- [Narrator] Over in the vast
central reaches of Russia in a region below the south Ural mountains is a place Russia wishes
had never existed. There used to be a lake here, which at its largest
measured in at 110 acres, about the same as 83 football fields. Although it wasn't the sheer
size or even depth of this lake that made it a living
nightmare, but what was in it. So get comfy, settle in and
prepare yourself for a story so dark it'll make you
wish it wasn't real. This is the terrifying
true tale of lake Karachay. (upbeat music) Back in 1945, the first nuclear bomb
was used as a weapon during the Second World War, it was dropped by the
Americans on Hiroshima, Japan, leveling 5 square miles of the city, and killing up to 180,000 people, tens of thousands perished immediately. And the effects of deadly
radiation in the days and months that followed
claimed around 100,000 more. It was the single most devastating weapon that had ever been developed. And it caught the eyes of
leaders around the world. One of those was Stalin. The then leader of the Soviet Union, determines to compete with the US. He ordered the development of
a series of top secret nuclear facilities in a location,
hidden from enemy eyes. These would be dedicated to
producing the materials needed to create nuclear weapons. He settled on this
region of central Russia below the South Ural mountain which was far enough from the borders and other inhabited areas
to keep the project hidden from the rest of the world. Between 1945 and 1948, the Mayak nuclear facility
was erected on the shores of lake Kyzyltash in total secrecy, over 70,000 prisoners of war
from 12 gulag labor camps were forced to construct
the enormous facility. They were also used to
build a city nearby, which would be the home
to 10,000 employees of the new plants along
with their families. This was roughly 60 miles
from the closest city of Chelyabinsk. And so it was known
simply by the last digits of its postal code,
Chelyabinsk-40 or City-40. The government promised its citizens they'd never want for anything and would have a great standard of living. Sounds like the dream except the city and all the plans around
it had to be kept secret. Anyone who refused this offer was sent straight to the gulags as they'd been exposed to
sensitive security information. So it wasn't like they
had much of a choice. The gates of City-40 were
guarded day and night. It was surrounded by
fences and walls topped with barbed wire. And it wasn't marked on
any Soviet Union maps unless citizens were
granted special permission by the government, nobody
was allowed to enter or leave City-40. And that's because almost as
soon as Mayak and its city were complete, it began producing
weapons-grade plutonium, something they didn't want
the rest of the world to know. By 1949, the Soviets had their hands
on their first plutonium bomb, which was called First Lightning. The success fueled them to
make even more atomic weapons with around 44 cities, similar to City-40 colloquially called Closed Cities established around the Soviet Union. Some of the facilities attached to these housed all manner of
nuclear research efforts from plutonium production
to uranium enrichment, but the Soviets weren't the inventors of the first closed cities. And that idea came from
the US's Richland city, which was secretively
built around the Handford nuclear plant. The same plant that supplied the plutonium for the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Soviet spy circles had
intercepted plans for this city, with Stalin deciding
to use this information to follow in the US's footsteps. Although that wasn't the
only secret they stole the majority of the
Soviets nuclear research had been stolen by Atom Spies involved in the Manhattan project. The mission that developed
the first nuclear bomb, but they hadn't managed to
get their hands on everything. This meant there were huge
holes in the Soviet's knowledge of nuclear physics, combined with the pressure to save money, plant leaders were forced
to cut a lot of corners regarding worker training
safety and radiation monitoring workers were rarely properly protected, pollution was an afterthought and horrendously workers would
clean up radioactive spills with their bare hands. They would only stop working
when blood started pouring from their noses, a side effect of their bodies
being broken down by lethal amounts of radiation. But that was the least of their problems. The seven main reactors of
Mayak utilized open cycle water cooling systems to prevent
the reactors from overheating. Here water was pumped
in from lake Kyzyltash and the nearby Techa river and
into the reactor core itself, then without being
processed or decontaminated, the water was pumped back
into these same water sources. This meant millions of
gallons of irradiated water was being dumped into the
water of the inhabitants of City-40 drank from and bathed in. And not just City-40
villages along the Techa also relied on the river
as their main water source. Meaning a further 28,000
people were unknowingly reliant upon lethally
tainted water sources. None of them knew they were
living in a dangerously radioactive area, but this was just the
start of Mayak's problems. In their bid to get
plutonium production up and running as quickly as possible. They hadn't considered the
