All language subtitles for What.on.Earth.S01E03.1080p.DSCP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-BTN_track3_[eng]

Narrator: eyes in the sky
Watching us from space.

Hundreds of satellites
Showing us the world

Like we've never seen it before,

Capturing images
Which are breathtaking,

But bizarre.

Objects and phenomena
Which defy explanation.

What is that?

Narrator: an unexplained glow
As big as connecticut

Beneath the surface
Of the indian ocean.

This phenomenon
Could very well be something

That is brand-new to science.

Narrator:
Revealed from above,

Is there a secret code

Written into the layout
Of washington, d.C.?

Gough: when you connect
All the dots, a pattern emerges.

Marrs:
They're gonna deny this.

They will never reveal
That fact.

Narrator: strange stone circles
Like ferris wheels

In the ancient deserts
Of the middle east.

The first mystery is,
Who built them?

And the second mystery is, why?

Narrator: and what looks like
Strange pulses of energy

Stretching 100 miles
Across the subantarctic.

There's more to this
Than the weathermen say.

Narrator: baffling objects
Seen from space.

What on earth are they?

-- captions by vitac --
Www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by
Discovery communications

March 2006.

Flying above
The black lava fields

Near the azraq oasis in jordan,

The quickbird satellite
Photographs

A series of rough wheel shapes.

Kennedy: when you first see them
From the satellite,

You suddenly realize

What an astonishing
Structure they are.

Narrator:
The wheels vary in size

From 82 feet across
To as much as 230 feet.

At first, one cluster is found,

Then another and another.

Thousands of wheels

Reaching as far north as syria

And as far south
As saudi arabia.

The number and scale
Of these wheels

And the area that they cover
Is incredible.

Narrator: no one lives
In this barren, arid wilderness

Except a few scattered
Nomadic bedouin tribes.

And there are
No other collections

Of wheel-shaped structures
Like this anywhere in the world.

Archaeologists are baffled.

First mystery is,
Who built them?

And the second mystery is, why?

Narrator: to investigate
These mysterious structures,

Professor david kennedy,
From oxford university,

Has come to
The jordanian desert.

But once there,
He's confronted with a problem.

Where are they?

Kennedy:
It's extremely difficult
To pick them out on the ground.

As you can see at ground level,
They're very uninspiring.

You wouldn't even guess
Very often that there's
Anything here.

Narrator: kennedy is surrounded
By black rocks.

This is a lava field,

The result of ancient
Volcanic activity.

He notices that they're gathered
Into patterns

With occasional walls
Rising to waist height.

This is no natural
Lava formation.

Kennedy: the simplest form

That we encounter
Is an almost-perfect circle

With a central hub,

And then with spokes
Coming out from that central hub

That looks like
An old-fashioned cartwheel.

Narrator:
What kennedy wants to know

Is who built these wheels.

There are no inscriptions
Or other symbols

Carved into the stones.

No history of the region
Makes any mention of them.

Kennedy: nobody knew they were
Here except the bedouin.

I asked what are those,

And the bedouins said,
"Well, we don't know.

They are the works
Of the old men."

Narrator: when the bedouins
Speak of the "Old men,"

They mean people from
A long-forgotten ancient past.

The middle east
Was the cradle of civilization.

The remains of many of
The world's oldest settlements

Can be found here.

Huge effort went
Into building these things.

We have all kinds
Of machinery now

That we use to build things
Fairly quickly,

But in the ancient world,
Putting these stones together,

Gathering them
Into these shapes,

They had to have a really
Strong reason to do that.

We have structures that look
A little bit like wheels

In canada
And in the united states.

They're called medicine wheels.

Narrator: so-called
Medicine wheels were built

By indigenous north americans
As long as 4,000 years ago

And bear some similarities
To the stone wheels in jordan.

For medicine men,
These stone circles were sacred,

Used to conduct rituals and
Communicate with spirit guides.

Could jordan's stone wheels
Be the same?

To build one, you say, "Okay,
This is a worship center,"

Or "This is
An astronomical center."

