Skip to playerSkip to main contentSkip to footer
Short Tales
  • 6/22/2025
#ShowFilm98
#Mysteries
#From
#Above
Transcript
00:00Drones spot a vast field of perfectly pointed stones.
00:07It's like some kind of weird lunar landscape.
00:11A massive monolith looming over the surrounding land.
00:15And it looks totally out of place.
00:18Hundreds of desolate and crumbling structures.
00:22What is this place? And what happened here?
00:25And a vast tower of white plunging off a hillside.
00:29This is such a strange shape and it's huge.
00:33Everywhere we look on our planet, there's evidence of the past.
00:38In nature.
00:40In buildings.
00:42In relics.
00:45Each holds a mystery that technology now allows us to see from above.
00:53What new secrets are revealed?
00:59Flying above the landscape, our planet is a rich tapestry of seemingly endless eternal stone.
01:12From towering peaks to human handiwork, rock and stone can hide surprising science and shocking history.
01:20Uncovered from the skies.
01:22One stone mystery lies in the Andes Mountains that stretch for thousands of kilometers along the western coast of South America.
01:34Featuring the tallest peaks in the western hemisphere.
01:37The Andes are one of the most mighty mountain chains in the world.
01:41It is the backbone of South America.
01:44And among the high plateau in southern Peru, in the district of Pampachiri, drone footage reveals something staggering from above.
01:54I've never seen a landscape like this.
01:59It's like something out of a fairy tale.
02:01I'm seeing these tall, pointed, rocky spires.
02:05It's like some kind of weird lunar landscape.
02:08It looks almost like a forest, but the trees are the wrong color.
02:12How long has this been here?
02:14This must be some kind of stone or rock.
02:17But why on earth are they this weird shape?
02:20How could this have formed?
02:23Is this the work of humans?
02:25Or could this be some strange natural process?
02:28Are there any other strange formations of rock or stone around the world that could give us a clue?
02:34There may be a hint just over 6,500 kilometers away, in New Mexico, where another landscape holds surprisingly similar shapes to the forms in Pampachiri.
02:47These are called the Kasha Katue tent rocks.
02:50And it's easy to see why.
02:52They are, in fact, tent shaped.
02:55And some of these spires can reach up to 30 meters in height.
03:00But how are these unusual shapes formed?
03:03The secret lies under the nearby Valles Caldera, in the Chámez Volcanic Field.
03:10A volcanic field is a place where there's a particular concentration of eruptive features of some kind.
03:17These can form in the area of a supervolcano.
03:20And Temes is a 14-million-year-old supervolcano that has been shaping the landscape for millennia.
03:31The supervolcano's most recent eruption, around 1.2 million years ago, created the Valles Caldera.
03:38This massive crater in the earth.
03:41But how did this supervolcanic power form the strange peaks at the tent rocks?
03:48About six or seven million years ago, eruptions in the Chámez Volcanic Field spewed ash, pumice, and volcanic tuff for miles.
03:56So over several million years, this tremendous thickness of volcanic ash built up.
04:05But it was interlayered with occasional lava flows, material that when it lands, it can fuse together and form a harder layer.
04:16And those hard layers tend to be thin relative to the thicker ash.
04:21This left a layer of deposits over 300 meters thick.
04:26Tectonic forces will crack the thin, harder layers, so they're filled with fractures.
04:33And then, as it rains, water gets down through those cracks, and it begins to erode the softer ash.
04:41But there's a cap of this harder layer, so you end up with side-by-side towers, each one with a little cap on it.
04:48But at some point, it's going to get undercut and unbalanced, and it will topple off.
04:54And then the spire develops a nice peak on it, so they turn into a nice, pointy, tent-like shape.
05:01Rock formations like this are often called fairy chimneys or hoodoos.
05:07So is this what happened in this area of Peru?
05:12Could the strange rock shapes in Pampachiri be connected to an ancient and powerful volcano?
05:19A look from above reveals that Peru is right on the ring of fire, where the Nazca Plate hits the South American Plate.
05:30So it makes sense to think that volcanic activity helped create the materials that could, over millions of years, create this landscape.
