okay let's play a little guessing game shall we can you name the sixth largest river on Earth in terms of volume that's the amount of water that flows through a Waterway the first couple of rivers are easy to list number one of course is the Amazon river in South America then we have the Congo in Africa and the Ganges in India feel free to name all the rivers on the planet you won't get any closer to the answer why because this River river is not on the surface but underneath the waves of the Black Sea in 2010 a team of scientists discovered this River while studying the bosphorous straight in Turkey sonar scanning revealed a Channel at the bottom of the Black Sea the channel had water flowing through it it turned out that at places it's 115 ft deep that's three times as tall as your average telephone pole this flow of water Acts like a real River it has Rapids and waterfalls and its volume is 350 times greater than that of the river temps in London huh talk about a strong undercurrent if it was a surface River it would really be in the top 10 bad news for the Madera River in Bolivia and Brazil the present number six but how did this underwater river form the answer lies in The Amazing features of the Black Sea it gets its water from two main sources the first are the rivers that flow into it like the danu neeper and Dawn lot of D's there but more importantly they are all freshwater waterways on the other side quite literally there is the Mediterranean and it's salty like a lot when this salt water gets inside the Black Sea it goes straight to the bottom you see fresh water is lighter than Salt Water this creates stratification it's a fancy term that simply means that the two types of water don't mix together salt water has a higher density so it drops right down to the bottom if you want to see how that works you can do an experiment at home pour mineral water into one cup and salt water into another table salt will do then put a grape in each cup you'll see how it immediately sinks to the bottom of the cup filled with fresh water the grape will stay afloat in the cup filled with salt water the same thing is happening inside the Black Sea but there is another side to this phenomenon the upper layer of water is rich in oxygen this means it can support life the bottom layer however is anoxic yep you guessed it this means there is no oxygen at the bottom but this isn't a bad thing because of this trait of the Black Sea shipwrecks are able to survive for centuries oxygen decomposes wood and from what material did the ancient people make their ships that's correct Timber recently in 2018 scientists discovered the oldest Greek shipwreck on Earth the merchant ship lies more than a mile deep at the bottom of the sea experts estimate that the vessel is 2400 years old the wreck was valuable for historians to study all the elements of ancient ship Construction from the Mast to the rowing benches it's all intact the wreck lies some 50 miles off the coast of Bulgaria but no one has seen it in person explorers sent a deepsea ROV or remotely operated vehicle to film the wreckage it was impossible for a diver to go down H but the Black Sea doesn't look that huge on a map could it be that deep oh yes it's way deeper than people think you could stack six m empire state buildings at the deepest point of the Black Sea around 7,257 Ft this Inland Sea isn't the only place on Earth where researchers have discovered shipwrecks and underwater Rivers one of the largest channels running along the ocean floor lies off the coast of South America it runs from the mouth of the mighty Amazon and into the Atlantic Ocean studying underwater Rivers isn't an easy task the depth and the strong currents make it impossible to send in divers even the equipment for underwater research has to be sturdy otherwise the current will just wash it away that's why the underwater river in the Black Sea was ideal for scientists to explore Earth's oceans and seas are powerful but lucky for us there are places where divers can admire underwater Rivers ever heard of a cot sounds Spanish well that's because it is Cote are underground caves they form after the Limestone above collapses revealing the groundwater under them the term cot is associated with the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico Ancient Maya used them as water sources in the Mayan language the word cot meant sacred well researchers estimate there are some 10,000 Cotes spread across the Yucatan Peninsula you can also find them in other places such as is Cuba and Australia beauty is in the eye of the beholder but unofficially the most beautiful Cote is located just south of the town of Tulum in Mexico the name reflects the Cave's Divine Beauty senot Anita but people don't visit the Cenote to go swimming its bottom is much more interesting a SCUBA tank is all you need to finally admire an underwater river firsthand the waters are dark and foggy so divers use powerful flashlights after a 100t dive a marvelous sight appears an underwater river with trees along its banks some of them even have green leaves just like any other water flow on dry land but it's not really a river here comes the fascinating part remember how saltwater and freshwater don't mix well the river the divver sea is actually a thick layer of fog between the two types of water 3 ft of hydrogen sulfates to be exact this is the compound that water processing plants use to remove chlorine from drinking water the substance is so heavy that the fog it produces moves independently from the surrounding water and it creates an illusion that a river is Flowing underwater but there are other real rivers that play tricks on you take for example the mystery River in Indian indana it's the longest underground river in the United States explorers discovered the river and its Cave System Blue Spring caverns in the 19th century nearly 3 miles of the river are navigable isn't that impressive you can book a boat tour on a river that you can't even see but the most mysterious River on the planet is the SAR swatti River in India the coolest part about it is that it doesn't exist it was an alleged River only mentioned in ancient literature for centuries people thought that it was just a myth then satellite images showed that it might be real ancient texts spoke of a major Confluence of three Mighty Rivers the Ganges yamuna and Saraswati the first two are visible today but where's the third one that's what scientists decided to find out images from an American satellite showed the presence of underground water in the area until then researchers thought that these were paleo channels this simply means that water flowed through them a long time ago but to their surprise it appeared that there was still water inside these channels scientists estimated that the Saraswati River flowed above the ground some 5,000 years ago but it didn't dry up completely it just went underground some 200 100 ft below the ground local experts believe that the river still slowly flows into the sea the sarasti river got hidden under the desert sand this was a natural process but many rivers have been forced underground because of human activity in London England several dozen small and medium-sized Rivers now flow under the ground maps from the 19th century still show them as Rivers but today they only exist in the names of the streets that were built above them such as Fleet Street the same thing happened in New York but this doesn't mean that these streams have disappeared for good when Engineers want to rebuild or modify a building they still consult city maps from centuries ago no one wants a long-lost brook to flood their basement on a sunny day A man was diving in Shallow Waters near South Africa at one point he saw something that didn't catch his eye at first