Original subtitles

Narrator: They're watching you.

More than 4,000 Satellites circle the earth.

Every day, they uncover new, Mysterious phenomena

That defy explanation.

Bam. There's something Weird going on here.

It's suspicious.

Narrator: the magic mountain From beneath the sea...

...Mystical marks Seen from space....

These stones Are roman soldiers

Who were turned into stone By the great wizard merlin.

Narrator: ...The city of ghosts,

The american town That turned invisible...

Something major, some sort Of catastrophe happened.

Narrator: ...And the world turns weird.

Gravity is bending In the gulf of mexico.

Distortion in the gravitational Field of the earth.

It's astonishing.

Things that no one Has ever seen before.

Narrator: baffling phenomena -- Mysteries from space.

What on earth are they?

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

Captions paid for by Discovery communications

Nasa's eo-1 satellite Photographs a baffling phenomena

Off the remote southwest Coast of pakistan.

A dark, circular Blob has appeared

Where nothing existed before.

Porges: that's kind of strange.

Whatever it is, It just kind of popped up

In the middle of the sea.

Green: If suddenly the waves part,

If something suddenly pops up,

Then that could send A few alarm bells ringing.

Narrator: the unidentified Object could not have surfaced

In a more politically Volatile region.

Green: this is An incredibly sensitive area,

Right on the border Between pakistan and iran.

It's a center of huge amounts Of geopolitical intrigue.

You'll have Intelligence agencies

From many countries

Who are gonna be Extremely concerned

About knowing exactly What's going on.

Narrator: the sensitive location Arouses fears

The object visible in the image

Could be part of a covert Surveillance vessel.

Porges: underwater surveillance Is not a new idea.

Lots of countries have been Doing this for years.

Narrator: iran and pakistan both Possess powerful militaries,

And both are capable Of deploying submarines

For surveillance operations.

But the object appears too round To match any known sub design.

Stories about The mysterious object

Reach journalist bahram baloch.

He hears rumors Of local reports

That a burning island Has risen above the waves

With flames licking From its rocks,

Spreading terror Among the locals.

Bahram joins local biologist Abdul rahim on a journey

To the isolated southwest coast

To find out what's going on.

Green: Southwest pakistan, an area

That's virtually sealed off To the outside world.

It's extremely difficult

For certainly Journalists to visit.

It's a kind of hidden Realm within pakistan.

Narrator: when bahram and abdul Arrive at the coast,

The locals insist that The mysterious mass rose

From the sea overnight.

A mountain appears from nowhere.

The result perhaps Of some kind of eruption?

Brand: as a volcanologist,

When we see an island Pop out of nowhere,

The first thing we think Is it might be volcanic.

Narrator: but in this part Of the world, that's impossible.

Petford: Where this image was taken,

There are no active volcanoes

At all in that particular area.

Brand: the next question Is if it's not volcanic,

Then what other process allowed For this island to emerge?

Narrator: although there aren't Any known active volcanoes here,

Pakistan sits on the fault line

Between the indian And eurasian tectonic plates.

It suffers cataclysmic Earthquakes,

Which have killed Thousands of people

And left millions More homeless.

Bahram's investigation discovers

That only about 48 hours

Before the satellite Image was taken,

An earthquake struck 230 miles inland

Inland with devastating Consequences.

Soon after, the new island Rose above the waves.

Porges: a giant earthquake And then an island appearing --

There's got to be Some sort of connection.

Narrator: astonished local Fishermen raise the alarm.

Word spread quickly Of the magic mountain

Which had appeared From beneath the waves.

Some feared it.

Others went to see For themselves.

Their amateur Footage provides

Vital clues To the investigators.

Geologists begin to put The clues together.

The most important observation

To me is that it looks Like this jumbled up,

Broken up rock,

And the pieces are big,

And that's characteristic Of mud volcanoes.

Narrator: a mud volcano Is not a lava volcano.

