All language subtitles for What.on.Earth.S05E03.1080p.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.

[ beeping, distorted music ]

The mystery of the stone giant

And vanishing desert kingdom.

Wow, it's easily hundreds
Of years, possibly thousands.

This is a whole
Missing civilization

That we know nothing about.

Narrator: nukes and spies
Stalk the middle east.

Forget the cia.

Mossad is the best
At this kind of operation.

Narrator: they look
Like madonna's bra,

But these hypnotic circles
Have more to hide.

He performed
Some kind of ceremony

To try and raise these people

To make an army of the dead.

Narrator: baffling phenomena.

Mysteries from space.

What on earth are they?

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

[ beeping ]
[ camera shutter clicking ]

[ whirring ]

Captions paid for by
Discovery communications

**

[ frequency warbles ]
[ whirring ]

**

Narrator: may 7, 2011 --

As the geoeye-1 satellite
Passes over northern chile,

It captures this image.

**

Krueger: it almost looks
Like a giant robot

Has been drawn
In the middle of the desert.

Looking around this image,

The first thing you got
To wonder is,

This can't be real.

**

Narrator: analysis reveals
The strange robotic figure

Is almost 300 feet long.

It is known locally
At the atacama giant,

And its origin and purpose
Have baffled archaeologists

Since they first studied it
Decades ago.

When we look at this formation,
It's tempting to assume

That this might be
A modern creation,

But this is something

That has been around
For hundreds of years,

Long before there
Were written records.

Narrator: further research
Reveals this part of the atacama

Contains more strange
Ancient shapes --

5,000 of them --

Covering an area
The size of new york state.

Horton: they're much bigger
Than the famous nazca lines.

They are on a massive scale.

Narrator: the weird
Ancient geoglyphs

Suggest that the atacama,

40,000 squares miles
Of scorching lifeless desert,

Was once home
To a huge group of people.

This is a whole
Missing civilization

That we know nothing about.

Archaeologist, karen bellinger,

Believed that the desert giant

Is the key
To solving the mystery.

The other geoglyphs
Occur in groups.

This is unique,

And also,
It's on a massive scale,

Unlike the majority
Of these geoglyphs.

It just dwarfs all the others.

Narrator: bellinger wonders
Whether there are any clues

To the lost civilization
Hidden within the giant itself.

What she finds seems incredible.

The dimensions of this thing
Actually do measure up

To a really important
Mathematical formula.

You come up with this proportion

Of 1 to 1.618,

And that is the golden section.

The golden section
Is a magical ratio

That appears
In the ancient world.

Leonardo da vinci
Was specifically keen on this.

Narrator: the golden section
Is a formula seen

In the design
Of the great pyramids,

The parthenon in athens,

And da vinci's "Vitruvian man."

It's amazing to think that
The creators of this giant

Used the same
Mathematical principles

As those in ancient egypt
Or ancient greece.

Narrator: the discovery
Pushes bellinger

To head to chile to investigate.

Bellinger: I'm convinced
Already that I'm dealing

With a sophisticated
Culture here.

I'm really excited to get
Down on the ground

And look for more clues.

[ airplane engine roars ]

Narrator: bellinger
Flies to santiago, chile.

To reach the giant,
She must make a long drive

Deep into the atacama.

**

Here, daytime temperatures reach
Over 100 degrees fahrenheit,

And it is so dry that
Even bacteria barely survived.

First of all, who made it,

But even more importantly,
I want to know why?

I mean this thing represents

A huge, huge investment
Of labor and time

In a place
Where just surviving

Would've been
An everyday challenge.

**

Narrator: on arrival,
Bellinger is staggered

By the scale of the geoglyph.

Wow!

**

Bellinger: I have never
Seen a geoglyph

That was so in your face,
Frankly.

This thing was made to be seen.

Early european explorers
Often believed

That south america was
Full of giants.

