All language subtitles for Secrets in the Ice S02E04 Mystery of Mummy Cabin 1080p WEB h264-KOMPOST_track3_[eng]

This program contains images
of mummified remains

that may disturb some viewers.

Viewer discretion is advised.

[narrator] A mysterious tower harbors
evidence of a fatal polar expedition.

The wind picked up the six
crew members still on board.

It carried them out into the
Arctic, and never to be seen again.

[narrator] The discovery of a Siberian
Tomb unearths an ancient mystery.

If this is a giant grave,
where is the body?

[narrator] When a wooden carving
is removed from its Arctic home,

the area is plagued
by disastrous events.

Some of the researchers got
sick. The roof of the lab collapsed.

They believed these incidents
were the results of a curse.

[narrator] These are the strangest
mysteries trapped in the coldest places.

Lost relics...
forgotten treasures...

dark secrets...

locked in their icy tombs
for ages.

But now, as ice melts around
the world,

their stories will finally
be exposed.

A rugged wind-torn collection
of islands

lies midway between Norway
and the North Pole.

The Norwegian archipelago
of Svalbard.

Svalbard is not just remote.
It's completely isolated.

There are no trees. And it's covered
in snow and ice most of the year.

These islands are home to the
northernmost settlement on the planet,

only a few hundred miles away
from the North Pole.

The largest island
in the chain is Spitsbergen,

which harbors the small inlet
of Kings Bay

known for its raw
and untouched beauty.

Intrepid tourists love to make the
journey there by boat or by plane.

[narrator]
Just off the Rocky Beach,

visitors to Kings Bay are
greeted by a strange sight.

Looming over the grassland
behind the beach

stands a solitary metal tower
balanced on three legs.

It's about ten stories tall and tapered
at the top, like a mini Eiffel Tower.

On this windswept snowy beach, a
metal tower feels oddly out of place.

What is it doing here?

[narrator] It's a 115 feet tall
and 20 feet wide at the base,

running straight up the middle
is a large ladder

leading to a circular rail
platform at the top.

The extreme climate
and remote location

suggests that it could have been an old
weather tower, but who would have built it?

[narrator] Historically, Denmark
and Norway controlled Svalbard.

But by 1941, the islands had
fallen to Nazi Germany.

During World War II, the Svalbard
archipelago became a strategic stronghold.

Weather stations on the island were
critical to planning flights and convoys.

Whoever controlled the region would
have a significant advantage in the war.

The Nazis had set up a number of
manned and unmanned weather stations

all across the Arctic,

ensuring that they had access to
the most accurate weather forecasts.

Could this structure in Kings Bay
be a forgotten Nazi weather tower?

These weather stations were normally
powered by multiple enormous batteries

and huge metal canisters.

But here in Kings Bay,
it's just the tower.

There's no enormous batteries or
monitoring equipment of any kind.

[narrator] At first glance, the tower
appears to be a simple structure.

But looking closely
at the design,

certain details show that the
engineering is actually quite complex.

The most stable kind of shape is a
triangle. They can hold a lot of weight.

So the iron triangles holding up this
structure would be incredibly strong.

They'd be able to hold up
exceptionally heavy loads.

The base is an equilateral
triangle. Each side is 20 feet wide.

For a tower this tall that
design plus the tripod structure

makes this much more resistant
to tipping.

That's critical
in such a windy stormy place.

[narrator] The legs of the tower are deeply
cemented into a 40-ton concrete block

fixing them firmly
into the frozen ground.

Whatever this tower is, it was built to
withstand a lot of weight and a lot of movement.

Interestingly, the top part
of the tower

has a large rotating mechanism
with a socket hole running through it.

This suggests that something
would have been attached to the top

that could rotate
around the tower.

This type of rotating
fastening system

looks remarkably similar to
those used for mooring airships.

Those huge floating machines like
the Goodyear Blimp or the Hindenburg.