05:39And experts believe that, thanks to a volcanic eruption around 4 million years ago, the area became covered in volcanic tuff.
05:48Then, over thousands and millions of years, rain washed away the softer rock, just like at the tent rocks.
05:58Some experts believe nearby extinct volcanoes as the likely source of the layers that evolved into the stone forest.
06:06And here, local, we have the most close to Jarguarazo, Sotaya, and there are other volcanoes that are inactive.
06:15Those volcanoes, obviously, have a great presence in the support of these materials that are over them.
06:23Because when we came back to the glacier, in that time, the rains were torrential.
06:30So the stone shapes in Pampachiri were formed in the same way, in an ancient volcanic landscape shaped by wind and rain.
06:52And it's a little bit of a Goldilocks situation. These pillars tend to form in relatively arid regions.
06:59If there's too much rainfall, everything is carried away and there's no opportunity for the pillars to form.
07:05But where there's just the right amount of rainfall, that water gets down through the cracks in the Caprock
07:11and very slowly carries away the fine material, so these pillars develop.
07:15And incredibly, this isn't the only one in this region.
07:20There's actually a volcanic chain that runs down the spine of Peru in the Andes.
07:27And along this chain, there are a number of these stone forests.
07:33And all of these stone forests developed in the same way.
07:37But there's another shocking mystery here, revealed by a closer look from above.
07:45What is happening here? It looks like something out of Lord of the Rings.
07:49Wait, are those doors? I see doors, windows, and bricks at the bottom of these pointed rocks.
07:58These are houses. This is something clearly made by people.
08:02Who could have built these here? And why?
08:11Perhaps there's an answer on the other side of the world, in Turkey, where another volcanic landscape holds signs of human hands.
08:20This is Cappadocia, and it's home to some of the most stunning fairy chimneys in the world.
08:27Made of ancient volcanic rock, just like in Peru, these stones have been integrated into the towns here.
08:34Homes are actually built into the rock, many of them dating back hundreds of years.
08:41But the rock face hides more than these homes.
08:44Below the surface are networks of human-made caves, tunnels, and entire underground cities.
08:51Some may even date as far back as 1200 BCE, and it's thought that in the fourth century, these caves could have been used by Christians fleeing Roman attacks.
09:01And these remained in use for centuries, a haven for locals during raids that spanned the 600s to the 900s CE.
09:11Could these structures in Peru be some ancient form of protection or defense like the Cappadocia Caves in Turkey?
09:18Are there any clues as to who could have built a fortification in this part of Peru?
09:23Humans have lived at least periodically in this area for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years.
09:31And there are signs of historic civilizations nearby.
09:34200 kilometers to the northeast, an ancient walled city may offer a clue.
09:40Piquiacta.
09:43This ancient city dates from around the late 6th century.
09:47From above, we can see the city's clear grid pattern.
09:52This is the trademark sign of an ancient people known as the Huari.
09:57Renowned for their engineering and masonry skills, the Huari flourished in this region for hundreds of years.
10:04But could the strange stone village be connected to the ancient Huari people?
10:09The Huari did introduce farming and herding into this area around 700 CE.
10:15But this village lacks the hallmark grid of Huari planning.
10:20So who else might be behind these strange houses?
10:24Even closer, a mere 75 kilometers to the north, is the village known as Sandor.
10:30This was built around 1080 CE by a civilization known as the Chanka.
10:36The Chanka are considered a formidable people, known for their reputation as warriors and defensive structures on the high ground of hilltops.
10:43Sandor would have been home to several thousand people.
10:47And its fortifications, ramparts, walls, ditches, lookouts are formidable.
10:53Though the Chanka homes in the village would have been circular stone structures topped with thatch.
10:58So, could these homes in Peru be a similar, nearly thousand year old site crafted by the Chanka?
11:05It's an interesting idea.
11:08The homes here are definitely round, but there aren't any of those classic defensive structures you'd expect.
11:14So if these aren't ancient fortifications, what are they?
11:19Peru is filled with ruins of ancient civilizations.
11:25But could this be a sign of something more modern?
