02x05 - Debris of Amelia Earhart

[bunniefuu]

[narrator] How could
the weather in space

have impacted
the fate of the titanic?

A strong geomagnetic storm
can cause havoc on a large scale.

[narrator] What secrets
of America's nuclear past

lie in the frozen waters
of Greenland?

The fact that people
haven't realized what it was...

is mind-blowing.

[narrator] And who is to blame
when a bag of human hands

is found on the banks
of a Siberian river?

Who are these people?
Whose hands are they?

[Jeremy] The underwater
realm is another dimension.

It's a physically hostile place

where dreams of promise
can sink into darkness.

I'm Jeremy Wade,
and I'm searching the world

to bring you the most iconic
and baffling underwater mysteries

known to science.

The vast majority of our ocean is
unobserved, unmapped, and unexplored.

[Jeremy] It's a dangerous
frontier that swallows evidence...

You have nowhere to run.

[Jeremy]...where unknown is normal,

and understanding is rare.

It's a tale we all know.

April 14th, 1912.

RMS Titanic collides with
an iceberg and sinks into

the freezing water
of the North Atlantic.

More than 1,500 people perish.

The reasons behind the world's
most infamous ocean disaster

have been debated
for more than a century,

from lack of lifeboats
to human error.

Now, could a phenomenon
called space weather

change everything
we thought we knew

about the loss
of this unsinkable ship?

The largest moving
man-made structure on Earth

set sail from Southampton, heading
to New York on its maiden voyage.

Over 2,000 passengers and crew
are on board the Titanic.

It was the largest and most
luxurious ship that had been built.

It was supposed to be
the most secure,

the safest, the most watertight.

[Michael] Everybody
knows the story of the Titanic.

The greatest ship, the ship that
wasn't made to sink actually sank.

[Jeremy] Four days
into her journey,

the Titanic collides
with an immense iceberg.

The frozen mass towers


and weighs
an immovable two million tons.

Only 705 people survive, less
than a third of those on board.

[Beverly]
How did this happen?

How come no one came
to the rescue right away?

Who's to blame?

We're still searching for
answers more than 100 years later.

[Jeremy] An inquiry begins into
what went so tragically wrong.

The month-long investigation
is overseen by Lord Mersey

who takes volumes of notes
in his private journals.

After the hearings end,

these journals are kept
locked away by his descendants

for more than a century.

It's not until 2020
that they're finally released.

His journals reveal his
innermost thoughts on the inquiry.

[Jeremy] Can Lord Mersey's
newly-disclosed writings

finally expose the truth?

He mentions in the journal that
the watertight doors in the hull

were left open
after initially being closed.

If these doors are left open, then
water can flood the length of the vessel

and also create instability
as the weight shifts.

[Jeremy] This finding was made
public in the initial investigation.

But the notes also confirm something
that's only ever been speculated.

Mersey had underlined and paid
special attention to one key detail.

There was no reduction
in speed following the impact.

Captain Smith ordered the ship
to move forward at a steady pace

for another 20 minutes,

a decision that had
disastrous consequences.

By keeping going, that means
more water coming into the hull.

This puts pressure
on the bulkheads.

[Jeremy] The journals give us new
insight into how the ship sank so quickly.

But the full story of how the
collision happened is still a mystery.

Then, a scientific discovery
in 2020

gives rise to
a completely new theory,

something that has never
been considered before.

The night that it sank, it was actually a
very beautiful, very cold but very calm night.

The sea was said
to have been really flat.

[Michael] Many of the people
who were rescued said,

"Oh, the aurora borealis
were beautiful that night."

They fanned through the sky. It
was marvelous, it was spectacular.

[Jeremy] Behind this beautiful
light show lies formidable power,

and it's something that weather
researcher, Mila Zinkova,

believes could have played a
defining role in the Titanic disaster.

[Jeremy] Geomagnetic
or solar storms are caused by

charged particles
sh**ting towards the Earth

at a speed of nearly


[Colin] The magnetic
field guides these particles

towards the north
and the south poles.

And so, when they come down
to around 100 kilometers or so,

they bang into
the molecules of the air

and they cause
light to be emitted.