Hangar One at Moffett Field, California
and a Hangar at RAF Cardington in England,

both had these mechanisms on
their airship mooring masts.

[narrator] Thick ropes attached
to the nose cone of an airship

would fasten to a socket
on the tower.

The airship was then secured
in one place

and could rotate with
the direction of the wind,

like a flag or weather vane.

Airships had their heyday
in the 1920s and 1930s.

But they were difficult to
maneuver even in the best conditions

and could be very dangerous.

If this is a mooring mast,

what was an airship doing in
the freezing climate of the Arctic?

The 20s were the tail end of
the heroic age of exploration.

This was a period
of worldwide excitement.

New technologies had made reaching the
furthest parts of the earth suddenly possible.

Explorers desperately wanted
to cement their legacies

and be the first to plant their flags
in the world's most remote places.

[narrator] By 1911, the South
Pole had already been reached

by a charismatic Norwegian
explorer, Roald Amundsen.

But in the mid-1920s, the North
Pole was still anyone's game.

Hundred years ago, the Sea Ice near the
North Pole was completely impenetrable.

No ships could even get close
to it and making the trek on foot,

with the equipment they had
at the time was impossible.

Explorer Roald Amundsen tried
and failed on two separate occasions

to reach the North Pole
by airplane.

To this guy, this was just
a minor setback.

And by 1926, he hatched
another plan for an expedition.

He was going to go by airship.

Unlike planes, airships seemed
like the perfect vehicle for Arctic travel.

They could stay in the air
for days

and you could do repairs
in the air

without having to attempt a potentially fatal
landing on the cracked and dangerous ice.

For the expedition, Amundsen
bought a state-of-the-art airship.

It was designed specifically
for Arctic travel

by an eccentric Italian
engineer named Umberto Nobile.

[narrator] The airship was almost
350 feet long and 65 feet wide.

It was powered by three 245 horsepower
engines with a top speed of 49 miles an hour.

The lift was provided by almost
70,000 cubic feet of hydrogen gas.

But this new technology
carried a risk.

While airships could travel
long distances,

the flammable gas
and powerful Arctic winds

meant any journey
could still end in disaster.

Amundsen called it Norge
after his home country.

The plan was to leave
from Northern Norway,

fly across the ocean Svalbard,

refuel and wait for the perfect
conditions to begin his polar adventure.

Could this tower in Kings Bay
be the exact spot

where Amundsen began
his expedition in 1926?

[narrator] Historic
photographs of the expedition

reveal images of the Norge

somewhere in Svalbard attached to a
giant tower just like the one in Kings Bay.

But in the photographs,
beside the tower,

there's a colossal structure
even larger than the airship itself.

What was it for?

The Norge needed a space for
protection against the Arctic weather.

So Amundsen had a huge Hangar
built to house the airship.

It was an incredible
architectural achievement

and one of the largest hangars
of its kind.

Building in the Arctic is
challenging at the best of times.

But completing this in the 1920s
during winter is an incredible feat.

[narrator] Over 16 miles of wooden beams
were used in the construction of the Hangar.

And parts and supplies
for the 100 foot high walls

were imported from as far away
as Rome.

To complete the Hangar in time
for the Norge's arrival,

32 builders worked in extreme
Arctic winter conditions

and blanketed in 24-hour
total darkness.

If this tower in Kings Bay was
the mooring mast for the Norge.

You'd expect to see at least some
remnants of this impressive Hangar.

But the mooring tower seems
to be the only thing here,

a building that enormous
couldn't just vanish without a trace.

What happened to it?

[narrator] Photographs of
the coast of an Arctic island

show that a mysterious metal
tower and an airship Hangar

may be the only remaining evidence
of the first flight over the North Pole.

But on the island, the entire
Hangar appears to be missing.

The mooring tower seems to be
the only thing here.

[narrator] A broader sweep
of the Barren Island

reveals the remains of several concrete
pads in the snow just beyond the tower.

