All language subtitles for The UnXplained Special Presentation S01E16 1080p WEB h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

WILLIAM SHATNER:
Devastating earthquakes

that ravage entire cities,

erratic balls of lightning
that appear out of thin air,

and a massive cataclysm
that blocked out the sun

and blanketed
the world in darkness.

There is nothing more humbling
than the power of Mother Nature.

(thunder crashing)

For as long as humans have
inhabited the Earth,

we have tried to decipher just
exactly how our planet works.

Our survival has relied on
learning to predict the weather

and creating safe shelter
from natural disasters.

But even today,
we are often faced

with terrestrial events that are
beyond conventional explanation.

How much do we really know

about the strange
forces of nature

that happen all around us?

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

♪ ♪

Across the city,
a celebration is underway.

Thousands of Christians are

packed into churches
to celebrate a festival known

as All Saints' Day.

But then, at about 10:00 a.m.,

without warning...

disaster strikes.

MICHAEL WYSESSION:
A massive magnitude-eight
earthquake occurred

in the Atlantic Ocean seafloor

right along the tectonic plate
boundary

between Eurasia and Africa.

The shaking from this earthquake

knocked down about 85%
of the buildings of Lisbon.

Even worse,
this earthquake occurred

while most people were in mass,

in church or cathedrals

on All Saints' Day.

Lisbonites are
in all these churches,

and many of
the most major churches

in Lisbon were destroyed.

It was one of the most
devastating earthquakes

that Europe had seen
in centuries.

SHATNER:
In a matter of minutes,
the massive earthquake

reduced the buildings
throughout Lisbon to rubble

and opened a 16-foot-wide crack
in the ground

through the center of the city.

Estimates place the death toll
as high as 50,000 people

or about 20%
of Lisbon's population.

WYSESSION:
In the early 1700s,

if you had listed the five
great cities of Europe...

...you well might have
included Lisbon in that list.

But after 1755,

Lisbon's glory was reduced,
literally, to ashes.

Lisbon rebuilt

but never really reached
the same glory that it had.

SHATNER:
In the aftermath
of the horrific quake,

the residents of Lisbon
struggled to understand

why this tragedy had
befallen their city.

Many among
the Christian populace

who had only heard of such
devastation in the Holy Bible--

believed the earthquake
to be an act of God.

Lisbon was dominated
by the Catholic Church.

Very, very religious city.

So lots of theologians
started to ponder

the meaning of this event
in religious terms,

because the fact was, this
earthquake had struck Lisbon

on one of its holiest days,
the Feast of All Saints.

It had killed tens
of thousands of Christians

while they were worshipping.

Why did God choose this day

to bring an earthquake
upon the people of Lisbon?

And this was a confrontation
for many theologians

and they blamed
the people of Lisbon.

They said,
"You must have been sinful."

The only reason this
could have happened to you is

that you are not living
by God's laws.

SHATNER:
While some people thought

the earthquake was
a punishment from God,

others focused
on taking practical steps

to guard against such
a calamity in the future.

One of those people was
Portugal's prime minister,

the Marquis de Pombal.

McNAB:
In the reconstruction of Lisbon,
Marquis de Pombal oversaw

really critical innovations.

The first is to build
earthquake-resistant buildings.

These are built around
wooden frames that can actually

sway with an earthquake,
rather than collapse.

And then, he improves the city.

Before, it was these winding,
medieval streets

which people
could get blocked up in.

So the Marquis de Pombal,

he redesigns the city
on a gridiron system,

so all of a sudden
you have now, really wide,

straight streets, which are
ideal for evacuating people.

And in fact,
the way that he handled

the reconstruction of the city

is the first instance of modern
disaster response in history,

where someone actually tries
to take a rational response

to the effects
of a natural disaster.

SHATNER:
The varied reactions
to the Lisbon earthquake

have actually been quite common
throughout human history.

For thousands of years,
mankind has tried to make sense

of these violent tremors

that often strike
without warning.

Earthquakes have
a really unique place, uh,

in human consciousness because

you can't see it coming.

It's not like a giant storm

that you can see
the clouds approaching,

see the lightning,
hear the thunder.

Earthquakes,
you feel and you hear,

but that happens in the moment.

You can't run out of the way.

There's nowhere to hide.