But to build
A whole bunch of them,

Especially in an array
That seems to be

Almost along a path,
In some regards,

And then has centers,

To me, indicates functionality
Rather than a worship center.

Narrator:
The vast stretches of wheels

Might indicate some extended,
Prehistoric settlement.

Could the structures
Have had roofs?

Were they houses?

That doesn't seem
To be right.

There's no entrance.

Each of these wheels
Has a circuit of stones

That is unbroken --
There's no doorway into it.

And in many cases,
The interior is divided up

Into wedges with a central spine
And spokes coming out,

So these are very
Strange shapes.

Why would you do that
If it's a house?

[ camera shutter clicks ]

Narrator: some neolithic sites
Did have entrances and roofs,

But why are there no doors
Between the rooms?

Nor would an ancient settlement

Have spread
Across such a vast distance.

Maybe these structures
Were meant to be sealed shut.

Could they be
The remains of tombs --

A more primitive equivalent

Of the pyramids
Of ancient egypt?

The funeral areas,
Where the dead were placed,

Perhaps underneath
The central pile of stones

That you find in the middle
Of many of these places.

Narrator:
In ancient cultures,

The size of a tomb was often
A reflection of status.

Perhaps this could
Explain variations

In the size of the wheels.

Kennedy:
It's an attractive idea.

Everybody dies.
Everybody has to be disposed of.

But, unfortunately,
Nobody's ever discovered a body

Underneath any of these.

Narrator:
There are also no artifacts

That can offer any clues
As to what these structures are.

Kennedy decides
To inspect them from the air.

He notices close to the stones,

A series of straight walls,

Also built from the lava stone.

Could they be made
By those who built the wheels?

The lines form various patterns,

But one which repeats
Most frequently

Is the shape of a kite.

Kennedy: just beside
Where I'm standing here,

We're in the head of the kite.

But on top of the head
Is a wheel.

And we find that
All across jordan.

A simple kite

Would be one that consisted
Of a long wall,

Perhaps about
One meter high originally,

And then a second wall

That came in almost to join it.

Two walls would be 200, 300 --

Sometimes 1,000 meters long.

Narrator:
Although kennedy doesn't know

Who built these kites, or when,

He thinks he knows
Their purpose.

He believes
These kite-shaped walls

Were used to capture
Entire herds of wild animals,

Such as antelope and gazelle.

Hunters or beaters
Would frighten the animals,

Causing the prey
To run between the walls.

Kennedy:
They would find themselves

Being funneled down
The walls of a kite

Until, gradually,

They found themself inside
The trap at the end of it

Where hunters would kill them.

Narrator: an ingenious way
For prehistoric humans

To capture large numbers
Of animals.

But what of the stone wheels?

Could they have been used
To slaughter animals

And, perhaps, store
Their preserved carcasses?

But kennedy finds no trace
Of animal bones.

And, again,
Why are there no doors?

Archaeologists have found

No satisfactory explanation
For these structures.

There are many surviving
Ancient structures

In this region,
But nothing quite like this.

The mystery of the stone wheels
Seen from space

Just gets deeper.

Someone did build these,

And they spent a huge amount
Of effort doing it.

Storage? Defense? Housing?

The exact reason
Remains a mystery.

Narrator: a satellite captures
A glow the size of a state

Radiating beneath the waves
Of the indian ocean.

It's like hundreds of thousands
Of light bulbs

Underneath the sea.

Narrator: no one knows what's
Lurking beneath the waves.

Kays: what is it
That could possibly make

A glow that bright
Over that big of an area?

Narrator: january 25, 1995.

An image is captured by
A u.S. Military satellite

Crossing high above
The indian ocean at night.

The satellite photographs

An area just east
Of the horn of africa,

170 miles
Off the somalian coast.

These waters
Should be pitch black,

So why is a huge stretch

Lit up as bright
As times square?

The image is taken
From 500 miles above the earth.

Analysts calculate

That the weird glow covers
Almost 6,000 square miles.

That's roughly the same size
As connecticut.

