What on Earth?

Everyone above this comment hit the nail on the head. This is a waste of time to anyone truly interested in science. The ridiculous argument before explaining what is obvious to a lot of learned people is really insulting. I was watching another show called NASA's Unexplained Files and the premise was as ridiculous as the one for What on earth, checked out the production company... guess what?? same guy... When I'm looking on the program guide and see these two programs I feel sad because the channels that are normally watch for science stories and interesting stuff are busy showing this garbage. I guess it's a cheap show and that's why they use it, I don't know. Here's is to missing The Learning Channel 20 years ago when it started (The Operation anyone? that was so cool!!). I guess everything gets lowered to the minimum common denominator or whatever sells to the masses... really sad.

"What On Earth" is a newer series on the Science Channel about anomalous places on Earth. The show literally revolves around a group of people (or "scientist") finding something on Earth via Google Maps that doesn't make sense, and making a TV episode about discovering with the anomaly is. The show fails miserably at trying to be something serious, making unexplained locations and phenomena of Earth sound like some big, scary conspiracy only to reveal that said phenomenon is something very stupid or practically explained.

"What On Earth" isn't a terrible idea for a TV show. There really are places on Earth that are mysterious and difficult to explain without physical observation. One of the subjects of this TV show was the island "Sandy Island" which really is a mysterious and unexplained phenomenon where an alleged island on the outskirts of Australia literally disappeared. The problem with this show is the very poor execution of subjects and unnecessary build up in trying to explain what some of the phenomena are.

Who they pass for scientist to back up some of their research is a complete joke as well. One of the men on this show that was a supposed scientist/professional was wearing an "Aperture Laboratories" t-shirt. Aperture Laboratories is a fake laboratory in the video game universe of "Portal". Who were they trying to kid? This show is also notorious for over-advertising itself and re-suing old footage in new episodes constantly. They also drag on the subjects of interest far too long. Do we really need to be given a 30-60 minute episode of drama and build up to be told that volcanic sut is making it look like an island appeared out of nowhere in the ocean? You can tell use that in 10~ seconds, we don't need a one-hour long episode on something like that.

This was a good idea for a show, it's just poorly executed. It has some nice visuals of Earth and helicopter views of locations on Earth. But that's about it. The concepts of this show are uninteresting. once you've watched a couple episodes, you've watched them all. Baffled about one of the locations o this show? Type it in on Wikipedia. You'll get a thorough explanation of the phenomenon without watching a boring, one hour episode of fake scientist speculating about what it is.

Some of the newer series interesting with geographical features seen form space and explained or theorised.

Why is Nick Pope shown as a Military Analyst in the series?

He was not a military analyst. Mr Pope was the most junior grade manager in the MoD/ civil service. For 3 years he ran the MoD so called 'UFO desk' with a clerk. They collected public inquiries/sightings about UFOs. Any sightings requiring complex & thorough investigation would have been referred upwards to military etc. Mr Pope did not retire from the MoD but left to pursue a career as a UFO pundit with having worked at the MoD as a useful connection.

The series started out OK but has since degenerated into Enquirer-level sensationalism. The show has likely run out of ideas and is now willing to present known and already-explained phenomena as unsolved mysteries.

An example: satellite photos and video show an enormous 3,000-mile wide shadow moving across the planet! What on earth could it be?!?

1. Is it secret gov't technology deployed into space to cool a too-warm earth? Evidently, according to our scientists, we don't have the capability to do it or keep it secret.

2. All right, how about a huge insect swarm? The largest swarm ever documented covered about 75 square miles. But this shadow is way bigger and moving at 2,000 miles per hour! Can insects fly that fast? Who knows. Let's check with our scientists!

3. OK, insects are out. So what if the shadow was caused a huge alien ship like the one in Independence Day? And the gov't is covering it up? Let's ask our scientists if its possible to hide an alien spacecraft the size of Australia.

4. Ok, alien ships are out, at least for now 'cuz we ain't entirely convinced. But what else could have caused this shadow?

We're outta ideas so how can we figure this out? Should we consult NASA since they provided the satellite data? They can't be much smarter than our own scientists, but fine, we'll ask 'em during the commercial break ... and, we're back and, OMG, NASA claims the shadow was caused by ... THE MOON? Are they sure? Could this be another cover-up? And NASA "claims" lunar eclipses are 100% predictable? Well, maybe we'll figure all this out someday but for now ... ITS A MYSTERY!

Coming up next: Crop circles!

I think all the "scientists" are hired actors. Used to be 1 of my favourite series in Discovery Science, but at 1 point when I realised that the "experts" are contradicting themselves (1st they present a theory, then another, then eventually the very same "expert" is the 1 who explains the real cause of the said phenomenon) that is when I thought that these are all staged.