1 00:00:03,481 --> 00:00:05,962 a thousand lightning bolts in a single hour. 2 00:00:06,006 --> 00:00:08,443 [thunder crashes] 3 00:00:08,486 --> 00:00:12,273 A never-ending fire that destroys an entire town. 4 00:00:13,491 --> 00:00:15,972 And bizarre humming noises... 5 00:00:16,016 --> 00:00:17,191 [distorted screaming] 6 00:00:17,234 --> 00:00:19,193 ...that drive people insane. 7 00:00:21,064 --> 00:00:24,589 We call everything around us... 8 00:00:24,633 --> 00:00:26,548 "nature," 9 00:00:26,591 --> 00:00:29,768 as if the incredible world we live in 10 00:00:29,812 --> 00:00:32,815 is "natural," "normal." 11 00:00:32,858 --> 00:00:35,513 Something we can understand. 12 00:00:35,557 --> 00:00:38,777 But what happens when nature is unnatural-- 13 00:00:38,821 --> 00:00:41,215 bizarre, unreal? 14 00:00:41,258 --> 00:00:45,523 How can nature defy the very laws 15 00:00:45,567 --> 00:00:46,916 that are supposed to govern it? 16 00:00:46,959 --> 00:00:50,659 What then? Are we simply at its mercy? 17 00:00:52,226 --> 00:00:55,185 Or is it something we must figure out 18 00:00:55,229 --> 00:00:57,666 before it's too late? 19 00:00:57,709 --> 00:00:59,624 ♪ 20 00:01:15,118 --> 00:01:18,861 SHATNER: Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela. 21 00:01:18,904 --> 00:01:22,778 This body of water, near the mouth of the Catatumbo River, 22 00:01:22,821 --> 00:01:26,129 has been called "The Lightning Capital of the World," 23 00:01:26,173 --> 00:01:29,132 because almost every night, it's a place 24 00:01:29,176 --> 00:01:31,743 where the lightning never stops. 25 00:01:31,787 --> 00:01:33,658 [thunder crashing] 26 00:01:43,277 --> 00:01:46,932 300 days out of a year, we see this lightning. 27 00:01:46,976 --> 00:01:48,673 It's called "Catatumbo lightning." 28 00:01:48,717 --> 00:01:51,633 It's like sheets of lightning constantly for hours and hours 29 00:01:51,676 --> 00:01:53,417 and hours, and it goes on and on, 30 00:01:53,461 --> 00:01:55,854 and it lights up everything around it. 31 00:01:55,898 --> 00:01:57,334 And it's not like any other lightning 32 00:01:57,378 --> 00:01:59,162 anywhere else on the planet. 33 00:01:59,206 --> 00:02:01,121 It's amazing. 34 00:02:01,164 --> 00:02:03,166 You have to wonder why is there not lightning like this 35 00:02:03,210 --> 00:02:04,733 everywhere else in the world? 36 00:02:04,776 --> 00:02:07,127 SHATNER: There's an old expression that says lightning 37 00:02:07,170 --> 00:02:10,217 doesn't strike twice in the same place. 38 00:02:10,260 --> 00:02:13,785 But at Lake Maracaibo, not only does it strike 39 00:02:13,829 --> 00:02:18,529 at the same place, it does so over and over. 40 00:02:18,573 --> 00:02:21,967 But why? 41 00:02:22,011 --> 00:02:23,969 There are some areas of the Earth 42 00:02:24,013 --> 00:02:26,276 which seem to be like lightning valleys. 43 00:02:26,320 --> 00:02:27,973 [thunder crashes] 44 00:02:28,017 --> 00:02:30,933 Areas that are just inundated with lightning bolts 45 00:02:30,976 --> 00:02:34,066 on a given storm. And why? 46 00:02:34,110 --> 00:02:35,633 Well, we're not sure. 47 00:02:38,158 --> 00:02:39,768 When you look at Venezuela, you can take some guesses 48 00:02:39,811 --> 00:02:40,899 as to what's going on. 49 00:02:40,943 --> 00:02:42,292 Maybe it's the water. 50 00:02:42,336 --> 00:02:44,512 But it also could be things like the altitude, 51 00:02:44,555 --> 00:02:46,340 or the general atmospheric conditions. 52 00:02:46,383 --> 00:02:49,604 So it's very hard to pin down exactly what's going on 53 00:02:49,647 --> 00:02:52,346 in that place, and why that place is special. 54 00:02:54,522 --> 00:02:56,219 There's a thing called "chaos theory," 55 00:02:56,263 --> 00:02:58,613 and in chaos theory, there are these places 56 00:02:58,656 --> 00:03:00,484 that are called "attractors." 57 00:03:00,528 --> 00:03:02,573 They're regions that just occur sort of randomly 58 00:03:02,617 --> 00:03:05,097 that cause a vortex. 59 00:03:05,141 --> 00:03:07,012 Things occur there, things collect there. 60 00:03:07,056 --> 00:03:10,364 Perhaps the Earth has an attractor 61 00:03:10,407 --> 00:03:12,540 over this lake in Venezuela 62 00:03:12,583 --> 00:03:15,673 that's causing the Catatumbo lightning. 63 00:03:15,717 --> 00:03:17,675 One thing about lightning is there is 64 00:03:17,719 --> 00:03:19,677 a tremendous amount of energy involved. 65 00:03:19,721 --> 00:03:21,201 But that's not the most exciting piece. 66 00:03:22,593 --> 00:03:23,899 It's the power. 67 00:03:23,942 --> 00:03:26,467 It's how quickly the energy is released. 68 00:03:26,510 --> 00:03:28,860 Lightning represents one of the most powerful, 69 00:03:28,904 --> 00:03:32,081 high-power phenomena in nature. 70 00:03:32,124 --> 00:03:34,605 So lightning's really exciting because there's pieces 71 00:03:34,649 --> 00:03:36,216 we do understand, 72 00:03:36,259 --> 00:03:38,522 but there's still a lot of pieces we don't understand. 73 00:03:38,566 --> 00:03:40,089 [thunder crashing] 74 00:03:40,132 --> 00:03:42,396 KAKU: For example, recently it was revealed 75 00:03:42,439 --> 00:03:44,528 that the energy of a lightning bolt is so great 76 00:03:44,572 --> 00:03:47,009 that even antimatter can be formed. 77 00:03:47,052 --> 00:03:49,751 To create antimatter, 78 00:03:49,794 --> 00:03:51,492 you need a particle accelerator. 79 00:03:51,535 --> 00:03:54,843 You need an atom smasher to create antimatter 80 00:03:54,886 --> 00:03:57,976 -in the laboratory. -[explosion] 81 00:03:58,020 --> 00:04:00,152 But it turns out an ordinary lightning bolt 82 00:04:00,196 --> 00:04:02,372 will also create minute quantities 83 00:04:02,416 --> 00:04:04,635 of this exotic form of matter. 84 00:04:04,679 --> 00:04:06,550 [thunder crashes] 85 00:04:06,594 --> 00:04:10,598 The lightning in Lake Maracaibo is an interesting case 86 00:04:10,641 --> 00:04:14,602 of scientists trying to figure out an unusual phenomenon. 87 00:04:16,299 --> 00:04:19,128 This region had been identified for many years 88 00:04:19,171 --> 00:04:21,652 as a hotspot of lightning. 89 00:04:21,696 --> 00:04:25,439 And it turns out, with a detailed NASA study, 90 00:04:25,482 --> 00:04:29,051 it is indeed the greatest lightning hotspot in the world. 91 00:04:30,966 --> 00:04:33,229 SHATNER: Lightning hotspots? 92 00:04:33,273 --> 00:04:37,320 Are there really places on Earth that act like lightning rods? 93 00:04:37,364 --> 00:04:39,104 Perhaps further clues can be found 94 00:04:39,148 --> 00:04:41,193 by examining not only places 95 00:04:41,237 --> 00:04:43,326 that are repeatedly struck by lightning, 96 00:04:43,370 --> 00:04:46,851 but the story of one woman who's been struck twice, 97 00:04:46,895 --> 00:04:49,419 and has lived to tell the tale. 98 00:04:52,335 --> 00:04:53,989 Fort Benning, Georgia. 99 00:04:54,032 --> 00:04:57,122 July 20, 1992. 100 00:04:57,166 --> 00:04:59,603 Army specialist Beth Peterson is working 101 00:04:59,647 --> 00:05:02,476 at an ammunition point when storm clouds 102 00:05:02,519 --> 00:05:05,609 begin to gather over the base. 103 00:05:05,653 --> 00:05:09,396 I saw lightning strike and hit the concertina wire 104 00:05:09,439 --> 00:05:13,269 on the-the fence going around the ammunition point. 105 00:05:16,011 --> 00:05:19,536 And then I watched lightning strike a tree across from me. 106 00:05:21,103 --> 00:05:24,541 And next thing you know, lightning struck again. 