I thought it maybe was
A smudge on the computer screen,

And I tried to wipe it off,
But it was actually real.

Narrator: the sheer size
Of the glowing, milky blob

Intrigues scientists.

This was huge.

It was as big as some of
The states in the united states.

Kays: what is it
That could possibly make

A glow that bright
Over that big of an area?

Narrator: the satellite
Has special sensors

To analyze clouds,

But this is no cloud.

Miller: clouds move around.

If it was just a cloud,
It would be there one night

And it would be gone the next or
In a different place the next,

But this was a feature
That stayed.

Narrator: experts agree
This can't be manmade.

It would take millions
Of light bulbs

To make something this big
Glow this brightly.

Miller: if you were in
The middle of it

And you looked around,
Horizon to horizon,

The entire ocean would
Be glowing in all directions.

Narrator: the image
Might have been dismissed

As a computer glitch,

But on the same day in january,

A strange report comes
From british merchant ship

the s.S. Lima.

the lima is traveling at night

To evade the pirates
Off the somalian coast.

Her captain is john briand.

Briand:
We're in the indian ocean

Just west of somalia,

And you could just see
This glow on the horizon.

And, eventually,
After about half an hour,

We were just in a sea
Of pure whitish-blue light.

It was just stunning.

Narrator: it's so vast,

It takes captain briand
And his crew six hours

To cross the glowing,
Milky sea.

Curiously,
Their encounter corresponds

Almost exactly with a passage
In a famous work of fiction.

In jules verne's

"Twenty thousand
Leagues under the sea,"

the submarine nautilus
sails through

A radiating sea of milk.

And, by weird coincidence,

This fictional encounter
Occurs on the exact same date

In january
As the satellite image

Taken a century later.

Strange tales of seas
Illuminated from below

Are found in seafaring folklore,

But can the legends
Of what sailors call

"The milky sea" be true?

Kays:
The milky sea has been seen

Many times by sailors.

This is just the first time

That the sailor reported it
At the same time

There was a right kind of
Satellite overhead

To capture this.

Narrator:
Drawing on these legends,

Science-fiction writers
Have speculated about

Alien civilizations
Beneath the sea.

In the movie "The abyss,"

The crew of an oil platform

Encounters a new species
Living in deep ocean.

But what is there
In genuine science

That could explain
This phenomenon?

There has been talk
Of nuclear waste

Being dumped into
This part of the ocean.

So, you know, who knows?

Maybe this could be some sort
Of radioactive glow.

Narrator: but the area
In the image is vast.

This would have to have been

A giant amount
Of nuclear material.

And there's another problem.

Radioactivity emits energy,
For sure,

But it's not, typically,
In visible light.

Narrator: scientists
Know of nothing manmade

That could reasonably be
Expected to have done this.

The underwater glow
Is too bright and too big.

Could it be some spectacular
Natural phenomenon?

Miller:
From the science point of view,

The leading hypothesis

Is that these are
Bioluminescence gone wild.

Bioluminescence is the creation
Of light by biology.

Narrator: many organisms have
Evolved to generate light --

From click beetles
To glow worms and fireflies --

Creatures that light up
To communicate

And to scare off predators.

But it's in water
Where bioluminescent animals

Are found in greatest numbers.

Some of the most common
Are known to marine biologists

As dinoflagellates.

Dinoflagellates
Are a type of marine plankton

That do make bioluminescence,

And sometimes you see
It in the rudder of a ship

Or in a wave,

Or if you move your hand
Through the water, even.

Narrator: dinoflagellates emit
Light when they're agitated,

So being caught
In a breaking wave

Can produce a brilliant
Light show.

It's a phenomenon regularly seen
Off the coast of california,

Where it attracts crowds
And surfers for miles around.

It seems like a neat
Scientific explanation

For the image
Caught on satellite,

But it doesn't quite add up.

Some people might think
That this is dinoflagellates,

But for them to light up,

They have to be shaken up
Or agitated in some way.

It's just a giant blanket
Of the ocean

That's lighting up all the time
For days at a time.