[Jeremy] And these
charged particles in the sky

cause more than
an extraordinary light show.

A strong geomagnetic storm
can cause havoc,

and I mean havoc
on a large scale.

All this kind of
cloud of particles

cause the magnetic field to
kind of wobble or to vibrate.

And that generates currents
in the Earth.

If you look at the global
risks to civilization,

space weather is right up there.

[Jeremy] So, extreme weather conditions
in space can wreak havoc on Earth.



causes a 12-hour power outage
in Quebec.

It damages a nuclear
power plant in New Jersey,

plunging six million people
into darkness.

That solar storm of 1989 was
an immensely powerful storm.

Big. Bigger than
your average solar storm.

[Jeremy] Could a similar event
have contributed

to the sinking
of the world's greatest ship?

In the Titanic era,

a compass was the most
important navigational tool.

an instrument that depends totally on the
stability of the Earth's magnetic field.

If you were sitting on a ship
in the middle of the ocean,

a wobble to the magnetic field could
make it look like north was somewhere else.

[Jeremy] Could the
geomagnetic storm that night

have affected
the ship's compass so much

that it changed
the Titanic's intended course?

[Jeremy] By studying the
space weather from that night,

Mila made a vital breakthrough.

[Jeremy] Most major
solar storms occur

between 50 and 55 degrees
of geomagnetic latitude,

the precise region
where the Titanic is found.

Something else has also been
recently discovered,

a hand-drawn observation of the Sun
from the day before the Titanic sinks

showing a sun spot.

Sun spots are areas on the Sun where
the magnetic field is much stronger.

This can cause solar flares and
explosions called coronal mass ejections.

These can contribute to even more
powerful geomagnetic storms on Earth.

[Jeremy] Is this further evidence
that an intense solar storm

played a decisive role
in the tragedy?

Aurora borealis
happens all the time.

Were there people in
the Canadian Maritimes going,

"Whoo, this is a light show"?

Were there people on the American
West Coast, Alaska, and Norway

seeing the same thing?

[Jeremy] Mila's research uncovers
that magnetometers around the world

did, in fact, pick up the storm.

Sensors in Alaska, Canada,
and Scotland

all are disturbed around
the time of the sinking.

So, this celestial event was strong
enough to be detected everywhere.

But did it have
a critical influence

on the reliability
of the Titanic's compass?

[Mila speaking]

[Jeremy] Mila believes that if the
compass was just 0.5 degrees off,

it could've altered
the Titanic's course,

and therefore, how it
collided with the iceberg.

[Beverly] The ship hits
the iceberg on the side,

and six of the 16 compartments
are damaged.

If three of the watertight
compartments had been damaged,

it might have survived.

A solar storm
may have contributed

to the catastrophic sinking
of the Titanic.

But further investigation
is showing that its effects

may not have been
entirely destructive.

It could even have played
a key beneficial role

in the rescue of the survivors.

More than 2,000
passengers and crew

fought for their lives
on the night the Titanic sank.

Over 700 of them managed to escape
the icy deaths of the North Atlantic.

Many people are still
wondering how they did it.

New research suggests
space weather played a key role

in the rescue ship, Carpathia,
finding the survivors.

Was this a celestial savior
to those in need of rescue?



The Titanic has collided with
an iceberg of unimaginable size.

The ship's fourth officer,
Joseph Boxhall

determines their position
to send out an SOS.

[Beverly] Boxhall calculates
a SOS position

and he's 13 nautical miles off.

[Jeremy] If the geomagnetic storm
did affect the Titanic's compass,

it could have contributed
to this false reading,

with big ramifications
for the rescue.

The Titanic's incorrect
position is sent out.

Yet, bizarrely, one ship,
the RMS Carpathia,

manages to locate
the stricken lifeboats.

How could this be possible if
they received the wrong location?

[Jeremy] As well as
the Titanic's compass,

Mila believes the storm
also affected the Carpathia,

accidentally leading them
straight to the lifeboats.

[Jeremy] If the Carpathia had not
been affected by the compass variation,

it could've missed the
lifeboats by six nautical miles.

