All language subtitles for What.on.Earth.S10E05.1080p.DSCP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-BTN_track3_[eng]

[narrator]
They are watching you.

More than 5,000 satellites
circle the Earth.

Every day, they uncover
new mysterious phenomena

that defy explanation.

The Mojave's
18,000 square mile cypher.

Whoa.

This must be it.

It's just one
of the weirdest things

I've ever seen.

[narrator] Gateway
to the Viking underworld.

Legends have it
that this is where the devil

had an earthly court.

[narrator] And the 200,000 ton
ghost ship.

We don't know what secrets
it might have taken

with it to the bottom
of the ocean.

[narrator] Baffling phenomena,
mystery from space,

what on Earth are they?

[rock music playing]

[narrator] The Mojave Desert,
South Eastern, California,

25,000 square miles
of pretty much nothing.

And a mystery revealed
from the skies.

Given just how remote
this place is,

it's just one
of the weirdest things

I've ever seen.

[narrator] Don Vaughn
is investigating

this code etched into
the featureless landscape.

Captured on April 22nd, 2020.

[Vaughn] This isn't really
like anything

I've ever seen before.

It has that massive
circle in the middle

and then it's radiating
out rectangles.

[Klint] We got a very
unconventional looking grid.

Closest thing that I can think
of is pulling apart

a computer and looking
at the circuit board.

It makes no sense
to have it out

in the middle
of the California desert.

[narrator] The Mojave has long
been a place

for clandestine activities.

A historical haven
for military experiments.

But these weird lines appear
to be something different.

And they're over
three miles wide.

They look like
the kind of remnants

or the outline of a town.

And all is lacking are, well,
frankly buildings and people.

Could this be the remains
of an abandoned

real estate project?

We do know
that in the Mojave desert,

there was one of these,

and it was called
California City.

[narrator] These lines
in the desert to the west

of the site in the image
are all that remains

of California City.

One of the biggest
real estate nightmares

in history.

Its story begins in 1958,
when a property developer

launches an audacious plan
to exploit housing shortages

in LA by constructing
a new metropolis

in the Mojave.

The intention
of California City

was to create
a second Los Angeles

out in the middle
of the desert.

An enormous city,
more than 200 square miles

in scale.

[narrator]
The developer buys up over

80,000 acres of scrub,

carves out
hundreds of miles of road,

and start selling plots
at under $1,000 apiece.

But the desert mega city dream
soon becomes

a cash guzzling catastrophe.

[tense music playing]

[Trevor] Unfortunately,
nobody wanted to live there.

It became infamous
for being the largest city

that never went anywhere.

[Samantha] As real estate
venture, California City was,

an enormous failure.

It really wasn't a very
inviting place to live,

and so the developers cut
their losses, and walked away,

leaving a ghost town
in the sand.

[narrator] Yet a wider scan
of the region reveals

this can't be the remains
of another desert ghost town.

[Guy] Now, if you think
this place is weird enough,

there are at least two
more like it.

Not just in California,
but also in Nevada

and Arizona.

So something seriously strange
is going on

[suspenseful music playing]

[narrator] All in,
the pattern stretched

across some 18,000
square miles of desert.

A swath of land
almost 60 times bigger

than New York City.

Whoa.

This must be it.

These are the lines I saw
in the satellite image.

[narrator]
The lines in the image

are flattened tracks of dirt.

And there are hundreds
of miles of them.

Oh.

I wasn't expecting this.

There's actually
rocks lining the road.

[exhales] That is weird.

[narrator] Ancient people
across the Americas

used rocks
to create giant symbols

in the desert,
perhaps says ritualistic

offerings or messages
to their gods in the skies.

But never on this scale and
in this regimented pattern.

[Vaughn] If that wasn't weird
enough, got the same thing

going on in three states.

The only things
with enough resources

to make something
like this happen

are governments
and big corporations.

It still doesn't tell me
why it's here.

[narrator] The satellite image
guides Vaughn

to an unusual shape
to the north.

What is that?

Looks like a giant,
empty swimming pool.

[tense music playing]

[narrator] The colossal
concrete basin measures

around 12 and a half
thousand square feet,

enough to hold 50,000 gallons
of water.

