Washoe County Library System

Of all continents on Earth, none preserves a more spectacular story of its origins than Australia. With help from high-energy host and geologist Richard Smith, we meet titanic dinosaurs and giant kangaroos, sea monsters and prehistoric crustaceans, disappearing mountains and deadly asteroids. Epic in scope, intimate in nature, this is the untold story of the Land Down Under, the one island continent that has got it all. A look at the natural history...

The brand-new, 2016, high-definition program explores the characteristics of Earth's four systems: Geosphere, Biosphere, Hydrosphere and Atmosphere. Understand how the Earth's systems interact with each other. Detailed graphics, diagrams, and exciting video, as well as on-screen, multiple-choice reviews at the end of each segment reinforce important concepts and make learning fun.

In ROCKS & SOIL, Bill unearths the hard facts on volcanoes, landslides, tectonic plates, rivers, weather, and their varied effects on the creaton of rocks and soil. Check out how to unearth fossils and sedimentary rocks and soil and discover why there's a piece of quartz in watches.

Course covers the making of our planet from the Big Bang, to the formation of the solar system, to the subsequent evolution of Earth. Travel to the center of our planet and out again, charting the geologic forces that churn beneath our feet to push the continents and seafloor.

"Nova investigates a provocative new theory that suggests the extinction of more than 34 types of large prehistoric mega-creatures, such as the saber-toothed cat and woolly mammoth, was caused not by climate change or the arrival of the first human hunters, but by the massive breakup of a comet over the Great Lakes region at the end of the last Ice Age, some 12,900 years ago." -- WGBH/Nova website.

Presents footage of the natural geologic features of the Grand Canyon and includes segments on the reintroduction of the California condor and on rafting through the canyon.