It's almost impossible
To imagine

Something the size that could
Have disturbed this area

To help emit this glow.

I mean, we're talking about
Something the size of a state.

Narrator: and what's more,
It's growing.

24 hours after
It was first spotted,

The glow has expanded
By almost 900 square miles.

The latest unproven theory

Is that this is some species
Of luminous bacteria.

Miller: we did take
Some measurements

In a laboratory environment
Of luminous bacteria,

And they emit
Very faint amounts of light.

We're talking about
A hundred times less,

A thousand times less
Than moonlight.

Narrator: not only do bacteria
Give off very little light,

They're also microscopic.

It would take trillions
Upon trillions of bacteria

To cover an area this big.

The mysterious glow
Is visible for three nights,

And then it vanishes.

It seems that satellites
Have captured something

Which, for the moment,
Cannot be rationally explained.

This phenomenon
Could very well be something

That is brand-new to science.

Narrator: a satellite image
Of washington, d.C.,

Reveals what could be
A secret map

Designed by george washington.

Gough: when you connect
All the dots, a pattern emerges.

Narrator: but just what do these
Seemingly random images mean?

Are they saying something?
Are they showing something?

Are they pointing us
To something?

Narrator: washington, d.C.,
As seen by worldview-2,

480 miles above the earth.

From ground level,

There's nothing unusual about
The capital's street layout,

Except, perhaps, the frequent
Occurrence of circles,

Like logan and dupont,

And diagonal roads
Like pennsylvania avenue

Cutting across an otherwise
Rectangular street grid.

But glimpsed from above,

Curious patterns
Begin to appear.

Washington is laid out
In geometric patterns.

You can discern squares
And triangles.

Narrator: many modern cities

Are laid out according
To a pattern.

But, mostly, that pattern will
Be made up of rectangular blocks

With roads running
At 90-degree angles.

When a pattern does deviate,

It's normally to accommodate
Some kink

Or feature in the landscape.

D.C. Is different.

There is no obvious reason

For this strange layout
Of circles and streets.

So what was in the minds
Of the men

Who designed
The capital's street plan

Back in 1791?

Marrs: george washington,
Our original president,

Commissioned charles l'enfant

To make the design
For washington, d.C.

Narrator:
Pierre charles l'enfant

Was a french architect
And civil engineer.

It was he who designed
The strange layout --

The diagonal avenues,

The major intersections
Or circles.

But it was george washington
Who had final approval.

Researcher and author
Akram elias

Thinks there's a clue

In a painting of
The city's foundation.

Take a look at this painting
Depicting george washington

Laying the cornerstone
Of the united states capitol

On september 18, 1793.

Narrator: in this, and in other
Official portraits of the event,

George washington
And the other senior figures

Are all wearing the full regalia
Of the order of freemasons.

Both george washington

And pierre charles l'enfant
Were freemasons.

Narrator: president washington
Was a top-ranking mason,

And the history, secrets,
And codes of the masons

Are embodied in the symbols

Commonly associated
With the order.

The pentagram, or blazing star,

Represents to masons
The shining light of god

As seen by moses when he
Is given the ten commandments.

Its southernmost point
Is touching the white house.

And the most important
Masonic symbol,

The square and compass,

Representing god the creator

And the architects
Of the temple of solomon.

The compass
Is lying on its side.

The top is marked by the streets

Surrounding
The capitol building.

Its left arm points
To the white house

And its right
To the jefferson memorial.

The third striking symbol
Is the washington monument.

Elias: the washington monument
Is dedicated

To george washington,

But it's shaped like
An egyptian obelisk,

An ancient symbol from egypt
Which connects to the pyramid,

Another symbol
From ancient egypt,

Which we find
On the $1.00 bill.

Many of the landmarks,
Monuments, and memorials

Are linked, really,
To masonic symbolism.

The masonic influence
In washington, d.C.,

Is just overwhelming.

Narrator: many masonic rituals
And ceremonies

Refer back to biblical times

And to the stonemasons
Who built solomon's temple.