a pile of shells that looked as if it had been put together maybe by some other diver he must have told himself but out of all these shells came the most unusual of creatures an octopus the gorgeous underwater animal looked straight at the man before swimming away impressed by his new acquaintance the diver started visiting the octopus every day he watched it use shells and seaweed to protect itself and learned how it hunted and cared for its eggs all these encounters became the basis for a now famous documentary in the movie the diver wanted to study the relationship between a wild octopus and its Observer initially the octopus was a bit too shy to let the man get close but over time it began to trust him and even explored his body at one point the octopus even rested on the diver's chest the man soon began to look at the underwater creature as his octopus friend sure the documentary did make it look like a true friendship but that was most likely because of all the close-ups and eerie music but you can't really know what the octopus is thinking maybe what looks like tenderness is just curiosity or confusion maybe an apparent hug is really just a defense mechanism some people may love octopuses but can they really be friends with a human until they learn to talk I guess we'll never know that doesn't make an octopus less of an interesting creature though apart from those quirky sets of tentacles obviously octopuses have another characteristic that sets them apart from other sea creatures a recent study that involved studying the footage of octopuses living underwater shows that they sometimes develop this unusual behavior they seem to throw things at each other on purpose it can be anything from dirt From the Bottom of the Sea to shells or rocks octopuses are known to be solitary creatures so when something or someone like an underwater camera person gets too close to them they might lash out just as we have yet to discover the limits of our galaxies and constellations we know very little about the bottom of the sea it's one of the reasons why we find it so hard to explain the behavior of some underwater creatures the truth is we don't have good enough technology able to deal with harsh conditions and a limited amount of light underwater you might have asked yourself at one point what's the deepest part of the ocean it's called the Mariana Trench we don't really know exactly how deep this giant hole is since it's too difficult to measure but it's somewhere around 6.8 M deep and 5 five times longer than the Grand Canyon this massive underwater trench was first studied back in 1875 with the help of a weighted rope back in 2012 a Canadian film director reached the bottom of the trench in a submersible vessel called the deep sea Challenger some of the most bizarre creatures on the planet were discovered here including the Dumbo octopus the ca cucumber and the goblin shark the Mariana Trench got its name from the nearby Mariana Islands which were named Las Marianas in honor of Spanish Queen Mariana of Austria the Mariana Trench might be the deepest part of the ocean that we know of but one other mysterious phenomenon that's interesting for researchers is called Phantom Bottoms in the late 1940s when the sonar became standard equipment ships and submarines noticed unexpected signals coming from the ocean those signals came from areas where no seafloor was supposed to exist what's even more mysterious is that this fake seafloor appeared to move one researcher at scrips University found out that these Phantom bottoms showing on maps were indeed alive they were made out of a layer of jellyfish shrimps and other deep sea creatures the reason why they move is that they rise to the surface at night to feed to top it all off even though way these creatures move is kind of calculated they don't just move randomly but seem to gather together by species we used to believe underwater animals behave this way only to avoid being caught by Predators it's a mystery to scientists why they group in the same way to form a fake seabed our curiosity about the Deep Waters doesn't stop at the seafloor if you went on a vacation to the beach when you were young you probably remember the fun of digging in the sand as the hole got deeper you may have asked yourself could I dig all the way to the other side of the earth none of us have ever found out our parents took us home when it got dark and chilly scientists are more reasonable when it comes to this subject for starters they know the best place to start digging would be underwater since those regions are already deeper than what we can find on land they also do not have the ambition to drill a tunnel through Earth it's not even possible that's mostly because of the extreme heat and pressure inside our planet even if we could technically dig a tunnel it would not be safe to travel through it however reaching the mantle and retrieving a sample would be a huge scientific achievement similar to landing on the moon what we live on is called Earth's crust underneath it there are other layers called the mantle outer core and inner core researchers have been trying to drill into Earth's mantle since the 1960s but they haven't succeeded some failed due to technical issues and others were unlucky and chose the wrong places to drill our planet's mantle is made of molten rock wouldn't that be dangerous if we ever reached it scientists say we have nothing to worry about though if and when the Drillers eventually Pierce through the crust underwater hot molten rock won't pop up the hole and spill onto the seafloor like it would during a volcanic eruption mtal rocks aren't solid sure but they move slowly at the same speed as your fingernails grow another of those famous deep sea Mysteries is that of the 1997 bloop you heard that right I'm talking about a weird sound that seemed to come from deep under the waves people heard it in the South Pacific no one one had ever recounted a sound like that before some thought it must have been emitted by a strange creature living deep in the ocean it didn't help that the noise came from a location mentioned in a story by famous writer HP Lovecraft in his story it was a creature called cthulu that lived there in the novel The author described it as a large humanlike monster with tentacles on its face and wings on its back for many many years people tried to figure out where the noise came from it wasn't until 2005 that they concluded it was from icebergs breaking off of glaciers some people still don't believe that this explanation truly makes sense and are searching for a different reason for the blue if creatures living outside of our planet ever decided to come to visit you wouldn't expect them to go straight to the Bottom of the Sea right well some people claim there's a sort of spaceship on the floor discovered in 2011 it's basically an oval-shaped object located on the bottom of the Baltic Sea in 2012 a team of divers explored the anomaly and found what appeared to be a staircase and other structures on its surface this only added to the belief that the large object had been made by someone and wasn't just a natural phenomenon even more bizarre close to the unidentified analy the Explorer's electrical equipment like sonar instruments and satellite phones started to malfunction some scientists believe it just to be a glacial deposit or some other natural formation but they still don't know for sure what it is oh wow there's a hole in the bottom of the ocean it seems that the ocean has a leak but it's not like a leak you would expect where water is Flowing out it's more like a spring since water is flowing in not out this unique leak is something we know as pythia's Oasis a grad student was the one who accidentally discovered it he noticed bubbles that were rising