The belief was so pervasive

That even some
Of the early maps of the region

Included the name
"Land of the giants."

**

Narrator:
Bellinger explores the giant

And tries to establish
When it was created.

Geoglyphs, typically,
Are made one of two ways,

In an additive method,

Where rocks are piled up
To create lines,

Or an extractive method,

Where something is
Scooped out and removed,

And this giant is produced

By a combination
Of these approaches.

Narrator: bellinger has
Seen this technique before,

In geoglyphs in northern chile,

Many of which have been dated
To between 1000 bc and 1500 ad.

**

This suggests
The lost civilization

That built the desert giant

Existed here
Around the same time.

**

As bellinger continues
To study the giant,

She discovers that it is set
At a very precise angle.

Bellinger: he's not plumb.

He's slightly off
The perpendicular slope,

And I can't believe
That's not deliberate.

**

Narrator: bellinger
Consults an app.

The points emanating
From the giant's head

Line up with an important
Astronomical event.

Bellinger: the rays
Of this headdress --

They align perfectly
With the lunar cycles,

Which is incredible.

**

Horton: perhaps it's a way

One can work out
With the time of the year

But also a longer time calendar
Over the years.

Narrator: if this is some kind
Of an ancient lunar calendar,

The question remains --

Who built it?

**

Bellinger: it would have
Taken a lot of people

To even create this thing,

But I'm standing
On the highest ridge

Above the giant,

And as far as the eye
Can see everywhere,

I don't see the slightest
Sign of habitation.

Where were the people?

**

Narrator: returning
To the satellite image,

Bellinger spots something --

Strange rectangular shapes

To the south of the giant.

Bellinger: yeah,
That's worth a look.

That's too regular
To be natural.

**

Narrator: the apparently
Man-made rectangles

On the desert floor are
Around 3 miles from the giant.

Bellinger heads there
To investigate.

**

Bellinger: it is
Not a settlement.

There are no roads.
There's no sign of a building.

People did not live here.

Narrator:
The earth banks suggest

Some of the lost civilization
Lived near here.

It makes me think
About agricultural beds.

Having raised edges would help
To keep water inside

To keep the plants growing.

Narrator: the discovery
Of an irrigation system

In these ultra-dry barren lands
Shocks experts.

Horton: this is one the driest
Places on the planet.

It doesn't rain at all,

But you've got
These fields out there.

You're like, "How the hell
Did they get water?"

**

Narrator: coming up,
Why is mossad terrified

Of this big box?

You can imagine them
Sitting there,

Knowing the clock
Is ticking.

Narrator:
At the atacama desert's

Rivers of death.

Wow, it is literally at
The very top of the chart

For deadly levels of arsenic.

**

Narrator: archaeologist
Karen bellinger has traveled

To the atacama desert

To investigate
A giant robotic figure

Built by a civilization
That ruled these lands

Before written records began.

It's like an 8-bit
Video game character

From the 1980s or something.

It's a real mystery.

Narrator: bellinger
Has found evidence

Of mysterious ancient
Irrigation systems

In the arid desert.

She scours the nearby
Mountainous area

For any other signs
Of human activity.

Then, she notices something.

**

You know, I've passed
Some rock piles

That just seem too purposeful

To be natural.

I'm going to pull over
As soon as I can.

It seems worth checking out.

**

Wow, there is no question
In my mind that

We are in an old domestic site.

It's easily hundreds of years,
Possibly thousands.

I think this is
A really good candidate

For a settlement

For people who could've
Built the giant.

Narrator: the satellite image
Yields another clue --

A dried-up riverbed,

Which runs from the mountains
Down to where the desert giant

And irrigation systems
Are located.

Bellinger: what you see here
Is the dried-up remains

Of what was once
A really sizable riverbed.

There's clear evidence

There was abundant water
At one point

To support
Agricultural production

Down at the foot of our giant.

