Kind: captions
Language: en
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North
America the land that we love it looks
pretty familiar don't you
think well think
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again the ground we walk on is full of
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surprises if you know where to look as a
geologist the Grand Canyon is perhaps
the best place in in the world every
single one of these layers tells its own
story about what North America was like
when that layer was deposited so you're
ready for a little time
traveling I'm Kirk Johnson the director
of the Smithsonian National Museum of
Natural
History and in this three-part Nova
special I'll take you on the field trip
of a lifetime W look at that rock right
there that is crazy to find out how did
our amazing continent get to be the way
it is underneath Lake Superior that's
about 30
mil miles of volcanic
rock how did the landscape shaped the
creatures who lived and died here
doesn't look like much but this layer is
Armageddon and how did we turn the rocks
of our homeland oh man into riches this
thing is
phenomenal we'll hunt down the clues to
our continent epic
past some right in the heart of New York
City
whoa I've always wanted to do
this this place was once surrounded by
mountains as high as the Rockies but now
they're eroded away to nothing we know
one thing for sure in geology no
landscape is
permanent why did North America could
give rise to so many different kinds of
dinosaurs yikes that makes a grizzly
bear look like
nothing the secret May lie in Kansas
let's go find some fossils huh this
giant fish once swam in a huge Inland
Sea that split our continent in half for
more than 20 million
years this jaw is huge I mean this must
have been an immense fish 14 ft long 14t
long fish in Kansas that's what I'm
telling you
but what about
us how did we get
here 20,000 years ago much of North
America was locked behind an enormous
wall of ice here we
go that's it this is not the easiest
thing in the world you know it's it's
hard to imagine somebody Crossing even
one ice field like this 25,000 years ago
this this is
insane
unforgiving yet
rewarding this land's Treasures helped
build our
civilization offering riches born in a
violent
past I've always thought of earthquakes
as very destructive kinds of things
every time you look at a vein of quartz
you're really seen an ancient
earthquake it's the way to the gold wow
incredible
it's an epic
Tale playing out over 4 billion
years a journey of Discovery through our
own
backyard as we peel back the layers peel
it back and turn back the
clock that is unbelievable palm tree in
Alaska find out what's hiding beneath
our
feet making North America this fall on
Nova