Phantom Signals (2020–…): Season 1, Episode 4 - Oblivion Calling - full transcript

Narrator: A young boy lost
and alone in the desert...

This is some harsh, unforgiving terrain

...Sends a distress call
that authorities can't trace.

This is gonna be life
threatening situation.

What on earth did that
poor kid goes through.

Narrator: A massive
storm shows up on a radar...

It gives a weird signature.

...But the skies remain clear.

You'd expect to see something.

What other things might be up in the air?

Narrator: Strange seismic
signals in oklahoma.



Dr. Procter: It's almost like a heartbeat.

Boom, boom, boom.

Narrator: No source can be found.

That raises our attention level.

We have to have massive amounts of energy

That can create these waves.

Narrator: Signals to real events...

Things going on thousands
of feet below the surface

Narrator: ...That leave
many questions unanswered.

Cover it up, deny it, or
pretend it didn't happen.

There's something weird happening here.

Narrator: Endless streams of data,

Information bombarding
the planet from within,

And from the furthest
stretches of the universe.



What messages do these
phantom signals hold?

Tuesday, August 7, 1973.

Boy: Hello?

Mrs. Darlene ross, a
california radio operator,

Hears a call for help over her cb radio.

A child was heard on the cb

Saying that his father had a heart attack,

And their pickup truck turned over,

And all he had access to was the cb,

So he was calling for help.

Narrator: Mrs. Ross talks to the boy,

Hoping to piece together
enough facts to find him.

But she learns only that his name is larry,

He's 7 years old, and he's
somewhere in new mexico.

Fallah: He couldn't give specific
information about where he was,

Didn't really know his own last name,

Didn't really know where they were going,

And so there was nothing for
the people who heard the call

To use to help find him.

Narrator: With few clues to go on,

Mrs. Ross calls the police
in albuquerque, new mexico.

Throughout the night and into the next day,

Search teams fly across the state

Trying to find the overturned truck.

In a search and rescue for a normal person,

They might send out so many people.

When it's a 7 or 8-year-old,
they're sending everybody.

Could cost millions to find the person.

They don't care 'cause they know

They had a limited amount of time

To hone in on whatever signal was coming,

Because how long would
that truck battery last?

If the truck is turned
over, it's likely not running.

If the truck's not running,

The engine's not powering that battery.

That means larry is on a timer.

He's got to get help
before that battery stops

Effectively keeping that radio running.

♪♪

Narrator: As the hours pass,

Reports come in that people
from california to mississippi

Have been talking to
larry on their cb radio,

Cb radio is not very
different from your cellphone.

It's just an older, simpler technology.

In 1970s, a lot of
people were on cb radios.

This one in particular
has been in production

For about 50 years or so.

You have to cycle through
the channels of operation

Calling for anyone to give you help.

Fallah: The main role of the
people talking to him on the cb

Is to keep him calm,
keep them from panicking.

Fear really affects

Your response to the overall situation.

For a little boy to be
alone in terrain like this,

It would be absolutely terrifying.

You don't know how to get help,
and it can be deadly out here.

The hostile desert at
night, the temperatures drop.

At daytime, you could
boil a tea bag in your boot,

It's so damn hot.

What on earth did that poor kid go through?

I can't even imagine it.

Narrator: It's been 24 hours

And searchers have found no trace of larry,

But the cb operators talking to him

Are starting to pick
up clues to his location.

Larry's comments about the weather

And the position of the
sun lead them to believe

He's in the manzano
mountains near albuquerque.

The army sends aircraft to the area.

And when larry says he
sees flashing lights overhead,

The search area is narrowed.

The manzano mountains
are an old fault block.

So it's essentially a giant cliff

Lifted up with some
pieces cut out of it over time.

Phoenix: The area is 35,000 acres

That is known for very
dramatic mountain vistas.

I mean, you've got hills, valleys,

And straight up mountain peaks

That have rocky crags
exposed on the surface.

So this is some harsh, forbidding,

And unforgiving terrain,

Trying to pinpoint an
object as small as a vehicle...

You could be out there forever.

Narrator: Some mountainous areas
can be a dead zone for radio signals.

Radio signals can be blocked.

If you are sort of in a crevice
or in a ravine or something,

And you're closed in on all sides,

Then the signal has
literally nowhere to go.

Phoenix: I personally have
been on many expeditions

Where we couldn't even use radios

Because of the terrain we were in.

You could be within a couple
hundred feet of another person,

And you may not be
able to get their signal.

Narrator: But cb users report hearing larry

Hundreds of miles beyond
the manzano mountains.

How is the signal getting out?

All mountains are bad for radio,

But if you're going to
have a mountain range,

This is a pretty good one

To be able to have some
chance of a signal getting through.

