Unique Earth: The Essence of Water | Full Documentary

the Blue Planet

the Earth owes its name to water

it was in the oceans that life

originated

only water is found on Earth in three

states liquid solid

and gaseous

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water shapes landscapes

deep Canyons cut into the Rock by

waterfalls and rivers

as well as icy polar landscapes

hydrogen and oxygen combine to form H2O

water

one of the world's smallest molecules

water is the essence of life but as

water is Mankind's most precious good 70

of the earth's surface is covered with

liquid water

water makes our Earth unique

virtually no other substance has been as

well researched yet still poses so many

questions

scientists worldwide are striving to

unlock the secrets of water

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foreign

islands and countless coral reefs make

up the Bahamas a natural landscape and

Island Paradise in the Atlantic

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here the sea is often only a few meters

deep

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but in many places behind the coral

reefs the seabed plunges steeply to a

depth of up to four kilometers

great Abaco is one of the biggest

islands in the north of the Bahamas

the two marine biologists Tom Iliff and

Uli Kuntz are on their way to a

mysterious location in its interior

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just behind the pine forests on Abaco

Island lies a hidden world

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the entrance is well concealed and for

good reason diving here is dangerous and

only trained cave divers are allowed

into the water

thank you

Ryan K cook probably knows the cave

world of the Bahamas better than anyone

else

he will guide the two Marine researchers

on their expedition

I'm going into places that scientists

have not normally gone so there's a

significant number of

exploration cave divers who are going in

and studying these caves but very few of

them are scientists so I want to go in I

want to see what this environment is

like and what animals are living there

foreign

leads into the underworld at first the

men dive through a layer of fresh water

the lifeline is the diver's life

insurance only with its help will they

be able to find their way back

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and runs for hundreds of kilometers

through large parts of the island world

of the Bahamas

whole areas are still completely

unexplored a challenge for scientists

the researchers have passed right

through the fresh water layer

down here they're swimming in pure sea

water

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stalactites thousands of years old form

a fascinating world of Their Own

progress is slow the men know that one

wrong kick with their fins could destroy

the formations

all these structures formed when the

caves were still dry

in the course of time the most bizarre

shapes emerged they're conserved by

clear water which is extremely low in

oxygen

this is a time capsule fossils thousands

of years old are found here again and

again

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but how was such a unique Underwater

World able to form at all

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during the Ice Age glaciers spread

worldwide the sea level fell by up to

130 meters in the Bahamas too

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parts of the reef which forms the

Island's Bedrock dried out

rain eroded cracks in the Limestone and

in the course of time an extensive cave

network was created

collapsed cave ceilings provide

entrances to the Underwater World

towards the end of the Ice Age the sea

level rose again flooding the caves and

creating the characteristic blue holes

most blue holes have one thing in common

two aquatic worlds fresh water and sea

water located one above the other

the fresh water here is like an iceberg

we think of an iceberg floating out in

the ocean

below our feet is a liquid Iceberg it's

the fresh water and so being lighter it

floats on the heavier salt water

underneath so there's basically an

extent of the ocean penetrating in and

under every single island in the Bahamas

today there are vast numbers of these

circular holes here many are

interconnected Underground

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here in Sawmill sync the researchers are

swimming through a layer containing

toxic hydrogen sulfide a gas which in

high concentrations is dangerous for

divers

directly beneath is a magical divide

called a halocline

fresh water lies above it and sea water

which is heavier Lies Beneath it

The Divide seems paper thin yet it

separates the two aquatic worlds

perfectly

but why can't fish and other organisms

Simply Swim through the halocline

well sea water is saltier than a fish

and salt attracts water as a result the

fish constantly loses water through its

skin so it has to drink but every

mouthful of water also contains salt and

that has to be expelled again via the

fish's gills a complex procedure

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in contrast a fish living above the

halocline is saltier than its

environment so water permanently

threatens to flood its body it doesn't

drink yet it still has to expel the

water which penetrates through its skin

that's why the two will never meet even

though they live in the same cave

in this confined space a laboratory of

evolution has emerged

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remipedes for instance are found only in

a few places on our planet

indeed these remarkable creatures were

not discovered until the late 1970s Tom

Iliff is the expert on this animal group

remipedes live in salt water so they can

only be brought to the surface through

the freshwater layer in sealed tubes

foreign

the Excursion into the Labyrinth of

caves is over

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[Applause]

