in indonesia
goes full mega volcano

And erupts with a force of
20,000 little boy atomic bombs.

The blast has heard all the way
in java, 1,600 miles away.

10,000 islanders
are killed instantly.

When we're talking about putting
material into the atmosphere,

We're talking about fine
grain material.

Heavy stuff, you know,
like if you're blasting boulders

Out of a volcano's caldera,

Then that's going to fall
to the ground pretty quickly.

But the vast majority
of material

Which is being launched
at phenomenal velocities

Out of a caldera,

That material is very,
very fine-grained stuff.

And that will be carried
to high altitudes

And then carried
by the jet stream.

Narrator:
The eruption of mount tambora
was powerful enough

To change the earth's climate
for several years.

This volcanic eruption
has been linked now

To starting what we call
the little ice age.

Narrator:
In 2009, an international team

Of earth scientists

Make expeditions to antarctica
and greenland

To collect ice cores.

Ice cores are a direct archive
of the earth's history

Captured in layers
of glacier ice.

The long cylinders of ice

That geologists collect hold
a record of what the earth

Was like hundreds
of thousands of years ago.

The team from the university
of south dakota

Make a startling discovery

From just 200 years ago.

A discovery was made

That basically showed us
there had been a large eruption

Of a volcano
that hadn't been documented.

Moore:
When a volcano erupts, there's
a huge amount of gray ash

Ejected vertically
right into the stratosphere.

So over time, these particles
will then be rained out

Or snowed out onto the ice.

So what you'll find
on the ice core

Is that within a year
or two of the volcanic eruption,

You will find a signature

Of that volcanic eruption
in the ice core.

It's likely that this eruption
occurred in the early 1800s,

So not a time when we had

A lot of very good
monitoring of worldwide events.

That's the big problem.

So we pretty much know

All the volcanic eruptions
going back

To probably about 1,000 a.D.

But there are events --

We see signals in the ice core

That have no known
record to them.

And those are these kind
of mysterious events

That we don't know
what actually happened.

Narrator: In 1815, mount tambora
erupts in indonesia.

At the time, it's
the most massive volcano

In recorded history,

Killing 10,000 islanders
instantly.

Anybody in the path of the ash
that blows

Is going to be covered in --
ash is not fireplace soot.

It's not what happens
when you burn wood.

Volcanic ash is made
of pulverized rock fragments,

And that pulverized rock,
if you breathe it in,

It will shred
your air passageways.

Narrator: Tsunamis are triggered
in rivers of volcanic rock

And ash rains down from the
skies, burying entire villages.

Over 100 million tons
of sulfuric acid and ash

Fill the earth's stratosphere,
blocking out the sun.

Those are super
volcanic eruptions,

And they drop
the global temperature

For a couple of years.

You're talking about a lot
of material

Being thrown into the atmosphere
to the jet streams

That is changing the atmosphere

And that changes
the quality of sunlight.

There's a kind of a rapid
cooling,

And that's because as soon
as you shut down the sun,

You can really cool
the planet down.

And it doesn't take much to
produce crop failures because,

Again, crops are kind of tuned
to a certain temperature range.

Narrator:
The year after tambora, 1816,

Was dubbed
the year without a summer.

Crop failures
and food shortages

Led to rioting in britain
and France.

Dr. Kislenko:
We talk about a dense fog.

The skies become a dark blue,

And for weeks and months
afterwards,

There is fundamental
climate change in europe,

Tremendous agricultural collapse
and the freezing of waters

And things
that are abnormal.

It gets woven into the tapestry
of european history.

Narrator:
The effects were felt as far
away as america's eastern shore,

Where in may 1816, snow
and frost killed off crops

In massachusetts,
new hampshire and vermont

And continued
through the summer.

The famine was soon followed by
outbreaks of typhus and cholera

In many parts of the world.

In this instance,
with this volcanic eruption,

It is -- has been linked now

To starting what we call
the little ice age.

Narrator:
The little ice age was a period
of significant climate change

That happened
between 1810 and 1819.

The mount tambora eruption has
long been considered the cause,

But scientists had never
understood what caused the dip

In temperatures before
tambora's eruption in 1815.