Each embedded with a number
of large iron rings.

The concrete pads are spread across
an area the size of a football field.

These look like the foundations of
an absolutely enormous structure.

The exterior of the Norge's Hanger was
covered in thousands of feet of canvas

tied to the frames and fastened to
the foundations using these iron rings.

The solitary mooring tower and
the evidence of the foundation,

both indicate that this is
in fact the place

Amundsen began his epic flight
to the North Pole.

[narrator] In mid-May, 1926,

the Norge was transferred from
the Hangar to a mooring tower,

where final preparations were made
before its flight across the North Pole,

on board along with the crew
were Roald Amundsen,

his American financer and the ship's
pilot and designer Umberto Nobile.

After a 16-hour flight, the Norge
floated across the North Pole.

Norwegian, American and Italian
flags were dropped in celebration

before the giant airship
completed its journey.

But as they left, Amundsen
noticed something on the ice below.

The Italian flag that Nobile dropped
was bigger than the other two flags.

And Amundsen was furious
with the Italian pilot.

Despite the expedition's success

and Amundsen cementing his
status as a legendary explorer,

he just couldn't let
that detail go.

In his autobiography released
the following year,

Amundsen called Nobile a vain
arrogant and boastful man

who had no business being
in the Arctic.

Because he couldn't even ski.

This was an intense
and bitter rivalry

fueled at least in part
by Amundsen's arrogance.

Nobile was no better. He needed to
prove his own worth as an explorer

and be the first to set foot at,
not just fly over the North Pole.

[narrator] Umberto Nobile
returned to Kings Bay in 1928

with a nearly identical
airship to the Norge.

His new ship was called
the Italia.

But it was a total disaster.

Nobile did reach the North Pole,

but ended up crashing the Italia
on the remote sea ice on their return.

The Gondola was crushed
and ripped off the airship.

Nobile and eight of the other men on board
managed to escape the crash and await rescue.

But as they did,
the wind picked up the Italia

along with the six crew
members still on board.

And tragically, it carried them
and the airship out into the Arctic

never to be seen again.

The remaining crew had to wait
for a potential rescue out on the ice

surviving only on what little
resources had been left from the crash.

Search parties were sent
out to look for them

and who did they call out of retirement
to aid in the search and rescue operation,

the world's greatest Arctic
Pilot, Roald Amundsen.

But during the search and rescue
mission, tragedy struck once again.

Amundsen's plane crashed and
vanished somewhere in the Arctic.

[narrator] While Nobile
was rescued by another plane

and survived
the humiliating ordeal,

Amundsen's body and plane
have never been found.

This titan of polar exploration
lies permanently below the ice

somewhere near the North Pole.

Over the years, the giant
timber Hangar was dismantled

and salvaged for parts in local
projects, like bridges and railways.

And it left almost no trace
of the history of this place.

This metal tower and the Hangar
foundations are the only remaining evidence

of an incredibly vibrant time
in exploring the Arctic.

Silently commemorating one of the great
legends of the heroic age of exploration.

[narrator] The rugged all-time
mountains run for hundreds of miles

along the border between
Kazakhstan and Outer Mongolia.

This place is beautiful,
but it's incredibly remote

and winters can get down to
minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit.

And in some places, the ground
can be frozen all year round.

The Bolshoi Ulagan River runs
through the mountains

creating a breathtaking valley.

And it's surrounded on all sides
by stunning alpine meadows.

[narrator] At a plateau in the mountains
over 5,000 feet above sea level,

archaeologists working in the remote
area come across an unusual formation.

In the middle of a field
in the valley,

they discovered an enormous pile of boulders
and stones stacked on top of each other.

The circular pile is about ten feet high
and stretches over 100 feet in diameter.

It's definitely man-made
and it's been built deliberately.

The archaeologists believe that the rocks
must be covering something underneath.

So slowly and carefully, they
begin to remove the stones.

They bring in cranes to dig
out the biggest boulders.

