All language subtitles for Secrets.in.the.Ice.S01E06.Arctic.Doomsday.Device.1080p.WEB.h264-CAFFEiNE_track3_[eng]

♪♪

narrator: A secret, underground
military research station

frozen in the middle of nowhere
draws attention 60 years later.

Camp century was one of
the most elaborate cover stories

in the history
of the cold war.

Somara: You have
to ask yourself,

what is the purpose
of this underground city?

♪♪

narrator: A bizarrely disfigured
corpse in an ancient tomb

full of sacrificial victims.

♪♪

to be honest, it looked like
he had been tortured.

It's like,
who did this guy piss off?

Narrator:
And the mysterious reappearance

of a long lost airliner
on a glacier in the andes

raises suspicions.

Bellinger:
The strange thing is the last
time anyone heard from stardust,

they were just a few miles
away from the airport.

Narrator: These are
the strangest mysteries,

trapped in the coldest places.

Lost relics,

forgotten treasures,

dark secrets,

locked in their icy tombs
for ages.

But now as ice melts
around the world,

their stories
will finally be exposed.

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

captions paid for by
discovery communications

[ wind whistling ]

♪♪

northern greenland, 700 miles
above the arctic circle,

feels like no other place
in the world.

This is one of the most
desolate places on the planet.

♪♪

narrator: With the wind chill,

temperatures can plummet
to minus 80.

Exposed skin freezes
in less than a minute.

When it's this cold
and this isolated,

being out here messes
with your mind.

It's a psychological test
of endurance.

[ wind whistling ]

narrator:
Not even caribou can survive
this far north on the ice sheet.

But if you look closely in
the middle of this icy desert,

you can see
a small collection of tents.

[ wind howling ]

o'keefe: It's just so strange.

What's so special
about this spot? Why here?

[ engine whirring ]

narrator: A group of danish
and american scientists

are keeping a close watch

on something lying dormant
deep within the ice

now in danger of reawakening.

Bellinger: What on earth
could be down there

that would need
so much surveillance?

Narrator: Buried around 30 feet
beneath the surface

are the remains of an abandoned
american military base

with a long forgotten secret.

♪♪

♪♪

in 1959, at the height
of the cold war,

america wanted to experiment

with new concepts
of polar construction.

In a remote region of greenland,

they set about building a city
under ice called camp century.

♪♪

this type of construction
had never been attempted before,

but the u.S. Army engineers
were confident in the design.

♪♪

a system of 23 trenches
would be dug into the ice cap

and then covered
with steel arches and snow.

[ rumbling ]

o'keefe: There was nothing
simple about this project.

The nearest port
is 150 miles to the west,

and the only way to transport
supplies is over the ice.

♪♪

macferrin: You have an extremely
wide expanse

of heavily crevassed ice --

deadly crevasses.

Entire vehicles could fall
into these crevasses.

And it's extremely cold.

You get temperatures
negative 40, negative 50.

It takes specialized equipment,

and it takes a lot of effort
and a lot of money

to get anything out
to the middle of the ice sheet.

♪♪

somara: A project
of this scale and scope

would have been so expensive
and so risky.

You have to ask yourself,
"why are they doing this?"

what is the purpose
of this underground city?

♪♪

narrator: Many now ask,

was there another,
more ominous reason

the u.S. Military decided
to build a city under the ice

at the ends of the earth?

♪♪

if the engineers knew the true
intent, they weren't talking.

They were busy battling
the effects of the arctic sun,

which blazes around the clock
in the summertime.

Somara: It's called
the midnight sun,

and it posed a constant threat

to the stability of the walls
they were creating.

But the upshot
with building with snow

is that you never
run out of supplies.

♪♪

narrator: Once the steel arches
were in place,

crews put snow blocks
on top for support.

Then they sprayed the whole
structure with powdered snow,

which hardened under the sun
into a durable surface.

♪♪

macferrin: So when snow first
falls, it's kind of fluffy.

We know that.

But when it compresses, it
becomes more like cinder block,

and you can actually build
buildings with that material.

[ saw whirring ]

narrator: Once the trenches
were complete,

they cut passageways
between the tunnels

and then closed off the ends
with walls of snow,

ensuring nothing gets in
and nothing gets out.