It's a cataclysmic eruption

Of mud punched through The earth's surface

By a sudden release of gas.

Brand: It's not uncommon, actually,

For earthquakes to trigger The eruption of mud volcanoes,

Either because they disrupt The pressurized mixture,

Initiating its buoyant rise,

Or because they just Create cracks

For this mixture To rise up through.

Petford: and that may well be The explanation for the island

Appearing off The coast of pakistan.

Narrator: according to This theory,

Hundreds of thousands Of tons of mud

Were thrust violently Out of the earth,

Rising up from the sea bed

To form a mountain-like Structure above the waves,

Spewing methane gas

And causing terror Among local fishermen.

Abdul and bahram want to see

This new mud volcano For themselves.

But when they reach it,

The island has Almost disappeared.

The strange island

That appeared from nowhere

Is crumbling back into the sea.

Whatever the true story Behind the magic mountain,

It's something the locals Will speak about

For generations to come.

Brand: an island that pops up Out of nowhere,

And then within a year, Can almost completely disappear,

It's just another example Of how dynamic our planet

Is and how quickly it changes.

Narrator: up next, patterns Of dots seen from space

Turn out to be stone monuments From the dawn

Of human civilization.

Narrator: High above northwest france,

The geoeye-1 Satellite photographs

A pattern of dots.

The nearest settlement Is the french town of carnac.

Gijesghem: we're looking At thousands of stones

Perfectly aligned In very formal ways.

Nobody knows where they came From or who built them.

Krueger: these patterns Must mean something,

But we just don't know what.

Narrator: the stones are located In a region known as brittany.

Here, archaeologists Have also found

An artificial stone structure

Built more than 400,000 years ago,

Long before the first Homo sapiens walked the earth.

When the locals look At the stones,

They see something sacred, Even magical.

Crowhurst: there are still a lot Of druids in brittany

Who use these sites for healing.

They perceive them As places of spiritual strength.

These stones have given rise

To a lot of mystery and legend

Because there is no actual Written history about it.

Narrator: from space, Patterns emerge

Which are not visible From the ground.

The scale of the site Is impressive,

And seen from above,

It looks like there Is some plan or meaning

In the layout of the stones.

Roughley: you get a much clearer Picture of the layout,

The shapes, the geometry, The patterns in the landscape.

It's a paradox that the people

Who made it never actually Had the luxury

Of seeing it from a bird's Eye view like we do.

Many thousands of people

Must've taken part To build these monuments.

There must've been some Very good reason to do that.

Narrator: according to legend, The carnac monument

Was not built at all.

It was created By an act of magic.

One of the theories Is that these stones

Are actually roman soldiers

Who were turned into stone By the great wizard merlin.

The stones are arranged In parallel,

Straight-ish lines,

And that's what Inspired people to think

That they were the petrified Remains of the roman legion.

Narrator: In early medieval mythology,

Merlin became entwined With the legend of king arthur

And the end Of roman britain.

But modern forensic techniques Show something remarkable.

This strange monument was built

Significantly further Back in time.

We are assuming now That they're neolithic,

Much older than the romans.

We think that they're Probably in that period

Between 3,000 And 4,000 years b.C.,

But we actually have very Little firm evidence at all,

So it is a big mystery.

Narrator: This site has been a place

Of great spiritual power For millennia.

Who or whatever put These stones here did

So thousands of years Before christ,

Long before the druids Encountered the romans.

Carnac is one of the largest Ritual landscapes in europe.

Narrator: the men who built This massive monument

Believed the stones Had a kind of magic power,

Which is hard For us to comprehend.

I think people Walked along the lines,

Possibly as part of Some important procession,

At a particular Time of year,

Or at a particular time In their own life cycle.

Narrator: ancient cults used The movement of the sun

And stars to chart Passing seasons.

Perhaps that could explain The precision of the alignments.

These lines are perfectly Oriented on an east-west axis.

