How the Earth Was Made Complete Season 1

Science Documentary hosted by Corey Johnson, published by History Channel in 2009 - English narration

HISTORY; reveals the 4.5 billion-year journey of our home. Spectacular on-location footage, evidence from geologists in the field, and clear, dramatic graphics combine in this stunning 13-part series to show how immensely powerful, and at times violent, forces of geology have formed our planet.

From the Great Lakes to Iceland, the San Andreas Fault to Krakatoa, How The Earth Was Made travels the globe to reveal the physical processes that have shaped some of the most well-known locations and geological phenomena in the world. With rocks as their clues and volcanoes, ice sheets, and colliding continents as their suspects, scientists launch a forensic investigation that will help viewers visualise how the earth has evolved and formed over millions of years.


1) San Andreas Fault
The San Andreas Fault runs 800 miles through some of the most valuable real estate in the world. Through the southern section hasn't had a significant quake for over 300 years, recent warnings have Los Angeles primed for a destructive quake that could wreak havoc on the city.

2) The Deepest Place on Earth
Lying seven miles below the surface of the sea, the Marianas Trench is the deepest place on Earth. Investigate the mystery of this strange underwater abyss, where a world of fiery mountains, bizarre marine mud volcanoes, and devastating tsunamis reveal how the deepest scar on Earth's crust was created

3) Krakatoa
The 1883 eruption of the Krakatoa volcano unleashed an explosion that was heard mroe than 2,000 miles away, and triggered a giant 100-foot tsunami that wiped out more than 36,000 people. What made this corner of our planet so dangerous, and could another catastrophic eruption be on the way?

4) Lock Ness
Home to the legend of the Loch Ness monster, this lake holds more water than any other lake in Britain. It's only 10,000 years old, but billions of years in the making. Trace the lake's extraordinary history and find out if the famed monster could really have survived in its murky waters.

5) New York
Built on the remains of mountains that 450 million years ago were as tall as the Himalayas, New York is one of the most man-made spaces on the planet. Learn how everything about it--from the height of its skyscrapers to the position of its harbour--is governed by the amazing forces that shaped it.

6) Driest Place on Earth
Since human records of the area began, some places in the Atacama Desert have never received rain; yet strange bacteria have been discovered living there. Look into the riddle of this South American desert to discover how this extraordinarily dry landscape was created.

7) Great Lakes
The Great Lakes of North America are the largest expanses of fresh water on the planet. As the lakes settle to their current levels, geologists delve deep in search for clues of their formation, discovering that the Great Lakes' evolutions are far from over.

8) Yellowstone
This National Park houses one of the most dangerous geological features on Earth, a hidden super-volcano overdue for a massive eruption. In the past 16.5 million years, the volcano has mysteriously moved hundreds of miles to its present, and active, location. Is this sleeping giant beginning to stir?

9) Tsunami
Tsunamis are one of the most terrifying forces of nature, destroying all in their path. The December 26th tsunami in 2004 is estimated to have released energy equal to that of 23,000 Hiroshima-type atomic bombs. What are the enormous forces that generate these catastrophic waves deep on the ocean floor?

10) Asteroids
Until recently geologists could find no evidence that asteroids had actually struck the earth. See both the immense riches now known to be the result of these giant boulders from space, and the decimation their violent impacts had on the first people to live in America.

11) Iceland
The largest and most fearsome volcanic island on the planet, Iceland is being ripped apart by powerful forces lighting its fiery volcanoes. Could these volcanoes cause climatic chaos and devastation across the planet?

12) Hawaii
Emerging from the centre of the Pacific Ocean, the origins of the Hawaiian islands have remained a puzzle for generations. See what clues their history of raging volcanoes, vast landslides, and mega-tsunamis might hold about the inner workings of our planet.

13) The Alps
Spanning seven countries, the Alps are Europe's most important natural landmark. But how did marine fossils get there, seven thousand feet above sea level? A team of investigators attempts to understand how the Alps evolved, and how long they will be around.




How the Earth Was Made: Complete Season Two

Science Documentary hosted by Jonathan Keeble, published by History Channel in 2010 - English narration

This season, How the Earth Was Made goes back in history from 4.5 billion years ago to today peeling back layers of rock, filling up river canyons, parting the oceans, and levelling mountains and volcanoes to investigate the origins of some of the most well-known locations and geological phenomena in the world. With rocks as their clues and volcanoes, ice sheets and colliding continents as their suspects, scientists launch a forensic investigation that will help viewers visualize how the Earth has evolved and formed over millions of years. From a once seething, hellish mass of molten rock to the world that inhabits life today, take a rollercoaster ride through the entire history of Planet Earth. Its 4.5 billion year epic, a story of unimaginable timescales, earth-shattering forces, incredible life forms, radical climates and mass extinctions. Discover how the continents were formed, canyons were carved, and why the world's animals live where they do.


1) Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon is nearly 300 miles long and over a mile deep. You could stack four Empire State buildings one on top of the other and they still wouldn't reach the lip of the Canyon. As vast tectonic plates clash and grind against one another a giant plateau has been pushed up over a mile in the air. The Colorado River, flowing from high in the Rockies and carrying a thick load of sediment, has carved an amazing canyon in the rising plateau.

2) Vesuvius
Mt Vesuvius is the world's most dangerous volcano, and it threatens three million people. It was responsible for the most famous natural disaster of ancient history, the eruption that destroyed the Roman city of Pompeii. And its most recent blast was caught on film in 1944. Today Vesuvius is the most densely populated volcano in the world. Now recent scientific discoveries show that it is capable of an eruption larger than ever before thought possible and that hidden beneath Vesuvius there is a vast magma chamber of boiling hot rock, ready to come out.

3) Birth of the Earth
Four and a half billion years ago the Earth formed from dust in space to become a molten ball of rock orbiting the Sun. This episode travels back in time to investigate how the fledgling planet survived a cataclysmic cosmic collision with another world, how molten rock solidified to land, how our oceans filled with water and how life arrived on Earth. Geologists study the oldest rocks on Earth and meteorites from outer space to solve the greatest geological mystery of all--the Birth of the Earth.

4) Sahara
Africa's Sahara Desert is the size of the United States, making it the largest desert in the world. It's also the hottest place on the planet. But now an astonishing series of geological discoveries has revealed this searing wasteland hides a dramatically different past. Scientists have unearthed the fossils of whales, freshwater shells and even ancient human settlements. All clues to a story that would alter the course of human evolution and culminate in biggest climate change event of the last 10,000 years.

5) Yosemite
The Sierra Nevada, North America's highest mountain range, contains one of the most awe-inspiring geological features on the planet: Yosemite Valley. Walled by sheer 3,000-foot granite cliffs and made from one of the toughest rocks on earth, it is home to the mighty El Capitan and iconic Half Dome. Yet how this extraordinary valley formed has been the subject of controversy for over 100 years. Was it carved by gigantic glaciers or a cataclysmic rifting of the Earth?

6) The Rockies
From Alaska to New Mexico, the Rockies are one of the great mountain belts of the world--caused by tectonic forces of the Pacific Plate pushing against the North American continent. They have formed as the earth's continental crust has been shortened under pressure--by around 1 inch a year. What's more, they are still rising and they are still young in geologic terms: when the dinosaurs roamed the Earth they had not even started to form.

7) Ring of Fire
The single longest linear feature on Earth--the "Ring of Fire" circles almost the entire Pacific. It is a ring of active volcanoes from White Island just north of New Zealand, through the South China seas, Japan, Kamchatka, the Aleutians, the Cascades and down through the Andes. Almost 25,000 miles long, it is one of the most awesome sights on Earth.

8) Everest
It is the tallest and biggest mountain on earth, as far removed from sea level as it's possible to be--and yet its sedimentary layers contain fossils that were once creatures that lived on the ocean seabed. The Himalayas formed when India smashed into Asia--propelled by plate tectonics. Everest is still rising but its height is limited--extreme erosion counteracts and limits the amount of uplift.

9) Death Valley
It is not only a place of natural splendour but a geologic treasure trove as well. Hidden in the sediments of the rocks in its walls is evidence of the coldest time on our planet--ironic in one of the hottest places on Earth. Death Valley is literally being pulled apart and the floor is collapsing and lower than sea level. Here and across much of Nevada is the Basin and Range province--a series of ridges of mountain ranges that are being pulled apart and the basins between them getting wider and flat as they fill with eroded sediment.

10) Mt St Helens
Over 20 years ago, Mt. St Helens--thought to be dormant--shocked America when it exploded. It is an acidic volcano--the magma beneath is full of volatiles making it highly explosive. A new plug has formed in its throat and is rising. When it blows it will be like uncorking a champagne bottle, releasing pressure below and allowing dissolved gases to escape and explode. The question is...when will it blow again?

11) Earths Deadliest Eruption
In the remote wastes of Siberia buried under snow are the remains of one of the greatest catastrophes that the Earth has endured. 250 million years ago, huge volumes of lava spewed out onto the surface--so much that it would have buried the whole of Texas under one mile of lava. At first the temperature dipped but then the greenhouse gases that escaped from the depressurized lava caused a massive global warming. It wreaked havoc and 95% of the species on Earth became extinct. Yet life hung on and in time this disaster paved the way for the next great phase of life on earth--the age of the dinosaurs.

12) Americas Ice Age
Why do we have ice ages and when is the next one due? Chart the progress of different ice ages through the history of our planet, from Snowball Earth hundreds of millions of years ago to the recent ice ages. As the Earth circles the sun, its orbit changes slightly and so does it angle of rotation. When the right wobble in our rotation combines with the right orbit, the Earth is, and will again be, plunged into an ice age--but maybe not for a few thousand years.

13) Americas Gold
A look at how gold, a scarce element left behind by the explosions of supernovas, was collected by the forming Earth and how its geologic processes concentrated it in various places throughout the globe.


Enjoy and Seed!!