♪♪

bellinger: The design
of this station was ingenious.

This had never been done before.

But very few people were privy

to the real purpose
behind this space.

What was the reason
for all the secrecy?

♪♪

narrator: It took a little more
than a year

to build camp century,

which included barracks
for 200 men,

mess halls, maintenance shops,

kitchens capable
of feeding hundreds,

state of the art
scientific labs,

a church,

and even a barbershop,

all powered by a state of
the art mobile nuclear reactor,

the first of its kind.

♪♪

macferrin: The u.S. Army
only had 6 of these,

and it was by far
the most expensive component.

It was roughly three quarters
of the cost of the entire base

was just that reactor.

♪♪

narrator: All told,

the underground city
cost u.S. Taxpayers

$8 million to construct.

Bellinger: To put that
into perspective,

it's the equivalent
of about $71 million today.

Narrator: Within a few weeks,

the crew that built
the city were shipped out,

and the scientists moved in
and started work.

At least that's what the
u.S. Military told the world.

America's public message
was simple and innocent --

camp century studies snow.

But just a few miles
from the station,

another project
was taking place,

one of a more sinister design.

They were building
a one and a half mile long

railway track under the ice.

The strange thing
was the track led nowhere.

Narrator: A railway track
leading nowhere,

a research station that had
no business being there,

and a group of scientists
worried about it decades later.

None of it adds up.

The disturbing truth
would take years to come out.

[ wind whistling ]

♪♪

narrator:
Buried deep in the ice

of the most isolated part
of greenland

lies the remains

of a secret american
scientific research station

called camp century,
built in the late 1950s.

So why is it still
being monitored today?

♪♪

in the late 1950s,

america was involved
in an arms race with russia.

As cold war relations
intensified,

the united states
was looking for a way

to be able to launch
a nuclear strike

more quickly and effectively.

O'keefe: The american government
told the world

that the sole purpose
for camp century

was to conduct advanced,
scientific polar research.

But newly declassified documents
now reveal its true purpose.

Bellinger:
Camp century was one of the most
elaborate cover stories

in the history of the cold war.

Its true identity?

Project iceworm.

Narrator: The u.S. Army
brain trust

calculated that they could
launch a nuclear attack

on russia from greenland

in half the time it would take
from the american mainland.

♪♪

project iceworm's
ultimate objective

was to build a military
launch site hidden under the ice

big enough that it could house
600 nuclear missiles

all aimed at moscow.

[ whirring ]

♪♪

narrator:
But it never happened.

The only nuclear device
that ever made it to greenland

was the reactor
that powered the camp itself.

Narrator:
Why didn't the americans arm
the underground station?

It turns out they should have
done a little more research

on the greenland ice cap.

[ crackling ]

macferrin:
The greenland ice sheet
moves in a couple of ways.

The ice flows under its own
weight towards the coast,

and it flows at different speeds
in different places.

But also, the snow compacts
down into glacial ice.

Anywhere you are
on the ice sheet,

it's in a constant state
of motion.

Narrator: U.S. Army engineers
miscalculated

how fast the ice sheet
was moving.

So by the late 1960s,

camp century
was starting to collapse.

As the ice shifts,
straight tunnels become curved,

and the tunnels close in on each
other as the snow is compacting.

[ ice groaning ]

somara: I think they realized
pretty quickly

that this environment was never
going to be safe enough

to house hundreds
of nuclear warheads.

Bellinger:
With camp century having been
abandoned over 50 years now,

why are scientists camping out,
keeping an eye on it?

Narrator: The answer is in how
they abandoned the base.

While the military removed
the nuclear reactor,

they left everything else,

wrongly believing
that the snow and ice

would crush the remaining debris

and safely entomb
the toxic material forever.

They left a lot of waste
at camp century.

They left behind
huge caches of fuel.

They left behind buildings
full of pcbs

and other
construction materials.

And they left behind
all the coolant water

from the nuclear reactor.

It's all still there.

So if and when camp century
ever melts out,

all those wastes
that were left behind,

all those toxins,

will find their way
through rivers and streams

out to the coast
where people live.

