Secrets of Earth That Scientists Just Brought to Light

Bright Side

🌍 Earth is full of secrets, and scientists are finally uncovering some of its biggest mysteries! From hidden continents and lost landmasses to underground oceans and unexplained geological phenomena, new discoveries are changing the way we understand our planet. Could there be undiscovered worlds beneath our feet? And what secrets do the deepest parts of Earth still hide? Join us as we reveal the latest findings and shocking facts about our ever-evolving planet!   Animation is created by Bright Side.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV  Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Our Social Media:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightplanet/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en   Stock materials (photos, footages and other):  https://www.depositphotos.com  https://www.shutterstock.com  https://www.eastnews.ru  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.

Transcript

00:00The largest volcanic region on Earth is not in Africa or Japan, but under the ice of Antarctica.

00:07Scientists found 138 volcanoes in its western part, and if they decide to go wild, you'll

00:13surely notice it.

00:14They could melt huge amounts of ice that will move into the ocean, raise its level, and

00:19make our planet uninhabitable for humans.

00:22But before you pack your things to fly away to another planet, hear me out.

00:26Only two of the Antarctic volcanoes are officially classified as active now, and it would take

00:32a whole series of eruptions decade after decade to seriously impact the whole world.

00:39Mount Erebus, one of the two Antarctic volcanoes currently in action, proudly bears the title

00:45of the world's southernmost active one.

00:47It has been continuously erupting since at least 1972.

00:51It emits plumes of gas and steam and sometimes even spews out rocks, and scientists call

00:56it strombolian eruptions.

00:59One of the coolest features is a lava lake in one of its summit craters, with molten

01:03material on the surface.

01:05Such lakes are rather rare because they need certain conditions to make sure the surface

01:09never freezes over.

01:11The second active volcano is Deception Island, a horseshoe-shaped landmass.

01:17It is the caldera of an active volcano that last erupted over 50 years ago.

01:22Scientists who monitor it say it shouldn't go wild any time soon.

01:27Antarctica also has plenty of fumaroles.

01:30Those are volcanic vents that release gases and vapors into the air.

01:34In the right conditions, they can spew out enough stuff to build fumarolic ice towers

01:38up to 10 feet tall.

01:42Scientists keep an eye on the Antarctic volcanoes with seismometers that detect when the Earth

01:46starts trembling from volcanic activity.

01:50Sometimes they also use more complicated tech, but it's all really challenging because

01:54of how far away this polar region is and how tricky it is to get there.

01:58That's why no one can predict when one of the continent's volcanoes that are now sleeping

02:03might erupt.

02:04We can guess what this waking up would look like if we analyzed the events from nearly

02:0920,000 years ago.

02:11So shall we?

02:14One of Antarctica's sleeping volcanoes, Mount Takahe, had a series of eruptions and

02:19spewed out a good amount of halogens rich in ozone back then.

02:23Some scientists say these events warmed up the southern hemisphere.

02:27Glaciers started to melt and helped finish the last ice age.

02:31For these events to repeat, we'd need a series of eruptions with substances rich in

02:35halogens from one or more volcanoes that are now above the ice.

02:40It's an unlikely scenario, but since it already happened in the past, it's not completely

02:45impossible.

02:47As for volcanoes hiding under a thick layer of ice, it looks like their gases would hardly

02:51make it to the atmosphere.

02:53But they would be strong enough to melt huge caverns in the base of the ice and produce

02:58a serious amount of meltwater.

03:00The West Antarctic ice sheet is wet and not frozen to its bed, so this meltwater would

03:06work as a lubricant and set the overlying ice into motion soon.

03:10The volume of water that even a large volcano would generate in this way is nothing compared

03:15to the volume of ice beneath it.

03:18So a single eruption wouldn't make a difference.

03:21But several volcanoes erupting close to or beneath any of the western Antarctica's big

03:26ice streams would.

03:28Those ice streams are rivers of ice that take most of the frozen water in Antarctica into

03:33the ocean.

03:34If they change their speed and bring unusual amounts of water into the ocean, its level

03:39will rise.

03:40As the ice would get thinner and thinner, there would be more and more new eruptions.

03:45Scientists call it a runaway effect.

03:47Something like that happened in Iceland.

03:49The number of volcanic eruptions went up when glaciers started to recede at the end of the

03:54last ice age.

03:57So it looks like, for massive changes, several powerful volcanoes above the ice with gases

04:02full of halogens need to get active within a few decades of each other and stay strong

04:07over many tens to hundreds of years.

04:11Antarctica stores around 80% of all the fresh water in the world, and if they melted all

04:16of it, global sea levels would rise by almost 200 feet.

04:20And then we'd have to look for a new planet to live on.

04:23But this again is an unlikely scenario.

04:26It's more likely that the eruptions under the ice will lubricate ice streams and seep

04:31water into the ocean.

04:32But it wouldn't be the end of the world.

