All language subtitles for What.on.Earth.S05E02.1080p.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

That defy explanation.

Seen from space,
The alien-like, metal monsters

Coming from the sea...

They look like ominous
Black boxes

Out in the middle
Of the ocean.

Oh, my god.
This is insane.

...Nature at war,
50 million crabs

Versus a mega-army
Of crazy killer ants...

As far as the eye can see,
It's crabs.

The ants spit corrosive acid.

Narrator:
...And the white wall of death,
From which there is no escape.

It's sudden, it's catastrophic,
And it's deadly.

Narrator: baffling phenomena,
Mysteries from space,

What on earth are they?

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

Captions paid for by
Discovery communications

**

May 8th, 2018, eyes in the sky
High above england,

They capture a cluster
Of objects in the sea

Seven miles from the coast.

Albertson:
Looking at this image,

You see what appear to be dots.

It's not clear what they are,
Really, from above.

You got to get closer.

Pappalardo: it looks like
Something that belongs on land,

But it's right there
In the middle of the water.

Pavelec:
Obviously, it's the transformers

Coming out of the ocean
To attack england.

Narrator: image analysis reveals
The seven structures

Each measure
36 feet in diameter.

We know they're not ships
Because there's no wake.

I suspect they're something
Like oil rigs

Or something to do
With drilling.

Narrator: yet, there is no
Recorded drilling here,

And the nearest oil rigs
Are hundreds of miles away.

Clearly, they're not based there

For some kind
Of commercial activity.

Narrator: archaeologist
And explorer klint janulis

Decides to take a closer look.

The first thing that came
To my mind

When I saw them was the tripods
In "War of the worlds."

Narrator: janulis
Goes to the county of kent,

A part of the english coast
Near the structures.

As he scans the area,
He finds another unusual object

In the satellite image.

If I push down the coast here,
There's one small island

With a feature that I can't
Really tell what it is.

The object appears to be some
Kind of wreck, large and long.

I'm gonna go investigate,

And that may
Help me understand

What's going on
Just off the coast here.

The object is hard to reach,

Lying semi-submerged
At the edge of a vast

930-square-mile
Labyrinth-like estuary.

He turns to a local fisherman
To help guide him

Through this maze
Of waterways and inlets.

-klint. Nice to meet you.
-nice to meet you, yeah.

I'm looking to do some exploring
Here in the estuary,

And I don't know
This area very well,

So I'm hoping
You can help me out.

A good tip for you is use
Something like this

To access all the funny
Little ins and outs

And nooks and crannies
That we have in this river.

That would be the kitty.
Okay.

This is the medway estuary.

It's been the site
Of two great battles...

...The first in a.D. 43,

When a roman fleet
Led the invasion of britain,

The second in the 17th century

During the second
Anglo-dutch war.

Janulis rounds a headland.

The object is indeed
An historic wreck,

But it's not
What he is expecting.

Wow.

This is nuts.

So, I'm kayaking inside what
Appears to be an old submarine.

Narrator: janulis starts
To explore the wrecked sub.

He calculates that it's
20 feet wide

And around 180 feet long.

It's layout, shape and size
Give clues to its age.

Janulis: this one seems
Actually kind of small

When you compare it
To the ones

That we know they were
Building in world war ii.

It seems to me
Most likely world war I.

Narrator:
But something else is weird.

The bow has more torpedo tubes

Than any similarly-sized
British world war I sub.

This is a submarine that's got
Like four torpedo tubes.

My money is on --
This is probably a german sub.

Narrator: military historians
Confirm janulis' findings.

Morgan: this is a german u-boat
But not just any u-boat.

It's a type iii coastal
Attack boat.

Narrator: for the men
In a world war I u-boat,

Life is a waking nightmare.

Most world war I u-boats are
Lost at sea, never seen again.

The men and boys
Who operate u-boats

Are twice as likely to die

Than the troops sacrificed
In their millions

On the killing fields
Of the western front.