♪♪

narrator: Scientists continue
to monitor

the temperatures
of the snow and ice,

hoping to predict
how the ice sheet

will behave
over the next century.

At this point,
it's anyone's guess.

♪♪

♪♪

hidden away in the border
between russia and mongolia

is the valley of the river uyuk.

The vast landscape is frozen
solid for most of the year.

It's called permafrost.

But for a short time
every summer,

the top layer melts just enough
to reveal a priceless discovery.

♪♪

below the surface,

german and russian archeologists

unearth an elaborate ancient
tomb of a scythian ruler,

and there, they find the remains

of dozens
of sacrificial victims.

When you stand back
and look at it,

it defies belief.

O'keefe: One after another
after another.

Can you imagine stumbling
across so many bodies?

♪♪

bellinger: Even when
you appreciate the value

of an archeological
find like this,

you can't help but think that
this is a gruesome way to die.

♪♪

narrator: Archeologists
discover signs

consistent
with ritual sacrifice.

A number of the bodies
have pickax wounds to the skull,

indicating a quick,
relatively humane death.

I've seen evidence of
ritual sacrifice before,

but it's unusual to see
anything on this scale.

♪♪

bellinger:
There were 30 bodies,

which was in itself
extraordinary,

but your focus immediately
zeroes in on a single individual

whose state was frankly bizarre.

Rose: His injuries are
inexplicable.

They just don't fit
with the others,

so it raises
all kinds of questions.

♪♪

narrator:
It's clear to archeologists

that most of the victims
in this vast tomb

were killed
in the same manner --

all but one.

Why are his injuries
so different from the others?

To be honest, it looked like
he had been tortured.

He had a slash at
the base of his neck...

A grotesque hole in his
right cheek below his eye...

And this massive crack

running down
the right side of his skull.

♪♪

it's like,
who did this guy piss off?

Bellinger: It's clear that this
man suffered

a great deal before he died.

What did he do to justify
such a brutal death?

♪♪

narrator: The scythians were
fierce, nomadic horsemen

who ruled an empire stretching
from the black sea

across siberia
to the borders of china

from 900 to 200 b.C.

They had no written language,

but legends about them
spread far and wide.

♪♪

rose: Herodotus, who was a greek
historian at that time,

described the scythians

as a brutal and ruthless race
of warriors

who committed
a slew of atrocities,

which is a bit rich coming
from the ancient greeks.

♪♪

o'keefe: Apparently, they used
to scalp their enemies,

making cloaks of their skin.

Then they gilded the insides
of their skulls with gold

and used them as drinking cups.

♪♪

rose: But the truly macabre
ritual the scythians practiced

had to be their death ceremony.

♪♪

billson: When a king
or a military leader died,

he was buried with everything
he might need in the afterlife,

including his gold, horses, his
warriors, wives, and servants.

♪♪

the whole lot of them
went with him to the tomb

whether they liked it or not.

♪♪

picture this --
you're perfectly healthy,

but you've just been told
it's time for you to die

because your king keeled over
from prostate cancer.

♪♪

o'keefe: Based on the writings
of herodotus,

all of the other people
in the tomb

would have been strangled.

It may sound horrific now to us,

but at the time,

it was a relatively quick
and painless way to die.

♪♪

bellinger: You have to wonder

how much those who were
sacrificed knew in advance.

Narrator: Did they go willingly
to their fate?

Or did they fight back
and try to escape?

♪♪

you can't look at an ancient
ritual like this

through modern eyes.

♪♪

the scythians belief
in the afterlife

must have been so strong

that they had absolute faith
their lives wouldn't really end.

They would simply
continue on into another realm.

Maybe they even looked forward
to the next stage of existence.

Maybe they believed this was
an honorable way to die.

♪♪

narrator: If all the people
in this tomb

had been mercifully sacrificed

as part of an
ancient scythian death ritual,

why are the injuries
to one individual

so markedly different?

♪♪

narrator: Hidden under the icy
permafrost for centuries,

anthropologists discover

a spectacular
ancient scythian tomb.

But it's not gold and treasure
they're most intrigued by,

it's the remains of dozens
of sacrificial victims.

And among them,
one individual stands out.

All of the other
victims were killed

in the same humane manner --

all but one, who looks like
he might have been tortured.