And I can see
that the concrete

has plants popping
out of it all over.

Must not have been used
in the couple decades.

But the weird thing is,
it probably has enough

water in it to support
thousands of people.

[narrator] 600 yards away,
Vaughn finds the first clue

as to what drew
so many people

to this desolate corner
of California.

[Vaughn] Whoa!
Look, it's a star.

I think it's been made out
of the same rocks

as the edges of the road.

[tense music playing]

[narrator] The shape
at the center of the patterns

was once one of the most
wildly recognized, admired,

and sometimes feared
symbols in the world.

I know that in World War II,
all of the US

military vehicles
had a five-pointed star

just like this,
painted on them.

So maybe this site
really is military.

Maybe it's from World War II.

[narrator]
Declassified records confirm

that the massive patters
in the image

are an extraordinary,
yet forgotten relic

of military history.

The troops going through
this called it hell.

These troops
were facing threats

that they had
never seen before.

And fairly
a large number died.

But when you're talking
half a million soldiers,

you're gonna expect that.

[canon firing]

[narrator] Coming up,
mayhem in the Mojave.

Nonstop organized chaos
to prepare our troops

for the largest
campaign in history.

[narrator] And code
of the Viking witch.

Labyrinths are seen
as a gateway

to the underworld.

[theme music playing]

[narrator] Strange patterns
stretching

over 18,000 square miles.

Something weird
is going on out here.

[narrator]
Have drawn Don Vaughn

to the Mojave Desert.

I've counted around 10 of them

between California,
Nevada, and Arizona.

And they all look
really similar.

[narrator] Clues
on the ground reveal

that this seemingly,
endless expanse of dirt roads

is all that remains of
a gargantuan temporary city.

A brutal boot
camp designed to ready

American troops
for the horrors

of World War II.

What we're seeing
in this image

is the largest army
training post

in the United States.

The more I think about it,
the more it makes sense,

because the first area
of conflict that the US Army

fought in World War II
was actually in North Africa.

So this would be
the perfect place

to train green troops
for desert warfare.

[narrator]
The massive training camp

has its origins
in the late 1930s.

At this time, the US Army
has just 180,000 soldiers.

Nazi Germany has over three
and a half million.

As conflict looms,
there is a growing horror

in Washington that
the country is terrifyingly

ill-prepared
to wage a global war.

When America entered
into the war,

you got to remember
that her military in many ways

are kind of light years behind
what's going on in Europe.

And so there is a need
to ramp up military strength

very, very quickly,
and to take troops,

and to get them ready
for a combat situation.

[narrator] To prepare hundreds
and thousands of rookies

to take on the crack
Nazi troops,

the US Government turns
to its most battle hardened

and feared general,
George S. Patton.

[Klint]
Patton was a career soldier.

He first saw a combat in 1916,
fighting Pancho Villa.

And then he commanded the
Tank Corps in World War I.

We needed someone to command
a fighting army

on the field of battle.

We didn't have many people
that can fit that build,

but George Patton
was one of them.

[narrator] Many in the US
military believe

the key to defeating Hitler
is a direct assault

on Nazi-held France.

But British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill persuades

President Roosevelt to use
North Africa as a launch pad

for an invasion
of Southern Europe.

And that is why Patton
alights on the Mojave Desert

and goes,
"Yup, I'm gonna requisition

18,000 square miles
of that and I'm gonna

use that to train my men."

[mortar firing]

[narrator] To mimic the rigors
and dangers awaiting them

in the Nazi-held deserts
of North Africa,

Patton orders
the construction

of the largest military
training ground in history.

Thirteen tent mega cities,

three miles long and one mile
wide, each housing

fifteen thousand
rookie soldiers.

They had to train
over half a million troops.

To do that, they set up
a logistical network

that would rival
major cities today.

[narrator] At any given time,
180,000 troops

camp out in the desert.

During their 14-week
training,

30,000 at a time

are put through a series
of punishing mock battles

and exercises under
the merciless Mojave sun.

There were hundreds
of casualties,

people that suffered
from heat stroke,

snake bites, scorpion stings,

even getting struck by tanks.

[Samantha] This was
a grueling training program

for the men who were there.

It was war theater
on a grand scale.