Morgan:
When submerged, these 34 men
Are packed in like sardines.

It was a miserable experience
Of fighting

On one of the kaiser's u-boats
During the first world war.

Narrator:
But these u-boats also send

Countless enemy sailors
To their death,

Destroying 13 millions tons
Of shipping.

On may 7th, 1915, a u-boat

Torpedoes the ocean
Liner lusitania.

It sinks in minutes,

Killing more than
1,000 innocent civilians,

Including 128 americans.

America responds by declaring
War on the kaiser,

Insuring germany's defeat.

These types of submarines
Were brilliantly effective.

It represented
A whole new threat

To the way the british
Had to fight wars.

Narrator: analysts consider
If the monoliths in the image

Were constructed
To defend against

These world war I
Subsea assassins.

The presence of a world war
I u-boat

Indicates that this is an area
Where there was fighting,

So does that mean that these
Structures are somehow related?

Narrator:
Janulis charters a boat to take
Him out to the structures.

**

After one hour on the water,

He gets his first eye-level
View of the monoliths.

Wow.

[ camera shutter clicks ]

From here, they just look like
Sort of ominous black boxes

Sitting on little, spindly
Toothpick legs

Out in the middle
Of the ocean.

**

Up close, they appear even more
Bizarre than janulis imagined.

Surely, they can't be
Anti-submarine weapons...

...But if not,
What on earth are they?

Oh, my god.
This is insane.

**

Coming up, guns and gold fever
In the jungle...

Thousands of men are there,
Guns on their hips,

Just like
The american wild west again.

Narrator:
...And the alien structures
Reveal their dark secrets.

These are moms and dads
And their kids,

And suddenly,
People are trying to kill them.

**

Narrator: klint janulis is at
Sea off the coast of england,

Investigating seven
Mysterious structures

Captured by satellite.

**

Whoever made this did not
Make it easy to get up here.

Narrator: on his way,
Janulis has already found

And examined the wreck
Of a world war I german u-boat.

He wonders if these
Strange-looking structures

Are connected.

Janulis clambers to the top
Of a monolith.

If these structures are
A defense against u-boats,

It seems they were also prepared
For assault from above.

You've got these thick
Walls here.

You've got steel on both sides

Filled with this conglomerate
Of rock and tar.

This looks like some sort
Of ballistic cladding

Meant to protect whoever's here
From explosions or bullets.

Narrator: this monolith clearly
Has defensive capabilities,

But janulis believes
It could also go on the attack.

So these are interesting.

These are really
Heavy-duty brackets,

And this one right here
Looks like it was meant

To handle something swiveling.

This seems to me like
An air defense artillery system.

Narrator:
Hidden in the reinforced wall,

He finds housing
For giant bullets,

Confirmation that these are
The rusting remains

Of an antiaircraft
Fortification.

These are almost
4 inches wide,

So these would have created
A cloud of shrapnel

In every direction,

Meant to take down
Bomber planes.

Janulis enters the decaying
Bowels of the rusting monoliths.

[ door grinding ]

He tries to find clues
To determine

When they were put here
And when they were abandoned.

Janulis:
These lights up here, this is
Probably after world war I.

This all says world war ii
To me, at least.

**

Narrator:
Rooms filled with lodging
And sanitary facilities

Imply that dozens,
Maybe hundreds of people

Once inhabited
These weird structures.

In all warfare, the biggest
Factor that most people ignore

Is the logistics.

All the sexy hollywood stuff
Is great,

But it's toilets
That win wars.

Narrator: historians confirm
That the structures are located

Beneath the flight path
Used in world war ii

By luftwaffe bombers
Heading for london.

The german bombers have got
A great advantage

As they try to navigate
Their way to london,

And that's the very distinct

Curving snake-like form
Of the river thames

That leads right into the heart
Of the british capital.

Narrator:
Following france's shock defeat
To the nazis in 1940,

Hitler devises
Operation sea lion,

The plan to conquer britain,

But before hitler can launch
An attack by sea,

He must control the skies.