11:30To investigate further, we need to take a closer look.
11:34It's incredible to find that people actually live here.
11:38It's no abandoned ruin.
11:40One of the best ways to discover the history of a place like this is to ask the people who live there.
11:55The local family that lives here reveals that their grandparents created these shelters to be used for a few months at a time.
12:10By carving out these volcanic stone forest peaks and adding stone and mud walls, these unique dwellings were created.
12:34This has been built so that they live with their animals, simply as an instance.
12:39If not, it's only to live with their animals temporarily.
12:43And that's how they lived when the rain was.
12:46Later, the farming family decided to live here permanently.
12:50It's really amazing how this incredible geological landscape can form over thousands or millions of years,
13:13and then continue to evolve in a totally new way as humans discover and explore.
13:20Who knows what the next 100 years will bring for this incredible stone forest and the village it holds.
13:31Over 7,000 kilometers to the north, in the Badlands of Northeastern Wyoming, stands the dramatic landscape of the Black Hills.
13:40This area was named by the Lakota for the pine forests that cover its ancient mountain range, making the hills appear black from a distance.
13:50But among the trees and hills, an incredible form reaches into the sky.
13:56Oh, wow. This is massive. It really just keeps going, huh?
14:00It's 264 meters from the base to the peak, and the top covers over 6,000 square meters.
14:08That's a pretty sizable chunk of rock.
14:11This iconic stone behemoth is famous for appearing in sci-fi films, and has been a powerful landmark for countless centuries.
14:19Many ancestral Native Americans in this area consider it a sacred place, known by names such as Bears Lodge, Tree Rock, and Ghost Mountain.
14:32Today, it's commonly known as the Devil's Tower, probably due to a mistranslation of one of those original names.
14:42It's also a popular site for rock climbers, with about 5,000 climbers visiting every year.
14:48And no wonder, it's an amazing view.
14:50Mighty towers of rock like this are signs of colossal volcanic powers lurking deep in the earth.
14:58But there's something strange at Devil's Tower.
15:02You would expect when there's a big rock formation like this that you would see other similar ones all around it, but there's nothing like it.
15:07So, how did this thing form?
15:10And why is it so incredibly different than all the surrounding topography that you can see?
15:15What clues can we find in the view from above to solve a mystery hidden deep in the past, far below the earth's surface?
15:25One hint may lie to the south, the desert plains of New Mexico, where another stand-alone jagged peak rises high above the sands.
15:37This incredible rock formation is known as Shiprock.
15:41Just like Devil's Tower, this thing stands alone.
15:46It's unique in its landscape, and it's even taller.
15:49It's over 400 meters high.
15:51So, how did this enormous pillar of rock form?
15:55Hard as it is to believe, experts think that this was shaped underground, deep inside a volcano.
16:03Millions of years ago, the ground level here was something like 900 meters higher than it is today.
16:11And far below, there was a plume of magma heading toward the surface.
16:15Experts believe that that rising magma hit a cool groundwater source, and that combination caused a massive explosion.
16:22That explosion would have created a big crater at the surface, but not all of the magma escaped.
16:32The magma that became Shiprock solidified while it was still deep in the neck of the volcano.
16:37The ash will erode away, but the neck stays, and that's what Shiprock is.
16:44And when you look from above, surrounding Shiprock, you can see these lines of darker rock radiating out.
16:50Those are the tops of vertical sheets, or dikes, where lava that was in the pipe broke out into cracks in the rock.
17:00And the same erosion that revealed Shiprock itself uncovered the dikes once hidden below the surface.
17:08The combination of those two things makes this kind of unique geologically.
17:12I've never seen another formation like this in the world.
17:15Could that be what happened in Wyoming?
17:21Could the Devil's Tower be the remains of a huge plume of magma from the neck of an ancient volcano?
17:27It's a possibility, but there isn't much evidence of a surface volcanic explosion nearby.
17:34But there are other magma events that can create rock formations like this.
17:39A range of phenomena known as volcanic intrusions.
17:43Volcanic intrusions are all pretty much the same thing.
17:48They're magma that never made it to the Earth's surface.