And after weeks of painstaking work,
they unearth what's been buried underneath.

[narrator] The remains of what
appears to be an entire log cabin

are found frozen
into the permafrost below.

It's perfectly preserved

and it looks like the kind of place
a lumberjack would call home.

It's possible
that someone was living here.

There are examples of people
living in underground dwellings

all around the world.

But this place is completely covered up
with rocks and would have been inaccessible.

[narrator] To better understand
the structure's purpose,

the archaeologists excavate each
log and bring them up to the surface.

The team recovers
at least 40 logs.

And when they examine them,
they make another astonishing find.

[narrator] Each log is notched
with its own very specific mark,

almost like roman numerals.

It looks like these marks
are actually symbols

that describe which log
goes where in the structure.

[narrator]
Using the markings as a guide,

the archaeologists
meticulously reconstruct

the cabin in the field exactly
as it had stood underground.

Each of the attachment points
between the logs

were precisely carved
into the wood.

And they were perfectly
preserved by the cold earth.

The cabin is about 23 feet
wide by 13 feet long.

And when it was all put together, the
angles were off by less than half an inch.

[narrator]
The wood is carbon dated.

And they determine the cabin has been
under the permafrost for over 2300 years.

For the structure to be
preserved in the ice so long

and still be so stable means it
was exceptionally engineered.

Whoever built this
knew what they were doing.

By analyzing the wood, they determined
that this cabin is made of larch,

a tree that doesn't grow in
this exact area of the valley.

They see that the trees had come
from further down the mountain

and had been felled during
the early spring season

just before they would have started
growing again in the warm weather.

[narrator] The archaeologists now believe
the structure had been built elsewhere.

The logs were marked and
then piece-by-piece relocated

to this specific site
in the valley.

The cabin was then
reconstructed inside a deep pit

and buried for the next
2,000 years.

But why bury an entire cabin
underground?

If it's not a house to live in,

it's possible that it was
built to house the dead.

Many cultures bury their dead
in large elaborate tombs

and create substantial resting
places for their lost loved ones.

Depending on a culture's
beliefs,

offerings of important objects may be
placed in the grave with the deceased.

Sometimes, entire structures are built
for the dead to inhabit in the afterlife.

But if this is a giant grave,
where is the body?

[narrator] A log cabin buried
in a Siberian permafrost

leads archaeologists to believe they
may have uncovered an ancient tomb.

The only catch is
they can't find a body.

Grave robbers are notorious for stealing
artifacts from tombs and grave sites.

And at 2,300 years old,

there have been plenty of opportunities
for someone to raid this cabin.

Though, usually grave robbers
only take things of value like weapons,

clothing and jewelry.
Not the bodies.

[narrator] Records show that the site had
previously been excavated, 70 years earlier.

This dig had uncovered
two bodies.

A man and a woman in their 50s
resting together in a single large coffin

made from a hollowed-out tree.

The coffin had been buried
inside the log cabin.

The bodies were transported to the hermitage
museum in Saint Petersburg for further study.

Incredibly, their bodies
have been perfectly preserved.

Their skin was still intact

and the researchers could even
see the color and texture of their hair.

But that's not all. Both of their
bodies are covered in elaborate tattoos.

This male has what appears
to be a huge tiger tattoo

running from his chest and
shoulders around to his back.

And horses, birds and
seemingly mythical creatures

along his shoulders arms
and legs.

The woman is also tattooed down both her
arms though in a slightly different style.

[narrator] Looking closer, the
archaeologists make a grim discovery.

The brains of both bodies have
been removed from their skulls.

And disturbingly, most of the muscles
from their bodies have been taken out

and replaced with straw.

Their skin was reshaped
and sewn up again with cord

made of horse hair
and animal tendons.

This is a really elaborate
burial tradition.

Treating the bodies like this after
death and burying them in a huge grave

shows that they must have been
very important.