Because of this,
the Carpathia saves


from the freezing water.

But could the storm
have had a further impact

on why more boats didn't come
to the Titanic's aid?

The storm that night
might have affected

the radio communication
of nearby ships,

with cataclysmic effect.

[Jeremy]
Many ships that night

record abnormal malfunctions

of their
communication equipment.

[Simon] La Provence
couldn't contact the Titanic

but could hear the Olympic

which was 500 miles
further away than the Titanic.

[Beverly] Baltic couldn't
hear the Mount Temple,

but it could communicate

with the Virginia
which was further away.

[Michael] The Mount Temple
responds to the SOS,

but the Titanic
doesn't get the call.

[Jeremy] What dealt the
definitive blow to the Titanic

with its 2200 people on board
will continue to confound us.

But the might of space weather

has added a new line of
enquiry to this tragic mystery.

It was
just another strike for it.

I guess once you say
you have an unsinkable ship,

the universe
is gonna turn against you

and try to sink ya
at whatever the cost.

Every year eight million tons

of trash ends up in our oceans.

In 2018
on a remote Siberian island

something turns up
that is truly bizarre,

a bag of frozen hands.

Where it came from and how
it ended up on this icy beach

puzzles locals
and scientists alike.

The Amur river
in the South-East of Siberia,


the border with China.

On March 8th, 2018,

a fisherman
makes a grim discovery.

He sees a hand
coming out of the snow...

[Jeremy] He searches for clues
as to where it has come from

and makes
an even more disturbing find.

When he goes
to investigate it further,

he finds 53 more hands.

[Jeremy] The severed,
frozen hands are spilling out

of an unmarked bag.

It is not a good day if you stumbled
upon a bag full of frozen hands.

[Jeremy] This gory find
sparks intense speculation.

Why would somebody
have a bag of frozen hands?

Who are these people?
Whose hands are they?

[Jeremy] Incredibly, body parts
washing up on shores around the world

is not a new phenomenon.

There were cases
of feet showing up

on the coastline in Canada...


over 12 years.

[Jeremy] Investigations reveal
the feet have become severed

from the decomposing bodies

of accidental deaths
or suicides,

kept intact by the sneakers

that acted
as floatation devices.

Unique ocean currents
in this wild and remote area

push them all onto
a small strip of shore

in British Columbia.

Can the same science
help pin-point where

the gruesome bag of hands
started its Siberian journey

and lead investigators
to the people responsible?

[Beverly] Were they
brought there?

Did they go through the water?

You could have a, sort of, going
along the bottom in a slower manner

versus the speed at which
it would probably travel

if it stayed on the surface.

[Jeremy] How the bag travelled

would also depend
on the Siberian climate.

[Rob] The water around the
island where the bag was found,

wouldn't have been
fully flowing until April.

So there could be ice jams which
could raise the level of the river...

All of these little pieces
of information and clues

can help
to reconstruct their history.

[Jeremy] Whether
the bag washed ashore

the previous spring
and was then buried under snow

or just travelled a short distance
more recently is unknown.

But this doesn't stop some people
jumping to sinister conclusions.

Clearly they were
collected and put together.

[Jeremy] As the story
breaks wild rumors circulate.

[Peter] This location
is 19 miles

from where the river
borders with China.

Is this the work
of Russian or Chinese mafia?

Could it be evidence

of limbs cut off
to hide their identities?

When a bag of frozen hands

washes up from a Siberian river

there's intense speculation

that organized
crime syndicates are involved.

They're infamous
for disposing their victims

in the watery depths
of rivers and oceans.

However, authorities discount
the controversial theory

and announce that the hands

have come from
a local forensics lab.

It's a claim that
raises even more suspicion.

Russian investigators assert
that the hands were severed

during routine autopsies

and kept for evidence.

Why would the hands
even need to be retained?

[Lisa] In some cases when
a dead body is discovered

and you're
unable to identify it,

medical examiners
will retain one of their hands

to hold on to the fingerprints.

This way they hope to be able

to identify them in the future.

Why wouldn't you
just do the fingerprints

with the hands
still attached to the body?