It's mostly sedimentary
and metamorphic rocks.

There's not a lot of metal, which is good

Because areas that
have a high metal content,

That have lots of ore,

That have a lot of metal in the rocks,

Block and attenuate the
signal much more rapidly.

If you've ever noticed
your cellphone reception,

Cutting out inside of a skyscraper,

It's because it has a metal frame building

Reinforcing all that concrete.

Narrator: But the
frequency range of cb radio

Gives it an advantage over cellphones.

The higher the frequency you go,

The easier it is to block a signal.

So cellphones usually
operate at, like, 2 1/2 gigahertz.

Cb radio operates at a very
low 30 megahertz, 25 megahertz,

And so that's easier for them to propagate.

So unless this person is
in a very, very deep crevice,

You should be able to get something up.

The hunt for larry is in its second day.

Search and rescue pilots

Continue to monitor their own radios,

Trying to hone in on larry's cb signal.

That pilot would be really
set up to pick up larry's signal.

As the plane comes up over the horizon,

Which already is at a high level,

That signal coming off of the
cb antenna will hit the plane.

You can't triangulate a signal.

That allows them to
potentially find where larry's at.

[ antenna beeping ]

So this is kind of a lower tech version

Of what you can use
for homing in on a signal.

So I'm using a highly directional antenna

To point in a vicinity and figure out

Where the transmitting
station is coming from.

So the nice thing with using
a directional antenna like this

Is it kind of works like a flashlight.

So as I turn to face the
beacon, I get a signal.

Facing the opposite direction... no signal.

Swing closer... [ antenna beeping ]

...And there it is.

[ beeping continues ]

Narrator: But researchers
trying to triangulate larry's signal,

The boy frequently changes the cb channel,

Hampering their efforts.

It's best to flip that little
switch for channel 9,

And that's what you
use for emergency calls.

When this story first came to light,

There would have been
a lot of activity on cb.

There could have been a lot of
people talking at the same time.

And he may have heard
people talking on a channel,

Tried to key up and talk...

They didn't come back to him,

So he probably switched to
another channel and tried again.

So that makes it very, very
hard for the search and rescue

Because to pinpoint a signal,
you want a stable signal.

If he was jumping channels,

It would just constantly
be cutting in and out.

The fact that larry's
7, in distress, scared,

They could have just been panic calling.

"I don't hear anybody immediately.

I've got to flip channel."

And they just kept doing that

Until maybe the battery was depleted.

Narrator: Rescue teams
are desperate to find larry

Before his cb radio loses power,

But efforts to get him to stay
on one channel aren't working,

Causing suspicions for some.

He hits upon the worst possible solution.

If you were trying to hide your signal,

You would do exactly what
this kid is supposed to be doing,

Because then you're not
giving anybody a chance

To lock onto your signal.

Narrator: By the end of day 2,

Larry's channel jumping,

As well as inconsistencies
in cb users reports,

Raise questions about
the authenticity of the story.

As the situation evolved,
they're getting different data.

At one point, the boy's name was larry,

And then at some other
time his name was david.

And they're beginning
to ask the question...

Could this be a hoax?

When the call first comes in

And he doesn't know his last name

Or where he's from or
where they're going...

Larry should know these simple facts.

He's supposed to be 7 years old.

So either it's a hoax,

And they're trying to get a lot of people

To waste a lot of time looking for somebody

And a car that doesn't exist,

Or larry's in shock.

And what happens when you're in shock

Is that you don't think clearly.

It becomes hard to remember things.

Traumatic events can
actually cause both retrograde

And anterograde amnesia,

Forgetting for the time
right before the trauma

To a little bit of time after the trauma.

So maybe in these initial
calls, he's still in a period

Where, in shock, he can't
remember simple facts.

Frankly, it could be something
as simple as a concussion.

And hopefully those memories
will come back as time goes on.

Narrator: Is a little
boy lost in the desert,

Or is this an elaborate hoax?

You have to treat it seriously.

Narrator: Search and
rescue teams are at a loss.

The countdown to find larry is desperate.

He's running out of time.

Narrator: In August of 1973, cb
users from across north america

Pick up a distress call from
a young boy called larry,

Who claims to be lost
in the new mexico desert

In a crashed truck with
his unconscious father.

The father has some kind
of a medical emergency

And ditches the truck,
possibly rolls it over,

Depending upon who you read and talk to,

There is a question that
his father was fatally injured.

His starting call pretty much
gave them no information.

But this did lead to a manhunt
where they thought he was.

Nobody could find him.

And yet he continued to
be able to talk on the cb

And different people heard him.

Narrator: But after 48
hours, searchers are no closer

To finding larry and his injured father.

With so many people
hearing larry on the radio,

Why is no one able to find him?