04:37A super-strong, super-angry supervolcano could do it, though, and it has already happened

04:42in the past.

04:44Over 200 million years ago, the world went through a major makeover with not one, not

04:49two, but four massive volcanic eruptions and huge pulses.

04:54The supervolcano, called Camp, had been erupting over and over for 600,000 years.

05:00It all happened in Rangelia, a large chunk of land that used to be a supermassive volcano

05:06stretching across what's now British Columbia in Alaska.

05:09And it wasn't the lava or the volcanic ash that ruined the environment.

05:13The eruption made carbon levels skyrocket.

05:16The planet would never be the same again.

05:19This volcanic activity might've helped dinosaurs grow from cat-sized critters into giants we

05:24saw in Jurassic Park.

05:26It kicked off a two-million-year rainy season.

05:29It made the whole world hot and humid.

05:31And the dinos just loved it.

05:34Researchers dug deep into sediment layers beneath an ancient lake in Asia to uncover

05:38these secrets.

05:39They found traces of volcanic ash and mercury, clear signs of those epic eruptions.

05:45There were carbon signatures showing huge spikes in carbon dioxide levels.

05:49It made the atmosphere toasty, and the rain poured down.

05:54So the bad news is, another eruption like this could happen.

05:59The supervolcano beneath Yellowstone National Park has been sleeping for nearly 70,000 years.

06:05But if it wakes up, it would be many times more catastrophic than the eruption of Mount

06:10St. Helens in 1980.

06:12It's considered the most disastrous volcanic eruption in U.S. history.

06:16It followed two months of earthquakes and injection of magma below the volcano that

06:21weakened and destroyed the entire north face of the mountain.

06:25The eruption column went 80,000 feet into the atmosphere and spread ash over 11 U.S.

06:30states and several Canadian provinces.

06:33The last Yellowstone eruption was 1,000 times greater than that.

06:39The ground above Yellowstone sits on a hot spot made of molten and semi-molten rock called

06:44magma.

06:45This magma stuff flows into a chamber beneath the park, about 4 to 6 miles down, making

06:50the ground puff up like a balloon.

06:52But then, as it cools down, the ground goes back to its usual state.

06:57Volcano watchers have been keeping an eye on this for a century.

07:00They noticed the ground lift up about 10 inches around 20 years ago.

07:04But since 2010, it's been going back down.

07:08The experts say we have no big eruptions on the horizon, so doomsday isn't coming any

07:13time soon.

07:14But there's some underground activity going on lately which keeps us interested.

07:20Since humans haven't been around to witness every little thing Yellowstone does, it's

07:24kinda tough to say for sure what's brewing down there.

07:28Yellowstone has had some epic eruptions within the last couple million years.

07:32They happen like clockwork, with gaps of 6 to 800,000 years between them.

07:37The last big one was around 640,000 years ago, and it basically reshaped the entire

07:42landscape, spreading ash and debris as far as Louisiana.

07:46You can still see the aftermath of the last big eruption in the Yellowstone caldera today.

07:52Experts say a massive eruption like the last one is an unlikely scenario.

07:57We're more likely to see eruptions of steam and hot water or lava flows.

08:01When and with what force it will wake up remains a mystery to scientists.

08:07You could wake up in New York, grab a bagel for breakfast, hop on a train, and by lunchtime,

08:12you'd already be in London enjoying fish and chips.

08:16That sounds like every tourist's dream could be a reality soon.

08:22Right now, traveling between these two cities usually takes about 8 endless hours by plane.

08:28But a high-speed train zipping through a massive transatlantic tunnel could make the same journey

08:33in just 54 minutes.

08:36The plan is to construct this train beneath the Atlantic Ocean, so the stations would

08:40look like those trendy underwater restaurants.

08:43Not only would you get to Europe in record time, but you wouldn't have to deal with

08:47jet lag or feel sick from turbulence.

08:50So far, this mega-project sounds amazing, but can we really pull this off?

08:55Well, that's the million-dollar question.

08:58Actually, it's more like a 20 trillion-dollar question.

09:01That's how much this train and its futuristic underwater stations would cost.

09:06It's hard to imagine anyone having enough money to construct it, so specialists thought

09:11it was out of the question.

09:13But people started feeling hopeful again when Elon Musk dropped this announcement.

09:17He said not only is this kind of transportation possible, but his company could make it happen

09:23for a thousand times less than everyone thought.

09:27Traveling between New York and London in less than an hour means the train would have to

09:31hit a jaw-dropping speed of 3,000 miles per hour.

09:36Yep, 3,000.

09:38That's about five times faster than the cruising speed of a commercial airplane like a Boeing

09:43747.

09:45So how is this even possible?

09:47Well, it's not an average tunnel.

09:50We're talking about a vacuum-sealed tube underwater, which cuts out air resistance, letting trains

09:55zip through at insane speeds.

09:58And it's not just any train.