What killed this man?

And why was his fate different
from all the others?

♪♪

scientists examine the wound
at the back of his head

as a possible cause of death.

♪♪

rose: If you look closely
at the shape of the wound,

you can see that it's made
a little groove in the bone

in the shape of a "v,"

so it could have been made
by a large knife or a sword.

And given what we know
about this culture,

it probably happened in battle.

♪♪

this was a pretty
significant blow to the head,

but did that kill him?

♪♪

narrator: Scientists run the
bones through a ct scanner.

They look closely
at the edges of the wound.

Billson: Here you can see
signs of healing.

New bone had time to grow
before this man died.

Narrator: That means this was
an old injury

and not the cause of death.

So scientists then
turn their attention

to the hole in his cheek.

Rose: The hole itself was
generally pretty clean,

which indicates it was made
by a projectile object

rather than blunt force.

♪♪

narrator: But what kind of
flying object

would create a hole like this?

It looked like he took a
triple-barbed arrow to the face.

♪♪

it shattered the bone
below his right eye

and then lodged firmly
into his cheek.

♪♪

the pain would
have been unbearable.

Narrator: Then they see some
thin cuts on the bone

unrelated
to the arrow's puncture.

♪♪

again, we see this "v" shape --

dozens of them.

♪♪

rose: The whole unfortunate
series of events

probably happened
on the battlefield.

The warrior takes an arrow
to the face.

Maybe his horse
takes a few, as well.

He falls to the ground.

His comrades ride up,
trying to help.

They're thinking,

"we've got to
get that arrow out of his face."

so what do they do?

They try and hack it out
with a small knife.

♪♪

o'keefe: They literally tried to
cut or saw the arrowhead

out of his cheekbone repeatedly

using a small blade.

Hence the multiple
"v" shaped scars.

Can you imagine?

♪♪

bellinger: If he was even still
conscious at this point,

you've got to imagine
he was ready to just give it up.

♪♪

the scythians may have been
skilled in a lot of things,

but medicine --
that wasn't one of them.

♪♪

rose: So his friends go to get
the battlefield medic,

and at this point,
you're probably thinking,

how could this situation
get any worse?

♪♪

narrator: Along the skull,

experts see
a single major fracture

running from the hole up
the right side of the skull.

♪♪

they conclude it could only
have been made by one thing.

[ clanking ]

in one last vain attempt
at saving the warrior's life,

the battlefield medic
must have picked up a chisel

and hammered it
into the cheekbone,

trying to break the arrow free.

Instead, it cracked his skull.

Narrator: They conclude this
is what killed him.

So why was he buried
in this tomb,

along with all of these
sacrificial victims?

He must have been regarded as
such a hero on the battlefield

that he was given
the highest honor --

to ride with his king
into the afterlife.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

narrator: On one of the highest
mountains of the andes,

on the border of argentina
and chile,

lies an unusual glacier --

the tupungato rock glacier,

whose icy core is buried a meter
beneath its rocky surface.

♪♪

it's here that a gruesome
and perplexing

discovery is made.

♪♪

human remains.

♪♪

can you imagine how it must
have felt to stumble on that?

♪♪

o'keefe: Was it one person?

Two?

Three?

Your thoughts are just racing.

Narrator: Who did these bones
belong to,

and how did they end up here?

It's just horrific.

There's still nail polish
on the fingernails.

Bellinger:
Was this an accident?

You're just trying to
wrap your head around

what could have happened here.

Narrator: After the bones were
discovered,

the argentinean army
mounted a two-week expedition

to the remote glacier
to investigate.

Not far from the human remains,
they found an object

that could solve one of the most
enduring aviation mysteries

of all time --

a battered airplane engine.

A 1945 rolls-royce merlin.

Several planes use
the rolls-royce merlin engine,

one of the most famous
being the lancaster bomber.

[ engine whirring ]

so you start connecting
the dots --

mid-1940s, the andes, lancaster.

The only known lancaster

to go missing
in the andes during that time

was a plane called stardust.

Narrator: The serial number on
the wreckage confirms it.

After disappearing from the face
of the earth over 70 years ago,

the long lost airliner
has been found.