The purpose of the temple
Was to house the holiest relic

Of the christian
And jewish religions --

The ark of the covenant.

Collins: solomon's temple,

And the ark of the covenant
Within it,

Were built as a place
Of symbolic presence of god,

Where he would
Meet with his people.

Narrator: the ark, described
In the book of exodus,

Contains the tables which
Carry the ten commandments.

It was revered
As having special powers

And carried into battle.

It is described numerous times
In the old and new testaments,

As well as the koran.

But the fate of this,

The most valuable
Of religious relics,

Is not known.

But it's really become acute,

This idea of looking
For the ark,

Since "Indiana jones and
The raiders of the lost ark."

That was the start of it all --

In recent history,
As it were.

Narrator: the order
Of the knights templar

Guarded temple mount,

And it is known that
The templars took possession

Of many holy relics.

If these included the ark,

Was its location
Known to the masons

Who built their churches?

There are many who believe
That the freemasons,

Which is a huge organization,

Still know and manage
And protect

The whereabouts of
The ark of the covenant.

Now, if you ask
A mason about that,

They're gonna deny this,

Because the inner circle
Takes blood oaths

That they will never
Reveal that fact.

Narrator: many academics
Reject as fanciful

Any connection between
The freemasons and the ark.

The opinion of freemasons is,
Men will be boys.

[ chuckles ]

Is there anything sinister
About it?

No, I don't think so.

Narrator: and, yet,
There is no denying

That the architects
Of washington

Were leading members of
The secretive masonic order,

And the apparent symbolism

Written into the streets of d.C.
Is compelling.

Marrs: it's quite obvious
That the placement of buildings

Is done in a very conscious
And symbolic manner

And represents
Some sort of message.

Narrator: so what is it,
And where does it lead?

First, the masonic compass.

This points to the white house.

The white house is
The base point on the pentagram.

But that's not all.

The white house
Also sits at the base

Of another key masonic symbol --
The unfinished pyramid.

The unfinished pyramid

Is the symbol
Depicted on the dollar bill

With the so-called
All-seeing eye at the top.

Back in d.C., remarkably,

The street outline
Does something similar.

Travel directly north
From the white house

Up the pyramid to the center
Of the all-seeing eye,

And there can be found
A building.

It is, indeed, a temple --

A temple in the form
Of an unfinished pyramid.

This is the temple
Of the supreme council

Of the 33rd degree freemasonry.

Is this simply a coincidence,

Or is there more to
The strangely angled streets

And roundabouts of d.C.

That today cause congestion
And traffic jams?

Whatever secrets
The ancient order of freemasons

Might be hiding,

They had better guard them
Carefully,

Because someone's watching.

A series of concentric circles
In the sahara desert

Stretching 25 miles across.

Gough:
It's too perfect in shape,

And it's too huge in structure
To be an act of nature.

Barratt: you will not see
Anything like that

Anywhere else on the planet.

Narrator: 2000.

This striking image
Is captured from space

Over north africa.

It shows a massive circular
Structure in the desert.

At its widest point,
It's 25 miles across.

Geologists struggle to explain
What they're looking at,

But they give it a name --
"The eye of the sahara."

Lester: across
The eye of the sahara,

You probably see various
Ridge lines come up and down,

But you wouldn't see anything
Like what we see from space.

When you see something
As concentrically perfect,

It's reasonable to ask,
"Can this happen naturally,

Or is this manmade?"

Gough:
It's too perfect in shape,

And it's too huge in structure
To be an act of nature.

Narrator:
In the last 15 years,

Satellites
Have uncovered evidence

Of a lost civilization
In the sahara.

There are
Manmade structures there

As sophisticated as many found
In the ancient near east,

But there's nothing
On this scale.

If these are the remains
Of a manmade structure,

It would have dwarfed the other
Wonders of the ancient world.

Some experts believe
This is unlikely.

Evans: it's hard to disprove a
Hypotheses that you can't test.

In my opinion,
It's a little crazy.

Narrator: but those who insist
The eye is a natural structure

Are finding it hard
To say what kind.