What follows is
The battle of britain,

One of the first
And biggest battles

Fought in the skies
In all military history,

But when the battle starts
To go against hitler,

He orders his bombers
To destroy london.

Pavelec: the germans are trying
To find a way to get britain

To surrender,
So they launch the blitz,

Which is the bombing campaign
Of london.

[ siren wailing ]

Narrator: during september
And october, 1940,

The luftwaffe pounds london for
57 consecutive days and nights.

Over the following months,
14,000 tons of bombs

Destroy over 1 million homes
And kill 43,500 civilians.

These people aren't
Battle-harden troops.

These are moms and dads
And their kids,

And suddenly,
People are trying to kill them.

Pappalardo: they want
To demoralize the british.

They want to reach out
And hurt them.

Narrator: but the blitz
Galvanizes the british,

And they find new ways
To counter the nazi threat,

Including, it seems,

Constructing these alien-looking
Structures out at sea.

Desperate times call for
Some desperate engineering,

So you have a challenge,
And you want to extend

Your defenses
Out into the channel.

Janulis:
In world war ii, the bombing
Campaign ran by germany

Was something the english
Just could not stop,

So it makes sense
It's a world war ii position.

Narrator: historians reveal
The towers are built

By the british royal engineers

To attack bombers
Heading towards london.

What you do is, you build
Effectively a great, big,

Steel castle on dry land,
And then you tow it out to sea,

Where you put it on top of these
Four massive concrete legs

Bedded on the floor of the sea.

Narrator:
160 soldiers are sent to inhabit
These weird sea forts,

Who train their antiaircraft
Guns on the skies,

Taking out dozens of nazi planes
And v-1 flying bombs.

The troops who are positioned
On these sea forts

Had a nickname for them,
Which was "Fort madness".

They would get
Psychological treatment

Oftentimes when they came back.

Having said that,
There was a lot worse places

To be positioned
In world war ii.

Try gonna stalingrad,
You babies.

Narrator: at the end of the war,
The forts are abandoned,

But as janulis prepares
To leave,

He realizes this
Decaying edifice

Has yet to reveal
All its secrets.

On one roof,
He finds what appears to be

Post-world war ii
Communication equipment.

It's been used, repurposed
And periodically occupied

Off and on since it was built.

These are radio towers
And transmitters.

The question is,
Who is doing the receiving

Or the transmitting?

Narrator: as janulis continues
To explore the structure,

He finds further clues to the
Tower's post-world war ii role.

So here it says, "Radio 390,
6:30 to midnight."

[ '60s rock 'n' roll plays ]

Narrator:
These rusting forts, it seems,
Were used by pirates,

Radio pirates
Hijacking the airwaves

And transmitting music
Into britain in the 1960s.

Pirate radio stations
Were a big deal,

Particularly in england.

It would've been a pretty ideal
Radio station to transmit from

If you were looking to avoid

The british communications
Rules and regulations.

Walters:
The sea forts were an absolutely
Perfect place to broadcast from.

Why? Because the forts were
In international waters.

Narrator: during the early '60s,
Radio was controlled by the bbc.

Private broadcasting
On british soil is banned,

So some rebel music lovers

Established pirate
Radio stations out at sea.

Up to 15 million listeners
Tune in each day,

Helping to launch the careers
Of the rolling stones

And the beatles.

Pirate radio was so influential,
It even made the bbc sit up

And take notice and form
Its own pop music station.

Narrator:
Whether it was fighting hitler

Or destroying the british
State's monopoly control

Of broadcasting,
These strange rusting structures

Are monuments
To the struggle for freedom.

The thing that makes this
Really interesting

Is the many lives its had.

It started as a place
Of defense, war,

And ends up being
A broadcast center

For the counterculture movement
In the 1960s.

How cool?

**

Narrator: coming up,
Terror in the jungle...

The immediate reaction
Is horror.

This is actually a crime scene.