[ thunder crashes ]

Narrator: studies suggest
That around 8,000 years ago,

The now barren atacama
Received regular rain,

Which drew coastal people
Into the desert.

**

Experts speculate that
As these rains disappeared,

It forced the lost civilization

Towards the base
Of the andes mountains.

Here, the people used
The desert giant

As a calendar to calculate

When the rivers would swell

And flood the desert plains.

They need to predict
The seasons.

They need to know
When to sow the crops

And when to harvest the crops

And, therefore, survive

In this otherwise
Impossible environment.

Narrator: yet, if
The desert civilization

Was sustained by seasonal rains

Predicted
By the giant robotic man,

Why did it disappear?

**

Exploring further,
Bellinger finds a stream.

**

For the desert people,
Water sources such as this

Would've been the difference
Between life and death.

I wonder if the water supply
Was contaminated.

Narrator: bellinger knows
Several ancient civilizations,

Including the romans,

Were affected
By toxic water supplies

And decides to test the stream
For impurities.

**

I'm really curious to find out
What could be in it,

But I think these gloves
Are a good idea.

**

Wow!

This stuff is lethal.

It is literally
At the very top of the chart

For deadly levels of arsenic.

Narrator: arsenic in the form
Of gallium arsenide

Is used to produce
The latest generation

Of computer chips.

These are the electric brains

That may soon drive everything

From robots to spacecraft,

But it has another property.

Arsenic, of course, is a poison

That kills you.

Narrator: arsenic
Occurs naturally

In the rocks
Of the andes mountains

And leeches out into the rivers

That run down
Towards the atacama desert.

**

Bellinger finds evidence
That over several centuries,

Declining rainfall concentrates
The arsenic in the rivers

That fed a lost civilization.

**

You can see what level
The water was at one point

And how it has dwindled down
To a sort of carved out

Central trickle really,
And then dried up.

Arsenic had poisoned
The water supply

In the ancient past.

No wonder the people
Disappeared.

Recent archaeological findings
Further north in chile

Suggest that arsenic poisoning

Also affected other
Ancient civilizations

In this country.

The high levels of arsenic
In their water

Could be an explanation

As to what eliminated
This culture.

In this same region,
There were mummies found,

And these mummies appear
To have arsenic in their system.

Narrator: bellinger is
Eager to learn more.

She hears that
A local archaeologist

Has studied
The affects of arsenic

On the people of the atacama

And heads
To the town of tarapaca,

Where she meets
Dr. Calogero santoro vargas.

**

-hola.
-hola.

Hello.

Narrator: vargas suggests that

As the rivers
And rains disappeared,

The desert giant went
From being a lunar calendar

To a site
Of ritualistic bloodletting.

Vargas' studies suggest that
Some of the lost civilization,

Forced to consume
The arsenic-rich rivers

As the rains die away,

Mutate and develop
A resistance to the poison.

Oh, wow.
Yeah.

So the people living
In this area today

Are potentially descendants
Of this group.

Yeah.
Survival of the fittest.

Yeah.

**

Bellinger's investigation
Suggests that between

1000 bc and 1500 ad,
An advanced civilization

Flourishes at the edge
Of the atacama desert.

**

They used the desert giant
To predict the rains

That feed the rivers
That sustain them.

When the rivers become toxic,
Some survive, but many die,

And their legacy
Is rot in these stones,

Visible from space.

It's incredible to imagine
That people in this area

Could've developed a superhuman
Resistance to arsenic,

But there would've been a lot
Of people dying in that process

And perhaps even the creators
Of our atacama giant.

**

[ beeping, whirring ]

Narrator: coming up,
What's in the box?

The psycho with the superweapon.

This guy is seriously evil.

He makes hannibal lecter
Look like mary poppins.

Narrator: and satellites
Spot something freaky

In the forest of russia.

I almost get this feeling,
Like, something is,

Like, looking back at me.