The problem of earthquakes

and how to deal with them

goes back to antiquity.

The first seismometer,
to measure earthquakes,

was actually invented by
a scientist named Zhang Heng

back in China in the
first century of the Common Era.

This was a beautiful bronze--
almost like a cask

that had dragons
around the perimeter

with balls in their mouths.

And beneath them were a little
array of, of bronze frogs.

And the way the device worked is

the pendulum inside
would rock just so,

bumping a lever in the direction
where the earthquake occurred

and a ball would fall out
of the dragon's mouth and land,

telling you the orientation

of an earthquake
that had happened.

And all developments since then
on earthquake detectors--

we call them seismometers--

have been variations
on that theme.

SHATNER:
Today, experts understand

that earthquakes happen when
massive underground rocks

known as tectonic plates
suddenly collide,

causing seismic forces to be
unleashed beneath our feet.

Scientists can measure
an earthquake's power

and even pinpoint its location.

But in spite
of everything we've learned,

we still have a hard time
predicting where

and when the next
earthquake will strike.

PHOENIX:
With earthquakes,

there's still
a component of uncertainty.

And we are always

trying to improve
our earthquake knowledge.

We actually have

extensive seismic networks
that go all around the globe,

where you can have an earthquake
in China that we sense

in Virginia on a college campus.

And that helps us
really triangulate

where these events occur,

how deep in the crust
they occur,

and how big they really are.

We've made
huge amounts of progress,

but there is still so much more
we have to learn

that will help us understand

where and when
these quakes might happen

so that we can save lives.

SHATNER:
While scientists haven't learned
how to predict earthquakes,

a curious theory
about what causes

some of them to occur
has emerged.

And it just so happens

that humanity may,
in fact, be to blame.

McGEE: The idea
of human-induced earthquakes

really comes to the forefront
of the, the social mind

in construction
of the Hoover Dam

in Nevada in the 1930s.

It actually triggered
a series of earthquakes

around the dam
under construction.

We think we can create
gigantic reservoirs

without facing consequences
of these things.

But if your reservoir is
near a fault line,

watch out.

There is a theory that a lot
of seismologists believe in

that the earthquake
of 2008 in China

that killed about 70,000 people

was, in fact, created
by this gigantic reservoir

that put enormous pressure
on a fault line

which then gave way.

What happened in Sichuan in 2008

is a wake-up call.

A wake-up call in that
when you tamper with the Earth,

you're tampering
with an earthquake.

SHATNER:
Is it possible that some
of the deadliest earthquakes

in modern times were caused,

not by nature
but by human activity?

Either way,
scientists are still at a loss

as to when the next catastrophic
earthquake will strike.

Not unlike another
dangerous phenomenon

that can appear without warning.

It's a burst of mysterious
energy that is known...

as ball lightning.

SHATNER: While out
for an afternoon stroll,

a local student spots something
that stops him in his tracks.

Pulling out his cell phone,
he captures incredible footage

of an eerie ball
of what looks like pure energy,

floating and bobbing,
as if alive.

Later analysis reveals
that the video may be evidence

of one of the most mysterious
weather anomalies in the world:

ball lightning.

MICHAEL DENNIN:
Any video of ball lightning

is exciting and interesting
to me because they're rare.

It's hard to see it.

And it does confirm the idea

that what you're
really trying to look at

is some sort of contained
plasma-like object.

TAYLOR:
Looking at this video,

what's happening
is this ball lightning

is probably traveling along
the electromagnetic field line

of the power lines.

And then, when it hits
the, uh, transformer,

it's just too much power
for the transformer to handle

and it explodes.

And you can see that
in the video.

SHATNER:
Unlike normal lightning,

which follows
well-defined laws of physics,

ball lightning is much more
erratic in its behavior.

Even after centuries
of research,

scientists still don't
really know what causes it.

Or where this incredible energy
comes from.

When we think
of a lightning bolt,

we think of electricity
shooting from the heavens,

just crackling with energy...

...which is totally different
than ball lightning.

Ball lightning is basically
a sphere a few feet across

that seems to hover slowly
and then dissipates.

So, how can that be?

Ball lightning is essentially
lightning in a bottle,

but there's no glass bottle,

there's an
electromagnetic bottle.

So you get these
electromagnetic field lines

that form the shape of a sphere

and it traps
the lightning inside it.