And it was designed
to prepare these men

for something
absolutely ferocious.

[suspenseful music playing]

[narrator] The desert
training center

is part of an astonishing
nationwide recruitment drive

during the early years
of World War II.

Between 1941 and 1943,

the unlisted strength

of the US Army
increases by five million.

Yet Patton knows he needs
more than

just trained soldiers
to take on Hitler's

feared Africa Corps.

In order
to defeat the Germans

in the expanses
of the African desert,

the Americans needed
armored divisions.

Patton needed his commanders
to know the tactics

of fighting in a big,

open terrain area,
vastly different

than the hedgerows
and hills of Western Europe.

And Mojave was a perfect
place to do that.

[narrator]
As it prepares for war,

total US tank production
stands at just 365 machines
a year.

By 1942, this has increased
to over 26,000.

And Patton uses the Mojave
to choreograph

massive maneuvers
of his new war machines.

Keeping everything flowing
is absolutely critical

to large-scale warfare.

To do that, he needed to know
if their equipment

was going to be able to
handle extreme conditions.

Eighty odd years ago,
this place would have been

a buzzing hive of activity,
with planes flying

through the sky,
tank battalions driving

across the landscape.

Essentially, a nonstop
organized chaos to prepare

our troops for the largest
campaign in history.

[narrator] In November 1942,
just seven months

after setting up camp
in the Mojave,

Patton leads
the 33,000 strong

Western Tank Forces Assault

on North Africa.

His victorious
campaign paved the way

for the Allied Invasion
of Sicily and the conquest

of Italy, which sounds
the death knell

for Hitler's control
of Southern Europe.

[crowd cheering]

[dramatic music playing]

[narrator] The site that gave
rise to this pivotal moment

in history remains a monument
to those that died

in the pursuit of freedom
all those years ago.

Without the training
undertaken here,

it's unlikely
that the US campaign

in North Africa would have
ended quite so quickly.

Who knows how much longer
the war could have gone on,

and how many
more would have died.

[narrator] Coming up,
Sorceress Island.

This island
had a fearsome reputation

as a center of evil.

[narrator] And Russia's
mystery invincible weapon.

What you have
is a single missile capable

of taking
out 10 different cities.

[theme music playing]

[narrator] April 14th, 2021,

a satellite passing
over the Swedish coastline...

scans Bla Jungfrun,

a bleak, isolated island
steeped in myth

and folklore.

Throughout the Middle Ages
and beyond,

this island had
a fearsome reputation

as a center of evil.

Legends have it
that this is where the devil

had an earthly court where
he would have satanic feasts

and terrifying rituals.

[narrator]
As the orbiting camera scans

the southern tip
of the cursed island,

it captures a weird symbol
on the rocks below.

It really looks
like a giant just came by

and pressed
its finger into the island.

But if you look closely,
these are channels

that you can walk through,
which means, essentially,

that what we're looking
at is a labyrinth.

[narrator] Examples
of labyrinths

are found throughout
antiquity.

Mysterious codes
etched into stone

whose precise
meaning remains a mystery.

One interpretation
of this ancient symbol

may explain this island's
dark reputation.

Labyrinths are associated
with mysticism

and seen as a gateway
to the underworld.

Labyrinths are often part
of the symbology

used by witches.

There's, uh, one possible
explanation is...

This labyrinth
that we're looking at

is a performance space
for rituals.

It could have been
left alone for centuries

because people were afraid
to touch it.

[narrator]
Around 12 centuries ago,

the Vikings ruled
the waters around the island.

Their belief system
could explain evidence

of witchcraft there.

The Vikings were famous
for their sorcerers,

witches,
and their understanding

of the combination
between medicine and magic.

It's thought that
each tribe actually

has their own labyrinth,
dedicated to one

of the Norse gods,
so Odin or Thor.

[narrator] Male Norse gods

dominate much
of Norse mythology.

Yet in times of battle
and bloodshed,

they turned
to the goddess Freya,

and witchcraft.

The Vikings took magic
very seriously.

And so witches played
a very important role

in Viking society.

Witches were so important
that you'd never start

a battle without
being blessed by a witch.

[narrator] Viking witches
were called staff carriers.

