WEBVTT 00:00:06.14 --> 00:00:08.13 [ Vera ] See how strong the wind is? 00:00:16.01 --> 00:00:21.06 [ Vera ] People are civilised, thinking they've cut themselves off from nature. 00:00:21.07 --> 00:00:24.08 [ Vera ] But nature's reminded them about itself. 00:00:27.06 --> 00:00:30.20 [ Vasily ] The purpose of tomorrow's expedition is, 00:00:30.21 --> 00:00:33.14 to visit as many sites as possible. 00:00:33.21 --> 00:00:37.18 [ Vasily ] These sites are of exceptional interest. 00:00:38.12 --> 00:00:42.20 [ Vasily ] One was discovered by accident by a helicopter. 00:00:42.21 --> 00:00:49.09 [ Vasily ] Everyone's attention was drawn to a huge crater, one of the most dangerous. 00:00:51.23 --> 00:00:53.20 [ Vera ] Why make all this fuss? 00:00:54.05 --> 00:00:56.12 [ Vera ] If there's a hole in the ground, 00:00:56.13 --> 00:00:58.20 it means it was meant to happen. 00:00:58.21 --> 00:01:01.23 [ Vera ] And making a fuss only attracts strangers. 00:01:03.10 --> 00:01:07.03 [ Vera ] Man is far from learning the mysteries of nature. 00:01:07.04 --> 00:01:13.01 [ Vera ] Man shouldn't beat his chest saying he's discovered and achieved everything. 00:01:13.02 --> 00:01:15.00 [ Vera ] He's achieved nothing. 00:01:16.06 --> 00:01:22.00 [ Vasily ] Local legends say the earth can open up. 00:01:24.00 --> 00:01:28.00 [ Vasily ] For the people it was always a mystical phenomenon. 00:01:28.22 --> 00:01:31.23 [ Vasily ] They sacrificed deer to the holes. 00:01:33.06 --> 00:01:37.19 [ Vasily ] Let's hope we can solve the mystery of these sites. 00:01:40.07 --> 00:01:44.23 MEETING WITH NATURE THE PERMAFROST MYSTERY 00:01:48.01 --> 00:01:51.09 [ VO ] The frozen Yamal peninsula. The land of permafrost. 00:01:51.21 --> 00:01:57.04 [ VO ] If temperatures here increased, even a little, the entire area might be completely submerged. 00:01:57.10 --> 00:02:01.01 [ VO ] Some forecast suggest that could happen by 2050. 00:02:01.02 --> 00:02:03.18 [ VO ] Even now the landscape is starting to change. 00:02:03.23 --> 00:02:06.12 [ VO ] New lakes appear and then vanish. 00:02:06.13 --> 00:02:08.00 [ Vasily Bogoyavlensky Professor, Russian State University of Oil and Gas ] 00:02:08.00 --> 00:02:11.08 [ Vasily ] We need to know the contours on the bottom, 00:02:11.09 --> 00:02:14.01 and see the craters going down below. 00:02:14.02 --> 00:02:17.05 [ Vasily ] So we need miniature, compact equipment, 00:02:17.06 --> 00:02:18.23 echo-sound devices, 00:02:19.00 --> 00:02:23.15 which will tell us in 5 minutes if this lake is of any interest to us. 00:02:23.19 --> 00:02:25.10 [ Man ] It's 5 metres deep. 00:02:26.03 --> 00:02:27.14 [ Vasily ] Quite big! 00:02:27.15 --> 00:02:29.20 [ Vasily ] Like a two-storey house. 00:02:29.23 --> 00:02:33.15 [ Vasily ] But we actually expect it to be much deeper. 00:02:49.16 --> 00:02:53.21 [ VO ] In 2015, scientists asked local residents to let them know about 00:02:53.22 --> 00:02:57.18 any changes to the landscape, such as new craters or lakes. 00:02:59.13 --> 00:03:03.17 [ VO ] Ecologist Sergey Hudi, was one of the first to answer the call. 00:03:04.16 --> 00:03:07.02 [ VO ] He's travelling to the Tundra because he wants 00:03:07.02 --> 00:03:09.05 to see for himself how the landscape has changed, 00:03:09.07 --> 00:03:12.05 along the route taken by his dear-herding friends each year. 00:03:18.11 --> 00:03:20.19 [ VO ] Our production crew accompanies Sergey for the trip. 00:03:46.21 --> 00:03:49.05 [ VO ] Sergei was born and bred in the Tundra, 00:03:49.11 --> 00:03:51.19 and so he knows the easiest path from place to place. 