10:00It's more like a high-tech aerodynamic capsule that levitates and moves thanks to magnetic

10:06propulsion.

10:07At least that's what experts think, since this kind of technology is already in use

10:11today with the fastest public train in the world, the Shanghai Maglev.

10:18This machine runs in China and hits a top speed of 186 miles per hour.

10:24What's crazy is that its locomotives are not even touching the tracks.

10:28They're literally levitating and floating just about 0.4 inches above the ground.

10:34This line takes people from Shanghai to Pudong International Airport, so travelers don't

10:39have to worry about traffic and can get to their flights super fast.

10:44This cutting-edge technology makes a 19-mile trip take just 8 minutes and 10 seconds.

10:51With a regular train, that same journey would be about four times longer.

10:56Back in 2001, people worked hard over two years to construct the Maglev train, and they

11:02also spent a lot of money, as the whole project cost over a billion dollars.

11:08Despite that crazy initial price tag, keeping this line running is not as expensive as it

11:13might seem.

11:14It's actually cheaper to operate than regular trains.

11:18Since the Maglev doesn't touch the tracks, that means a lot less wear and tear and way

11:22lower maintenance costs.

11:24On top of that, its propulsion system is impressively energy efficient.

11:31As we've already mentioned, this is the fastest operational train in the world, but

11:36China isn't stopping there.

11:38They're likely to break their own record soon, having already unveiled a prototype of their

11:42next-generation train, the CR450.

11:46This sleek silver bullet had reached test speeds as high as 281 miles!

11:53If this project comes to life, I mean, if people really start using it on a daily basis,

11:58it will be a game-changer for high-speed rail.

12:02And it could shrink the journey between Beijing and Shanghai to less than 3 hours.

12:07That's like 1 hour less than what people take when traveling on today's high-speed train.

12:13Now, the team just needs to run a couple more tests to ensure it meets all necessary standards

12:19for commercial operations.

12:23This car looks like a Batmobile, and it's probably just as powerful.

12:27Say hello to the amazing Koenigsegg Jesko Absolute.

12:31Its sleek, futuristic design isn't just for show.

12:35Every detail on this machine was crafted to cut through air with precision, reducing drag

12:41and turbulence while boosting its high-speed performance.

12:45Experts ran the first computer simulations, and the Jesko Absolute hit an astonishing

12:49311 miles per hour.

12:53But the team is positive that it can go even faster.

12:57This beast comes close to the cruising speed of small jets, and because of that, it smashed

13:02all records and became the fastest car in the world.

13:09When you visit the Coventry Transport Museum in England, you'll come face-to-face with

13:13a terrestrial vehicle that looks more like a rocket than a car.

13:17Meet the Bloodhound LSR.

13:20It's been on display since 2019, right after hitting 628 miles per hour during tests in

13:27South Africa's Kalahari Desert.

13:30But the team behind this vehicle isn't satisfied just yet, and they're 99% sure they can go

13:35even faster.

13:37So they're planning to bring it back to the track soon, aiming to smash another record.

13:43But there's a catch.

13:44The team is still looking for a fearless, skilled pilot who can handle speeds over 800

13:49miles per hour.

13:50And before you rush to sign up for the challenge, let me remind you, it's going to take more

13:55than just guts.

13:57You will need a major sponsorship deal too, because getting back this vehicle on the track

14:03and breaking that land speed record could cost around $15 million.

14:10If you're curious about the fastest jets in the world, look no further.

14:15Meet the North American X-15, a legendary aircraft that flew for nearly 10 years and

14:21set an unofficial world speed record of 4,520 miles per hour.

14:28This beast is so impressive that it actually reached the edge of space during its test

14:32flights in the 1960s.

14:34Yep, astronauts' territory.

14:37To put that into perspective, commercial airplanes, like the ones we fly in, usually travel at

14:42altitudes of up to 42,000 feet, but the X-15 soared more than 354,000 feet!

14:50Now, imagine flying faster than ever before, zooming through the sky at over five times

14:57the speed of sound.

14:59That's exactly what NASA did with this revolutionary aircraft, known as the X-43A.

15:06This airplane is scramjet powered, which basically means it's an engine that operates at a supersonic

15:12level.

15:13I mean, it doesn't have any moving parts like regular jet engines do, like turbines.

15:18Instead, it uses the plane's speed to push air into the engine.

15:23The air gets compressed or squished by the plane's fast motion, then mixed with fuel

15:28and burned to produce thrust.

15:31For non-experts, this might seem crazy, even dangerous.

15:35In fact, we should mention that the first flights of the X-43A weren't exactly smooth

15:40sailing.

15:41The initial attempt happened back in June of 2001, but the airplane was destroyed after

15:46the booster rocket went out of control.

15:49Thankfully, the second and third attempts were a huge success, with record-breaking

15:54flights that made history.