17:52Basically, a bunch of magma shoves its way up into a layer of rock and then hardens while it's still underground.
17:58Over time, those original layers will erode, and that former magma will stick around longer because it's harder and stronger.
18:06If magma is extruded out into a horizontal crack and cools and hardens, that's called a sill.
18:14So if you're in New York City and look across to New Jersey and see those big black cliffs on the other side of the Hudson, that's the Palisades sill.
18:21If you get a blister of magma, so it goes out sideways, but there's enough pressure that it raises the sediments above it and makes a blister, we call that a lackolith.
18:32And over time, those layers on top wear away, exposing the igneous rock, rocks that are made by magma.
18:39So you could picture the Devil's Tower forming this way.
18:46Is a long hidden magma bubble trapped deep below the Earth, the secret behind Devil's Tower?
18:52It's one theory, but the view from above reveals something crucial is missing.
18:57What's missing at Devil's Tower is the sediments that were bent upwards around the magma, a ring of upturned sedimentary rocks.
19:06We just don't see that at Devil's Tower.
19:07So what's going on?
19:12Can a closer look from above offer a clue?
19:15The rock is all shaped into these massive hexagonal columns.
19:19They look like giant church organ pipes or a colossal honeycomb.
19:25Where else can we find rocks with this unusual geometric pattern?
19:29And what can that reveal about the Devil's Tower?
19:31Over 1400 kilometers to the southwest, satellites spot a clue in the mountains of California.
19:39This is the Devil's Postpile.
19:41There's a wall of these geometric columns that stretch from about 12 to 18 meters tall.
19:49And they're polygonal shapes, mostly hexagons, much like the columns at the Devil's Tower.
19:56So how was this formed?
19:59Devil's Postpile was an actual lava flow, basaltic lava that made it out to the surface of the earth and flowed sideways, making a big pond or a lake of lava.
20:10Around 82,000 years ago, a volcanic event from the nearby Mammoth Mountain filled a valley making a pool around 120 or so meters deep.
20:22As the basalt cooled, it contracted.
20:25And because this is basalt, it really likes to form these hexagonal shapes when it cools.
20:30And if the lava cools at just the right rate, cracks will propagate downward through the cooling lava body.
20:41It can form these shapes in long, even pillars because it cooled slowly and evenly, probably over several decades.
20:48Then, thousands of years later, glaciers traveled through this area.
20:54This carved away one side of the columns, leaving an exposed wall around 18 meters high.
21:03And since we see the same kinds of shapes at Devil's Tower, it makes sense to think that this must have been formed the same way.
21:09Some kind of pool of magma or lava that cooled evenly and slowly.
21:13But there's a problem. The Devil's Tower isn't made of basalt.
21:18It's actually formed of something called phonolite porphyry.
21:23The good news is that phonolite is a kind of igneous rock, meaning it was formed by cooling magma or lava.
21:30So the question is, what conditions can make the phonolite make columns just like basalt at the Devil's Postpile?
21:38Actually, the columnar jointing can happen in any igneous rock if it cools at the perfect rate.
21:47So, can these phonolite columns tell us exactly how the Devil's Tower formed?
21:53Not exactly. Under the right conditions, columns could form wherever an intrusion of magma happened to cool.
21:58But there is one more amazing location that might provide an explanation of what happened here.
22:09On the other side of the Atlantic, in the Czech Republic, the view from above reveals a massive rock breaking out from the rolling green hills.
22:17This is known as Bozenya. It's a rock formation that has some key similarities with the Devil's Tower.
22:24It's made of phonolite too. And it has some notable columnar jointing.
22:30So, how did this form?
22:31It's actually thought to be similar to the event that created the Shiprock in New Mexico.
22:38A massive volcanic event with magma that exploded as it interacted with groundwater.
22:43But instead of the remaining pinnacle being deep in the volcano, it formed part of the lava that rose into the debris-filled crater at the top.
22:53The magma cooled and hardened under the debris.
22:57Then, over millions of years, that debris wore away, leaving this tower of rock behind.
23:04Could this be the secret?