It can range in size
from pea-size to dime-size,

baseball-size, grapefruit-size.

And the uniqueness
of ball lightning

is it lasts
from 20 to 30 seconds,

unlike a regular bolt of
lightning which is just a flash.

Ball lightning has
been mysterious for so long

because it's hard to capture.

'Cause when it happens,

the ball is skittering
and moves around crazy,

it doesn't just
sit there in one spot,

so you can't walk up to it
and look at it.

SHATNER:
Is it possible that sightings
of ball lightning

are just a trick of the eye?

An optical illusion?

Or could ball lightning
be responsible for everything

from mysterious UFO sightings

to strange accounts
of a phenomenon

known as spontaneous combustion?

Ball lightning was
first discovered in the 1600s

in a European church
when the ball lightning

came right through the window
and into the sanctuary.

KAKU:
There are many documented
eyewitness accounts,

not just one but scores of them
through history,

of ball lightning
entering people's homes

and being cited
by reputable witnesses.

The most famous sighting
was done in Russia

by Czar Nicholas II.

He had an eyewitness right
in front of the royal family.

A ball lightning went whizzing
right by, and he wrote about it.

People just say,
"Oh, no, I was standing there

"after this thunderstorm
in my living room,

"and this ball of light
came across the field,

"right through
the picture window into my room,

and touched the steam radiator
and popped like a firecracker."

And I have not read
an explanation

for that behavior
that I consider plausible.

EVANS:
It's believed
that glass actually

enhances ball lightning.

The trace elements in glass,
including lead,

is very attractive
and a conductor of lightning.

And we always say,
"Stay away from water

and glass windows
when there's lightning,"

because those are conductors.

And it seems that ball lightning

is very attracted to glass

and will actually
pass through it

and then
can create a lot of damage.

Ball lightning
can be very dangerous.

It's started fires,
it has put buildings on fire.

It has caused
a lot of destruction

just in and of itself.

SHATNER:
If it sounds impossible
for a primal force of nature

to be contained indoors,
well, you'd be wrong.

Because, as it turns out,

scientists have done just that.

In 2006, Professor Eli Jerby

and researchers
at Tel Aviv University

used powerful microwave beams

to generate
a tiny sphere of plasma

for fractions of a second.

It was the first time

anything resembling
ball lightning

was reproduced in a laboratory.

TAYLOR:
It took scientists a long time

to reproduce ball lightning
in the laboratory.

Ball lightning needs
a lot of energy.

And the way
you would create that

is you have really strange
high electromagnetic fields

that are wrapped around
each other that traps

and squeezes the air molecules
until they're so hot

that they become ionized
and, literally, are like

a big ball of plasma,
like a little mini-star.

SHATNER:
Could ball lightning

actually be some kind of
"miniature star,"

one that exists here on Earth?

According to some scientists,

the notion is not
as far-fetched as it sounds.

Which could also mean
that ball lightning

has the potential to develop

into one of the most
destructive forces

in the known universe.

TAYLOR:
Some people suggest
that ball lightning

could be primordial black holes.

Primordial black holes are very
small, microscopic black holes

that, uh, would have
formed at the beginning

of the Big Bang or just after.

And it's possible
there's still some of them,

remnants of the Big Bang,
floating around in the universe.

DENNIN:
When I look at ball lightning,
it just seems such a clear

ion electromagnetic effect

that it's probably
not even necessary

or likely to be connected

to something
like micro black holes.

But there's nothing necessarily
in physics that tells you

it's impossible
to have it happen.

(electricity buzzing)

SHATNER:
In northwestern Poland,

just outside the village
of Nowe Czarnowo,

stands a grove of pine trees
unlike any other.

Instead of rising
straight up to the sky,

these trees bend, bow...

...and buckle

in a most curious, and some
would say, unnatural fashion.

Which is why this place
has come to be known

as the Crooked Forest.

WYSESSION:
When you see this forest,
it's very striking.

Trees come up
initially straight,

and then they take
a sharp bend all to the north

and eventually curve
back up again.

And to see, maybe,
one tree grow this way

might not be unusual,

but to see a whole grove
of trees grow this way,

clearly something was at work.

SHATNER:
Although scientists
have dated the unusual trees

to the 1930s,

local records became lost
after the end of World War II.