15:58I know elevators aren't the first thing that comes to mind when we think about super-fast

16:02means of transportation, but it's only thanks to ultra-modern high-speed elevators that

16:07skyscrapers as tall as the Burj Khalifa and Taipei 101 became accessible.

16:14One of the fastest elevators in the world is located in the Shanghai Tower in China,

16:19which has 128 floors.

16:22To get people from the ground floor to the top of the building quickly, the elevator

16:25has to move at an incredible speed of 67 feet per second.

16:30That's faster than Usain Bolt at his top speed, but just a little slower than a cheetah.

16:36Still, it is super-fast, about five times quicker than the elevators we ride in most

16:41buildings.

16:42So, if you're afraid of heights, speed, and tight spaces, we suggest you avoid going

16:47that far.

16:52Scientists discovered something Atlantis-like near Australia.

16:56There used to be an entire continent that's now underwater.

16:59Here's what happened to it.

17:03About 70,000 years ago, during the last Ice Age, there was a huge landmass called Sahul.

17:09It was located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean.

17:12This ancient supercontinent connected what we now know as Australia, New Guinea, Tasmania,

17:17and the Aru Islands into one giant piece of land.

17:21Imagine lush tropical rainforests surrounded by beautiful mountains.

17:25Sahul's tallest mountains were in the New Guinea Highlands, with peaks reaching over

17:3013,000 feet.

17:33This beautiful place was home to a variety of unique animals, most of which were pouched

17:39creatures.

17:40But back then, they weren't just koalas and kangaroos.

17:43Sahul was filled with different types of grazers, burrowers, scavengers, and predators.

17:48It was home to a huge Diprotodon, a powerful hunter Thiasoleo, and a horrifying Megalania,

17:55a creature that's much larger than any living lizard today.

17:59It was a unique place because the rest of the world was filled with placental animals

18:03at the time like wolves, elephants, and humans.

18:06In Sahul, the only normal mammals were bats and rodents.

18:11But not all its parts were the same.

18:13The Timor, Arafura, and Carpentaria regions were covered by hot savanna and dry forests.

18:20It looked kinda like modern Australia, hot air deserts with scrubland, steppe, and temperate

18:26forests along the eastern coast.

18:31Back then, people were migrating all across the world.

18:34They made an incredible journey from Southeast Asia to Sahul and first arrived here from

18:3960,000 to 45,000 years ago.

18:42They mostly traveled by foot and crossed the sea using bamboo rafts and simple boats.

18:47They came there from an ancient landmass called Sunda, which includes parts of Southeast Asia.

18:54They traveled across a series of islands known as Walasia and eventually spread across Sahul.

19:02And it wasn't a small journey.

19:03Sahul was huge, around 4.1 million square miles.

19:07That's bigger than the USA or Canada.

19:09It stretched from the equator to around the southern part of New Zealand.

19:14So they arrived in what is now Australia and became Australia's first people.

19:20Scientists think that Sahul had a population of half a million.

19:24We've discovered cave paintings that date back around 40,000 years.

19:28Here's a hunting scene depicting an anoa, or miniature buffalo, facing figures of humans

19:34and animals.

19:36Researchers are trying to figure out how these early settlers moved across Sahul and where

19:40we might find archaeological evidence of their journey.

19:44To do this, they created a landscape evolution model.

19:48The simulation showed how Sahul changed between 75,000 and 35,000 years ago.

19:54It showed potential migration routes and archaeological sites.

19:58Humans likely traveled along coastlines and rivers.

20:04But how did Sahul get submerged off the coast of Australia, similar to the mythical Atlantis?

20:10During the last Ice Age, much of the Earth's water was locked up in large ice sheets and

20:15glaciers.

20:16The sea levels were much lower than they are today.

20:19After that, the global temperatures increased.

20:22The ice sheets melted and the sea levels rose, flooding the land bridges that once

20:26connected different parts of Sahul together.

20:29About 8,000 years ago, New Guinea separated from mainland Australia.

20:34And then, about 6,000 years ago, Tasmania did the same.

20:38We still can explore the underwater parts of Sahul thanks to new technology.

20:44Divers explore and collect samples directly from the ocean floor.

20:49Their drones can go to places that are too deep or dangerous for humans to explore.

20:54And with sonar mapping, scientists use sound waves to create maps of the ocean floor.

20:59It's like using an echo to see what's underwater.

21:03The sound waves bounce off the seabed and come back, helping us create a picture of

21:08what it looks like.

21:10Deep underwater, archaeologists have found stone tools and other artifacts.

21:14They also discovered fossils of animals like Diprotodon and Thylassolio.

21:20By studying the underwater terrain of Sahul, they learned about the ancient rivers, lakes,

21:25and coastlines that existed during the Ice Age.

21:28But Sahul isn't the only underwater continent.

21:35Sahul isn't the only hidden gem of Southeast Asia.

21:38Take Sundaland, a place made up of Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and some other islands.

21:44This place was crazy huge during the Ice Age, but now almost fully underwater.