00:03:58.23 --> 00:04:03.07 [ VO ] It's 20 kilometres from the railway to the campsite beside the Yuribey River. 00:04:16.22 --> 00:04:18.08 [ Sergey Hudi, ecologist ] 00:04:18.10 --> 00:04:21.05 The fluidity's quite obvious here. 00:04:21.11 --> 00:04:24.05 [ Sergey ] In spring, the water goes up to there. 00:04:24.06 --> 00:04:25.10 [ Sergey ] In Spring. 00:04:25.12 --> 00:04:28.15 [ Sergey ] And the water erodes the ground even more. 00:04:31.16 --> 00:04:35.08 [ VO ] What the nomads have to say, puzzles Sergei from the very beginning. 00:04:36.00 --> 00:04:39.06 [ VO ] Not only has the river changed course, but one of the lakes 00:04:39.06 --> 00:04:42.15 they drive their deer by every year has simply disappeared. 00:04:45.02 --> 00:04:47.15 [ VO ] The Nenets have no explanation for it, 00:04:47.16 --> 00:04:50.10 so they turn to ancestral wisdom for answers. 00:04:50.23 --> 00:04:55.15 [ VO ] That enables them not just to see nature, but to hear what it has to say. 00:04:55.19 --> 00:04:58.18 [ Sergey ] After this ritual you really feel cleansed. 00:05:01.14 --> 00:05:05.08 [ Sergey ] When I, or anyone, enters the tent as a guest, 00:05:06.08 --> 00:05:09.17 he should come with a clean soul and peace. 00:05:45.19 --> 00:05:50.16 [ VO ] Every year, deer herders follow the same route to the north of Yamal and then back again. 00:05:52.05 --> 00:05:59.12 [ VO ] The animals will only be able to get enough feed from the tundra if they're constantly moving, churning up the earth with their hooves as they travel. 00:06:00.23 --> 00:06:05.20 [ VO ] Sergei has his own deer herd, whose care he's entrusted to his friend, Nyadu Khudi. 00:06:18.03 --> 00:06:22.05 [ VO ] In 2014, when another huge crater appeared in Yamal, 00:06:22.15 --> 00:06:25.11 trouble arrived with it in the form of deer plague. 00:06:26.07 --> 00:06:28.18 [ VO ] There's no evidence that the two events are connected, 00:06:28.19 --> 00:06:30.15 but the Nenets believe that they are. 00:06:32.00 --> 00:06:34.14 [ VO ] That autumn, it started to rain heavily. 00:06:34.15 --> 00:06:39.00 [ VO ] Then the rain started to freeze and became a heavy snowfall. 00:06:39.09 --> 00:06:42.14 [ VO ] The deer hadn't built up the strength needed to find food. 00:06:43.06 --> 00:06:46.04 [ VO ] Niardu's herd then numbered 3,000. 00:06:46.04 --> 00:06:48.12 [ VO ] Now it's half that number. 00:06:54.12 --> 00:06:58.01 [ Nyadu Hudi,reindeer herder ] 00:06:58.03 --> 00:07:01.09 [ Nyadu ] I personally had 500 head, 00:07:01.10 --> 00:07:03.09 now there's only 100-odd. 00:07:03.12 --> 00:07:07.20 [ Nyadu ] That was the damage, for our group in general too. 00:07:08.00 --> 00:07:10.03 [ Natalya Hudi, Nyadu Hudi’s wife ] It must be some punishment. 00:07:10.04 --> 00:07:12.01 God must be punishing us. 00:07:12.02 --> 00:07:15.05 [ Natalya ] We must have done something wrong. 