The only thing
we know for certain

is that these are otherwise
normal pine trees

that, for whatever reason,
didn't grow straight.

SLOAN:
I don't know
of anywhere else in the world

that we could walk into a forest

and see such broad,
dramatic, sweeping curves

throughout the entire stand.

And so, there have been
a lot of questions,

a lot of speculation
as to what caused this.

Everything from tank maneuvers
that might have occurred

in the area around the time
of World War II

to snow and wind loads
on these stands

to chemicals that might
have been in the soil

or genetic questions
that might be at play.

I think most of the natural
processes would-would cause

a much more sort of gradual
curve or lean in a tree,

but not such a distinctive
sort of hook shape.

In this case, the fact
that it's very consistent

and more extreme
than you would typically see

in any sort of natural situation

would suggest that it was
probably human manipulation.

But we'll never know for sure
if that was the case.

WYSESSION:
One possible explanation

comes from records of timbers
called compass timbers

that were trees
that were grown particularly.

They were pruned much
like topiaries or bonsai trees

to have a curved shape,
and these timbers were used

in the hulls of ships.

Rather than trying to bend
boards with steam to make ships,

they actually grew trees that
already had that curved shape.

Whatever happened to these trees

most likely happened
when they were very young.

This obviously would have taken

a lot of thought and work
on the part of somebody

to go out and plant this forest,

to go in and prune
or otherwise manipulate

these young trees and tend them

to create this kind of
a big, sweeping bend.

And then, that raises
the other part of this mystery:

what changed
that nobody came back?

WHITEHEAD:
So, the idea that humans
cultivated these trees

to make furniture or for some
other manufacturing purpose,

it doesn't really add up.

The question is,
why would anybody go

to that kind of trouble?

And, I mean,
we're talking at least ten years

to produce a tree
with that kind of bend,

only to disappear when
it comes time to harvest them.

SHATNER:
If the Crooked Forest
isn't the result

of some arborist's bizarre plan,
then what else could explain

the tree's strange
and contorted shapes?

There's got to be
something more to this.

Maybe it's something
that we haven't yet thought of.

Could it be that these trees
have some kind of capability

that we have yet
to fully understand?

In Native American traditions,

um, plants have
spiritual essence,

or you might say souls,
plants have souls.

And in that sense,
what we might think

in terms of being a person
or having a consciousness.

Amongst our people, the trees,
they-they do have a spirit.

Not only trees, but everything.

But mankind, we don't see that,
we don't understand that.

WHITEHEAD:
We see this also
in Japanese culture,

where they talk
about nymphs and spirits

that inhabit the trees.

And even
in the Druid traditions,

they wouldn't
even approach a tree

or walk underneath
the leaves of a tree

without asking permission.

They would speak to the tree.

SHATNER:
Is it possible that the pines
of the Crooked Forest

are actually capable
of communication?

While such a notion
may seem far-fetched,

scientists are beginning
to discover that trees

and other plants have
far greater capabilities

than previously known.

FISHER:
When you step into a forest,

all the trees around you are
not just isolated organisms.

They're actually a community

that are communicating
with each other.

Forests are more often, uh,
connected underground

through their root systems
by fungal mycelia,

which are basically
little threads of fungi

that tap into the roots
and then connect that tree

to other trees
that it's also connected to.

WHITEHEAD:
So, the question is,
is there an advanced form

of consciousness, in a way,
that inhabit trees?

And even
in the scientific world,

they've been changing the way
that they look at trees

and they've been seeing
that trees possess

a sort of intelligence,

where they communicate
amongst each other.

Did the trees
of the Crooked Forest in Poland

somehow choose to grow
in a twisted and unusual shape?

It's a fascinating theory
and suggests

that we have to think
outside the box

in order to understand
strange forces of nature.

Like in the case
of an inexplicable storm

where thousands of fish...

mysteriously fall from the sky.

SHATNER:
Residents awake
to a flash of lightning

and what sounds like hail
falling from the sky.

But surprisingly, what is
really raining down on the city

is not hail...

(thunder crashes)

...but fish.

EVANS:
The images are so bizarre,

when you first see them,
you think

this must be
some kind of a hoax.

Fish falling from the sky.

And they're everywhere.

