All language subtitles for The.UnXplained.S07E07.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

WILLIAM SHATNER:
Legendary explorers

braving a deadly, frozen world.

-A massive
government expedition...
-(barking)

...shrouded in secrecy.

And strange new life-forms

buried beneath miles
of solid ice.

Antarctica.

This frozen continent
at the bottom of Earth

is a massive polar desert.

This desolate
yet beautiful place

has captivated brave explorers
for centuries.

And while its natural wonders
are undeniable,

Antarctica
is also steeped in myth,

legend,

and strange phenomena.

What secrets lie hidden

within the world's
most mysterious continent?

Well, that is
what we'll try and find out.

♪ ♪

Antarctica.

Earth's southernmost continent.

This vast frozen world covers
5.5 million square miles

and is nearly the size

of the United States
and Mexico combined.

Only 1,000 to 5,000 humans

are on Antarctica
at any given time,

and most
of these temporary residents

are small groups of scientists
from around the world

who work and live
in research outposts

that dot the landscape.

Those who are willing to endure

the extreme conditions
of the White Continent

find themselves in a world

like no other.

My first visit to Antarctica
was almost 20 years ago now.

I've always found
Antarctica to be fascinating

because it is enigmatic.

When you get there, you're in
awe of the sights that you see.

Antarctica is essentially
covered in a huge slab of ice

that can be up
to three miles thick in places.

And it has the coldest
temperatures in the world,

but, also, it's
the highest continent,

the driest continent,
the windiest continent,

and the least populated place
on the planet.

And it feels
like nowhere else on Earth.

My first time
getting to the ice,

it's otherworldly.

There's not a tree in sight.

Depending when you get there,

you're often either
in 24-hour daylight

or 24-hour darkness.

The threshold
between being perfectly safe

and "oh, my God,
we're in trouble" is very thin.

Humans aren't built
to survive in Antarctica.

It's mysterious and wondrous

because so few people
get a chance to go.

The scientists visit it,

the explorers visit it,

but we all leave.

(chirping)

The things that catch your eye,

like the penguins and whales

and things, that's all
on the coastal regions.

Once you go into the interior,

there's nothing that lives there
that we know of.

So it's got an allure already.

There are so many questions
to be answered.

Everything's unexplained
about Antarctica.

SHATNER:
While those who have ventured

to Antarctica have experienced
freezing temperatures,

blinding storms,

and endless
snow-covered terrain,

scientists have recently
discovered geological evidence

that, millions of years ago,

the continent looked very
different than it does today.

(birds singing)

Antarctica hasn't
always been covered in ice.

Just by fossils found
in Antarctica,

we know that Antarctica
was once covered in jungle,

that it was once covered
in forest.

There are some people

who theorize
that there could have been

ancient men in Antarctica.

And then all that
was covered in ice.

So we know
that there's a lot there.

But we don't know
what's gonna be found.

-(birds singing)
-SHATNER: It's fascinating

to think that,
90 million years ago,

the South Pole
was likely a lush forest

filled with plants,
trees, and animals.

It would take
a dramatic climate shift

around 56 million years later

to create the frozen landscape
that we know today.

And while explorers
would not lay eyes

on Antarctica until the 1800s,

great thinkers like Aristotle

had proposed the existence
of a land at the bottom of Earth

thousands of years
before it was discovered.

TIM SWARTZ:
In ancient times, Antarctica
captured our imaginations.

People suspected that Antarctica
existed because it seemed right.

But it was an undiscovered land.

It seemed like
there should be a land

in the southern regions
of the planet.

It was suspected to be there,
but there was no proof.

SHATNER:
While cataloguing antiquities
at the Topkapi Palace library,

German scholar Gustav Adolf
Deissmann finds an unusual map

printed
on gazelle skin parchment.

The remarkable 16th-century
document is quickly recognized

as the work of the distinguished
cartographer Piri Reis

and becomes an object
of great importance

and heated controversy.

LANCE:
Piri Reis was an Ottoman admiral
and cartographer.

In 1513, he produced
an extraordinary map.

Only about a third
of the map survives.

But that third offers something
that's really surprising.

It looks like
it is showing a coastline

of a southern continent.

And some argue
that that coastline

looks very much like
the coastline

of part of modern Antarctica.