You got cbs everywhere,

You got somebody out
there potentially needing help,

And cb radio operators got involved.

Narrator: Cb users in wyoming,
arizona, and even canada

Have spoken to the boy.

But larry claims to be in new mexico.

How is it possible that his
transmissions are being heard

At such a distance?

Larry's likely using an
a.M. Modulating cb radio...

That would limit him 5, 10 miles

With the chance of getting much further,

But now you're talking
about the skip propagation

Using the ionosphere.

Narrator: Larry's signal
was carried much further

Because of a radio frequency phenomenon

Known as skip shooting.

There's this layer on the atmosphere

Called the ionosphere,
and it's full of ions

Which are basically free charged particles.

Normally a signal would just
go through and just disappear,

And you would not be able to see it

But at certain frequencies,
given a certain amount ion,

The signal sort of goes through

And it gets curved back down to the earth.

Nass: With skip shooting,

You're basically bouncing
between layers of the atmosphere

Or actually bouncing against
the atmosphere down to earth,

Bouncing again, going
back up to the atmosphere,

And bouncing down again.

You've now kind of bent your signal

Around the curvature of the earth.

Dr. Adve: And so you get
this huge propagation distance

Without losing much power.

There's no reason why it
could not travel 1,500 miles.

Narrator: The ability
to skip shoot effectively

Is partly dependent on the solar cycle.

The solar cycle is a 11-year period

Where the high point is
where there's lots of sunspots.

So sunspots on the sun

Mean the sun is emitting more uv light.

That uv light hits our atmosphere

And creates ionization.

More ionization in the atmosphere

Is good for skip shooting.

Narrator: The distance a signal can travel

Depends on the point in the cycle.

Nass: Right now, we
are in a low solar cycle,

And I can consistently
talk to japan, korea, china

From my home location
here in southern california.

At a high solar cycle,

There are instances that
have happened in the past

Where you can hear
yourself after you talk...

Meaning your signal goes
all the way around the earth,

Comes back, and you hear
yourself with a delay in time.

Narrator: At the highest
point of the cycle,

Larry's transmission range
could expand from 5 or 10 miles

To as much as 24,000
miles under ideal conditions.

1973 is only at medium
point of the solar cycle.

However, larry is transmitting
during the summer,

Which has more sunspot
activity than other seasons.

Nass: At the daytime at least,

That particular frequency
space that cb is on

Would have been able to propagate further

Than any other time of the year.

So it is entirely possible that
larry could have been picked up

All the way up into canada.

Narrator: While people across
north america are talking to larry,

The search back in new
mexico has been going on

For days with no results.

Temperatures have been in the mid 90s,

And with no food and water,

The odds are stacked against him.

You have to overcome the fear and sit down

And start thinking logically.

What am I gonna do for
water to be able to drink?

What am I gonna do for food?

What am I gonna do for shelter?

You have no access to anything.

There's no water, there's no food,

And you're potentially injured.

The time that you're able
to live is measured in days.

You know, most people
without water, after 3 or 4 days...

This is gonna be life
threatening situation.

Narrator: While efforts are in
full force to find the lost boy,

Investigators begin to speculate
the authenticity of the story.

Part of the problem with the story is,

It's mentioned that larry's
father's truck flips over.

Cb radios generally use vertical antennas.

A vertical antenna doesn't

Do well in an overturned truck situation.

Further, if that radiating element,

The whip, as we call
it, that's sticking up,

Is touching the ground,

You're not gonna get much effectivity

Out of the radio at all.

Narrator: With days dwindling
away, every hour spent transmitting

Is leeching the battery a little further.

So what I have here is just a simple setup.

We've got a twelve volt battery,
like one you can use from a car,

And we have this voltage display,

And basically it's showing
the battery at 13.24 volts,

So a fully charged battery.

What I'll do is turn the radio on.

So we've got a current draw of 0.27 amps...

This is just on receive.

If I key down and transmit,

We should see this number come up.

I'm looking for a radio
check on channel 27.

Radio check... channel
27. Anyone monitoring?

And it comes up to 0.87, 0.89 amps,

So almost a full amp on transmit.

So we went from a 13.24 volts
to a 13.16 volts on the battery.

So, we can do the math and figure out...

He would get roughly 6 to 8 hours

On a full-charged battery.

If you're talking about batteries

From the '70s and '80s,

Their quality is gonna be less,

And you're going to get
less charge life out of it.

One would think you
could just turn the car on

And just start the battery charging again.

The problem is that the
truck had flipped over,

So that's likely that the
engine wouldn't be running.

But let's say he had the wherewithal

To actually turn the engine on...

You still have a limited
resource in the gasoline

That can become electricity,
which can charge the battery,

Which you then can deplete with your radio.