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but the day's work isn't over for the

scientists they want to examine their

valuable samples straight away

remipedes look like centipedes but they

belong to the crustacean family

they could even be a primeval form of

crab

in their dark habitat during the course

of evolution they have lost their eyes

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worldwide there are countless species of

remipede Tom Iliff has been studying

these creatures for over 20 years

are really intriguing animal their

Distribution on both sides of the

Atlantic suggest that they've been

living in caves since the formation of

the Atlantic and actually predate the

extinction of the dinosaurs maybe if

dinosaurs lived in caves they'd be

around too

the tiny Crustaceans have been around

from time immemorial but because of

their hidden way of life they were only

discovered very late

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the creatures are helping scientists to

trace the Earth's development they are

one of many pieces of the puzzle

today the Atlantic is a huge ocean which

separates continents the Earth's crust

is permanently moving something that can

be observed particularly well in Iceland

this North Atlantic Island lies

precisely on a fissure between two

continental plates

here the Eurasian and the North American

tectonic plates are forced apart

only in Iceland is it possible to dive

between the continents

glacier water fills the fissures

creating a special habitat and a unique

diving location

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with one hand in America so to speak and

the other in Europe

millions of years ago the whole Atlantic

was just such a fissure between the

continents

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the bowels of the earth enormous forces

are at work permanently reshaping our

planet

in the Atlantic they are causing the

seabed to grow eruptions occur regularly

sculpting the mid-ocean ridge the

biggest mountain range on Earth

more than sixty thousand kilometers in

length it stretches right around the

globe foreign

is part of this mountain range in the

north of the island biologist olicons is

on his way to streaton a so-called white

smoker a hydrothermal spring on the

seabed

normally such vents only occur in the

depths of the ocean but on Iceland they

can be found as little as 15 meters from

the surface thus a totally separate

ecosystem has evolved

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foreign

the vents are a window on the Earth's

interior

minerals and hot water bubble up

down here things are still the way they

must have been billions of years ago

scientists suspect that at one time

hydrothermal Springs gave rise to life

itself

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conditions were ideal there was water

and energy in the cracks and crevices of

the vents the building blocks of life

were able to come together

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at some time or other the first cell

drifted out into the sea

the course of three billion years it

resulted in the enormous diversity which

surrounds us today

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and become extinct and even today no

life can exist without water

but why is there water on Earth at all

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astronomers suspect that water was

brought to the Earth billions of years

ago by meteorites

our planet is struck regularly by

meteorites even today

most of the impacts go unnoticed others

hit the headlines

in 2013 a projectile from outer space

exploded in the Euros in Russia

in 2016 researchers discovered a 30-ton

meteorite in Argentina

and in Michigan in 2018 the sky was lit

by a ball of fire caused by a meteorite

that some of these myriads have quite a

bit of water uh you know to the tune of

20 of the mass of the rock is made up of

water with Clays and hydrated minerals

and this material was certainly

transported to the early Earth several

billion years ago and could have

contributed a significant fraction of

the Earth's water that we have today

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in the early days of our solar system

countless lumps of rock sailed through

space the young Earth too was exposed to

a veritable bombardment

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astrobiologist Daniel glavin believes

that fragments of meteorites contain

messages from the early days of our

solar system

he breaks down Cosmic rock into its

components

is it possible that not only water but

also the building blocks of life came to

us from outer space

foreign

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Tes are actually very complex they

really hold in all the secrets from the

early solar system where the water came

from where the organic compounds came

from this meteorite I'm holding here in

the test tube has over a hundred

different amino acids a hundred life is

made up of 20. these are very chemically

complex samples which makes it so

exciting it's it's actually the reason I

love my job so much

clear indications that water came to us

from outer space but not solid proof

that's what NASA now hopes to provide in

September 2016 a rocket launched the

sampling spacecraft osiris-rex

its destination the asteroid bennu a

lump of rock measuring 500 meters across

osiris-rex's task is to take samples on

bennu

the asteroid is also interesting for

another reason

its orbit will take bennu dangerously

close to the Earth but not for more than

a hundred years the capsule with the

samples from bennu is scheduled to

return to Earth in 2023

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this is a very ancient asteroid four and