A lot of early scientists
Started to think,

"Maybe this is an example
Of a big impact structure."

Narrator: at first,
The theory make sense.

In the yucatan peninsula,

There's a crater 180 miles wide
Caused by an asteroid

That smashed into the earth
65 million years ago...

...An event many believe
Wiped out the dinosaurs.

[ roaring ]

Is the eye of the sahara
Evidence of something similar?

Brand: the eye of the sahara
Lacks certain features

Suggestive of an impact,
Such as shocked minerals.

Narrator: any asteroid impact
That produce circles

25 miles in diameter
Would have left behind

A large quantity of something
Called "Shocked quartz."

But when geologists
Are dispatched to the site,

They're unable to find any.

This is no asteroid crater,

And these initial field studies
Are unable to explain it.

Geologists then explore the idea
That the eye might be volcanic.

There are volcanos
In the sahara.

The biggest is called
Emi koussi,

Towering 11,000 feet
Above sea level.

At the summit of emi koussi
Are three volcanic craters,

Known by volcanologists
As calderas.

But they're a fraction
Of the size

Of the giant rings
In this image.

Volcanologist dr. Brittany brand

Has researched
The volcano theory.

Brand: a 40-kilometer-wide
Volcano would be some volcano,

But we have 'em.

I mean, look at yellowstone
Caldera, for example.

Narrator:
But then, dr. Brand notices

Some key differences when she
Compares the shape of the eye

With the caldera
At yellowstone.

It doesn't look like
What you see

In the eye of the sahara.

It's not these concentric rings.

So while it's possible to have
A huge caldera

That's 40 kilometers
In diameter,

This is not a caldera.

Narrator: yet another theory
Has been proposed.

If the eye is not the result
Of volcanic eruption,

Could it have been caused
By a vast magma chamber

Beneath earth's crust?

Magma has been known
To create a dome

On the earth's surface
Like a pimple on the skin.

Sticky hot magma
Breaks the surface,

Piles up, then cools
In a dome shape.

Could the eye have been
Such a magma lump

That has somehow eroded
Over time?

Lester: when rocks get warped
Into a bowl-shaped structure,

One layer after
Another after another,

All pushed up in this bowl,
And then eroded,

The result is a set
Of concentric rings.

We do see around the planet

Many examples
Of uplifted strata

Around a central point
That generate rings,

But nothing quite so striking
As the eye itself.

Narrator: but what could erode
Something so big?

Evans: how much rock did you
Have to remove from this thing?

How can you erode that much
In the middle of a desert?

There's a huge volume of rock
That's missing there.

There's only a handful
Of agents that we know

That could possibly erode
Something that deeply.

You got wind.

Not bloody likely.

[ chuckles ]

You have glaciers.

Not in the sahara.

And then you have water.

Narrator: but the sahara is one
Of the driest places on earth,

So if water did create
These rings,

Where did it come from?

There are parts of the world
That have changed dramatically,

Both favorably and unfavorably,

In terms of their climate
Over the last few hundred

And even few thousand years.

6,000 to 8,000 years ago,
What is now the sahara desert,

A bone-dry location,
Was actually much wetter,

Had much more water
Than it does today.

Narrator:
Many features of the sahara

Were formed by water erosion
Millions of years ago.

There are still the outlines
Of extinct riverbeds

And dried-out lakes,

But nowhere else on the planet

Has water created such a thing
As this great eye.

Barratt: what is there
That we're missing here?

What could possibly cause

Such perfectly concentric rings
Like this?

Narrator:
This eye in the desert,
Captured by our eyes in the sky,

Remains a mystery.

If nature did this,
We don't know how,

And if humans did this,
We don't know who.

A satellite records a blinding
Light over south america.

It's almost like a miniature
Sun. It's that bright.

[ man screams ]

Man alive!

Cerveny: it's kind of like
Mother nature on steroids.

I almost jumped out
Of my skin.

It really is mind-blowing.

Narrator: may 2012.