And that leaves you to wonder,

how did he possibly know
the coastline

of a continent that we
didn't even know existed yet?

So it presumes

that some civilization
either lived there

or was close enough to it
in order to map it

and somehow that information
made it back to Piri Reis.

It's certainly not proven,
and we don't know.

SHATNER:
Did Piri Reis create a map
of the Antarctic coast

based on lost knowledge from a
mysterious ancient civilization?

And if so,
how did the famous mapmaker

come to learn about it?

Some experts think
the answer can be found

in the folklore
of a great seafaring people

who came not
from the frozen desert

but instead
from a tropical paradise.

ANDREW COLLINS:
The Polynesian peoples

of the Pacific have
many culture heroes,

and these were great navigators

that would journey
for many thousands of miles

from one end of the ocean
to the other.

And these legends tell us

that they also went
to a southern continent

that was naturally very,
very cold.

They say that it's a place
that's beneath the Earth itself.

It's a place of darkness,

but it's also a place of light,

in that the sun
shines all the time there.

-(chirping)
-And it's a place
where rocks grow out of the sea

and there are strange animals

and what appears to be what we
would describe as snow and ice.

And it seems very obvious

that they were reaching
Antarctica.

SHATNER:
It's intriguing to think

that the ancient world
may have discovered Antarctica

centuries before explorers
would catch a glimpse of it.

And while the belief
in an unknown southern land

was well established
in the 15th and 16th centuries,

the ability to actually set foot
on this mysterious continent

would finally be possible
in the late 1800s

in an era known as the Heroic
Age of Antarctic Exploration.

-(barking)
-MacFERRIN: At the time

of the age of exploration
in Antarctica,

the South Pole,
no one had ever been there.

Much like the highest point
on Earth

or the lowest trench
in the ocean,

getting to that point would be
an historic achievement.

The two powers that were pushing
to get to the South Pole first

were Great Britain and Norway.

Ernest Shackleton was
a British polar explorer

in the early 1900s,

and he made a record at the time

of reaching the closest location
to the South Pole,

getting within nearly 100 miles
before having to turn around.

JOHN GEIGER:
In 1911, Roald Amundsen,

the great Norwegian explorer,

becomes the first
to reach the South Pole.

So Norway steals the glory.

These early explorers
of Antarctica,

they were going into, kind of,
almost like a black hole.

SHATNER:
From 1897 to 1922,

ten countries were involved

in launching
17 major Antarctic expeditions

in the pursuit of scientific
and geographical exploration.

Polar exploration
is complicated.

At its core is
a sense of national pride.

These early explorers
were carrying

the flag of their country.

But it was also an effort
to understand the world.

No one had been to Antarctica.

Was it one continent?
Was it several large islands?

I mean, geographic knowledge was
being gathered during that time.

It was also scientific--
learning about animal species.

They were kind of
early field researchers.

It was this willingness
to go forward and explore

and learn and advance
human knowledge

that was one
of the driving factors.

And whether they would come out
or not was the question.

SHATNER:
Despite the inherent dangers
of Antarctic exploration,

-brave adventurers
risked everything...
-(barking)

...to reach the White Continent.

But once there, survival
would require strong ships,

adequate supplies,
trusted crewmates,

and, at times, help

from an otherworldly source.

SHATNER:
November 13, the year 2000.

Famous polar explorers
Ann Bancroft and Liv Arnesen

set out on a truly
extraordinary expedition.

Their formidable goal
is to become

the first women in history

to ski across the most dangerous
continent on Earth.

BANCROFT:
For our expedition,

the goal was to pull sleds

all the way across Antarctica.

And it's incredibly perilous.

People do fall into crevasses.

Mishaps happen.

If you got injured,

it's very hard to get out.

It's sort of "do it or die."

The trip was 97 days
across Antarctica.

It was about 1,700 miles.

We went from tip to tail,
basically,

with the South Pole
in the middle.

Liv and I became the first women

to cross the continent
of Antarctica.

SHATNER:
Ann Bancroft and Liv Arnesen
made history on Antarctica.

But something strange

happened on their quest
across the continent

that's not easily explained.

BANCROFT:
In the first half
of the journey,

it was very steep

up into the interior,

and it was just blizzards
all the time.

