All language subtitles for Mysteries.of.the.Abandoned.S06E01.Worlds.Strangest.Disaster.Zones.1080p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org.en

♪

Narrator: Disaster zones...
They litter our planet.

The first thing you see
is devastation, wreckage,

ruined buildings,
torn-up highways.

Auerbach:
An entrance gate collapsed.

A running track
twisted and cracked,

and then it starts to dawn
on you, this place was a school.

Narrator: Sites struck
by unexpected forces.

Others,
the victim of human ambition.

Mitchell:
Life can barely survive here,

so why on earth would
anyone build a village here?

It looks like
a post-apocalyptic landscape.

You have to wonder,
was it bombed?

Did anyone survive?

What happened here?

Narrator: 10 of the world's
strangest disaster zones,

annihilated by mother nature,

fatal miscalculation,
or bizarre phenomena...

Cassell: My goodness, at times,

it was like
turning day into night.

The whole environment
is being changed.

There was an entire town there
that's now gone.

Narrator: Each with
a unique story to tell,

some still revealing
their secrets.

Selwood: Is there still life?

Is this finished,
or is still yet more to come?

Bell: What's happening here
is terrifying.

The destructive forces unleashed
could be catastrophic.

♪

Captions by vitac...
www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by
discovery communications

♪

Narrator: At number 10

on the world's strangest
disaster zones,

in Ethiopia,
a place that screams danger

but where humankind chose
to settle regardless.

♪

Meigs: This is one of the most
otherworldly places

on planet earth.

♪

Mitchell:
It's an alien landscape

where yellow, green, and red

color these mystical
geological formations.

♪

Barratt:
These colors are psychedelic.

These are danger signs.

These are warning signs.

It feels unnatural.

♪

Jerram:
This place is really a furnace.

There's no shade
to be found for miles.

There's no vegetation,

and you've got the sun
beating down on you.

It really is a hotbed.

Narrator: You would never
imagine finding people here,

but yet,
there are signs of life.

Rising up out of this strange,
blasted landscape,

you see the ruins
of some kind of community.

You see some houses,
broken-down trucks,

some pipes,
bits of infrastructure,

but everything kind of encrusted
and growing

right out of the material
that makes up the ground itself.

♪

Today, the village
looks desolate and abandoned,

but at one particular time,
there was a group of people

determined enough
to make this their home.

Mitchell: It's nicknamed
the land of the dead.

Life can barely survive here,

so why on earth would
anyone build a village here?

♪

Narrator: This arid location
lies in the northernmost part

of the afar region in Ethiopia.

Worku kebede is a local guide

who has explored
the dangerous place extensively.

♪

Interpreter: So this is afar.

We have a really brutal
geology here,

so we come across
a lot of skeletons.

♪

It's one of the lowest
and hottest places in the world.

It's around 400 feet
below sea level.

Narrator:
The Mercury here can skyrocket

to more than
120 degrees fahrenheit,

but it isn't just
the temperatures

that make this location
so hostile.

♪

Jerram:
You walk around this area,

you can hear the sort of salty
crust crumble under your feet.

In fact, it's quite dangerous

as you get close
to some of these stagnant pools.

They can be a ph of one or less.

They can be just like
sulfuric acid...

And so there is a danger

that if your foot
falls through the crust,

you can actually burn your skin.

So it's quite
a stark environment.

Meigs: It's part of
a rift-valley system

where two tectonic plates
are essentially pulling apart,

and the earth is literally
getting ripped open.

♪

Narrator: Yet flanked by
steaming fissures

are the shattered remains
of a settlement.

This is the town of dallol.

♪

Barratt:
So there's not much to see here,

but there are clues as to
what happened in the past.

Narrator: What brought
these intrepid souls

to this hell on earth
lies beneath your feet.

This crazy landscape where
biology tips into chemistry

is clearly why man came here.

It's a chemical wonderland.

Narrator:
And there was one element

in dallol's chemical cauldron
that the whole world wanted.

Meigs: There's one particular
mineral deposit known as potash,

which is a mishmash
of various chemicals,

but it has a lot
of potassium in it.

Jerram:
It's almost unique to have

such concentrations of potash
actually at the earth's surface,

and without much processing,
you can literally scrape

the potash
off the earth's surface.

Barratt: Potash is an amazing
thing that we use in fertilizers

and other chemical reactions,

and here it is
on the surface of the earth.

Narrator:
In 1912, two Italian adventurers

obtained the first
potash mining concession,

and the industrial excavation
of this precious resource began.

Meigs: There was a big demand
for the potash.

Agriculture was increasing
around the world.

There's a big demand
for fertilizer,

so more workers began to flood
into this community

to be part of this operation.

Narrator: Once here, they built
houses however they could.

♪

Interpreter: The people
who came here to dig the mines

lived in houses like this,

which they built
from local salt rock.

Narrator: In such a harsh
and remote location,

everything,
including drinking water,

had to be brought
across the parched land,

but the mining community
in dallol prospered.

Interpreter:
Here, you can see a generator

that was used for water

and the wires
they used for electricity.

♪

Narrator: The blistering heat
and unstable earth below

couldn't stop money being made.

Soon, larger companies followed,

and in 1918,
a 45-mile-long railway line

was built to transport
the precious potash

to the port of mersa fatma
in modern-day Eritrea.

Barratt: The railway really
opened up production,

and it also opened up the town
to other people.

At its peak,
50,000 tons were being mined.

This was a place of opportunity,

a place where fortunes
could be made.

Narrator:
Potash flowed out of dallol,

but the working conditions
were punishing.

♪

There's acidic waters
floating around.

You've got sort of noxious fumes
and salty fluids

getting into your hands.

Mitchell:
The miners were working

in the hottest place on earth.

This had to have been
a perilous environment at best.

Still, the potential of
what could be found here,

what could be extracted,
outweighed the risks.

They developed
a thriving little operation,

but it wasn't going to last.

Narrator: The harsh climate

and the risk
of volcanic disaster

threatened to shatter dallol,

but in the end, its decline
was driven by changing economics

following the first world war.

It became easier to get potash
from different sources

in Germany and the U.S.A.

Jerram:
The minute the global market

for potash changes slightly,

all of a sudden, you're tipped
from profit to nonprofit,

and when there's no profit,
people leave very, very quickly.

♪

Narrator: Since then,
various international operators

have tried to exploit
the rich resources

that lie under
the baking Ethiopian sun,

but mother nature
was always against them.

It is no surprise
that the word "dallol" itself

means "disintegration."

Jerram: Anything that's metal
is rusting.

You've only got to go and see
what's happened to a Land Rover

or another truck that's only
been there a few tens of years,

and it is literally in pieces.

The place
is a horrible place to live.

Meigs: Mother nature didn't
set up this environment

to be friendly to humans,

and I think it took
a few decades,

but humans eventually
got the hint.

♪

Narrator: Though the village
lies desolate and abandoned now,

not all the mining
has stopped in the area.