21:50Almost but not entirely.

21:52The parts above the ocean are teeming with life.

21:56If you like birds, check this place out.

21:58It has almost a fifth of the world's bird species.

22:02You can spot colorful birds like the Java Hawk Eagle and the Bali Starling among the

22:07lush forests.

22:08It's also a home to a fourth of Earth's fish species.

22:12Sundaland's waters are a haven for marine life.

22:15Even the most exotic animals like the Asian Arowanas.

22:20It's also a treasure trove of flowers.

22:23That's where you can find Rafflesia and Titan Arum, the world's largest flowers.

22:29This makes it very similar to Zealandia.

22:32Zealandia is a long narrow piece of land about half the size of Australia.

22:36It broke from Antarctica about a hundred million years ago.

22:40Just like Sundaland, it isn't fully underwater.

22:43Seven percent of it stayed above sea level.

22:46This sticking out little piece is what we now call New Zealand, along with Stewart Island

22:52and some smaller islands.

22:54These pieces of Zealandia are lush and warm.

22:58They're packed with volcanoes, mountain ranges, beautiful natural geysers, and hot springs.

23:04Local people, Maori, use these hot springs for cooking.

23:08People place corn, eggs, and vegetables in baskets and lower them directly in the hot

23:13springs.

23:14Sometimes they cook food in a pit oven using heated rocks.

23:21Another hidden world is known as Argoland.

23:24This mysterious landmass was once part of Australia, back when dinosaurs chilled around.

23:30It drove scientists crazy for decades.

23:32They knew it existed because it left a huge stretch on the ancient seafloor.

23:37The Argo Abyssal Plain.

23:40About 155 million years ago, it broke off from Australia, saying bye-bye.

23:46The continent drifted somewhere north, and when it reached Southeast Asia, it just vanished.

23:53Scientists had no idea where it went, but recently, they finally found its remains.

23:58Turns out, poor Argoland's lower parts started drowning into the Sunda Trench, a horrifyingly

24:04deep oceanic pit.

24:06The earth's crust sunk into the mantle.

24:08Meanwhile, the upper parts of Argoland were pushed upward, grabbing the younger rocks

24:13on land.

24:15Because of this, Argoland broke apart into a bunch of smaller pieces.

24:19These pieces formed parts of Borneo, Java, Sulawesi, and other regions.

24:24The remains are buried under Indonesia and Myanmar.

24:31Imagine a colossal landmass the size of Greenland, Greater Adria.

24:36Its journey began about 240 million years ago when it broke away from the supercontinent

24:41Gondwana.

24:43It started moving north, and after 100 million years of enjoying the warm seas, it suddenly

24:48crashed into Europe and shattered into pieces.

24:52Most of these pieces went deep into the earth's mantle, but some were scraped off and became

24:57part of mountain ranges like the Alps.

25:00Today, the remnants of Greater Adria are scattered across more than 30 countries, from Spain

25:06to Iran.

25:07That's why they're hard to look for.

25:12Seychelles was also once part of Gondwana.

25:15Yep, these idyllic islands are sitting atop of the ancient continent.

25:19We know a lot about it because of its fascinating granite outcrops.

25:23A hundred years ago, Alfred Wegener discovered continental drift, but no one believed him.

25:30These granite outcrops helped him prove that he's not crazy and that tectonic plates really

25:34are moving.

25:36The Seychelles broke off from India and Madagascar and eventually became a sad loner in the Indian

25:42Ocean.

25:43This probably happened because of some insanely active volcanoes in the Deccan Traps.

25:48But now the islands are home to unique species both on land and in the coral reefs nearby.

25:58Mauritia broke off from India after the dinosaur wiping.

26:02Along its journey, it stretched into a long ribbon-like shape and also broke into pieces.

26:07Now it's all scattered beneath the Indian Ocean.

26:11Scientists stumbled upon this lost land by studying tiny ancient crystals called zircons.

26:17These zircons are like time capsules.

26:20They date back an astonishing 660 million to 2 billion years!

26:25That's even older than Mauritius itself!

26:29These ancient crystals hinted that there's another Atlantis somewhere nearby.

26:33Turns out there are hidden continents all around the world, and maybe we'll discover

26:38more of them in the future!

26:42The world's largest fence spans over 3,100 miles from Queensland to South Australia.

26:49If stretched out, it could easily connect London to New York.

26:53And if you'd walk next to it, you'd need six months to complete the journey.

26:58It wasn't built to safeguard the Australian border.

27:00Why would it, since Aussies are just surrounded by water?

27:04It wasn't meant to protect some important building either.

27:07Its purpose is to keep some animal species away from each other.

27:14It was back in the late 1800s when Australians started building parts of this fence.

27:19They wanted to create a barrier separating the lively, bustling part of the country where

27:25cities like Melbourne and Sydney thrive from the harsh, dry outback.

