All language subtitles for What.on.Earth.S03E10.1080p.DSCP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-BTN_track3_[eng]

Narrator: they're watching you.

More than 4,000 satellites
Circle the earth.

Every day, they uncover
New mysterious phenomena.

Some defy explanation.

Bam! This sticks out
Like a sore thumb.

That's is the strangest
Thing going.

Narrator: a black mark darkens
The desert in war-torn iraq.

What the heck is going on?
It looks completely scorched.

Narrator: a moving wall of ice
Causes terror in the suburbs.

It's like a zombie glacier --

Slow, but unstoppable.

Narrator: and something
Transforms the sahara desert

Into a technicolor wonderland.

I've never seen anything
Like this.

Baffling phenomena,
Mysteries from space.

What on earth are they?

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

Captions paid for by
Discovery communications

Narrator: july 11, 2015,

Notorious drug lord
"El chapo" guzmán

Vanishes from his cell

In mexico's
Most heavily guarded prison.

The altiplano prison
Is a fortress

Designed to be escape-proof.

There's an army of guards
With military-grade weaponry

And state-of-the-art technology.

Narrator:
The high profile escape poses

Difficult questions
For the authorities.

Nobody saw that?

Nobody heard anything?

That's crazy.

How do you go about that
Without drawing attention?

That shouldn't be possible.

Narrator: one satellite image
Could hold the answers.

El chapo's escape was actually

A rather remarkable
Engineering feat,

Which we can see
In that image.

And it -- it's an amazing
Piece of work

If you think about it.

Narrator: altiplano prison is
In central mexico,

50 miles from mexico city.

It's supposed to be
One of the most

Secure incarceration
Facilities on the planet.

Many of the security features
Are visible from space.

You look at the satellite
Images of the prison today,

It's nothing but empty space
All around.

And that's by design
'cause you want clear sight

To be able to see the bad guys
Coming in or out.

Narrator: along with the walls
And towers,

A battery of cameras covers
Every approach to the prison.

It even has state-of-the-art
Seismic sensors

To detect ground tremors
Caused by tunneling.

It's the only prison in mexico
Believed secure enough

To hold the legendary criminal.

El chapo was a bad, bad dude.

He's implicated
In all sorts of things.

Murders, massacres,

Kidnappings, extortions,
You name it.

Enormously ruthless individual.

Um, a lot of blood
On this man's hands.

He's made billions,
Actually, $3 billion a year,

In drug trafficking, contraband.

He controls
Government officials.

He's almost untouchable.

Narrator: el chapo guzmán
Has escaped custody once before.

So when he was caught
In february 2014,

The authorities made sure
He was locked up

In what they thought
Was an unbreakable prison.

But despite all
The security measures,

In july 2015,

El chapo disappears
Without trace.

It's like something about of
A marvel comic book, you know?

Narrator: a satellite photograph
Taken just before

The escape initially seems
To offer no clue to the mystery.

But when analysts compare it
To one taken a year before,

They notice a key difference.

We can clearly see that
There's been some very focused

And targeted construction.

Narrator: at some point in
The 12 months before he escaped,

A farmhouse has appeared
Less than a mile

From the altiplano prison.

February 2014, it's not there.
It's an empty field.

February 2015,
There's your farmhouse.

The questions that
This image raises

Is actually what is
The building there to do?

It's set back
From the main road.

And that would really suggest
That, uh, somebody

Doesn't want people
To go to that area.

You have the world's
Most wanted man in a prison,

I would think that
Mexican intelligence

And law enforcement

Would be overseeing
That whole area.

Surprising that they
Didn't see that.

Narrator: when police finally
Investigate the farmhouse,

They make
A mind-blowing discovery --

A newly dug tunnel
Almost a mile long.

Members of el chapo's
Drugs cartel

Had dug a tunnel
Into the prison,

Evading all of
Its high-tech security.