So we're getting stuck
all the time,

and all of the continent
is ahead of us.

And so the dilemma for us was,

how do we overcome
what was before us?

Because we're going
into a place of despair.

It was so incredibly cold

and hard,

and you're so scared.

And you're thinking,
"We're never gonna do it.

"We're never gonna get there.

This is just too formidable."

And, suddenly,

I felt like I was getting help.

I felt like they were people
in my life who had passed on,

uh, my grandmother, for one.

And you have a dialogue.

And I had a dialogue.

There is a presence
that you can get.

But what is that?

What is that phenomenon?

SHATNER:
Could the spirit of a loved one

have been the unseen force
that helped Ann

during her expedition?

Or might it have been
something else?

Remarkably, there have been
other polar explorers

who have experienced
a very similar phenomenon

called third man syndrome.

JOHN:
Third man syndrome,

also called third man factor,

is a sense of being
in the company

of an unseen friend, a presence

who guides you,

who encourages you,

and is a key factor

in an individual's survival
during extreme stress.

So it-it often happens
in mountaintops,

it happens at sea,

it happens in Antarctica--

extreme environments.

And it's a sense of guidance
and help and support--

almost, if you will, an angel.

There are
countless examples like that,

where people have had
the-the very same experience.

SHATNER:
Could there really be
an angelic presence

that guides those in need of
help during extreme conditions?

It's a comforting thought

and perhaps best illustrated
in what's considered to be

the most remarkable Antarctic
survival story in history.

(gulls calling)

The British vessel the Endurance
sets sail with 28 men

on a historic adventure

known as the Imperial
Trans-Antarctic Expedition.

The ship's owner and captain
is Sir Ernest Shackleton,

a seasoned explorer

who led an expedition to the
South Pole seven years earlier.

Shackleton's plan
for the Endurance expedition

is to be the first to complete
a land crossing of Antarctica.

MacFERRIN:
In 1914,

Sir Ernest Shackleton set out
in what would become one

of the most fateful expeditions
in Antarctic history.

He was tasked with crossing
the continent from west to east

via the South Pole.

But their ship, the Endurance,

got locked in sea ice,

leaving them stranded,

and they had to give up
on the South Pole expedition.

So it was now an expedition of
survival for hundreds of miles.

LANCE:
In 1915,

Endurance got stuck
in the Weddell Sea,

which is very icy sea
in-in Antarctica.

So then, having spent almost,
you know, more than a year

living in this frozen ship,

it was quite clear
the ship was going to sink.

They had to take the lifeboats,

take everything
that they could off the ship,

and push those across the ice

to search for help.

JOHN:
28 men shipwrecked,
marooned in Antarctica.

This incredibly horrific effort
to get out of that situation--

crossing the rotting ice,

eating their sled dogs.

They were at one point covered
in ice from the sea spray.

And they all looked like,
kind of, ghosts.

-(braying)
-And then they finally reached

this place called
Elephant Island.

SHATNER:
Shackleton and his crew
of 27 men reach Elephant Island

on April 16, 1916--

nearly 15 months
after getting stuck in the ice.

But their journey
is far from over.

LANCE:
On Elephant Island, it was clear

that they wouldn't be rescued
from there.

And so Shackleton and other men
take one of these boats,

which has been dragged
all the way across the ice,

and they decide to go
to South Georgia Island

in order to get to a whaling
post to search for help.

It's 800 miles
across the ocean to get there.

If they miss the island,

it's over.

It's an open boat,

and they're on the ocean
in these waves.

They're wet all the time.

There's nothing left
in the tank.

If you were a betting person,

you would not bet for them.

And yet they achieved it.

SHATNER:
Against all odds,

the men land safely
on South Georgia Island.

But still ahead of them
is a treacherous climb

over an uncharted mountain,

-where, on the other side...
-(gulls calling)

...there's a whaling station

and their last hope
for getting help.

With barely any strength left
to survive,

Shackleton and two of his men
begin the long, dangerous trek

through the mountains.

And it is then that
all three men begin to sense

that they are not alone.

JOHN:
It was during that final leg

over the mountains
in-in South Georgia that he

and the other two men
who were with-with him

had the sense of a fourth
having joined their party.

And Shackleton described it
as "the divine companion."

In his book South, he wrote
of this presence experience

that he had had
on South Georgia Island.