00:07:15.06 --> 00:07:18.10 [ Natalya ] You're no one in the tundra without deer. 00:07:18.16 --> 00:07:23.18 [ Natalya ] There are no professions in the tundra, only deer breeding, that's it. 00:07:25.09 --> 00:07:28.08 [ VO ] Venison is the basic staple of the Nenets diet. 00:07:28.09 --> 00:07:35.00 [ VO ] But they don't slaughter adult deer in summer because they can't be skinned after they've shed their winter coats. 00:07:35.00 --> 00:07:39.09 [ VO ] Instead, the younger ones are killed for food and to appease nature. 00:08:30.23 --> 00:08:33.16 [ VO ] The Nenets treat lakes with special respect. 00:08:33.17 --> 00:08:37.07 [ VO ] A sacrifice must be made to nature if lakes at a teem with fish 00:08:37.08 --> 00:08:40.05 and the water persuaded not to take a man's life. 00:08:40.06 --> 00:08:44.21 [ VO ] The sacrifice usually consists of deer blood and food left on the shore. 00:09:02.21 --> 00:09:05.23 [ VO ] There are about 300,000 lakes in Yamal. 00:09:05.23 --> 00:09:10.09 [ VO ] The origin of many of them is unknown and there are no fish in some. 00:09:11.09 --> 00:09:14.09 [ VO ] For Nyadu Hudi, today has been lucky. 00:09:14.16 --> 00:09:17.13 [ VO ] The lake is bountiful and provides him with a good catch. 00:09:20.09 --> 00:09:26.17 [ VO ] The most valuable part of the hall is called broad white fish, which the nomads eats raw. 00:09:45.08 --> 00:09:49.07 [ VO ] Vera Khorotetto likes to keep the old Nenets traditions alive. 00:09:49.22 --> 00:09:54.06 [ VO ] She does live close to civilization but will never exchange her tent for a flat. 00:09:55.05 --> 00:09:58.14 [ VO ] She watched with her own eyes as a lake appeared here. 00:09:59.05 --> 00:10:02.22 [ VO ] That was during yet another assault on the tundra by the advance of civilization, 00:10:02.22 --> 00:10:05.11 when construction of Panaevsk village began. 00:10:06.04 --> 00:10:09.17 [ Vera Horotetto, ethnographer ] That was no lake, they were larches. 00:10:09.18 --> 00:10:12.11 [ Vera ] Once there was a rattle at night, 00:10:12.12 --> 00:10:15.15 the ground turned upside down like a saucer. 00:10:15.16 --> 00:10:18.09 [ Vera ] Trees were down and their roots up. 00:10:18.20 --> 00:10:21.19 [ Vera ] For three days there was crater here. 00:10:21.20 --> 00:10:23.23 [ Vera ] People kept looking inside. 00:10:24.00 --> 00:10:26.11 [ Vera ] On the 4th day, there was a rattle. 00:10:26.12 --> 00:10:32.12 [ Vera ] The lake that had been on the left moved and all the water went with it. 00:10:32.13 --> 00:10:37.22 [ Vera ] No one uses the water to drink or, for household needs. This lake's sacred. 00:10:41.15 --> 00:10:43.14 [ Vera ] It's inexplicable. 00:10:43.18 --> 00:10:50.20 [ Vera ] It wasn't man, but forces of the earth, the sky, or maybe, from beneath. 00:10:54.20 --> 00:10:58.00 [ Vera ] The holes in the ground… No one asks why. 00:10:58.01 --> 00:11:00.13 [ Vera ] It appeared because it wanted to. 00:11:00.14 --> 00:11:02.07 [ Vera ] There are witnesses. 00:11:02.08 --> 00:11:05.22 [ Vera ] One woman saw the master of the lake herself. 00:11:05.23 --> 00:11:08.00 [ Vera ] I asked what he looked like. 00:11:08.00 --> 00:11:10.00 [ Vera ] She said he was very scary. 00:11:48.23 --> 00:11:50.15 [ Voice ] It fills very fast. 00:11:52.04 --> 00:11:54.03 [ Voice 1 ] Hard to recognise. [ Voice ] Yes. 00:11:54.12 --> 00:11:56.03 [ Voice ] It'll become a lake. 00:12:06.01 --> 00:12:07.08 [ Voice ] Look! Look! 00:12:08.04 --> 00:12:11.02 [ Voice ] We just want to show how it's collapsing. 