107 00:05:25,847 --> 00:05:28,240 It entered my feet, it exited my mouth. 108 00:05:28,284 --> 00:05:30,895 It grounded on top of my head. 109 00:05:30,939 --> 00:05:34,421 It felt like my body exploded. 110 00:05:34,464 --> 00:05:40,078 And it just lifted me as it launched me. 111 00:05:40,122 --> 00:05:42,167 And everything just felt like burnt. 112 00:05:42,211 --> 00:05:45,388 I felt like it took my head off. 113 00:05:48,609 --> 00:05:50,175 SHATNER: Beth was rushed to the infirmary, 114 00:05:50,219 --> 00:05:53,875 and, incredibly, she survived. 115 00:05:53,918 --> 00:05:56,573 But after months of recovery, Beth realized that 116 00:05:56,617 --> 00:05:58,532 -something was different. -[monitor beeping] 117 00:05:58,575 --> 00:06:02,884 She had been changed. 118 00:06:02,927 --> 00:06:05,190 Not enough people get hit by lightning 119 00:06:05,234 --> 00:06:09,412 and survive, like the strike that I survived the first time. 120 00:06:09,456 --> 00:06:12,284 And so there isn't a lot of research 121 00:06:12,328 --> 00:06:16,463 for my doctors to understand, to be able to say, 122 00:06:16,506 --> 00:06:20,597 "You've been hit by lightning, and this is the end result." 123 00:06:20,641 --> 00:06:24,384 In my case, they say, "You've been hit by lightning, 124 00:06:24,427 --> 00:06:26,777 and we have to help you figure out a way to cope with it." 125 00:06:26,821 --> 00:06:31,260 Because there are things that happen that are unexplained. 126 00:06:31,303 --> 00:06:34,611 I really believe in the electromagnetic 127 00:06:34,655 --> 00:06:39,007 changes in the body, because the first ten years 128 00:06:39,050 --> 00:06:42,314 of having, with my children, having the Christmas tree up, 129 00:06:42,358 --> 00:06:44,316 and putting maybe tinsel on it, 130 00:06:44,360 --> 00:06:47,929 the tinsel would jump six feet off the Christmas tree onto me. 131 00:06:47,972 --> 00:06:51,541 I couldn't get it to stay on the tree. 132 00:06:51,585 --> 00:06:53,717 -Turning on lights... -[electricity crackles] 133 00:06:53,761 --> 00:06:55,719 ...touching things... 134 00:06:55,763 --> 00:06:56,938 I'm very staticky. 135 00:06:56,981 --> 00:07:00,115 My hair likes to get very floaty. 136 00:07:00,158 --> 00:07:02,639 I can feel it in my body. 137 00:07:02,683 --> 00:07:05,686 SHATNER: After such a harrowing experience, 138 00:07:05,729 --> 00:07:08,863 Beth took solace, both in the fact that she had survived, 139 00:07:08,906 --> 00:07:10,952 and that her near-fatal encounter with lightning 140 00:07:10,995 --> 00:07:12,649 was over. 141 00:07:12,693 --> 00:07:15,130 Or was it? 142 00:07:15,173 --> 00:07:19,134 PETERSON: July 19th of 1993, 143 00:07:19,177 --> 00:07:21,658 I was struck by lightning again. 144 00:07:21,702 --> 00:07:25,096 I had a psychologist tell me that I was a soldier. 145 00:07:25,140 --> 00:07:27,882 I needed to get over it, I needed to carry on 146 00:07:27,925 --> 00:07:30,014 and soldier on, 147 00:07:30,058 --> 00:07:32,408 and that I should go home and watch the storm. 148 00:07:32,452 --> 00:07:35,933 And that's what I told myself as I drove home 149 00:07:35,977 --> 00:07:40,155 and took off my boots, and opened the French doors, 150 00:07:40,198 --> 00:07:42,462 and was struck again. 151 00:07:42,505 --> 00:07:44,986 It threw me approximately eight to nine feet 152 00:07:45,029 --> 00:07:47,902 back into the house. 153 00:07:47,945 --> 00:07:50,426 No one has ever come forward and told me why 154 00:07:50,470 --> 00:07:51,906 this has happened. 155 00:07:51,949 --> 00:07:56,780 I have had a team of incredible doctors, 156 00:07:56,824 --> 00:08:00,436 and they have tried and tried and tried 157 00:08:00,480 --> 00:08:04,745 through the years to medically have some explanation. 158 00:08:04,788 --> 00:08:07,530 Because when a person's going through what I've gone through, 159 00:08:07,574 --> 00:08:09,314 you want an answer. 160 00:08:09,358 --> 00:08:12,753 And the answer just always keeps coming back to, 161 00:08:12,796 --> 00:08:14,885 "You've been struck by lightning." 162 00:08:14,929 --> 00:08:17,845 SHATNER: Was it merely a coincidence 163 00:08:17,888 --> 00:08:20,500 that Beth was struck a second time? 164 00:08:20,543 --> 00:08:24,765 Or could there have been something larger at play? 165 00:08:24,808 --> 00:08:25,766 [thunder crashes] 166 00:08:25,809 --> 00:08:26,854 Is it possible that, 167 00:08:26,897 --> 00:08:29,117 like Lake Maracaibo, 168 00:08:29,160 --> 00:08:32,555 some people attract lightning? 169 00:08:32,599 --> 00:08:34,992 They say that being hit by a lightning bolt 170 00:08:35,036 --> 00:08:37,821 is similar to winning the lottery, 171 00:08:37,865 --> 00:08:40,128 and yet, some people are hit by lightning bolts 172 00:08:40,171 --> 00:08:42,260 more than once, and what's the reason? 173 00:08:42,304 --> 00:08:45,089 Is it just bad luck? 174 00:08:45,133 --> 00:08:47,614 DENNIN: As people, we do have a certain composition, 175 00:08:47,657 --> 00:08:49,398 and we're mostly water. 176 00:08:49,441 --> 00:08:52,227 And water is a great conductor of electricity. 177 00:08:52,270 --> 00:08:54,403 But the exact details and specifics 178 00:08:54,446 --> 00:08:57,449 of how each person is set up is gonna vary enough 179 00:08:57,493 --> 00:08:59,016 so you can imagine some people are greater 180 00:08:59,060 --> 00:09:00,801 or lesser lightning rods. 181 00:09:00,844 --> 00:09:02,977 So if you think about the whole electrical system, 182 00:09:03,020 --> 00:09:04,805 and how they fit into the electrical system 183 00:09:04,848 --> 00:09:07,285 of the Earth and the atmosphere, 184 00:09:07,329 --> 00:09:10,027 some people are more likely to be hit by lightning than others. 185 00:09:13,030 --> 00:09:15,424 PETERSON: I always have a heightened awareness. 186 00:09:15,467 --> 00:09:18,296 I know where the storms are coming. 187 00:09:18,340 --> 00:09:22,213 I can feel it by the hair on my arms standing up. 188 00:09:22,257 --> 00:09:23,650 The hair on the back of my neck, 189 00:09:23,693 --> 00:09:26,914 my static in my own hair... 190 00:09:26,957 --> 00:09:28,611 it floats. 191 00:09:28,655 --> 00:09:33,964 I can tell when the changes in the weather are happening 192 00:09:34,008 --> 00:09:36,576 by the response of what I feel in my body. 193 00:09:38,665 --> 00:09:41,406 I do not necessarily think it was a coincidence 194 00:09:41,450 --> 00:09:43,321 that I was struck a second time. 195 00:09:43,365 --> 00:09:46,760 I think the changes in my body made it more attractive. 196 00:09:49,980 --> 00:09:53,244 Why are certain places and people 197 00:09:53,288 --> 00:09:56,247 repeatedly struck by lightning? 198 00:09:56,291 --> 00:09:59,250 I'm sure Beth Peterson would love to know the answer. 199 00:09:59,294 --> 00:10:01,862 Just like the people who used to live in a small town 200 00:10:01,905 --> 00:10:03,559 in rural Pennsylvania, 201 00:10:03,603 --> 00:10:06,431 one that has literally gone up in smoke. 202 00:10:06,475 --> 00:10:08,564 Not from being hit by lightning, 203 00:10:08,608 --> 00:10:11,088 but from a fire... 204 00:10:11,132 --> 00:10:14,178 that has been burning... 205 00:10:14,222 --> 00:10:16,093 for more than half a century. 206 00:10:21,708 --> 00:10:23,274 SCOTT JONES: You basically, you see the fire and brimstone things 207 00:10:23,318 --> 00:10:25,886 Population: five. 208 00:10:25,929 --> 00:10:29,367 Once upon a time, this small mining town 209 00:10:29,411 --> 00:10:31,152 was home to more than 2,000 people. 