It was a spiritual,
a religious experience

that they felt they had had.

They felt that they were in
the company of an unseen friend.

BANCROFT:
The other two guys
he's traveling with

feel the same...

I call it a spirit, you know?

The-the same essence.

It is a benevolent presence.

Kind of rides on your shoulder.

It appears,
oftentimes when you need it.

It feels like there is a person,
a being with them,

aiding them, helping them.

JOHN:
They somehow managed
to get over this mountain range

to the whaling station.

It's just unbelievable.

They were absolutely,
totally malnourished.

Their clothing was in tatters.

They were not recognizable,
really,

as-as civilized men
when they arrived.

And Shackleton,
he was so changed

by what he had gone through.

It was a horrific,
horrific experience.

And yet he survived

and they went back
to Elephant Island

and collected the other men.

SHATNER:
On August 30, 1916,

more than a year and a half
after the Endurance

became trapped in ice,

the stranded crew on Elephant
Island are finally rescued.

Miraculously, all 28 men that
set out on the journey survive,

perhaps with the help
of an otherworldly presence

that no one can explain.

Third man syndrome

always comes back to
the question, what? What is it?

Is it purely a psychological
coping mechanism?

Or is it some sort
of spiritual entity?

Neurologists continue
to study the phenomenon.

Psychologists continue
to study the phenomenon.

But I don't think any of them
have solved the-the mystery.

I think it remains
very much unexplained.

Could Shackleton and Bancroft

have really been guided to
safety by something supernatural

or was it simply
a hallucination?

The answer remains a mystery.

Just like the case
of an American military hero

whose top secret polar adventure

has led
to controversial theories

about what may lie deep

beneath the ice.

SHATNER:
A fleet of 13 ships,

33 aircraft,

and almost 5,000 troops

arrive under the command
of Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd,

the famed naval officer
and polar explorer who,

in 1929, along with his crew,

was the first to fly an airplane
over the South Pole.

Now he is leading
a massive classified operation

for the United States government

known as Operation Highjump.

MacFERRIN:
Operation Highjump was

by far the largest expedition
on the Antarctic continent.

At this point in history,
it was right after World War II,

and Highjump's stated missions
were about

-exploration
and scientific discovery.
-(barking)

They explored new places.

They set up bases,

and they took thousands
of airborne photographs.

They took measurements
that nobody had ever taken

over a vast swath
of the Antarctic continent.

LANCE: Operation Highjump was
a massive operation.

It's like a World War II
invasion,

but it also gives rise
to some various theories,

because why would we send
an entire fleet

to Antarctica
just to do scientific research?

Do we really care
that much about science?

Or is there some secret
government goal down there

that we don't know about?

SHATNER:
For over 70 years,
the question has persisted:

What was the true mission
of Operation Highjump?

One of the prevailing theories

is that Highjump's
secret objective

may have been to locate
a hidden Nazi base.

MIKE RICKSECKER:
Starting in 1938

and arriving there
in January of 1939,

Adolf Hitler had sent
a Nazi research expedition

to Antarctica.

They established
a presence there.

Now, one of the purposes
of this was

to establish
a whaling industry there.

However,

a lot of people believe

that they were also
storing weapons there.

So this opens up the question,

was Operation Highjump
looking for

a hidden Nazi base
there in the ice

that could contain
secrets and weapons

that the Third Reich
may have left behind?

SHATNER:
The possibility
that Operation Highjump was

searching for a secret Nazi base

remains an unproven theory.

But over the decades,
others have proposed

that Admiral Richard E. Byrd's
true objective in Antarctica was

to find something
even more shocking:

the entrance to a secret world
hidden below the ice.

SWARTZ:
Richard Bird was probably

one of the last
of the great explorers.

He was the first man to fly

over the North and South Pole.

And he was determined

to uncover the secrets
of the land beyond the poles.

When Byrd said "The secrets
of the land beyond the poles,"

he was probably using that
as a romantic metaphor.

So it's been taken
over the years

that Byrd was referring
to possibly entranceways

into the inner earth.

COLLINS:
The concept
of an inner earth is

that we live on a shell

and that beneath
that shell is a realm,

another world,
a parallel existence

that has its own atmosphere,
its own sun,

its own land, its own fertility,

its own animals,

and perhaps even
its own inhabitants.