a half billion years old a frozen Time

Capsule a fossil from the early solar

system and what I'm hoping to find out

is when we have these samples back on

Earth is to understand for example how

much water is in this asteroid how much

asteroids like bennu could have

contributed to the oceans that we have

on our Earth today and also whether or

not there are any building blocks of

life I'm really excited about looking

for those types of organic compounds and

and these materials

but why is Walter only found on the

earth after all such projectiles also

hit other planets but Mercury for

instance is located too close to the Sun

so any water evaporates at its equator

conditions on Earth though are ideal

further out in space too on Mars the

chances of water existing in liquid form

seem good

three billion years ago there were

torrential Rivers here

from the volcanic region in the South

they flowed into a vast ocean in the

North

over millions of years however most of

the water evaporated

today Mars is Barren and empty

on the earth however life exploded

around 10 million species live in the

world's oceans alone

hidden in the depths are countless

organisms we know hardly anything about

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in the ocean some things are different

sounds for instance play a special role

underwater

sound is as important for dolphins and

other Marine creatures as light is for

man

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but for some time now there has been

interference countless drilling rigs

ships sonar equipment and Military

exercises produce a deafening noise

Around the Clock

foreign

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s in the world are spared at least to

some degree like the Cook Islands in the

South Pacific

it's here that the significance of

sounds underwater can be studied best

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nanhauser is a whale researcher for 30

years now she's been observing whales

off the coast of Rarotonga and studying

the behavior and communication patterns

of these marine mammals

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humped back whales

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every year the period from July to

September is whale season in the South

Pacific

the animals spend several months in the

warm water mating and rearing their

young

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during this time humped-backed whales

don't feed they live solely from their

fat Reserves

using a hydrophone an underwater

microphone Nan can even detect whales a

considerable distance away

we got a singer

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male humped back whales sometimes sing

for hours on end

you know

scientists still have only a partial

understanding of whale songs

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good morning the songs are made up of

several verses and each whale population

sings a slightly different Melody is

this enables researchers to determine

which region a whale comes from

it seems however that the different

songs are mixed

in Rarotonga Nan records new songs time

and again

we have recorded Wales

that are teaching other Wills

the song

which is fascinating and sometimes we'll

have a song and we think that's the song

for the Cook Islands for the season and

then another whale will come in and it

will sing another song

a totally different song and then a few

days later the whales here will have

Incorporated a phrase of that song into

their song

during the whale season Nan spends many

hours each day on the water

nevertheless as a rule only brief

observations from the boat are possible

diving into their habitat is far more

rewarding but it has to be done without

breathing equipment because the noise

would irritate the animals

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the whales tolerate free divers near

them

this makes unique observations possible

but only for a short time

on average humpback whales spend 20

minutes in the depths impossible for a

diver without oxygen tank

foreign

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consequently marine biologists are also

dependent on indirect clues for their

research

for instance as the animals surge

through the water flaps of skin are left

behind

fernan Hauser such scraps are a source

of important information

they are a kind of whale fingerprint

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these were cleared it's from

um we're trying to figure out how to use

the end of the DNA stand where the

telomere is to to age the animal we look

at blue carbon stable isotopes

microbiology but everything just from a

little piece of skin pretty cool

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after The Mating Season the whales set

off on the great journey to the

Antarctic

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like the water itself marine organisms

are also constantly in motion some

migrate of their own accord others are

carried by the current

Krill in the Antarctic these tiny

Crustaceans form gigantic Shoals and

they attract humpbacked whales

every year the whales travel more than

ten thousand kilometers to and fro

between their winter and summer quarters

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the big ocean currents distribute warmth

food and energy

and thus control all life in the seas

at the Equator the sun heats up the

ocean

the warm water drifts to the poles where

it cools and sinks Into the Depths

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it flows back as a deep current and the

cycle Can Begin Again

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wherever the ocean currents transport