Given the nature of the story,

It's unlikely that he was
transmitting more than a day.

Narrator: With nobody
reporting larry missing,

And the number of
discrepancies in cb users reports,

Officials are close to ruling
the whole thing a hoax.

Larry's ordeal is making
news across the world,

Raising the possibility of copycats.

Fallah: Because there's a lot
of publicity about hearing larry,

You might get some of these
attention-seeking individuals.

Radio at that time is
generally pretty anonymous.

Anyone could have heard about
a story of a lost boy and said,

"well, I'm just gonna
do that from california.

I'm just gonna do that from canada."

So it's entirely possible

That multiple people
were pretending to be larry.

Narrator: On day 5, a report
of a missing missouri family

With a son named larry
renews fervor to the search,

Until the family is found a day later.

Then, on day 6, an army sergeant claims

To speak with larry for a full 3 hours.

But is it really larry or a copycat?

When a transmission on the 7th day

Is traced to a walkie-talkie in phoenix,

Police have had enough.

They call off the search.

So the question is, was
larry real? Was it a hoax?

I feel that, generally,

This story is on the realm of a hoax.

Larry was hopping around,
having conversations with people.

His receiving ability wasn't
hampered in any way.

That means larry has a functioning antenna

At a appropriate elevation
that he can get good signals in,

Which all leads me to believe
he's not in a wrecked truck.

Dr. Procter: There were a few
things that make me doubt this story.

We never found larry's truck or
evidence of him and his father.

Phoenix: All signs point to...

That if they were driving
in on a paved road,

That somebody would have
come across the wreckage.

I think that the odds that this
would never have been found

In the last 40, 50 years,

It just seems so small to me
to almost border on impossible.

There's tons of cases that
have been left open-ended...

They have never found the body.

There's also cases where
they finally found the ruins

Of an aircraft or a car decades later.

So that's gonna be the big
question for a long, long time.

♪♪

Narrator: December 10, 2018.

Meteorologists track a massive storm

That appears out of nowhere

And is quickly heading towards
illinois, indiana, and kentucky.

I can imagine the weather
radar operators freaking out,

Wondering they're seeing
some massive tornado

Or something like that.

Narrator: Just over a week
earlier on December 1st,

Central illinois is hit by 29
rare December tornados.

Everyone is on high alert.

The storm is expected to hit any minute.

But as the hours pass,

The skies remain completely clear

However, the storm image
remains on the radar screen.

We least expect to see something

That the radar's reflecting off of.

So you'd expect to see
clouds, you'd expect to see rain,

And you'd expect something to be there.

Weather phenomenon that
big can't suddenly appear

On top of illinois without
having come from canada

Or have come from the
west or something like that.

It has to come from somewhere.

Narrator: How does a
storm this mighty just vanish?

Coming up... was the phantom
radar image simply wrong?

Radar is full of strange signals.

Narrator: Or is it a sign that something
much more ominous is on its way?

When you see it, you're
suddenly going, "well, what is it?"

Narrator: Weather
stations catch a rogue storm

Rolling across the midwest,

But the skies are completely clear.

We're picking something up.

You'd expect something to be there.

Narrator: Did meteorologists
simply get it wrong?

Modern meteorology makes use of technology

To help make accurate predictions,

And at the core of the system is radar.

But how precise is it?

A weather radar works in the
same way that any radar does.

It transmits a signal,

It takes things that are in the atmosphere,

Water droplets, snow, ice, and comes back.

What you're trying to do is get a picture

Of what's happening in the atmosphere.

One of the things, first of all,

Is how effective what you're
hitting off of is coming back.

So if you have a really reflective thing,

For example, melting ice,
that could be really reflective,

And you get sort of a
strong return back from that.

Narrator: Advanced weather
radar can not only detect rain,

Snow, and ice in the air,

It can tell how quickly it is
moving towards a location,

Like a city or town.

This is the result of a
scientific phenomenon

Known as the doppler effect,

Which is the difference in
how sound and light behave

When it gets closer to its target.

We've all experienced
the doppler phenomenon.

It happens with sound as well.

If you've ever stood at
the side of a train tracks,

And you hear a train coming in,

And you can hear there's
a change in the tone

As it comes towards you,

And then it goes away from you...

[ train horn blares ]

That's a doppler effect because
the frequency of the sound

Is changing as something is moving.

Exactly the same phenomenon
happens for a radio signal.

♪♪

Narrator: 10 hours after the
image is first spotted on radar,

No storm has arrived in
illinois, indiana, or kentucky.

Could it be something else entirely,

Something even more dangerous?

We have something in the air

That's leading to that kind of reflections.

You'd want to investigate it to make sure

Whatever is suspended in
the air isn't harmful to people.

Narrator: Doppler radar doesn't
just pick up raindrops and ice.