Taking out the vital organs
and preserving the bodies

suggests that perhaps there
was a long period of time

between when they died
and when they were buried.

If they died in the winter, the
ground would have been frozen solid.

So the community would have
had to wait for the ground to thaw

before they could prepare
the burial chamber.

So who are these people?

And who would have gone through
all this effort 2,300 years ago?

[narrator]
Between 900 and 200 BC,

the Scythians had controlled
this area of Southern Siberia.

A ferocious nomadic people,

they dominated lands
all across Central Asia

from China all the way
to the black sea.

Led by fierce warlords
and chieftains.

They were known for their
excellent horse riding

and horrific treatment
of their enemies.

Could this be the grave
of a Scythian leader?

Along with the tattooed bodies,

archaeologists uncovered nine
other skeletons in the grave.

The remains of nine horses fully
equipped with their reins and saddles

had been buried outside
the cabin.

The horse's skull show
a traumatic smashing injury,

indicating that they'd been
killed intentionally

with a sharp blow
to the forehead

for the purpose of being buried in
this grave along with these bodies.

The Scythians revered
their horses.

They would have been some of
their most valuable possessions.

So sacrificing nine of them at
once would have been a huge deal.

The ornate tattoos reveal a mix
of Chinese and Persian influence.

The Scythians ran an area that span
the distance between these two cultures.

So this artwork and the sacrificed horses
suggest that this is a Scythian grave.

[Dr. Alison] This couple must have
been of great importance for them

to have received such a burial.

Not only had they been
preserved until they could be buried.

But they were also sent to
the afterlife with their horses

and their most
prized possessions.

So it's highly likely that they
were leaders in their community.

[narrator] The archaeologists
believe

the log cabin is a smaller version of
the houses built by these Scythian people.

And it was placed inside
the grave as an offering

and as a place for the deceased
to inhabit in their afterlife.

Today, the reconstructed log
cabin rests at a museum in the area,

and both the cabin and the bodies
are being preserved for future study.

[narrator] High in the Russian
Arctic

nestled between the Freezing
Cara and Barents Sea

lies an isolated snow-covered
island.

Part of a small rocky
archipelago,

Vaygach Island
is completely treeless.

Its main inhabitants are rare Arctic
birds, walruses and hungry polar bears.

The weather is so extreme. It's often
impossible for humans to get there.

Storms come out of nowhere
and can last for days

making travel by boat
incredibly dangerous.

At first glance,

Vaygach Island appears to be nothing
more than a tiny white dot on the map.

But in the local language, the
name for the island is Vayhops,

which means territory of death.

[narrator] In 1997, researchers
conducting field work on the remote island

come across a bizarre object
jutting out above the rocks and ice.

On top of a large rock
in the middle of the tundra,

they find an unusual
wooden carving.

It's about five feet long
with a central wooden pole

with six smaller spikes
attached across the top.

Curiously, each of the pieces appears
to have a human like face carved

into the decaying wood.

It gives off a really eerie
vibe,

just standing alone out there in the
center of this wild untouched landscape.

What is this strange object?
What is it doing there?

[narrator] On an Arctic island
known as the territory of death,

the discovery of an eerie,
wooden carving

has sparked researcher's
curiosity.

Searching the island further,

they discover other smaller pieces
of wood with faces carved into them.

Some are lying on the ground
and some are still planted upright.

As there are no trees
on Vaygach,

these strange wooden carvings would have
had to have been brought here by someone,

but by who?

A few miles away from the carving
are some battered old timbers

and the remains of an old mine
shaft.

Someone brought all this
lumber over to the island.

So it's possible that whoever built this
mine was also responsible for the carvings.

In Russia, between 1929 and 1953

about 18 million men and women
were transported to Soviet Labor Camps

in Siberia and other areas.

Zinc and lead had been
discovered on Vaygach Island.

And in the 1930s, over 1,000 political
prisoners were sent there to work as minors.

It would have been back-breaking,
nearly impossible work.