210 00:10:33,850 --> 00:10:37,245 Today, it's an almost entirely abandoned wasteland. 211 00:10:38,725 --> 00:10:41,292 Some would say it resembles a war zone. 212 00:10:41,336 --> 00:10:44,382 But it wasn't war that ravaged Centralia. 213 00:10:44,426 --> 00:10:48,778 It was something much more devastating. 214 00:10:48,822 --> 00:10:50,824 DAVID WHITEHEAD: The story of Centralia 215 00:10:50,867 --> 00:10:53,130 is both tragic and terrifying 216 00:10:53,174 --> 00:10:56,394 in that it used to just be a quaint mining town... 217 00:10:57,961 --> 00:11:00,181 ...but now it's a total ghost town. 218 00:11:03,097 --> 00:11:05,795 SHATNER: February 14, 1981. 219 00:11:05,839 --> 00:11:07,754 Valentine's Day. 220 00:11:09,625 --> 00:11:12,106 12-year-old Todd Dombowski 221 00:11:12,149 --> 00:11:14,891 is playing in his grandmother's backyard 222 00:11:14,935 --> 00:11:17,720 when he notices something strange 223 00:11:17,764 --> 00:11:21,071 coming up from the ground. 224 00:11:21,115 --> 00:11:26,294 He sees what he thinks is-is smoke coming up from the lawn, 225 00:11:26,337 --> 00:11:27,730 goes over to investigate... 226 00:11:29,514 --> 00:11:31,691 ...drops out of sight into a steaming hole 227 00:11:31,734 --> 00:11:33,736 approximately 170 feet deep. 228 00:11:35,607 --> 00:11:38,610 He saves himself by grabbing onto a tree root. 229 00:11:38,654 --> 00:11:41,526 WHITEHEAD: So after what happened to Todd Dombowski, 230 00:11:41,570 --> 00:11:43,137 the media started coming in, 231 00:11:43,180 --> 00:11:45,835 and Centralia became a big story. 232 00:11:45,879 --> 00:11:48,490 DOROTHY LUCEY: Todd Dombowski was playing when the earth 233 00:11:48,533 --> 00:11:50,840 opened up below his feet. 234 00:11:50,884 --> 00:11:53,582 I see the smoke and when I did, I just fell right through it. 235 00:11:53,625 --> 00:11:55,540 SHATNER: After a brief investigation, 236 00:11:55,584 --> 00:11:57,499 the cause of the smoke in Todd's grandmother's backyard 237 00:11:57,542 --> 00:12:00,241 becomes obvious. 238 00:12:00,284 --> 00:12:03,548 A fire that was deliberately started, 239 00:12:03,592 --> 00:12:04,898 and thought to have been extinguished, 240 00:12:04,941 --> 00:12:07,857 had, in fact, never gone out. 241 00:12:07,901 --> 00:12:10,468 And it was now being fueled 242 00:12:10,512 --> 00:12:15,125 by the vast reserves of coal located underneath the town. 243 00:12:16,823 --> 00:12:21,305 Centralia was a very typical small coal town 244 00:12:21,349 --> 00:12:24,656 in the anthracite region of Northeastern Pennsylvania. 245 00:12:24,700 --> 00:12:28,443 Its only purpose for being was to mine coal... 246 00:12:30,314 --> 00:12:34,666 ...and its growth was in tandem with the coal industry. 247 00:12:34,710 --> 00:12:38,496 As new mines opened up, more people would move there. 248 00:12:38,540 --> 00:12:40,585 Some of those families in Centralia had been there 249 00:12:40,629 --> 00:12:42,631 for as long as five generations. 250 00:12:42,674 --> 00:12:44,894 And what I'm leading to is that 251 00:12:44,938 --> 00:12:47,854 there's this massive labyrinth of-of abandoned coal mines 252 00:12:47,897 --> 00:12:50,726 beneath Centralia, really under the entire town. 253 00:12:52,075 --> 00:12:54,904 And so, in 1962, 254 00:12:54,948 --> 00:12:57,472 the state dump inspector told Centralia Borough Council 255 00:12:57,515 --> 00:12:59,866 that the location of its landfill 256 00:12:59,909 --> 00:13:02,782 didn't meet state regulations. 257 00:13:02,825 --> 00:13:06,437 And they arranged for the local fire department 258 00:13:06,481 --> 00:13:08,831 to set the dump on fire to clean it up. 259 00:13:08,875 --> 00:13:10,528 And they had done this in the past. 260 00:13:10,572 --> 00:13:12,530 They would just go out and set it on fire, 261 00:13:12,574 --> 00:13:15,229 let it burn for a while, and then wash it down with water 262 00:13:15,272 --> 00:13:18,710 from a tanker truck and go away, everything's fine. 263 00:13:18,754 --> 00:13:20,756 Except, this time it wasn't fine... 264 00:13:22,889 --> 00:13:25,935 ...because this fire had stayed smoldering in the garbage, 265 00:13:25,979 --> 00:13:28,808 and then it moved into this labyrinth 266 00:13:28,851 --> 00:13:31,245 of abandoned coal mines beneath the town 267 00:13:31,288 --> 00:13:33,943 and that was how the mine fire got started. 268 00:13:33,987 --> 00:13:37,468 And eventually, the fire broke out of the ground, 269 00:13:37,512 --> 00:13:39,862 and you could see glowing red rocks, 270 00:13:39,906 --> 00:13:42,212 you could see blue burning rocks. 271 00:13:42,256 --> 00:13:44,519 And so, so hot. 272 00:13:44,562 --> 00:13:47,130 If you got even, like, within ten feet of it, 273 00:13:47,174 --> 00:13:51,352 your face was frying, you know? It was that, that hot. 274 00:13:51,395 --> 00:13:54,224 They sent the fire department back, 275 00:13:54,268 --> 00:13:56,096 but the damage was already done. 276 00:13:58,750 --> 00:14:01,841 WYSESSION: Attempts to put out the Centralia coal seam fire 277 00:14:01,884 --> 00:14:04,887 had been a total failure, starting in 1962, 278 00:14:04,931 --> 00:14:08,369 when they first lit that trash pit on fire. 279 00:14:08,412 --> 00:14:12,329 That fire continued to spread underground 280 00:14:12,373 --> 00:14:15,506 despite multiple attempts to put it out. 281 00:14:15,550 --> 00:14:19,902 And then, in over a period of 20 years, 282 00:14:19,946 --> 00:14:23,775 the fire just kept growing out of control, 283 00:14:23,819 --> 00:14:28,128 to the point where smoke and steam come up out of the ground, 284 00:14:28,171 --> 00:14:29,999 where the ground is as hot 285 00:14:30,043 --> 00:14:32,872 as 900 degrees Fahrenheit in places, 286 00:14:32,915 --> 00:14:36,310 just consuming the entire town. 287 00:14:36,353 --> 00:14:37,789 SUSAN JELLIG: The people of Centralia want to know 288 00:14:37,833 --> 00:14:40,009 when the 20-year-old mine fire will be put out. 289 00:14:40,053 --> 00:14:42,011 They appeared tired of living with the danger 290 00:14:42,055 --> 00:14:44,405 of toxic gases entering their homes. 291 00:14:44,448 --> 00:14:47,408 Representative Frank Harrison says it won't be easy. 292 00:14:48,844 --> 00:14:51,238 WHITEHEAD: And it was at this point 293 00:14:51,281 --> 00:14:53,849 that the town started to shut down and close shop. 294 00:14:53,893 --> 00:14:58,767 LUCEY: Residents take a vote to move their homes. 295 00:14:58,810 --> 00:15:01,813 The federal government forked over another $1 million 296 00:15:01,857 --> 00:15:05,078 to move them to safety. 297 00:15:05,121 --> 00:15:08,516 WHITEHEAD: Businesses started closing, 298 00:15:08,559 --> 00:15:12,041 people started leaving, 299 00:15:12,085 --> 00:15:15,392 and the government actually ended up buying the land 300 00:15:15,436 --> 00:15:18,265 to stop people from coming back in, 301 00:15:18,308 --> 00:15:20,876 because they realized at that point, 302 00:15:20,920 --> 00:15:23,748 that they had no way to stop this fire, 303 00:15:23,792 --> 00:15:27,143 and sadly, this fire is raging right up to this day. 304 00:15:31,234 --> 00:15:33,236 SHATNER: But why, 305 00:15:33,280 --> 00:15:35,935 after nearly six decades, 306 00:15:35,978 --> 00:15:39,677 why won't the fires go out? 307 00:15:39,721 --> 00:15:43,072 WYSESSION: It's a question that's almost impossible to know. 308 00:15:43,116 --> 00:15:47,250 Because not only can we not see through the rock, 309 00:15:47,294 --> 00:15:51,428 any attempts to try to figure it out 310 00:15:51,472 --> 00:15:54,344 by drilling holes in the ground, for example, 311 00:15:54,388 --> 00:15:58,958 you provide channels of air that can actually feed the fire. 312 00:16:00,655 --> 00:16:04,441 And so, you can try to cut off the fuel 313 00:16:04,485 --> 00:16:06,269 by digging out around it 314 00:16:06,313 --> 00:16:10,578 to remove the coal to prevent it from spreading, 315 00:16:10,621 --> 00:16:13,494 and you can also address the fire 316 00:16:13,537 --> 00:16:19,021 by pouring water directly in through channels underground 317 00:16:19,065 --> 00:16:24,070 to try to cool that fire below its activation energy. 