extensive requirements needed to store all the
radioactive waste products. In the first three years of operation, this was basically non-existent
and workers would simply dilute high levels of waste and dump it into the Techa river. By 1951, and after it was clear this was causing huge amounts
of environmental damage. They decided it was safer
to dump all the waste in a stagnant body of water lake Karachay. It wasn't until 1953, 5
years after Mayak opened that they began storing high level waste in stainless steel tanks. Altogether, these 20 tanks could hold
up to 1,600,000 gallons, more than two full Olympic swimming pools worth of radioactive waste. These were buried underground, surrounded in a 5" thick concrete casing and kept cool using an
external water cooling system. All these elements were designed
to keep the active waste from overheating, or at
least they were meant to. Over time the instruments for
monitoring the tanks failed, but they couldn't be repaired
because the level of radiation in the area was too high. Eventually the waste in the tanks reached a boiling 662 degrees Fahrenheit. And then on September 29th,
1957 at 4:20 pm disaster struck. An explosion with the
force of 100 tons of TNT shook the Mayak complex. The 5" concrete lid covering
the tanks was blasted over 80" away. And 80 tons of radioactive
waste began spewing out at an alarming rate. It's estimated this initial
blast released a little less than half of the radioactivity
measured at the famous Chernobyl explosion, which would occur less
than 30 years later. Fortunately, 90% of the waste was liquid irradiating, only the nearby facility, but the remaining 10% was
drawn into a radioactive plume that towered over half a mile high and began drifting Northeast. In 11 hours the radioactive
particles in the plume were detected in Tyumen a
city more than 200 miles away from Mayak. In a matter of days, almost 9,000 square miles
of land containing 217 towns and villages with more than
270,000 people was contaminated with lethal doses of radiation. This was the Kyshtym disaster. There were only two other
radioactive incidents in history, more severe than this
Chernobyl and Fukushima. As the water supplies became
increasingly contaminated from the spill. The government started to panic. They calculated that villages downstream from the disaster site,
Berdyanish, Saltikovka and Galikaeva would receive a huge cumulative dose of
radiation inside of a month. At the time, the absorbed
amount of radiation was measured in units called rads. Just five rads was enough to potentially, and irreversibly damage
a person's chromosomes, but the citizens of these
villages would receive cumulative radiation
doses of up to 300 rads. This meant serious radiation sickness, along with bone marrow and
intestinal destruction. 10 days later, these villages
containing roughly 1500 people were evacuated. The villages
themselves were destroyed, incinerated where possible, but the survivors were told nothing. Fortunately, a follow up
study revealed no long term radiation damage was
detected in the survivors, but they weren't the only
ones to lose their homes. Eight months later, a further 6,500 people were
evacuated from 23 more villages. During this time they'd
consumed contaminated crops, drunk contaminated water and
lived on contaminated lands, but suspiciously, no
registry was ever set up to follow their medical histories. A year after the incident, all pine trees within a 12.5 mile radius of
the disaster site had died. Instead of declaring a
radioactive disaster, the Soviet government simply
covered the incident up. No one would know about the
full extent of the Kyshtym disaster for more than 30 years, but the horror didn't stop there. The sheer amount of
untreated radioactive waste that had been dumped into lake Karachay meant that over time it
accumulated 120 million curies of radioactivity. By comparison, the Chernobyl disaster released approximately 185 million curies of radio activity in total. However, the radioactive
isotope caesium-137, which is responsible for
long term land contamination was 40 times higher in lake
Karachay than at Chernobyl. That meant the lake and
the area surrounding it would remain contaminated
for much, much longer. It also meant that if
anyone decided to visit the most polluted part of the lake or just dip their foot in
the water within an hour, they'd receive a lethal
dose of more than 500 rads. You might think this
would destroy their foot. Maybe see it shrivel up, melt off, or even sprout a few more toes depending on how you
think radiation works. But actually this would result
in acute radiation sickness. The exposure would begin
to destroy all the cells in the entire body rapidly. How rapidly? Well, after 30 days there's
a 95% chance you'd be dead. Now by 1960 lake Karachay
appeared to be drying up. By 1967, after a hot summer
followed by a dry winter, the remaining water evaporated. This was originally seen as a blessing, but it was actually more of a curse. It meant all the still
radioactive sediment was contained in the dry dust layering the lake bed. All it would take was
gust of wind to stir it up and create another radioactive incident. But the region didn't get a gust of wind. It got a wind storm. The sediment was spread far
and wide over the region, dusting the citizens and environment with yet another dose of deadly radiation. It wasn't until 1973 that