Meigs: There's no longer

any industrial mining
of these resources,

but people from the local
afar tribe will often come in,

often at night,
with camel caravans

and carve out
large slabs of salt,

load them on their camels,
and take them out to market.

Barratt: When you look at ruins
like this village,

it really does bring home

how determined humans are
to exploit to the environment,

how determined we are
to make money to create wealth,

wherever that should be.

♪

Narrator: From one
arid wasteland to another,

this barren desert in Uzbekistan
is not quite what it seems.

♪

At over 40 miles from
the nearest shoreline,

this stranded ghost fleet
feels a long way from home.

Jerram: It's a very odd thing,
seeing a boat in the desert.

A boat is
an indicative sign of water,

but then you look around
and there's none available.

Narrator:
But a clue on the town's sign

suggests those vessels
do in fact belong here,

so what extraordinary event
created this bizarre scene?

♪

In the 1960s, the town of moynaq
sat on the edge of the aral sea,

the world's fourth largest body
of inland water.

Almas tovashiv was
one of the many employed

in the booming
local fishing industry.

Interpreter:
More than 200 vessels

were engaged
in the fishing industry,

and over 100 vessels
were transporting fish

to the fish-canning factory,

where 1,200 people worked
and annually produced

up to 12 million cans of fish.

Narrator: But by 1990, all the
fishing here had stopped.

Somehow, the sea
had become a desert.

Interpreter: People understood
that there was less water.

There was not even water
for watering the gardens

or for use on the farms.

Narrator: Incredibly, the cause
of this disaster was man-made.

The aral sea was fed
by two rivers,

but under Soviet rule,
a flawed decision

to prioritize
cotton production in Uzbekistan

and divert
that water away from here

had devastating consequences.

Meigs: It was ecological suicide

because once they took all of
the water out of those rivers,

there wasn't enough water
to feed the aral sea.

In this hot environment,
it's sunny most of the time.

There's a lot of evaporation.

Without water continuing
to flow into it,

the aral sea began to evaporate.

Narrator: In just 30 years,

the sea level dropped
by 55 feet,

and in places, the shoreline
receded by almost 100 miles.

♪

Today, a third of the seabed
is now exposed,

displaying a layer of dust,

salt, and the toxic residue
of pesticides

just waiting to be swept up
by the next strong breeze.

♪

Still to come...

A tropical paradise
built in a danger zone

but finished off
by something unexpected

and an island
struck by immense force,

yet the culprit was not
who the islanders feared.

♪

♪

Narrator: Coming up on

"the world's strangest
disaster zones,"

a towering dam spookily empty,

a land of spewing mud
that swallowed a town,

and a remote arctic community

bearing the brunt
of a global threat.

♪

In the Caribbean is a retreat

that was built
right in the firing line,

yet the destruction
visible today

doesn't fit with what
you might expect to see.

♪

Bell:
The hills level out into coves,

and the beaches
give way to forests.

There's a quiet,
rugged beauty to this place.

Auerbach: Large houses nestle
in the hillside,

and the views must be amazing
for the people who live there.

It feels like an exclusive
private-island resort.

Narrator: But abandoned
structures litter this place,

and clues point
to a trail of destruction.

Jerram:
When you look all around,

there's a gray material
on the ground

that seems to have silted up
all of the buildings

and covered the whole area
in a gray, Sandy material.

Narrator:
The indiscriminate nature

of the damage wrought
on this site

only adds to the mystery.

Jerram: There's a variety of
different types of buildings,

and in them, you can see
things like government documents

are lying around.

Bell: One is round with
many rooms and beds inside.

Another is full of
office equipment.

Another, you realize,
is part of a shopping center.

There's bits of infrastructure
lying absolutely everywhere.

Bell: Amongst all the decay,

you can see these buildings
once had opulence.

Whoever lived here
used to live the high life.

♪

Auerbach: It feels as though
everyone left in a rush.

There's crockery on the tables.

Video tapes were left
on the floor.

Important documents
are left on desks.

What caused everyone to leave
in such an incredible hurry?

♪

Narrator: Just 10 miles long
and less than 7 miles wide,

this is the tiny island
of Montserrat.

Local guide Norman cassell

is one of the few
remaining residents.

He remembers
the island's capital, Plymouth,

before disaster struck.

♪

Cassell: Plymouth was really
a special place.

It could've made a hustling
and bustling town,

but it was always still a bit
of a relaxed atmosphere here.

Narrator:
Plymouth now lies within

a perilous exclusion zone.

Auerbach: Getting into this area
is not easy,

and it gives you some sense

of just how serious
this disaster was

and how it hasn't ended.

It's still ongoing.

♪

Narrator: Wreckage of
the capital's infrastructure

clutters this place.

♪

A lot of the businesspeople

stayed at
the four fountain hotel

because of its location
in Plymouth,

and so it was very popular
with the business folk.

♪

Narrator: Holiday makers
once generated

25% of
this small nation's economy.

♪

This was just a wonderful place.

The rich and famous
gathered here,

people from different
part of the world,

for conferences,
parties, weddings.

And now they're all gone.

Narrator: The gray ash
that cloaks this site

is a telltale sign
of what happened here.

This is
the soufrière hills volcano.

It looms over Plymouth

and the whole of
Southern Montserrat.

It had been dormant
for more than 300 years.

Bell: The islanders had almost
forgotten about it.

It had never occurred to them
that it would stir at all,

let alone emit steam and ash.

Narrator: In 1995, the soufrière
hills volcano burst into life.

Cassell:
Well, it started out with us

hearing this sound
like jet engines.

But never knew that it was
the initial cracking

of the rocks and steam venting
which created that sound

until there were a few bits
of black ash dusting areas,

and it is after that
that it was found out

that it was actually
the start of volcanic activity.

Narrator: In volcanic terms,

the '95 eruption
was relatively tame

because earth's fiery,
molten magma

had not yet reached the surface.

Jerram:
These are eruptions which occur

when magma meets groundwater
and flashes that to steam,

and it can break open
and break open the rocks

and make sort of big
thunderclap noises.

Narrator:
It also spewed out so much ash

that Plymouth
was plunged into darkness.

Cassell: My goodness, at times,

it was like
turning day into night.

You can put your hand
in front of your face,

and you couldn't see your hand.

It was that dark.

Narrator: As the first layer of
ash coated this ill-fated site,

scientists flew in
from all over the world

to figure out
what the volcano would do next.

Seismologist Roderick Stewart
was one of them.

Stewart: When I first came here,

I was basically
full of questions,

trying to find out
what was going on and things,

and this is a type of volcano
that can change very quickly

from looking very calm
to being very dangerous.

Auerbach: A month after
that first eruption,

the activity increased,

and scientists felt that
they could no longer guarantee

the safety of the people
in that part of the island.

Narrator: Plymouth lay
in direct line of fire,

so residents were evacuated
to the north of Montserrat,

out of the volcano's
deadly range.

But many could not be persuaded
to leave their homes behind.

Auerbach: Every day,
the residents had to make

a difficult decision...

Stay and watch
your business collapse,

or leave and save your life.

Bell: The islanders managed
to live with the volcano

and despite the exclusion zone

returned to as much
of a normal life as possible.

