Voyage of the Continents

Africa is Mother Earth. Gondwana, the first, single, landmass broke apart into today's continents, but its heart is Africa. Land of rifts, lakes and volcanoes, Africa's mineral deposits testify to its eons-old history.

Volcanic activity and climate change define Africa's "modern" history. Modern in geological terms, of course! Recently - meaning 50 million years ago - the Arabian plate snapped off the African continent and joined Southeast Asia. The Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden were born.

North America's mountain chains and huge plateaus were formed by volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and the odd ice age. Here we travel from the Canadian Shield, across the Grand Canyon and to the Rockies to understand the extraordinary geological forces at play. We even look into the future, when part of California should be an island in the Pacific!

Central America takes us back to when the world was young. A fragile line of islands linking North and South America, the islands of the Caribbean are recent apparitions on earth and may not be here to stay. The 2010 earthquake in Haiti dramatically illustrated that. This episode balances land and sea, bringing the viewer closer to how it all began.

One glance at a map of South America says it all: Andes and Amazonian basin. Two huge geological characteristics that describe how the continent came into being. The Amazon was once under the sea. As the water drained away the Andes rose up, creating some of the most spectacular landscapes in the world.