[Jeremy] Forensic labs
elsewhere in the world

have been known
to hold on to body parts.

London in 1989,

in a tragic accident
the Marchioness, pleasure boat

collides with a dredger
on the river Thames and sinks.



[Lisa] More than 20 hands
of the victims

of the Marchioness
are severed and retained.

These hands should have been
returned to their rightful owners

and buried along with
the rest of the human remains.

[Jeremy] The hands from
the Marchioness disaster

and the 54 frozen hands
found in Siberia

do have something in common.

They've all been
immersed in water.

You can get expansion
and changes to the skin

that's going to alter
what the prints looked like.

So, to be able to fingerprint

a hand that's gone through
that type of decomposition

is very difficult.

[Jeremy] At the time
of the Marchioness disaster

fingerprinting is the main way
to identify a dead body.

And the only lab
that has the equipment

to take prints
from water-logged hands

has limited storage.

However 30 years later

when the Siberian
frozen hands are discovered,

forensic methods have moved on.

We don't need to sever hands
any more to identify who someone is.

[Jeremy] Today
DNA analysis and other tools

tell us so much more
than fingerprints can.

Radiocarbon dating can be used

to determine when
an individual lived and died.

Stable isotope analysis
allows us to determine

the kinds of things
that they ate.

While strontium isotope analysis

can tell us where they grew up.

[Jeremy] Why would
the frozen hands be removed

when advances
in forensic investigation

means it's no longer necessary?

Storing a body
takes up a lot of space

and it's quite costly in a morgue
or facility that has refrigeration.

So, instead storing
a single hand is much easier

and cost effective.

[Jeremy] If they were
retained for identification

why are they
then found abandoned in a bag?

This is not the way
they dispose of human remains

in any circumstance.

[Jeremy] A day
after the discovery,

in a bizarre twist,

the official narrative
is refuted.

Both the forensic authorities
and the disposal company

strongly deny any involvement.

They claim their last disposal
was made in 2015.

[Jeremy] Who severed
the hands and why

may never be fully proven

but is there still a chance

of finding out
who they belong to?

DNA is
particularly well preserved

in very cold climates.

Some of the best preserved DNA
we've ever discovered

has come from
the Siberian region.

Even in the case
of ice age animals.

So there's every chance
that this DNA will lead us

to who these people are.

[Jeremy] What
the genetic tests could reveal

and if they will even be
undertaken is still unknown.

And there's still
one big obstacle

to finally solving this puzzle.

If these people aren't on record

and nobody's actively looking for
them this could remain a mystery.

In the early hours
of Sunday, May 31st, 2020,

the megaton oil tanker, Willowy,

is sailing in the South Atlantic

when it puts out
an urgent mayday call.

They've lost control

and they're spinning in circles.

Other ships in the area

are reported to be experiencing
the same bizarre rotating.

What could be causing

this inexplicable
nautical nightmare?

[Rob] The ship carrying
thousands of tons of crude oil

starts spinning in a circle.

[siren blaring]

They lost control.

[Jeremy] Confusion erupts
on the bridge as the captain

desperately tries
to get back on course.

You would be
in a huge state of panic...

It's devastation
waiting to happen.

[Jeremy] What's even more
frightening for the crew of the Willowy

is that four other ships

are reported to be
sailing in circles nearby.

The potential
for destruction is terrifying.

If they don't fix it,

they could
well converge and crash.

[Jeremy] How is it possible
for five gigantic vessels

to be turning in circles
in the middle of the ocean?

To have so many ships
at one time

having the same
human errors seems quite odd.

Perhaps there's some sort of
other physical force at play.

[Jeremy] 300 miles
off the coast of South Africa

the crew
of the oil tanker, Willowy,

are desperately
searching for a reason

as to why they have suddenly
started turning in circles,

dangerously close
to four other ships.

[Alexander] At first
the senior officers assumed

that it's sea currents.

That the oceans itself
are moving the ships around.

[Jeremy] Could the answer
behind this mystery

be down to the sheer power
of the water?

[Lisa] Ocean currents may have
contributed to its spinning a bit.