Everyone understood the risks
and chose to live with them.

Narrator: While Plymouth had
been covered in a layer of ash,

the volcano hadn't yet
released any lava,

but scientists feared
the worst was yet to come.

♪

Stewart: The lava that comes out
of this volcano is so viscous

that it cannot form a lava flow,
so it just comes out,

and it stays at the top
of the volcano.

And it builds
what we call a lava dome.

Narrator: The lava dome blocked
the mouth of the volcano,

effectively a plug sitting
on top of an unstoppable force.

The question was, how long
could it stay in place?

♪

What covers this site now
is not lava rock

but a solid river of mud,
so what happened?

♪

♪

Narrator: On the island
of Montserrat is a disaster zone

stretching for miles.

In the mid-1990s,
the volcano that overlooks

the capital of Plymouth
erupted without warning.

Lying in the line of fire,

most residents
had already been evacuated,

but some to chose a play
a deadly game of chance.

Some people started
to defy orders

and go back to
the strict exclusion zone.

Narrator:
With a dome of solidified lava

blocking the volcano's cone,

pressurized magma
had been building up

deep within its core.

♪

June 1997, the volcano
finally unleashes its full fury.

It got to a point where
it couldn't sustain itself.

It collapsed with
a major eruption.

♪

Cassell: June 25th of 1997,
when folks lost their lives,

those were some of
the longest days of my life.

Narrator: Norman was acting
airport manager at the time.

Cassell:
It was almost like a continuous

set of pyroclastic flows,
pulse after pulse,

and then there were
some larger and larger ones,

and scientists sounded the siren
for evacuating the airport.

♪

You've got an avalanche of
pulverized lava and ash and gas.

They travel very, very fast,

and they basically just
smash everything in their way.

So they are very,
very, very dangerous.

You saw the clear
line of demarcation

where that pyroclastic flow came
down and struck these buildings,

but then the hospital
and those other buildings

higher up on the slope
were untouched,

so it's just amazing
how different parts of Plymouth

was just devastated in a way,

and then others
were just left standing.

♪

Narrator:
Millions of tons of ash

were deposited across
this vast site,

filling all the valleys
and riverbeds.

For the residents who had
returned to their homes

in these areas,
the results were deadly.

Cassell:
As it got later towards evening,

an elderly lady,

she walked all through
those hills and came,

and she met us down below, here.

And she said, "you know,
I'm the only one who made it."

There was some of the staff
who had gone up there,

and never saw them again.

Sorry.

Narrator:
Over the next 4 months,

the volcano exploded 75 times,

burying Plymouth in layer
upon layer of superheated ash.

Cassell: At one point,
there was a pyroclastic flow

which came and hit the
parliament building at the back

and started a fire, which lit
most of these buildings.

If you look below here, you can
see some of the charred remains.

At that stage,
when they saw Plymouth burning,

that was when folks knew,
"that is it.

We are not going back
to the Plymouth that we knew."

♪

Narrator: When the pyroclastic
flows had stopped,

Montserrat's wet,
tropical climate

delivered another blow.

Investigating this strange site
reveals many structures

aren't buried in ash
but mud set hard as concrete.

Stewart: When it rains,
it forms mud flows,

which pick up all this material,
and they've got immense power.

And they can
bring boulders down.

They can bring trees down,

so Plymouth now
is almost totally buried.

Cassell: Over the years,
the low sections were filled,

and then it goes
higher and higher,

and eventually,
it covers completely

some of these buildings.

The city was now
permanently evacuated

and left as a ghost town.

♪

Narrator: The soufrière hills
volcano slumbers for now,

and away from this
devastated disaster zone,

the north of Montserrat
is beginning to thrive

out of the volcano's
deadly reach.

Auerbach:
The population is growing.

It's about 5,000 now.
Tourism has picked up.

These are tough folks,

and they're determined
to survive and thrive,

even if they have to have
a monster for a neighbor.

♪

Narrator: Disaster zones
leave wreckage and ruin,

but one off the cost
of mainland China

provides a unique set of clues

to understanding
mother nature's secrets.

In central Taiwan,
in the town of jiji,

sits a structure covered
with intricate sculptures.

Auerbach: You come across these
highly decorative doors,

these ornate statues,
and there's these dragons.

♪

Barratt:
Looking over to this temple,

this wonderful holy building,

it all looks incredible,
doesn't it?

But as you look further down,
you realize it's collapsed.

It's all over the place.

Selwood:
It's been completely destroyed.

There's rubble
strewn everywhere.

Narrator:
This is wuchang temple.

Its almost-intact roof
sits lazily on the rubble below.

♪

Somara: When you look inside,

you see smashed concrete
and leaning pillars,

almost like it's been pulverized
from the inside.

Narrator: Yet, for some reason,
this ruin has been preserved.

It has become a memorial.

Pilgrims visit, and legends
swirl around the temple.

Narrator:
What forces were at play here?

Were they purely natural,

or did something
more sinister take its toll?

♪

Wuchang temple is not as ancient
at it appears.

Built in 1923, this is isn't
the only structure on the island

that displays terrible damage.

15 miles away in taichung city,

an even younger building
lies in ruins.

♪

Selwood: You see a three-story
building with floors

collapsed in on what look like
rooms of varying sizes.

It actually looks like
quite a functional building,

but as you really peer into it,

you begin to see what look like
chairs and even blackboards.

Auerbach:
An entrance gate collapsed.

A running track twisted
and cracked,

and then it starts
to dawn on you.

This place was a school.

You can only hope
the children weren't inside

when this destruction
took place.

Narrator: This is guangfu
junior high school.

♪

Many in Taiwan remember the day

that brought such devastation
to the school and temple.

For luo weizhen,

September 21, 1999, was a day
that changed his life forever.

Interpreter:
I got back home around 11.

I went for a shower
and prepared to go to sleep.

Interpreter: Around 1:00 A.M.,

I suddenly felt
a severe headache.

Then I felt like
I was eating rocks.

I was buried alive.

I thought,
"was this the communists?"

Historically,
Taiwan has had a complex

and tense relationship
with mainland China,

so at first, many people thought
that China's communist party

had launched a military strike
against the island.

♪

Narrator: What force
decimated these buildings?

Were the communists of
mainland China really to blame?

♪

♪

Narrator:
Off the cost of southeast China,

on the island of Taiwan,

a catastrophic force
shattered thousands of buildings

one September night in 1999.

When luo weizhen woke up
buried in his ruined house,

he, like his neighbors,
initially believed

Taiwan had been the victim
of a strike by communist China.

However, as he clawed his way
out of the rubble,

a different picture
began to emerge.

Interpreter:
I climbed out of the ruins

and saw everyone was crying.

Then,
because there were aftershocks,

all of the houses kept shaking.

Narrator: Taiwan had been struck

not by
a communist military strike

but by a major earthquake.

Selwood: Roads buckled,

Bridges collapsed,
and landslides diverted rivers,

causing the formation
of completely new lakes.

Narrator: Liquefaction occurred.