Their pickaxes would break
on the hard rocks.

They had to pull all the carts by hand as
there were no animals or machinery to help.

Perhaps the miners built
this seven-faced object.

It could have been built
as an act of rebellion

or maybe as a symbol of hope
and comfort

to help them get through
their terrible ordeal.

[Dr. Alison]
But in Stalin's Russia,

all religion and symbolic
totems were outlawed.

There's no way the prisoners on this remote
island would have been able to get away

with building a five-foot wooden
carving and leaving it out in the open.

[narrator] After six years, the mines
were flooded by seawater and closed.

Any surviving prisoners were
sent to other camps on the mainland.

And the island
was totally deserted.

The wood the sculpture is made
of is old and weather beaten.

It's possible that it could pre-date
the Soviet Work Camps altogether.

Before the 20th century, there were
no permanent settlements on this island.

But someone went to a lot of
trouble to create this carving

and bring it to the island.

[narrator]
The first mention of Vaygach

by Western European explorers
was in the mid-1500s.

Sailors were searching for a
potential route across the Arctic

to India and China.

And a number of ships passed
by the island on their journeys.

[Jill] Maybe these European sailors were
responsible for erecting this strange figure.

The Europeans at the time would
have been practicing Christianity.

And the form does seem
to resemble a cross.

But looking at the records
of their journeys,

European sailors described
seeing hundreds of similar

carved figures already
on the island.

[narrator]
One sailor wrote in his diary,

"The number of figures
was more than 300.

They had a crudely made appearance
of men, women and children.

And many of them had eyes
and mouths smeared with blood.

While some sailors were exploring
the Arctic in Vaygach Island,

another European sailor
in the South Pacific Ocean

came across Easter Island with
nearly 1,000 enormous statues of heads

presiding over its shoreline.

This strange wooden carving
is the last one standing

out of hundreds
of similar carvings.

Then this is almost
like an Arctic Easter Island.

But why are the carvings
there? What are they for?

As an archaeologist, anytime
you find new sculptures

or carvings of human figures or
faces, it's absolutely fascinating.

The representation of the
human form in a piece of art

can tell us a lot about the beliefs
of the specific culture that made it.

[narrator] Idols or totems
depicting human figures

have been created by different
cultures for thousands of years

often for religious purposes.

Researchers believe
that the findings on Vaygach

resemble something they've
seen before. The Shigir Idol.

It's a nine foot long piece
of wooden carving

that was found hundreds of miles
away in Russia's Ural Mountains.

The Shigir Idol would have
stood over 17-feet high,

much taller than the carvings
on Vaygach Island.

But it has a similar main face.

And further down the pole, they find
numerous other faces carved into the wood.

[Dr. Alison] The Shigir Idol
is over 12,000 years old.

That's more than twice as old
as the Egyptian Pyramids.

It's the earliest example of human art
that appears to have ritual significance.

[Jill] Archaeologists think that
the faces may depict references

to the culture's creation myths.

So it's possible that the
object on Vaygach Island

is ritualistic in significance
too.

[narrator] Scattered
on the ground around the pole

are a series of small objects,

carvings of reindeer, bones,
parts of axes

and even some coins that
appear to be more contemporary.

Objects presented like this
are usually religious offerings.

So could the carving be
a shrine of some kind?

[narrator] Researchers take
the carving back to Moscow

with them to study
and better preserve it.

But bad things started
to happen to their team.

Some of the researchers
became sick.

The roof of the lab collapsed.

And Vaygach Island suffered
terrible weather and horrific storms.

The local indigenous population,
the Nenets, become worried.

They believe these incidents
were the results of a curse.

[narrator] The removal of
a mysterious wooden object

from a secluded Russian Island

coincides with a string
of disasters and bad luck.

The indigenous Nenets
population believe

the incidents are the result
of a curse.

Nenets elders from the mainland
reveal that the wooden object is an idol

named Vesako or the old man.