318 00:16:24,113 --> 00:16:28,639 All of these were tried in the case of Centralia. 319 00:16:28,683 --> 00:16:31,338 Not one of them succeeded. 320 00:16:33,079 --> 00:16:35,646 You would think we understand fires enough 321 00:16:35,690 --> 00:16:37,300 that we could, we could take care of this, 322 00:16:37,344 --> 00:16:39,085 because we know, for a fire to occur, 323 00:16:39,128 --> 00:16:41,565 you have to have an ignition source, a spark... 324 00:16:43,002 --> 00:16:46,048 ...then you have to have fuel. 325 00:16:46,092 --> 00:16:48,833 Well, it's a coal mine, so coal is a pretty good fuel. 326 00:16:48,877 --> 00:16:50,835 Then you also have to have an oxidizer. 327 00:16:50,879 --> 00:16:53,447 That oxidizer is-is air, in most cases. 328 00:16:53,490 --> 00:16:55,971 But if they cut off the tunnels, 329 00:16:56,015 --> 00:16:57,407 or whatever's going into this mine, 330 00:16:57,451 --> 00:16:58,713 no air should get down there, 331 00:16:58,756 --> 00:17:00,323 eventually all the air should burn out, 332 00:17:00,367 --> 00:17:02,717 and it should go out, but it's not doing that. 333 00:17:02,760 --> 00:17:05,067 DEKOK: What I've been told by engineers is that 334 00:17:05,111 --> 00:17:07,069 they could pump water down there for a year, 335 00:17:07,113 --> 00:17:09,593 and if they turn the water off, 336 00:17:09,637 --> 00:17:11,813 there'd be a good chance it'd be enough residual heat 337 00:17:11,856 --> 00:17:13,858 that the fire would start right back up again. 338 00:17:13,902 --> 00:17:16,339 It's a tremendous monster. 339 00:17:16,383 --> 00:17:18,428 JONES: Once an accident like this happens 340 00:17:18,472 --> 00:17:20,082 underground where you have a fire burning, 341 00:17:20,126 --> 00:17:22,389 as time goes on, the odds of putting it out 342 00:17:22,432 --> 00:17:24,956 get fewer and fewer and fewer. 343 00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:28,177 With a coal fire, you're talking temperatures 344 00:17:28,221 --> 00:17:31,354 of a thousand to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. 345 00:17:31,398 --> 00:17:34,270 As the fire grows and grows and grows like this underground, 346 00:17:34,314 --> 00:17:37,012 all that heat is radiated through the earth. 347 00:17:37,056 --> 00:17:39,406 It warms up the earth, and could get to the point 348 00:17:39,449 --> 00:17:41,103 where you can see temperatures of two, 300 degrees 349 00:17:41,147 --> 00:17:42,626 on the surface. 350 00:17:42,670 --> 00:17:45,890 And asphalt and different materials 351 00:17:45,934 --> 00:17:47,805 actually start melting. 352 00:17:47,849 --> 00:17:51,157 Sinkholes open up, houses collapse. 353 00:17:51,200 --> 00:17:54,203 This can go on for a very, very long time. 354 00:17:54,247 --> 00:17:57,293 In the case of Centralia, even to this day, 50 years later, 355 00:17:57,337 --> 00:17:59,382 you see steam vents with toxic gasses 356 00:17:59,426 --> 00:18:01,645 being emitted out of the ground, 357 00:18:01,689 --> 00:18:03,821 you see vegetation that has been destroyed 358 00:18:03,865 --> 00:18:05,780 because of those gases in the heat. 359 00:18:05,823 --> 00:18:07,825 This is almost a wasteland, 360 00:18:07,869 --> 00:18:09,871 caused by these underground fires. 361 00:18:09,914 --> 00:18:11,873 Some people have estimated that it'll take 200 years 362 00:18:11,916 --> 00:18:15,659 for this fire to burn out, and my estimation, nobody knows. 363 00:18:15,703 --> 00:18:19,185 We could be talking two, three, four, 500 years. 364 00:18:19,228 --> 00:18:21,100 There is no answer to that question. 365 00:18:22,362 --> 00:18:24,015 It's basically hell on Earth. 366 00:18:27,932 --> 00:18:33,112 SHATNER: Centralia, Pennsylvania: once booming, now barren. 367 00:18:33,155 --> 00:18:37,203 The ghost of a town that once was. 368 00:18:37,246 --> 00:18:39,248 The few structures that remain 369 00:18:39,292 --> 00:18:42,860 seem to defy the fumes to consume them. 370 00:18:42,904 --> 00:18:47,604 Is this story a cautionary tale about the futility of mankind 371 00:18:47,648 --> 00:18:51,042 trying to bend nature to its will? 372 00:18:51,086 --> 00:18:52,609 Perhaps. 373 00:18:52,653 --> 00:18:56,874 But in a forest halfway across the world, 374 00:18:56,918 --> 00:18:58,876 there's an equally compelling story, 375 00:18:58,920 --> 00:19:01,836 not about mankind trying to bend nature, 376 00:19:01,879 --> 00:19:07,189 but about nature succeeding in bending itself. 377 00:19:11,541 --> 00:19:14,283 GEORGE NOORY: People are hearing a strange hu, 378 00:19:14,327 --> 00:19:16,590 just outside the village of Nowe Czarnowo, 379 00:19:16,633 --> 00:19:20,463 stands a grove of pine trees unlike any other. 380 00:19:20,507 --> 00:19:23,031 Instead of rising straight up to the sky, 381 00:19:23,074 --> 00:19:26,077 these trees bend, bow... 382 00:19:27,862 --> 00:19:30,691 ...and buckle 383 00:19:30,734 --> 00:19:35,652 in a most curious-- and some would say-- unnatural fashion. 384 00:19:35,696 --> 00:19:39,221 Which is why this place has come to be known as... 385 00:19:39,265 --> 00:19:42,398 the Crooked Forest. 386 00:19:42,442 --> 00:19:45,836 WYSESSION: When you see this forest, it's very striking. 387 00:19:45,880 --> 00:19:47,882 Trees come up initially straight, 388 00:19:47,925 --> 00:19:51,015 and then they take a sharp bend all to the north, 389 00:19:51,059 --> 00:19:55,281 and eventually curve back up again. 390 00:19:55,324 --> 00:20:01,069 And to see maybe one tree grow this way might not be unusual, 391 00:20:01,112 --> 00:20:04,290 but to see a whole grove of trees grow this way, 392 00:20:04,333 --> 00:20:06,422 clearly something was at work. 393 00:20:10,513 --> 00:20:14,691 SHATNER: Although scientists have dated the unusual trees to the 1930s, 394 00:20:14,735 --> 00:20:18,260 local records became lost after the end of World War II. 395 00:20:18,304 --> 00:20:20,567 The only thing we know for certain 396 00:20:20,610 --> 00:20:23,396 is that these are otherwise normal pine trees that, 397 00:20:23,439 --> 00:20:28,444 for whatever reason, didn't grow straight. 398 00:20:28,488 --> 00:20:31,186 JOSH SLOAN: I don't know of anywhere else in the world 399 00:20:31,230 --> 00:20:33,667 that we could walk into a forest 400 00:20:33,710 --> 00:20:38,585 and see such broad, dramatic sweeping curves 401 00:20:38,628 --> 00:20:40,674 throughout the entire stand. 402 00:20:40,717 --> 00:20:43,372 And so there have been a lot of questions, 403 00:20:43,416 --> 00:20:46,897 a lot of speculation as to what caused this. 404 00:20:46,941 --> 00:20:50,249 Everything from tank maneuvers 405 00:20:50,292 --> 00:20:51,946 that might have occurred in the area 406 00:20:51,989 --> 00:20:54,209 around the time of World War II 407 00:20:54,253 --> 00:20:57,212 to snow and wind loads on these stands... 