00:00There is a mysterious island that appears and disappears as if by magic.
00:05Just like Schrödinger's cat, Schrödinger's island exists and does not exist at the same time.
00:10Officially, it is called Sandy Island, and it has appeared on maps, but it has never existed in reality.
00:18Australian scientists decided to solve the mystery once and for all,
00:23by embarking on the trail of this unspeakable archipelago.
00:26But when they reached the available coordinates, they only found waves of an infinite blue,
00:32as if the island was playing hide-and-seek with them.
00:35This story dates back to 1876.
00:38A whaler crossing the region reported the presence of an island.
00:42The one who saw it said it was more than 24 kilometers long, from north to south,
00:47and about 5 kilometers wide, or about the size of Manhattan, not at all tiny.
00:53But every time researchers went to the region, they found nothing.
00:57In 1974, an official mission from New Caledonia
01:02declared that Sandy Island simply did not exist, and therefore excluded it from all maps.
01:08Everyone then continued to live their lives,
01:11until it was noticed that the island appeared on Google Earth in the form of a black spot.
01:16In 2012, another Australian expedition went there to try to get an explanation.
01:23Finally, they wrote down the funeral homage of the lost island, and clarified the situation for all curious.
01:29First of all, in the 19th century, mapping was not what it became later.
01:34It was easy to go wrong in the coordinates.
01:37Then, there is the fact that the region is very active on the volcanic level.
01:42It is likely that lava has cooled down and created a kind of raft.
01:46Let us now imagine that the whaler passed through there,
01:49that he saw the volcanic raft, and that he believed, from afar, that it was an island.
01:54This is of course only a supposition.
01:58Humans have ventured very far around the world,
02:01and it may have seemed, at one point, that we had explored every nook and cranny of our planet.
02:07But when Mount Liko appeared on Google Earth,
02:10scientists suddenly became very enthusiastic.
02:13This wonder hidden north of Mozambique is not an ordinary tropical forest.
02:18It is nestled inside a volcano.
02:20Determined to confirm the existence of this mysterious forest,
02:24the experts have gathered a team of high-level scientists and specialists from all over the world.
02:30The trip to Mount Liko was not easy.
02:33An impressive vertical rocky ascent stood between them and the forest.
02:38But after six years of planning and preparation, they were finally ready to take up the challenge.
02:44Once there, they noticed that the site was even more beautiful than they had imagined.
02:50The place looked like a perfectly maintained garden.
02:53The forest seemed unique, very different from other tropical forests.
02:58There were incredibly large caterpillars and dangerous-looking ones.
03:02And they even found ancient skins and evidence of an intact human ecosystem.
03:07Oh!
03:09Terra incognita means unknown land.
03:12One of the largest unknown territories, but in the process of unveiling,
03:15is the one located under the ice cap of Antarctica.
03:18Under the snowy surface hides an entirely new world,
03:21with canyons, watercourses and lakes that scientists are currently working on mapping.
03:27We can't help but wonder if there really is liquid water under the frozen surface of Antarctica.
03:33Yes, it is possible.
03:35Water can exist in a liquid state thanks to pressure,
03:38and also thanks to the heat emanating from the interior of the Earth.
03:41Thus, we find wonders like the famous Vostok Lake.
03:45We don't see it, but the Vostok Lake is right here.
03:49Located in eastern Antarctica, it is located under four kilometers of thick ice.
03:54This huge lake has an area of about 12,500 square kilometers.
03:59We were only able to discover it with the help of cutting-edge technologies such as seismic probes and radars.
04:04According to scientists, this lake has probably existed for about 15 million years.
04:11Bhutan is known to be, among others, the happiest country in all of Asia.
04:16But it has long kept a hidden treasure,
04:18one of the highest unclimbed mountains in the world,
04:21the Gankar Puensum.
04:23For your information, Bhutan is nestled in the glorious mountains of the Himalayas.