It's unlikely
that ocean currents

could make
a ship spin continuously.

[Jeremy] With the strength
of the ocean currents

unlikely to be causing these
bizarre nautical rotations,

what else might be behind
this terrifying event?

[Lisa] The ocean
is quite a lawless place.

[Jeremy] Could a new
growing criminal activity

be responsible?

The more connected we are

to the internet
and international systems,

the more likely we are
to experience hacking.

Could someone have
remotely hijacked the ship?

[Jeremy] Hackers can manipulate
a vessel's navigational tools

by overriding its GPS signal.

[Alexander] You are feeding
false data to the ship,

so it thinks
it's doing a correct heading.

It's going in the right way.

So, if you can fool them,

then the ship will go
where you want it to go.

[Jeremy] It's an ill*gal
practice called spoofing.

But why would hackers

want to manipulate
the Willowy's GPS?

[Rob] An oil tanker could
potentially be the target of spoofing

to alter its course for some
sort of nefarious purpose,

say for example, to run a vessel
aground in a narrow straight.

[Jeremy] The 57,000 tons
of crude oil on the Willowy

could be worth
more than $11 million.

Are criminals trying to reroute it in
an attempt to steal the valuable cargo?

Piracy has not gone away.

It's often connected with large,
multinational criminal organizations.

Huge organizations which have

a lot of money,
a lot of resources...

[Jeremy] In 2020,
GPS data appears to show

more megaton cargo ships
spinning out of control

with scientific investigator,
SkyTruth,

revealing a strange case
of Point Reyes, California.

The data shows many circles, which are
supposed to be the paths of different ships.

[Jeremy] The team monitoring the Californian
data believe these tracks are possibly

the result of large-scale,
GPS manipulation

designed to undermine
a tracking network

called Automatic
Identification System, or AIS.

[Helen] It's a system
that ships have to have now

to track where they are.

It means you can finally see
who's doing what.

[Jeremy] Until AIS started
monitoring criminal activity,

the sea was much
harder to police.

[Rob] There is piracy, there's
ill*gal contraband smuggling.

There is human trafficking,
there's the trading in arms.

It's really a Wild West.

So, obviously, there is a huge
interest by a lot of criminals

in subverting these systems.

[Jeremy] Extreme manipulation of the
AIS system has also been investigated

along the Chinese coast in 2019,

when the GPS of hundreds of
ships mysteriously malfunctioned.

All of them reportedly close to
valuable targets for criminals.

This seems to often occur near
oil ports and refinery facilities.

[Jeremy] Is this evidence that
powerful entities are determined

to distort the GPS of ships in
order to conceal criminal activity.

International states are engaging in
hacking of all forms more and more.

So there's every chance that
international superpowers

could be responsible
for GPS spoofing.

[Jeremy] No one knows for sure
who is behind the spoofing

of the Chinese
and American coasts.

But is the Willowy a victim
of GPS manipulation.

Where the oil tanker was
sailing may give a tantalizing clue.

[Rob] There's less patrols,
there's less scrutiny on that route.

So it would be much easier to hijack
a vessel off the west coast of Africa

than it would off the coast
of Europe, for example.

[Jeremy] After urgent
investigation, the crew of the Willowy

in communication
with officials on shore

come to a conclusion as to what
is behind this bizarre behavior,

the ship's gyro compass.

It's one of the systems
which the ship relies on

in order to maintain
a steady course.

The gyro compass is wrong.

It's not calibrating.

[Jeremy] If it fails,
it could cause exactly

the issues which the Willowy
is experiencing,

potentially resulting
in a crash with a nearby ship.

Luckily, they avoid
a collision by switching

to their secondary gyro compass.

And for further measure, they
then continue on their route

using an old-fashioned
magnetic compass.

[Jeremy] But the failed gyro
compass on the Willowy doesn't explain

why the four other ships
are reportedly spinning.

Could a startling new discovery
in the area they are sailing in

hold the key
to unlocking this mystery?

The south Atlantic, where
the Willowy and four other ships

are at risk from
a looming menace,

one that's hidden from view,
but growing by the day.

