00:00Now, the Mariana Trench is the deepest and probably the most enigmatic place on Earth,
00:05whatever that means.
00:06Bizarre creatures such as deep-sea anglerfish, frilled and goblin sharks,
00:12barrel-eyed fish, hatchet fish, who live in a crescent-shaped trench in the western Pacific.
00:18Just three people have ever descended down the Challenger Deep in the southern end of the Mariana Trench.
00:23There, at a depth of almost 11,000 feet, vents are bubbling up carbon dioxide and liquid sulfur.
00:31Mud volcanoes erupt under the pressure a thousand times greater than at the surface.
00:37And so, it's no place I want to go.
00:39So bye!
00:40Get back in there.
00:42Alright, alright, since you clicked, yeah, you're about to visit places no less mysterious and creepy than the Mariana Trench.
00:49Your first stop is Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula to be precise.
00:55See those bottomless sinkholes filled with crystal-clear water?
00:59It's fresh water that overlies salt water seeping from the sea.
01:04The sinkholes are called cenotes.
01:06The Mayans believe these natural wells were the gateways to the underworld.
01:11Thousands of cenotes, created by collapsed limestone bedrock,
01:15form one of the world's longest underwater cave systems.
01:18You can easily get lost in this tangled, mysterious network.
01:23Now it's time to visit the Caribbean.
01:25There, you'll get to a depth of almost 8,000 feet to see the Van Damme Vent Field.
01:31The hydrothermal vents fire out streams of muddy, scalding water,
01:36with a temperature reaching 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
01:39That's almost enough to bake a pizza.
01:41These mounds are made of talc, a substance you can find in baby powder.
01:45The Van Damme Vent Field is an oasis for odd species.
01:50One of those is kind of a creepy shrimp without eyes.
01:53Instead, they're equipped with patches of light-sensitive cells on their backs.
01:59Now, you don't have to travel far away.
02:01The next enigma on your list is also in the Caribbean.
02:05Just off the coast of Belize, there is a giant sinkhole.
02:09It's also blue.
02:10Yep, that's the Great Blue Hole.
02:13The thing is about 1,000 feet across and more than 400 feet deep.
02:17Once, a long, long time ago, this hole was a cave,
02:21until rising waters filled it, making it collapse in on itself.
02:25The deeper you descend into the Great Hole's crystalline waters,
02:29the darker it becomes.
02:31You see tons of stalactite-filled caves,
02:33but don't even try to enter them unless you want to get hopelessly lost.
02:38Once you reach a depth of 50 feet, you notice the water shimmer
02:42as the invisible line dividing the sinkhole's salty top from the freshwater abyss.
02:48Time to get out of there.
02:49Who knows what you might come across in the murky depths?
02:54Your next destination is off the Pacific Northwest coast.
02:58Almost 500 streams of methane bubbles were discovered there several years ago.
03:02Because of the bubbles, the vents got the name champagne seeps,
03:07which sounds better than the fart spas.
03:10Scientists are still puzzling over this phenomenon.
03:13Where does the methane come from?
03:15Underwater cows?
03:16Why is its temperature warmer than that of the surrounding ocean?
03:19And most importantly,
03:21what would happen if you managed to light a mat somewhere near a large bubble?
03:25Methane needs a highly flammable gas,
03:27and setting a methane bubble on fire?
03:30Well, you get the picture.
03:32And now you're off to Iceland.
03:35The plan is to dive into Silfra,
03:37a fissure filled with pure glacier water.
03:39This 206-foot-deep crack is the only underwater place on the planet
03:44where you can touch two continents at once.
03:47The deeper you go, the darker it becomes.
03:50The rocky landscape looks otherworldly.
03:52Divers who dare to visit this incredible place
03:56risk having their gear frozen,
03:58getting hypothermia,
03:59or not surviving whatsoever.
04:01After all, the water temperature in Silfra Fissure
04:04is about 35 degrees Fahrenheit year-round.
04:09Your next destination is Scotland.
04:12Okay, cue the bagpipes.
04:14If you dive in the Gulf of Corrievreckan,
04:16a narrow strait between two islands,
04:19you'll see massive underwater rocks and deep holes.
04:22They create the third-largest permanent whirlpool on the planet,
04:26the Corrievreckan maelstrom.
04:28The water moves through the strait at breakneck speed.
04:32It hits the underwater rocks,
04:33and the place looks like a pot with boiling water.
04:36The waves created in the process
04:38sometimes reach a height of 15 feet,
04:41and you can still hear the roaring whirlpool from 10 miles away.
04:46It's believed the Corrievreckan maelstrom
04:47has swallowed dozens of sailors over the centuries.
04:50They were caught unaware by the ferocity of this natural phenomenon
04:54and pulled underwater in the blink of an eye.
04:58Okay, enough bagpipes.
05:00Your adventures are getting more and more extreme.
05:04You're heading for Antarctica.
05:06There, in the Southern Ocean,
05:08you'll find the Ross Sea Ice Shelf.
05:10Say that five times real fast.
05:12Later, not now.
05:13It's roughly the size of Spain,
05:15with the ocean underneath containing as much water as the North Sea.
05:20Once, scientists drilled all the way down
05:22through this enormous chunk of ice.
05:24Imagine their astonishment
05:26when they found life in those extreme conditions.