They travel
from tribe to tribe,

delivering prophecies
and communing with spirits.

The image we have today
of witches with potions really

got its origins in Scandinavia
and Viking culture.

It's very likely
they practiced sorcery

by pharmaceuticals,
that they gave you a plant

that would make you
hallucinate.

[eerie music playing]

[narrator] Norse witches
create potions

which transform warriors
into berserkers.

[metal clanking]

[narrator] Fighters
who waged battle

in a trance-like fury.

The term berserker
is a fearless warrior

who basically is, like,
a shape changer.

A berserker is one
who assumes the guise

of a bear or a wolf,
uh, a wild creature.

[narrator]
By the 12th century,

much of Scandinavia

has converted
to Christianity.

But belief in witchcraft
remains strong in many

of the region's remote
isolated populations.

These Pre-Christian Pagan
beliefs carried on

like a substratum in society.

Scandinavia
is a very rural landscape,

and so these
activities could carry on

undetected literally
for hundreds of years.

[suspenseful music playing]

[narrator]
In the 15th century,

the Catholic Church
launches a violent campaign

to rid Sweden and the rest
of Europe of witchcraft.

Over the following 150 years,
witch finders prosecute

over 80,000 people suspected
of practicing

black magic,
executing half of them.

The authorities
stopped at nothing in order

to seek out and condemn
these perceived witches.

[Kevin]
There was no real evidence.

It was just merely
the suspicion

or the accusation
of somebody close to you

that could result
in your violent death.

[narrator] In Sweden,
this bloody purge

is called The Great Noise.

A driving force
behind it is a man known

as "the evil chaplain"
who slays 71

suspected witches
in a single day.

Confessions were exhorted

by torture.

And once
that had been obtained,

the poor victim
would be summarily executed.

In a lot of cases,
they were beheaded

and their bodies burned.

It was a horrible purge
of innocent people.

[narrator] It is believed
that medieval witches

may have chosen the island
in the image as refuge

from the horrors
being carried out

on the Swedish mainland.

In the 16th century,
scholars called this place

a sanctuary for witches.

Some traditions suggested
that the witches

would come to this island
often just before Easter

to celebrate
these diabolical rituals.

[narrator] Who created
the bizarre labyrinth

and when remains unclear.

Yet recent excavations
on the island

suggests its connections
to the dark arts

may stretch
back for millennia.

Archeologists have
identified at least two caves

that have been
occupied during the Stone Age.

This is before
the arrival of agriculture.

Among the discoveries
was an altar,

and they did some
carbon testing and found

that it was 9,000 years old.

[dramatic music playing]

[narrator] The origins
of the Vikings belief

in witches and the power
they wielded

has long been shrouded
in mystery.

The discovery could suggest
that it was

from this island
that it rose up

and helped guide the destiny
of the greatest warrior race

the world has ever seen.

This really sets
the imagination on fire

to think about what rituals
took place,

and the gods
that were celebrated

right here.

[narrator] Coming up,
the mystery

of the disappearing
mega tanker.

[man] This is so bizarre.

It seems
as if this is a ghost ship.

[narrator] And the terrifying
toxic time bomb.

It was an absolute
environmental disaster.

[theme music playing]

[narrator] August 15th, 2020,

a spy bird scans

the tropical island
of Mauritius,

1,000 miles off
Africa's east coast.

[man] This looks like
a real piece of paradise.

You can see the white lines
of waves breaking

across the reef, but
there's this rectangle here

that looks like a ship.

On these photos,
it looks like it's stranded,

abandoned,
might even be leaking.

[man] This looks like
a pretty big container ship.

So if it is leaking,
something toxic and horrible,

there's gonna be a lot of it.

[narrator] Maritime
records revealed

that this is a 980-foot
long tanker carrying around

one million gallons
of heavy engine oil.

This boat is called...

Or rather was called,
uh, the Wakashio.

Now, this is an enormous
bulk carrier.

It's in the top one percent
for size

of all the vessels ever built.

It's a seagoing giant.

[narrator]
Over the following days,

images taken by Maxar
revealed the monster

vessel is beginning
to break up.

[Ken] This is where things
really start to go wrong.

What we can see
now is oil pouring out

of the side of the vessel
into this area

between the coral reef
and the island.