Turned out the tunnel
Had a very precise

Predetermined course,

Turning a couple of times

To avoid the prison's
Seismic sensors.

Narrator: digging a secret
Tunnel almost a mile in length

To arrive at a 3-foot square
Shower drain

Requires extraordinary planning
And precision.

El chapo's escape shows
A real high degree

Of skill
In terms of the engineers

That were responsible
For digging this tunnel.

Narrator: el chapo's people
Had thought of everything.

Had electricity,
Had a lighting system in there.

Had transportation,
Had oxygen supplies.

When the guards go into
The escape tunnel

And follow it
All the way to the end,

They find a motorcycle.

Evidently, el chapo
Didn't want to walk.

Narrator: throughout the whole
Elaborate escape bit,

The tunnelers leave clues
All hidden in plain sight.

If you go back into
The satellite images,

You can actually
See the progression

Of this construction site
And the tunnel.

It took 12 to 16 months
To construct.

Narrator: satellite imagery
Could have prevented the escape

Of one of the most dangerous
Criminals on the planet.

Chapo's tunnel will
Forever live in infamy

On a satellite image.

But nobody in the prison,

None of the officials,

Not a guy driving a truck,

Not the guy delivering the food,

Nobody saw it.

Narrator: el chapo guzmán's
Freedom doesn't last long.

Mexican law enforcement
Track down his location

When he uses a cellphone
To exchange messages

With mexican soap opera actress
Kate del castillo.

It appears that, uh, guzmán, uh,

For all his brutality, uh,

And all his reputation,
Had a schoolboy crush on her.

That communication between
The two of them

Allowed us to lock in on
Where he was.

Narrator: in january 2016,

Mexican federal police
And special forces

Recapture el chapo
After a fierce gun fight.

He's returned to
The altiplano prison

To serve the rest
Of his sentence.

The federal penitentiary
Has now undergone renovations

To improve security.

Whether they're enough
To hold el chapo

Remains to be seen.

An aerial image taken
Over the southern

Sahara desert reveals
Dazzling pockets of color

Standing out
From the rocky terrain.

Well, this is
A-a really strange image.

There looks to be kind
Of a honeycomb kind of texture.

It almost looks like
Soap bubbles on the land.

It's, uh, very puzzling
What this might be.

I've never seen
Anything like this.

Narrator: june 21, 2003,

A photographer
Flying over the southern sahara

Captures a bizarre image.

Hundreds of brightly-colored
Circles standing out

From the barren landscape.

These markings, uh,
Are really intriguing.

What could create such a bizarre
And beautiful landscape?

Looking closer,
They look like ponds.

But...For what?

Narrator: the image is taken
Over teguidda-n-tessoumt

In niger, west africa.

Investigators first consider
Whether the area's geology

Could be responsible
For the colors.

This location sits
In a dramatic landscape,

Formed by millennia
Of violent volcanic eruptions.

There are some volcanoes
In this part of africa.

And so the question is,
You know,

Could this be caused
By those volcanoes?

Narrator: intense underground
Volcanic heat

Can create bright-colored
Hot pools of water.

The pools remind me, uh,

A bit of hot springs
In geothermal areas

Where the volcanoes
Are heating up the ground,

Hot water, uh, is rising up.

There's big bubbles
Creating these circular pits,

Or depressions in the ground.

The color, the nature,

All of these things
Resemble hot springs.

In yellowstone, there are
Beautiful hot springs

That are green and blue
And sometimes even orange.

Typically, it's associated
With algae growing in them.

Narrator: if the mysterious
Colored ponds in the image

Are volcanic like
The yellowstone springs,

It could be bad news
For the people of niger.

Yellowstone's
Hot springs are powered

By the world's big supervolcano,

Bubbling underground.

Niger's colored ponds could be

A warning sign
Of a volcanic apocalypse

Brewing beneath the sands.

If it were volcanic,
It may mean that

There's a more active system
Coming up beneath.

There could be volcanic
Eruptions again in the future.