Soil became almost fluid,

leading to mud flows,
landslides, and avalanches.

♪

Selwood: In and amongst
these rolling hills

that almost look like they've
been crumpled up like a carpet,

you can see these buildings

that seem like they've been
sucked down into the earth.

Narrator: As many as 300,000
people were made homeless.

2,500 people were killed.

The second deadliest earthquake
in recorded taiwanese history,

it exposed
nationwide shortcomings

in the building
and construction industry.

Barratt:
Taiwan's construction industry

really took off in the 1990s.

It was a massive boom
in building.

What we're looking at here
is what happens

when design codes
and factors of safety...

They're pared down
to the minimum.

Narrator:
Lessons had to be learned.

Interpreter: Actually, the 921
earthquake is a collective pain

shared in Taiwan.

Even if we try to forget it,
it's a lesson...

A lesson in history.

We hope our government
will enforce education

and raise awareness
about natural disasters,

how to take preventative
measures and adapt.

Auerbach:
Incredibly, Taiwan has between

20,000 and 30,000 earthquakes
annually.

Only 20 to 30 of these
are strong enough

for people to actually feel,
but it really highlights

the need to prepare
for future generations

so they don't suffer
in these events.

Narrator: And the 921
earthquake, as it became known,

offered a great opportunity
to do exactly that.

In 1996, a vast network
of detectors had been installed

across the country, which
collected huge amounts of data.

♪

Interpreter: It was the first
earthquake in history

to be recorded
in such precise detail.

Therefore, the earthquake
was crucial

in informing the country
about earthquakes

and preventative measures.

It brought about huge change.

Narrator: Chloe huang works as a
guide at this battered school,

now preserved as a memorial.

Interpreter: The classroom was
built right on the fault line,

and this road was built
along the fault line.

As you can see, the impact
these buildings suffered

was absolutely huge.

Narrator: But the school offers
something else.

Something totally unique.

Interpreter: This is one of the
fault lines in chelung.

It strikes past the playground
of the school.

You can see here there used
to be a running track,

but the track here
has been lifted up.

Narrator: As the two plates
along this boundary pulled apart

and lifted up,
the school was torn in half.

This was the first time
an earthquake fault line

could be seen
and analyzed in such detail.

Furthermore, the material
of the track

protects the exposed fault line
from weathering and erosion.

This was a huge moment
in the research of seismology

and the development
of earthquake-proof engineering

and construction.

Barratt: So, out of
this massive disaster

came a great
civil-engineering challenge...

How do we keep people safe
in the future?

Narrator:
It was the dawn of a new era.

Although the unstoppable forces
of nature

had taken a devastating toll,

Taiwan would choose to
tackle them head-on.

♪

Narrator: In 1999, Taiwan was
struck by a deadly earthquake.

Wreckage and destruction
were accompanied

by a new era in research
and civil engineering.

The pièce de résistance
was this.

Auerbach:
Taipei 101 opened in 2004,

and it was a real statement
to the world.

But to an extent,

it was also thumbing its nose
at mother nature, saying,

"we can take whatever
you've got to throw at us,"

and they even built some of
the stories in the pagoda style.

We're talking about what was
the highest skyscraper

in the world at the time.

It still represents a marvel
of cutting-edge design.

It has isolators, dampers,
and a shock absorber

that sits between
the 88th and 92nd floor.

So, when the building sways,
these dampers absorb

all of that earthquake energy
and reduce vibration.

Narrator: In jiji,
the wuchang temple

sits shattered yet preserved.

In common with Taipei 101,
its design was inspired

by the ancient wooden
pagoda-like structures

found across the region.

Yet, as with many of Taiwan's
buildings,

they hadn't accounted
for the full potential

of earth's tectonic forces.

When the 921 earthquake struck,

its modern concrete-and-steel
construction

collapsed into the dust.

Today, many still bear the scars
of that infamous day.

♪

Interpreter: I haven't slept
well for 20 years.

The aftershocks remain.

They remain in our hearts.

Narrator:
And like all taiwanese people,
he's ready for the next warning.

Auerbach: When the government
sensors pick up an earthquake,

a message is instantly sent to
everyone's phone in the system.

It tells them where
the epicenter is,

and it tells them
the magnitude of the quake

so they've got time to prepare,

so it's a very sophisticated
government warning system,

and it's a culture that is
preparing itself for the worst.

♪

Narrator: In the mountains
of northern Italy,

just 60 miles from venice,
is a confounding site.

♪

Towering above the town
of longarone,

one of the world's tallest dams

appears to be holding back
nothing but empty space.

What freak occurrence explains
this peculiar situation?

In the aftermath
of world war ii,

Italy turned to hydroelectricity

to re-energize
its shattered industries.

Jerram: Hydroelectric power
is incredibly attractive

in a mountainous region

because if you can have
a tight valley,

and you can trap water high up,

you've suddenly got the ability
for that water to move downhill

very quickly
and generate free electricity.

Narrator: Engineers constructed
the vajont dam, and in 1960,

the 3-mile-long reservoir
behind it was filled with water.

Throughout the construction
of the vajont dam,

there were repeated warnings
both from locals

and expert geologists
that the mountain behind the dam

was extremely unstable.

Jerram: When you're filling
the dam up with water,

it's a lot of weight.

A lot of pressure
is being exerted

on the sides of the valley.

Narrator: On October 9, 1963,

the prophets of doom
were vindicated.

Over 9 billion cubic feet
of rock

broke away from the mountainside

and hurtled into
the reservoir below.

It wasn't just a mass of earth

that slid away
into the reservoir.

It was the ferocious speed
at which it came...

45 seconds for effectively
half of the mountainside

to drop into the water.

Narrator: The landslide pushed a
Tsunami of water over the dam

and down the gorge
towards longarone.

Forced down such a tight gorge,
it displaced all of that air,

and it was almost like
a shock wave of air

hit the village
directly before the water did

and started destroying
some of the buildings.

Next minute,
a wall of water hits you.

It's got rocks in it.
It's got trees in it.

It is like liquid sandpaper, and
it just wipes the village clean.

Narrator:
The town was obliterated

and nearly 2,000 people killed.

Bell:
The tragic irony of this story

is that whilst the villages
below the dam

were completely destroyed
by the onrush of water,

the dam itself remained
completely intact.

♪

Narrator:
Today, the vajont dam remains
a testament to the dangers

of underestimating
the forces of nature.

Bell:
From an engineering perspective,

the vajont dam should
have become one

of the most impressive dams
in history.

Instead, it's become one
of the most infamous.

Narrator: Still to come, an
eerie town in Argentina

covered in
a mysterious white powder...

An American ghost town where
the ground heaves and bubbles...

And a notorious Japanese site

that formed part of
a disastrous chain of events.

♪

Narrator: On "the world's
strangest disaster zones,"

a pennsylvanian community
that vanished,

a group of Indonesian
settlements suffocated by mud,

and an arctic town feeling
the heat of an invisible threat.

While some disaster zones
are cleaned up quickly,

others leave
a terrifying legacy.