nutrients to the surface life

concentrates

this movement is driven by salt and

temperature differences

we're talking about a global conveyor

belt but we still don't know precisely

how it functions or how for example it

reacts to changes in the water

temperature

now an international research team plans

to solve the riddle

aircraft

airships and numerous research vessels

they are staging a very special search

today they are focusing on an area of

the Baltic Sea Southwest of the Danish

island of bornholm

from the air the researchers can scan

the surface of the water because what

they're looking for is transient

the emphasis is not on the major ocean

currents but on small Eddies

they were only discovered a few years

ago and scientists suspect that they

play a major role with regard to Main

coherences in the ocean

Expedition leader borka bashek wants to

determine the connection between small

Eddies and major currents

we've worked for years to put us in a

position where today we can go out and

Survey Eddies

we've invested so much effort and are

really excited

naturally we'll try to get the very best

results we've prepared everything as

best we could so we're absolutely

delighted

satellite pictures have helped us gain a

better understanding of our Blue Planet

the major ocean currents are also

clearly visible from space

for a long time though small Eddies

could not be detected

it's only Now by combining various

technologies that researchers have

managed to study these currents more

closely and they are astonished at how

often small Eddies occur in the ocean

range in diameter from 100 meters to

three or four kilometers so they're

relatively small in comparison with the

other ocean currents and they're found

worldwide their special feature is that

they're short-lived some exist for as

little as 12 hours they rotate very

quickly and dissipate just as fast so we

have to be quick to measure them

first of all in the early morning the

motor glider surveys the research Zone

in the Baltic its task is to locate

Eddies

the Airship also scans the surface with

special cameras

Orcutt bashek coordinates the search

the Airship has one decisive Advantage

for the researchers if something

interesting has been discovered it can

park for hours over the water and enable

the surface to be surveyed in detail

here's the Airship we found an Eddie

the decisive signal bashek gives the

coordinates through to the research

ships

the structure in the water can even be

seen with the naked eye

a distinct front runs right across the

surface

so where does this structure come from

crew on board the research vessel are

lowering the troll as it's known into

the water

the device is packed with sensors which

provide data on the density and the

oxygen content of the water

in the water the troll Bobs up and down

since the Eddy is constantly changing

and moving the measuring equipment also

has to be mobile

the data are transmitted immediately to

the Airship where a thermal image shows

what's happening in the water

the current transports cold water from

below up to the surface

enormous energies are at play here

the great thing is that for the first

time ever we were able to observe an

Eddy from its formation to its

dissipation so today we've achieved a

totally new level of data accuracy

the Eddies are of decisive importance to

life in the ocean because along with the

cold water nutrients are brought up from

the depths

comprising a broad range of tiny algae

unicellular creatures and bacteria

they're a launch pad for life

major ocean currents and small Eddies

are a heat pump for our planet

and they also influence conditions on

land

it's thanks to the Gulf Stream that Lush

forests grow in our latitudes

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deciduous forests need a moderate

climate

water

all trees have the same problem

even if they're standing in water the

water still has to be transported from

The Roots up to the leaves

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with a beech tree that can mean a good

40 meters

it all begins in the ground

if the roots are drier than the

surrounding earth water penetrates

automatically

water and nutrients are taken into the

interior of the tree via countless thin

root hairs

it's at this point already that some

pollutants are broken down

the water then diffuses further into the

tree's xylem condits

it's then transported up in these highly

specialized Pipelines

Beech trees achieve a speed of up to six

meters an hour

the water is sucked up by capillary

action

because it narrow tubes liquids rise

automatically

but that is still not enough to

transport water to the treetop

this takes place by means of

transpiration pool

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every molecule that escapes into the air

draws a new molecule from the soil

in this way there is a constant flow of

water through every tree

a highly effective pump

Forest creates its own moist climate

here one in every three raindrops

becomes drinking water

but most of the water rises up again via

the trees evaporates and forms clouds

they look as light as a feather

but faux weather clouds known as cumulus

can easily be one cubic kilometer in

size and weigh thousands of tons as much

as five houses

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the more water a cloud contains the

heavier it gets until eventually rain

falls

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of precipitation on Earth is distributed

most unevenly and determines whether a

region enjoys abundant growth or suffers

from drought

the clouds contain only a fraction of

our fresh water reserves

but what determines whether clouds

simply dissipate or rain actually falls

Everhart bordenchatz wants to find out

he's devoted his entire life as a

researcher to clouds in order to study

them he plays regular visits to

Germany's highest mountain the

torgspitzer located at an altitude of 2

600 meters the schneffiana house a

former hotel is Germany's highest

research station it's an ideal place for

cloud research

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I simply want to understand exactly how

rain is formed we all know that rain

does Fall and we also know a great deal

about it but can we really predict from

the Dynamics when it will rain how a

cloud develops

basic questions present themselves can I

improve weather forecasting can I say

when it will rain can I produce a

weather report that is reliable for

longer periods not just for a day but

also for a week can I forecast the

climate

the two researchers are on the lookout

for clouds

what they're interested in takes place

constantly in every cloud invisible

however to the human eye

tiny droplets of water are driven to and

fro

they evaporate Collide and sometimes

grow to form raindrops

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for that to happen droplets need to