Narrator: ...And the creatures
From the crimson lagoon.

Whatever this red mass is,
It's moving.

It's alive.

Narrator: october 8th, 2017,

A spy in the sky
Orbits high above

The 2-million-square-mile
Amazon rainforest.

As it passes over southeastern
Peru, it captures this image.

Lester: this is a huge tract
Of rainforest

That has been
Completely disrupted.

The immediate reaction
Is horror.

The question is not just
What happened, but who did it?

Narrator: farmers cut down

Around 28 football fields' worth
Of amazon rainforest

Every minute to clear land

For raising cattle
And growing food,

But analysis of these
Agricultural sites suggest

That's not what's happening
In the satellite image.

I see entire areas that have
Been cleared of forest

And evidence
Of crops being grown.

The pattern of change
On this site

Looks completely different
Than the mystery site.

It is known the remote amazon
Is being used

By organized criminal syndicates
For various activities.

Munoz:
For decades, the drug cartels
In central and south america

Have made a habit of clearing
Out wide swaths of jungle.

Their main goal is to create
These plantations to grow coca,

Which is where cocaine
Comes from.

Pappalardo: so what if this
Isn't just a satellite image?

What if this is actually
A crime scene?

[ shouting ]

Narrator: analysts calculate
That drug cartels

Control a market
Worth almost $90 billion.

The amount of money coming
Into these organizations

Is astronomical.

Narrator: 35 million americans
Confess to using cocaine,

And traces of the drug
Can be found

On 90% of all dollar
Bills in circulation,

Yet too few of them know what
They're putting up their noses.

Narcos make cocaine
By mixing coca leaves

With cement powder,
Gasoline, and sulfuric acid.

Capps: as long as there's been
An appetite for cocaine,

There's been people
Growing it illegally.

Narrator: jungle narcos have
Been known to smuggle cocaine

Inside breast implants
And frozen sharks.

Though most of the cocaine is
Actually produced in colombia,

This is a borderless crime,

So we're wondering if peru
Could be falling victim

To the colombian dope problem.

Narrator:
Yet when ken joyce deploys

Digitalglobe's
Securewatch technology

To closely analyze the image,
He sees something else.

As I zoomed into the site...

Look here.
This is interesting.

I can clearly see camps,
Earth-moving equipment,

And then
The earth-moving equipment

Is dredging these ponds.

So this kind of deforestation is
Quite possibly linked to mining.

Narrator:
Whatever is being mined

In such a remote jungle location

Must be very valuable.

Geologist alan lester
Believes it is gold.

Lester: millions of years ago,

Magma bodies within
The andes mountains

Were driving
High-temperature water

Into cracks in these rocks,

Producing
What we call vein gold,

But those rocks
Eventually erode,

And they can be washed
Into rivers and streams,

And that's how we get
What we call alluvial gold,

Gold that's present
In the silts of a river.

Narrator:
According to legend, there were
Ancient civilizations

Awash with gold,

And geologists believe

There may be vast reserves
Of the precious metal here

Yet to be discovered.

Peruvian prospectors unearth

Billions of dollars worth
Of gold every year,

Yet trevor albertson
Can find no record

Of any registered mining company

Operating in this area.

Albertson: after a review of the
Permits and maps of the area,

It's clear that this is not
On any of them.

Something illicit's
Going on here.

Narrator: journalist carlo munoz
Reveals that today,

The drug cartels
Are branching out.

It's highly likely
What we're seeing here

Is an illegal gold mining
Operation run by the cartels.

Narrator: with a world economy
Crippled by debt

And warnings of
An apocalyptic economic crash,

Gold is predicted
To soar in value.

Drug cartels are moving
Into illegal gold mining

On an industrial scale.

Munoz: it's become so profitable
That now the cartels

Earn three times more
From those operations

Than they do from actually
Trafficking in narcotics.

Narrator: locals report
That up to 50,000 miners

Have flooded to the region where
The satellite image was taken.

There's gold in them
Their forests, right?