It can pick up other things
blowing through the atmosphere.

There's a lot of different things

That radar can reflect off.

It could be debris generated
by a factory or by some process

That's unusually been
admitted to the atmosphere.

Narrator: Insects and
other flying creatures

Can also show up on radar.

Birds have regularly in
migration been seen on radar,

And some birds will fly in patterns

That can give an image of
a storm-like radar reflection.

And certainly in the past,
there's been migrations

Of insects, of grasshoppers
and other large insects

That can produce radar reflections

That look like a storm

Or look like a cloud
moving across the radar.

A couple of years back,

We had a butterfly bloom here in colorado

And the weather radar was
lighting up with butterflies.

When you see some of these signatures,

It's not like you're suddenly like,

"oh, guess that must
be all those butterflies."

It's sort of a lot of putting together

A couple of things to see what's happening.

Sparling: When you saw a
large radar reflection like this

That wasn't associated with a storm,

That might be one of the
first things you investigate is...

Hey, do we have any
large outbreaks of locusts

Or something in the area?

Mcneil: There have been major
outbreaks of locusts in africa.

If there are large numbers,

They're all getting the same message.

"this is crowded here. We should move on."

Then, and of course, if they all move

And if they're carried by wind,

Then they're all gonna be
carried in the same direction.

Then therefore, if you have a radar,

All of a sudden you see
this massive cloud moving by.

I think some of the largest ones
have been 50, 100 miles wide.

I mean, when there
are millions and millions.

And when you see it,
you're certainly going,

"wow, what is it?"

Narrator: But how can
meteorologists tell the difference

Between weather and bugs?

Kosiba: In order to diagnose
some of these strange things

That you see on radar,

It helps to look at the variety
of fields that radar gives you.

All of our national weather
service radars in the u.S.

Are dual-pol.

Narrator: Dual-pol stands
for dual polarization radar,

A series of pulses that are sent out

And received back both
vertically and horizontally.

Kosiba: And that gives
you a lot more information

About what type of
scatter that you're looking at

When you could really
distinguish between things

That we call meteorological
like raindrops, hail, snow

And things that are manmade,

Like debris and tornadoes
or something like that.

When I look at the
radar data from kentucky,

It doesn't really scream
at weather signal to me.

Narrator: Coming up...

Is an insect invasion plaguing the midwest

Or could there be some manmade explanation

For this confusing radar signature?

The idea that some military
organization or some scientist

Was performing an experiment
isn't beyond the possibility.

♪♪

Narrator: A strange radar signal

Has weather experts in the midwest rattled.

It looks like a storm at first
but the skies remain clear,

Even though the mysterious
image remains on their screens.

Sparling: There's
definitely something there

That the radar is bouncing off.

We're picking something up
that may not be obviously visible

To somebody at ground level.

Narrator: But if it's not
a storm, then what is it?

Why does the image persist?

It turns out that weather
radar can easily pick up

Swarms of birds, bats, and insects.

Could this radar image should
be showing a giant swarm of bugs

Making its way across the midwest?

In north america,

The migratory insects go
for the north in the summer

And then to the south in the fall.

So if you're seeing this thing on the radar

In November or December,

The likelihood of it being
insects would be very small.

Narrator: Some experts
suggest this mysterious cloud

Is not a natural phenomenon.

It is possible that if there
were a lot of competing signals

Or some stray signals, that
could interfere with the radar

If it was in the same frequency range,

It could make the equipment
misinterpret something.

Kosiba: You get a lot of
things back with weather radar.

It's picking up all sorts of things

And sometimes cell phone towers.

Some of them are switching

To closer to some of the radar frequencies.

You get interference from those.

Sparling: But that would be very
unusual because we specifically

Avoid using those frequencies,

Because radar is intended
to be very sensitive

And we don't want to disrupt them.

So that would be really, really unusual.

Narrator: Conspiracy theories
point to covert military operations.

The idea that some military
organization or some scientist

Was performing an
experiment with radio waves

That would interfere with
radar isn't beyond the possibility.

We do the same thing in the military now

For disrupting the ability
to detect aircraft, etc.

But it would be very difficult
to produce a radio wave pattern

That would mimic a broad
area that looks like a storm.

Narrator: The size and
shape of the image doesn't fit

Any of the possibilities
raised by investigators.

If it's not a storm or bugs or
covert military radio waves,

Then what is it?

Sparling: If I was trying to mimic a storm,

I would probably release
something into the atmosphere

That would start
reflecting the radar waves.

We actually did this
project doing cloud seeding.

So basically we had our radars out there

Looking at aircraft dropping
cloud seeding particulates.

And when you look at
that, you see very clearly

These sort of linear drops of the aircraft

On the aircraft path.