**

Narrator: since its creation
As an independent state in 1948,

Israel has been under constant
Threat of destruction

By the arab nations
That border it.

Baker: israel exists
In a different world.

It is literally surrounded
By a handful of countries

Who have been very public
About their desire

To destroy israel
At some point in time.

Narrator:
To counter this threat,

Israeli defense forces
Maintain a fleet of spy birds,

Which scan the middle east,

Searching for suspect buildings,

Machines, or activity.

Moran: what they're going
To be looking for are

Weapons, arsenals,
Training camps,

Anything that is related
To military or offense

That israel would want to know
About for their own defense.

Narrator: in 2006,

Israeli image analysts
Discover something unusual.

**

So they get some satellite
Imagery from syria

Right along the border
Right next door,

And these are
Very disconcerting.

They're looking at something.

They're not quite sure
What it is.

Narrator: the image reveals
A large symmetrical structure

Near a river 150 miles southeast

Of the city of aleppo.

**

Intelligence experts call it
"The cube."

D'antonio:
This definitely looks odd.

It's sort of out of place.

This brand new construction
In the middle of the desolation

Does have an odd feel to it.

Narrator: analysts believe

The cube's location
Is significant.

Pappalardo: syria has been
Hostile to israel and vice versa

For decades.

Going back to israel's creation,

Syria was on the frontlines

Of wanting to see it destroyed.

**

Narrator: in recent years,

Syria has been ruled
By a madman,

Whose father once vowed
To pave arab roads

With the skulls of jews.

When he comes to power in 2000,

Despotic syrian leader
Bashar al-assad

Begins to amass vast stockpiles
Of chemical weapons,

Including sarin
And the nerve agent vx.

This guy is seriously evil.

He makes hannibal lecter
Look like mary poppins.

He represents a serious threat
To israel.

**

Narrator: fearing the cube
As an attempt by assad

To increase his arsenal
Of chemical weapons,

The israeli intelligence
Agency, mossad,

Places the cube
Under constant surveillance.

Further image analysis
Provides a clue

To something
Even more disturbing.

D'antonio: when we zoom in
On just the river here,

You can see there are pipes

Going into the ground here,

And presumably,

It's taking water
Out of the river.

What would require
A constant flow of water?

Narrator:
For intelligence experts,

The size of the building,
Its remote location,

And the water pipelines

Mean only one thing.

**

That now convinces them
That what they're looking at

Is a reactor.

Nuclear reactors need water
For cooling,

And lots of it.

Hey, maybe it's
For peaceful purposes.

You know, maybe it's for,
You know, production of energy.

They're going to light up
The nation,

Or maybe it's for purposes
Of a weapons program,

And they're gonna...
Light up another nation.

**

Narrator: mossad cranks up
Its investigation.

Agents home in on the head

Of the syrian atomic
Energy commission,

Ibrahim othman,

When he attends
An international conference

In vienna, austria.

This guy is the kingpin.

He is the head
Of syria's nuclear tree,

So there's a good bet

That he could be carrying
Classified information.

Narrator: when othman
Leaves his rented residence

For a meeting,

Mossad agents break in

And strip his computer
Of secrets.

Moran: forget the cia.

Mossad is the best
At this kind of operation.

They make a clean getaway
In under an hour

And then slip away like ghosts.

Narrator: the documents
They download are unambiguous.

What they find is shocking.

They see clear evidence

That this is a nuclear reactor.

**

Narrator: what's more?

The agents recover evidence
Showing the syrians

Are working with scientists

From a country known to be

Developing nuclear weapons.

Moran: you can see north korea
Technicians working there.

This isn't a smoking gun.

This is the whole arsenal.

**

Narrator: israel now has proof
That a neighboring tyrant

Has nuclear capabilities.

Muñoz: if bashar assad
Has a big red button

That can trigger nuclear war
In the middle east,

I would not put it
Past him or his regime

For pushing it.