Thousands of men are there,
Guns on their hips,

Pop-up brothels,
The whole thing.

It's just like
The american wild west again.

It's not uncommon
To hear gunfights

Going out
In the middle of nowhere

As gold mining operations
Spar for the best turf.

Narrator:
Those who survive the cartels
And the gun-toting pimps

Still face the deadly challenge
Of the mining itself.

Extracting the gold-rich mud
From the river is dangerous,

And the miners process
It using a deadly toxin.

It has to be separated out,
Typically chemically,

And the chemicals used,
Often mercury, is nasty stuff.

Capps: what we're talking about
Is putting mercury

Right into the water sources,

And it's a horribly
Strong poison.

Narrator: in recent years,
The narco gold miners

Have dumped hundreds of tons
Of mercury into the waters here,

Creating a ticking toxic
Time bomb.

It's estimated that 80%
Of people

Living in this part of peru

Have potentially fatal levels
Of mercury poisoning.

It gets into the food supply,

So humans
Then eat those animals,

And they become affected,
And there's huge consequences,

Including brain damage.

Narrator: peruvian marines
Have started launching attacks

On the cartel gold mines...

...But the cartels are rich,
Resourceful, and ruthless.

This war, like the war on drugs,
Will be hard to win.

With the amount of money
That you can make

From an illegal
Gold-mining operation,

You shut one place down,
Another one is gonna pop up

Somewhere else.

**

Narrator:
Coming up, the strange numbers
Stations threatening america...

It's pretty clear
That havana is still trying

To penetrate
Government installations

And institutions here
In the u.S.

Narrator:
...And killer ants versus crabs
In their countless millions.

As far as the eye can see,
It's crabs.

Narrator: october 17th, 2017,

An aerial image
Taken over an island

235 miles from the coast
Of indonesia

Captures something strange
In the waters below.

Wow. These are just pristine,
Beautiful, blue waters,

And then...

Something has turned
The water red.

Spicer rice:
This is very frightening.

It looks like there's blood
Filling the water.

Narrator: the image reminds
Biologist haley chamberlain

Of a disturbing event

She has witnessed on
Other islands 7,500 miles away.

In the danish faroe islands,

Every year there is
A slaughter of pilot whales.

And as you can imagine,

It's gonna turn
Whatever ocean color you have

Into a red, bloody mess.

Narrator: the hunt, known
Locally as the grindadráp,

Dates to the 13th century.

Chamberlain:
It's significant to them not
Only on the level of tradition

And being able to sustain
Themselves,

But also to be able to support
Themselves economically.

Narrator: historians calculate
That at the peak

Of the whaling industry
During the 1840s,

There were more than 900 ships
On the world's oceans

Hunting the marine mammals.

Schuttler:
The oil from the whale's blubber

Was used in lamps, soaps,
And candles,

And the bones were actually used
To make umbrellas,

Whips, and even ladies corsets.

Narrator:
Today, the faroese only hunt
The whales for their meat,

Which is divided up
Among the local population

By the chief of police.

Sanford: the practice
Is highly controversial,

But the faroe islanders
Will argue that it's tradition,

And they're not letting
Any of the animal go to waste.

That said, it doesn't make it
Any easier to watch.

Narrator:
Experts speculate that the
Crimson tide in this image

Could be similar evidence
Of a mass slaughter.

Globally, whaling is not just
Going on in the faroe islands,

So could this be something
That we're seeing here?

Could this be a whaling event?

Narrator: yet when
Investigator kiki sanford

Consults geographical records
Of the area,

She discovers this theory
Doesn't stack up.

Sanford: we know
This is christmas island,

Which is within
The australian territory,

And the australians
Are anti-whaling,

So the likelihood of it
Being whaling is really slim.

Narrator:
When experts uncover more
Images of the weird phenomenon,

The mystery of
The crimson tide deepens.

It's coming out of the ocean
And onto land.

Whatever this red mass is,
It's moving.

It's alive.