So you see what looks very similar

To what they saw on the radar in kentucky.

That makes me pretty confident
that what they're looking at

Is something being dropped from an aircraft

And most likely it's probably chaff.

In world war ii, radar plays
a really instrumental role

In helping the allies achieve victory.

When war breaks out in 1939,

Both germany and britain
have systems in place.

As an attempt by both
sides to develop systems

That can foil the enemy's radar,

They come up with the
idea of dropping chaff.

And what chaff is, it's
basically pieces of paper

That have aluminum on them,

Which are specially designed
to be released from an aircraft

As they go over their target.

And the british discovered
that this is a remarkable tactic.

Narrator: Acting as a visual smokescreen,

A real target blip
becomes indistinguishable

From the jamming on the radar display.

From an enemy's radar perspective,

It makes it look like a large congregation

Of planes is in this area when it's not.

It confused radar and allowed bombers

To circumvent anti-aircraft devices.

Narrator: Turns out it's not
so easy to tell the difference

Between a storm and chaff.

Sparling: Chaff is intended to
kind of sit in the wake of the aircraft

And suspend in the air a little bit.

Once it starts moving with the air currents

Where it's been dropped,

It will very much take on the
radar appearance of a cloud.

A way to confirm whether
or not it is or isn't chaff

Is looking at some other radar variables.

You could look at the
power that you get back

From different polarizations.

If it's not a thunderstorm or
rain or something like that,

You'd see very specific
dual-pol signatures.

So if you look at other images of chaff,

You sort of see these very
elongated higher reflectivity

Or higher power return
that's sort of indicative

That it's being dropped out of an airplane

And then sort of
propagating with the airspeed.

And then if you look down here,

This would be more typical of a rain

Or a storm-type pattern.

As opposed to the chaff signature,

It's not really that elongated feature.

You kind of see a little
bit more shape to it.

And you also see that there's
regions of higher reflectivity

And lower reflectivity.

Narrator: The elongated shape
of the chaff cloud looks much like

The radar image seen in
indiana, illinois, and kentucky.

A few days after the cloud is spotted,

The west virginia air
national guard confirms

That a c-130 hercules

Jettisoning a large amount of chaff

At a lower than usual altitude

Is responsible for the mysterious incident.

The plane received
permission to release the chaff...

But why?

It's quite conceivable
that it's an experiment

Designed to test

How much they can actually
control, you know, radar systems

Or weather systems or monitoring systems.

It could be a military advantage
to have a technology like this.

If you wanted to mask the approach

Of a bunch of aircraft towards ground,

You could have many aircraft
put chaff out at the same time.

And then any ground-based
radar wouldn't be able to detect

A fleet of aircraft in the air.

It'd just looked like a storm.

Something strange is happening
in the state of oklahoma.

Seismic stations picked
up a signal on June 24, 2019

At 11:11 in the morning.

Mckinnon: The anomaly was a
series of pulsed seismic waves

About 20 seconds apart that
lasted for about 10 minutes

And spread across the
entire state of oklahoma.

And at first people thought,
"well, was it an earthquake?"

[ thunder crashes ] locals
are used to looking out

For atmospheric phenomena like tornadoes.

Seismic events like
earthquakes are less common.

Oklahoma can have earthquakes.
They're usually pretty small.

Nothing like what we
get in the pacific northwest

Or the southwestern u.S.

It's just that it's very infrequent

[ crashing ] and typically is going to be

Something that people
in the area are affected by.

Now, this new signal
doesn't dovetail with that at all.

It's something very different.

It affected people in the
area, pretty much not at all.

But instruments picked up the signal.

Narrator: To the seismologists surprise,

This isn't the last they
see of the anomaly.

Mckinnon: It wasn't picked
up on just one station one time.

Up to 52 different
stations across the state

Were picking up this
event and it kept happening.

Narrator: Seismologists
search back through the data

And discovered that this strange signal

Has been happening regularly
over the past three months.

Now, when you start to see
more than one of an event like this,

You wonder... is there a pattern?

Is oklahoma suddenly
increasing seismic activity

Because of a new fault?

Narrator: Coming up...

Is a major earthquake
about to hit oklahoma?

This is not a natural looking earthquake.

Narrator: Or does science
point to an even bigger threat?

We have to have massive amounts of energy

That can create these waves.

Narrator: Mysterious seismic
waves are shaking up oklahoma.

For the past three months,

A series of regular seismic anomalies

Has bewildered geologists

And left residents preparing for the worst.

52 different stations
were picking up this event

And it kept happening.

Is oklahoma suddenly
increasing seismic activity

Because of a new fault?

Narrator: The nearest major fault line

Is the new madrid fault seismic zone.