to the surface normally bubbles in the ocean tell us there might be some hydrothermal vents which are hotpots for some pretty cool things these vents are actually like hot springs on the seafloor but instead of bubbling with warm water they release a fluid that has been superheated in the crust of our planet when seawater seeps into these cracks and travels deep into the crust it comes into contact with the extremely hot mantle this heat sea water to very high temperatures and as it moves back up towards the surface it carries dissolved gases and minerals when the hot fluid shoots out of the vents it mixes with the surrounding seawater and quickly cools down just a short distance away from the vent the temperature can drop to a comfortable 68° F or so which is As It Seems exactly what some creatures like and there are some real weirdos living down there in the darkness like ghostly fish giant red tips tube worms and a unique type of shrimp with eyes on their back and some of them like tube worms and bacteria rely on the chemicals and minerals released by the vents to survive in harsh conditions but in this case the bubbling water didn't come from a hydrothermal vent it was there because of a spring and that's a bit more conc erning you see the water in this Reservoir needs to stay where it is if too much of it seeps out there could be some serious consequences especially for the surrounding area you can see this unusual leak along the Cascadia subduction zone which is a massive fault line off the Pacific northwest coast it's a place where two pretty big plates that make up Earth's crust come together and slide along each other the water from pythia's Oasis kind of acts as a lubricant between these plates you can think of the fault Zone as an air hockey table when the fluid pressure is high it's like you've turned the air on that means the friction between the plates is reduced which allows the plates to move but if the fluid pressure is lower the two plates can lock together which then leads to the buildup of stress not that they'll feel bad in the context of tectonic plates stress is some pressure or force that can cause deformation and if this stress starts to build up at some point it's got to go somewhere when it's too much it can trigger earthquakes and most likely not small ones for example a release of stress in the Cascadia subduction zone could lead to a magnitude 9 earthquake for comparison the biggest earthquake we've ever recorded happened in Chile in 1960 and it had a magnitude of 9.5 the damage was enormous so we hope the water will stay in its Reservoir and keep maintaining the delicate balance between the tectonic plates we've explored only 5% of the ocean who knows how many cool things are there at the bottom waiting to be found for example check out these mysterious holes scientists have stumbled upon in the depths of the Atlantic ocean near the azors they're neatly aligned and are about 4 in apart or in some cases even several feet they resemble punctures left by a sewing machine some some think these holes could have a biological origin for instance some fish may have made them while walking along the seaf Flor others believe we could be looking at something that's human-made maybe left by a spiked Tire of course such holes are perfect for making up stories about creatures from other planets who allegedly made them or maybe even legendary monsters like that one from Loch Ness it's definitely hard to explain such symmetry of the holes but one deep sea biom ologist offered a pretty good explanation he said there could be an animal burrowing beneath the sediment and from time to time it could make little chimneys just to get access to clean water circulation in its small burrow I mean there are sediment piles around the opening of each hole and they do support the idea that something pushed the soil from below but there's still no proof these holes are actually connected beneath the surface and there are also a lot of things hidden at the bottom of the oceans and seas that ancient civilizations left us for instance archaeologists made a really cool Discovery off the southern coast of Croatia a road hidden under layers of sea mud that's 7,000 years old they found the ancient Road at the sunken Neolithic site of soine the site of soline was a human-made island in ancient times and an archaeologist discovered it 2 years ago he was studying satellite images of the area around Cula one of the beautiful Croatian Islands when he realized there could be something interesting at the bottom of the sea he dove into the water with his colleague and under the surface of the Adriatic Sea which is part of the Mediterranean Sea at a depth of 13 to 16 ft they found stone walls that were most likely part of some ancient settlement the landmass were people built the settlement was separated from the main island by a narrow stretch of land luckily this this area is protected from Big Waves by the surrounding Islands so the site remained relatively well preserved it's now hidden beneath the surface of the sea and covered in mud but it's so exciting to imagine how people walked on that road nearly 7,000 years ago visiting nearby settlements if you want to see the weirdest creatures you can always head to the Bottom of the Sea actually scientists have determined there could be more than 30 potentially new species at the bottom of the Pacific paic ocean they've collected them using their remote controlled vehicle that's a big step because until recently they could only study such creatures through photographs I'm talking about segmented worms different types of coral some invertebrates similar to centipedes and many others but there are also many old freaky creatures that we already know about that look like they came from Sci-Fi movies red octopus blobfish okay this one kind of looks normal until you raise it to the surface the goblin shark Sloan's viper fish zombie worms G yeah I hear you let's move on the seafloor hides things from space too there are traces of rare forms of plutonium and iron at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean and what's awesome is that all this has come from space these radioactive materials probably formed during some kind of cataclysmic event in space and eventually made their way out to to our beautiful home planet and this extraterrestrial debris most likely appeared on Earth within the past 10 million years after it fell to the Pacific Ocean and settled at a depth of almost a mile it became part of all those layers of rock down there plutonium is especially exciting for scientists I mean only tiny amounts of it have been found hundreds of atoms maybe but it's still remarkable because these atoms are created by expl Stars things like this can help us better understand how the universe produces elements heavier than iron like plutonium gold uranium and platinum we're still not sure about the origins of these elements for a long time scientists believe that Supernova which is when a star comes to its end in a fabulous explosion were responsible for creating these heavy elements but it seems it's not just that some other Cosmic events such as the Collision of neutron stars which are Super dense collapsed stars or some rare types of supernova could also be involved who let me get my popcorn ever wonder why despite all our advancements in technology and science there's a vast expanse of our own planet that we barely know about Believe It or Not Over 80% of our oceans remain Uncharted Territory it's as if we've got this massive aquatic playground in our backyard and we've barely scratch the surface also did you know that only about 7% of our oceans have a special tag called Marine protected areas or mpas how come this colossal body of water that envelops most of our planet