Narrator: biologist
Stephanie schuttler has a theory

For the mysterious,
Moving red mass.

Perhaps what we're looking
At here is a migration.

Narrator: schuttler
Believes the aerial images

Have captured a bizarre event

That sounds straight out
Of a 1950s horror movie,

An invasion of millions
Upon millions of crabs.

It's like a moving red carpet,
A marching army of crabs.

Narrator:
The story of the weird invasion
Begins several weeks earlier

In the woods
In the center of the island.

For most of the year, they live
Quietly, deep in the forest,

But all at once, in conjunction
With the lunar cycle,

These crabs move
In mass migration to the ocean.

Narrator:
The 50-million-strong crab
Army's side-stepping march

To the waters
Of the indian ocean

Is driven by one thing --

Sex.

As far as the eye can see,
It's crabs.

There's crabs --
[ laughing indistinctly ]

Narrator: for the islanders,
It's crabageddon.

It causes absolute chaos.

The whole island is brought
To a standstill.

There's not much they can do
Except for wait for the crabs

To do their thing and leave.

Narrator: once they've traveled
Across the island to the beach,

The males dig love nests
In the sand

And prepare to get their claws
Into the females.

Spicer rice:
It's one of the weirdest

And most awe-inspiring sights
In nature.

Narrator:
A single female crab lays up to
100,000 eggs in the ocean.

Juveniles emerge from the sea
Like a red, swarming tsunami,

A phenomenon captured as never
Before by eyes in the sky.

It's such a beautiful
Biological event.

Narrator: yet today,
The crab army is under attack

From an even more
Gigantic mega-swarm.

These crabs have been doing this
For eons on this island,

But now there's a problem.

An invasive species called
The yellow crazy ant.

Narrator:
And this alien species carries
A crab-killing super weapon --

Projectile formic acid.

The ants spit corrosive acid.

The crabs are blinded
By the formic acid,

And not being able to see,

They will die of starvation
And dehydration,

And then the ants will come
And eat the dead bodies.

Narrator: biologists have tried
To rid the island

Of the acid-spitting terrors...

...But the killer insects always
Seem to be six steps ahead.

If the ants are allowed to
Continue their reign of terror

On christmas island unabated,

Then the island's crabs
Will be totally wiped out.

**

Narrator:
Coming up, bloodlust and occult
Rituals in red cuba...

It looks like a pair of eyes
Looking at you

From the landscape.

Narrator: ...And white death
At the top of the world.

Just imagine what climbing
Everest is like.

Now imagine it with people
Shooting at you.

Narrator: november 18th, 2003,

290 miles
Above communist cuba,

The quickbird earth
Observation satellite

Captures a series of marks
In the landscape.

Krueger:
It's a really unusual image.

There are two oval shapes
Side by side

With little dots
Kind of in the middle.

I have no clue what they are,
No idea.

Narrator:
Analysis reveals the structures
Are around 1,300 feet across.

It almost looks like
A pair of eyes

Looking at you
From the landscape.

Narrator:
Historian david krueger

Considers if the eye shape

Has any occultist
Or pagan significance.

So, the eye is
An important symbol

In many cultures
Around the world,

Including santeria,
An afro-caribbean religion.

Perhaps this could be some type
Of an eye formation

Shaped in the landscape
To ward off the evil spirits.

Narrator:
Cuban slaves transported
From nigeria and benin

In the 16th century

Brought with them
Religious beliefs

That evolved into the
Underground ritualistic religion

Called santeria.

Krueger:
They had a strong, burning
Desire to be able to worship

Their own gods from west africa.

[ singing indistinctly ]

Narrator: santerian worshipers
Sacrifice animals to commune

With the spirits
And appease their gods.

During colonial times,
These bloody rituals strike fear

Into the cuban rulers
Who outlaw santeria,

Believing it to be
A powerful form of witchcraft.

The enslaved africans had
A very clever response.

They would continue to worship
Their west african gods

Through the image
Of catholic saints.