27:29They used wooden posts dug deep into the ground, linked up with wire mesh standing about six

27:35feet tall.

27:37Some parts of the fence even have a second electrically charged layer.

27:42To make sure this fence did its job, they added some red and white lights to help guard

27:47things even at night.

27:49A team of over 20 people work full time to keep things in check here.

27:54And every year, local authorities chip in around $750,000 to keep the construction in

28:00shape.

28:02Why all this trouble?

28:03The main reason was dingoes.

28:06These gingery, wolf-like creatures are Australia's largest carnivore mammals.

28:11And they're also apex predators.

28:13They were causing a lot of trouble to local farmers, especially in southern Queensland,

28:19where they often go after sheep.

28:21For the most part, the fence has been doing its job okay, but it's not foolproof.

28:26Some dingoes still manage to sneak through.

28:29Other times, wild camels end up crashing into it.

28:32That's because Australia has quite a massive camel population roaming around.

28:38But this man-made solution did more than locals expected.

28:41They thought there would just be fewer dingoes within the fence, but fewer dingoes mean more

28:46kangaroos.

28:48And more kangaroos mean more competition with the sheep for food.

28:52It's not just the bigger species feeling the squeeze.

28:56The smaller animals and the greenery also went through changes.

29:00With all this competition in a smaller space, locals noticed less diversity in the plant

29:05life and small animals.

29:07The soil became less nutritious over time, affecting plant growth.

29:11Plus, the fence acts as a roadblock for animal migration and seed dispersal.

29:17Even the sand dunes are feeling the effects, with less grass cover to hold things together.

29:23When scientists looked at kangaroos on both sides of the fence, they noticed that the

29:27young pups inside were lighter and tinier on average.

29:32The outsiders had bigger feet and heads for their age, and it wasn't because they were

29:36eating a different diet.

29:38The kangaroos that were stuck sharing the land with dingoes had to bulk up faster to

29:43survive.

29:44On the flip side, those inside the fence took it slower because they weren't under the

29:48same type of pressure.

29:50These had to compete with a lot of other creatures for food, so a bigger size wasn't a priority

29:56anymore.

29:58Researchers are still not sure if this difference is a quick fix or a long-term gene adaptation.

30:04What about domesticating dingoes?

30:06Wouldn't that help?

30:08Many think dingoes were once pets in Australia, but it's not known for sure.

30:13These days, they're pretty wild, just like wolves, hyenas, or coyotes.

30:18Most of them don't need packs to survive and are solitary hunters with sharp instincts

30:22built in.

30:24So taming them isn't going to be easy.

30:26Still, taking down the construction is not an option for now.

30:30Australians are so strict when it comes to making sure dingoes are kept away that they

30:34even put laws in place for people who mess up with the fence.

30:38Leaving a crossing gate open can put people behind bars for up to three months.

30:44Damaging the fence can cost people six months' worth of their freedom.

30:49It wasn't the first time Australians thought a fence could help with animal issues.

30:53Before they needed it for dingoes, they experienced a serious bunny invasion.

30:58Cute as they are, rabbits were damaging the land used for farming, so locals thought of

31:03a three-part fence.

31:04The first one stretched all the way from Ravensthorpe in the south to Pardew Station on the Pilbara

31:10coast.

31:11It was over 1,100 miles long, making it the longest unbroken fence globally at the time.

31:19All these bunny problems could have been traced back to a man named Thomas Austin.

31:24Back in 1859, when he first came to the land down under, he thought it would be a good

31:28idea to release a few rabbits into the wild, thinking it would add a bit of charm to the

31:33place.

31:35Since rabbits aren't native to Australia, they didn't have any natural predators at

31:39the time.

31:40They're also pretty adaptive creatures, needing just some grass for feeding.

31:46They reproduce at astonishing speeds, too.

31:49A mama rabbit can have four litters a year, with as many as five bunnies each!

31:54Pretty soon, their numbers boomed.

31:56By the late 1880s, the bunnies had caused so much damage that local authorities came

32:02up with a proposal.

32:04They'd offer the equivalent of almost $2 million today to anyone who could come up

32:08with a solution to this long-eared problem.

32:12Nobody claimed the prize, but a commission did gather a bit over a decade later and came

32:17up with the fence idea.

32:19Maintaining those fences was complicated.

32:22They had inspectors keeping an eye, with each one responsible for a stretch about 500 miles

32:27long.

32:28There were also these boundary riders patrolling smaller sections, using bikes at first, then

32:33switching to camels or using camels to haul buggies.

32:37They even tried using cars at one point, but they couldn't handle the rough terrain and

32:41constantly had punctured tires.

32:44In terms of its effectiveness, well, by 1902 rabbits were already hanging out on the wrong

32:50side of the fence.

32:52That's why, four years later, they put up another one.

32:55It worked for a while, so much so that the local authorities didn't bother helping

32:59out farmers past that second fence with rabbit netting loans.

