Mystery of Antarctica’s Bizarre Doorway Finally Solved

Bright Side

For a while, people were freaking out over what looked like a giant doorway carved into Antarctica’s icy cliffs. Some thought it was an entrance to a secret base, while others guessed aliens might be involved. But scientists finally solved the mystery—it turns out it’s just a natural rock formation, shaped by cracks and erosion over time. The angle of sunlight and shadows made it look way more dramatic than it actually is. So, no hidden bunkers or UFO landing sites, just Mother Nature doing her thing. Still, Antarctica keeps surprising us with wild discoveries, so who knows what’s next?  Animation is created by Bright Side. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV   Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en Telegram: https://t.me/bright_side_official   Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.

Transcript

00:00So, there's a mysterious doorway in the middle of Antarctica.

00:04Some people think it's Bigfoot's vacation home, or a shuttlecraft from Star Trek.

00:09Or maybe a door to Agartha, a mythical kingdom some people believe is located in the center

00:15of the Earth.

00:16Well, the scientists debunked all these poetic theories and explained that what looks like

00:21a mysterious doorway is located in an area of fast sea ice.

00:26It's offshore of the coast and is full of little islands with shallow water around them.

00:31When ice flows around hard rocks hidden underneath, it can create patterns that look odd but are

00:37totally normal.

00:38In this spot, the ice is thin, so the rocks underneath have a big effect on how the ice

00:44moves.

00:45The cold winds in Antarctica also shape the ice and snow and make it look like they're

00:50lines and shapes.

00:51So, the mysterious doorway is just a rocky ridge poking out because the ice has melted

00:57a little.

00:58The top of the doorway is the tip of the rock, and the sides are snowy trails left by strong

01:03winds blowing in the same direction.

01:06It's essentially an iceberg that got stranded and is melting in one place.

01:13One YouTuber found another out-of-place mysterious object more than 150 miles off the shore of

01:18Antarctica – a 400-foot long ice ship.

01:22The internet went wild with theories like that the ship must've ended up there right

01:27from the Bermuda Triangle.

01:29But there was no scientific proof that it was a ship and not just a large chunk of ice.

01:34And once some other internet users revisited the place, they noticed the ice melted in

01:39the summer, and the hypothetical ship was gone.

01:44Another mysterious Google Maps find in Antarctica was a pyramid.

01:48And before you make up an exciting theory about how the ancient Egyptians built a secret

01:52base here, I have to tell you it turned out to be just a mountain.

01:56It's part of the tallest mountain range in Antarctica that stretches for almost 250

02:02miles.

02:03It's not the first pyramid on this continent, as explorers from the British Antarctic Expedition

02:09found another unusually shaped mountain and nicknamed it the Pyramid.

02:13But this one didn't even have a pyramid shape.

02:17Here's one Antarctic find that definitely won't disappoint you – a giant ice shelf

02:23that reminded scientists of the Grand Canyon.

02:26A special submarine robot named RAN covered over 600 miles under the thick ice and brought

02:32back some amazing footage of icy mountains, valleys, flat plateaus, and swirly patterns

02:39made entirely of ice.

02:41One of the strangest things RAN found was giant ball-shaped holes, or scoops, in the

02:47ice.

02:48Sadly, scientists lost track of the robot.

02:51They think that curious Wendell seals may have accidentally bumped into RAN and caused

02:56it to get stuck.

02:57To save energy, RAN probably shut itself down, and the scientists couldn't find it again.

03:03But the team is hoping to build a new robot and continue exploring this icy canyon to

03:07see how the patterns under the ice might change over the years.

03:13Another huge Antarctic canyon was found thanks to bad weather.

03:17A team of sound experts had to pause their work at the Casey Research Station in a storm.

03:23Instead of waiting around, they decided to use the unexpected free time to map the seafloor

03:28near Adams Glacier.

03:30And that's how they found a canyon that is almost 7,000 feet deep, almost 30,000 feet

03:36wide, and stretches over 28 miles away from the glacier.