23:06Is the Devil's Tower all that remains of an ancient volcanic crater?
23:11With this kind of eruption, you end up with a lot of ejecta. Stuff gets thrown everywhere.
23:17We don't see that at Devil's Tower.
23:19But could signs of a massive ancient eruption simply disappear?
23:25It's possible.
23:27The dating that's been done on the Devil's Tower identifies it as being around 50 million years old.
23:33That's plenty of time for even the huge amounts of land we're talking about to change.
23:38I think it's awesome to imagine how the land might have looked with this massive monolith sitting in a huge crater filled with volcanic debris and lava.
23:47And then over millions of years, wind and rain erode everything else away until all you're left with is this epic tower.
23:54So what's the truth behind this ancient natural monument?
24:01This is a really hard problem.
24:04I'm convinced that it's a volcanic neck, but that leaves a lot of things wide open.
24:09In all of these theories, erosion is key to revealing the Devil's Tower.
24:16But that same process has erased much of the evidence that we need to determine what actually happened here.
24:23We could probably learn more if we sampled the heck out of Devil's Tower.
24:27But nobody wants to destroy this thing of beauty to figure out exactly what it is.
24:34So let's leave it a mystery.
24:42Along the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, just outside the city of Fetya,
24:47the view from above reveals something strange in the hills.
24:52What happened here?
24:54This is a really eerie, sad-looking site.
25:01Locals know this place as Kayakoi, or Rock Village, and you can see why.
25:07These ruins cover close to 33 hectares, about three times the size of Alice Island.
25:14What is this place, and what happened here?
25:17Who built these structures, and why did they leave them behind?
25:20Is this some kind of ancient ruin, or the site of some kind of disaster?
25:29And even stranger, this is on the outskirts of the tourist hotspot of Fetya.
25:36Plenty of people live and travel right around here.
25:39So the big mystery is this. Why is this area completely abandoned?
25:46A hint may lie almost 2,000 kilometers to the northwest.
25:51In Switzerland.
25:52When a crisis hits the tiny village of Brienz Brinzals.
25:57In May of 2023, this tiny Swiss village was warned that a disaster was imminent.
26:04A huge mountain of unstable rock sits next to the village, and for decades was the site of movement and occasional falling rocks.
26:12Scientists had been watching that spot for a long time.
26:17There was all kinds of monitoring going on, so they could see that that piece of mountain was moving.
26:23In the spring, movement began to accelerate. Emergency plans sprang into motion and the residents were evacuated.
26:32Only a few weeks later, on the night of June the 15th to 16th, that this landslide was just unleashed.
26:40Over 1 million cubic meters of rock just hurtling, plummeting towards the village.
26:54The following morning, footage from above revealed the dramatic landslide and the incredible realization that the village had been spared.
27:03Could something similar have happened here in Turkey?
27:14Was this village abandoned during a sudden natural disaster?
27:19Is this the site of a crisis so devastating, the inhabitants could never return?
27:24Turkey is known for one particular kind of catastrophe.
27:29That would be earthquakes.
27:33Turkey has thousands of earthquakes every year, and that's because of what lies under the surface.
27:38Turkey is absolutely covered in active fault lines because it sits at the intersection of five different tectonic plates, all pushing in different directions.
27:48Turkey is being squeezed, the stresses build up, and then they pop.
27:53So virtually all of Turkey is earthquake-prone.
27:57And when we look at an earthquake hazard map, we can see that Kayakoy is in something of a hot zone.
28:03So you have to ask, was Kayakoy actually abandoned during some historic earthquake?
28:08I mean, is that going to explain all this destruction?
28:12A clue lies in the nearby town of Fetya.
28:15And only a few decades in the past, when disaster struck.
28:24In April of 1957, the area is struck with a double whammy.
28:30Two powerful earthquakes rock the region mere hours apart.
28:33Photos from the time show the utter devastation.
28:39It was so severe that the city essentially had to be rebuilt.
28:43That rebuilding was actually what led to Fetya embracing the tourism industry which thrives today.
28:50But was nearby Kayakoy abandoned during this devastating earthquake?