But now evidence of a volcano
potentially bigger

Than tambora cemented
in an ice core.

How could it be
that no one witnessed

An eruption so catastrophic?

It's even more complicated
because we lack,

Especially going back
far enough in time,

We lack historical documentation
for even major events,

Which, of course, in our time
and place is mystifying.

It's very possible
that this volcano

Erupted very far from europe

Or where centers of the written
word where at the time.

So we need to look to what
we're seeing

Preserved
in the geologic record

And what people on the ground
at the time experienced.

The other option, of course,
is that it was noted and again,

Those records have been lost

Or have been sitting
in some archive,

In some basement of some,
you know, library

Which haven't actually
been looked at yet.

Delaney:
We have figured out so much
based upon the records

That go back
literally 10,000 years.

Our forebears from all around
the planet figured out

When we hear stories from all
sorts of indigenous cultures,

They are talking to us
about a lot of events

That might sound
almost mythical,

But they invariably
have a basis in fact.

And so there is pieces
of that tapestry

That are literally woven
together by people passing

That information on down
in the form of stories.

Narrator:
And are there other clues

To this mysterious
volcano's origins?

Phoenix:
To find this eruption,

I would first look at the
coastal areas of south america

And then I would probably look
all along the ring of fire,

As the pacific region
is often known

For its earthquake
and volcanic activity.

So those are prime suspects
in my mind.

Narrator:
Could these mega volcanoes
ever come back to life?

This isn't a forest fire.

This isn't a storm
on the horizon.

This is something distinctly
different.

We don't like to say a volcano
is ever extinct extinct.

A lot of times we can say
we believe

With all available evidence

That a volcano most likely
will not erupt again.

But you never really want
to write them off.

♪♪

Narrator: Ice core evidence has
convinced earth scientists

That a mega volcano
erupted in 1809,

Plunging the world
into a little ice age.

It's not hard to imagine
a situation

Where you've got
volcanic eruptions

Accumulating material
in our atmosphere

That really does change
the balance of temperature

On our surface.

Narrator: This mysterious mega
volcano erupted six years

Before the catastrophic
mount tambora blast.

But mount tambora had witnesses

And the mystery eruption
did not.

The problem is, is that most
first-hand experience

For things
like volcanic eruptions,

The vast majority of people
who actually witnessed an event

Of that scale
were likely killed in it

Or shortly thereafter
in a tsunami or in some,

You know, atmospheric condition.

Finding the clues that will
allow us to understand

This mystery eruption
is actually very important.

Narrator:
If such a cataclysmic eruption
happened now, could it disappear

Without a trace?

A v.E.I. 8-level eruption
in an area

That was densely populated
would kill millions of people.

We need to look at the recent
past for an example

Of what a very large
eruption can do.

Narrator:
The volcanic explosivity index
was developed in the early '80s

After the eruption
of mount st. Helens in oregon.

It measures the ejection volume
of a volcano,

With each step increasing
by 10 times.

A lot of people think that
a mount st. Helens-type eruption

Is basically the biggest thing
that a volcano could produce,

And that's not the case.

To measure the volume
of volcanic eruptions,

Scientists use something called
the volcanic

Explosivity index --
the v.E.I. Scale.

Mount st. Helens is a five
on the explosivity index.

Narrator: On may 18, 1980,
mount st. Helens

Erupted with eight times
the force of every bomb

Dropped during world war two,
including the two atomic bombs.

A lateral blast released
a toxic spew that traveled down

The side of the volcano
at 300 miles per hour

And obliterated
everything in its path.

Thousands of wildlife
were decimated.

57 people were killed.

Hundreds of miles of road
and railways were destroyed.

Then, 11 years later,
mount pinatubo

Erupts in the philippines.

It is v.E.I. 6 --

10 times more powerful
than mount st. Helens.

722 people died and 200,000
were made homeless.

Even with such
widespread devastation,

Pinatubo is 20 times

Less powerful than the estimated
size of the mystery eruption.

Could it happen again?

Vulcanology is a relatively
young science.

The modern era of vulcanology
only started

40 years ago this year

With the eruption
of mount st. Helens.