408 00:20:59,954 --> 00:21:02,478 ...to chemicals that might have been in the soil, 409 00:21:02,522 --> 00:21:05,786 or genetic questions that might be at play. 410 00:21:14,925 --> 00:21:17,537 And be it the human intervention... 411 00:21:26,197 --> 00:21:28,374 I think most of the natural processes would cause 412 00:21:28,417 --> 00:21:31,333 a much more sort of gradual curve or lean in a tree, 413 00:21:31,377 --> 00:21:34,249 but not such a distinctive sort of hook shape. 414 00:21:34,293 --> 00:21:37,470 In this case, the fact that it's very consistent 415 00:21:37,513 --> 00:21:39,863 and more extreme than you would typically see 416 00:21:39,907 --> 00:21:42,388 in any sort of natural situation 417 00:21:42,431 --> 00:21:44,781 would suggest that it was probably human manipulation. 418 00:21:44,825 --> 00:21:48,002 But we'll never know for sure if that was the case. 419 00:21:49,395 --> 00:21:51,353 WYSESSION: One possible explanation 420 00:21:51,397 --> 00:21:55,314 comes from records of timbers called compass timbers, 421 00:21:55,357 --> 00:21:59,361 that were trees that were grown particularly. 422 00:21:59,405 --> 00:22:03,147 They were pruned, much like topiaries or bonsai trees, 423 00:22:03,191 --> 00:22:04,888 to have a curved shape. 424 00:22:04,932 --> 00:22:08,849 And these timbers were used in the hulls of ships. 425 00:22:08,892 --> 00:22:13,288 Rather than trying to bend boards with steam to make ships, 426 00:22:13,332 --> 00:22:17,640 they actually grew trees that already had that curved shape. 427 00:22:20,208 --> 00:22:22,079 Whatever happened to these trees 428 00:22:22,123 --> 00:22:25,692 most likely happened when they were very young. 429 00:22:25,735 --> 00:22:30,871 This obviously would have taken a lot of thought and work 430 00:22:30,914 --> 00:22:35,310 on the part of somebody to go out and plant this forest, 431 00:22:35,354 --> 00:22:40,315 to go in and prune or otherwise manipulate these young trees 432 00:22:40,359 --> 00:22:45,233 and tend them to create this kind of a big sweeping bend. 433 00:22:45,276 --> 00:22:48,062 And then that raises the other part of this mystery: 434 00:22:48,105 --> 00:22:51,631 what changed that nobody came back? 435 00:22:53,850 --> 00:22:56,679 WHITEHEAD: So, the idea that humans cultivated these trees 436 00:22:56,723 --> 00:22:59,769 to make furniture or for some other manufacturing purpose, 437 00:22:59,813 --> 00:23:01,684 it doesn't really add up. 438 00:23:01,728 --> 00:23:03,077 The question is, why would anybody 439 00:23:03,120 --> 00:23:05,209 go to that kind of trouble? 440 00:23:05,253 --> 00:23:07,603 And, I mean, we're talking at least ten years 441 00:23:07,647 --> 00:23:09,953 to produce a tree with that kind of bend, 442 00:23:09,997 --> 00:23:13,304 only to disappear when it comes time to harvest them. 443 00:23:15,219 --> 00:23:17,570 SHATNER: If the Crooked Forest isn't the result 444 00:23:17,613 --> 00:23:21,051 of some arborist's bizarre plan, then what else 445 00:23:21,095 --> 00:23:26,013 could explain the trees' strange and contorted shapes? 446 00:23:27,841 --> 00:23:29,712 There's got to be something more to this. 447 00:23:29,756 --> 00:23:32,933 Maybe it's something that we haven't yet thought of. 448 00:23:32,976 --> 00:23:35,849 Could it be that these trees have some kind of capability 449 00:23:35,892 --> 00:23:38,242 that we have yet to fully understand? 450 00:23:38,286 --> 00:23:41,463 In Native American traditions, 451 00:23:41,507 --> 00:23:44,423 plants have spiritual essence-- 452 00:23:44,466 --> 00:23:47,295 or you might say souls, plants have souls-- 453 00:23:47,338 --> 00:23:50,690 and in that sense, what we might think in terms of being a person 454 00:23:50,733 --> 00:23:52,605 or having a consciousness. 455 00:23:54,476 --> 00:23:56,478 Amongst our people, the trees, 456 00:23:56,522 --> 00:23:58,132 they, they do have a spirit. 457 00:23:58,175 --> 00:24:00,526 Not only trees, but everything. 458 00:24:00,569 --> 00:24:04,747 But mankind, we don't see that, we don't understand that. 459 00:24:04,791 --> 00:24:07,054 WHITEHEAD: We see this also in Japanese culture, 460 00:24:07,097 --> 00:24:11,058 where they talk about nymphs and spirits that inhabit the trees. 461 00:24:11,101 --> 00:24:13,103 And even in the Druid traditions, 462 00:24:13,147 --> 00:24:15,236 they wouldn't even approach a tree 463 00:24:15,279 --> 00:24:16,933 or walk underneath the leaves of a tree 464 00:24:16,977 --> 00:24:18,718 without asking permission. 465 00:24:18,761 --> 00:24:20,589 They would speak to the tree. 466 00:24:24,767 --> 00:24:27,466 SHATNER: Is it possible that the pines of the Crooked Forest 467 00:24:27,509 --> 00:24:30,207 are actually capable of communication? 468 00:24:30,251 --> 00:24:32,775 While such a notion may seem far-fetched, 469 00:24:32,819 --> 00:24:35,343 scientists are beginning to discover that trees, 470 00:24:35,386 --> 00:24:37,345 and other plants, 471 00:24:37,388 --> 00:24:41,828 have far greater capabilities than previously known. 472 00:24:41,871 --> 00:24:45,527 FISHER: When you step into a forest, all the trees around you 473 00:24:45,571 --> 00:24:48,008 are not just isolated organisms. 474 00:24:48,051 --> 00:24:50,271 They're actually a community 475 00:24:50,314 --> 00:24:54,144 that are communicating with each other. 476 00:24:54,188 --> 00:24:57,931 Forests are more often connected underground 477 00:24:57,974 --> 00:25:00,847 through their root systems by fungal mycelia, 478 00:25:00,890 --> 00:25:03,414 which are basically little threads of fungi 479 00:25:03,458 --> 00:25:08,158 that tap into the roots and then connect that tree to other trees 480 00:25:08,202 --> 00:25:09,856 that it's also connected to. 481 00:25:11,335 --> 00:25:13,381 WHITEHEAD: So, the question is, 482 00:25:13,424 --> 00:25:16,602 is there an advanced form of consciousness, in a way, 483 00:25:16,645 --> 00:25:18,255 that inhabit trees? 484 00:25:18,299 --> 00:25:20,170 And even in the scientific world, 485 00:25:20,214 --> 00:25:22,999 they've been changing the way that they look at trees, 486 00:25:23,043 --> 00:25:24,174 and they've been seeing that trees 487 00:25:24,218 --> 00:25:26,350 possess a sort of intelligence, 488 00:25:26,394 --> 00:25:30,093 where they communicate amongst each other. 489 00:25:32,052 --> 00:25:34,054 SHATNER: Did the trees of the Crooked Forest 490 00:25:34,097 --> 00:25:38,101 grow that way because someone, or some force, willed them to? 491 00:25:38,145 --> 00:25:41,888 If true, it could revolutionize the way we humans 492 00:25:41,931 --> 00:25:45,065 interact with the wondrous world we live in. 493 00:25:45,108 --> 00:25:47,154 But it might also help to explain 494 00:25:47,197 --> 00:25:50,505 another, less benign phenomenon, 495 00:25:50,549 --> 00:25:53,856 one in which a sound is produced that is so subtle, 496 00:25:53,900 --> 00:25:57,251 yet so persistent, that it can drive those who hear it... 497 00:25:57,294 --> 00:25:58,818 [window rattling] 498 00:25:58,861 --> 00:26:02,212 -...stark raving mad. -[screams] 499 00:26:07,174 --> 00:26:09,611 TAYLOR: This hum is affecting people.a. 500 00:26:09,655 --> 00:26:12,962 Located along the Detroit River, this Canadian city seems, 501 00:26:13,006 --> 00:26:16,226 by all appearances, to be quite normal. 