So, what that means Is that equinox,

So the 21st of march Or the 23rd of september,

The sun comes down and sets Exactly along this line,

And all the shadows, The shadows of each stone,

All line up.

Narrator: but when modern Satellite images

Are compared with 19th century Plans of the site,

The mystery deepens.

So, now overlaying on The aerial photography

Is an 1833 plan Of the carnac area.

We can see how much the stones

Have been moved and rearranged.

Narrator: the stones may line up With astronomical bodies now,

But they certainly Didn't 200 years ago.

The astronomical interpretation

Is based on The tidied up version

And not the neolithic Site itself.

Narrator: these stones are not About time keeping.

But they may Be about death.

The larger pillars Have the characteristics

Of ancient tombs.

Roughley: Inside the burial mounds,

You don't actually find Any of the human remains

Because the acid soil means That human bone doesn't survive.

But we do find pottery, Jewelry, beautiful,

Polished stone axes.

Narrator: It seems these great stones

Were once part of mausoleums --

Mounds for the dead.

And to the ancient people Who built them,

The avenues formed Some kind of portal

Between the spirit worlds They inhabited.

From space, the grandeur Of these avenues

Becomes all the more apparent.

Thousands of years after

A mysterious people Constructed it,

This legacy from a dark past,

This neolithic gateway To the afterlife,

Is still standing.

Roughley: we have This amazing ritual landscape,

But we'll never Really understand

Why people built it.

It will always remain A bit of a mystery.

Narrator: coming up, the Incredible disappearing town

Right out of "The twilight zone."

One house could've been here

And another house there And over there,

And maybe one there.

Narrator: an imaging aircraft Scans one of the driest

And hottest locations In north america.

It captures a series Of strange lines

Seemingly etched into The scorched earth.

Somebody went through A lot of trouble

To make this pattern In the dirt.

Narrator: The mystery markings are located In the mojave desert,

Southern california.

Today, journalist Misty hickok is heading

To the heart of this Inhospitable terrain.

So, here we are in the middle Of the mojave desert,

And you come up and you Find these clearings.

Some are straight, Some are curved, some are round,

And you have to wonder exactly What is going on in this area.

Narrator: Examination of the intricate Geometric pattern

Seen from space reveals

It covers a massive 200 square miles.

But there's no obvious clue To its purpose.

When I look at The satellite images,

I see an urban neighborhood With a lot of winding

Roads and streets.

Hickok: this could've possibly Been a cul-de-sac.

And, like, one house Could've been here

And another house there

And over there And maybe one there.

Narrator: Hickok discovers white posts Lining several of the avenues.

They're street signs.

This is a city,

But where did All the buildings go?

It looks like The remains of a city

That's been wiped off the map.

Hickok: You could definitely think

That it was once A thriving city

And that something major,

Some sort of Catastrophe happened.

Narrator: Someone or something has erased Almost all traces of it.

Analysts consider whether Nearby military installations

Are responsible For the ghost city.

The area, more than likely, Is probably somehow

Connected to the U.S. Military installation.

You're not far from An air force base.

It really could be a great place To go test weapons.

Narrator: just 20 miles south Is edwards air force base,

One of the most secretive Military facilities

In the united states.

It is famous for testing All kinds of strange weapons,

Including america's Nuclear arsenal.

Documentary narrator: More atomic bombs have Been exploded

On these few Hundred square miles of desert

Than on any other spot On the globe.

Krueger: in the early days Of atomic testing,

The united states government Would create

These whole towns Of buildings and mannequins,

And they would detonate Atomic explosions

To discover how these towns Would react to the explosions.

Narrator: the u.S. Government Called these eerie sites

Doom town and survival city.

During the 1950s,

When the soviets were Threatening armageddon,

Over 100 atomic weapons Were tested on sites

Like these in the nevada desert.

If you drop a Large nuke on a city,

All you're gonna see In the aftermath

Is an outline of foundations

And perhaps the street patterns That were laid out.