The planet and everyone on it is
protected from the sun's deadly radiation

by the Earth's magnetic field.

But scientists have detected a
localized weakening of this vital shield.

It's called the South
Atlantic Anomaly.

The South Atlantic Anomaly is
an anomaly over the South Atlantic,

but in space.

[Michael] The anomaly
allows the sun's radiation

to penetrate deeper into
the Earth's atmosphere.

[Jeremy] Between Chile and
Zimbabwe, the earth's protective shield

has deteriorated six percent
in just 50 years.

And the ships reported to be
spinning are located directly below.

Could the extra radiation leaking into our
atmosphere be affecting their navigation?

[Colin] Above the regions
of the South Atlantic Anomaly,

we can have some problems
with maybe detection

of the signals from the
satellite, accuracy of the signals.

And that's because the medium
between the ground

and the satellite
has been affected.

[Michael] It's not out of
the realm of possibility

that this could have affected
the ships near the Willowy.

[Jeremy] And this growing dent in the
Earth's magnetic field could be a sign

of something potentially
catastrophic for the planet.

Collapse of the Earth's magnetic field
would basically allow all the radiation

which is ejected from the sun
to hit the surface of the Earth

without any form of defense.

Without it, we're doomed.
It's that simple.

[sonar ping]

Deep below the surface
of the Pacific Ocean,

a radioactive mystery
is unfolding.

Throughout recent history, the testing of
nuclear weapons by the world's superpowers

has been shrouded in secrecy.

But scientists are now discovering
strange deep-sea creatures.

And hidden inside them, expl*sive
secrets from the world's nuclear past.


some of the deepest parts

of the Pacific Ocean
something unusual.

These are huge.

The scientists observe that the
amphipods that are living in deep water

are much larger than what
you see in shallower water.

[Jeremy] And their freakish size
is not the most bizarre discovery.

They are flooded with radiation.

[Jeremy] How can these creatures

dwelling in one of the most remote
places on Earth be radioactive?

[expl*si*n]

Between 1946 and 1958,
the United States runs

numerous nuclear tests in the
Marshall Islands in the Pacific.

[Jeremy] As the Cold w*r escalates
and fears for American security intensify,

scientists test nuclear weapons
for use against the Soviet Union

over and over
in the south Pacific.

They fundamentally believe
that the biggest possible bang

is the biggest
possible deterrent.

[Jeremy] It should have taken
centuries for our ocean currents

to carry this nuclear fallout to
the deepest marine trenches.

But it turns out the radiation
has spread much more quickly.

Radioactive carbon is now making
its way into the marine food chain.

[Jeremy] Science has revealed
that organisms at the sea's surface

have been ingesting this so-called
b*mb carbon since the 1950s.

And the organic matter from these surface
organisms falls to the deepest sea beds,

where creatures like
amphipods consume it.

[expl*si*n]

[Jeremy] It's evidence that
the Cold w*r nuclear fallout

could now be in every corner
of our oceans.

But whether radioactive
material is the reason

behind the amphipods'
extraordinary size is contested.

Size difference could be
for a few different reasons.

And it may not be
affecting them in any way.

[Jeremy] In 1963,
the nuclear testing

that created so-called radioactive
amphipods comes to an end.

But 60 years later, on
the other side of the world,

a discovery from deep under
the arctic ice sheet

reveals another secret part of
America's nuclear operations.

In 2019,
at the University of Vermont,

climate scientist Drew Christ
makes a life-changing discovery.

For me, as a climate scientist,

receiving these samples
in the lab

was like holding the Holy Grail.

[camera shutter clicks] - [Jeremy]
It's the remains of an ice core

drilled from deep within
Greenland's ice sheet.

An ice core is actually
a tube of ice

which contains in it
sediments and bits of rock.

[Jeremy] And this one
has a very peculiar history.

What's so unusual about this particular
ice core is that it bounced around

between various research institutes
around the world over a number of years.

[Andrew] They were in these,
like, scientific cookie jars

that had these old labels
that were written that said,

"Camp Century's sub ice"
on them.

[Jeremy] Camp Century
is an American military

research base
in northern Greenland.