Before then, we were monitoring
volcanoes around the world,

But it wasn't
quite so systematic.

So it's super important for
geologists to add this eruption

To our catalog
of knowledge about vulcanology

Because it helps us understand
the frequency

A big eruption like this --

The frequency
with which it could occur.

Oftentimes, we don't see
big eruptions like this.

Yellowstone hasn't erupted
for 640,000 years

Not in a big way.

I don't think there's anything
on the planet

With the possible exception
of the seas,

That generates more
human history, mythology,

Belief systems, religion,
if you like,

Than volcanoes do.

You have volcanoes shaping --

Profoundly shaping
the history and cultures

Of the so-called ring of fire,
which is almost

All of the expanse
of the pacific ocean.

Narrator: The ring of fire
traces the 25,000 mile outline

Around the pacific ocean

That is home to 75%
of the world's volcanoes

And 90% of the earthquakes.

It is ground zero for tectonic
shifts in the earth's crust.

This is where
you have one tectonic plate

Diving under another.

As the plate
that is diving gets deeper,

It gets hotter
and the material melts.

So that rock, that previously
ocean floor rock, is melting,

And hot stuff rises.

That's basic physics.

So as the melting stuff
rises back to the surface,

A lot of times it forces
its way through the crust.

That's like
a massive volcanic eruption.

Narrator:
With no eyewitness accounts

And only ice core samples
as geological evidence,

Earth scientists
can only speculate

The mystery eruption of 1809

Happened somewhere
in the ring of fire.

Regardless of where
this eruption occurred,

This is one of the events
that really shows us

The true nature of volcanoes.

They are forces
of incredible creation

And terrible destruction.

The earth is actually
creating new earth.

That's what it's doing.
It's giving birth to itself.

But in the process,
it often destroys lives.

In the 1800s,

Astronomy was beginning
to really come into its own.

We had a telescope courtesy
of galileo for about 200 years,

And by the time we got to
the turn of the 19th century,

Instrumentation, observatories
around the planet,

They were really making
some pretty neat observations.

And so there were a lot of
really good observers out there

Monitoring many aspects
of the night sky.

Narrator: In 2014,
over two centuries

After the devastating
mystery eruption,

A team of earth scientists
unearth a journal

From a long forgotten
observatory in bogota, colombia,

Describing a strange cloud

That blocked out the sun at
the end of 1808 into early 1809.

Which is on possibly
the other side of the world

From where this volcano
may be, that described

The sun taking on a silvery
color, almost like the moon.

And of course, there was also
a description of the weather

Being colder and frost appearing
when they wouldn't expect it.

It's echoed by [indistinct],

Physician,
an amateur astronomer,

And almost in the same time
frame, separate,

They are talking about,
you know,

This tremendous
agricultural collapse.

Narrator:
Though science may have advanced
tremendously since

The 1809 eruption,

It's still difficult
to predict volcanoes.

The ability to identify events
today anywhere on the planet

Is certainly much easier than it
has at any time in the past.

Not only do you have
satellite assets at all

Differing distances
above the surface of the earth,

Completely encircling the planet
so that,

You know, you've got a 24/7,

365 vantage point of anything
happening on the earth

And with terrific resolution.

You would think the volcanoes
are easy to identify,

But they are not just this
v-shape that everyone thinks --

This inverted v.

A lot of times volcanoes

Take the shape of a caldera,

Which is essentially
a giant bowl-shaped area.

So the really,
really biggest volcanoes,

They're the ones
that can erupt the largest.

Narrator: There are 1,500
active volcanoes

On the planet right now.

169 of them are in the u.S.

We do have potentially
active super volcanoes

And other very large volcanoes
around the world.

So it's something that
scientists need to understand.

So that's why a lot of us
do what we do.

It's all about saving lives.

It's all about putting pieces
into the puzzle

That is our planet.

You know, we're humans.

We're tiny little creatures
on this great big living rock.

And we're trying to understand
why it ticks, what makes it --

What makes it change
and evolve the way it does,

And how can we learn to live
alongside gigantic hazards

Like a massive
volcanic eruption?

♪♪