This is a disaster
of epic proportions.

[narrator] Over 1,000 tons
of oil decimate

the Mauritius coastline.

One of the worst spills
in the Indian Ocean

in history.

Yet what baffles experts
is how the 200,000 ton ship

crashed in the first place.

The Wakashio is a modern boat.

It's got all the latest tech
on board.

So, uh,
this is really perplexing.

[Mike] It should not be there.

What are the events
that led to its grounding

on this reef?

[narrator] Analysts turn
to satellite tracking data
for clues.

They revealed that four days
prior to the incident,

the Wakashio suddenly
changes direction

as it crosses
the Indian Ocean.

It then charts
a relentless course

for the reefs at a steady
speed of 11 knots.

[Adam] This is
not a normal accident.

There should have been
warnings that this shipwreck

was going to take place.

It didn't even attempt
to slow down.

It seems
as if this is a ghost ship.

It should have moved
or changed direction

at some point.

This is so bizarre.

[narrator] There
are over 300 ghost ships

and phantom vessels drifting
the world's oceans,

their crews missing,
their fate a mystery.

But this doesn't explain
the Wakashio.

Some locals reported
that there were lifeboats

from the ship,
suggesting that sailors left

the stricken
ship to get to shore.

[narrator] Allegations
soon emerged

as to why the crew decided
to flee the ship following

their four-day long collision
course with the island.

Rumors very quickly
started swirling around.

There was a party onboard
and they didn't notice

that it was heading straight
towards this reef, bang.

[Mike] But most
people don't have

a four-day birthday party.

This is not a full explanation
for why the ship

is on a crash course
for four days

without altering speed
or direction.

[narrator] As news
of the incident spreads,

authorities suggest that bad
weather could be to blame.

Yet satellite data reveals
this can't be the case.

[Adam] The shipwreck
can't be blamed on a storm.

The nearest storm
is literally

a thousand miles away,

so something else went wrong
on the Wakashio.

[narrator] Within hours
of the ship hitting

the reefs,
the Mauritian government

deploys teams to contain
the disaster.

Every hour that goes
by means more oil in the water

and more damage
to the vessel itself.

[narrator]
Despite their efforts,

currents drag the ship across

the sharp reefs,
releasing yet more oil

into the ocean
and onto nearby beaches.

Local people did anything
they could to protect

their island.

They ran out
with plastic bottles

and straw that they fashioned

into homemade booms
for containing the oil.

[narrator] When the rupturing
tanker breaks in half,

the government takes drastic

and controversial action.

Two weeks after
it runs aground on the reef,

the Mauritian authorities
decide to have the boat

towed out
and then simply scuttled.

The scuttling
is a controversial move,

because the pressure
at the bottom of the ocean

will squeeze whatever
is left in the Wakashio

out like toothpaste
from a tube.

[narrator] What's more,
the government

doesn't disclose
the location of the wreck.

The cause of the giant
ship's bizarre change

of course and
its catastrophic collision

remain a mystery.

Something
is really strange here.

There's just more questions
than answers about this ship.

We just don't know
what secrets

it might've taken with it
to the bottom of the ocean.

[narrator] Coming up,
the monster graveyard.

It was really
like a scene out of hell.

[narrator]
And the country-killing

mega weapon.

It's very possible
that it's gonna change

the global dynamic.

[theme music playing]

[narrator] January 2021...

a satellite passing
20 miles southwest

of Kuwait City
captures this image.

[Devin]
This is interesting.

This looks like a black
and tan stained glass window

has been built
in this giant desert.

This is clearly manmade,
but I have no idea

what this black stuff is.

It looks like
a supersized mosaic.

[narrator]
The mystery black blobs

cover around 10 million
square feet of the desert.

Just a few days
after the image

was taken,
something weird happens.

This is shocking,
this fire is so big,

you could see it from space.

[man] A cloud of smoke
drifted hundreds of miles.

So this is a real danger.

When you see pools
of black stuff in the desert

in Kuwait,
you think it must be oil.

[narrator] For some analysts,
the inferno

is a haunting reminder
of a catastrophic sequence

of events in these deserts
three decades ago.

[dramatic music playing]

Back in 1991, the Iraqi
troops invaded Kuwait.