Narrator: israel
Must act quickly,

Yet they need to find a way
To disable the facility

Without entering
Into a full-scale war.

It's not out of the question

To see a chain
Of events unfolding

Where if israel hits
This facility inside syria,

Syria responds with
Its own military action.

Narrator: the israeli government
Faces an agonizing dilemma.

Do nothing,
And syria might strike.

Attack, and it could
Trigger world war iii.

Baker: so you can imagine them
Sitting there, in a room,

Trying to take this decision,

Knowing the clock is ticking.

Narrator: mossad turns
To the israeli air force

For assistance.

On september 5, 2007,

It launches operation
Outside the box.

**

Four f-15 and four f-16
Fighter jets

Take off
From ramat david airbase

And head for the structure
In the satellite image.

Support aircraft deploy
Electronic warfare systems

To jam and deceive
The syrian air defense network.

Pappalardo: the israelis had

Enough intelligence
On the ground

And enough spycraft

And enough knowledge
Of the systems

That they were able to spoof
All of the computers,

All the airspace
Was a phony image, basically.

Narrator: behind enemy lines,
Israeli ground forces

Help guide the planes
Towards their target.

**

As the f-15 and f-16s
Bare down on the cube,

They unleash 17 tons of agm-65
Precision-guided missiles.

**

This operation epitomizes
The idea of a surgical strike,

Clean in, clean out,

And the target is
Completely obliterated.

**

Following the mission,
The israeli government

Readies itself
For syria's response

To their audacious air strike.

Everybody is really tense
And ready

Because there's always
The potential

For immediate blowback.

President assad orders
Syrian forces to place missiles

Armed with chemical warheads
On high alert.

But fearing an israeli
Counterstrike,

He backs down.

Bashar assad didn't retaliate.

His calculation was
Not to go to war

Because he knew
He had been caught out.

Narrator: the world must
Wait over a decade,

Until 2018,
For the israeli government

To formally admit
To the daring raid.

Pappalardo: it's like
It never happened.

The israelis never admit it.

Syrians never admit it.

It's an amazing testament
To the kind of shadow war

That plays out
In the middle east.

**

[ beeping, whirring ]

Narrator: coming up,
Losing nemo,

Something fishy
In washington state.

Kourounis: one day,
They're swimming around,

In they're happy schools,
Just going about their business,

And the next day...

All dead.

Narrator:
And harry potter's hedwig

Reveals her dark side.

Owls have been linked
As a symbol for satanism.

**

Narrator: may 15, 2016 --

Satellites in orbit
Over the ural mountains

In west russia spot
Something strange

In the forest landscape,

Giant circles 1,000 feet across.

To be honest,
When I first saw the image,

What came to my mind was
Madonna's conical bra.

**

Krueger: it's so perfectly
And precisely laid out.

It clearly was not something
That happened

By natural occurrence.

Narrator: a possible clue

To the origin
Of the mystery circles

Comes from a recently discovered
Formation in germany

That hides a murderous past,

A 4,300-year-old
Neolithic structure

Known as a henge.

**

Bellinger: it was
Clearly a ritual site.

There are a number of burials
Of women and children.

Krueger: archaeologists
Who have examined these remains

Have concluded that very likely
These individuals died

As a result
Of some type of sacrifice.

Narrator: historians speculate
That people there turned

To bloodletting
In times of peril.

It certainly sounds brutal
And barbaric

By our standards today,
But at the time,

It would've been viewed
As a necessary evil

In order to assure
Social tranquility

And prosperity
For the community.

Narrator: if the site
In the image also conceals

Buried evidence
Of ancient bloodlust,

The victims' decaying flesh will
Have raised the soil fertility.

Image analyst amanda marchetti

Turns to digitalglobe
Securewatch technology

To scan the site.

Marchetti: when I look at the
Way the specter are responding,

I'm not seeing a significant
Difference between these trees

And the surrounding
Vegetative matter.