00:12:13.16 --> 00:12:15.02 [ Voice ] Ok, ok. [ Voice 1 ] Enough. 00:12:15.03 --> 00:12:16.09 [ Voice ] Let it go! 00:12:28.18 --> 00:12:31.08 [ Voice ] You'll fall! That's an overhang! 00:12:31.09 --> 00:12:36.18 [ Voice ] See, it says the water temperature is 2 degrees, and it's 46 metres deep. 00:12:36.20 --> 00:12:39.05 [ Vasily Bogoyavlensky, Professor, Russian State University of Oil and Gas ] 00:12:39.06 --> 00:12:42.23 [ Vasily ] You can see the rock crumbling, 00:12:43.04 --> 00:12:46.09 and the crater expanding. 00:12:46.14 --> 00:12:48.18 [ Vasily ] It can be called a lake now. 00:12:48.19 --> 00:12:50.16 [ Vasily ] Compared to last year, 00:12:50.17 --> 00:12:53.22 the water level is 25-30 metres higher. 00:12:55.00 --> 00:12:57.18 [ Vasily ] Probes show there were no UFOs here, 00:12:57.19 --> 00:12:59.21 no meteorites, 00:12:59.22 --> 00:13:03.00 no unusual objects here, 00:13:03.02 --> 00:13:05.18 except a possible gas escape. 00:13:15.05 --> 00:13:18.10 [ Vladimir Pushkarev, Director, Russian arctic exploration center ] 00:13:18.11 --> 00:13:23.18 [ Vladimir ] You fly for many miles, find this and you wonder how could this happen. 00:13:23.19 --> 00:13:29.09 [ Vladimir ] It's just quietly rumbling now, but the lumps used to fall from such a height, 00:13:29.10 --> 00:13:31.18 it sounded like a big tube! 00:13:35.05 --> 00:13:37.15 [ Vladimir ] And the echo was so strong! 00:13:39.01 --> 00:13:42.04 [ Vladimir ] Overall it felt quite depressing. 00:13:46.08 --> 00:13:50.00 [ Vladimir ] Our first expedition was in July 2014. 00:13:50.21 --> 00:13:53.17 [ Vladimir ] After visiting the site we realised, 00:13:53.18 --> 00:13:56.19 we'd have to visit it again in November, 00:13:56.20 --> 00:13:58.22 when winter is approaching 00:13:58.23 --> 00:14:01.06 and the soil starts freezing, 00:14:03.09 --> 00:14:05.18 and you could climb down safely, 00:14:06.21 --> 00:14:11.00 and work to gather information. 00:14:13.03 --> 00:14:16.01 [ Vladimir ] It was scary going down the first time. 00:14:16.02 --> 00:14:17.22 [ Voice ] Attention! A man above! 00:14:17.23 --> 00:14:21.13 [ Vladimir ] First, we checked if the gas level was dangerous. 00:14:21.15 --> 00:14:27.07 [ Vladimir ] When we got to the bottom, we didn't know if the ice was strong enough. 00:14:29.23 --> 00:14:31.12 [ Vladimir ] It was mesmerizing. 00:14:31.13 --> 00:14:34.03 [ Vladimir ] It felt as if we were on Mars, 00:14:34.04 --> 00:14:36.03 or some other planet. 00:14:48.04 --> 00:14:53.21 [ Vladimir ] We collected the probes, which enable us to take one step further in our research. 00:14:54.09 --> 00:14:58.10 [ Vladimir ] With time these probes become very important. 00:15:03.03 --> 00:15:04.07 [ Voice ] Wow! 00:15:04.19 --> 00:15:07.08 [ Local ] How deep is it? [ Man ] 60 metres. 00:15:08.20 --> 00:15:13.02 [ VO ] The deer herders from Nyadu Hudi's group have never seen these shots before. 00:15:13.04 --> 00:15:14.11 And this is now… 00:15:14.12 --> 00:15:18.10 [ Local ] How did it appear? Was it an outburst? [ Man ] It's a mystery. 00:15:18.19 --> 00:15:20.05 [ Local ] So smooth… 00:15:20.06 --> 00:15:24.00 as if it's been specially drilled! 