In Japan is a confusing picture
of deserted buildings

and security cordons.

Barratt: It's apparent
that once upon a time,

this was a bustling,
thriving landscape

full of homes,
buildings, factories,

but now it's just torn apart,
destroyed.

Meigs: There's no question
this entire landscape

was subjected
to an overwhelming force.

The whole area looks like
some kind of a giant child

just tossed it helter-skelter.

Narrator:
But just a few miles away,

an altogether different scene
seems to be playing out.

Somara: There's something not
quite right about this town.

It feels like a zombie movie
or like a ghost town.

Barratt: It's on lockdown.
You can't get anywhere near it.

There's security fences.

You are not allowed
in this zone.

It's a no-go area.

What's happened in this area
is so confusing,

because on the one hand,

there's absolute
devastation and destruction,

and on the other hand,

things seem
perfectly normal and fine,

yet no one is there.

The big question for me is,
how are those two things linked?

♪

Narrator:
In the town of tomioka,

the local high school
now sits vacant and locked up.

Little seems to have changed

since it was last filled
with students.

Interpreter: This is the main
school building.

There were three classes
per grade.

In total, nine classes
were studying here.

Students would play soccer and
then baseball around the back.

They were training hard.

Narrator: Toshiko aoki is a
former principal of this school.

Having left a few years
before disaster struck,

she still recalls the promise of
this place on the sports field.

Interpreter:
Golf, badminton, soccer...

These were the three sports
the school was focusing on

with the aim
of producing athletes

that would be
successful internationally.

The school program was therefore
designed around this goal.

♪

Narrator: But in 2011, those
ambitious plans for the future

were suddenly put on hold,

and the buildings have
remained empty ever since.

Hanging on the wall
is a stark reminder

of the exact moment
tragedy stuck this place.

Interpreter: Look.

This clock on the school
building, it stopped at 2:46.

The time on the clock hasn't
changed since march 11, 2011.

Narrator:
On that day at 2:46 P.M.,

a magnitude-9 earthquake

struck the east coast of Japan.

Meigs: This was one of the most
intense earthquakes

ever recorded.

It lasted for 3 minutes.

Usually, earthquakes just last
for a few seconds.

Somara:
The earthquake was so powerful

that it supposedly moved

the entire country
of Japan east by 8 feet.

I can't even fathom that.

Narrator:
But while the earthquake
caused an evacuation here,

it wasn't the reason
no one was allowed back.

Meigs:
Well, here's what's amazing
about the earthquake itself,

is, it didn't do as much damage
as you'd expect.

Japan leads the world
in earthquake preparedness,

and they really plan
and build accordingly,

so when this earthquake hit,

it didn't knock down
lots of buildings

the way it might have
in other parts of the world.

Narrator: The epicenter of the
earthquake was 80 miles

to the east
in the pacific ocean,

and that positioning meant
a second devastating event

was set in motion.

Barratt:
When an earthquake happens
and its epicenter is at sea,

the land shifts,

and, of course, it causes
the water above to move.

Where is that going to go?

Narrator: The low-lying lands
near the coast

were now in the firing line

for the next stage
of this catastrophe...

A Tsunami that, at its fastest,

was traveling
500 miles per hour.

Even though they have very high
seawalls along this coast,

these waves were high enough
to crest those walls

and flood the coastal plain.

Barratt: When you see the
pictures of the water

tearing through that landscape,

tearing through people's homes
and lives,

it doesn't matter
whether you live 100 miles away,

or you're on the other side
of the globe.

On a very human scale,
you can actually imagine

how terrifying that would be.

Narrator:
In the end, the Tsunami

reached
as far as 6 miles inland,

affecting around 200
square miles of the east coast.

Meigs:
The Tsunami was devastating.

It wiped out the coastal towns,
it tore up the infrastructure,

and some 19,000 people
were killed or missing.

Barratt:
I trained as a civil engineer,

and I'm really aware of how,

you know, we build our buildings

and our structures
to withstand failure,

but in the face
of a natural event like that,

how can we possibly design
to take that into account?

It's phenomenal the amount
of power that nature has.

Narrator: Nearby, new efforts to
shore up the coastal defenses

are evident,

but while these areas
are slowly being reclaimed,

other sites remain off-limits.

Somara: So, you've got some
areas that it's clear

there was devastation
and destruction,

but there are other areas
that are just abandoned

but look completely normal.

There's just no one there,
and the only people you can see

are security guards.

Barratt: The fact that there's
still security here and guards

patrolling the area

means that there's still
some kind of threat.

♪

♪

Narrator: On march 11, 2011,
a series of disastrous events

unfolding on the east coast
of Japan

threw the region into turmoil,

but the situation was about
to become even worse.

Meigs: This region got hit
really with a triple disaster...

First the earthquake,
then the Tsunami,

but, third,
the Tsunami knocked out

the local nuclear power plant.

Woman: The nuclear plant
momentarily vanished

behind a cloud
of white smoke Saturday.

It's not clear
how much radiation

is leaking from the plant.

Meigs: And when those nuclear
reactors melted down,

that created a release
of radioactivity

that had an enormous impact
on the region.

Somara: The government declared
a nuclear emergency,

and the evacuation order
was announced.

Narrator: Initially, only those

around a mile away
from the plant were affected,

but soon tomioka
and its high school

would be swallowed up

by the rapidly expanding
restricted area.

Interpreter:
For people at the time,
the earthquake was strong,

but the Tsunami only really
affected the area by the sea.

So the next morning,
on march 12th,

everyone was going to go home
and tidy up,

but then there was
an instruction

to leave the city immediately.

There was absolutely no time
to prepare.

People just had to get
in their cars and leave.

♪

Narrator:
By the end of that second day,

the evacuation zone
had stretched

to a radius of around
12 1/2 miles from the plant,

but as the feared spread
of radiation continued,

other areas up to 34 miles away
were also ordered to empty.

In total, nearly 200,000 people
were removed from their homes.

Interpreter: In reality,

from the moment
we left the city on march 12th

until the 31st of march
6 years later,

the residents of tomioka
weren't allowed back home.

Narrator:
Cutting through what remains
of the off-limits zone today

is route 6.

Barratt: Route 6 has to be
the weirdest road trip

you could ever undertake.

You're not allowed to go
too many times in 1 day,

and you're not allowed to stop
anywhere along

that particular part
of the route.

Somara: The radiation levels
are just too high,

so you're told to keep
your windows up

and just keep on going.

Interpreter:
There are houses inside,

but, of course,
nobody lives there.

There are stores around here,

but they've been left
completely untouched,

the same as they were
8 or 9 years ago.

Narrator: In recent years,

the most expensive nuclear
cleanup operation in history

has been under way,

and gradually, more and more
areas are being reopened.

Somara: Contaminated topsoil has
had to be removed

in order to stop the spread,

and you can see across
the region large mounds

full of this soil.

They're trying to contain it.

Barratt: Mankind doesn't stand
still after a disaster,

and although it's difficult
and expensive to clean up,

that's what's happening,

and gradually, more
and more areas

are opening back up
with a clean bill of health.