04:27Climbing enthusiasts were therefore very enthusiastic when they discovered a mountain still virgin.
04:32Imagine that you are the first person to climb an unexplored summit.
04:36This will certainly guarantee you a place in the Guinness Book of Records.
04:40It is a Bhutanese law that has preserved this mountain for a long time.
04:44For the inhabitants of the region, its summit is a sacred site,
04:47surrounded by mystery and legend.
04:50According to one of their beliefs, the sacred character of climbing a mountain
04:54does not lie in reaching its summit,
04:56but in truly communicating with nature.
05:00It must be admitted that Westerners see things differently.
05:05If you find yourself in New York,
05:07do not miss visiting the Agloe General Store.
05:10It will take you a while to get around the Catskills,
05:13but you will end up finding this magnificent and grandiose nothing at all.
05:16Agloe is one of the most famous paper cities in America,
05:19that is to say a fake city.
05:21But its history is different from that of Sandy Island.
05:24The city of Agloe never existed, and it was not a mistake.
05:28The cartographers have an old method to prevent plagiarism.
05:31They add fake cities to their maps to find out if someone has copied their work.
05:35What they did not expect was that this practice degenerates completely.
05:40It is said that one day, in a gas station,
05:43a man bought a map with the city of Agloe on it.
05:46This person then decided to open a store in this place
05:50and to call it the Agloe General Store.
05:52According to the rumor, this owner would have been prosecuted by the authors of the map.
05:57Anyway, all this lasted a few years,
06:00then it became a national joke.
06:02Americans come from all over the country
06:05to take a picture of the welcome sign of the fake city.
06:09And then there is the island of Bermeja, located in the Gulf of Mexico.
06:13This bizarre island appears on many maps of the 16th and 17th centuries.
06:17It was probably drawn by Spanish explorers.
06:21Of course, its exact location varies from one map to another.
06:24Its very name sometimes appeared in a different form.
06:28Vermeja.
06:29But we were sure of its existence.
06:31The island of Bermeja appeared for the last time on a Mexican map from 1921.
06:37And then, poof!
06:39It disappeared forever.
06:41People started to wonder.
06:43Did the island sink?
06:45Was it destroyed?
06:46In 2009, three official missions were launched to search for the island.
06:51High-tech technologies were used to explore the Mexican seabed,
06:56but Bermeja remained untraceable.
06:58The researchers then came up with a few hypotheses.
07:01Let's take a look at one of them.
07:03The island would have been invented by explorers of the time
07:05to deceive their enemies in their quest for lands and treasures.
07:08It seems plausible.
07:11Let's take a look at Rio de Janeiro.
07:13In the past, the city was full of informal territories.
07:16These places are known as slums, or favelas.
07:20They are like mini-cities inside the big city.
07:23Some favelas are known to be particularly disadvantaged.
07:26The inhabitants do not benefit from the same advantages as other citizens,
07:30such as the sewage system and the collection of waste.
07:33These slums developed so rapidly
07:36that the government did not have time to follow their evolution.
07:39Today, it is usually the inhabitants themselves who name the streets,
07:43and they manage with what they have at their disposal.
07:46One of the largest slums in Brazil is located in Rio de Janeiro,
07:50La Rocinha.
07:51It was only recognized as a neighborhood by the local government in the 1990s.
07:57Our own ocean floor is less mapped than Venus, Mars and the Moon.
08:02In fact, 95% of our oceans are still unexplored.
08:06Strange, isn't it?
08:08We have the necessary technology,
08:10which consists mainly of ultrasonic surveys,
08:14that is, sending sound waves to the bottom of the ocean
08:18and recording what they send back to us.
08:20One of the main advantages of a more in-depth mapping of the seabed
08:24would be a better knowledge of the dangers that threaten us,
08:28such as earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions.
08:32In addition, we still know so little about marine life
08:36that it could give us a glimpse of the true dynamics of our aquatic ecosystems.
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