Narrator: Officially, there's never been

An atomic weapon test In california,

But declassified documents Reveal the air force

Used the salton sea,

150 miles to the southeast,

To practice Dropping nuclear bombs

During world war ii.

Perhaps the ghost city

Is more evidence of california's

Forgotten atomic past.

This area is empty desert, So in many ways,

It's a perfect place To do weapons tests.

That said, it's not far From los angeles.

You wouldn't want to test Anything that had far-reaching,

Destructive capabilities

That close To a major population center.

Narrator: If the ghost city wasn't Destroyed by an atomic bomb,

Perhaps it was abandoned

Due to something Equally sinister --

A deadly toxic leak.

This wouldn't be The first time that a u.S. City

Has been turned Into a ghost town.

Narrator: aerial footage of The town of picher in oklahoma

Is a startling example Of how a city

Can be wiped off the map.

Moran: picher had to be Completely abandoned due

To dangerously High levels of lead

That were exposed During the mining process.

Narrator: in 2011, The entire town was demolished

After a third of the children Were poisoned with lead

From a local mine.

Satellite images show Several abandoned

And active mines to the south,

But analysts find no link Between these mines

And the ghost city.

There's no evidence that there's Any kind of biohazard lake

Or anything that would've Kept people from this city.

Narrator: If this place was a city,

But wasn't destroyed Or abandoned,

What happened?

Investigators turn To land registry records

In search of the key To the mystery.

Moran: if you look at Local land records,

You find out that This entire area

Is registered as a city.

It's called california city.

Narrator: california city was Registered over 50 years ago

By entrepreneur nat mendelsohn,

And he had An incredible plan for it.

In 1958, mendelsohn

Bought up an enormous Swath of land.

He thought he could exploit The housing shortage in l.A.

And make a fortune.

Narrator: in the 1950s,

California's economy And population were booming.

L.A.'s housing supply

Struggled to keep pace.

Mendelsohn's solution --

Build a brand-new city For millions

In the wastelands Of the mojave dessert.

Hickok: nate mendelsohn's Dream was to create

A little bit of heaven In the middle of the dirt.

It's such an eccentric idea, It's got to be up there

With anything Howard hughes thought of.

Narrator: after purchasing 82,000 acres of desert,

Mendelsohn carved out Hundreds of miles of roads,

Installed street signs,

And began selling off Plots to investors.

Hickok: in the beginning, People were buying like crazy.

It's kind of a big boom With the prices being so low

'cause lots were Under $1,000,

So people bought, Bought, bought.

Buyers come by the bus load, Plots are sold,

And all of a sudden, The dream is becoming a reality.

Narrator: But within a few years,

Mendelsohn's dream Turned into one

Of the biggest real-estate Nightmares of the 20th century.

The buyers are speculators.

They mostly sell The plots on.

Moran: houses don't get built, People don't move in.

The bubble finally bursts.

Narrator: by land area, This city

From "The twilight zone"

Is the third largest Metropolis in the state.

This could've been a major Metropolis like l.A.

Or san diego,

But it's simply just Some marks in the ground.

Narrator: mendelsohn's Grand vision relegated

To a footnote in history Visible from space.

Still to come -- Forget the flintstones.

It's "Star trek" in the jungle.

It turns out that The tribal chief's

Actually a big fan Of technology.

Narrator: something weird is Bending the ocean...

There's a distortion in The earth's gravitational field.

Narrator: ...And spooky lines at the Southern tip of the americas.

There's nothing in nature

That could produce Patterns like this.

Narrator: the landsat 8 Earth observation satellite

Passes high above brazil.

Over the amazon jungle,

It captures images Of deforestation.

One stands out.

Something is keeping loggers

Out of this area, But what is it?

Narrator: The image shows a curious,

Deliberately shaped 1,000-square-mile

Area of untouched forest.

Super well-defined borders

That are clearly designated Artificially somehow.

Kournounis: There's a mystery here That needs to be unraveled.

Something's going on In this forest.

Why has this particular

Patch not been logged at all?