Interpreter: The reason there
are so many trucks

is because they are carrying

decontaminated things
and building materials.

Either way, it's mainly
work vehicles in this area.

If the radiation level
goes down,

the evacuation order
in this area

will gradually be canceled,

but at the moment, this area
is still a no-go zone.

♪

Narrator: The Tsunami claimed
thousands of lives,

but the fallout
from the power plant

has left behind
a controversial legacy.

Interpreter: The greatest damage
from the nuclear accident

is not the spread of radiation

or the increase
in level of radiation,

but the people's lives that
have been drastically altered.

I think that what is really
polluted is not the air,

but the soul of the people.

Meigs: The results of this
accident are so paradoxical.

We think of it as
a devastating nuclear release,

but the total amounts of
radiation were not large enough,

according to
the world health organization

and others who've studied it,
to cause mass fatalities

or potentially any fatalities.

But here's the big irony.

In a follow-up study,
they found out that more

than 1,600 people
who were evacuated died

partly from the stress
of the evacuation.

Narrator: Many of those people
were elderly or suffering

from medical conditions,
and it's for similar individuals

that toshiko is now
doing her part

helping as an advisor
for the local support center.

Interpreter:
Since the evacuation order
was partially canceled,

I moved my residency
documentation back.

I'm living in tomioka city now
and doing this job,

so for the people of tomioka
and for me,

the disaster changed our lives.

♪

Narrator: Still to come, towns
on opposite sides of the planet

succumb to unexpected
subterranean forces...

And a seemingly
isolated disaster

that has the potential
to impact the entire planet.

♪

♪

Narrator: Strange disaster zones
strewn across our planet.

Settling some of these locations
was tempting fate.

Others are found in
the most unlikely of places.

♪

One such peculiar site

is in Columbia county,
Pennsylvania,

where a town appears
to have been wiped off the map.

♪

In a way, it's a ghost town
without the town.

This shot was taken
in October of 1983

looking up toward
the top of town,

and you can see
there was an entire town

there that's now gone.

Narrator:
A freeway with no cars.

Foundations, yet no houses.

A police station
but no police force.

It's the victim of something
that most of us

couldn't believe could happen.

Narrator: Until the 1970s,

centralia was
an ordinary American town,

but then people started
reporting strange incidents...

Dizzying fumes,
steaming cracks in the ground,

and a local boy
narrowly survived

falling into a sinkhole.

You would see steam coming out
of this gigantic highway crack.

People wondered
what was causing this.

They may have thought it was
some kind of volcano

down there maybe.

Narrator: In fact, the ground
beneath their feet was on fire,

and it's still burning today.

So, this is a borehole,
and if we unscrew this cap,

we're going to see what the fire
is like underneath.

♪

Ooh, nice and hot.

I can smell the distinctive kind
of sulfur-ish smell of the fire.

Narrator:
Centralia sits on a vast network

of abandoned coal mines.

It's thought a landfill fire
found its way

into this subterranean labyrinth

and began spreading
beneath people's homes.

Dekok: There were citizen groups
in centralia saying,

"hey, you got to get us
out of here,"

but they still took
almost 2 years

to come up with a solution.

Narrator: In 1984, the
population of centralia

was relocated,

and the houses demolished.

Today, there is little evidence
the community of centralia

ever existed,
but one question remains.

Dekok:
So, how long could it burn?

I've heard figures like
200 years, 250 years,

but in the end,
nobody really knows.

It'll go until it stops burning,
runs out of fuel,

runs out of air.

Neither of those are likely
to happen anytime soon.

Narrator: From a subterranean
inferno in America,

to a perplexing disaster on
the Indonesian island of java.

One where the cause is known.

The other where rumor
and intrigue envelop the site.

Jerram: There's homes.

There's factories.

There's religious shrines.

But there's nobody around.

It really looks a very
strange environment.

There are roads, but they stop
at this strange bank

that just seems
to cut everything off.

Meigs: It's got warning signs.

It's not clear what's
on the other side,

but clearly something
did happen here

that has profoundly
affected this whole area.

Narrator:
Past this mysterious barrier,

further questions are raised.

Meigs: So, if you can peek
over the top,

you see the strangest thing...

A vast lake of mud,

and some parts are still wet
and running and bubbling,

and other parts have dried
and cracked in the sun.

Selwood: The surface area
of the mud is absolutely vast.

This goes on as far
as the eye can see.

It's mind-bendingly large.

And the very unnerving thing
that creeps up on you

as you're looking at it
is a sense of questioning,

"is this still live?

Is this finished, or is there
still yet more to come?"

Closer inspection
of this muddy surface,

you can actually
see things on it.

You see structures.

It's clear that there was
something there before,

and the mud is now completely
draped over everything.

So, how did this happen?

Was this a natural disaster?

Did this happen
in a man-made way?

♪

Narrator: Turns out, in this
case, it could be both,

but with the site
submerged in suffocating mud,

scientists would struggle
to prove it.

♪

♪

Narrator: Back in 2006,

this was the flourishing
rural district of porong.

Muawanah once lived here.

Interpreter:
This used to be my village...

Jatirejo village.

It used to be
a prosperous village,

but now all you can see
is the mudflow.

We used to live together
as a family,

but now our relatives
are scattered everywhere.

Narrator: This is the lumpur
sidoarjo mudflow, aka lusi.

The relics of homesteads,
mosques, and infrastructure

fester around the edge
of this enormous mud lake.

This was a buzzing,
thriving agricultural area.

Around 60,000 people.

There were fields.
There was work to be done.

It was a fertile area.

Narrator: This deadly deluge
started without warning

on may 29, 2006.

Today, the lusi mudflow coats
nearly 6 square miles of porong,

and it's still growing.

Interpreter: People were running
for their lives.

They were shouting, "mudflow.
Mudflow. Mudflow."

And then, all of a sudden,
it got even bigger.

Narrator:
The mudflow buried 16 villages,

as well as hundreds
of paddy fields,

commercial fish ponds,
and 24 factories.

Interpreter: Here, down here,
was where the houses,

the cemetery, the school,
and the mosque used to be.

Now everything is buried
by the mud.

Narrator: Muawanah and thousands
more porong residents

have been evacuated ever since.

The impact of all of this mud
was utter carnage.

Some 60,000 people
were displaced,

their homes just gone,
the area unlivable.

A gas pipeline was severed,

resulting in an explosion
that killed 13 people.

What had been a very functional
agricultural area

was now a complete war zone.

Jerram: Imagine these people
just happily

going along with their lives,

the hustle and bustle
of everyday living,

but little did they know
that there was something

going on underground

that was going to change
their lives instantly.

Interpreter:
I still remember that day.

I was running with my children.

And now I just don't know.

I'm worried about
my children's future.

Will I be able to put food
on the table?

Will I ever get
a decent job now?

That's what I keep
thinking about.

I don't know.

I'm just fighting
for the children.

Narrator: At first, the cause
of this baffling phenomenon

was a mystery.

Jerram:
Something caused an explosion
of mud out of the ground.