An image taken by nasa's
Suomi npp satellite

Shows an intense light cluster
Over south america.

From space looking down,
You get this glowing flash.

It's almost like
A miniature sun.

It's that bright.

It's like half of the world
Lights up with a flash bulb.

Narrator: it looks like the most
Powerful lightning storms

Caught from space,

But, weirdly, the lightning
Never seems to end.

It almost defies description.

Narrator: the image
Is taken over venezuela,

Where the catatumbo river
Empties into lake maracaibo.

So what's going on here?

Storm chaser george kourounis

Heads for maracaibo
To find out.

[ thunder crashes ]

[ screams ]

Man alive!

I almost jumped
Out of my skin!

Hell just broke loose.

It really is mind-blowing.

I've experienced
A lot of thunderstorms.

I've been a storm chaser
For over 16 years,

And I tell you, my experience
There, just witnessing it,

Was unlike any storm chase
That I've ever been on.

Whoa!

Narrator:
Kourounis discovers that
The banks of the catatumbo shake

As the ground is bombarded
By massive lightning bolts.

It's known as the ever-lasting
Lightning storm --

At least 1,000 bolts every hour
For up to 10 hours a night.

This awesome display

Is exactly what the satellite
Has captured from 512 miles up.

It's such an impressive event
That even scientists,

We have a hard time
Trying to figure out

What is all going on with it.

Narrator: the mystery
Only deepens on the ground.

There's nothing like this
Anywhere else on earth.

Meteorologists
Struggling to explain

This never-ending
Explosive storm

Seek clues in local geography.

Cerveny: while there are parts
Of the world

That also have thunderstorms,

They don't have the consistency
Of the winds

And the terrain that allow
For the development

Of these thunderstorms
In exactly the same position,

Staying there night
After night after night.

Narrator: the maracaibo basin
Is surrounded on three sides

By mountains
That trap trade winds

Blowing in from
The caribbean sea.

[ thunder crashes ]

Professor randy cerveny
Thinks this topography

Is the key to
The relentless lightning.

The air is coming in
Off of this lake,

Being saturated with
The moisture from the lake,

And then being pushed up
The surrounding higher terrain

So that it's producing what we
Call convective thunderstorms

That happen every night.

Narrator: but other parts
Of the world

Have similar topography

And comparable
Atmospheric conditions,

Yet they don't experience

More than a million
Lightning strikes every year.

So what's different here?

According to another theory,

Gas formed by rotting plants
Is rising from the lake

And creating huge explosions
In the sky.

Kourounis: some believe
It has to do

With methane bubbles
Coming up from the lake

From decomposing of vegetation

That's triggering
This lightning.

Narrator: but methane burns
With a blue flame,

And it's known that other lakes

Produce more methane
Than this one.

Why don't they produce
Never-ending lightning?

In the satellite image,

The lightning storm
Has a similar intensity

To an atom bomb exploding.

This freakish energy

Leads meteorologists
To consider a phenomenon

That we are only beginning
To understand...

[ thunder crashes ]

...Dark lightning.

To get this kind of lightning,
You need to have

A very consistent
Thunderstorm situation.

Narrator: dark,
Or invisible, lightning

Is a burst of gamma rays --

The kind of radiation
That comes

From nuclear explosions
And exploding supernova.

Scientists think it's formed
During regular lightning storms,

But can carry a million times
As much energy.

These intense blasts
Can't be seen by the human eye,

But researchers calculate that
Anyone struck by dark lightning

Would, in an instant,

Receive the maximum safe
Lifetime dose

Of ionizing radiation.

But dark lightning is itself
A mystery --

Something we don't
Properly understand.

Any connection with
The bizarre energy discharge

At maracaibo
Remains speculation.

Cerveny: one of
The new pieces of equipment

That nasa's going to be
Putting on

To
The international space station

Will actually measure
The amount of radiant energy

That's gonna be putting out by
These massive lightning storms

And be able to detect then
How they're formed

And give us
A better understanding

Of how much energy
Is actually associated

With these mammoth storms.