00:15:24.15 --> 00:15:29.03 [ Local ] You wake up one day and the neighbour's tent has disappeared! 00:15:30.23 --> 00:15:32.06 [ Local ] It flew away! 00:15:32.07 --> 00:15:34.11 [ Local ] The neighbour disappeared! 00:15:36.00 --> 00:15:39.20 [ Local ] It was an outburst or...? [ Man ] Yeah, it's a crater. 00:15:42.09 --> 00:15:45.06 [ VO ] The nomads do recall seeing something similar in the past. 00:15:45.08 --> 00:15:48.10 [ Local ] There's a freshwater lake, 00:15:50.12 --> 00:15:53.06 about 1,5 metres deep, 00:15:53.22 --> 00:15:57.18 but if you go 10 metres away, it can get 120 metres deep! 00:15:58.10 --> 00:16:02.08 [ Man ] There are 8 more sites like this. [ Local ] It's getting scary. 00:16:21.14 --> 00:16:26.09 [ VO ] The Nenets haven't seen hail like this, especially in the middle of summer, for at least 30 years. 00:16:26.18 --> 00:16:32.02 [ Man ] The Yamal Peninsula, July 17, 2015. 00:17:04.08 --> 00:17:06.01 [ Sergey ] The purest water! 00:17:18.16 --> 00:17:20.00 [ Nyadu ] Ice-cold water! 00:17:56.15 --> 00:17:58.05 [ Vera ] Beautiful! 00:18:23.04 --> 00:18:27.22 [ Vera ] The Nenets aren't used to talking much or making a fuss. 00:18:28.09 --> 00:18:31.14 [ Vera ] There are many such landslides in the North. 00:18:31.15 --> 00:18:35.19 [ Vera ] There are mudflows, earth movements, holes in the ground. 00:18:36.00 --> 00:18:39.21 [ Vera ] If they reported them all, there'd be many such cases. 00:18:39.22 --> 00:18:44.12 [ Vera ] In one camp, they wanted to pitch a tent at the water's edge. 00:18:44.13 --> 00:18:48.15 [ Vera ] Then one of the elders said, 'Let's set it up further.' 00:18:48.18 --> 00:18:52.20 [ Vera ] They did and that night there was a terrible boom. 00:18:52.21 --> 00:18:55.02 They leaped from the tent, 00:18:55.03 --> 00:19:00.16 and just five steps from the last sleigh the earth had fallen to the lake! 00:19:07.05 --> 00:19:11.21 [ VO ] Local hunter Nyadma Puyko sees more land falling into lakes and rivers every day. 00:19:13.21 --> 00:19:17.11 [ VO ] He agrees to give Sergey Hudi a lift to the railway. 00:19:28.09 --> 00:19:30.07 [ VO ] Nyadma's just had a good day. 00:19:30.14 --> 00:19:32.17 [ VO ] He's just caught a bearded seal. 00:19:33.02 --> 00:19:36.10 [ VO ] People who live on the tundra will never pass an opportunity like that. 00:19:41.10 --> 00:19:46.02 [ VO ] They believe that the fat from this animal helps fight off colds better than any modern medicine. 00:19:58.16 --> 00:20:03.21 [ VO ] Sergey Hudi is returning to Salekhard to record the landscape changes that have taken place over the last year. 00:20:05.13 --> 00:20:08.06 [ VO ] Our film crew stays with the hunter. 00:20:13.11 --> 00:20:16.12 [ VO ] They'll go with Nyadma to see another mysterious lake. 00:20:17.19 --> 00:20:20.04 [ VO ] One that hasn't been researched to any great extent. 00:21:46.22 --> 00:21:48.20 [ Nyadma ] See the teeth? 00:21:49.06 --> 00:21:51.13 [ Voice ] Good grief… [ Nyadma ] Molars! 00:21:52.11 --> 00:21:56.00 [ Voice ] Were they discovered long ago? [ Nyadma ] Last year. 00:21:56.16 --> 00:22:00.16 [ Nyadma Puyko, hunter ] Last year my brother set up a tent here. My older brother. 00:22:00.20 --> 00:22:02.19 [ Nyadma ] He usually puts nets here. 00:22:02.20 --> 00:22:04.11 [ Nyadma ] He went to check them. 00:22:04.19 --> 00:22:08.16 [ Nyadma ] Walking on the shore he stumbled on a mammoth's tusk. 00:22:08.17 --> 00:22:10.22 It weighed about 80 kilos! 