Public Chamber of Abkhazia

Transcription

You might think this is the secret base of some kind of James Bond villain, but this is actually the low noise underground laboratory of Rustrel, Vaucluse, France. This facility is buried under 500 meters of rock, possesses 4 km of galleries, and before being turned into a laboratory, it was the launching cockpit 1 from the French nuclear force. This means that, from 1971 to 1996, if France decided to launch an atomic bomb, it would be done from here. From this damped capsule suspended by cylinders. As the structure is designed to resist to a nuclear war, it has unit specifications: the electromagnetic interferences are lower than others from human brain during sleep. These exceptional conditions allow scientists to lead experiments that are very sensitive to parasite sounds, for example, about the missing mass of the Universe, the dark matter. This unique place in the world describe the topic I'm about to talk very well. Underground cities, lost treasures, you're about to discover extraordinary things that were hiding right under your feet. First of all, did you know that if you have property of a land, you also have possession of what's underground to the center of the Earth? That is what's written in the French Civil Code, article 552: «Property of soil means property of both upper and lower sides.» To be clear, you own a 6000 km-long carrot. That's why in France when another subway is built, the underground is bought to the owners in the first place, even if works are in the very depths of the Earth. Some may ask how far we have approached the center of the Earth. As we saw previously, the Earth's core is about 6000 km deep. And we are way far from reaching it. The deepest manmade drilling ever done was SG3 drilling realized in the Kola peninsula, Russia. It began in 1970 and the goal was to cross the crust, which is about 30 km thick. In the end, because of technical and political issues, it all stopped 12 km deep after 19 years of hard work. This means that, not only we are still far from the Earth's core, but we're even far from crossing the crust itself. Still, the drilling in Kola could teach us more about the underground composition. For example, we know within this depth, the rocks temperature reach about 300°C. I talked to you about the deepest artificial cavity, but what about the natural one? The prize goes to Krubera Voronja cave, discovered during the sixties in Abkhazia. For now, the measured depth is 2197 m, but it's still under exploration by several teams. In 2010, this cave was the set place of a new record when researchers discovered a new species of arthropod living by 1980 of depth: Plutomurus ortobalaganensis. This is the deepest living animal ever known. Back to the french civil code. You own the underground of your land to the Earth's core, unless there is oil. This is State's property. Nevertheless, if you find a treasure in your garden, it's all yours. The condition is you must have found it by chance, and declared it to the authorities. Otherwise it's considered as robbery. Many prestigious treasures were discovered underground, but, without a doubt, the biggest one of all was found the temple of Sree Padmanabhaswamy, India. As they were exploring the temple subterranean area, in 2012, researchers found tons of jewelery, gold coins and jewels hidden in secret chambers. Those were essentially offerings to Vishnu remaining there for centuries. The estimation for this treasure is superior to 15 billion euros, way more than the GDP Kerala, the state where's located the temple. Out of the six discovered chambers, one, called chamber B, remains unlocked. It's sealed by an iron gate decorated with a cobra, and according to local beliefs, its opening could trigger a terrible divine curse. But what's underground can also be more surprising, like an egyptian city buried under… 57 00:04:24,669 --> 00:04:31,380 the californian desert. In 1923, film director Cecil B. DeMille worked on a silent version of the Ten Commandments. He hired 1500 workers to build a pharaonic city in the dunes of Guadalupe Nipomo, in the middle of the californian coast. The construction lasted 6 weeks, and it included a 36 m tall temple, four statues of more than 10 m, and 21 sphinx each weighing 5 tons. The decor was so colossal, at the end of the filming, DeMille couldn't afford to move it in another place. He decided then to use bulldozers to push his city in a 100 m long ditch, and covered it with sand. In his autobiography, the director wrote: "if in 1000 years archeologists dig under the dunes of Guadalupe, I hope they won't believe egyptian civilization went to the west coast of United-States". Concerning the natural treasures, there are plenty of them underground, like the caves of Waitomo, New-Zealand, which walls are illuminated by constellations of glow worms. Also, the cave of Hang Son Doong, Vietnam, so huge there is a jungle inside. But one of those underground wonders, the most fascinating one, is without a doubt the mine of Naica, Mexico, where you can enter the incredible crystals cave. Discovered in 2000, it is located 300 m under the surface and contains the world's biggest crystals. The most massive one is 11 m long for a weigh of 55 tons. Unfortunately, the cave is a restricted area because of its extreme conditions. Without a proper stuff to resist the heat and the humidity, you can only survive for 15 minutes. Among the most impressive subterranean structures you can visit, there are salt mines. Especially two of them: the first one in Turda, Transylvania, converted in a museum in 1992, and now shelters an amusement park, 120 m deep under the surface. There is a big wheel and also a lake on which visitors can navigate. The second one is the mine of Wieliczka, Poland, 327 km deep for 300 km of galleries. Inside are statues, chapels, and a cathedral, directly carved in salt. It is classified World Heritage by the UNESCO and can receive more than a million visitors a year. Now, the place I'm going to talk of doesn't receive any visitors, and if it goes as planned, none shall enter for the next 100.000 years. Onkalo is a 500m deep underground complex, currently under construction in Finland. Its goal is to shelter all nuclear wastes of the country, which makes it the first project of this kind. Works began in the early 70s, and storage will carry on until the beginning of the 22th century. At this moment, the cave will be sealed and then will contain the wastes until they're not toxic anymore, that is to say for at least 100.000 years. This duration surpasses by far all human construction. To compare, egyptian pyramids are 5000 years old only. This duration is so huge, scientist are asked unprecedented questions: for example, if humanity extinguishes with all its languages and knowledge, how to warn understandably our distant successors they mustn't enter the facility? A film dedicated to Onkalo came out in 2010. Titled "Into Eternity", it certainly is one of the most fascinating documentaries in the past years. This episode is now finished, I hope you enjoyed it, and I'd like to conclude by announcing several things: first, in June, it'll be the first anniversary of the channel, and for this occasion I will make a special video in which I'll answer to all of your questions. Ask me them by Facebook and Twitter. Second, my next book will be published on June 5th, AAARG editions, and dedicated to unknown people with extraordinary destinies. So if you liked the first book of Axolot, i think you won't be disappointed. Utimately, I'd like to announce the publication of Axolot comic book, edited by Delcourt, by the end of the year. It's collective with authors as talented as Marion Montaigne from "Tu mourras moins bête", or Boulet, and many others that adapted Axolot's stories their way. As I told you, it's programmed for the end of the year, so I'll talk about it again later. Once more, thank you very much to be so many to follow Axolot, and see you soon.