Narrator: the photograph Was taken above

The rondônia region Of western brazil.

These are the ancestral lands

Of an ancient amazonian tribe.

The indigenous people Called the surui --

This is their territory,

And the outline Of the forested area

Perfectly matches Their territory.

Narrator: the straight edges Mark the frontline

In a brutal war That has dragged on for decades.

When the first loggers visited

And saw the surui people,

They were shot at By bows and arrows.

Narrator: in the space Of just five terrible years,

No fewer than 11 tribal leaders

Were killed in clashes With loggers and miners.

The surui are fighting For their homeland.

But this is a tribe Of primitive jungle dwellers

Fighting a messy, scrappy war

With desperate, Illegal loggers.

Why are there neat, straight Lines visible from space?

There really is no explanation

Based on the geology Or the topography of the area

Why this particular spot Has been protected.

Kays: what is it about this Land that's different?

What's saving this land From the logger's blade?

Narrator: these tribes people First had contact

With the modern world in 1969.

The viruses they didn't like,

But there was one thing They couldn't get enough of.

It turns out that The tribal chief's

Actually a big fan Of technology.

Narrator: Forget the flintstones.

These bronze-age geeks Have blowpipes with bluetooth.

They'll trade Anything for tech.

They still have Their old weapons

And tribal survival skills,

But now they're pretty good At programming, too.

This tribe isn't Just using bows and arrows

To protect their land.

They're using smartphones.

Narrator: the loggers hated it

When they were attacked With bows and arrows,

But against these Natives turned nerds,

They've met their match.

Now the tribal warriors,

Armed to the teeth With high-tech gadgets,

Patrol the borders Of their territory.

Thanks to gps, they know down To the last inch

What land is theirs.

They still hunt Like ancient warriors.

They look at The birds for signs.

They can see from their behavior There have been people here,

And even the direction They should be looking.

When they reach the spot,

They find evidence Of illegal logging.

But the loggers have fled, And who can blame them?

A well-aimed arrow is As lethal as a bullet.

These space-age warriors

Are hard to beat.

Loggers are now terrified

Of straying Onto surui territory,

Which is why the lines Are so straight

In the satellite image.

"Stay off our land, And we'll leave you alone.

Stray one inch onto our land,

And you take your life In your hands."

This tribe's land is Basically the frontline

When it comes to Deforestation in the amazon,

And the interesting part Is that it's not

Just something that We're seeing from satellite.

They're actually using The satellites

To help defend their area.

These lines are there Because of the satellites.

Narrator: still to come -- Whatever it is,

It's big, it's invisible,

And it's bending the sea.

What's probably Down there in big,

Irregular mass is moving around.

Narrator: the cryosat-2 --

One of the most advanced Research satellites ever built.

It weighs not much More than a golf cart

And could easily Fit in your garage,

But it cost a staggering $145 million.

What it does is Measure gravity.

It's basically measuring tiny,

Tiny variations in The pull of gravity.

So, by looking At the sea surface,

We're in effect Looking at the sea floor.

So, it's like draining The ocean basins.

The cryosat-2 satellite is A technological marvel.

We are able to Analyze the elevation

Of the sea surface

To incredible levels Of precision --

Just a few centimeters.

Narrator: But when professor sandwell Looks at the ocean surface,

He finds something bizarre.

In the great gulf of mexico

To the south Of the united states,

The ocean is bending.

An invisible force Is changing the shape

Of the earth's seas,

Warping the planet's Gravitational field.

Whatever's bending the ocean

Is hidden beneath The waves in the gulf.

On closer investigation,

Sandwell discovers Strange shapes.

In the center Of the gulf of mexico,

We see some Interesting structures --

This orthogonal pattern Of gray-ish

Black continues up here

Into the northern part Of the gulf of mexico.

Narrator: The strange anomaly is vast,

Zig-zagging 600 miles Across the ocean floor.

It can only be detected By the effect

It's exerting On earth's gravity.