Narrator:
Nasa's research is ongoing,

But could it eventually reveal
The cause

Of the never-ending
Lightning storm of maracaibo?

There's still
A tremendous amount of mystery

Shrouding this whole phenomenon.

Narrator: a satellite captures
A massive cone of clouds

Spiraling out
Above the subantarctic.

Cerveny: it almost looks like

An alien weapon
Being shot out into space.

I've never seen anything
Quite that amazing.

Narrator: march 26, 2013.

Nasa's terra modis satellite
Is orbiting

High over the ocean
Of the south african coast

When it captures this image.

The clouds seem to form
A series of curves

Which produce a bizarre cone
Hundreds of miles long.

The image is passed

To meteorologist professor
Randy cerveny.

I've never seen anything
Quite that amazing.

It almost looks like
An alien weapon

Being shot out into space.

Narrator: at its widest,

The rippled cone
Is 100 miles across.

The tip of the cone,

The apparent source
Of the waves,

Is a small,
Remote volcanic island

Called marion island.

Ordinary members of the public

Are not permitted
To visit the island.

The only people allowed there
Is a team of scientists

From the south african
National antarctic program,

Who are said to be
Studying the climate.

The location of the island
Is completely unremarkable...

Except for one thing.

In 1979, the u.S.
Vela spy satellite,

Which was used to monitor
Nuclear test activity,

Was flying high over this area

When it recorded
The double flash

Of a nuclear explosion.

[ explosion ]

The soviets
Denied all knowledge.

The chinese
Said it wasn't them.

There have been more than 2,000
Nuclear bomb tests since 1945 --

All of them
Are accounted for --

Except this one.

There was speculation
That a nuclear device

Had been developed and tested

By either
Israel or south africa,

But no country
Has accepted responsibility.

Could the strange image
Captured by satellite

Be evidence of some other kind
Of weapon testing

In the same area?

Pope: a weather station
Of some sort on a remote island

From which these weird clouds
Seem to be spiraling out.

Is there a connection?
Maybe.

Secrecy often applies
To cutting-edge,

Deep-black projects,

Particularly if they're designed
To produce new weapons.

Narrator: rumors about
Exotic atmospheric weapons

Have focused on

A controversial u.S. Government
Project known as haarp.

Marrs: most people have never
Even heard of haarp,

But those that have,

There's a pretty wide swath
Of researchers

Who believe that
They're up to no good.

Narrator:
Haarp, which stands for

The high frequency active
Auroral research program,

Is a u.S. Military project.

It involves firing high-power,
High-frequency waves

Into the earth's atmosphere

After bouncing them from
A series of relay stations.

Marrs: haarp generates
Massive amounts

Of electromagnetic energy,

And it can be used
For a variety of things.

First and foremost,
You can use that

To bounce signals off
The ionosphere

And communicate
All around the world.

Narrator: the official line is
That haarp boosts communications

And enhances radio
Surveillance capabilities.

Communications is central

To military doctrine
And operations.

If you can understand
The ionosphere,

It helps you with things
Like avoiding being jammed,

And it helps you
To jam the other side.

Narrator:
But there are rumors that haarp

Is involved
In more than communications.

Some believe it is
Working on novel weapons.

Marrs: there are even those
Who say that

They can use these frequencies
To initiate earthquakes.

Narrator:
Is this image evidence

Of some advanced communications
Or weapons system?

Cerveny:
It is an amazing photograph,

But it's an amazing photograph

Of what I think
Is a very natural phenomena,

Something called gravity waves.

Miller: gravity waves
Are something that happens

When you force air
Into an environment

Where it wouldn't
Have been otherwise --

By air flowing over a barrier
Like an island,

Something like that.

It's sort of a rhythmic pattern.

It forms clouds at the top
Of the oscillation,

And then it goes back down
And the clouds go away,

And then it comes back up again,
And you get some more clouds.

Narrator:
It's a remarkable image,

And the strange waves
Look suspiciously manmade.

But what we see from space
Is really a weird,

But natural
Atmospheric phenomenon.