♪♪

[ wind whistling ]

bellinger:
The strange thing is,

the last time
anyone heard from stardust,

they were about
to land in santiago.

They were just a few miles away
from the airport.

Narrator:
But the tupungato glacier,

where the wreckage is found,

is over 50 miles to the east.

How does this engine end up
50 miles away

in the middle of the andes?

[ wind whistling ]

narrator: The wreckage
of an airliner

that vanished off the face
of the earth 51 years ago

suddenly reappears on one of the
highest mountains of the andes,

far from where the crew said
they were when they disappeared.

Is there a sinister reason
behind this mystery?

Researchers explore the plane's
final hours looking for clues.

On August 2, 1947,

a british civilian version
of the wartime lancaster bomber

took off from buenos aires

on a scheduled flight to
santiago.

Flight cs59 was carrying
five crew members

and six high-profile
international passengers.

At the helm was the captain
reginald cook,

a distinguished
world war ii pilot,

along with his first
and second officers,

also boasting extensive
combat experience.

Bellinger:
These guys weren't rookies.

They were seasoned
combat veterans,

used to flying
in all kinds of weather

in the most stressful
environment there is -- battle.

So what happened?

Narrator: According to the
accident report,

the last message ever
transmitted

from the crew of the stardust
was in morse code,

announcing their e.T.A. At the
airport in four minutes.

But that wasn't the strange part
of the message.

It was how they signed off
that caused the confusion.

[ morse code beeping ]

"stendec"?

What does "stendec" mean?

Narrator: The radio operator had
no idea,

so she asked the crew
to repeat the message,

which they did --

two more times
in rapid succession.

After that...

Radio silence.

♪♪

somara: Could it have been
some sort of code?

If you look closely
at the letters

that form the word "stendec,"

it's actually an anagram --
"descent."

maybe the crew were just having
a little fun

after a long flight.

O'keefe: A crew with this level
of experience

wouldn't be playing around,

especially when you're
responsible for people's lives.

Standard operating procedures
are drilled into pilots

for years before they even
make their first flight.

And if they break form,

they could lose their license.

It just isn't done.

♪♪

narrator: Some believe
that the crew

might have been attempting

to spell the name of
the aircraft.

Bellinger:
If you look at the morse code
for "stendec,"

and compare it to "stardust,"

there are some similarities.

But why would the operator
randomly tap out

the name of the aircraft

and get it wrong
three times in a row?

Not only that, but if he was
trying to identify the aircraft

to the air traffic control,

he would have used
the numeric code on the flight,

not the name of the aircraft.

Again, it doesn't conform
to aviation protocol.

[ morse code beeping ]

narrator:
Another possibility is that
with a tiny adjustment

of the dashes and spaces,

it spells the words
"e.T.A. Late."

but why would the radio
operator message

that they were late
when they just informed them

that they would be landing
in four minutes?

O'keefe:
There's no rational answer

to why they transmitted
the word "stendec."

so what if the crew
weren't rational at the time?

Narrator: The lancaster
wasn't pressurized,

which meant that each individual
on the plane

had their own oxygen supply.

What if that supply got cut off,

rendering the crew susceptible
to hypoxia?

Bellinger:
Stardust had been cruising
at an altitude

of 24,000 feet
the day they went missing.

The air that high is very thin,

meaning there's not enough
oxygen in it

to keep a person
functioning for very long.

Narrator:
If there isn't enough oxygen
circulating in your blood,

your organs start to fail.

Hypoxia can come on within
very few minutes --

can't breathe, you start to
sweat, your muscles seize up,

and you can become
euphoric or delusional.

Narrator:
Was hypoxia the reason
the crew announced

they were four minutes
from landing at the airport?

Were they actually
still in the andes,

but suffering from delusions?

O'keefe: After the plane
disappeared in 1947,

an intensive five-day search
of the entire mountain range

along the flight path
yielded no results.

If stardust had crashed
in the andes,

they would have found
the wreckage back then.

♪♪

narrator: Investigators
turn their attention

to the passengers
on the flight,

looking for clues.

The passenger list
could be ripped

from some of the greatest
spy novels.

Narrator:
On board the fateful flight

were three brits,
a german woman,

a palestinian, and a swede.