502 00:26:16,270 --> 00:26:20,796 But if you listen closely, you'll hear something strange. 503 00:26:20,840 --> 00:26:22,450 [low humming] 504 00:26:22,493 --> 00:26:24,670 Do you hear it? 505 00:26:24,713 --> 00:26:26,280 That humming noise? 506 00:26:28,325 --> 00:26:30,284 Well, if you do, be careful. 507 00:26:30,327 --> 00:26:34,027 It may just drive you mad. 508 00:26:36,812 --> 00:26:39,249 WYSESSION: About a decade ago, in Windsor, Canada, 509 00:26:39,293 --> 00:26:41,991 people began hearing a hum. 510 00:26:42,035 --> 00:26:44,777 Some people, not everyone, and not all the time, 511 00:26:44,820 --> 00:26:47,388 but this was a serious, significant hum. 512 00:26:49,956 --> 00:26:52,698 NOORY: I was born in Detroit and I would go to Windsor, Canada 513 00:26:52,741 --> 00:26:56,702 quite often during my days as a reporter in that city. 514 00:26:56,745 --> 00:27:00,009 People are hearing a strange hum that affects them. 515 00:27:00,053 --> 00:27:04,100 It literally drives them crazy, 516 00:27:04,144 --> 00:27:05,841 and nobody's been able to pinpoint exactly 517 00:27:05,885 --> 00:27:07,190 what's happening. 518 00:27:10,585 --> 00:27:13,370 Most people would describe it as a very low frequency, 519 00:27:13,414 --> 00:27:15,285 modulating sound, 520 00:27:15,329 --> 00:27:19,507 or they'd characterize it as a large diesel truck 521 00:27:19,550 --> 00:27:23,293 or even train locomotive parked outside their window, 522 00:27:23,337 --> 00:27:25,034 chugging away. 523 00:27:27,471 --> 00:27:30,736 Sometimes I get, like, a rumble, like, almost thunder, 524 00:27:30,779 --> 00:27:33,390 but it's definitely not thunder. 525 00:27:33,434 --> 00:27:35,305 It changes from one moment to the next. 526 00:27:35,349 --> 00:27:37,917 Sometimes we get four hours, sometimes we get four days, 527 00:27:37,960 --> 00:27:40,702 four weeks, sometimes it's nonstop. 528 00:27:42,748 --> 00:27:44,401 DREW TRAUX: Some nights it's been, like, 529 00:27:44,445 --> 00:27:46,403 really, really intense, where it kind of has a little, 530 00:27:46,447 --> 00:27:49,580 to me, I-- has a little grind to it as well. 531 00:27:49,624 --> 00:27:52,932 SONYA MACKIE: It would be in the middle of the night. 532 00:27:52,975 --> 00:27:55,717 You couldn't tell whether you're hearing it or, or feeling it. 533 00:27:55,761 --> 00:28:00,330 It was, uh, it's like a "voom, voom" noise. 534 00:28:02,376 --> 00:28:04,421 TAYLOR: Imagine that you're sitting in a room 535 00:28:04,465 --> 00:28:06,641 trying to relax, 536 00:28:06,685 --> 00:28:10,601 and there is this low-level humming sound in the background 537 00:28:10,645 --> 00:28:14,693 that you can just barely hear, and it's continuous. 538 00:28:14,736 --> 00:28:18,566 So, if you have this constant acoustic hum in the background, 539 00:28:18,609 --> 00:28:21,003 this could cause adverse reactions. 540 00:28:21,047 --> 00:28:23,745 This hum is affecting people, keeping them awake. 541 00:28:23,789 --> 00:28:25,442 It's ruining their lives. 542 00:28:25,486 --> 00:28:27,357 [loud humming] 543 00:28:30,578 --> 00:28:32,449 PROVOST: It does affect my sleep. 544 00:28:32,493 --> 00:28:35,583 The pulsing and the pounding, yeah, it-it wakes you up. 545 00:28:35,626 --> 00:28:38,368 It just resonates through the house. 546 00:28:38,412 --> 00:28:40,762 Sometimes it gets so bad, you get so infuriated with it, 547 00:28:40,806 --> 00:28:42,808 that it scares the hell out of you. 548 00:28:42,851 --> 00:28:45,071 You just want to get away. 549 00:28:47,508 --> 00:28:50,032 Windsor being such a highly industrialized city, 550 00:28:50,076 --> 00:28:52,121 we have a lot of different sources of noise. 551 00:28:52,165 --> 00:28:53,993 But when it didn't go away, 552 00:28:54,036 --> 00:28:57,039 that's when people started to get concerned. 553 00:28:57,083 --> 00:28:58,867 SHATNER: For the residents of Windsor, 554 00:28:58,911 --> 00:29:01,652 the hum is no longer a mere curiosity. 555 00:29:01,696 --> 00:29:05,787 For them, it's become a full-fledged crisis, 556 00:29:05,831 --> 00:29:10,183 one that the local authorities have tried to address. 557 00:29:10,226 --> 00:29:12,576 CRAIG PEARSON: The Canadian government did a study 558 00:29:12,620 --> 00:29:16,798 and the report suggested that it came from Zug Island, 559 00:29:16,842 --> 00:29:20,367 across the Detroit River in Michigan. 560 00:29:20,410 --> 00:29:22,369 WHITEHEAD: And the conventional theory 561 00:29:22,412 --> 00:29:25,807 is that the U.S. steel factories that are located on Zug Island 562 00:29:25,851 --> 00:29:28,854 are somehow causing a weird reverberation effect 563 00:29:28,897 --> 00:29:31,247 that is carrying that sound 564 00:29:31,291 --> 00:29:34,337 across the lake and people are hearing it. 565 00:29:34,381 --> 00:29:37,471 WYSESSION: One possible explanation has to do 566 00:29:37,514 --> 00:29:40,256 with a phenomenon called resonance. 567 00:29:40,300 --> 00:29:44,913 So, it could be, whatever the low frequency machinery is 568 00:29:44,957 --> 00:29:50,005 that's vibrating, it's vibrating at just the wrong frequency 569 00:29:50,049 --> 00:29:53,356 that is causing surrounding structures 570 00:29:53,400 --> 00:29:57,534 to begin to amplify at that exact resonant frequency. 571 00:29:57,578 --> 00:29:59,928 DENNIN: The human use of industry 572 00:29:59,972 --> 00:30:02,365 is fairly common from place to place. 573 00:30:02,409 --> 00:30:04,411 And so when you think about Detroit, 574 00:30:04,454 --> 00:30:06,674 if the hum or the noise is from industry, 575 00:30:06,717 --> 00:30:10,896 and that type of noise, you would expect it in other places. 576 00:30:10,939 --> 00:30:13,202 However, nature and natural noise 577 00:30:13,246 --> 00:30:15,596 is more localized and distinct. 578 00:30:15,639 --> 00:30:20,166 MACKIE: When it first started, no one knew what the hum was. 579 00:30:20,209 --> 00:30:21,602 They started studying it, 580 00:30:21,645 --> 00:30:23,473 and that's where the Zug Island theory came up, 581 00:30:23,517 --> 00:30:25,954 but there's all these what-if questions that come up. 582 00:30:25,998 --> 00:30:29,001 Why is it felt in the evening hours, 583 00:30:29,044 --> 00:30:31,394 maybe verses more so during the daytime? 584 00:30:31,438 --> 00:30:33,875 Why do you feel it on a weekend? 585 00:30:33,919 --> 00:30:36,051 Are they actually running their facility on the weekend? 586 00:30:36,095 --> 00:30:39,272 Why is it worse during when the weather patterns are different? 587 00:30:39,315 --> 00:30:44,407 It definitely does pose a lot of questions and a lot of what-ifs. 588 00:30:44,451 --> 00:30:48,020 It could be many other places that generate this. 589 00:30:48,063 --> 00:30:51,371 And low frequency sound could be due to seismic activity. 590 00:30:51,414 --> 00:30:53,199 In the Detroit area, 591 00:30:53,242 --> 00:30:58,117 we know there's been an increase in seismic activity. 592 00:30:58,160 --> 00:31:00,771 One natural phenomenon that creates low frequency noise 593 00:31:00,815 --> 00:31:02,730 is earthquakes. 594 00:31:02,773 --> 00:31:06,299 In several cases, you can hear the earthquakes occurring. 595 00:31:06,342 --> 00:31:07,822 They're very low frequency, 596 00:31:07,866 --> 00:31:10,042 mostly below the human hearing range. 