Running through neighboring
arkansas and missouri

At 125 miles long and 45 miles wide,

It can be damaging and deadly.

So back in the early 1800s,

The new madrid seismic
zone had a massive rupture.

We're talking seven or
eight magnitude richter scale.

Now, the richter scale
didn't exist back then.

So we're using eyewitnesses' accounts

And the amount of damage that was done

To estimate what that
magnitude would be today.

Narrator: Could the new madrid seismic zone

Be at fault for the shaking in oklahoma?

When it ruptured really, really
big back in the early 1800s,

They actually felt those ground waves

As far away as canada on
the eastern seaboard of the u.S.

And also further down
south into the gulf region.

That's what we would
expect from a major rupture

On the new madrid seismic zone.

Dr. Procter: The thing about the signals

That are being picked up in oklahoma...

They're just in oklahoma.

Narrator: The types of
seismic waves being picked up

Cast out of this being
an earthquake at all.

Mckinnon: When you have an earthquake,

The waves travel through
the ground of the earth.

We call this the body wave.

Narrator: The body wave of an
earthquake is actually two waves.

A "p" or pressure wave

Pushes and pulls the
rock it travels through.

The p wave is followed
by the "s" or shear wave

That moves rock particles up and down.

And then when they hit the
surface between ground and air,

It creates surface waves.

Narrator: Surface waves are the final blow.

They travel through the earth's crust

And cause all the devastation
we experience in an earthquake.

Those move the surface of the earth

Either up and down like a roller coaster

Or side to side like a sidewinder snake.

Now, the signal that we're
picking up here in oklahoma

Is only surface waves.

So this signal is not being transmitted

Through the earth's core at all.

Narrator: Seismographs have been
picking up these waves for three months,

But their pattern is proving
difficult to understand.

These are very different than an earthquake

Where you have a discrete moment

Where the fault ruptures
and the energy is released

And then it tapers down gradually.

These don't have that unique signature

Of wide at the beginning
and then tapering at the end.

This looks like more
like a series of pulses.

It's really cool because you can see

That there's this repeating pattern.

Down here, these are different seismometers

Located throughout the state,

And sometimes they pick
it up, sometimes they don't.

What's beautiful about
it is how exact it is.

Mckinnon: That regular reoccurring
interval of the 20 second pulse

Happened on this very human
schedule of daytime weekdays

Plus Saturday and never on
Sunday and never overnight.

So if I was looking at the data

And I saw it was very
discretely timed events

And it was regularly
happening at the same intervals

And happening over and over again,

I'd be starting to look at
non-natural phenomena.

What can cause the ground to shake?

Do I have somebody blasting somewhere

Or do I have, you know,

Some type of atmospheric
testing going on somewhere?

Or do I have a plant
that's releasing something

Or doing something that's
going to have a major impact

Either to the atmosphere or to the ground?

Any time you're talking about
oklahoma and seismic signals,

The first guess is always
going to be fracking.

Narrator: Energy is an
important industry in oklahoma,

And fracking is one of the major ways

That oil and gas are extracted.

In fracking we're trying to
get natural gas out of shale.

Shale's a very dense rock

That doesn't allow gas to flow through it.

To improve the amount of
flow of gas through the shale,

We pump extremely
high-pressure water into the shale

To fracture it and break it up

And then we put very fine particles

In with that high-pressure water

That keep those cracks
open once we form them.

If we pump enough liquid into these wells,

They can slide and move

And we get earthquakes
associated with fracking.

Mckinnon: Naturally occurring earthquakes
and fracking induced earthquakes

Produce the same seismic signal.

The only way to tell the
difference is from human clues.

With those, you often see a
very big spike and then a tapering.

With this, it's more like pulses.

What we're seeing here is not fracking.

Narrator: Having ruled out both natural

And fracking earthquakes as the cause,

Scientists start to look at other ideas.

Any time we see a phenomena occurring

That isn't what we expect...

That raises our attention level.

It could be something that
is potentially dangerous.

It could be no big deal.

But until we know more about it,

We don't know whether
we need to inform the public

To prepare to leave for
a temporary evacuation

Or to relax, it's no big deal.

The shaking in oklahoma is just...

I mean, that's... Such a large scale.

To have larger detectable events,

We have to have massive amounts of energy

Put into the ground that
can create these waves.

The most likely culprit
would be explosions.

Narrator: Major explosions can
be picked up by seismometers.

Mckinnon: The original global
seismic network was actually set up

In order to monitor for explosions.

It was set up to monitor compliance

With the nuclear test ban treaties

And to look for secret weapon tests.

Because of this, we spent a lot
of time and effort understanding

What the seismic signature
of an explosion looks like.

It looks like a sudden burst of energy

That then tapers off.

Sparling: The sunrise propane explosion

Was one of the largest explosions to occur

In canadian history.