THOMPSON: If you're out in
the middle of a small village

and all of a sudden,
it's raining fish on you,

most people will wonder,
you know, why?

What does this mean?

SHATNER:
I am sure you're all familiar
with ancient stories

that tell of frogs
raining from the sky.

Most consider them myths,
but in actuality,

the phenomenon of live creatures
showering down from the heavens

is all too real.

When you think about it,
it's really mysterious.

How could it possibly
be raining fish?

Since the tenth century,
there's been records

of fish falls from the sky.

Small fish
from all over the world

have fallen from the sky.

I know a story my dad tells me
when he was a kid,

about ten years old,
that it rained so many fish

in his front yard
that they picked them up

in wheelbarrow loads
and had a big fish fry.

KAKU:
When you look at anecdotal data,

there are many instances
in the past

where it's raining fish.

And you say to yourself,
how can that be?

That seems to violate

everything we know about
storms and common sense.

DENNIN:
The reality is, tornadoes
are regularly taking stuff

from one place and
dropping them somewhere else.

But they're over land
and they're definitely

moving things that are
typically land-based,

so obviously they're
not going to drop fish

because they're over land.

But basically, a waterspout
or a tornado over water

is conceivably going
to have the same effect.

It can suck things
out of the water.

And then as that object
continues to move,

it moves across land.

At some point, those will
fall back out of the tornado

and it will look like
raining frogs or fish.

FISHER:
It's not implausible.

I don't think it's a coincidence
that most of the animal rains

that we experience are-are
aquatic animals, right?

Because those are probably
the ones that are easiest

to suck up in a waterspout
and then deposit on the earth.

SHATNER:
The notion that a waterspout

could siphon tons of fish
from the sea--

before raining
them down miles away--

is one that is supported
by many scientists.

But if it sounds
far-fetched to you,

you're not the only one.

People have watched waterspouts
over lots of places,

and they never seem
to see anything

being scooped up out
of the ocean by waterspouts

that we've actually
watched for a long time.

Whatever this phenomena is,
it happened very quickly.

If you take a fish out of water,
it is fighting for breath.

It's going to, uh, suffocate.

And that suggests-- is there
some other thing at play?

Like, could there be
some strange physics

we don't know yet?

EVANS:
What's really strange
about the fish fall in Yoro

is that it happens about
the same time every year.

It happens so often,

they have a name for it,
Lluvia de Peces,

which means "raining of fish."

So, it couldn't be a waterspout.

It has to be
something more to it.

SHATNER:
If Lluvia de Peces
can't be explained

by random waterspouts,
then what could it be?

According to some scientists,

the answer could be
even stranger than...

well, fish falling
out of a clear blue sky.

MIKE BARA:
There are places on Earth,

like the Bermuda Triangle
in the Caribbean,

where you do have these

very, very strange
occurrences that happen.

People talk about flying
into these electronic fogs.

BRANDENBURG:
I think you have to have
some new physics involved

besides just a waterspout.

Matter is inherently
electromagnetic.

And so, if you have
a bunch of moving gas or liquid,

then you are actually creating
a flow of-of electromagnetism,

which could create
a vortex disturbance

that may have allowed
this phenomenon.

It's as if you can create
some kind of spacetime portal

that, uh, transports
these fish or frogs.

Just the waterspout explanation

seems barely plausible to me.

SHATNER:
Could interdimensional portals

be what causes fish
to suddenly appear

in Yoro every year?

Perhaps.
But for the people of Yoro,

the question is academic.

As far as they're concerned,
the fish are a welcome sight,

no matter what
brings about their arrival.

If you look at
the people of Yoro,

they go outside and they pick up
all this fish for dinner.

They put it into buckets.
It's a positive thing.

So if we look at it like this,

we take something that's
out of our sphere of knowledge

and we deal with it.

EVANS:
In ages past,
fish falling from the sky

was the wrath of God.

I don't think
we're afraid anymore.

But I also think that there
are some things about weather

that we may not understand,
we may never understand.

But that's okay.

(thunder rumbling)

SHATNER:
Spring has arrived
in the capital

of the Byzantine Empire.

But even though
winter has ended,

the temperature remains cold,

because the sky is so dark...

that it blocks out the Sun.

PHOENIX: What is
really astounding

is the way that people
described this 536 event.