the Soviet government began the arduous process
of filling in the lake with tens of thousands of concrete blocks to prevent any remaining
sediment from shifting. It took decades of work, but by 2015, the lake
was finally filled in. You'd think that during
this time the Soviet Union was doing everything in its
power to alert its citizens to the danger and keep them safe, but unbelievably it wasn't until 1989, 3 years after the meltdown at Chernobyl, that information about the
events in the Southern Urals was finally declassified. After the fall of the
Soviet Union in 1991, City-40 had its existence
formally acknowledged by the new government
and was renamed Ozersk. Descendants of the original
population still live there. And today the inhabitants
receive everything their government promised
them way back in the 40s. But now the citizens are
aware that their children are more likely to be born
with serious health conditions. That their water is contaminated. That many of the beautiful
areas surrounding them are no-go zones. And that their average life
expectancy is much lower than the rest of the country. While the story of lake Karachay
and the Kyshtym disaster, haunts Russia's history books. It's not the only lake in the country known for being impossibly
and irreversibly polluted. A little over 26 miles away from Karachay the town of Karabash still has a lake. Although the water like a
lot of the surrounding land and forest holds a defiled
reddish orange hue. That's because back in 1910, Karabash became the site
of a copper smelting plant over 180 tons of sulfur
dioxide and heavy metals were released into the environment
from this site each year. Even though it was
eventually shut down in 1989, the area still holds 500
times the normal concentration of heavy metals like iron
and copper oxide in it. while spending a few hours
swimming in this sludge might not have any immediate effect. If you ingested it, the chances are you'd contract
heavy metal poisoning. In the short term, you'd get pretty sick, but long term residents
of the area suffer from higher rates of skin
diseases, cancer, strokes, and congenital malformations compared to the rest of the country. So obviously Russia is home to
some pretty dangerous bodies of water, but nuclear
contamination and pollution aside, there are more even deadlier
lakes, small around the world, but before I show them to you, why don't you hit those
like and subscribe buttons down below. Just those two
clicks helps keep me afloat. All done. Amazing. Right? Where are we heading next? Kawah Ijen. There's nothing more inviting
than beautiful turquoise waters is there. I mean, this place looks
like a private pool on top of a mountain. I'm reaching for my swim shorts already, except it looks a little
too turquoise. Doesn't it? Well, before you go jumping in, you should probably know
that this pool is located in the active volcanic
crater of Kawah Ijen in Java. It's turquoise coloring comes
from the range of materials dissolved in the water, including hydrochloric and sulfuric acids produced by the volcanic activity below. Not only does this make
the water look gorgeous, but it also gives it a pH of 0.3. For those who don't speak science, neutral elements like water
have a pH of around seven, stomach acid has a pH of one. So this stuff is straight up corrosive so much so that if you were to
dip your foot into this pool, even briefly, there's a chance you'd come
out with chemical burns, depending on how far the
solution penetrated your skin. I'm talking red, irritated
skin, blistering, even scarring. But if you were to take a full body dip, staying there for as long as
possible, your entire body, even your teeth would
dissolve in roughly 15 hours. Yeah, I'm putting my swim shorts down. Blue lagoon, now naturally
inviting turquoise waters aren't just found in the
craters of active volcanoes. over in the UK another
deceptively beautiful lake can be found in a pit dug into the Derbyshire countryside. This is the Blue Lagoon,
or at least it used to be. In 2013 and again, in 2020, the local council dyed the
brilliant blue waters black to try and dissuade eager
swimmers from stepping foot in it. Why? Because it's toxic. It's actually situated in
an old limestone quarry, which after it was disused in 1952 was used by the Royal air
force to store chemical weapons until 1960. Eventually it was emptied out
and left to gather rainwater, but the water turned
turquoise as limestone rocks, leached calcite crystals into the water, giving the lake a pH of 11.3, considering ammonia has a pH
of 11.5 and bleach is about 12 going anywhere near the
water in this lagoon is a horrible idea. Despite signs warning
about skin irritation, stomach problems, and even rashes. It wasn't enough to stop
people being drawn in during lockdown, not even all the dead animals and trash that have found their way
into these deadly waters over the years wasn't
enough to keep them away. Maybe what this lagoon
needs is a new sign. One that says only idiots swim here. Yeah, that should do it. Berkeley pit, the
horizon of Butte, Montana looks like any other city, until you clock the gigantic one mile long and half mile wide pit
gouged into the landscape. Yeah, the one filled with
ominous black and red liquid that's 1,780 feet deep.