Bellinger:
The palestinian was
a businessman,

wealthy enough
to have a large diamond

sewn into his suit jacket.

The german was returning
to chile

with the ashes
of her dead husband.

And the brit
was a king's messenger

carrying critical
diplomatic correspondence.

I mean, where do you begin?

Narrator:
Diplomatic relations

between great britain and
argentina were tense in 1947.

O'keefe:
The two countries were fighting
over territory in the antarctic.

Could it be that someone didn't
want the king's messenger

to deliver those
diplomatic documents?

[ suspenseful music plays ]

[ wind whistling ]

narrator: 51 years after it
vanished without a trace,

the wreckage of a british
airliner called stardust

magically reappeared
in the middle of the andes,

50 miles to the northeast

of where the crew said
they were when they disappeared.

Could this have been
a hijacking gone wrong?

Subsequent searches uncovered
more fragmented pieces

of the fuselage
on the crash site,

including
a largely intact propeller

and a piece of the wing.

Somara: Gps logging shows that
the debris field

covers just one square mile,
which is too small for a bomb.

But one thing
is becoming obvious.

Every piece of the wreckage
is crushed and crumbled,

which can only mean one thing --

the crash was the result
of a massive high-speed impact,

and it happened right there
on mount tupungato.

Narrator: Why then
did the crew message

that they had cleared
the mountains

and were minutes
from the santiago airport?

It's easy to forget that in
1947, there were no computers

to tell you where you are,
where you were,

and what time you're going
to get to where you're going.

Navigation was done
by pen and paper.

It was something
they called "dead reckoning."

bellinger: Dead reckoning
is a way of determining

where you are using time,
speed, and direction,

all in relation
to a fixed starting point.

Somara:
But the formula only works if
the estimations are correct.

If you miscalculate, it could
have devastating consequences.

Narrator:
So what could have caused
captain reginald cook

and his all-star crew
to make a major miscalculation

in either time or speed or
direction?

Somara:
You're racking your brain,

trying to figure out
what could have gone wrong.

It's a routine flight with
an extremely experienced crew.

And then you have
this "aha" moment.

O'keefe: If you look at
the weather report

on the day of stardust's
disappearance,

it was pretty bad.

That's why the crew decided
to fly above the weather.

So they ascended to 24,000 feet,
which put them out of sight

of the mountains
and the ground below.

Irving: The lancaster was one of
very few planes in existence

that could fly that high.

So little was known about
the weather systems

at that altitude.

[ wind whistling ]

narrator: At 24,000 feet,
they would have encountered

a meteorological phenomena
called a jet stream,

a fast-moving air current that
circulates high above the earth.

Jet stream winds can blow up to
275 miles an hour.

They're really strong.

And if you're heading into one,
they can really slow you down.

If the stardust was flying
into the jet stream,

they might not have known it.

They must have slowed down
so much

that their dead reckoning
calculations

were completely off.

O'keefe: When they radioed
santiago,

announcing that they were
four minutes away

from landing at the airport,

in actuality, they hadn't
even cleared the mountains.

So when they started
their descent,

they were on a collision
course with the glacier.

♪♪

somara: With the cloud cover,

by the time they would
have seen the mountain,

it would have been too late.

Narrator: So why didn't
the argentinean army

find the wreckage back in 1947
when they searched the andes?

There's only one
probable explanation.

When the stardust crashed
into the mountain,

the vibration likely
caused an avalanche...

Which buried the wreck
under tons of snow,

and the glacier
just swallowed it up.

Narrator: Over the years,
the glacier inched its way

down the mountain.

When it got to
the lower altitudes, it melted,

revealing the wreckage.

90% of the wreckage
is still inside the glacier,

but with enough time,

we should eventually see
the rest of the plane.

Narrator: But as far as what
"stendec" means,

it's a mystery that will
likely remain buried forever.

[ dramatic music plays ]

♪♪

in the remote reaches
of northwest greenland,

buried under a massive glacier

lies a secret that's been hidden
for thousands of years.

The greenland ice sheet is a
massive blanket of snow and ice

covering nearly
the entire island of greenland.

Narrator: But even against
this immense backdrop,

the hiawatha glacier
dominates the landscape.