05:29The researchers came across dozens of mysterious species
05:32not known before.
05:34The most unnerving were upside-down swimming fish
05:37and overturned sea anemones hanging in the frigid waters.
05:41Hopefully, bizarre places with a notorious reputation
05:46don't frighten you.
05:47Well, too bad,
05:49because you're about to visit the Bermuda Triangle.
05:52It's an area between Bermuda, Florida, and Puerto Rico,
05:55where planes and ships seem to vanish in thin air.
05:59For the first time,
06:00this place attracted a lot of attention in 1945.
06:04That's when five U.S. Navy planes disappeared during training.
06:07Before radio contact was lost,
06:10the flight leader said,
06:11We're entering white water.
06:13Nothing seems right.
06:15After that,
06:16the planes with 14 men flying them disappeared.
06:20Even scarier,
06:21a rescue plane with 13 people on board
06:23never came back as well.
06:26Some people believe the mythical city of Atlantis
06:29lies at the bottom of the triangle.
06:31They claim its inhabitants use extraterrestrial technologies
06:35to sink ships and crash airplanes.
06:37Others blame rare and unexplored natural phenomenon,
06:40for example, magnetic anomalies,
06:43or massive pockets of flammable methane gas.
06:46There we go again.
06:47Then,
06:48if a bolt of lightning ignited a giant methane bubble
06:51near a ship or a plane,
06:52this could probably make it sink without a trace.
06:55Except the smell.
06:57But methane is found everywhere all over the world,
07:00and it never behaves this way.
07:01Some experts aren't sure there's a mystery to explain whatsoever.
07:06Lots of busy routes pass through this area.
07:09No wonder more ships and planes sink there than anywhere else.
07:14Now,
07:15prepare some warm clothes.
07:16You're heading for the north again.
07:18Your destination is Cape Desolation in Greenland.
07:22Nice place.
07:23In 2012,
07:24Canadian researchers were sampling the water in that area,
07:27and their equipment came back to the surface
07:30with pieces of coral attached to it.
07:33That's how a cold-water coral reef was stumbled across.
07:37These unique pinkish corals can easily go without sunlight
07:40and live in strong currents 3,000 feet below the surface.
07:46Another unique spot you can't miss
07:48lies between Greenland and Siberia.
07:51The Gackal Ridge is the deepest and most remote portion
07:55of the global mid-ocean ridge system.
07:58In some places,
07:59it reaches the depth of more than 3 miles.
08:01It's only natural
08:02the darkest corners of this underwater world
08:05remain unexplored.
08:07Fascinating chemical reactions
08:09happening at the bottom of the ridge
08:10produce hot fluids rich in minerals.
08:13They spew,
08:14like freshmen at a rush party,
08:16from seafloor vents.
08:18And since these vents are isolated
08:19from the rest of the ocean,
08:21they're hot spots for bizarre creatures
08:23found nowhere else in the world.
08:27Your next stop is just off the coast of Cuba.
08:30Circular columns,
08:32paved floors,
08:33symmetrical stone structures.
08:35That's what the Cuban underwater city looks like.
08:38What happened there?
08:39Why was a large city abandoned
08:41at a depth of more than 2,000 feet?
08:43Lots of people believe
08:44those are the ruins
08:46of a long-forgotten civilization.
08:47But scientists have their doubts.
08:51They claim the lost city
08:52is nothing but a natural phenomenon
08:53that appeared about 5 million years ago.
08:56The disk and donut structures
08:58often appear around the areas of the seafloor
09:01where natural gases break free.
09:03Again with the gases.
09:06When you come to visit the Sargasso Sea
09:09in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean,
09:11you won't find its shores.
09:13Instead,
09:13it's surrounded by powerful ocean currents.
09:16These are the same currents
09:17that turn the sea
09:18into a gigantic convention
09:20for dense brown seaweed.
09:23In the 19th century,
09:24a French ship was discovered
09:26in the Sargasso Sea.
09:27Its sails were set,
09:29but not a single crew member
09:30was on board.
09:32This mysterious disappearance
09:33made people believe
09:34the seaweed was carnivorous.
09:37The Sargasso Sea
09:38is indeed a weird place.
09:40It's always eerily calm
09:42and unnaturally warm,
09:43even though it's surrounded
09:45by the churning,
09:46freezing waters
09:47of the Atlantic Ocean.
09:49Could one of these bizarre places
09:52become a home
09:52to the largest marine predator ever,
09:55the megalodon?
09:56The giant shark's teeth,
09:58some larger than an adult man's hand,
10:00have been found
10:01pretty much all over the world.
10:03But since these creatures
10:04preferred warm, shallow waters,
10:06they lived along the coastlines
10:08of all continents
10:09except Antarctica.
10:10In other words,
10:12it'd be a waste of time
10:13to search for the giant predator
10:15in the depths of the Mariana Trench,
10:17in Greenland,
10:17or in Mexican cenotes.
10:19But then,
10:20could it choose
10:21the waters of the Caribbean
10:22to hide from the hustle and bustle
10:24of the modern world?
10:26Eh, don't get your hopes up.
10:28There's been no proof
10:29the megalodon does exist these days.
10:32It wasn't a shy, elusive animal,
10:34and still,
10:35no one has seen this shark
10:36lurking around recently.
10:38Not even near the fart spas.
Comments