It was jetting up more than
10 meters high into the sky,

and it's been measured
to have been erupting

180,000 cubic meters
of muddy material every day.

Narrator: Now porong lies buried
under 130 feet of mud.

Economically, it's been
incredibly destructive.

It's estimated that it's cost
about $3 billion

in terms of lost infrastructure.

And all the efforts to contain
this mud lake have failed.

♪

Interpreter:
So, this is the mud.

When it's half dry,
you can see all the cracks.

But when it's fully dry,
it's soft like desert sand.

The mud is salty.

The salt content is very high.

Whoa. Yes.

That's salty. Very salty.

This place used to be
full of trees,

but now it's like the desert.

Vegetation can't grow here
anymore.

Meigs:
The mud that's leaking out

is not like the mud
in your backyard.

It's full of various
heavy metals,

and gas is coming up with it...
Carbon dioxide and methane,

which is also very unhealthy
for people.

So it's really an environmental
catastrophe for the region.

Narrator: There's little sign as
to where all this noxious mud

is coming from.

So why did this catastrophic
mudflow start so abruptly?

Jerram: What's clearly happened
here is something extraordinary.

People don't just build
buildings in and around places

where mud's going to
spew out of the land.

Narrator: The mud that drowns
this site is bubbling hot...

A clue to where
it's coming from.

The complex, ever-shifting
tectonics

below the 17,000 islands
of Indonesia

mean this archipelago is
underlain by a violent geology.

Jerram: Indonesia's a
lively place geologically.

There's earthquakes.
There's volcanoes.

But people have been living
there for thousands of years.

This area itself is
not necessarily

directly affected by volcanoes.

Narrator: But below porong,

geothermal heat is pushing
underground water,

mixed with mud,
up to the surface,

where it erupts as mud volcano.

But the amount of mud coming out
of the lusi mud volcano

confounded experts

because it could only
come from one place.

Jerram:
The lusi mud volcano is tapping

into a much larger
geological phenomenon.

Narrator: The gases emitted
with the lusi mudflow link it

to a large active volcano system

10 miles away that produces
an endless supply of mud

that powers through a system
of natural tunnels.

But this still doesn't explain
what caused the lusi mudflow

to suddenly start here.

Jerram:
There's the real question
as to whether this is entirely

a natural phenomenon,
a natural disaster,

or is there something else
that's gone on,

something maybe from
a human perspective

that's helped to trigger this?

Narrator: The finger of
suspicion pointed to an oil

and gas exploration company
drilling in porong.

The process of drilling
for natural gas

is really very tricky.

When you drill down
into the earth,

and you go through
layers of rock

that keep everything sealed in,

you're punching a hole
through that rock,

and the gas wants to squirt up
out of that hole,

and anything that's mixed
with the gas... water, oil,

muck, mud... that will come
squirting up, as well.

The gas itself is
under huge pressure.

It's like opening a soda bottle,
you know,

and the way
it all comes foaming out.

Narrator:
Some claim that in 2006,

below the district of porong,

the unthinkable happened.

Meigs: A company drilling an
exploratory well for natural gas

basically bungled
the drilling operation,

and that allowed pressurized
water and mud

to flow up to the surface
from deep underground.

Narrator: The theory is that
this drilling,

just 200 yards
from the lusi mud eruption,

fractured an old fault system
that links

porong to the active volcano.

Now there is no way to stop
the deadly flow of mud.

But the drilling company
pointed to yet another cause.

Meigs: An earthquake a couple of
hundred miles away 2 days before

might have opened up a fault

or somehow set off
this flow of mud.

Narrator: The drilling company
claim the earthquake

created the pressure
to reactivate the fault system.

Many experts dispute
this possibility,

and those whose homes lie buried
in mud are in no doubt.

♪

Interpreter:
Why did they have to do the
drilling in a residential area?

Couldn't they have done it
somewhere else...

In the forest or something,
where there are no houses?

Narrator: Muawanah and her
neighbors have received

a small amount of compensation
from the drilling company.

Interpreter: They gave us 20%,
and then they said, at first,

that they were going to pay
the remaining 80% in cash,

but they didn't.

Narrator: Today, the horrors
of the recent past

remain in plain view,

with the flow of mud shooting
from the depths

of the earth
continuing relentlessly.

Selwood: The landscape has been
fundamentally

and radically altered,

but, actually, at heart,
this is a tragic human story.

There are people still fighting
for compensation.

Narrator: Still to come...

A south American disaster zone

covered in a strange
white substance

that holds the key
to what happened here...

And scientists uncover
an even-greater threat

when studying an arctic tragedy.

♪

♪

Narrator: The fate of the
world's strangest disaster zones

is not always determined
in an instant.

Some of the most malevolent
forces creep up slowly

and have devastating
consequences.

♪

One such disaster zone sits
in the heartlands of Argentina,

where the remains of a town are
set within a tortured landscape.

Clinging to every surface
is a white substance

that paints this place
a bleak monochrome hue.

And while there appears
to be little evidence

of what caused such destruction,

it is that bleached layer
that holds the answers.

♪

While most disaster zones
lie deserted, this one does not.

Interpreter: I'm Pablo novak,

the only resident
left in the ruins.

I stayed, and I was sure someone
would come back eventually.

It used to be so famous.

So many people used
to come here from all over.

Narrator: These are the ruins
of villa epecuén.

For much of the 20th century,

this was a luxurious
lakeside retreat.

Interpreter: This was started
as the recreo almaza...

A dance hall.

And because the room was small
and lots of people came,

they also used it for a theater,

with theater companies
coming from Buenos Aires.

Narrator: The town's main
attraction, however,

lay beside it...

The mineral- and salt-rich lake.

Famed for its supposed
healing powers,

no one foresaw the true
destructive potential it bore.

In 1985, an unprecedented period
of rainfall began,

and soon the town's flood
defenses were overcome.

Gough:
The floodwaters gradually,
slowly consumed the entire town.

And by 1993, it was submerged
under 30 feet of water,

effectively becoming
a modern-day Atlantis.

Narrator:
In the passing decades,
the water has since receded,

leaving behind the evidence
of what occurred.

Interpreter:
Everything that you can see now

hadn't been seen for 20 years.

Gough: And the twist is,
this highly salined water

left the town covered
in a thick layer of salt,

giving it this
unique appearance.

Narrator: For Pablo, the town's
last resident,

the battle to remain continues.

Interpreter:
As long as I can walk,

talk, and have a good memory,
I will stay here.

♪

Narrator: From tectonic violence
to silent killers,

mystifying natural events
and man-made calamities,

humans have a habit of placing
themselves in the firing line.

The final site stands on
the icy shores of Svalbard,

where immediate peril
looms large,

but the cause of that danger
threatens the entire planet.

♪

Bell: Svalbard feels like
it's on the edge of the earth.

It is a brutal landscape,

cold, barren, and fierce.

Jerram: In winter, the place
is completely covered with snow

and in darkness,

and in summer,
you get 24 hours' daylight,

and so it's
a real area of extremes.