00:22:11.16 --> 00:22:15.09 [ Nyadma ] He collected the bones and laid them out here, 00:22:15.10 --> 00:22:18.06 so that people could admire them! 00:22:18.07 --> 00:22:21.15 [ Nyadma ] The old people say you shouldn't take bones. 00:22:26.15 --> 00:22:31.22 [ Nyadma ] If you take a tusk, you should kill a deer, on the spot where you found it. 00:22:31.23 --> 00:22:36.02 [ Nyadma ] You should make an offering so nothing bad can come of it. 00:22:36.03 --> 00:22:37.17 [ Nyadma ] If you find a tusk, 00:22:37.18 --> 00:22:41.18 someone will die in the family within two or three years. 00:22:42.15 --> 00:22:47.00 [ Nyadma ] That's because they don't belong to us but to the underworld. 00:23:00.04 --> 00:23:03.21 [ Vasily ] From space we can see that around the bigger lake, 00:23:03.22 --> 00:23:06.16 that's around 100 by 50 metres in size, 00:23:06.17 --> 00:23:10.01 there are more than 30 small ones. 00:23:11.02 --> 00:23:15.08 [ Vasily ] We assume each of them had gas escapes. 00:23:22.04 --> 00:23:24.13 [ Vasily ] Half a metre there, a metre here. 00:23:29.06 --> 00:23:31.22 [ Vasily ] Surprising that it's shallow there. 00:23:40.11 --> 00:23:44.16 [ VO ] Craters like this usually appear in areas that are dotted with small hills. 00:23:45.08 --> 00:23:49.14 [ VO ] A more scientific name for them is permafrost mounds. 00:23:49.21 --> 00:23:54.08 [ VO ] Scientists say it's because of a natural process that expels gas from the ground. 00:23:55.11 --> 00:23:59.07 [ VO ] The Earth is a living organism and so, it releases what it can't hold. 00:23:59.15 --> 00:24:05.12 [ VO ] During our expedition new mounds were discovered which in time will turn into more craters. 00:24:05.21 --> 00:24:08.10 [ Vasily ] We have no doubt that hundreds, 00:24:08.11 --> 00:24:12.20 and maybe even thousands of lakes on the peninsula, 00:24:12.21 --> 00:24:18.02 have the same origin as this crater, formed by gas escapes. 00:24:18.06 --> 00:24:24.00 [ Vasily ] We can see very quickly, literally in two years, how such craters turn onto lakes, 00:24:24.07 --> 00:24:30.15 and I think in five to ten years this lake won't be any different from the neighbouring lakes. 00:24:37.03 --> 00:24:43.19 [ VO ] It takes about an hour or two to take down the tents and pack up and prepare the deer herd to move on. 00:24:48.14 --> 00:24:52.17 [ VO ] Nyad’s destination a long way to the north of the peninsula, 00:24:53.17 --> 00:24:56.07 along the way there are many camps, 00:24:56.08 --> 00:25:02.05 they'll probably be beside lakes that deer herders have never seen before. 00:25:28.18 --> 00:25:32.16 [ Vera ] My eight deer are happily running in the sun… 00:25:33.06 --> 00:25:35.14 [ Vera ] My mother will stay here. 00:25:37.18 --> 00:25:41.00 [ Vera ] Two tears have silently fallen from my eyes. 00:25:41.09 --> 00:25:45.07 [ Vera ] I thought she would feel bad in the other world, 00:25:45.11 --> 00:25:49.00 but I can see her white hat shining under the sun… 00:25:55.17 --> 00:25:58.16 [ Vera ] The underground world is alien to man. 00:25:58.17 --> 00:26:02.21 [ Vera ] If a Nenets achieves what he is meant to in life, 00:26:02.22 --> 00:26:06.00 he'll never go to the underground world.