SHATNER:
Could Admiral Byrd
have been searching

for a mysterious land
beneath Antarctica?

It's an incredible story
if it's true.

And what's even more remarkable
is that, according to legend,

Admiral Byrd may have found it.

BILL BIRNES:
The story goes

that when Admiral Byrd flew
over the South Pole,

he could see
that there was an opening.

He directed a squadron
to fly into the opening.

And underneath the ice,
wasn't frozen.

It was temperate.

There were valleys there,
there was flowing water there.

The rumors had it
that he had discovered

areas of Antarctica
that were free of ice and snow.

Allegations that he discovered

the inner earth circulated

in various books
and publications.

And it was alleged
that at one point,

they observed
a number of flying discs, UFOs,

and received
radio communications

ordering them to land
near an enormous city

where they met the leaders
of this underground kingdom.

There's been
all kinds of allegations,

but we don't know if these
stories are true or not.

SHATNER:
Did Admiral Byrd discover

a highly advanced civilization
hiding deep below Antarctica?

It all sounds
too incredible to be true.

But some experts are convinced
that something very strange

did indeed happen
during Operation Highjump

because this massive
military undertaking

in 1947 was suddenly cut short.

SWARTZ:
Operation Highjump was

supposed to stay for the entire
Antarctic summer of 1947.

But they were there
less than two months

and came back
to the United States.

It would be nice to know

why did they leave so early,

what happened
to a lot of the photographs

that were allegedly
taken at the time

and did everybody
come back safely.

Now, I suspect
that the crazy stories

about flying saucers

and men
from the hollow earth was

part of
a disinformation campaign

to hide what was
really going on.

So the question remains,

what actually happened
with Operation Highjump?

The true purpose
of Operation Highjump is

still shrouded in mystery.

But it is possible
the mission did find

something incredible
beneath the ice, because...

scientists have since discovered

an absolutely massive object

buried a mile below
Antarctica's surface,

and they don't know what it is.

SHATNER:
Across the icy continent,

55 countries have
established research stations

where scientists come
to study topics

like marine biology,

geologic mapping,

ice cores

and objects from space,

like the 50,000 meteorites
that have landed

on the snowy surface
of Antarctica.

And many believe

there are hundreds
of thousands more meteorites

waiting to be found there.

The magnitude of some
of these discoveries is amazing.

We've actually found

more meteorites
on the ice in Antarctica

than anywhere else
in the planet combined.

Roughly 60% of all
the meteorites found on Earth

have been found in Antarctica.

So all the time
we're finding meteorites

that we didn't even know
existed there.

SHATNER:
The weather conditions

and uncluttered setting
of Antarctica

are said to be helpful

when spotting
and collecting space rocks.

But a discovery in 2006--

deep underground
in the Wilkes Land region--

could have the potential

to rewrite Earth's history.

Wilkes Land is one
of the most remote regions

of East Antarctica.

Gravity satellites
run by NASA discovered

that there's a dense segment
of rock underneath the ice

that's heavier than
everything else around it.

And one of the things
that could cause

an anomaly like this is
an impact crater.

But it's impossible
to say for sure.

SWARTZ:
Scientists believe
what they discovered was

a massive 300-mile-wide crater

that has been suggested
was caused

by an asteroid...

...that struck the Earth
maybe as far back

as 250 million years
in the past.

And I don't think scientists
know what else it could be.

Unfortunately,
we'll probably never know

because it's buried
under almost a mile of ice.

LANCE:
So what we know is
that there's something there,

what we don't know
for sure is what it is,

but many scientists think
that, possibly,

under the ice in Antarctica

is the largest impact crater

that is known ever
to have existed on Earth.

SHATNER:
It's intriguing to think

that a prehistoric
300-mile-wide meteor crater

may lie hidden
below 5,000 feet of ice.

And if so,
could it be the source

of a mega-impact event

that transformed the planet?

COLLINS:
If we look back
into geological history,

we find out
that around the same time

that the Wilkes Land anomaly
was created,

there was a severe shift
in the fossil record

that unquestionably
involved a massive cataclysm

that must have changed
the history of Earth itself.