Narrator:
But the aerial image is missing

A crucial piece of evidence.

We would expect these would
Have steam coming out of them

If they were hot springs.

Narrator: the absence of steam
Above the pools

Means it's unlikely

That volcanic geothermal
Activity created them.

If these colorful pools
Aren't associated

With geothermal activity,

Then what are they?

If you look really closely,

You can see the shadow
Of people near the pots.

But you can't see
What they're doing.

Narrator: the vivid colors
Make some suspect

That the pools
Could be something to do

With west africa's famous
Leather industry.

You can sometimes
See pools of colored water

Like this in tanneries

Where animal hides
Are being turned to leather.

Narrator:
Tanning leather is one of

The nastiest jobs on the planet.

Hides are first soaked
For three days in cow urine

And pigeon poo
To make them soft.

To create colored leather,

They are then dyed
In pools of vivid pigments.

But there's a problem
With the desert tannery theory.

You'd expect to see the leather
Skins hanging out to dry.

But here, we only see
The colored pools.

Narrator: tanning doesn't seem
To be the answer.

But to geologists, the colors
In the pools provide a clue

To what is going on.

I recognize some
Of the same colors from colors

I've seen in the large
Salt evaporation ponds

On the shores
Of the great salt lake.

What we're looking at are
Pits made by people

That are used to evaporate water
To collect salt.

As the water evaporates,

The color of the residue changes
From blue water

When they're full-up,
To brown sludgy water

When they're half-full,
To salt color,

Nearly white
When it's all evaporated.

Narrator:
For the people who live here,

The salt is far more
Than just a seasoning for food.

Because it's portable
And non-perishable,

They use it as money.

In this part of africa, salt is
Used as a currency even today.

And the local nomads
Have been trading salt

For as far back as we've known.

Narrator: salt caravans travel
For up to three weeks,

Hundreds of miles
Across the sahara,

To reach the source
Of this precious commodity.

In ancient times,

These caravans could be up
To 20,000 camels strong.

Because salt is --
Is essential for life,

The pits are a very
Highly-prized possession.

Narrator: this remarkable image
Has captured

The unique spectacle
Of the people of niger

Harvesting wealth directly
From the earth itself.

The salt is literally a lifeline

For the people that live there.

Narrator: a satellite passing
Over a dangerous area of iraq

Captures
An unidentified dark mark

In the blistering
Desert terrain.

Why is it so dark?

What the heck is going on?
It looks completely scorched.

Something's happened.

Narrator: december 2010,
The worldview-2 satellite

Passes high over war-torn iraq.

It captures
An unsettling image --

A dark mark seemingly
Burnt into the earth.

The image was taken
Near the city of nasiriyah,

200 miles southeast of baghdad.

This is a dangerous
Part of the world.

Border conflicts,
Guerrilla warfare,

Insurgencies have been
Raging for decades.

Now you've got isis coming in.

There's just not been
Any stability in the region

For a very long time.

Narrator: analysts immediately
Wonder if the dark mark

In the image could be damage
From one of iraq's many battles.

[ explosion ]

Something's happened.
Bomb damage would come to mind.

This image does have
Characteristics of a bomb site,

Sorta the scorched pattern
That exists there.

So this image appears
To be where a bomb

Or some kind of explosion
Has taken place.

Narrator:
The photograph was taken

Near the iraqi air defense
Base of tallil,

A key strategic target

For american-led
Coalition forces

During the first gulf war.

In the '90s, there was a battle

That took place not far from

Where this photograph was taken
At the tallil air field.

Given that it housed
A radar center,

It was, you know, right at
Our targeting priorities.

Obviously, you take out
The radar capabilities

Of the country to allow
For a successful air campaign.

Narrator:
But the scale of the dark mark

Doesn't seem big enough
To be the result

Of sustained air strikes.

Tallil took a lot of ordnance
At that time.