597 00:31:10,085 --> 00:31:12,261 But in some cases, they can be heard. 598 00:31:12,305 --> 00:31:14,655 Interestingly, some of the residents in Windsor 599 00:31:14,698 --> 00:31:17,876 have noted the rattling of windows. 600 00:31:17,919 --> 00:31:21,923 And I've experienced an earthquake where I had no idea 601 00:31:21,967 --> 00:31:24,230 it occurred except all the windows of my house 602 00:31:24,273 --> 00:31:26,145 started vibrating. 603 00:31:26,188 --> 00:31:28,625 There was something in that resonance of that earthquake 604 00:31:28,669 --> 00:31:31,411 that was the same frequency as my windows. 605 00:31:32,891 --> 00:31:35,328 NOORY: So, these hums are around 606 00:31:35,371 --> 00:31:38,287 on this planet in certain areas. 607 00:31:38,331 --> 00:31:40,768 Exactly what's causing it, nobody knows. 608 00:31:40,811 --> 00:31:42,901 But it's very annoying to a lot of people. 609 00:31:42,944 --> 00:31:45,207 Just imagine yourself trying to sleep, 610 00:31:45,251 --> 00:31:47,949 feeling this hum all the time. 611 00:31:47,993 --> 00:31:50,430 It drives you nuts. 612 00:31:50,473 --> 00:31:51,822 I don't think it'll ever be solved. 613 00:31:51,866 --> 00:31:53,737 I'm hoping it will be. I won't give up 614 00:31:53,781 --> 00:31:57,524 until they find an answer or tell us what's going on. 615 00:31:57,567 --> 00:32:01,006 If they can fix it, fix it. If not, let us know why not. 616 00:32:01,049 --> 00:32:03,486 MACKIE: It'd be nice if it would be explained. 617 00:32:03,530 --> 00:32:05,401 Maybe one day. 618 00:32:05,445 --> 00:32:06,968 It would be great if it went away. 619 00:32:07,012 --> 00:32:08,970 It'd be nice not to hear it anymore. 620 00:32:09,014 --> 00:32:12,017 SHATNER: Is the nauseating hum 621 00:32:12,060 --> 00:32:14,280 experienced by the people of Windsor 622 00:32:14,323 --> 00:32:18,371 really caused by nearby industrial plants? 623 00:32:18,414 --> 00:32:22,157 Or is it due to something even stranger? 624 00:32:22,201 --> 00:32:24,943 There are some who believe that the hum 625 00:32:24,986 --> 00:32:27,032 may come from the same place 626 00:32:27,075 --> 00:32:31,123 where geologists believe there lies an incredible energy, 627 00:32:31,166 --> 00:32:34,213 one so powerful and so unstoppable, 628 00:32:34,256 --> 00:32:37,520 that one day it may actually wipe out 629 00:32:37,564 --> 00:32:40,262 all of mankind. 630 00:32:47,661 --> 00:32:50,969 WYSESSION: It is so anomalous, it is easy 631 00:32:51,012 --> 00:32:54,668 stretching out to strike the sky. 632 00:32:54,711 --> 00:32:58,802 A colossal, 900-foot shaft of rugged rock, 633 00:32:58,846 --> 00:33:03,938 one whose very name conjures notions of both awe 634 00:33:03,982 --> 00:33:05,809 and dread. 635 00:33:05,853 --> 00:33:09,422 Devils Tower. 636 00:33:09,465 --> 00:33:13,513 Devils Tower is remarkable because you can drive across 637 00:33:13,556 --> 00:33:17,169 the sedimentary plains, see nothing but flat ground 638 00:33:17,212 --> 00:33:18,953 for miles and miles, 639 00:33:18,997 --> 00:33:23,392 and then this tall, dark tower emerges 640 00:33:23,436 --> 00:33:25,133 as you drive towards it. 641 00:33:25,177 --> 00:33:29,007 There is nothing like it in the surrounding area. 642 00:33:29,050 --> 00:33:32,706 The rock has a grayish, even a greenish-gray color. 643 00:33:32,749 --> 00:33:35,796 And so, as you approach Devils Tower, 644 00:33:35,839 --> 00:33:40,844 it's a distinct, stark contrast to the sort of tans and browns 645 00:33:40,888 --> 00:33:44,196 of the surrounding sedimentary rocks. 646 00:33:47,416 --> 00:33:49,636 SHATNER: Located in northeastern Wyoming, 647 00:33:49,679 --> 00:33:53,031 Devils Tower was declared America's very first 648 00:33:53,074 --> 00:33:57,426 national monument in 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt, 649 00:33:57,470 --> 00:34:02,866 who sought to protect it as an object of scientific interest. 650 00:34:02,910 --> 00:34:05,086 Since then, many have asked: 651 00:34:05,130 --> 00:34:10,744 what could have caused this massive tower to form? 652 00:34:10,787 --> 00:34:12,789 There are many theories about it, 653 00:34:12,833 --> 00:34:15,357 but there's no agreement on what it was 654 00:34:15,401 --> 00:34:16,837 that produced this miracle of nature. 655 00:34:19,970 --> 00:34:21,842 It's made of volcanic-type materials, 656 00:34:21,885 --> 00:34:24,236 but there's no other volcanic activity around it. 657 00:34:24,279 --> 00:34:26,890 So what caused this thing? 658 00:34:26,934 --> 00:34:28,892 We don't know the answer to that question. 659 00:34:28,936 --> 00:34:31,417 It's a really interesting conundrum. 660 00:34:33,549 --> 00:34:37,075 SHATNER: Is Devils Tower really a miracle of nature? 661 00:34:37,118 --> 00:34:39,120 Something that simply cannot be explained 662 00:34:39,164 --> 00:34:41,688 by natural and scientific laws? 663 00:34:41,731 --> 00:34:47,694 Sorry, but that explanation is simply not good enough. 664 00:34:47,737 --> 00:34:51,132 As much as we like to walk around with the confidence that 665 00:34:51,176 --> 00:34:52,481 we know this planet 666 00:34:52,525 --> 00:34:54,483 and we understand the planet we live on, 667 00:34:54,527 --> 00:34:59,488 there seems to be nothing but mystery on this planet. 668 00:34:59,532 --> 00:35:01,664 We don't understand how to predict earthquakes. 669 00:35:01,708 --> 00:35:04,145 [rumbling] 670 00:35:04,189 --> 00:35:07,366 We don't understand how lightning travels. 671 00:35:07,409 --> 00:35:09,150 There's so many questions that we have 672 00:35:09,194 --> 00:35:12,066 about what produces the forces of nature. 673 00:35:14,199 --> 00:35:17,376 SHATNER: Some have suggested that the key to understanding Devils Tower 674 00:35:17,419 --> 00:35:21,293 is to think of it the way many Native Americans do: 675 00:35:21,336 --> 00:35:24,165 not as a natural formation, 676 00:35:24,209 --> 00:35:28,474 but as an unnatural one. 677 00:35:28,517 --> 00:35:31,651 The native peoples of the area have worshiped this tower 678 00:35:31,694 --> 00:35:33,653 as an altar of sorts, 679 00:35:33,696 --> 00:35:37,265 and many feel like they can climb to the top of this place 680 00:35:37,309 --> 00:35:40,834 and get divine inspiration, uh, become empowered. 681 00:35:40,877 --> 00:35:44,446 And the question is, is there some truth to this native legend 682 00:35:44,490 --> 00:35:47,319 that this place is a sacred place on the planet 683 00:35:47,362 --> 00:35:50,583 and it is a sort of altar that allows humans to communicate 684 00:35:50,626 --> 00:35:53,194 to the spirits or to the universe 685 00:35:53,238 --> 00:35:56,589 or to the gods that they believe in? 686 00:35:56,632 --> 00:35:59,592 To view Devils Tower, if you want to call it that-- 687 00:35:59,635 --> 00:36:01,985 Mathó Thípila is what we call it-- 688 00:36:02,029 --> 00:36:03,509 it's a sacred place, 689 00:36:03,552 --> 00:36:07,469 and when you see it from a certain distance, 690 00:36:07,513 --> 00:36:12,082 even then, you start to feel the wonder of it, 691 00:36:12,126 --> 00:36:15,608 the sacredness of it, and as you get closer and closer, 692 00:36:15,651 --> 00:36:19,612 the positive sacred energy starts to build, 693 00:36:19,655 --> 00:36:21,657 and you feel it even more when you 694 00:36:21,701 --> 00:36:25,922 get to the base of the tower. 