RICKSECKER:
There are people that believe

the timing
of the Wilkes Land impact,

at about 250 million years ago,

could be the cause

of the Permian-Triassic
extinction event,

which would've wiped out

about 90% of all life on Earth.

So this potential impact
could absolutely be indicative

of a mass extinction event
in our Earth's history.

SHATNER:
Could the anomaly buried
below Antarctica

have been responsible

for killing
nearly all life on the planet?

Perhaps.

But what's even more incredible
is that some experts suggest

an asteroid strike
of this magnitude

may have been powerful enough
to reshape the Earth itself.

MacFERRIN:
Antarctica has not always been
covered in ice.

It used to be a very different
place than it is today.

It didn't even used to be
at the South Pole.

It broke off
from the Pangean supercontinent

millions of years ago
and drifted southward.

LANCE:
This crater
that is still preserved

under the ice in Antarctica

might have to do
with the breakup

of the supercontinent.

This massive meteor strike
could have hit so hard

that it literally
caused volcanoes to erupt

on the other side of the Earth.

It might be the event

that helped to break
Antarctica off from Africa

and break Australia off
from Antarctica.

SHATNER:
The massive anomaly buried
deep below Antarctica

may one day reshape

our entire understanding
of planet Earth.

But for now, the evidence
remains beyond our reach.

Unfortunately,
whilst this idea is plausible,

because it's under miles of ice,

nobody can physically
collect a rock specimen

to find out if what they think
may have happened

is what has happened.

So it's very difficult to know

if there's anything else
potentially going on there

because we haven't got
enough data yet.

But it does give an example
of one of the many,

many things about Antarctica

that we are currently
unable to answer

because Antarctica is dominated
by this huge amount of ice.

Is there a giant asteroid buried
deep below Eastern Antarctica

or could it be something
even more shocking?

Based on the depth
of this object,

the answer, for now,
is too hard to come by.

But even deeper
below the surface,

a recent discovery may have
uncovered an entire lost world

of strange
and unusual creatures.

SHATNER:
After 20 years of drilling,

scientists make
a remarkable discovery.

Locked deep beneath the ice

for what some estimate to be
20 million years,

scientists reach
an extraordinary body of water

known as Lake Vostok.

Lake Vostok is the largest
subglacial lake in Antarctica

and sits about 13,000 feet

below the surface
of the ice sheet above.

A subglacial lake is one
that's formed underneath ice.

Subglacial lakes are
a real mystery.

We've only explored
a handful of them

and it's very difficult
to explore

these hidden environments.

They represent
a natural laboratory.

What happens to life
if you cut it off

from the rest of the world
for millions of years?

MacFERRIN:
When they pulled up water
from Lake Vostok,

they found microbes in there

that had evolved
completely independently

from nearly
all other life on Earth.

Lake Vostok is so remote,

so isolated
from the rest of the planet.

If life could evolve here,

it could evolve nearly anywhere.

It was the closest thing
we've ever found

to life on another planet.

SHATNER:
While Lake Vostock is
a tremendous discovery,

it is just one of many
pristine places in Antarctica

where scientists have found,
not just microbial life-forms

but creatures of all sizes

that have
never been seen before.

GRIFFITHS:
One of the amazing things
about working

in Antarctica
as a marine biologist is

we get to discover new species.

If we go to unexplored areas

or places that are much deeper,

80% or 90% of the species
we pull up from the sea

are new to science.

And that includes some really
strange-looking organisms.

We have
the strawberry feather star.

Its central part of its body
resembles a strawberry.

I even have two species
of sea cucumber named after me

because they were starting
to run out of things

to name the new species
we'd found.

And so it's not a question
of will we find new species.

It's a question
of how many new species

will we find every time we go.

MacFERRIN:
Every time we look
at a new pocket of seawater

underneath
the ice in Antarctica,

we find something
we'd never seen before.

Just a few years ago,

they found sea spider crabs
that have legs up to 20 feet.

They found
two-foot-wide sea stars.

They found jellyfish
with 12-foot-long tentacles.

Many of these reach sizes

that are incomparable
to anywhere else on Earth.

SHATNER:
The cold, undisturbed waters
around Antarctica

make an excellent breeding
ground for massive creatures.

Blue whales--

the largest animals
to ever live on our planet--

roam these waters.

And even the mysterious
and elusive colossal squid

can be found here.

