Rise of the Continents

2013 • BBC
4.5
28 reviews
Eligible
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Season 1 episodes (4)

1 Africa
3/20/13
Season-only
Africa is the cradle of humanity, it is land born from violent, cataclysmic events. Even today, it is still possible to find evidence, sometimes in the most unlikely places, of these events which shaped the Africa we know today and which will, in the future, change it once more.
2 Australia
3/27/13
Season-only
Australia was once part of a super-continent and its deserts were covered in forests. Once joined to Antarctica, it split off and moved northwards into warmer climes, whilst Antarctica became an icy wasteland. Australia's move forced the life forms it supported to adapt and the evidence of this can still be found in its unique wildlife, some of which exist nowhere else on earth.
3 America
4/3/13
Season-only
From the bedrock the Empire State Building is built on, to the Spanish empires in South America, the two land masses of North and South America are linked by geology and history. Today North and South America has some of the most spectacular landscapes on earth. They're the product of a violent geological past that shaped an equally turbulent human history.
4 Eurasia
4/10/13
Season-only
Europe and Asia; geologically they are part of the same vast landmass, Eurasia. Shaped by a series of collisions, mountain ranges have been pushed up, valleys created and a once great ocean has come and gone. These events created conditions in which great civilizations could flourish and evidence of these events can be found across Eurasia, if you know where too look.

About this show

Piecing together clues from across the globe and using cutting edge CGI, Rise of the Continents puts the giant jigsaw puzzle of Pangaea back together; uncovering the turbulent story of each continent and revealing why each one is so unique. Spectacular aerial shots reveal the beauty and astonishing landscapes that resulted from the breakup and collision of whole continents, while underwater footage captures the world's most biodiverse seas and smoking volcanoes in the darkest depths of the ocean.

Ratings and reviews

4.5
28 reviews
Andrew King (science student)
June 16, 2014
It's not quite as good as the classic TV series Earth Story, but it's still an excellent (and obviously more up-to-date) introduction to the science of geology, the theory of plate tectonics and the discovery of continental drift, along with the origin, formation, history and future of the continents.