On the surface, it's invisible.

Sandwell: these are structures That are buried

By thick sediments Beneath the sea floor,

So they only shine through In the gravity maps,

And you sit there just for days

And days trying to understand What's going on.

Narrator: to find out what's Causing this anomaly,

The investigators Need to figure out

What could be Under the sea floor.

The most obvious Possibility is oil.

Sandwell: This is where you find all The oil in the gulf of mexico.

You wouldn't see The oil directly,

But you would see the structure

That's holding the oil In the reservoir for the oil.

Narrator: All that oil is thrusting

Towards the surface Under extreme pressure.

In 2010, this pressure Cooker exploded --

One of the worst marine Disasters in history.

Recent deepwater horizon spill In the gulf of mexico --

It was a catastrophic accident.

Narrator: the explosion on the Deepwater horizon drilling rig

Triggers an accidental spill Like no other.

Giant underwater oil plumes

Spew out up to 22 miles long.

Nelson: 11 people were killed,

And something like 4 million Barrels of oil were discharged.

A lot of that oil is still Somewhere under the sea.

It's probably Down there in big,

Irregular masses moving around.

There's been speculation That a mass of oil

This size around The mid of the sea

Could cause a distortion in The earth's gravitational field.

Fletcher: we've seen this Happen before.

The oil stays There permanently,

Becoming part of the Ocean floor's geological record.

Narrator: But even though you could see

The deepwater oil spill From space,

It's simply not big enough To affect the earth's gravity.

Nelson: it's unlikely It would cause a distortion

In the gravitational field Of the earth.

You can't see the oil directly In the cryosat gravity field

Because it's just Not massive enough.

Narrator: if the feature isn't A giant morphing mass of oil,

Some suggest a clue could come From the gulf of mexico's

Nautical past.

Gulf of mexico Is so full of shipwrecks --

Could this be a series of wrecks

Which have not been Discovered before

And have just been picked up By satellite image?

Narrator: Every year, these azure waters

Become a 600,000-square-mile Ship graveyard.

Nobody knows exactly How many wrecks there are,

But 2,000's probably A good estimate.

Fletcher: could this vast Array of detritus

Sitting on the floor Explain the anomaly?

Narrator: Ships weighing thousands of tons

Have sunk in these waters.

But most shipwrecks In the gulf occur

Within 50 miles of land.

this feature lies 150 miles

Off the coast in deep ocean.

It's just too far out Into the ocean.

Too deep. It'd be much more random.

You only get that sort of shape

If you're really Close to the coast.

Narrator: to get to the bottom Of the mystery,

Sandwell has to delve Further back in time.

He turns to earth Scientists for help.

I guess you might have to be A bit of a geologist to see it,

But you can see definitely These fracture zones

Running all the way Across the ocean.

So, this is a spreading area,

Sea floor spreading area.

Narrator: it looks Like sandwell has discovered

The site of an ancient Split in the sea floor

Where tectonic plates Once pulled apart.

These two continental Pieces were together

About 200 million years ago.

We started at sea floor Between 200 million

And about 150 million years ago,

And eventually it left behind

The sea floor-spreading Ridge here.

Narrator: magma from deep inside The earth spewed up

Between the plates,

Forming an enormous Underwater mountain range.

Sandwell: you had spreading Between the two continents here,

Active sea floor spreading.

And then, it stopped About 150 million

Or 200 million years ago.

It left behind this pattern On the sea floor.

Narrator: Over millions of years,

This 600-mile-long Mountain ridge

Became buried under billions Of tons of sand and mud.

But the underlying Rock structure remains,

Distorting the earth's Gravitational field.

When you look at The sea floor today,

It's pretty flat, But the gravity field

Then reveals these structures Beneath the sediments.

It's astonishing. You sit in your lab

And you see all kinds Of new structures,

Things that no one Has ever seen before.

Narrator: still to come,

A network of lines In the land of the nazca.