You had writers
explaining what happened

in very precise detail
from what they could observe.

They describe
the Sun became darkened

and we felt
a thickening in the air

and we saw this fog
or this dust veil.

Now, they didn't know
what caused it,

but the descriptions
are extremely thorough.

WYSESSION: The Byzantine
historian Procopius

wrote that the Sun shone
at half its strength,

like it was in eclipse.

This was the start of a period

of colder-than-average
temperatures.

And that darkness
lasted for 18 months.

SHATNER:
The Sun was blocked by
a dark sky for over a year?

Such an improbable catastrophe

may sound like
it was a fictional story

taken from the pages of
ancient folklore or mythology.

But, curiously,
numerous historical accounts

of this event were written,

not just in Constantinople
but all over the world,

during the year 536 AD.

What happened in 536
was a climate event

of considerable magnitude
that was

terrible for the people
who lived through it.

The most detailed record
is in Latin.

And it was written
by Cassiodorus,

who was a high civil servant
in Italy.

He wrote that
the Sun gave off no warmth

at any time
in the course of the day.

And there are also records
in Chinese that refer

to a terrible cold,

terrible freezing
in the summertime.

And so we've been able
to piece this story

of this extraordinary
catastrophe together,

combining
the evidence of sources

of eyewitnesses who wrote
their reports in Greek,

in Latin, and in, uh, Chinese.

The Earth became cold,

the crops died.

The result was
tremendous food shortages,

hunger,

famine in places...

...migration, and upheaval.

SHATNER: It is clear
from the historical record that,

starting in
the spring of 536 AD,

the entire northern hemisphere
experienced

darkness and bitter cold
for over a year.

In fact, historians have
dubbed 536 AD

"the worst year
to be alive in history."

But what could have caused
the Sun to become blocked

in the first place and
for such a long period of time?

Numerous theories have been
proposed, including the idea

that an asteroid impact
sent dirt into the atmosphere.

But in recent years,
some scientists have suggested

the darkness
may have been caused

by a volcanic eruption.

KAKU:
When you think of a volcano,
you have an image of lava flows

oozing out of the volcano.

Well, yes, that's what happens,

but that's not
the only thing which happens.

You also have
all the soot and debris,

which blanket the atmosphere
and block out sunlight.

And so in 536, we think

that there was
a volcanic eruption

and there was
so much soot, ash, debris

launched into the atmosphere,
that it created a fog.

A fog that destroyed
agriculture.

A fog that ground
civilization to a halt.

PHOENIX: This event around 536
has all the markings of

a very large-scale eruption
that had the ability to change

climate conditions all across
the northern hemisphere.

It really does emphasize

just how big the effects

of volcanoes are, how widespread

and how damaging they can be
to human civilization.

SHATNER: But if a volcano
caused the year of darkness,

then which of the nearly
1,500 active volcanoes

on Earth
was the one that erupted?

McCORMICK: A team working
on the ice levels for 536

from the Swiss Italian border
found microscopic

morsels of volcanic particles

that matches what one

would expect
in a volcano in Iceland.

And so,
the top suspect right now

in the eruption
behind the 536 event is

one of the many volcanoes
in Iceland.

SHATNER: Scientists are still
working to definitively prove

whether
a volcanic eruption in Iceland

blocked the Sun in 536 AD.

But perhaps the even
more pressing question is,

could the Earth ever
be blanketed in darkness again?

Could this happen again?

The answer is, of course,
it could happen again.

It has happened once
in the last 2,000 years.

It has perhaps happened
more frequently

over a longer time span
that we have not yet

been able to uncover.

We need to be prepared.

The 2010 eruption
of Eyjafjallajökull,

the Icelandic volcano,

actually disrupted
a lot of people's lives

because volcanic particles

were going up
into the atmosphere.

And it shut down air travel,

because those particles

will clog your jet engine
and cause major, major problems.

This planet has a beating heart.

It has life.

It is an ever-evolving,

ever-changing process
every time a volcano erupts.

And we are just along
for the ride.

SHATNER:
Located along the Detroit River,

this Canadian city seems,

by all appearances,
to be quite normal.

But if you listen closely,

you'll hear something strange.

(mechanical humming)

Do you hear it?

That humming noise?

Well, if you do, be careful.

It may just drive you mad.