is also among the most vulnerable and misunderstood spaces in the universe pressure has a lot to do with it our deep ocean is a beast of a place with no visibility freezing temperatures and pressure that's so intense that in certain areas it would make you feel like you're having the weight of 50 jumbo Jets on your body no wonder we're having an easier time sending people into space than to the bottom of the ocean the deeper you go into the waters the more pressure piles up but let's not forget we have Tech on our side right scientists now use these cool satellite technologies that track the color of the ocean to check how much phytoplankton is there for example why is this important you might ask because these little plant-like Critters are actually pretty major players in our big blue oceans in the grand scheme of things in the Aquatic World phop Plankton is like the Bedrock of the ocean food chain it gives life to almost everything from the Tiny Zoo Plankton which are animall likee microorganisms to those colossal magnificent whales when these Technologies first came around satellites could get clear images of the ocean faster than a ship could take the same number of measurements in in 10 years but it's not all about looking at the ocean from space sometimes you got to dive in there and see it for yourself thankfully we've come a long way in Ocean exploration Tech too we've got things like floats and Drifters that ride the ocean currents while collecting data and a whole Fleet of underwater Vehicles some of which are manned some remote controlled and some even autonomous remember James Cameron the guy who made the movie Titanic he's super into exploring the ocean and in 2012 he set a record by going down to the Mariana Trench in a vertical torpedo sub he thinks there's nothing like being in the ocean and experiencing it firsthand other companies use a mix of Technologies for their ocean Explorations it led them to discover amazing stuff like a deep sea coral reef near Morocco the only one still growing in the Mediterranean Sea they've also discovered new species and documented ones previously thought to live only in the Atlantic these efforts have convinced local authorities to declare some places as Marine Parks as with most scientific areas the road isn't without its bumps these Expeditions can cost quite a lot and the lack of detailed maps and data only adds to the challenge we can't always rely on bimetric information meaning the study of the ocean floor because it's often not available and that's the trick tricky part we need to explore more to know more but getting the funds for these kinds of projects can be tough when there are so many unknown variables one particular company's Explorations have helped protect nearly 4 million square miles of oceans so far the data they collect during their expeditions is invaluable it's used to identify new species locate vulnerable habitats and even show where threatened species are being overlooked their work helps dismiss excuses from local authorities who claim they lack the necessary information to establish more mpas the same company supports a goal known as 30x30 aiming to protect 30% of our oceans by 20130 it's a big Target and there's a long road ahead but ongoing ocean exploration can provide the proof needed to keep more of our oceans safe we also need to set aside areas for protection and research even when we don't have all the facts just yet on that note some cool scientists have recently stumbled upon a gigantic and Mysterious World beneath the Pacific Northwest Coast's ocean floor the best part is this massive realm of life is pretty much cut off from the rest of the world above making it like a secret underground club that only the best microbiologists have access to picture an active city except the city is microscopic cracks in the basalt rocks of our oceanic crust and its residents are microbes these tiny creatures aren't like you and me they don't rely on sunlight or the organic products of land and water ecosystems for sustenance instead they thrive on chemical reactions with rocks and seawater scientists call this type of Life chemosynthetic which sounds complicated but it basically means life sustained by chemical reactions while this sort of life has been found deep in mines and around seafloor hydrothermal vents the scale at which these creatures are found under the oceanic crust is unprecedented it might even be the most extensive ecosystem on earth a geom microbiologist from Denmark was part of the team that made this discovery he claimed that over 50% of our planet's surface is oceanic crust which is an average of 4 mil thick imagine the size of this chemosynthetic party happening down there this discovery didn't happen overnight since the '90s scientists have found weird tiny holes in the basalt rocks that make up much of earth's outer crust they seem like they might have been made by bacteria but hey there was supposed to be no life there I mean imagine trying to survive in a place that's hot deep dark dense and mostly devoid of the organic compounds we need for life yet here they are in the following years more pieces of the puzzle fell into place scientists found that the oceanic crusts had different conditions at the centers and edges at the centers rocks are jam-packed with energy-rich compounds that support these tiny life forms but by the time they reach the edges these chemicals are all gone fast forward to now and it's time to put the puzzle together a microbial ecologist from the University of North Carolina worked on this re search and says we now have solid evidence of microbial life in the cracks and crevices of deep ocean Basalt the next question scientists asked was how far does this life extend researchers collected samples of crust from a plate roughly 120 M off of Washington's Coast drilling deep beneath the ocean's surface what they found down there was remarkable the life down there runs on a unique fuel hydrogen yep in the abs of sunlight hydrogen provides the energy for all their biological processes these microbes use hydrogen to transform carbon dioxide into organic matter this matter and other byproducts like methane then fuel other organisms creating a network of Life of course the life down there isn't as complex as the one we know up here scientists doubt there will be any multicellular life under the ocean because it's too hot and energy poor but hey who knows this universe under our oceans still has a lot to reveal this whole thing is significant for many reasons first it confirms that life can exist in places without oxygen which changes our perspective on where we can find life this makes us wonder if life could exist under similar conditions on other planets where surface conditions might be too harsh the implications on Earth are also profound if a large portion of Life exists in the oceanic trust then our understanding of Life on our own Planet could be completely changed this exciting Discovery stretches our understanding of life and prompts us to keep exploring the mysterious depths of our oceans pushing the limits of our understanding NASA is also in on the whole deep sea exploration project why shouldn't they be preoccupied with outer space because they're hoping to find hints about what the oceans on other planets might look like NASA Specialists are really hopeful that by unearthing underwater secrets we can solve some of the big questions about space plus they're testing some Nifty equipment for future Journeys across our solar system how would you describe the shape of the planet we live on it's definitely round but it's not a perfect sphere because of the force of Earth's rotation it's slightly flat on the North and South Pole but there's more to it the planet rotation causes its sides to bulge