695 00:36:25,966 --> 00:36:28,142 I think, in the case of Devils Tower, 696 00:36:28,186 --> 00:36:31,798 it is so unusual, it is so anomalous, 697 00:36:31,841 --> 00:36:35,628 that it is easy to ascribe a mystical 698 00:36:35,671 --> 00:36:38,500 or spiritual attribute to it. 699 00:36:38,544 --> 00:36:41,155 It's not surprising that Hollywood directors 700 00:36:41,199 --> 00:36:43,070 would choose this as the place 701 00:36:43,113 --> 00:36:47,161 that aliens would land from outer space. 702 00:36:47,205 --> 00:36:50,556 In the mid-1970s, one of the most important events 703 00:36:50,599 --> 00:36:52,949 in the history of, uh, Devils Tower took place, 704 00:36:52,993 --> 00:36:54,603 and that was the filming of the movie 705 00:36:54,647 --> 00:36:56,605 Close Encounters of the Third Kind. 706 00:36:56,649 --> 00:37:00,566 In that movie by Steven Spielberg, 707 00:37:00,609 --> 00:37:05,745 the tower is a spot that many people are drawn to, 708 00:37:05,788 --> 00:37:07,964 and they don't know why they're drawn to it. 709 00:37:08,008 --> 00:37:10,880 They're drawn to it from all over the country. 710 00:37:10,924 --> 00:37:13,274 It turns out, as the movie goes on, 711 00:37:13,318 --> 00:37:15,407 that they're drawn here because they've been abducted 712 00:37:15,450 --> 00:37:17,844 some time during their life by aliens. 713 00:37:17,887 --> 00:37:22,631 A UFO lands on top of the tower, 714 00:37:22,675 --> 00:37:26,505 and Richard Dreyfuss and several other people 715 00:37:26,548 --> 00:37:31,118 climb into the UFO and fly off into space. 716 00:37:33,076 --> 00:37:35,296 The number of visitors that came to the tower 717 00:37:35,340 --> 00:37:37,733 doubled the year after that movie came out, 718 00:37:37,777 --> 00:37:42,477 and it stayed at that level every year ever since. 719 00:37:42,521 --> 00:37:45,132 I don't know if it's a landing site for UFOs, 720 00:37:45,175 --> 00:37:46,786 as Spielberg had in his movie, 721 00:37:46,829 --> 00:37:49,223 or what it might be. 722 00:37:49,267 --> 00:37:51,965 I mean, the more we look at it, the more baffled we are. 723 00:37:52,008 --> 00:37:55,447 We are going to find things as we continue 724 00:37:55,490 --> 00:37:59,277 to observe and search and study the Earth that we had no idea 725 00:37:59,320 --> 00:38:03,411 how they got there, what type of physical process created them, 726 00:38:03,455 --> 00:38:05,718 and we're gonna learn new things all the time. 727 00:38:08,721 --> 00:38:11,637 SHATNER: Is it Devils Tower that is unnatural, 728 00:38:11,680 --> 00:38:15,467 or is it our own limited understanding of nature 729 00:38:15,510 --> 00:38:18,121 that produces the confusion? 730 00:38:18,165 --> 00:38:23,388 Perhaps Devils Tower exists to keep mankind humble, 731 00:38:23,431 --> 00:38:27,348 as a reminder that we still have a lot to learn. 732 00:38:34,268 --> 00:38:36,705 ATNER:Yellowstone National Park. 733 00:38:36,749 --> 00:38:40,274 Each year, more than four million people 734 00:38:40,318 --> 00:38:41,971 travel from all over the world 735 00:38:42,015 --> 00:38:45,279 to experience its canyons, 736 00:38:45,323 --> 00:38:49,457 hot springs, and other natural wonders. 737 00:38:49,501 --> 00:38:53,505 But the most wondrous sight of all 738 00:38:53,548 --> 00:38:57,117 is a geyser that shoots a jet of superheated water 739 00:38:57,160 --> 00:38:59,206 more than 150 feet into the air. 740 00:39:01,251 --> 00:39:04,733 And it does so at such regular intervals 741 00:39:04,777 --> 00:39:07,997 that you can practically set your watch by it, 742 00:39:08,041 --> 00:39:09,999 which is why they call this geyser 743 00:39:10,043 --> 00:39:13,351 "Old Faithful." 744 00:39:13,394 --> 00:39:14,917 WYSESSION: If you visit Yellowstone, 745 00:39:14,961 --> 00:39:17,790 it's spectacular; there are geysers all over the place. 746 00:39:17,833 --> 00:39:21,489 Some erupt every few minutes, 747 00:39:21,533 --> 00:39:25,145 some erupt every few hours. 748 00:39:25,188 --> 00:39:28,409 But what is remarkable about Old Faithful 749 00:39:28,453 --> 00:39:32,239 is you can go there with a stopwatch and-and you can time, 750 00:39:32,282 --> 00:39:33,980 almost to the minute, 751 00:39:34,023 --> 00:39:39,420 when the next eruption of Old Faithful will occur. 752 00:39:39,464 --> 00:39:43,598 DENNIN: Most of nature is radical and unpredictable, 753 00:39:43,642 --> 00:39:46,688 but the really surprising feature of Old Faithful 754 00:39:46,732 --> 00:39:48,995 is not that it's periodic and regular-- 755 00:39:49,038 --> 00:39:51,824 because that also happens in many places in nature-- 756 00:39:51,867 --> 00:39:54,783 it's that it's been periodic and regular for so long. 757 00:39:54,827 --> 00:39:57,656 That is something that really shows us there's a lot 758 00:39:57,699 --> 00:40:01,050 we don't understand about nature and a lot more we need to learn. 759 00:40:01,094 --> 00:40:05,315 SHATNER: Old Faithful. For centuries, 760 00:40:05,359 --> 00:40:08,580 we've thought of it as a mere tourist attraction, 761 00:40:08,623 --> 00:40:10,233 a quaint example of Mother Nature 762 00:40:10,277 --> 00:40:11,670 at her most punctual. 763 00:40:11,713 --> 00:40:15,456 But what if we're wrong? 764 00:40:15,500 --> 00:40:18,720 What if it is really providing a geological countdown 765 00:40:18,764 --> 00:40:22,420 to mankind's ultimate extinction? 766 00:40:22,463 --> 00:40:25,771 Yellowstone is famous for bears, 767 00:40:25,814 --> 00:40:28,948 it's famous for magnificent geysers, 768 00:40:28,991 --> 00:40:30,645 but underneath your feet 769 00:40:30,689 --> 00:40:34,649 is a supervolcano, 770 00:40:34,693 --> 00:40:38,174 and it's at least 44 miles across. 771 00:40:38,218 --> 00:40:41,743 Is a whole network of magma pools 772 00:40:41,787 --> 00:40:43,615 that could one day blow up... 773 00:40:45,486 --> 00:40:49,316 ...and cause tremendous havoc. 774 00:40:49,359 --> 00:40:51,318 TAYLOR: A supervolcano, if it were to erupt, 775 00:40:51,361 --> 00:40:54,452 is so massive amount of energy being released 776 00:40:54,495 --> 00:40:57,063 that it would destroy half of the continental United States, 777 00:40:57,106 --> 00:40:59,500 and it would be more devastating to the entire planet 778 00:40:59,544 --> 00:41:03,286 than the asteroid that hit, that we think killed the dinosaurs. 779 00:41:05,550 --> 00:41:09,075 KAKU: This gigantic eruption has happened three times, 780 00:41:09,118 --> 00:41:11,643 three times in the recorded history, 781 00:41:11,686 --> 00:41:15,821 and we are due for another one who knows when, 782 00:41:15,864 --> 00:41:19,781 maybe tomorrow, maybe a hundred, maybe 200,000 years from now, 783 00:41:19,825 --> 00:41:21,653 but it will happen. 784 00:41:26,048 --> 00:41:30,792 What do we really know about this planet we live on? 785 00:41:30,836 --> 00:41:33,578 Just when we think we have Mother Nature figured out, 786 00:41:33,621 --> 00:41:38,974 something reminds us that we're not as smart as we think we are. 787 00:41:39,018 --> 00:41:42,935 After all, have we found a way to put out the Centralia fire? 788 00:41:42,978 --> 00:41:46,939 Or how Devils Tower was formed? 789 00:41:46,982 --> 00:41:49,071 What if not knowing all the answers 790 00:41:49,115 --> 00:41:51,160 is why we were put here in the first place. 791 00:41:51,204 --> 00:41:54,294 Perhaps we're made to keep searching, to keep learning, 792 00:41:54,337 --> 00:41:58,080 and to keep trying to figure out the answers... 793 00:41:58,124 --> 00:42:00,126 to The UnXplained.