Given that we dropped
A significant amount of

Ordnance, uh, in this area,

I'm surprised
There's not more evidence

Of bomb damage.

Narrator: this may not be damage
From air strikes.

But it could still be
A grim legacy of the war

That devastated this country.

So the worst case scenario
In my mind

Is that this image
Is reflective of a burn,

What would be seen
As a large-scale

Charring of the earth.

Enormous number of sites
Share similar characteristics

To this image
In terms of scorched earth.

You know, it's very sad.

Narrator:
Scorched earth is the name given

To the destructive strategy
Used by saddam hussein

At the end
Of the first gulf war.

Over 700 oil wells

In kuwait were set ablaze
By retreating iraqi troops,

Causing one of
The largest man-made

Environmental disasters
In history.

The policy of
Defensive destruction

May have even extended
To other sites suspected

Of holding weapons
Of mass destruction.

There were places like this
All over the country,

Sites that had been
Suspected for chemical

And biological warfare

That were completely burned down

And blown up
For no apparent reason.

You should be very concerned

When you see scorched
Earth marks, you know.

What the heck is going on?

What is it that
They're blowing up?

What is it, you know, that
We should be looking at here?

Narrator: further
Investigation casts doubt

On the scorched earth theory.

The site in the satellite image
Is 100 miles

From the oil fields
Destroyed in 1991.

And the nearby tallil air base
Was occupied by u.S. Forces

In the second gulf war.

Investigators are forced to look
Much further back in history

To try to solve the mystery
Of the dark mark.

This is a area where
The archaeological record

Is dense and, uh, the history's
Incredibly rich.

Narrator:
Excavating sites in a country

As dangerous as iraq

Is virtually impossible
For archaeologists.

Hanson: modern excavations have
Been limited by conflict,

Uh, in iraq for some time.

Something like only 5%
Of the country

Has really been
Thoroughly analyzed

For archaeological sites.

Narrator:
In these danger zones,

Archaeologists must rely

On satellite photographs
To study sites.

Features visible in
The satellite image

Suggest the dark mark

Could be some kind
Of ancient settlement.

When you zoom into the site,
You can see that it's elevated.

Narrator:
It's possible the raised area

Was created by centuries
Of human occupation,

Building and rebuilding,

With layers of ruins
Creating an artificial mound.

And so you're going
To see these classic marks

Of being elevated,

Being circular,
Um, and being darker

Than the surrounding flat plain,
Which is a clear indication

That it's
An archaeological site.

Iraq, of course,
Is known to us, uh, perhaps,

All for the wrong reasons.

Iraq, in the ancient world,

Was one of the most
Important regions, uh,

For many
Ancient cities, uh,

Human societies,
For instance, babylon.

Narrator: this image was taken
Near to the remains

Of a great babylonian
City called ur,

One of the first cities
Built by mankind.

Altaweel:
Ur was, at one point, one of

The most important cities
In the ancient world.

It was a very
Rich-trading town.

It connected to faraway places
Such as india, as in egypt.

Uh, it brought all this
Wealth together,

Uh, to create, uh,
Fantastic structures.

So it was a place
Of great fascination,

A place of great wonder.

Narrator:
The ancient city of ur

Is one of the birthplaces
Of civilization.

This area is where
Humanity first

Unlocked the mystery of writing.

Here was one of
The first city-states

With the earliest forms
Of government.

And just 12 miles from ur
Is the site in the image,

Known locally as teilhaber.

Teilhaber was discovered
Using satellite imagery.

It, perhaps, was a kind
Of satellite town or suburb,

If you will, of ancient ur.

Narrator: the site in the image
Was deemed too dangerous

To visit until 2012,

When archaeologists finally got
The green light to excavate it.

Uh, radio carbon dates
Were used to date

When the site was occupied.

Roughly around 1800 b.C.,

So that's roughly
4,000 years old.

Most recent excavations at this
Site have found tablets,

Ancient cuneiform tablets.