outwards the best term to describe our home planet is ellipsoid Earth is nothing more than an oversized lumpy potato these are the words of atrai gosh a solid earth geophysicist from bangladore she and her team have been studying something called the Indian Ocean gravity hole sounds like the scenario for a science fiction movie but it's very much real we think of gravity as something consistent if you drop a pen from your hand in Los Angeles and in Perth they're going to fall to the floor at the same time well this is not completely true gravity is connected with the mass of a Celestial body astronauts on the surface of our moon don't walk but move in hops that's because Earth weighs 81 times more than the moon less Mass means less gravity Earth is more massive so it has a stronger gravitational pulse but there's a catch all this Mass isn't distributed evenly across the planet as a result gravity varies as well NASA has been mapping Earth's gravity field since 2002 using twin Grace satellites the maps they produced show where gravity is stronger and where it's weaker mountain ranges such as the Himalayas contain a lot of mass this means they generate a stronger gravity field the opposite happens in Ocean Tren es the deepest of them is the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean you could almost stack two Mount kelan jaros inside it the low concentration of Earth's mass below it means that the gravity field here is weaker places on the globe where huge chunks of mass are missing are called geid lows a geid is an imaginary surface that follows the outline of sea levels around our planet imagine the Earth without any land that shouldn't be too hard since the nickname of our home is blue planet now draw a curvy line along the surface of the oceans and you get a geid in reality the line stretches across oceans as well as land masses scientists use this imaginary line to calculate the depth of Tremors or objects that occur Underground when the wavy line goes down that's a geid low the biggest of them sits at the bottom of the Indian Ocean the first to discover it was a Dutch geophysicist in 1948 he was performing a gravity survey from a ship the man noticed that sea levels dipped over 320 ft below the global average the gravity hole got the official name Indian Ocean geid low it spans well over a million square miles off the southern coast of India if you went out at Sea in the middle of the gravity hole you wouldn't notice much just an endless ocean as far as as the eye could see the only way to measure the dip in gravity is through extensive geophysical measurements and calculations the concept of a gravitational hole existed for nearly two centuries in the scientific Community but researchers could study it in high detail only after satellite measurements became possible in the late 20th century a team of Indian scientists was determined to explain the anomaly that had been puzzling geologists for decades they used supercomputer to simulate the seismic activity that formed our planet a total of 19 simulations revealed how tectonic plates moved across the span of over 140 million years this was during the Cretaceous Period the time when T-Rex roamed the Earth nearly a third of the possible scenarios produced a geid l similar to the one in the Indian Ocean the most important factor in these models was the presence of magma plumes these are places inside the Earth's mantle where lava flows upwards the mantle sits between the planet's outer core and the thin crust we walk upon the magma in the mantle plume is hotter than the surrounding rocks the heat it generates melts and thins the crust this creates hotpots that are brimming with volcanic activity Yellowstone National Park and the Hawaiian Islands sit a top such hotpots the Indian team of scientists linked the presence of Mag plumes to the formation of the geid low their Source was an ancient ocean that disappeared tens of millions of years ago it was located where the Himalayan Mountain Range sits today evidence of this lie in the Marine rocks researchers found on the world's tallest mountains the oceans ceased to exist when India's land mass separated from the supercontinent called gondwana it drifted North and merged with the rest of the Asian continent at the time the Eurasian supercontinent was called laurasia the Indian tectonic plate went down inside the mantle it ended up under the African continent this land mass contained a lot of crystallized material which was quite dense when the sinking plate of the former ocean reached it plumes of magma Spilled Out as a result low density materials ended up closer to Earth's surface density is used to calculate mass and if you remember our lesson in physics from the beginning of the video less Mass translates into a weaker gravity field scientists believe this is how the geid low in the Indian Ocean formed some 20 million years ago at this point in prehistory the Earth looked a lot like it does today there were vast grasslands and whales swam in the Seas geophysicists who created the computer model cannot tell for sure what will happen in the future Go thinks it's possible that the gravity hole in the Indian Ocean will remain in place for a long time time but plate movements can also cause the anomaly to fully disappear in the coming eons earth's tectonic plates are constantly shifting they Define the shape of our continents and oceans experts study plate movements to get a picture of how our world looked millions of years ago however telling Earth's geologic future is much more complex the gravity hole in the Indian Ocean is the biggest but it's not the only one in the world other areas with low gravity include the island of Cuba and the Bahamas on the opposite side of the spectrum are the Philippines here Gravity is stronger than normal but the poles are the places with the strongest pull to them they are the closest to the Center of the Earth if you stand directly on the North or the South Pole you are 3,950 mi from the planet's core at sea level on the Equator this distance increases by more than 13 MI Earth's gravitational field also has an effect on your weight at the equator you weigh 1% less than you do on the poles the South Pole is maybe more suitable for this experiment because there is actually ground there but gravity is the strongest at the North Pole in the middle of the Arctic Ocean this is where scientists in 2013 recorded the highest gravitational acceleration on the planet this is the rate a falling object speeds up in freef Fall the acceleration depends on the strength of gravity when a team of researchers from a university in Perth set out to map these gravity changes they discovered something interesting gravitational acceleration was the highest at the surface of the Arctic Ocean this is something they expect to find but the location of the lowest acceleration Point amazed them it wasn't on the equator as they assumed the spot lay more than 600 M south of it at Mount wasaru in Peru scientists believe that the Mountain's height had an effect on the phenomenon this peak in the Andes is the highest point in the South American country hypothetically speaking if a human falls from a height of 330 ft here they will reach the ground 16 milliseconds later than if they performed the same stunt in the Arctic for years scientists have been struggling to explain bizarre sounds some repeating some heard only once that come from from the dark depths of the ocean from bewildering hums to worrying bloops the water transmits outlandish acoustic phenomena one of these mysterious noises got named the upsweep for the first time this long train of sounds was registered in 1991 in the Pacific Ocean one of the most unusual things about this signal is that it keeps changing as if trying to confuse