I'm not seeing
A strong indication

That something
Has been buried here.

Narrator: investigator
David krueger still finds

The image unsettling.

I almost get this feeling,
Like, something is,

Like, looking back at me.

You see these perfect circles

And a triangular beak
In the midst of it.

It almost looks like it's an owl
Looking right back at you.

[ squeaks ]

Narrator: these nocturnal
Birds of prey

Have long been
Considered magical

And not just in "Harry potter."

Owls are revered by
A wide variety of cultures.

They're often associated
With wisdom or knowledge

Or maybe some form of magic.

Narrator: but to some,

The killer bird
Is much more sinister.

Owls have been linked
As a symbol for satanism.

It's this idea of owls
Being able to see the unseen.

Krueger: seeing this owl figure
In the landscape

Makes me ask the question of,

Could this have been a site

Of some type
Of an occultic activity.

Narrator: investigators
Uncover a clue

In a russian newspaper report

From early 2017.

A satan worshiper, who also
Happened to be a police officer,

Was luring in homeless people
And sacrificing them.

Narrator: like some twisted
21st-century fairy tale,

The policeman lures his victims
Into the woods

With free alcohol,

Then butchers them
On an occult altar.

**

And it gets even creepier --
The fact that he went back

To all these people
That he had killed

And then performed
Some kind of ceremony

To try and raise these people

To make an army of the dead.

[ screaming ]

**

Narrator: aviation expert
Joe pappalardo

Isn't convinced
By the occult theory.

He wonders whether the circles
Have a military purpose.

If you see giant
Disk-shaped objects,

One of the things
You have to consider is,

Is that a high-frequency
Radio antenna array?

Narrator: the circular arrays
Are known as elephant cages,

But these pens aren't
Packing pachyderms.

The rings of antenna are for
Listening in on communications.

Pappalardo: they were large,

And they sort of
Looked like something

Where you'd house
A giant animal.

What you do is build
A lot of small

Radio antenna and receivers,

And they will intercept
The signals

That are bouncing off
The ionosphere.

Narrator: during the cold war,
America and its allies

Build a network
Of elephant cages,

Known as iron horse,

To intercept messages from
High priority russian targets.

The kremlin also install
30 similar devices

Across the soviet union
During the 1950s,

**

But military historian
Guy walters doesn't believe

These explain the mystery
Circles in the satellite image.

Walters: what puzzles me
Is that these circles

Are right
In the middle of russia.

They're nowhere
Near to the people,

Such as the americans
And the british and the french,

That the russians
Want to listen to.

If they wanted to do that,

These circles would
Be right near the borders.

Narrator: for now, the shapes
That look like madonna's bra

Remain a double mystery.

**

[ beeping, whirring ]

Coming up, the arctic's
Mystery plumes...

Muñoz: this is
Absolutely strange.

You have this island
Completely covered in ice

And smoke rising from it.

Narrator: ...And death
At double speed.

Kourounis: I tell people,

"If you see one of these things
Coming towards you,

You're better off
Running towards it.

It'll be over sooner."

**

Narrator: august 23, 2016 --

An eye in the sky circling high
Above washington state

Captures a shocking image,

A large lake being consumed

By what appears to be
A gray sludge.

This lake is bizarre.

It's, like, a third of it is
Covered in some gray substance

That appears to be swallowing up
The lake's surface.

You've got this gray mushy
Looking thing on top of it.

What the hell is that?

Narrator: image analyst
Bronwyn agrios compares

Historical images of the lake

And is mystified
By what she sees.

Agrios: this is really strange.

This mass is just not
Sitting still.

It's actually moving
To different parts of the lake.

Narrator: investigator
Martin pepper is suspicious.

This is one sign
Of a mass death.

You can see this stuff
Jumps around,

And it's large stuff.

The first thing I would think is
It must be large fish kills.