And it is a very important
ritualistic site in their culture.

[narrator] The Nenets practice
a shamanistic religion,

worshiping idols that depict
Gods and spirits.

[Dr. Anthony] Vesako is the father of
Gods and seen as the patron of hunters.

The other faces carved into
the wooden pole are his spirits.

The Nenets believed that removing the
idol from the island had angered the Gods,

and the bad luck, the terrible
weather was the spirits getting back.

[narrator]
According to legend,

Vaygach Island rose out of the sea
and became the home of the Gods.

The old man had children
and grandchildren.

The smaller wooden pieces
the archaeologists found

are idols dedicated to these gods
and scattered throughout the island.

The Nenets consider Vaygach
Island to be a holy place.

And it's taboo to live there.

Only the Gods can inhabit
such a revered location.

It was a cultural rite
of passage.

Every Nenets person was
required to visit the island

at least once in their lifetime to
worship and make an offering,

just like other religious
pilgrimages.

The Nenets would pray
to the Gods,

offer precious goods and animal
sacrifices at the feet of the wooden idols.

[narrator] A few years after it
had been taken by the researchers,

the idol was finally returned,

repaired by a local craftsman

and placed on a more protected
smaller island off the shore of Vaygach.

The Nenets believe
that since its return,

the bad luck has ceased
and the curse has been lifted.

While the Vesako carving is one of
the few that remains on the island.

The Nenets believe that
the spirits have never left

and the island remains
a holy place.

[narrator] In the wilderness
surrounding the remote village

of Saariselka
in Northern Finland,

a scientist and a few friends
are out in the quiet forest

enjoying the beauty
of an Arctic winter night.

This area is famous for its idyllic pine
forest and its picture perfect snowy winters.

[narrator]
The stunning northern lights,

one of the most beautiful phenomena
in the world dance across the night sky.

Then all of a sudden, a
strange noise pierces the silence.

And then again, this same mysterious
sound rings out in the cold night.

The group was deep in the forest
with nothing else around them

that could have made this noise.

And there were no other humans
to be seen.

The scientists had never heard
anything like it.

What was making this
bizarre noise?

At first, they thought it might have been
thunder, the sound of a lightning strike.

But usually, lightning needs
warm air to form,

which is why thunderstorms
are so rare in the Arctic.

There were no storms in the area
that even could have made thunder.

It was a still and clear night.

All they could see
were the northern lights.

[narrator] The northern lights,
also known as the aurora borealis

are streaks of colorful light
in the sky.

They can be seen best
within a 1,500 mile radius

of the magnetic North Pole.

Solar winds cause high-speed
particles from the sun

to rush towards earth's magnetic
field in the upper atmosphere

creating intense geomagnetic
storms.

When the particles from the sun collide
with the particles in earth's atmosphere,

they create energy producing
the iconic bright colors in the sky.

The closest that auroras even get
is about 50 miles above the surface.

That's really high up

in comparison jetliners fly
about six miles above the earth.

As sound waves move further away
from the source, they get weaker.

In a quiet rural setting, you can
hear thunder up to 15 miles away.

[narrator] The scientist concludes
that the likelihood a sound could travel

more than 50 miles to earth and still
be heard by the human ear is very low.

Maybe because he saw
an incredible sight.

He assumed that he heard
one too.

It's a winter's night
deep in a remote forest.

That can be pretty spooky. What
if the scientist was imagining it?

[narrator] A Finnish scientist
is on the hunt

to prove that the northern lights created
the strange sounds he heard in the forest.

But are these mystifying noises
coming from the skies above?

Or are they all in his head?

Doctors have come across
unusual occurrences like this before.

A unique condition known
as synesthesia.

Synesthesia literally
means joined perception.

It's a condition where
a stimulus in one sense

will produce a perception
in another.

So like when you taste colors
or you see sounds.

But then the scientists and all his friends
would have had to have synesthesia.

And that's pretty much impossible
because it's a very rare condition.