researchers even more like some unearth Earthly howl it varies from high to low frequencies and then back again and you can hear it better in the spring and fall than in the winter and summer why the upsweep it's simple the sound travels from the bottom of the ocean towards its surface as if sweeping up scientists do have a theory explaining this phenomenon the activity of undersea volcanoes hot lava pouring into ice cold ocean water could theoretically create such noises but there's no proof found yet plus the sound has been declining since 1991 even though it can still be detected the bloop is the name given to an ultra low frequency and Incredibly powerful underwater sound that was recorded in 1997 by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration the bloop continued for approximately 1 minute having started from a low Rumble it gradually Rose in frequency it also kind of mimicked the noise created by marine animals but its volume was so great that no living creature known to science could have made it when the bloop occurred underwater microphones managed to record it from a distance of 3,000 M away rumor has it that the noise might have something to do with the fictional half octopus monster cthulu or some other colossal deep waterer creature but if you don't believe in Monsters science has another explanation Iceberg fracturing the thing is that ice Quakes recorded in the Scotia sea resemble the mysterious bloop a bit too much for it to be a coincidence the whistle resembles this annoying sound when a kettle of boiling water is telling you it's time to make a cup of tea but even though it may not be as blood curdling as some other bizarre ocean sounds it doesn't make it any less mysterious plus the whistle is very elusive in 1997 only one underwater microphone was able to pick it up and therefore researchers didn't manage to pinpoint the source of the noise the most likely cause of the sound is an eruption of one of the submarine volcanoes have you ever heard of Julia no not your neighbor I'm talking about this otherworldly sound listen to it it was recorded in 19 1999 by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration the source of the sound was most likely a large iceberg that ran ground somewhere in Antarctica the sound was so loud that it was heard over a huge territory and its duration was about 2 minutes and 43 seconds slowdown that's the name given to a sound recorded in 1997 in the equatorial Pacific Ocean [Laughter] the sound was called this way because it slowly decreased in frequency over 7 minutes or so it's been picked out a few more times since it was recorded for the first time the source of the sound isn't very mysterious most likely it was produced by a massive iceberg that became grounded in Antarctica or it was caused by moving ICE by that I mean the friction produced by a large ice sheep moving over land the loneliest whale sound is often called the 52 Herz whale because the animal that creates it calls it at a unique for these creatures frequency when you listen to this sound it sounds like a low bass note at the same time it's much higher than the normal frequency of the whale call which Rings between 10 and 40 Herz interestingly scientists have been listening to the world's loneliest whale for decades but haven't managed to figure out its prec precise location nobody knows whether the mammal is male or female what species it is or if the animal is still alive after all for the last time its call was recorded in 2004 Earth shaking booming sounds have been reverberating off some parts of North Carolina for more than 150 years called senica guns they're most often heard near the coast the the sounds are so powerful that they often rattle window panes and sometimes vibrate entire buildings they can last from one to almost 10 seconds even though scientists haven't cracked this mystery yet there are some theories they range from earthquakes to severe distant storms and Quarry blasts but even though the ground trembles every time the phenomenon occurs no seismic activity coincides with these events so far scientists have come to the conclusion that the mysterious sounds happen in the atmosphere not on or under the surface of our planet if this theory is true bides might be the answer these extremely bright meteors often explode once they enter Earth's atmosphere or senica guns might be born in the ocean sometimes when enormous waves Collide far away from the shore you can hear it even if you're nowhere near the coast senica guns are a type of skyquakes you don't need to travel to a particular part of the world to hear one of those mysterious Sonic booms ramble from the sky everywhere from the US to India and Japan just like senica guns this sound phenomenon occurs mostly near the coast or a big body of water rattling glassware and windows in the nearby houses Sky Quakes could be connected with ultra fast airplanes breaking the sound barrier but people started hearing the first skyquakes in 1824 the theor trying to explain this phenomenon includes sand dunes shifting meteors entering the atmosphere distant volcanoes erupting Earth's crust cracking during earthquakes and even gas bursting out of underground vents in the sea or lake [Music] bottom in different countries all over the world people get paralyzed with fear after hearing other worldly trumpet sounds that seem to be coming from the sky the inhabitants of the US Canada Australia Germany and the Philippines have already heard this hair raising noise since it was first recorded in 2008 these sounds are sometimes called the sound of apocalypse and although until recently nobody could understand the origin of the sounds NASA claims that there is nothing to be afraid of the noise can be coming from our own Planet usually it's quiet and thus inaudible to the human ear but when it gets louder the outcome is the very trumpet sounds that scare people all over the world Bristol hum started in the 1970s when hundreds of Bristol inhabitants began to talk about a bizarre noise audible only at night the noise was a low-level hump and nobody could identify or trace the source of the sound but the strangest thing about the noise was that one day it stopped as a br rly as it started but not before people in other towns across Britain reported hearing similar sounds some time ago the mysterious sound returned in 2015 a group of French scientists claimed that they had solved the mystery of the Bristol hump they stated that the culprit was ocean waves that made the ocean floor vibrate but while it was all good and well it didn't explain why the sound was around for only several years or why it chose to return if you ever come to the town of ta in New Mexico don't let another strange and unexplained phenomenon send you running for the Hills this phenomenon is a faint low frequency hum ringing in the desert air and Grading on your nerves even stranger only 2% of people who live in tows hear this noise but for those who do it's Unstoppable torture on top of that everyone describes the sound in a different way from a quiet wor to an eerie hump or even persistent buzz and while some people believe that the to hum is the result of unusual Acoustics the others suspect a bad case of mass hysteria no one has located the origin of the hum yet you're strapped in a boat cruising down the Amazon River with the sun scorching hot as you check out your map your boat starts rocking back and forth the water is starting to get more intense so you hang on for dear life you tuck your map in your pocket and try to take control of your boat you strike some Jagged rocks and duck low to avoid tree branches your boat strikes a large rock out of nowhere and capsizes you're swimming in the murky green water while you're trying your best to get ashore your boat