28:56So that earthquake in 1957, that destroys most of Kayakoy's buildings.
29:02But it doesn't find that it enjoys the same revamp that Fetya gets.
29:08So why is Kayakoy left in complete shambles?
29:12Archive images reveal it's because this village had already been abandoned.
29:16But why? What could have happened before this devastation that was so serious that the people never returned and it was never rebuilt?
29:25There may be a clue just off the coast of Kayakoy.
29:29Where a modest island holds an astonishing history.
29:33This is Gaimilesh Island and it's pretty tiny.
29:37Only around one kilometer long and 400 meters wide.
29:41But while all you can see today are some stone ruins,
29:44these actually hold a pretty amazing history.
29:48Many of these buildings are actually religious structures.
29:52Chapels, basilicas and tombs.
29:54Some date back to around the 4th century.
29:57Evidence suggests that this was an important religious pilgrimage site for Christians.
30:02Possibly because it was a saint's shrine.
30:05But which saint?
30:06Some researchers think that this was actually the resting place of Saint Nicholas, Santa Claus.
30:15Ravaged by time, there's one possible clue to this holy mystery.
30:19There is a fresco in one of the churches that reads,
30:24Josios Nicolaus.
30:26And if nothing else, it was likely built to honor Saint Nick.
30:29It's thought that this holy site was abandoned, following attacks by Arab forces around 650 CE.
30:35This makes sense, as the 7th century saw the beginnings of the Arab conquest that would eventually spread throughout the Middle East and North Africa.
30:45But what happened to the people who lived on this holy island?
30:48It's believed that they actually fled to what is now known as Kayakoi.
30:54So could these two events be connected?
30:57Were the people of Kayakoi fleeing raiders?
31:00Or is there some religious connection?
31:03Can we find any clues in the abandoned village itself?
31:08A closer look from above reveals two crucial clues.
31:13There are two churches here, both Greek Orthodox.
31:16But this is Turkey.
31:19Something like 99% of the country is Muslim.
31:22So why are there two churches for an area with some 300 to 400 houses?
31:27There must have been a pretty decent sized Christian population.
31:31But when and where did they go?
31:34For centuries, Christians and Muslims lived in this village side by side under the powerful Ottoman Empire.
31:41With a Christian settlement on the hillside and a Muslim settlement in the valley below.
31:47So when did the Christian area become the abandoned Kayakoi?
31:51It's all tied to a terrifying chapter in this region's history.
31:55The Ottoman Empire was facing serious pressure fresh from the Balkan Wars against Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, and crucially Greece when World War I began.
32:13Facing external pressure and internal revolts, the Ottomans joined World War I on the side of the Central Powers, hoping in part to keep their empire from total collapse.
32:25Whether from suspicion of collusion or revenge, Greek Christians living in the Ottoman Empire were targeted.
32:34And in 1914, what became known as the Greek Genocide began.
32:38Greeks were forced from their homes, attacked, deported, raped, and killed.
32:46This continued throughout the World War. Hundreds of thousands were killed or displaced.
32:51But the Ottomans were on the losing side.
32:54So what happened when the Allies won the war?
32:57After that conflict ended, Greece then attacks the Ottoman Empire.
33:01Now this war leads to the collapse of the Empire and the creation of Turkey under the military leader Kemal Ataturk.
33:11And he successfully routed the Greek invasion.
33:16But what did this victorious new leader have in store for the surviving Greeks in Turkey?
33:22That war ended with something called the Treaty of Lausanne, which among other things dictated a massive population swap.
33:28At least 1.5 million people were moved.
33:34Turks from Greece were sent to the new country of Turkey and remaining Greeks in Turkey were sent to Greece.
33:40So how did these tragedies change the shape of this quiet seaside village?
33:46Just like the rest of the country, the Greek population of Kayakoy was subject to abuse and deportation.
33:52In September of 1922, Ottoman authorities ordered the evacuation of Kayakoy.
33:57The village that was then called Levitsi.
34:00And in 1923, Muslims were brought from northern Greece to the now abandoned village.
34:06But why did these homes remain empty?