03:41During the mapping, they discovered just part of the canyon before they had to go back to

03:45the research station.

03:46But when bad weather came in again, the ship went back and mapped more of the canyon.

03:52They were working in waves up to 13 feet high and super powerful winds, but they managed

03:57to get about 15 hours of data to complete their map.

04:01On the way back to Australia, they stopped one last time, and now they've got a full

04:05picture of the canyon.

04:07Studying it is helping scientists learn more about the history of glaciers and the interaction

04:12between the Antarctic ice sheet and the ocean.

04:16There's a frozen lake in Antarctica called Lake Enigma.

04:20For a long time, people thought the lake was completely frozen solid.

04:24But during one expedition, researchers found that under the thick ice, there was a layer

04:29of liquid water about 40 feet deep.

04:32To learn more, they drilled through the ice and sent down a camera to explore what was

04:36hiding in the lake's depths.

04:38The lake's water, which they think comes from the nearby amorphous glacier through

04:42a secret underground pathway, was filled with strange microbial life.

04:47These tiny microbes lived in mats that covered the lake bed.

04:51Some of the mats were thin and spiky, and others looked like crumpled carpets or even

04:56small tree-like shapes that grew up to 16 inches.

05:00Many of the microbes could make their own food through photosynthesis, just like plants

05:04do, and it gave the lake a high amount of oxygen.

05:08One of the coolest discoveries was a type of microbe which usually lives in low-oxygen

05:13places.

05:14Lake Enigma might be similar to environments on icy moons like Europa or Enceladus.

05:19So it could mean that these moons also have hidden water under their ice, and possibly

05:25microbial life too.

05:27One more mind-boggling discovery from Antarctica is tiny pieces of amber in mudstone found

05:33here for the very first time.

05:35It took scientists years of studying incredibly well-preserved fossilized roots, pollen, and

05:40spores that they found back in 2017.

05:44Amber proves that resin-producing trees once grew in Antarctica, part of a lush rainforest

05:50that existed near the South Pole during the mid-Cretaceous period.

05:54Back then – disclaimer, I wasn't around then – the trees would have had to survive

05:59through months of darkness during the long Antarctic winters.

06:03Scientists believe they adapted by going dormant for a long time.

06:07The amber pieces the scientists found are tiny, but there are beautiful shades of yellow

06:12and orange with bumpy surfaces that show how the resin flowed out of the trees.

06:18This resin likely leaked out to protect the trees from insects.

06:22It was preserved because water quickly covered it and kept it safe from sunlight and air.

06:27A scientist was browsing through satellite images for brown trails of penguin waste and

06:32found 4 new colonies of emperor penguins at the base of the globe.

06:37These new colonies likely have been around for years, though 3 of them are rather small,

06:42with fewer than 1,000 breeding penguins each.

06:45One of the new colonies was found close to a place called the Lazarev Ice Shelf, where

06:50there used to be a larger penguin colony.

06:53They thought this colony went extinct in 2019, but it seems the penguins have just moved

06:58a bit because of changing sea ice conditions.

07:01So studying them can help us learn more about how emperor penguins adapt to changes in the

07:06environment.

07:07There used to be a giant river system in Antarctica 40 million years ago.

07:13Researchers found proof of it after studying soft sediments and hard rocks from the frozen

07:17seabed.

07:19They looked at tiny bits of radioactive elements, like uranium and lead, and learned that the

07:24deeper dirt came from the time of dinosaurs.

07:27The dirt closer to the surface was younger and had an interesting pattern like the kind

07:32you see in river deltas today, such as in the Mississippi River or Rio Grande.

07:38Scientists found tiny signs of life in the sand.

07:41The river that once flowed here started in the transantarctic mountains and traveled

07:45930 miles before it reached the sea.

07:49Researchers kept studying newer layers of dirt from about 20 million years ago.

07:53They hope this will help them predict what the Earth's weather patterns might be like

07:57in the future.

07:58That's it for today!

08:00So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your

08:05friends!

08:06Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!

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