gets washed away underneath the water lies A Whole New World of bizarre and dangerous animals candiru fish or snake like creatures that can grow up to 16 in Long AR aimus can weigh more than an adult male and are taller than most basketball players they are the biggest freshwater fish in South America they have a hybrid Gill system that forces them to pop up to the surface every 5 to 15 minutes to breathe in oxygen for their large swim bladder you swim out of the Raging Water and dry yourself off oh no your map is completely soaked there's no way you can get to your destination without it you venture into the thick rainforest shoving the branches and leaves away as you get deeper you notice something on a tree it's barely moving but it's got sharp claws and a raggedy coat it stretches its arm to another branch and tries to pull itself up ever so slowly sloths sleep more than half their days and only head down from trees once a week they're so motionless they sometimes grow algae and moss on their fur the rainforest gets denser with each step until there's barely any sunlight light Illuminating the path in front of you you notice a figure following you with every Branch you step on you can hear a faint sound right next to you creeping around you start walking a bit faster and the sound catches up with you you make it out of the dense part and tread along a narrow path until you reach a cliff you can't walk normally here so you pin against the wall and walk sideways to cross the hills you slowly move across with the river 30 ft below you you move your right foot and some rocks fall into the river you keep going and misstep you're about to fall but you hold on to a large tree branch and pull yourself up you notice a couple of colorful poison frogs inches away from your fingers touching any of these frogs can be extremely dangerous and harmful despite their amazing color patterns the golden poison frog is one of the most poisonous animals in the world one of them hops right next to you so you let go of the branch and fall back in the river the river is washing you down until you reach a calm current underneath you is a swarm of piranhas swimming with their sharp teeth the red color on their skin is unmistakable so you swim off like an Olympic Athlete piranhas will eat anything that gets in their way no matter the size you grip onto a log and climb up a small rock to catch your breath there's a huge electric eel underneath the rock despite their name they're more related ated to catfish the Neal they use their powerful 600 volts of electricity to defend themselves and catch food you're stuck unless you're like the common basilisk that can run on the water like a jet ski these incredible lizards have special webbing on their toes and can run the distance of a basketball court you hop on a bunch of rocks until you reach the land you continue walking along the riverbank until you come across a moving rock you rub your eyes and see it moving again it's a dinosaur looking turtle that resembles a crocodile with armor the mat mat is a freshwater turtle that disguises itself with its surroundings to catch prey their heads stretch longer than their bodies you shimmy your way past it and continue you head back into the rainforest and find a spot to rest wait there are giant ants everywhere they're the biggest ants in the world and can produce one of the most painful stings out there even comparable to a wasp's s thing you immediately get up and find another place to rest as you continue walking along you notice the same feeling of something following you you can hear some leaves rustling but it's getting dark and there's no way of telling you find a nice little spot to build a campfire and catch some z's but in the Amazon everything is a threat except for those cute Capa baras wandering around they live in groups next to water sources they're also the biggest rodents in the world you don't need to worry about them if you're stuck in the middle of the Amazon rainforest suddenly you feel something slithering up next to you you look down and see a massive green anaconda just about to constrict you they are the heaviest snakes in the world and can grow up to 20 ft long and have a huge appetite you get up and Sprint your way out of there all right you found a decent cave to crash in it's day time again and you're still alive you continue walking along the rainforest you were able to find some breakfast to boost your energy for the rest of the day you spot something on a tree that looks like a branch but it's actually a PO a Master of Disguise that can spend days motionless on broken tree branches these bizarre Birds use those branches as their permanent home where they lay their eggs and chill all day you continue your way through the rainforest and see a Brazilian walk W in spider crawling on a tree branch right in front of you eight of these species can be found in the Amazon area they are some of the most aggressive and venomous spiders out there so you make a big detour and walk away from it you feel someone walking next to you again but you still can't figure out what it is you see a steep Cliff with a waterfall hitting a large lake ahead of you looks peaceful until you see a team of black cayman gathering around the shore they're the biggest predators in the whole Amazon ecosystem and feed on anything that moves it's a good thing you're on High Ground otherwise W you slip and fall down the river right on the deep end so far no Cayman spotted you you swim underwater and try to get to the opposite end of where the reptiles are as you climb out and dry yourself off you notice some large black spots on you you try pulling them off but they've latched on pretty hard the Amazon giant leech Finds Its Target by tracking movement and Shadow once they attach themselves to the skin it's extremely difficult to extract them the best way to do so is to slide your finger next to its mouth and pull it off slowly you manage to get them off your body and see that the Cayman are swimming towards you you're pinned to the wall with the lake of hungry reptiles approaching suddenly a pink dolphin jumps out of the water and splashes all over them they can grow larger than humans and are the celebrities of the Amazon scientists think they get their color from the blood capillaries on their skin the Amazon even has bull sharks swimming around these carnivorous giant fish are threatening to humans and can swim in both saltwater and fresh water these sharks prey on anything within their reach including other sharks the dolphin distracted the Cayman so you climb up the cliff and try to find the best way to escape opened Jaws waiting for you to fall into the pit are right below you you're lucky enough to escape to the top but as your arms pull you up the first thing that you see is a Jaguar looking straight at you it's the creature that's been following you this whole time you get up while it starts circling you timing its strike you know that you can't take on a Jaguar nor can you outrun it so you grab a large tree branch from the ground to defend yourself it jumps at you but you duck down in time the Jaguar lands in the water far away from the cay and crosss it's a good thing these large kitties are excellent swimmers you pick yourself up and continue and to your surprise you find your boat again you fix it up and sail your way out of the Amazon the Amazon River travels through nine South American countries at a length of over 4,000 mil still it's impossible to cross it by a bridge with the river being the main Highway traveling through this dense forest and so few areas populated around the river there's just no reason to have one the river can rise up to 30 ft and the river crossings that were only 3 Mi wide can expand to over 30 mi in just a few short