34:09So when you have these Muslim Turks who had been exchanged from Greece, when they arrive, they don't want to live in the abandoned houses in Kayakoy.
34:17These new inhabitants were farmers and there wasn't enough suitable land around Levitsi for cultivation.
34:25So the area actually never recovered from the exodus.
34:29And the village of Levitsi remained abandoned and became the rock village of Kayakoy.
34:37And the crumbling homes now stand as monuments of the tragic and brutal past.
34:41Whenever I'm looking at ruins and abandoned sites, I think of them as scars on the landscape.
34:48And scars always tell a story, don't they?
34:51Sites such as these, sad as they are, are so important.
34:56By investigating their history, we remember and honor important parts of our past.
35:01And hopefully learn how to never repeat them.
35:09Looking down at the mountains of southern Mexico, around 50 kilometers outside Oaxaca.
35:15In the surrounding mountain cliffs, the view from above reveals a staggering feature thrusting off one peak.
35:22Oh wow, this looks so dramatic.
35:27This is just beautiful.
35:30It looks like a massive waterfall cascading off these deep red cliffs.
35:35Waterfalls are some of the most stunning natural features in the world.
35:39And many are beloved landmarks.
35:42But there's something unique about this site.
35:45This waterfall is made of stone.
35:48It looks like a waterfall that's frozen in time.
35:53What an incredible illusion though.
35:56How does stone appear to ripple down the cliff side without actually moving?
36:00What's it made of exactly?
36:03And how is it formed?
36:06Are there any clues to be found around this unusual rock formation?
36:11A closer look from above reveals a hint.
36:14It may not be a waterfall, but there is water here.
36:19There's a series of shallow pools at the top of this plateau.
36:22And some of them are some really interesting colors.
36:26Locals call this place Hervé al Agua.
36:29It means boil the water in Spanish.
36:32And if we take a closer look, you can see why.
36:35The water here is bubbling.
36:37So what could be going on here?
36:38Perhaps a clue can be found over 12,000 kilometers away in the canyons of southern Armenia.
36:46Where a serene mountain spa holds the Jermuk hot springs.
36:51There are over 40 hot and cold springs at Jermuk, ranging in temperature and size.
36:56The geysers are full of carbon, hydrosulfate sodium, and minerals like potassium and magnesium.
37:04But can these mineral rich natural hot tubs give us any clues about the waters at Hervé al Agua?
37:11Just like in Jermuk, these are natural hot springs.
37:15Could that mean that there's something hiding in the water?
37:19Warm waters are always going to have minerals in them, because the warmer the water is, the more likely it's going to dissolve whatever it comes in contact with.
37:29And the colors here can provide clues as to what's in the water.
37:33The color of the water is not so much affected by the dissolved material in it, but by very fine suspended material.
37:41It would be the same thing as putting cocoa powder into milk.
37:46The cocoa doesn't actually dissolve, but that powder, those tiny, tiny grains, stay suspended and turn the milk brown.
37:53What stands out to me is that there's a few larger springs that appear a turquoise color, and this is an important clue.
38:02What could make this water turn this striking shade?
38:05This color of water usually indicates a form of limestone leaching into the water.
38:12And that is a sign of the dominant mineral here, calcium carbonate.
38:17That's a chemical compound that commonly appears in rocks, and is also the main component in seashells, pearls, eggshells, and heartburn tablets.
38:24But what can that tell us about the creation of this weird stone waterfall formation?
38:32Can similar rock shapes anywhere offer a clue?
38:35Almost 2,000 kilometers northwards, in New Mexico, the rugged Chihuahuan Desert hides a hint below the surface.
38:45From above, you can see the entrance to the Carlsbad Caverns, a labyrinth of over 300 limestone caves sitting in the desert here.
38:56Formed over 250 million years ago, these grottos are brimming with magnificent natural features.
39:02The wet, mineral-rich environment makes it easy for a range of rock formations, known as speleothems, to flourish.
39:10They're all related to rainwater picking up ions in the rock and then redepositing them when they emerge in the cave.
39:18Some of the most famous are stalactites and stalagmites.