On their retreat, they had
a scorched earth policy

and would literally destroy

wellheads and set them
on fire.

[narrator] Some six months
earlier, Saddam Hussein

had ordered the invasion
of the gulf state

to try to gain more control
over the region's oil riches.

Kuwait is a small country
by size,

but in terms of how much oil
they have, they're immense.

[man] It sits on top of the
second largest oil field

in the world,
the Great Burgan Field.

And that field
has literally billions

and billions
of barrels of oil in it.

[narrator] Hussein's
invasion prompts

a massive counterassault
by almost a million US

and allied forces

who capture or kill
over 100,000 Iraqi soldiers.

As the survivors flee,
the dictator orders them

to torch
around 700 oil wells,

partly concealing

their retreat
from orbiting spy satellites.

These fires took
only a few moments to start,

but they took months
to put out.

It was really
like a scene out of hell.

[narrator] The oil fires
also contaminate

over nine billion square feet
of desert with a thick,

tarry sludge.

The mixture of oil
and the sand made

something called tarcrete,
which literally

is like a concrete.

It's a slurry,
that when it hardens

is very difficult
to clean up.

It was an absolute
environmental disaster.

Given the history
of this place,

you have to wonder
if these pools

couldn't be some
of the leftover oil

from that disaster.

[narrator] But when experts
dial up the magnification,

the mystery deepens.

I can see tiny,
little bits and pieces

within this black material.

It looks like some sort
of physical substance,

almost grain-like.

We also see
these rectangular shapes

that look like trucks,
bringing something over

to this site, and dumping it
in these cavities.

Is this a landfill?

[tense music playing]

[narrator] Mankind dumps
two billion tons of trash

into landfill sites
every year.

The US alone generates enough

to fill
almost 100,000 Olympic

swimming pools.

What we're looking at here
is a tire landfill.

A graveyard
with all of these ponds

filled with tire waste.

[narrator] Each day,
over four million tires

are discarded
across the globe,

thousands of tons
of which end up right here.

Many businesses throughout
the United States

and the world pay
for their trash to just

basically disappear,
for someone else to handle it.

It's cheap to dispose
of things like this

and countries like Kuwait
have a ton of desert,

so people bring in tires
from all over

to be deposited
in landfills like this.

[narrator] Our obsession
with horsepower

means that 14 million tires
cover the desert here.

A sea of rubber rings
which outnumbers

the local population,
three to one.

This is in fact
the largest tire dump

in the world.

Tires don't decompose,
so they're being buried

in the desert
to get them out of sight

and out of mind,

but they're not going
anywhere.

[narrator] The average
tire here

has completed at least
20,000 miles on the road.

This means they begin
decimating the environment

long before they're dumped
in Kuwait.

Every time you drive
on the road,

little bits of your tire
wear away,

and then they wash
into the water system,

and eventually down
to the ocean.

In fact
25% of the microplastics

in the ocean
are from tire parts.

[narrator] The problem posed
by particles

of killer rubber
is only going to get worse.

With the increased popularity
of electric vehicles,

experts estimate
tire consumption

could double over
the next decade.

Electric vehicles
with that huge battery pack

are much heavier
than gas vehicles,

and so they chew
through tires much faster.

In some way,
is our transition

to electric vehicles
actually harming

the environment more

because we're putting
more plastics into the ocean?

It's one giant feedback loop.

[narrator] Yet perhaps
the greatest threat posed

by this vast tire dump

comes from Kuwait's
130-degree Fahrenheit

summer temperatures.

You have a flammable pile
of tires

sitting in a very hot desert.

[narrator] Black
objects absorb wavelengths

of light,
converting it to heat.

Once temperatures approach
750 degrees Fahrenheit,

rubber starts
to self-combust,

and the toxic tire dump turns
into a ticking time bomb.

When you have giant pits
of tires in a dry heat

for a long time,

it becomes
a real fire hazard.

Once a tire fire starts,
you really just have

to let it burn out
because it burns extremely hot

and it's very difficult
to put out.

[narrator] One such fire
at this site consumed

five million tires,
releasing ten million gallons

of oil into the ground,
and a vast cloud

of noxious fumes
into the skies.