collide droplets have to find one

another that's a nice way of putting it

so droplets have to find one another not

just two but millions of them in order

to form one raindrop that is how rain

forms

the researchers will observe this

process they want to see how raindrops

form in a cloud so far no one has

managed that what they plan is only

possible with the help of

state-of-the-art Technology but the

clouds also have to play along

in the late evening the conditions are

ideal

okay we'll run the motors now

hey young

okay

releasing in three two

one release

a powerful laser makes the tiny droplets

visible

the equipment functions like a gigantic

flash gun

evaluation is still underway but the

data will probably provide the answer to

one of the greatest mysteries of cloud

research

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and um

someone who understands how rain forms

could in a subsequent step try to

influence the weather

this land is the country which gets the

first cloud has the first claim on it

just imagine if we were able to make our

clouds produce rain or not because

that's just as important

let's say that our Farmers want to bring

in the Harvest so all the clouds are

sent to Poland causing massive downpours

there and that's what scares me the idea

of us focusing not on water on the

ground but on watering clouds and water

is Mankind's most precious good

water is the elixir of life without

water in its liquid form Life as we know

it would be inconceivable

we drink it and it serves as a habitat

around half of all species of fish live

in fresh water

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we are all more than familiar with the

properties of water

yet H2O often behaves differently from

any other substance for example when it

freezes

when a lake Freezes Over the ice floats

on the surface

so we have the solid form of water on

top and the liquid form underneath

the reason why ice is lighter than water

is because water has its maximum density

as a liquid

that is a curious property but it

explains why life is able to exist under

the ice

the layer of ice acts as an insulation

and prevents the water beneath it from

freezing

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in Lake Baikal even a species of seal is

able to survive under the ice

it's the only seal that occurs solely in

fresh water

beneath the ice life continues even

though in Winter Lake Baikal is Frozen

for months on end

scientists have been studying the

characteristics of water for centuries

and they're surprised time and time

again

probably the most mysterious water in

the world lies hidden in South Africa

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The more I've got song mine is one of

the biggest in the country

it has served as a source of uranium and

gold for more than a hundred years

outdated and modern technology often

collide

accidents occur here time and again

it's not gold that Errol Cason and his

team are interested in they are looking

for water

that is millions perhaps even billions

of years old

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this is the fastest and longest mine

lift in the world

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the final station is more than three

kilometers Underground

the deeper the men go the hotter it gets

the mine cage hurtles down at a speed of

almost 70 kilometers an hour

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we're hoping that we'll find some water

down there

they're getting pretty close to the

fracture zone now so this is now the

best chance that we'll actually find

water uh in the in that cavity down

there but today they still have about 20

meters left to do before he actually

hits where the fracture was with the

previous holes so anything can happen

foreign

if it weren't for gold mining the

researchers would never have been able

to explore this extreme and inhospitable

region

spreading out far below the surface here

is virtually a medium-sized town

the researchers travel on by Mine Train

the drilling site has been carefully

chosen because only a few years ago the

earth shook here

the scientists want to drill precisely

into the fault Zone

they suspect that somehow there is a

link between the earthquake water and

microbes that live underground

rock this old is only found in a few

places on Earth

and hardly anywhere is it accessible to

scientists

the or mind here formed deep in the

bowels of the earth nearly three billion

years ago

can life really exist under such

conditions

traces of water are at least a crucial

prerequisite

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worth drilling four kilometers below

surface and from a microbiology

standpoint this has also not been done a

lot in the past so as we're going deeper

and deeper under the surface the water

becomes hotter water becomes older and

any microorganisms that we might find

might be more unique more novel or

anything that we haven't seen before

cooling water is escaping everywhere

it's essential to make sure it doesn't

contaminate the samples

if the scientist's calculations are

correct they are very close to The Fault

which cause the earthquake

this is something they've worked towards

for many months

one core drill after another is removed

from the Rock

if the samples really do contain life it

must be able to cope with the most

extreme conditions heat and radiation

immense pressure and eternal darkness no

oxygen and virtually no nutrients

foreign

but life finds the most astonishing

Solutions

some of the microorganisms down here in

the subsurface might take even a

thousand years to go from one cell to

two cells and this is only one of the

ways that they have managed to survive

down here

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back in the laboratory biologist Errol