And this is really
Suggestive of the fact

That it was
Facilitating administration

For probably the city of ur

And then also
The province of ur.

[ gunshot ]

Narrator:
The continuing conflict

Gripping iraq prevents

Fuller exploration of sites
Like teilhaber.

Many of its secrets
May still lie buried.

But without satellite imagery,

They could have
Been lost forever.

We're looking at the dawn
Of civilization.

There's much more to discover.

And the more we discover,
The more we learn about

How that society
Has actually affected us

In terms of its influence
And impact on the world.

Narrator: an astronaut looking
Down over europe

From the international
Space station

Takes an extraordinary
Photograph --

A vast expanse
Of shining white light.

We're looking at
The southern coast of spain.

And you see the desert up
Here and the ocean down here.

And then, in between,
Is this massive white surface.

And you wonder,
"Where has the desert gone?"

Narrator: february 7, 2004,

As the international
Space station

Orbits high above
Southern spain,

An astronaut takes
An extraordinary photograph.

A glowing white mass
Seems to be spreading

Across an area of desert.

Is that natural or man-made?

Narrator: the remarkable image
Was taken over almeria,

Southern spain,
The dryest region in europe.

The area that we're
Looking at here is the area

That they used to make
The old clint eastwood

Spaghetti western
Movies of the '60s.

Those movies had
Stark brown landscapes.

One wonders, "What has changed
Between the time

"Of those movies
And the stark whiteness

That we see
In the images today?"

Narrator: is it possible that
Freak weather conditions

Could explain
This strange white-out?

This might be a picture
Of a rare snowfall.

Snowstorms can be very heavy
Near mountain areas.

You get that lift and elevation.

And that helps
To generate cloud development.

And that could fall with
Some heavy snow in that area.

Narrator:
A snowstorm in a desert isn't

As weird as it might sound.

In 2015, killer storm goliath

Caused 10-foot snowdrifts
In the deserts of texas

And new mexico.

But analysis of weather data

From the time
Of the image records

Light winds with
Moderate temperatures.

There was no snowstorm.

Meteorologists struggle
To find a new theory.

I'm left confused.

What could cause such
An intricate white shape

In what is obviously
A fairly limited coastal area?

If these astronauts
Aboard the iss

Aren't seeing a blanket
Of snow across almeria,

Then what exactly is it
That they're looking at?

Narrator: some of the brightest
White landscapes visible

From space are salt flats.

From the space station,
I have seen salt flats both

In utah and in bolivia.

And they're big,
Large expanses of pretty,

You know, white material.

Salt flats are areas

That used to have
Salt water on top.

But then the salt water
Has evaporated away,

Leaving this dry,
Crusty white salt.

And sometimes,
These can be large enough

That they're seen from space.

Narrator:
This area of spain does have

A salt-mining industry.

Around 40,000 tons of salt

Are harvested each year
From a site called cabo de gata.

But this is located
20 miles away,

Across the gulf of almeria.

Something else must be going on.

Another detail in the image
Poses further questions.

Instead of a solid white surface

That would be typical
Of a salt flat,

Hundreds of dark lines

Divide the glowing white mass
Into distinct chunks.

Why is it broken up
And interspersed

With little bits
Of land and water,

Almost as if they're
Little squares or pieces

That have been thrown down?

Narrator:
In some parts of the world,

Farmers divide their land

Into small intensely
Irrigated pools

That can sparkle in the sun.

The enormous honghe hani
Rice terraces in china

Are an example of this.

They cover an area roughly
The size of washington, d.C.,

Big enough to be
Seen from space.

The chinese rice terraces
Can be much larger than --

Than many people think.

They can be up to 3,000 steps
Down, which is quite enormous.

It means they can be seen
From a long way up.

Vast areas of china grow rice.

And they do grow rice in spain.

Is that what this is?

Rice is really important
In spain.

It forms the base of their
Most famous dish, paella.

And they actually grow quite
A bit of rice in the country.