This is the Berkeley Pit, an open pit copper mine
dug back in the 1950s where it produced nearly
17,000 tons of copper a day. However, it was closed in 1982 after its profitability plummeted. They shut off the pumps, keeping the ground water at
bay and the pit began to flood. But the water that filled it
up was laden with chemicals and metals leached from the rock like arsenic, cadmium,
zinc and sulfuric acid giving it that devilish
color and then some. in 1995, a flock of 342 snow geese were found dead in its waters. They'd been resting in the
lake to avoid a squall, but little did they know
the lake has a pH of 2.5, meaning it was acidic. While it was only about
as acidic as substances like lemon juice, the poor birds were found with burn sores all over their bodies. Montana has since begun
water treatment efforts to pump and treat the pit, but still, while it wouldn't kill you stepping foot in something
with that kind of history, can't be good for you. Grand Prismatic Spring. Now, not all deadly bodies
of water look so ominous. If the Grand Prismatic spring
of Yellowstone national park is anything to go by found
in the Midway Geyser basin. This is the third largest
natural hot spring in the world at 370 feet in diameter, making it bigger than an
entire football field. The incredible concentric
circles of vibrant blues, greens, yellows and oranges make it
look like someone has painted a target onto the bedrock beneath. But the color actually comes
from heat loving bacteria. As the geothermally heated water erupts from the center of the spring, it reaches a spicy 189 degrees Fahrenheit when it spreads out the water cools, allowing rings of different
bacteria that thrive at different temperatures ranging from 131 to
189 degrees Fahrenheit. And that's pretty hot. So hot that if you were to put your foot into the center of the circle
for just a few seconds, you'd be left with third degree burns. Though it could always be worse. Back in 2016, a young
man named Colin Scott, slipped and fell into a nearby
geyser and was boiled alive. That's horrifying, but what made it even worse
was that the water here is slightly acidic and
combined with the intense heat the poor man's body dissolved overnight, no trace of him was ever found. So if you ever visit this hotspot, be sure to stay well away
from those colorful ledges Rio Tinto, sneaking over
the Spanish countryside is a river that looks more
like a forbidden gummy worm than water. This is the Rio Tinto, a name that helpfully
translates to the stained river. At more than 62 miles in length roughly half of the river is colored red, orange and yellow that's
because it flows through an area that's rich
with sulfur or deposits, which formed hundreds of
millions of years ago. When there were active
volcanoes in the area, thousands of years of mining
have also amplified the process increasing the amount of exposed ore. This has made the river incredibly acidic. Meaning the only thing
that can live in the water is sulfur consuming bacteria. As they consume the sulfur,
they produce ferric iron, a rust colored substance that
gives the river its red hues. Together the ore deposits and bacteria drop the pH level of
the water as low as 1.5. Meaning this river is more
like vinegar than water. Now dipping your foot in this wouldn't cause any initial damage, but leaving it in for an extended period would result in irritation and redness. Well, that doesn't sound too bad, even so I don't think
anyone should go splashing about in it. Lake Natron. Tanzania is famous for its
stunning Serengeti national park, but surprisingly it's less well known for the 490 square mile body of water on its Northern border. That has the power to turn
living things to stone. I know that last bit sounds like something out of Greek mythology, but
trust me, it's all real. This is lake Natron, a lake
in an area that's so hot. It loses most of its water to evaporation leaving the salty mineral rich remnants to crust over the surface
like big red scabs. The water that remains
is so saturated with salt that most birds flying
over hoping for a quick dip suddenly find themselves
coated in crystals. These fatally calcify and
trap the poor creatures in a matter of minutes. And that's not all the sodium
and mineral rich bedrock makes the environment strongly alkaline. Meaning the remaining water
has a pH of 10 on a mild day and a pH of 12 when the
waters reach a scalding 140 degrees Fahrenheit. So at its best taking a dip in this lake would be like waiting through
salty milk of magnesia. But at its worse, it'd be like swimming
through boiling hot bleach while it wouldn't burn you immediately keeping it on your skin would
give you an alkaline burn. These are often worse than acid burns. As alkaline chemicals
can penetrate and damage deeper layers of tissue. Something, a group of very
unlucky wildlife photographers almost learned the hard way back in 2007, as they were flying over the lake, their helicopter crashed into the water. The hot water immediately
began burning their eyes and practically blinding them. But they miraculously managed
to travel around two miles to the nearest solid ground. Fortunately they all recovered, but any longer in there
and it might have been a very different story. Boiling Lake. Do you know what a fumarole is? Aside from being a really fun word to say, fumarole are openings
in the planet's crust, which emit super heated steam and gases, but when a fumarole gets flooded, that's when you get something
like the Boiling Lake in Dominica. At roughly 250" wide, this bubbling water is usually enveloped in an ever present vapor cloud. That's because the water here fluctuates between a spicy 180 and
197 degrees Fahrenheit. Although that's just the
temperature at the edges, scientists haven't been able
to measure the temperature at this center where the
lake is actively boiling because it's simply too
hot for them to handle. It's believed that this lake
lies just above the local water table, which is the natural
boundary between the dry soil and the saturated soil of the earth. This is what keeps the lake
from drying up entirely. Even though much of its
water is lost to evaporation. Now it's pretty obvious that sticking any part of your body
in this is a bad idea. And that's a second, maybe
even third degree burn just waiting to happen. But it's not the only reason why this lake is one of the most dangerous in the world. Way back at 1900, a group of hikers was
clamoring around the area. When all of a sudden the
lake released a cloud of toxic volcanic gases. They didn't stand a chance
and sadly didn't survive. So if you decide to visit this lake, don't just bring your water wings, you're gonna need a gas mask as well. Okay. I know we really shouldn't, but which of these
forbidden bodies of water do you want to visit the most? And have you ever seen any
of them with your own eyes? Let me know down in the comments below and thanks for watching. (upbeat music)