And as yet more tires
join this desert graveyard,

the next catastrophe
edges ever closer.

If you think
about where we're headed,

that pile
is only gonna get bigger.

A bigger pile of tires
means a bigger fire.

[narrator] Coming up,
Russian's mystery dead zone.

There's clearly
something very wrong here.

[theme music playing]

[narrator] September 2020,

an eye in the sky captures
this image of the remote

Russian Kamchatka Peninsula.

What is really odd here

is this plume of lime green

spilling into
the darker body of water.

It looks like
it's infecting the area.

There's clearly something
very wrong here.

This looks like
an environmental catastrophe.

[narrator] Footage taken
at ground level confirms

that something
in the water here has turned

a 25-mile long stretch

of coastline
into a dead zone.

Locals are reporting
all kinds

of dead marine animals,

you got sea urchins, starfish,
giant octopi

are washing up,
and no one knows why.

[narrator] Historical
records reveal

this isn't the first time
mass death

has hit this region.

In the 1970s,
there was an event

wherein a nearby valley,

we were seeing die-offs
of all different animals

including bears,
small rodents, and birds.

[narrator]
Ground zero for the event

was an area known
as the Valley of Death.

[Roland] Scientists actually
figured out

that this die-off
was caused by a volcano.

It was outgassing
carbon dioxide

that had settled
into the valley,

and any wildlife,
big or small,

basically suffocated.

Volcanoes emit gasses
that can be toxic to life.

They can emit them
into the air,

they can emit them
into the water.

So it wouldn't be unheard
of that a submarine

volcanic event
could taint the ocean.

[tense music playing]

[woman] When scientists did
eventually test the waters,

they did find chemicals,

but not the ones
that they were expecting.

What scientists find
are traces of phenol.

Now, phenol is a chemical
that comes from heavy industry

like the making of weapons.

[suspenseful music playing]

[narrator] The toxic waters
sit six miles

from the Radygino
Military Base.

What concerns defense experts
is that it's rumored

to be instrumental
in developing

a new generation
of super weapons.

Right now,
the Russian Government

is investing
in the development

of so-called
invincible weapons,

and a lot of that goes

into the research
and development,

and production
of missile testing systems.

[tense music playing]

[narrator] President Vladimir
Putin has recently announced

the development of six
so-called invincible weapons.

He hopes
they will revolutionize

Russia's ability to wage war
and redress the balance

of power with Washington.

Even though
these missile tests

were supposed to be secret,
they're doing it out

in the open because Putin
wants people to see

it's another opportunity
for him to point

the spotlight
on this greater, stronger

Russia that's rising out
of the former Soviet Union.

[narrator] The biggest
of Putin's invincible weapons

is the RS-28 Sarmat

also known as the Satan 2.

A 200-ton liquid fueled,
intercontinental missile

with a range
of over 11,000 miles.

Studies suggest it is capable
of wiping out

an area of around
250,000 square miles.

It's a really
terrifying prospect,

because what you have
is a single missile

that then splits
into 10 different warheads

that ostensibly
could be capable

of taking out
10 different cities.

What makes it unique
is its detection

and evasion capabilities.

One of the best ways
to track a missile taking off

is from the boost of heat
that can be tracked

by a satellite,
but this system

has a very short boost,
providing just a small window

to detect it.

[narrator] Even more troubling
for the US

is Putin's development
of a nuclear powered
cruise missile.

It's radical propulsion
system

will provide a warhead

with almost unlimited range,
cruising at low altitude

to evade surface
and space-based early

warning systems.

These missiles really
kind of changed the game.

It's like coming in through
the back door.

Russia's pursuit
of more deadly,

and faster,
and more efficient,

and more devastating missiles
is beyond just a concern.

This is really
a grave threat.

[narrator] Russian officials
have since claimed

that algae, not missile fuels
are the cause

of the toxins in the image.

Yet some fear it is evidence

that the country
is dramatically ramping up

its invincible
weapons program.

It's almost
as if this spill is pointing

the finger directly
at the missile testing site.

It's very possible
with this creation

of a weapon system in Russia
that it's gonna change

the global dynamic,

the idea that this missile

has taken such a leap
in technology.

It's very worrisome.