It became a secret way of
Practicing their own religion

While maintaining
Their own safety.

Ex-cia operative mike baker
Is not convinced.

Instead, he looks at
The military activities

Of the communist regime in cuba.

Baker: it very well could be
A shortwave antenna array,

And often times, those antenna
Arrays are in a circle.

Narrator: the site's position
At the north of the island

Could be significant.

Cuba is a communist country

Only 100 miles
From the american border.

We could be looking
At a key site

In cuba's espionage network.

The location of it on
The northern end of cuba

Closest to the florida coast
Would make sense.

Narrator:
When fidel castro seizes power
In a bloody revolution in 1959,

He establishes a one-party
Dictatorship

And forms an alliance
With the soviet union,

Posing a direct threat
To the united states.

There was concerns about cuba
Being a jumping-off point

For a potential invasion
Of the united states by russia.

Narrator:
It is alleged that the cia
Hatched hundreds of plots

To kill the cuban leader,

Including lacing a handkerchief
With deadly bacteria

And filling his famous cigars
With explosives.

Over the following years,

Hundreds of thousands
Of ordinary cubans

Decide to escape castro's
Socialist paradise.

Not everyone in cuba
Is a fan of castro,

And a lot of them
Ended up fleeing the country

And landing
In the united states.

Narrator: during just one
5-month period in 1980,

Over 125,000 cubans
Arrive in miami.

To spy on them and on america,

Cuba's secret police
Come up with a plan.

Cuba saw this group
Of anti-castro people in miami

And realized that they could be
A potential threat,

And they saw an opportunity

To plant their own operatives
In the united states

And track what these guys
Were doing in miami.

Narrator:
Technology expert mike capps

Considers if the structures
In the image

Are a part of a radio
Transmission system

Used in covert operations
Known as a numbers station.

Numbers stations have been
Around since world war I.

It's a really effective
Mechanism

For communicating
To in-country assets.

Narrator: numbers stations
Transmit patterns of numbers

Alongside repeated bursts of
Strange music or other sounds.

[ radio distortion ]

The numbers
Are coded instructions

To spies in the field

And are almost impossible
To crack.

Numbers stations
Are such a great way

To send to assets in-country
Because they just go to walmart

And buy a shortwave radio
And listen in.

Narrator:
When fbi agents detect messages

Coming from what they believe
To be a cuban numbers station,

The bureau is put on high alert.

There was a woman who had
Come on very politely, say,

"Atención," and then
Read out a string of numbers.

[ radio distortion ]

Woman: [ distantly ]
atención...

[ speaking indistinctly ]

Narrator: in 1995,
Agents recover a cipher,

Which enables them
To decode messages

From the atención station.

Six years later, they use
The decrypted messages

To prosecute members
Of the so-called wasp network

Of cuban spies.

Munoz: dubbed the cuban five,

These individuals
Were eventually charged

And convicted of espionage
In the united states

And sent to federal prison.

Narrator: following the trial,

The atención
Numbers station falls silent...

[ radio distortion ]

But in 2012...

Woman: atención...
nueve, cinco...

Narrator: ...Intelligence agents
Detect messages

Occupying the same frequency
And time slots

Once used by atención...

Woman: ocho, nueve, cinco...

Narrator: messages that continue
To this day.

It's pretty clear that havana
Is still trying

To penetrate government
Installations and institutions

Here in the u.S.

We know the atención
Numbers station existed,

But we never did find it,
And this may have been it.

**

Narrator: coming up, wall
Of death, the mega-avalanche.

This is one of
The largest avalanches

That we have on record.

Narrator: july 17th, 2016,

Nasa scientists
Studying satellite images

Of a remote region
Of western tibet

Spot something puzzling,

The sudden appearance
Of two white areas

On a mountainous landscape.

It looks as if someone took
A can of white paint

And just dumped it
Over this mountainous area.

Narrator:
The nasa team wonders if the
Satellite has captured debris

From two supersized avalanches.