Cason gets straight down to work

he is specialized in finding creatures

in the most impossible places he expects

to discover microbes which are minute

unicellular organisms

but he finds something far bigger

remarkable worms around half a

millimeter in size huge in comparison to

protozoa

it's living it's breeding how amazing it

is that life can actually occur and

survive in really weird circumstances

that has definitely changed my

perspective regarding what is possible

and what we've previously thought is

impossible it would apparently appear

that nothing is impossible when life is

concerned

organisms which inhabit The Depths live

in slow motion but all around them

Evolution continued for a long time life

only existed in water but at some point

it took its first step onto land

the tectalik was a fish that walked on

fins that was nearly 400 million years

ago but since then life has conquered

every corner of the globe

whether we're talking about tropical

rainforests or inhospitable deserts the

sole prerequisite for life is the

presence of water

there is life in the Eternal ice of the

Antarctic just as there is in the polar

regions of the North

a large proportion of the Earth's fresh

water reserves are frozen solid at the

poles

scientists at the Polish research

station on spitzbergen are studying the

Arctic

global warming is having a particular

impact on this region

when the men are out and about they

always carry a gun not because of the

arctic foxes but on account of the polar

bears whose Trails lead right past their

station

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the landscape here is amazing the

northern lights are visible right

through to Spring

the scientists are preparing for a very

special Expedition they are going to

descend into a glacier and examine its

heart so to speak from the inside

it's very important to understand how

the water behave inside the glacier

because this affect all the dynamic of

the glacier and up to now

it's a kind of black magic box and we

only have theory about what is going on

inside and the only way to verify the

theory and to really known actually

really what's going on inside is to go

inside the scale system

the men set off in the early morning

the destination the handspring Glacier

is only about two kilometers away

the landscape of snow and ice they

travel through consists of Frozen fresh

water

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but when the ice masses here melt they

flow into the ocean and cause the sea

level to rise

consequently the cycle of salt water and

seawater is extremely coherent

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last Autumn Leo de Co marked the

entrance to the glacier with a metal

pole

since then a lot of new snow has fallen

even so beneath it there must be a way

in so the men have to dig

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success the team have found the glacial

Mill or Muller a natural entrance to the

glacier

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the men descend meter by meter little by

little the shaft has been carved out of

the Ice by melt water and Rock

the ice crystals consist of H2O frozen

water molecules and yet each crystal is

unique because the structural

possibilities for its composition are

infinite

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the men are well secured

it can mean the difference between life

and death

especially here in the upper region of

the glacier where the ice is younger and

contains lots of air

the team now absile for a good 70 meters

at regular intervals Leo installs a

sensor in the ice to record the pressure

and temperature as well as the movement

of the glacier

the measuring devices will remain here

for the next few months

Leo will not be able to return and

evaluate the results until next autumn

do you hear that

just be quiet for a second

listen

yeah that's water this is the water yeah

that's beautiful

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if it were a little later in the year

the men could be surprised at any time

in these passages by a river of melt

water in summer water surges Into the

Depths here

it's only in Spring and Autumn that the

researchers are able to advance so far

into the glacier

the weather conditions are right and the

ice has the right solidity

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the men have finally reached the base of

the glacier

they've been on the go now for a good

six hours

towering up all around them are millions

of tons of ice

in several stages they've covered a

difference in height of over 200 meters

the glacier doesn't lie on the Bedrock

between the glacier soul and the rock is

a narrow passage

in some places it's big enough to walk

in others it's only a few centimeters

high

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the ice might look stable but the

glacier is constantly moving

actually the fact that we have this

water flowing that we can hear right now

it's just coming and lubricate this

interface between the bottom of the

glacier and the bad work and the fact

that the glacier is not lying anymore on

the Rock which is like very hard to move

on it but it's actually on the water so

it's very easy to slide and the more

water you will have at this interface

ice and rocks the fastest the glacier

will go

from the outside the glacier looks like

a compact ice Mass but in reality it's

permeated by hulls and channels

the Melt water Cuts tunnels in the ice

in summer in particular water plunges

into the depths through these mulans as

they are known

the water collects at the base and the

whole Glacier slides towards the sea as

if it were on a film of lubricant

on the coast huge ice masses then Shear

off and cause the sea level to rise

Leo wants to measure this glacial

movement with his sensors exactly where

it takes place

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so far scientists know astonishingly

little about processes deep in the

interior of a glacier

hot Steam and Ice are a dangerous mix

but Leo wants to fix his sensor as

securely as possible

it's the only way of ensuring he'll be

able to find it again in several months

time

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the data will enable him to determine

how much water has flowed through in the

summer months

by piece the researchers are putting a

picture together which they hope will

answer important questions

how quickly are the glaciers melting and

what consequences will this have for the

entire ecosystem in the Arctic

the glacier extends as far as the coast

here it's only a few meters thick

a strenuous and dangerous Expedition has

come to an end

it will take years to evaluate the

findings

foreign

oceans rivers and clouds are all part of

the Eternal water cycle and all life

depends on water

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foreign

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