weeks in certain spots making a bridge nearly impossible to build here in New Zealand in the coastal town of Mai there are huge spherical Boulders some rocks are 6 and 1/2 ft tall and weigh about 7 tons as much as 10 cows oo there's a 10 cow Boulder Maui Legend has it that these rocks are from the remain of the goods from a large shipwreck that happened hundreds of years ago from a more scientific perspective it's sand and gravel combined to form these giant Boulders waves and winds give them a smooth round appearance over time the whole process might take millions of years Indonesia's kaiwan e volcano is famous for a stunning turquoise colored Lake sitting at the top of the peak but don't dip in it's an acid Lake but it scariest part is the sulfuric gas is leaking out when lava flows freely reaching temperatures hotter than 1,000° F when those gases come in contact with the air they combust into a spectacular electric blue flame that's why the volcano has blue lava the island of certi south of Iceland was formed over 50 years ago by a volcanic eruption it All Began back in 1963 when a powerful volcanic eruption created one of the youngest Islands on the planet all sorts of bacteria fungi and molds began taking over the island leading to numerous other animals finding their way here like seals and birds birds and ocean waves deposited seeds all over the island sadly the Island's getting smaller now because of water and wind erosion located off the coast of Brazil there's an island called I'm a bit Rusty on my Portuguese so here it is on the screen it looks perfectly untouched and pristine bad news dangerous snakes overrun it completely so take a doctor with you in case you want to go there over over 4,000 of the golden Lance head vipers inhabit this island these 3-ft long snakes are among the most venomous in the entire world yeah I think I'll skip that Landing down under you can see the Opera House oolaroo lots of kangaroos and catch the strangest wave of the world wave Rock in Western Australia it's not made of water but Stone it can be up to 50 ft tall and almost 300 ft long it's especially incredible after rains in winter when the Western Australia wild flowers fill up the entire landscape in Atlanta there's a world of Coca-Cola museum the formula for the secret recipe is in a large Security Vault heavily guarded at all times only a handful of people can get through those Vault doors since his Creation in 1886 the company has kept it a secret for only the most honest employees in 2006 a former worker tried to sell the formula to Pepsi only for Pepsi to call the police and inform Coca-Cola the polka dot legs is a must for anyone who is in British Columbia after the summer scorching heat evaporates the Lake's water it leaves behind yellow blue and green water spots these pools are full of all sorts of minerals like sodium calcium and magnesium sulfates that get concentrated in the pools you can't get too close or even dip your feet into them a fence protects the entire lake with a sign about how culturally and ecologically sensitive the area is in Death Valley California there's a mystery of the sailing Stones since the early 1900s the mystery of how all these Stones were seemingly moving by themselves across the desert floor baffled everyone some believe that the rocks move by thin pieces of ice around the stones pushed by winds after winter no one ever saw any of these rocks moving until 2014 scientists set timelapse recorders and the footage showed the Rocks sliding along the ground over time the marble caves in Chile located in the beautiful area of Patagonia formed from over 6,000 years of waves wearing down the Rocks the crystal blue walls reflect the vibrant turquoise water making it perfect for kayaking walking in Chestnut Ridge Park in New York one can see an internal flame what makes this one stand out though is it's underneath a waterfall occasionally the flame will go out for short periods but it will light up again sometimes it's thanks to certain hikers along the way if you ever stop your car on a Magnetic Hill in New Brunswick Canada you'll see the car might start rolling backwards up the hill all by itself while it looks like it's moving the wrong way this is just an illusion there are several Hills like this all around the world what looks like an incline is the opposite all because there's no Horizon for perspective the brightest bioluminescent Bay in the world called Puerto mosquito is located off the coast of Puerto ricao the Bay is name for the pirate Roberto Kofi and his small boat El mosquito not after those annoying insects during the summer months you'll have glassy water at night with millions of tiny microorganisms bumping into each other and emitting blue light The Chocolate Hills in the Philippines is a group of unusually shaped Hills located in the middle of the island of bohle in the Philippines there are 1,000 to 2,000 discovered so far they have nothing to do with chocolate at all but they resemble the color after the dry season when the grass turns from green to Brown in the northeastern part of Thailand 466 Mi away from Bangkok is a 75 milliony old rock formation sticking right out of the mountains their shapes look just like a pot of whales swimming together no wonder this place is called three whale rocks millions of years ago this area was just a desert but this land has changed quite dramatically during this time these Sandstone mountains were lifted up by play tectonics that's the shifting of the crust layers called lithosphere and erosion by the meong river resulting in the strangely shape rock formations we see today salard uni in Bolivia is the world's largest salt flag at 4,50 square miles in size it's twice as large as Grand Canyon National Park after winter has passed the Salt Lake is transformed into a beautiful giant Sky reflecting mirror between September and may with salt all the way to the Horizon it creates an illusion of endlessness the thin layer of water left over from ice melting creates a shimmering effect of the sky making it one of the best places to visit in the world the katbo river in Venezuela might be the stormiest place in the world with nearly 300 storm days a year the lightning storms are so consistent and they're predicted 3 months in advance during the wet season in October you might see 30 lightning flashes in a single minute at Sunset strong winds flow around the the three surrounding mountains forming storm clouds over the water when the water droplets of humid air collide with ice crystals from the cold air the static charges cause a lightning storm that happens nearly every night off the southern tip of Japan lies the yanon formation archaeologists believe that the monument belongs to a fabl Pacific civilization like Atlantis that vanished beneath the waves thousands of years ago if it's truly A Lost Civilization or just nature having a little fun this is the site to dive into features inside the structure resemble ston workor like castles temples and a stadium connected by roads and what seems to be large walls all the way around there are even marks in the stone that appear to show Quarry work faded faces and rocks sculpted into animal shapes some scientists believe that the symmetry of the stones is not as straight as reported it appears Solid Rock rather than carved blocks weathered down by all the water over many years plit Vice lakes's National Park in Croatia is an interconnected chain of waterfalls the tallest being 230 ft and underground water channels creating natural dams and lakes in such a picturesque environment found in the Deep Woodlands surrounded by Meadows brimming with wild flowers brown bears gray wolves links deer and plenty of rare bird species for bird watchers call these 115 square miles of the national park home