33:03Those caught between the two fences, however, still had a rough time dealing with rabbit

33:08trouble.

33:09Soon enough, rabbits spread even over fence number two, and it was clear the solution

33:14didn't work.

33:15In some areas, even while the fences were being built, those sneaky bunnies found their

33:20way past them.

33:21To this day, the rabbit population still sometimes puts the Australian officials through rough

33:27times.

33:28The dingo fence may be the longest one, but it's not the weirdest.

33:33The aquarium fence in Turkey might take that prize.

33:36This 164-foot aquarium fence was built to make sure the expensive villa's ocean view

33:42would be visible from every one of its levels.

33:46These days, it gathers a lot of tourists from all over the world, eager to see the variety

33:51of fish it contains, and even the octopuses.

33:55Putting up a see-through structure wasn't hard.

33:58The real challenge was connecting the aqua fence to the Aegean Sea through a buried pipeline

34:03stretching across 13,000 feet of land.

34:07This ensures water constantly flows, keeping the aquarium clean and the fish happy.

34:12To make sure no one damages the delicate fence or steals any of the fish or two, the owner

34:18also invested in security.

34:21He installed a network of 17 cameras equipped with facial recognition.

34:26Visitors are free to look and take pictures, but step too close and you're likely to

34:30trigger alarms.

34:32Another one of those weird fences is New Zealand's bra fence.

34:36If you ever find yourself through central Otago, you might stumble upon a fence adorned

34:41with bras of all kinds of shapes, sizes, and patterns.

34:45Its story takes us back to 1999, when people in the area found four bras mysteriously hanging

34:52on the fence near Cardrona Valley Road.

34:55Some were a bit surprised, but then others started adding their bras to the decor.

35:01Some more bras appeared and it became a must-see spot for tourists.

35:05Its popularity was so high that at times it caused traffic problems in the area.

35:10Surprise!

35:11There are more than seven continents on our planet.

35:17Argo Land, a hidden continent, may help us understand how our planet will look in the

35:21future.

35:22To find out how it hid from us, and what secrets it holds, you'll just have to keep watching!

35:29Ready for a mystery?

35:31Scientists have been looking for a piece of land that's been missing for over 100 million

35:35years.

35:36Not exactly newsworthy, since people search for information about our planet's history

35:41all the time.

35:42You'd think it was probably this miniscule island somewhere in the middle of an ocean.

35:47Well, you'd be wrong, because this continent used to be as big as the entire US territory.

35:55For a long time, geologists have been wondering whether a massive chunk of contemporary Australia

36:01vanished into thin air.

36:03Some believed it was simply hiding somewhere on the ocean floor.

36:06But thanks to some Dutch specialists and 7 years of investigating, we now know there

36:11are bits and pieces of this lost land mixed underneath the lush jungles of Southeast Asia.

36:18The continents we see in our geography manuals these days are like scattered pieces of a

36:23puzzle.

36:24There's even a nice experiment you can conduct to see for yourself.

36:27Find a world map online and print it out.

36:30Cut out all of the continents and play around with them for a while.

36:34You'll see they all fit together.

36:37Probably the most striking thing you'll see is how South America perfectly fits near Africa.

36:44If you close up the oceans that were formed in the last 200 million years, the continents

36:49look like they form a giant letter C. And that C is what scientists call the supercontinent

36:55Pangaea.

36:56It was swimming in an ocean called Panthalassan, and the inner portion of that letter C had

37:01a smaller stretch of water called the Tethys Ocean.

37:04It is in this small ocean where things get interesting.

37:09Back in the Jurassic period, this vanished continent, which scientists started calling

37:13Argo Land, vanished and left a hole in Australia, now known as the Argo-Abyssal Plain.

37:20Geologists initially believed this was all due to a process called subduction.

37:25It's when one piece of the Earth's crust dives under another and recycles it into the planet's mantle.

37:33Usually, specialists track this continental vanishing through offscraping.

37:38That's how they figured out, for instance, that India bumped into Asia and gave us the

37:42majestic Himalayan Mountains.

37:44But for Argo Land, things were a bit more complicated.

37:48Bits and pieces were popping up in places like Myanmar and Indonesia.

37:52But they behaved like these time-traveling relics, looking way older than when Argo Land

37:57supposedly separated from Australia.

38:01It immediately raised the question, if one continent can behave so weirdly, how many

38:06others are out there doing the same?

38:08Thankfully, scientists have now put together the entire timeline of Argo Land and figured

38:14out its mystery.

38:15It didn't sink or get swallowed up.

38:17It simply transformed into an Argo-Pelago, breaking into smaller pieces, called micro-continents,

38:24and floating away from Australia.

38:26These mini-continents then took a little journey before settling down in Southeast

38:31Asian jungles.

38:32This discovery fits right into the whole Pangea puzzle.

38:36It helps us better understand how continents break up and make up, all in one discovery,

38:41revealing secrets of biodiversity and climate back from in the day.