Narrator: analysis of historical
Satellite images

Shows that almeria began
Turning white in the 1970s.

That's simply not enough time

To have developed
Paddy fields large enough

To be visible from space.

It can take generations
To transform an area

This large into paddy fields.

This change has
Happened too quickly.

Rice is not the answer.

Narrator:
Aerial drone footage ultimately

Reveals the true nature
Of the glowing white mass.

Practically the whole region
Is covered in white plastic.

What looks like snow,
Salt, or rice

Is actually 150,000 square miles

Of super reflective greenhouses
And polytunnels.

Narrator: this is the biggest
Concentration

Of greenhouses in the world.

It is larger an area

Than the city
Of denver, colorado.

Narrator: farmers grow
2.5 million tons of fruit

And vegetables here every year,

Most of which is exported
To the rest of europe.

Thanks to the greenhouses,

Food can be grown
All year round.

But almeria's plastic sea
Doesn't just help produce

An extraordinary amount of food.

The greenhouses seem to alter
The temperature

Of the outside air
For miles around.

One of the intriguing things

About all of these greenhouses

Is that it's bouncing back
A lot of sunlight into space.

In contrast to the world

Where the temperature
Has been going up,

For this localized region,

It's actually been going down.

Over the last 25 years,

The temperature of this region

Has gone down by over a degree.

Narrator: by reflecting sunlight
Back into space,

The plastic sea has lowered
Almeria's average temperature.

The vast expanse
Of white plastic

Is turning back time.

This strange anomaly
Could now offer

A possible solution
For a global problem.

It tells us that
The concept of certain

Kinds of geoengineering
Can actually work.

Narrator: the food from almeria
Feeds much of europe.

The beneficial effects
Of the plastic sea

Could extend much further.

Reflecting sunlight might offer

The first real hope
Of slowing climate change.

Narrator:
An aerial photograph taken

By a government survey team
In australia

Reveals a weird pockmarked
Pattern scarring the outback.

You can see
This very obvious gap here.

This is fairly typical-sized.

You could park a car in it.

What could make the grass
Grow in round rings?

Narrator: august 2013,

An aerial photograph taken

By an australian
Government survey team

Reveals something unusual in
A remote patch of the outback --

A huge pattern
Of bright red pockmarks

Scarring the landscape
For hundreds of square miles.

I get kinda creeped out

When I see images
Of pustules and stuff.

And that's kind of what
It looks like right here.

Just really a bad case
Of acne or something.

Narrator: the photograph is
Taken near the remote

Town of newman in the pilbara,

A sparsely populated
Desert region

Of western australia.

So you got a lotta green,
And then all these, like,

Very evenly-spaced brown spots.

They're just so evenly spaced.

That's the thing
That's really remarkable.

So what's really going on here?

Narrator: the outback makes up
Around 70% of australia's

2.9 million
Square mile land mass.

But these red pockmarks appear
Only in the pilbara region.

This image is fascinating.

It's something like
I've never seen before.

Narrator:
Another satellite image,

Taken over 6,000 miles
Away in africa,

Could offer a clue
To what's happening.

The only other place
In the world

That something like this
Has been found is in namibia.

[ chanting ]

Narrator: the people that
Inhabit this wilderness

Are an isolated tribe
Called the himba.

They believe the circles
Seen in the namibian desert

Are scorch marks left

By the breath
Of a legendary dragon.

There are obviously
No dragons burning the earth.

But the deserts of
Australia and namibia

Have both been scorched
By apocalyptic fires.

Could the marks in
Both satellite images

Be explained
By nuclear testing?

There is a history
Of testing nuclear weapons

In very desolate desert areas.

You do nuke test in a desert
Area for two reasons.

You have no people
To worry about.

And then the second thing is,

You don't have
A lotta water or rain

To carry radiation around.

So it's -- it's pretty
Self-contained

In the desert area.

Narrator:
Declassified military documents

Reveal that, in the 1950s,

The british conducted
Top-secret nuclear experiments

In the australian outback.