Narrator: the massive die-off
Of a whole lake of fish happens

When things like algal bloom
Or temperature increases

Deplete oxygen in the water.

The fish suffocate to death.

Kourounis: one day,
They're swimming around,

In they're happy schools

Just going about their business,

And the next day...

All dead.

Narrator: agrios cranks up
The magnification.

The fine details reveals
Something unexpected.

**

When I zoom in really close
On these objects...

They look like sticks actually
Floating in the water.

Let's take a measurement.

Wow.

120 feet long.

This isn't a stick.

This is a huge tree trunk,

And...

There's thousands of them,

Tens of thousands,
Possibly millions,

Covering the lake.

Kourounis: it's like someone has
Dropped a box of matchsticks

Into a puddle but on a much,
Much larger scale.

Narrator: in search
Of an explanation,

Agrios returns
To the satellite image.

I need to start putting
This lake in context

Of what is around it.

When I zoom out...

There is a huge volcano.

Narrator: the lake is situated
Near mount st. Helens,

The most destructive volcano

In washington state's
Cascade mountains.

Everything between
The volcano and this lake

Is absolutely decimated.

There has got to be
A relationship.

This volcano has
To have a role to play

In what we're seeing
On this lake.

Narrator: mount st. Helens'
Last large eruption

Was almost 4 decades ago.

Investigators study
The chronology of this eruption

To see if it can
Solve the mystery

Of the massive floating layer
Of trees.

**

In april of 1980,
One side of mount st. Helens

Begins to bulge like a balloon.

One of the most telltale signs

That a volcano is about to erupt

Is swelling of the volcano.

Mount st. Helens
Was actually inflating

Or swelling at 5 feet per day.

That's an incredible amount.

Narrator:
Over the following weeks,

Pressure from
The magma chamber below

Swells the side of the volcano
By 450 feet.

The side of the mountain
Was stretching out,

And rocks can only stretch
So far.

At 8:32 am on may 18th,

A magnitude-5 earthquake
Shakes the unstable dome.

[ rumbling ]

Brand: that caused that unstable
North flank of the volcano

To catastrophically collapse,

Creating the largest landslide
In recorded history.

Man: now we got a big slide
coming off.

now we got a whole
big, big rupture

opened up on the west side.

Moments later, it's followed
By a cataclysmic eruption,

And the volcano
Explodes sideways.

**

Narrator: a massive shock wave
Rips across the ground,

Flattening every inch of forest
Within 19 miles.

**

It's quickly followed
By a superheated cloud

Of rock fragments, ash, and gas,

Known as a pyroclastic flow,

Which tears down the volcano
At 300 miles per hour.

There is nothing that will
Stop a pyroclastic flow.

It will kill anything
In its path,

With no exceptions.

Kourounis: I tell people,
"If you see

One of these things
Coming towards you,

You're better off
Running towards it.

It'll be over sooner."

**

Narrator: untold tons of rocks,
Debris, and trees crash

Into the lake
At the volcano's base.

Experts believe
That this impact,

Almost 40 years ago,

Is the key to explaining

The thousands of trees
On the lake.

This gargantuan avalanche
Of rock slams into the lake,

Creating a mega tsunami

That went hurdling up
Into the forest.

Narrator:
The 800-foot-high tsunami

Washes across the landscape

Devastated by the shock wave.

As the waters recede,

They drag thousands of
Fell trees into the lake.

Kourounis: the tsunami reached
Out of the lake like a hand

And pulled
The toppled trees back in.

They've collected on this lake,

And they've been sitting there
For almost 40 years.

Narrator: a massive moving raft
Of logs visible from space,

An eerie reminder of one
Of the most destructive events

Of the last century.

Brand: that whole area
In front of the volcano

Was forever changed,

Buried in up to 600 feet
Of landslide material,

Trees completely knocked down,

A lake covered now
In a mat of trees

That just won't sink.

**

[ beeping, whirring ]

Narrator: coming up,
Ice on fire.