38:45If you'd like to find out more secrets about history, civilization, or random day-to-day

38:50objects, be sure to like this video and subscribe to the channel!

38:57Like, for instance, the mystery behind this invisible species line in Indonesia.

39:02It's called the Wallace Line, named after the British explorer Alfred Russel Wallace.

39:07Over 150 years ago, Wallace was on a journey around the Malay archipelago, visiting thousands

39:13of islands.

39:14What he found was that animals on one side of this invisible line were considerably different

39:20from ones on the other side.

39:22This invisible line is like a wall between marsupials and tigers, for instance, or honey

39:27eaters and trogons.

39:29But now we know that around 35 million years ago, Australia broke up with Antarctica and

39:35collided with Asia, and this continental love triangle triggered significant changes.

39:40It didn't just change the way the land looked, it also messed with the species of animals

39:45on each side of the Wallace Line.

39:48In more recent times, a bunch of specialists published a study saying this collision and

39:53climate chaos made Asian species comfy living in the Malay archipelago.

39:58Meanwhile, the Aussie animals weren't as happy with the new environment.

40:02It was too hot and wet for some, and others just couldn't handle the tropical island

40:07lifestyle.

40:10The discovery of this continental shift towards Asia might also explain a recent finding of

40:16a human species that didn't seem to make any sense either.

40:19You see, in this hidden cave in the Philippines, archaeologists stumbled upon a new human ancestor.

40:26It seems that about 50,000 years ago, on the island of Luzon, there was this ancient human-like

40:32species.

40:33The lead researcher believed this finding was crucial for understanding human evolution

40:37in Asia, and it named this new species after the island, Homo luzonensis.

40:44Now here's where it gets a bit confusing.

40:46The bones found by archaeologists had one small problem.

40:50They had a weird mix of traits that hadn't been seen together in any other hominid species.

40:56Smaller teeth, similar to ours, yet hands and feet that were more like our ancient humanoid

41:01ancestors.

41:02It was those throwback limbs in particular that connected this human species with the

41:07long-lost southern territory.

41:09That's because they have this primitive look, like these hard-to-pronounce guys, for instance.

41:15Only these two species are separated by 2-3 million years of time in evolution.

41:20Many have wondered, is Homo luzonensis really a new species?

41:25Not everyone is convinced.

41:27But it may also explain why living creatures are also affected by the constant shifting

41:31of the land underneath us.

41:36Just because they haven't changed much during our lifetime, it doesn't mean our continents

41:40will look like this forever.

41:42They evolve from this large mega-continent, and they'll most likely end up in a similar

41:47position in the future.

41:49On that note, a geologist from a European university tried to predict the future of

41:54Earth's supercontinents.

41:56As a starting point, he used an earthquake that occurred in Portugal back in 1755, when

42:01tectonic plates behaved a bit differently than they should've.

42:06After years of research, he came up with a theory in 2016.

42:10He believed that the stitches between these tectonic plates might be coming apart, setting

42:15the stage for a bigger rupture.

42:18It's like when glass cracks between two holes in a car windshield.

42:21If this happens, a subduction zone could stretch from the Mediterranean all the way up past

42:27Ireland, bringing volcanoes, earthquakes, and new mountains to these areas.

42:32If all goes according to this plan, the Atlantic Ocean will disappear, and so will the Pacific,

42:39turning into one large stretch of water.

42:42Instead of the 7 continents we know today, we'll get a new supercontinent, which he

42:46called Aurica, because it would have Australia and the Americas at its heart.

42:53It's not the only possible scenario, though.

42:55Novo Pangaea might be another, and it's easy to foresee.

42:59The Atlantic stays open, and the Pacific closes.

43:02Then there's Amasia.

43:04For this one, you'd have to imagine the Arctic Ocean closing, and the Atlantic and

43:08Pacific staying open.

43:10Everything shifts to the north around the North Pole, except Antarctica.

43:14One final scenario would be called Pangaea Ultima.

43:18Slow down the spreading in the Atlantic, and a new subduction plate pops up on the America's

43:23East Coast.

43:24Well, either way, if all the continents collide in the future once more, some say it won't

43:30be fun to experience.

43:31It's believed that, in around 250 million years, we'll feel like we're being trapped

43:37in a sweltering, soggy plastic bag.

43:39Weirdly, that bag will be the best place to live on Earth – the coastal areas.

43:44As for the inland spots, they'll be sizzling, like a desert on fire.

43:49Many of the species of animals we know today might not make it.

43:53As for us humans, we'll need to be creative if we want to withstand the heat.

43:57We should be thankful, though.

43:59These digital models are still great because we can use them to test all sorts of interesting

44:04ideas.

44:05For example, how these supercontinents would mess with tides, taking future space travels

44:10into consideration.

44:11These models can help us understand the climates of exoplanets, too.

44:15Those are located outside our solar system.

Category

Transcript

Recommended