It was picked up by seismic
stations in the southern ontario

And northern u.S. Area.

You can actually see a pressure wave

Traveling outward at the speed of sound

And that displaced roofs on
houses and smashed windows

And caused damage to more
than 200 homes in the area.

Narrator: But an accidental
explosion isn't a reoccurring event.

Could the military or a
government organization

Performing secret weapon
tests be causing of this vibration?

Viggian: Because of the
number of underground bases

That are literally all
over the united states

And even in other parts of the world,

There may be things
going on, literally hundreds,

If not thousands of feet below the surface

That would create some sort of activity.

We remember, especially
during the cold war,

The united states carrying
out an enormous range

Of clandestine operations.

And, of course,
american culture is littered

With references to area 51.

[ chuckles ] americans
have a dozen or so places

Which are so secretive

That we assume there's always
something really, you know,

Secret going on... the harboring of aliens,

New secret airplanes that are being built.

The truth is, is that,
yeah, those places exist.

We built the u-2 spy plane
in the middle of a secret base.

Narrator: But other clues
pointed in a different direction.

Dr. Procter: When we're looking at this,

It has some of the
characteristics of an explosion,

But it's not exactly right.

There's something else
and weird happening here.

Mckinnon: The oklahoma
pulse wasn't just a single event,

But a whole sequence of
explosions, one after another,

After another, after
another, after another.

They're all the same magnitude
and regularly spaced apart.

That's not something you would
usually do in a weapons test.

And you certainly wouldn't
do it 10 minutes at a time,

Day after day after day after day.

Narrator: Coming up...

Seismologists think they found the source

Of the mysterious ground quakes

But the potential danger is still unknown.

We don't know whether we need to prepare

For a temporary evacuation.

What's going on here?
Why are we picking this up?

Narrator: Throughout the
spring and summer of 2019,

Seismometers in oklahoma

Are picking up a strange vibration.

This is not a natural looking earthquake.

Narrator: The signal repeats every
morning at 11 a.M., except on sundays.

The timing of the signal told us
it had to be created by humans.

Nature doesn't follow business hours.

Narrator: This pattern of signal
carries on for several weeks.

With little progress
in finding out what it is,

Scientists turned their
efforts to finding out

Where the signal is coming from.

One of the things that we
can do with seismometers

Is we can triangulate where the source is.

With enough time and enough
signals and enough stations,

Geophysicists were able to backtrack

The exact pinpoint
location of the source...

The mcalester army ammunition plant.

Dr. Procter: What they're
doing at the ammunition factory

Is they're destroying old ordinances.

And so they do it every
day except on Sunday,

Which matched the pattern at 11 a.M.,

And at 20 second increments

So that you don't get this rippling effect.

I think that they were probably surprised

That the seismometers across
the state were picking it up.

Narrator: But why would these
small controlled explosions

Be detected by
seismometers across the state?

One theory is that the seismometers

Are actually picking up sound waves.

Sound is what we perceive
as vibrations in the air,

But sound travels through all mediums.

A good example is if you go
put your ear on the railroad track

And you can hear the
train through the metal.

Earthquakes are just really, really big,

Really, really low-amplitude sound waves

Traveling through the ground.

So really what a seismograph is...

It's just a microphone

That picks up really,
really large-scale sound.

Narrator: But if these are sound waves,

They're not taking a direct
route to the seismometers.

This event was only surface waves.

And traveling just through the surface

Created this unusual complication...

Every time you had
these surface earthquakes,

It was vibrating the air

And the air would send
out an acoustic wave sound,

Which would then vibrate the ground

And regenerate more of the signal

At the same frequency

Because it's all getting
driven the same way.

Phoenix: And so it's not hard to
imagine an explosion being picked up

Even hundreds of miles away.

Narrator: The work the seismologists
are doing has bigger ramifications

Than just the oklahoma waves.

In the age of nuclear weapons,

There are many
detonations we can't explain.

It's critical to determine the difference

Between what is natural

And what humanity is responsible for.

Phoenix: We have some
amazing arrays of sensors now

That are finely tuned
and are monitored 24/7.

They're always recording information

Which is always being analyzed
by computers and humans

To ensure that nothing
falls through the cracks.

So we are at a point with our
understanding of seismology

Where we can actually
really clearly figure out

Most of the time

Where things come from
and what they likely are.

100 years ago, we didn't
have all the equipment

That we have today,
and that's what science is.

The science is... I have this phenomena,

I don't know what it is,

Let's research and build a
knowledge base around it.

And then eventually we get to the point

Where we can detect these things

And work towards a set of
hypotheses that make sense

And hopefully narrow it
down at the end of the day

To the single hypothesis
that you can then conclude

This is likely what happened.