It's comprised of millions
of tons of snow and ice.

The hiawatha glacier
is over 3,000 feet deep
in certain places,

but until recently,
very little was known

about the landscape
that existed below it.

♪♪

narrator: In 2016,
using ice-penetrating radar,

scientists make
a startling discovery --

a massive depression
under the glacier

that measures more than
19 miles across.

♪♪

the edge of the ice sheet

follows the contours
of the crater below it.

♪♪

macferrin:
It's actually amazing it's
remained hidden for so long.

It's right in front
of your eyes.

Narrator:
The shape of the depression
is almost perfectly round.

Could it have been caused by an
asteroid of massive proportions?

♪♪

[ wind whistling ]

♪♪

narrator: An enormous crater
has been discovered

underneath the hiawatha glacier
in greenland.

Scientists are exploring

whether it could have been
caused by an asteroid.

And if that's true, it could
change our understanding of life

on this planet.

About 13,000 years ago,
all the large ice age mammals

were wiped out
in one fell swoop.

Why is it that
so many big mammals,

including the wooly mammoth,

disappear
from the fossil record

at about the same time?

Narrator:
One theory is that an enormous
asteroid smashed into the earth,

causing widespread death
and destruction.

It's called the younger dryas
impact theory,

but until now,
there's been no proof.

Macferrin: Younger dryas has
been a controversial concept

in climatology
and geology for a long time,

simply because
they never found a crater

that would fit the theory --
until now.

[ dramatic music plays ]

♪♪

narrator: Scientists set about
trying to see if the depression

could, in fact, have been caused
by an asteroid.

First, they have to analyze
the ground underneath.

♪♪

macferrin: Nasa's
ice-penetrating radar is unique,

because it's specifically
designed to map

the bedrock underneath the ice.

It gives us an idea
of what the ground looks like.

In this particular case,

underneath the ice, there's all
sorts of bumps and peaks

that, combined with the shape
of the crater,

points towards what
would be characteristic

of an asteroid strike.

Narrator: But scientists need
more evidence

to corroborate their theory.

They look to the melted water

running off the glacier
for clues.

And they find an unusual
rock formation --

shocked quartz,
which looks like stained glass.

Irving:
Quartz is one of the most
common minerals

in the crust of the earth.

But shocked quartz can only
be created

with intense heat and pressure.

Narrator:
There are only two events

powerful enough
to create shocked quartz --

nuclear explosions
and asteroid strikes.

♪♪

the presence of shocked quartz
at this site

is completely consistent

with something like an asteroid
strike happening there.

Narrator: But if this was
an asteroid strike,

would it have been big enough
to kill off

all the large
ice age mammals on the planet?

♪♪

macferrin: The hiawatha crater
is 19 miles wide.

It would take a hunk of iron

nearly a mile thick
to cause something like this.

♪♪

an asteroid that size
would have been three times

brighter than the sun at midday.

♪♪

irving:
When something that big
hits the earth

going more than 40,000
miles per hour,

it's going to make
a spectacular hole.

[ dramatic music plays ]

♪♪

poinar: The energy released
by the impact

is greater than 700
one megaton nuclear bombs.

♪♪

landscapes would have been
completely altered,

water would have been diverted,

and animals would have been
burned and buried alive.

[ fire crackles ]

even if you avoid
the initial strike,

you only have a few seconds
before the fireball hits.

Narrator: The impact instantly
evaporates ice

and showers flaming rock debris

as far away
as north america and europe.

Irving: So if you imagine
you're on a beach in california

and there's dust
and rocks raining down

and they're coming all the way
from greenland...

...There's nowhere to run,
everything's on fire,

it would have felt like
armageddon.

♪♪

it's not certain,
but it's conceivable

that an impact
this large would be enough

to extinct multiple species
around the world.

♪♪

narrator:
But did it hit the earth
at the right time?

Scientists haven't been able to
accurately date the crater yet.

Irving: At this point,
it's just a theory.

We need to do more research.
But now we have a new suspect.

The discovery of this crater
is extremely tantalizing.

The next step would be
to send an expedition

to drill beneath the ice

to see if the crater
can be dated more accurately.

Narrator:
Until then, the secret remains
hidden in the ice.

♪♪