[narrator] The scientist
speculates

that maybe the sounds aren't
coming from the auroras themselves.

But perhaps they are related to the phenomena
that causes the lights in the first place.

The geomagnetic storms that
affect the auroras in the sky

also affect things on earth.

The storms cause a massive buildup of
opposing electrical charges at ground level.

Meaning, some things are charged
positively and others negatively.

If you've ever tried shuffling
your feet across a carpet

and then touching
a metal doorknob,

the electricity that builds up
on the surface of your body

is discharged
into that door knob

and, you know, pow,
electric shock.

A similar thing happens here
on the earth during these storms.

It's thought that as electrical
charges build up in the ground.

They can get discharged through
pointy things like pine cones and leaves.

This can create these sorts of
crackling and clapping sounds.

But the scientist was certain
that the unusual sounds he heard

were coming from high above
and not from the trees around them.

[narrator]
Looking through the archives,

the scientists discover
stories of other people

who have also heard
inexplicable sounds

while observing
the northern lights.

Accounts from the early
19th century

described French-Canadian fur traders
traveling through the northern wilderness

hearing strange clapping
noises when they saw the auroras.

They were so afraid,
they started praying.

Thinking they were going to die.

In early 2021, a man
from British Columbia, Canada

was out photographing
the northern lights

when he heard what he described
as a clicking or a sizzling sound

coming out of the air.

And he isn't the only one
who's heard these sounds.

[narrator] The indigenous people
of Northern Scandinavia, the Sámi,

have been watching the auroras
for thousands of years.

In their language, they define the
northern lights by sound, not by light.

The Sámi word for the northern
lights is Gulf Sahas,

which means the light
that can be heard.

If this word for the northern
lights is defined by sound,

and so many people believe
they've heard something,

could it actually be that the
auroras are making these noises?

[narrator] The Finnish scientist
attempts to record the sounds

to study their origin.

He sets up three microphones and recording
equipment in the forest on a night

when the conditions are as similar
as possible to his first eerie encounter.

The air was perfectly still and the
temperature was well below freezing.

So sure enough
the auroras were out.

Eventually, he heard one loud
clap. Then another and another.

[narrator] Over the course
of his recordings,

the scientist captures dozens
of different individual sounds.

He discovers that the sounds
measure approximately 80 decibels.

Sounds above 85 decibels are classified
as dangerous to the human eardrum.

That's pretty loud.

[narrator]
Further analysis of the data,

allows him to estimate approximately
where the sounds are coming from.

Incredibly, it turns out with the sounds
are coming from only 200 to 230 feet up.

That is really surprising.

The northern lights are happening
50 miles or more above the ground.

But the sound's origin is much
lower down.

So what's going on 200 feet up
in the air?

[narrator] The atmosphere
is usually made up of layers

that go from warmer to colder.

But on extremely cold,
still nights,

the frozen ground cools
the air directly above it,

creating a layer of warm air that
traps the cold air closer to earth.

The cold air in the higher
part of the atmosphere

sits on a warmer pocket
in the middle.

And this gives us kind of
a temperature sandwich.

This effect is known as
a temperature inversion.

[narrator] The scientist
realizes that the lower cold layer

is filled with negatively
charged particles.

And the higher warmer layer is
filled with positively charged particles.

Opposite charges are naturally
attracted to each other.

But due to the difference
in temperatures,

the particles in each layer
are prevented from meeting.

This creates an incredible
amount of tension

and electric potential
between each layer.

And what happens
when they do connect?

You get an electric reaction.

The geomagnetic storms
that create the auroras

actually break that tension
between the layers.

This causes the particles
to collide

and the resulting energy makes
these astonishing sounds.

But the conditions have to be
just right.

The air has to be cold enough
and still enough

for this temperature inversion
to occur.

With this new information, scientists
have finally been able to prove

what these indigenous people
have long been saying.

The Northern lights are in
fact the lights that can be heard.