Geologic Journey

In this episode, we will traverse the Eurasian plate across Europe —from Iceland, where new land is formed - to the Alps, where old land is destroyed. In between viewers will witness the twisted, gorgeous landscapes of the earth’s surface under pressure—places where scientists first came up with the very study of geology itself, where geology became the science that changed the world. Viewers will trek with University of Toronto geology professor Dr. Nick Eyles and his guides through volcanoes, glaciers, crags, mountains, rolling hills and broken cliffs that reveal the tectonic story of the earth.

In the second episode of Geologic Journey: II, Along the Rift, we reveal how the earth’s crust is ripping apart, as molten rock from deep within its recesses pushes upwards. For millions of years the East African Rift has been widening at the seams, tearing the African plate in two. We’ll first visit prehistoric sites in Kenya, not far from the so-called “cradle of humanity.” Along the Rift will reveal that we are truly creatures conceived by plate tectonics. We'll visit Ethiopia's Afar Triangle, where the Earth is fundamentally re-ordering its surface, and journey to Egypt's Nile valley, which has been a corridor of trade and a cradle of civilizations for centuries. On the final leg of the journey, we'll witness how the tectonic violence of the Dead Sea Rift has punctuated the history of human habitation and culture – in fact, entire cities have been abandoned after apocalyptic earthquakes. The seismic threat hangs over the area like a curse.

The third episode focuses on the Asia-Pacific side of The Pacific Rim of Fire, which stands as a living testament to the beauty and danger that powerful geologic forces can deliver. The Pacific Rim is home to half of the world's active volcanoes and ninety percent of the world's earthquakes, yet nearly 800 million people continue to live within its violent edge. Our journey begins in New Zealand, a land of volcanoes and earthquakes, where we find a 500-kilometre long slip-strike fault deep under the Pacific Ocean. Geologist Hamish Campbell will take us to the crater of White Island, the country’s most active volcano. Then we'll visit the country's southern island with John Youngson, to find out how New Zealand’s longest fault-line contributes to the gold industry. Finally in Japan, viewers will hike up to Mount Fuji – the iconic peak where science and legend converge, getting up-close and personal with a fault-line witnessing firsthand what it’s like to discover new ways of monitoring, and hopefully one day predicting, seismic activity onboard the world’s most advanced

As the exploration of the Pacific Rim continues, Prof. Nick Eyles will travel along the west coast of North America, in The Pacific Rim: The Americas. Following the shore, we'll travel from Alaska to California to Chile discovering how tectonic rhythms threaten the people living along the two continents' coastlines.

Welcome to the Collision Zone – the fiery unpredictability of Indonesia’s volcanoes at one end, the massive Himalayas at the other and millions of years of tectonic tension in between. The collision zone of the old world is about to be the hub of the new. India, the Himalayas and the island arc of Indonesia - these lands will form the centre of the world’s next supercontinent. A story unfolds—a tale of where the earth has been and what the earth shall be: a whole new world that we’ll barely recognize.