Auerbach: The town itself is the
world's northernmost settlement

of 1,000 people or more.

You can't live any farther
north than this.

Narrator: As the seasons change
and the snow melts,

crumbling ruins appear
on the mountainside

above the main town,

but these old wrecks aren't the
only deserted structures here.

Meigs:
Most of the town seems to be
doing fine, and it's populated,

but then you have these pockets
that are abandoned.

Auerbach: We're used to seeing
old abandoned buildings

on the brink of collapse,
but these buildings look fine.

Bell: It looks like
you could move in.

It just doesn't seem
to make sense.

That's because the real issue
is hidden completely from view.

Narrator: A first clue to what's
happening here

may be found in
those collapsing ruins above.

Bell:
On the edge of town are these
old industrial-looking features,

just standing there,
forlorn and forgotten.

The way these buildings have
fallen into this condition

makes you wonder
if the same fate awaits

those modern buildings in town.

Narrator: A deadly threat hovers
over this town,

and it could yet have
far-reaching consequences.

Meigs:
The issues that are facing
this town are quite serious.

In fact, potentially deadly.

Already, two lives
have been lost.

Bell: What's happening here
is terrifying.

What we're seeing here is the
beginnings of something

that could soon be
beyond our control,

and the destructive forces
unleashed could be catastrophic.

♪

Narrator:
A distant and perilous place

to visit in the 19th century,

over 100 years ago, this land
held little value for most.

Meigs: Originally, the only
people who would go to this

far-northern
collection of islands

were whalers
and people hunting seals.

But in 1906, an American named
John longyear came here

looking for coal.

Jerram: Early 20th century,
late 19th century,

the world is
going through changes

which are driven by coal.

So a resource such as coal
found in an area like this

is potentially very,
very valuable.

Narrator:
The town of longyeargood byen

grew on
the back of the coal industry.

But in the modern world,

the luster of coal
has diminished,

and structures like these
have paid the price.

Jerram:
More recently, coal has become

sort of more of a dirty word

than something people want,

and so the actual scaling back
of coal mining globally

has happened, but it's also
happened in Svalbard.

Narrator: A slump in the market

could mean less demand
for housing in the town,

but there is more to this story
than first meets the eye.

The apartments that have been
abandoned...

That is not related
to the decline of coal.

There's a completely different
problem there.

Bell: These people have been
forced out

because of a deadly threat
to those buildings.

With all that mining in the area
over the years,

you've got to wonder
if that's created an issue.

Has it destabilized
the land somehow?

♪

Narrator:
What danger lurks here?

Why have virtually
brand-new buildings

been abandoned
to the arctic tundra?

♪

Narrator: In the northernmost
town in the world

sits a group
of condemned buildings

deemed unsafe to live in
by the local authorities.

Meigs: There's nothing wrong
with the building.

It's structurally sound.

The problem is the location.

Something has changed
that makes it more dangerous.

Lorensen:
It's a terrible feeling

to see all these empty buildings

standing around,
and nobody can use them.

Nobody lives up here anymore.

Narrator: Niels lorensen lived
in a similar apartment near here

until recently.

And he's seen more and more
places become off-limits

to residents.

Lorensen: There are red zones,
a lot of places in this area,

and a lot of people are affected
by these red zones,

and it cost the community
and people a lot of money.

We have a kindergarten.

Both my kids went there.

And that kindergarten
is closed now.

It's a sad, sad story.

Narrator:
During the summer months,

those apartments
are not at risk.

But when winter comes,
the threat level rises...

as niels experienced
firsthand just a few years ago.

Lorensen:
I was just cleaning my house,

and suddenly there was
a big bang in the house,

and straightaway I understood
that this was an avalanche

and it was big.

It was enormous.

It had a lot of speed.

I saw in my daughter's bedroom,

and I could see
straight out her wall

because of the building
has broke apart.

Narrator: Niels' apartment can
be seen in aerial footage

taken before
the avalanche struck.

But it wasn't the first victim.

Other buildings have also
been destroyed in recent years.

In 2015, a massive,
sudden avalanche hit the town.

Imagine a huge sheet of ice,
snow, and stone

crashing into these houses
with such force

that it literally lifted them up

and deposited them
across the street.

Narrator: It soon emerged that
eight people had been injured

and two people had been killed.

Lorensen: Nobody believed that
it could be so large avalanche

that it could hit the houses
and kill people,

and I think nobody
thought that that could happen.

Narrator:
While avalanche barriers
stand above the town today,

for those hollowed-out
apartments,

the risks are just too great.

Bell: The danger that those
other apartments

faced in recent years...

This place now faces
that same threat.

Come winter, they'll be right
in the firing line,

and the order has come down
to completely evacuate

and demolish this place.

Narrator: Today, it's not only
those apartments

that lie inside this red zone.

These structures weren't built
in a dangerous location.

The location has become
dangerous.

So, what caused this?

Standing solemnly on
the outskirts of the town

are the collapsing structures

that hold the clues
to the issue at hand,

and there's a startling
conclusion being drawn.

Meigs: The irony here is that
the very industry

that built this community
also endangers it,

and that's the process
of mining and burning coal,

which releases so much carbon
dioxide into the atmosphere

that, ultimately,
it starts to warm the planet.

Narrator:
At the local university,

glaciologist Heidi sevestre

has been studying
the changes affecting Svalbard.

The black curve is the changes
in temperatures

globally for the past 120 years,
and the orange curve

is the changes
in temperatures in Svalbard.

When we look what's happening
for the past 2 or 3 decades,

there, the temperatures
really diverge,

and we see the temperatures
in Svalbard increase

twice as fast
as the rest of the world.

Bell: Since 1971, on average,

temperatures here have risen
by 4 degrees celsius.

This is the fastest-warming
place on earth.

Jerram:
It's like an exaggerated version

of global warming, if you will.

But it has deadly consequences.

And it's really changing
the local environment,

and the people living there
have to dramatically change

their lifestyles
to cope with it.

Narrator: For the homes that
have been lost already

and for those now
in the firing line,

this drastic temperature change

has made large avalanches
a very real threat.

This kind of avalanche
isn't uncommon,

but it's not supposed to happen
in the high arctic

in a super-cold environment.

It was made possible
by this unprecedented warmth.

Sevestre:
Today, we can absolutely draw
a link between climate change

and the 2015 avalanche.

And, unfortunately,
our predictions define

that there will be more and more
events like this in the future.

Narrator: Today, avalanches are
not the only consequence

of climate change
Svalbard faces.

Its glaciers are rapidly
receding,

and the archipelago's seas
no longer freeze in winter.

The location may be remote,

but these alarming events
are a warning to us all.

Arctic ranges like this
are kind of like the canary

in the coal mine.

Whatever is happening to
the whole planet

is going to happen faster here

because the weather there is
so extreme in the first place.

Auerbach:
It's human nature not to
appreciate the scale of danger

until it's right in front of us,

until the catastrophe
is actually happening.

And if you wait until the snow
and ice is sliding down

the mountain towards you,
it's already too late.

♪