The combined force
Of the test weapons was

Twice that of that of the bomb
Dropped on hiroshima in 1945.

Namibia also had
Nuclear testing.

So you've gotta ask, could this
Be the common denominator?

Narrator:
Radioactive fall-out has been

Known to kill vegetation.

But the only aboveground
Nuclear tests

Ever to happen
In australia took place

At least 300 miles
From the location in the image.

And the terrain doesn't
Show the telltale signs

Of an underground
Nuclear explosion.

Looking at that image, there's
No indication of subsidence

That you'd get
With an underground test.

Uh, there's no, uh,

Indication of a lotta people
Moving back

And forth across the area
If it was a nuclear test.

Narrator: the mystery attracts
The attention

Of environmental scientist
Bronwyn bell.

So I was on the plane
Coming into land

And I noticed out the window

That there was a pattern
In the spinifex.

Narrator: bell is the first
Scientist to investigate

The australian phenomenon
On the ground.

You can see you've got all
The individual spinifex plants

Around the outside,

Um, but then this gap
In the middle.

Narrator:
This tough spiky grass

Is inedible to most animals
And insects,

Except one -- the termite.

Is it possible that these tiny

Insects are harvesting
The spinifex grass,

Leaving circles
Of bare earth behind?

So you can see here,
We've got some termite mounds.

And so the theory is that
That termite activity

Is actually what's causing
These circles to occur.

But you don't get these
Termite mounds occurring

Consistently
Throughout the area.

And you'll have lots of circles
Which will have none of that

Sort of activity in it at all.

Narrator: bell turns to another
Scientist for help.

Biologist dr. Stephan getzin

Studied the same
Weird phenomenon in namibia.

He calls the strange patches
Fairy circles.

When I saw these picture
For the first time,

I was really blown away.

What was weird, uh, was the fact

That this image is
From australia and --

And not from southern africa.

And until now,

People believed
That fairy circles

To only exist in namibia.

Narrator: getzin's findings
Back up bell's belief

That termites
Are not responsible.

We took a hammer and crushed

The soil crust
And looked underneath.

There was no termite,
Uh, galleries, nothing.

Termites could never explain
These large areas

With bare soil where
Nothing's growing.

Narrator:
Getzin thinks that something

Much more mind-boggling
Is going on.

He believes that the plants
Are organizing themselves.

And you see that the plants

Are arranging themselves
By self-organization

To maximize water access

And to grow better.

Narrator: getzin has a theory
That the plants

Have evolved to grow in circles

As an adaptation to survive

In such a dry desert.

In arid environments
When water is not enough

To sustain

The complete coverage
With vegetation,

Plants create patterns.

And these plants
Are simply forming a circle

In order to maximize
Access to water.

The soil in the center
Of these circles

Actually helps conduct moisture

Out to the plants
On the outside.

Narrator:
As if some higher intelligence

Is directing them,

The plants arrange themselves

To form large
Circular catchment areas.

These act as rain collectors,

Which then direct any water
Back towards the plants.

The smart plant theory
Is still unproven.

But it could offer an answer

To the mysterious circles
Seen in two deserts

More than 6,000 miles apart.

Fairy circles here
In the pilbara

Are just another example
Of how, you know,

Nature responds
To the climate it's got.

Plants are smarter
Than you think.

Narrator: an aerial image of

A bizarre icy weather phenomenon
Baffles meteorologists.

There's a ramp of ice
Or snow or something

Between the water, uh,
And the houses.

But behind that,
The surface of the water

Looks pretty ice-free.

Narrator: a gigantic ice wall
Has appeared from nowhere.

The image doesn't show any snow
In the surrounding areas.

Why would you have
That much ice

Just very isolated
Right along the coastline?

We gotta figure out
What's goin' on here.

Narrator:
May 2013, an aerial image

Is captured of a wall of ice

Invading the residential shores

Of a normally tranquil lake
In canada.

