Original subtitles

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.