WYSESSION: About a decade
ago in Windsor, Canada,

people began hearing a hum.

Some people, not everyone,
and not all the time,

but this was a serious,
significant hum.

GEORGE NOORY:
I was born in Detroit,

and I would go
to Windsor, Canada quite often

during my days
as a reporter in that city.

People are hearing
a strange hum that affects them.

It literally drives them crazy.

And nobody's been able
to pinpoint

exactly what's happening.

(low mechanical humming)

Most people would describe it
as a very low frequency,

modulating sound,

or they'd characterize it

as a large diesel truck or even

train locomotive parked outside

their window, chugging away.

Sometimes I get like a-a rumble,

like almost thunder.

But it's definitely not thunder.

It changes from one moment
to the next.

Sometimes we get four hours,
sometimes we get

four days, four weeks.

Sometimes it's nonstop.

DREW TRUAX: Some nights
it's been, like, really,

really intense,
where it kind of has

a little, to me, I, has
a little grind to it, as well.

SONYA MACKIE: It would be
in the middle of the night.

You couldn't tell
whether you're hearing it or,

or feeling it. It was a...

it was like
a "vroom-vroom" noise.

TAYLOR:
Imagine that you're sitting
in a room trying to relax

and there's
this low-level humming sound

in the background
that you can just barely hear

and it's continuous.

So, if you have this constant
acoustic hum in the background,

this could cause
adverse reactions.

This hum is affecting people,
keeping them awake.

It's-it's ruining their lives.

(low mechanical humming)

PROVOST:
It does affect my sleep.

The pulsing and the pounding--
yeah, it, it wakes you up.

It just resonates
through the house.

Sometimes it gets so bad

and you get
so infuriated with it

that it scares

the hell out of you.
You just want to get away.

Windsor being such
a highly industrialized city,

we have
a lot of different sources

of noise,
but when it didn't go away.

that's when people started
to get concerned.

SHATNER:
For the residents of Windsor,

the hum is no longer
a mere curiosity.

For them, it's become
a full-fledged crisis.

One that the local authorities
have tried to address.

CRAIG PEARSON: The Canadian
government did a study.

And the report suggested
that it came from Zug Island,

across the Detroit River
in Michigan.

WHITEHEAD:
And the conventional theory is
that the U.S. steel factories

that are located on Zug Island
are somehow causing

a weird reverberation effect
that is carrying that sound,

uh, across the lake
and people are hearing it.

MACKIE:
When it first started, no one
knew, uh, what the hum was.

They started studying it
and that's where

the Zug Island theory came up.

But there's all these
what-if questions that come up.

Why is it felt
in the evening hours,

maybe versus more so
during the daytime?

Why do you feel it on a weekend?

Are they actually running
their facility on the weekend?

Why is it worse during...

when the weather patterns
are different?

It definitely does pose

a lot of questions
and a lot of what-ifs.

It could be many other places
that generate this.

And low frequency sound
could be due to

seismic activity.

In the Detroit area
we know there's been an increase

in seismic activity.

One natural phenomenon
that creates

low frequency noise is
earthquakes.

In several cases, you can
hear the earthquakes occurring.

They're very low frequency,

mostly below
the human hearing range.

But in some cases,
they can be heard.

Interestingly,
some of the residents in Windsor

have noted
the rattling of windows.

And, uh, I've experienced
an earthquake

where I had no idea
it occurred except

all the windows of my house
started vibrating.

There was something
in that resonance

of that earthquake that was

the same frequency
as-as my windows.

NOORY: These hums are around
on this planet in certain areas.

Uh, exactly what's causing it,
nobody knows.

But it's very annoying
to a lot of people.

Just imagine yourself
trying to sleep,

feeling this hum all the time.

It drives you nuts.

MACKIE: It'd be nice
if it would be explained.

Maybe one day.

It would be great
if it went away.

It'd be nice
not to hear it anymore.

So what do you think?

Could Earth be creating
a disturbing hum?

Or is it the work
of modern technology?

It's a perplexing question
and suggests that the mysteries

of our planet are much greater

than we are currently
capable of understanding.

So, as we seek to learn
more about earthquakes

and volcanoes and
even mysterious balls of light,

we may find that
the strange forces of nature

are meant to remain unknown

and unexplained.

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