The fact that we're In south america,

One is immediately drawn

To ancient civilizations.

Narrator: The quickbird-2 satellite passes

280 miles above Patagonia, central argentina.

It captures a geometric pattern

Etched into the arid terrain.

Petford: This is quite a striking image.

It's very vivid, very bold.

You've got these Very straight,

Very regular lines forming A kind of matrix structure.

Narrator: the image comes From the remote

Desert plains of patagonia's Río negro province.

Gijesghem: what we're looking at Is fairly evidently human made,

That there's nothing That I know in nature

That can produce patterns Like this.

Narrator: Analysis reveals the web-like Network covers a vast area --

More than 100 square miles.

We know there are large, manmade Features in south america

That seem to be Decorative or ritual.

The fact that we're In south america,

One is immediately drawn To ancient civilizations.

Societies that produce lines On the ground --

The nazca lines are perhaps The most famous example.

Narrator: 2,000 years ago,

The nazca civilization carved Hundreds of enormous shapes

Into the peruvian desert.

Nelson: we didn't even know They were there

Until someone flew over the area

And saw them.

So the question is, Is this a similar feature?

Horton: Maybe this is a completely Unknown group of lines

That have hitherto been

Not recognized By archaeologists.

The question is now Who made them,

And at which point in history.

Narrator: A strikingly similar network Of crisscrossing lines

Has been discovered In sajama, bolivia.

The sajama lines cover an area Of close to 9,000 square miles,

Which is considerable.

They're located In very high altitudes

Near bolivia's highest peak --

An ancient volcano.

Narrator: The lines cover an area

15 times larger Than the nazca lines.

And archaeological evidence Suggests

They were created Over 900 years ago

By a previously Unknown civilization.

The sajama cultures Seem to be drawing lines

On the surface of the desert

As a way of marking

Some form of pilgrimage routes.

Some of these lines Connect things

That appear to be shrines Or burial towers.

Narrator: the lines In the image could be evidence

The same people once lived And thrived in patagonia.

The sajama lines do have That kind of crisscross pattern

That we see in This particular image,

But they tend to be Considerably longer.

Narrator: And the lines in the pattern

Are too evenly spaced for there

To be a connection.

The fact that they're evenly Spaced really makes me think

That this is not an ancient Network or structure.

We have to consider some Other kind of human activity.

Narrator: Details in the image lead

Some to look into The unlikely idea

That this could be some kind Of desert leisure complex.

The dots do pose An interesting thought.

Because of the spacing And the dimension of the dots,

It could look like An irrigation line

For a fairway site.

Narrator: one of argentina's Top golf destinations

is just 90 miles From where the image was taken.

Perhaps the satellite Has spied another golf course

Under construction In the desert.

On a desert golf course, You'd probably have

About 20 to 30 miles Of irrigation

Piped under the ground.

You need high-tech Pumping systems

To make sure the exact amount Of water is delivered.

Narrator: the deserts Of california, nevada,

And dubai have All been transformed

Into lush golf courses

By sophisticated Water-management systems.

It's possible this could be A big irrigation system

Being installed.

We see the network For the pipes and so on.

Narrator: But if these nodes are greens,

There are simply too many here

For a traditional 18-hole course.

The lines are Quite randomly placed

Without a continuous flow.

It doesn't look like A golf course to me.

Narrator: Zooming in reveals structures That could offer clues

To the nature Of the bizarre markings.

To me, looking at this image,

I think it's pretty clear that

We're looking at some kind Of extractive technology.

We can see there's some kind Of equipment down in there.

A lot of the dots have some Mechanical structure by them,

Probably an oil derrick.

One interesting feature Of the patagonian area

Is that it has been a target Over the last decade

Or so for oil exploration.

Narrator: the final clue To the mysterious shape --

Records indicate that a State-controlled energy company

Recently discovered Oil reserves in this region

In excess of 40 million barrels.

That's significant and indicates There will probably

Be more exploration And production

In this remote Part of the world.