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.

[ 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.

**