But until recently, its operations
have been veiled in secrecy.

What was its true purpose?

And what is the significance
of the mysterious ice core

taken from deep
beneath the camp?

The fact that this has been
going around for nearly 40 years,

and people haven't
realized what it was

is mind-blowing.

It's the height of the Cold w*r,

and the two great adversaries,
America and Russia,

are separated by only two and a
half miles at the narrowest point.

This threat leads the US Army to undertake
one of its most secretive missions,


the Greenland ice sheet.

What does this mysterious
place deep below the frozen water

reveal about America's
secret nuclear past,

and, surprisingly,
the future of our planet?

The background to this story is very
weird and kind of like science fiction.

[Jeremy] Imagine
a network of 21 tunnels

with a total length
of nearly two miles

underneath Greenland's ice.

All powered by
a nuclear reactor.

To the public,
it's a climate research base.

But Camp Century is actually
the location of a top secret initiative

called Project Iceworm,
whose goal is to establish

a m*ssile launch site within easy
striking range of the Soviet Union.

All hidden beneath the ice and capable
of unleashing 600 nuclear warheads.

How did they go about that?
- They didn't understand

the fundamental properties
of the ice.

[Andrew] So, they went there and
funded a lot of really incredible science

to study what ice does.
How it behaves.

[Jeremy] To do this,
they drill a mile down

deep into the Greenland
ice sheet.

They recovered all these cylinders of
ice in about 1.5 meter long segments.

[Jeremy] And what they learn
forces them to abandon their hopes

for a m*ssile launching base.

The problem is
ice is really not very stable.

It changes, it warms up,
it melts, it solidifies.

And it's a really bad thing
to put nuclear missiles

on an unstable, ice surface

that can move around, potentially
damaging those missiles.

[Jeremy] With the added weight
of falling snow,

tunnels that start as 20
feet wide slowly collapse.

Sort of like when the walls in the trash
compactor scene in Star Wars happens.

Slowly over time
it started to compress in.

[Jeremy] But with the end of the Cold
w*r, America's need for a m*ssile site

at Camp Century
comes to an abrupt halt.

But 60 years later,

the discovery of the long-missing
Camp Century ice core

warns of a new and potentially
more devastating threat.

What else is to be revealed
about this top-secret base?

[Jeremy] Using advanced
analytical techniques,

[Jeremy] Using advanced analytical techniques, Drew probes
the sediment at the bottom of the Camp Century ice core.

Drew probes the sediment at the
bottom of the Camp Century ice core.

[Dijanna]
Ice cores record history.

They give us a little stamp on what
was happening in the atmosphere

and the environment
at a given time in the past.

The further down you drill into the ice,
the further back in time you are going.

[Jeremy] What Drew finds
at the bottom

of this time capsule
is truly mind-blowing.

[camera shutter clicking]

It was one of
the eureka moments.

I thought that that didn't
happen to scientists.

I thought that was just something
that happened in movies.

[Jeremy] In the sediment
are traces of plant fossils,

proving that within the last million
years, Greenland was once ice free.

For the first time, we saw just
how dynamic Earth's climate can be,

um, and how quickly
it could change.

We knew that this was a new
chapter in the story of Camp Century.

[Jeremy] This discovery
proves that Greenland

is more susceptible
to climate change

than we previously thought.

It's not a case of
if the ice sheet is melting,

but how fast.

[camera shutter clicking]

[Jeremy] The ice core
exposes a very real threat

to all those people who live along
the coasts of the world's oceans.

[Andrew] It's a massive store
of frozen water

that can raise sea level
as much as seven meters.

As a scientist, this sort of
information is really fascinating,

but of course, as a citizen and a human
living on this planet, it's horrifying.

[Jeremy] All this from
a scientific analysis

of a long-forgotten
ice core sample.

And the discovery of the
microscopic evidence hidden inside.

[Rob] Camp Century has
been invaluable for science,

but not in the way
that it was intended.

[Jeremy] The legacy of US
nuclear ambitions in Greenland

reveals a critical and
unexpected truth about our oceans,

one that may help scientists help us
combat the threat of climate change.