What's happening
In the russian arctic?

This area has really been
A hotbed for military activity

Between moscow and washington.

**

Narrator: february 2013,

512 miles above the earth --

The suomi-npp
Polar-orbiting satellite

Scans the russian arctic.

**

Back on earth,

Scientists process
Its multiple data streams

And discover something
Unusual happening

On the remote,
Isolated bennett island.

Muñoz: this is
Absolutely strange.

You have this island
Completely covered in ice

And, out of nowhere,
Two plumes of smoke

Rising from it.

Kourounis: this is weird.

There's nothing else
In the image

That would suggest
Why this is showing up.

Narrator: climatologist
Randy cerveny studies the image.

Cerveny: one of the first ideas
That we might have is that

These are plumes from a volcano

That is outgassing
From some central crater.

The likelihood is that
That's probably not the case

Because this is
The north area of russia

And not that
Tectonically active.

Narrator: military journalist
Carlo muñoz suggests the plumes

Could be evidence
Of clandestine activity.

To me, the biggest concern
About these plumes of smoke is,

They could be associated
With some of sort

Of military operation.

You have a vapor trail
Of something being fired

From bennett island.

Narrator: the image
Bears the hallmarks

Of russia's nuclear program.

If you've ever seen footage
Of atomic tests,

Sometimes,
Beside the mushroom cloud,

You'll see
These vertical streaks.

Narrator: for a few milliseconds
After a nuclear explosion,

The shock wave is so powerful,

It can be seen heating
The surrounding air white-hot.

After this, the wave
Becomes invisible.

Before a nuclear test,
Scientists launch rockets,

Which create plumes

That pinpoint
These invisible shock waves

As they spread from
The detonation point.

It seems low tech and primitive
By modern standards,

But it gives weapon testers

An immediate indication
Of the size of their blast.

Bennett island is situated

On the eastern side
Of russia's arctic territory,

An area that borders
The united states.

In this part of the world,

The cold war never thawed.

This area in the arctic circle,

Where united states
And russian borders

Are very close together,

It's really been a hotbed
For military activity

Between moscow and washington.

Narrator: the russians claim
Their last nuclear test

Took place in october 1990.

The image fuels fears
This may not be the case.

Muñoz: this could be a sign
That russia is up to something

On bennett island,

And it really could pose

A lot of problems
For the united states

And its objectives
In that part of the world.

**

Narrator: yet image analysis
Does not reveal any

Of the infrastructure
Or installations

Associated
With military testing.

Experts return
To the original image

To reevaluate the evidence.

**

I can see that the island
Isn't completely flat.

But I can see some shadow

And some curvature

At the edges of the island

That make me think that

There could be

Elevation change

Coming out of the water,

Up to a peak on this island.

**

Narrator: this information leads
Randy cerveny to consider

If the strange plumes
Are weather related.

To my mind as a climatologist,

What we are seeing is actually
The effects of airflow.

Narrator:
Cerveny thinks an elevation

On the surface of the island
Might be causing

A rare cloud formation
Weather phenomenon

Known as orographic lift.

**

He speculates that when damp air
Hits bennett island,

It quickly rises,

Forming a cloud.

Cerveny: I think the reason why
They have such an odd shape

Is the fact of the topography,

That this little hill
Is very peaked,

So that the air is forced up

One very channelized feature,

Condenses out,
And then flows down,

And we get this long,
Narrow plume.

Narrator: yet some suggest
The geography of the island

Doesn't support this idea.

Normally, this happens
In taller mountains.

Here, we're dealing with
A relatively low island.

Now, that's really weird.

**

Narrator: the precise cause
Of the weird plumes

Remains a mystery.

**

Kourounis: because this island
Is so remote,

It's difficult for scientists
To get boots on the ground

And observe firsthand
Exactly what is going on,

So for the time being,

We still have more questions
Than answers.

**