Scale analysis reveals they are
Over 3 square miles in size.

I can see that it's about the
Size of 1,500 football fields.

This is enormous.

This is one of the
Largest avalanches

That we have on record.

Man: do you hear that?

Narrator: even avalanches which
Are much smaller than this

Can have awesome
Destructive power.

-the ground is shaking.
-on april 25th, 2015...

Go, go!

...An experienced team
Of mountaineers

Are planning a climb
At everest base camp.

-go!
-...When they see

This terrifying wall of snow

Heading towards them.

And I've seen snow
From an avalanche

explode through the trees,
Coming at me,

And let me tell you,
You get out of there

As quickly as you can,

If you're lucky.

Narrator: the catastrophic event
Kills 21 climbers.

It was the deadliest day
Ever on mount everest.

Narrator: geologists believe
A 7.8 magnitude earthquake

Triggered the fatal avalanche
Captured in the footage...

...Yet experts find no seismic
Or meteorological evidence

For the mega-lanches
In the satellite image.

I did some research,

And I didn't see any record
Of earthquake activity.

Cerveny: when we look at the
Past weather over this area,

There's nothing unusual.

Temperatures weren't changed
That much -- there was no storm.

So the question is -- what would
Trigger such an avalanche?

Narrator: military historian
Martin morgan

Considers if a clue
To the mystery

Could come from the nearby
Disputed region of kashmir.

Since 1947,
Indian and pakistani troops

Have been wrestling
For control

Of this 86,000-square-mile
Mountainous region.

Considering that geopolitical
Background,

Maybe this isn't just
A natural event.

Maybe this is something
Related to warfare.

Narrator: for the past 35 years,
The focal point of the conflict

Has been the siachen glacier,

A 48-mile-long body of ice

That dissects areas controlled
By the two military superpowers.

Morgan: this spot is known as

The highest battlefield
In the world.

Just imagine what
Climbing everest is like.

Now imagine it with people
Shooting at you.

Narrator: the battle over
The 17,700-foot-high glacier

Has claimed thousands of lives.

This is a really
Dangerous place.

You're gonna get
Altitude sickness.

It's a constant daily struggle
Just to keep warm,

And, of course,
You run the real risk

Of being killed
By the other side.

[ calling in urdu ]

Narrator:
In 2012, an avalanche kills
129 pakistani soldiers

Stationed
On the siachen glacier.

Some pakistanis accuse
The indian military

Of using weapons
To cause the disaster.

Walters:
The two avalanches in this image

Could also have been caused
By military activity.

Some locals reported at the time

That they heard a loud bang
Go off before the avalanches.

[ explosion, rumbling ]

Narrator: eyewitnesses
Describe a white wall

Traveling at 200 miles per hour,

Over twice the normal speed
Of an avalanche.

Nine people die.

It's sudden, it's catastrophic,
And it's deadly.

Narrator:
On-site investigators find no
Evidence of military activity,

But they do uncover
Another mystery.

This is no ordinary avalanche.

This is an avalanche of ice.

Millions of tons of it.

Narrator:
The only possible explanation

Is that the massive super-fast
Ice floe

Originated from glaciers
In the nearby mountains.

If you look at this region

Just before this major ice
Avalanche occurred,

You'll see that there's
Cracking in the glaciers.

Narrator: investigators believe
That these cracks

Channel thousands of gallons
Of meltwater

Down through the glacier,
Where it pools at its base.

Lubricated by this water,

The immense wall of ice
Slides forward.

What seems to have happened
Is that glacier surged forward,

But then got stuck
In a restricted area

Where there was a tight valley.

Narrator: the valley bottleneck
Traps the moving wall of ice

But only temporarily.

It immediately became
A ticking time bomb.

At some point,
It's gonna break through.

Gravity always wins.

Narrator: recent satellite data
Reveals that glacial meltwaters

Are increasing worldwide.

There are death traps
In the mountains

Waiting to go off
With no warning.