39:21Stalactites form when the groundwater that's saturated in calcite from the limestone drips down through the cave ceiling, then the water evaporates off and leaves the minerals behind.
39:33The calcite then deposits in different places, and builds up over time, forming stalactites that hang from the ceiling.
39:41And then similarly, stalagmites are formed basically the same way, except the water drips to the floor of the cave, and then you get these jagged mounds that grow upwards.
39:51Often where there's a drip from the ceiling, there's a stalactite growing down from the ceiling, and a stalagmite growing up from the floor, and they can meet and form a column.
40:02And these speleothems at Carlsbad look pretty similar to the cliffside at Yerve Lagoa.
40:09But can this happen outside, on a clifftop?
40:14The answer may be found almost 11,000 kilometers away.
40:18In southwestern Turkey, where the view from above reveals the rolling white hills of Pamukkale.
40:27Pamukkale means cotton castle, or cotton palace, and you can see how it gets the name.
40:32The area features around 12 square kilometers of terraced basins nestled in thick white limestone.
40:41And a closer look at these cloud-like rocks reveals some similar shapes.
40:45It looks like an outdoor cave, a mineral forest laden with stalactites and stalagmites.
40:53But how do these form outside of a cave environment?
40:57It's pretty much the same way they form inside. It's the combination of water and limestone.
41:02Water carries away the calcite from the dissolving limestone and deposits it somewhere else.
41:06And here in Pamukkale, the view from above reveals a smoking gun.
41:14The calcite deposits can just naturally form in a way that resembles cascading water.
41:20The blindingly white facade is created by the continuous fresh deposits of calcite laden water from the surrounding hot springs.
41:28As the spring water emerges from the ground, it evaporates, leaving the mineral behind.
41:34And that builds up a little bit of a dam, so the water begins to pool behind that.
41:40And where it spills over the dam, the dam grows higher and higher and higher.
41:45As the water continues to flow downwards, more dams form.
41:50So they develop a series of steps.
41:52Creating these petrified waterfalls we can see here at Pamukkale.
41:57So could this geological process explain the striking cliffside features in rural Oaxaca?
42:03The difference between the frozen waterfall in Mexico and Pamukkale is the slope of the hillside or the mountain that they're coming down.
42:14In Mexico, it's on a very steep hillside.
42:16This amazing site in Mexico is created by the same kind of really unusual geological processes.
42:25Deep in the earth, spring water travels through limestone terrain.
42:30If this flow path goes deep enough, it's going to make that water warm.
42:35Because the deeper you go in the earth, the warmer it gets.
42:37This warm water dissolves some of the limestone and carries it along its path until it reaches the surface.
42:45As the water emerges at the surface, it reacts with the air.
42:49And those dissolved minerals drop out of the water.
42:52So over thousands of years, layers and layers of calcite from the spring water settles into its new home on the cliff face.
43:01In the shapes dictated by the movement of the water.
43:04It's really just nature rearranging the furniture.
43:09The power of water is spectacular.
43:13What it can build and create, how it can destroy, and how it can change the landscape like what we see here.
43:20It looks impossible that nature made something like this, but it's all perfectly natural, but it looks like art.
43:27These unique and picturesque petrified waterfalls are a perfect reminder of how geological processes continue to churn away on our planet every single day.
43:40From ancient formations shaped through thousands of years to handmade work within stone, ageless rock can hold human stories and the secrets of the earth's own history, all ready to be uncovered in the view from above.
43:57To be continued...
44:00To be continued...
44:02To be continued...
44:03To be continued...
44:05To be continued...
44:06To be continued...
44:07To be continued...
44:08To be continued...
44:09To be continued...
44:10To be continued...
44:11To be continued...
44:12To be continued...
44:13To be continued...
44:14To be continued...
44:15To be continued...
44:16To be continued...
44:17To be continued...
44:18To be continued...
44:19To be continued...
44:20To be continued...
44:21To be continued...
44:22To be continued...
44:23To be continued...
44:24To be continued...
44:25To be continued...
44:26To be continued...
44:27To be continued...
44:28To be continued...
44:29To be continued...