Something weird has gone on.

Why would you have
That much ice

Just very isolated
Right along the coastline?

Narrator: the image comes from
Dauphin lake

In western manitoba.

This area of canada
Can suffer heavy snowfall,

Even during springtime.

Is it possible that the wall
Of ice was created

By a supersized blizzard?

Tremendous winds can carry snow

To the point of burying
Entire buildings.

Snowdrifts are gonna happen

When you have a big snowstorm
That comes into an area

And the snow gets blocked
By an object.

Snow hits upon that, falls,

Stops and then starts
To build up an accumulate.

Narrator:
But the concentration of snow

And ice into one small area

Makes it clear this
Is no ordinary blizzard.

I have seen my share
Of snowdrifts.

But in this particular case,

The problem is that
Where we see snowdrifts

Right along the coastline,

We don't see them
Further inland.

And that's where we should
Also see snowdrifts.

So the idea of just having
A big blizzard go through,

Probably not the case here.

If it's not from a blizzard,
What else could it be?

Narrator: investigators
Face the disturbing possibility

That the wall could be caused
By a strange natural force known

As lake-effect snow.

Lake-effect snow happens
When you have warm air

Traveling across a lake.

Narrator: the air picks up
Moisture as it travels

Until it hits
The freezing cold ground

On the other side of the lake.

When you cool that air
That's holding moisture down

To freezing,

All of a sudden,
As it moves over land,

It dumps out lots
And lots of snow.

A lake-effect snow
Band can be so intense

That you can go
From very good visibility

To absolutely zero

In the blink
Of an eye with thunder

And lightning in the snow.

It's one of the most powerful
Winter storm events possible.

Narrator: in many respects,
Lake-effect snow

Could explain
This strange phenomenon.

But it doesn't quite fit
With the localized nature

Of the wall of ice.

One characteristic
Of lake-effect snow

Is you get these long bands
Of snow going inland,

Perpendicular to the lakeshore.

And that's not
What's happening here.

So if it's not a snowdrift

And it's not lake-effect snow,

What is actually
Causing all this ice

To build up right along
This coastline?

Narrator:
The search for the cause

Of the ice wall narrows down
To the lake itself.

You can see from the image
That there's probably

Substantial property
Damage here.

What's going on here
Is something referred to

As an ice shove,

Where wind has driven lake ice

Or sea ice, uh, up onto shore.

The ice in the front
That moved onshore first

Had nowhere to go because ice
Kept pushing from behind,

Much like a cattle stampede.

Narrator:
Ice shoves can be devastating.

The relentless white wall grinds
Over everything in its path.

And this strange phenomenon

Doesn't just hit
The residents of dauphin lake.

Just one day later,

An unstoppable wave
Of wind-shoved ice

Hits the lakeside community
Of mille lacs, minnesota.

woman: look at that!

it's really pushin' in.

Narrator:
Locals living on the lake edge

Caught the relentless
Ice tide on camera.

It's like a zombie glacier --

Slow, but unstoppable.

Narrator:
Footage of this ice shove

Became one of the most
Widely shared videos of 2013,

With almost four million views.

how is it doing this?

The footage shows
The ice creeping forward.

And it looks unstoppable.

nicky, it just busted
through a door over here!

all the way through!
the door's caving!

Narrator:
Lakeside residents are powerless

To halt the destructive
Phenomenon.

Ice at the front slows down.

And the ice
Behind crashes into it.

But it keeps pushing it
Forward, more and more.

And all of that massive ice

Ends up turning into
This unstoppable steamroller.

It can create a massive
Amount of destruction.

The homeowners had no idea
What was goin' on.

It was this mystery
Force of nature

Coming at them from the lake.

And that moment just happened
To be caught on video.

Narrator: residents of
Dauphin lake in canada

And mille lacs in minnesota

Can only hope the rare
Weather conditions

That produced the ice
Shove never occur again.