GRIFFITHS:
Colossal squid are

enormous creatures
that are at least 33 feet long.

And they have
the largest eyeballs

of any creature on the planet.

We've only seen a few
of these organisms in real life,

but it opens so many questions

about how large animals
can be found

in some of the most inhospitable
parts of Antarctica.

SHATNER:
The Argentina
Antarctic Institute completes

their excavation
of one of the most extraordinary

and massive fossils
ever discovered.

It is the skeleton
of a sea creature

that swam in Antarctic waters
66 million years ago,

called Elasmosaurus.

Elasmosaurus was
a real sea monster

swimming around the Antarctic.

It's the heaviest
marine reptile fossil

that's been found
around Antarctica.

It was up to 40 feet long

and possibly
15 tons worth of animal.

It was thought to have lived

right up to the extinction event
that killed the dinosaurs,

but it was
the largest swimming reptile

in the oceans around Antarctica.

COLLINS:
When the story hit the news,

people started saying,

"Doesn't this resemble
the Loch Ness Monster?

"Doesn't this resemble
other sea monsters

and lake monsters
around the world?"

Begging the question of whether
creatures like the Elasmosaurus

still exist out there

in the sea caves
of Antarctica to this day.

LANCE:
We know this massive critter
lived there, right?

So things that you might
call a monster,

could they live
under those ice shelves?

Of course they could.

98% of the ocean bottom
underneath these huge ice sheets

off of Antarctica are
completely unexplored.

There's absolutely
going to be stuff

that we've never seen before
that surprises us,

and that tells us more
about life on our planet.

SHATNER:
This American
research station is

the largest scientific facility
on the continent

and serves as a key hub

to resupplying scientists
working all over the region.

McMurdo is just one
of about 70 research stations

that support
scientific expeditions

from 29 countries
around the world.

MacFERRIN:
Part of the reason

we fund so much research
in Antarctica is

because what happens
in Antarctica

does not stay in Antarctica.

Antarctica by itself
holds enough ice

to raise sea levels
around the world

by hundreds of feet
if it all melted.

We've had glaciers
that are thinning

and losing literally billions
of tons of ice to the ocean.

And how fast

these glaciers can melt is
an open question.

Antarctica affects
the rest of the planet

right now and in the future.

SHATNER:
While it's fascinating to think

that Antarctica
may help us predict

what lies ahead
for planet Earth,

surprisingly,

the White Continent may
also offer clues

to what life might be like
on other planets.

At NASA, they talk
a lot about Antarctica.

It is the closest thing
that we have to an approximation

to an alien environment
that might resemble

places that we hope to visit
in space.

GRIFFITHS:
There are frozen moons,

even in our own solar system

where there's a huge ocean
of water beneath

and then a frozen crust
on the outside,

very similar to ice shelves

or the sea ice in Antarctica.

And the fact that life can live

under the ice in Antarctica
might hold the secret

to life in other places
in the universe.

SHATNER:
Could the most remote,

hostile and mysterious
place on Earth

really be that similar
to an alien world?

It's an intriguing thought,
but the truth is,

after 200 years

of groundbreaking
exploration and research,

when it comes to understanding
the mystery of Antarctica,

we've barely scratched
the frozen surface.

We might learn about
the universe from Antarctica.

We might learn about the origins
of life from Antarctica.

We might find species

that we've never
seen before from Antarctica.

We just don't know
what's under all that ice.

BANCROFT:
I think what's exciting is

that we don't have
all the answers.

In fact, we have so very few.

Antarctica is already
presenting mysteries

that we never thought
we would get to.

Even today, things are emerging,

critters and objects
and bodies of water.

And if you're a scientist,

it's very much
like being an explorer.

You just want to keep

putting one foot
in front of the other,

and keep asking the questions
and keep looking.

It's exciting to think
that there are great discoveries

yet to be uncovered

in one of the most inhospitable
environments imaginable.

And perhaps the fact
that Antarctica is

the world's highest, driest,
coldest and windiest continent

on Earth is exactly
what attracts

explorers of all kinds

who risk their lives
in the pursuit of understanding

this otherworldly place.

But as often happens
with every revelation,

more questions seem to rise
to the icy surface.

And the mystery
of Antarctica remains...

unexplained.

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