Earth Story

Earth Story

1998, Science  -    -  Playlist 159 Comments
7.79
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Ratings: 7.79/10 from 43 users.

Earth StoryEarth Story unravels the secrets of our planet and brings it alive. The series took three years to make, cost 3 million and was filmed all over the world, from the craters of active volcanoes to the ocean floor.

Where the cameras could not go, in both time and space, the latest animation techniques take over.

Combining live-action footage with state-of-the-art computer graphics which enable us to travel back and forwards through time, this is a fantastic journey of scientific discovery and a comprehensive history of life - in all its forms - on the planet.

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Paul M
Paul M
1 year ago

One of the best documentary series I have ever seen, and it still holds up today.

Douglas Sturm
Douglas Sturm
11 years ago

This is the BEST, more accurate and elegant documentary about the history of the Earth!

Charming narrator and researchers throughout the series, very good animations, fantastic soundtrack and plenty of breathtaking landscapes from all around the world as they explore different sources of evidence that support the colossal, continuous force of a geologically living planet - the Plate Tectonics - and its consequences into shaping the life on Earth. And too the influence of living beings over the transformations of the planet.

Essential to everyone who is interested in both Geology and Biology and also one of the touchstones that support Evolution Theory through which the variety of species came to be.

Ole-Morten Julseth Leirbæk
Ole-Morten Julseth Leirbæk
11 years ago

What is the best documentary made on the history of the earth?

terence galland
terence galland
11 years ago

certainly gives a new meaning to time,with the dating of the rocks, if true, human beings are only in the first seconds of life by comparison.

David
David
11 years ago

Rabbinicle scholars have been asking that very question for thousands of years and not just about the creation itself. They have written thousands of volumes on the subject collectively called the Talmud. They have the added benefit of being able to read it in the original Hebrew, on all it's levels. I do not. However, I'm pretty sure that if you found the most studied rabbi on the planet and asked him he would answer with one of three things. Who can know the mind of God? To give us life so that we may learn that the journey is important, not the destination. Maybe He was lonesome.
What is the use of God now? That seems to be an individual question. Perhaps so that there will be no atheists in foxholes. Maybe to help give us continuity and purpose. He could be there to keep the human ego from getting out of hand and to remind us of how small and lost we really are in the immensity of the universe. Read the Bible, honestly, you'll find many interesting stories in there that can be read on more than one level. My favorite is at the end of Exodus where Moses has an argument with God and Moses wins. Religion itself may not be for everyone, there are so many how can one choose? If you don't like kneeling and bowing and scraping, stay away from the Muslim and Catholic religions. If you don't want to go to a church, temple, synagogue, just have a quiet talk with Him. He's a great listener, the original therapist. And He might even surprise you. It's nice to have someone around who's always there. You really think Creation is finished? There's a reason it's called The Living Word. Short of any of this watch A Fiddler on the Roof. Wonderful keitel music.
Now, the reason I started with a joke: Religious, Atheist, Creationist, Evolutionist, whatever, both sides of the aisle need to Lighten Up! God evolved each of us a brain, do as you will with your own but don't tell each other what to do with theirs. That's how unpleasantness begins.

Siegfried Wagner
Siegfried Wagner
12 years ago

A number of experiments have found that decay rates of other modes of artificial and naturally-occurring radioisotopes are, to a high degree of precision, unaffected by external conditions such as temperature, pressure, the chemical environment, and electric, magnetic, or gravitational fields. Comparison of laboratory experiments over the last century, studies of the Oklo natural nuclear reactor (which exemplified the effects of thermal neutrons on nuclear decay), and astrophysical observations of the luminosity decays of distant supernovae (which occurred far away so the light has taken a great deal of time to reach us), for example, strongly indicate that decay rates have been constant (at least to within the limitations of small experimental errors) as a function of time as well.

Recent results suggest the possibility that decay rates might have a weak dependence (0.5% or less) on environmental factors. It has been suggested that measurements of decay rates of silicon-32, manganese-54, and radium-226 exhibit small seasonal variations (of the order of 0.1%), proposed to be related to either solar flare activity or distance from the sun. However, such measurements are highly susceptible to systematic errors, and a subsequent paper has found no evidence for such correlations in six other isotopes, and sets upper limits on the size of any such effects.

David
David
12 years ago

God and a scientist were having a discussion and the scientist was saying "...so you see with all our expanding knowledge we won't even need you in a few more generations why with all our work in DNA and cloning we will even be able to make people before very long."
At this the good lord, who had been nearly napping, perked up and said, "Really? Let's have a good old fashioned man-making contest, whoever does the best, wins."
The scientist rubbed his chin a moment and then said, "All right, just let me get back to my lab."
"One thing," said God, "We're doing it the way I originally did it, with a lump of clay."
"Challenge accepted," declared the scientist and bent over to scoop up a handful of earth.
"Uh, uh, uh," God wagged a finger at him, "Get your own dirt."

The longer I live and study the smaller the contradiction between religion and science. The farther back the timeline is pushed, the greater the glory of God. The more we understand quantum physics the more the mystery of creation. The Bible tells us what God did, it's not so clear on the details of how. Science tells us how he may have done it, it's not so clear on why.

drinker69
drinker69
12 years ago

These people like rocks way too much.

Guest
Guest
12 years ago

You didnt say what?

RileyRampant
RileyRampant
12 years ago

nice doc. focused on the methods of investigation, more than the narrative or collected understanding.

very well-conceived, if a bit drawn out. also, the narrator pretended to be rather implausibly clueless.

watched all episodes, it was worth it.

Guest
Guest
12 years ago

If religion were true, there would be only 1 religion. Because there is only 1 truth. But darwins version of evolution as far as humans are concerned, has been proven wrong. So why doesnt religion use that proof, to argue their point? Because religion and darwinism hold hands and walk the path together. They have to explain things in terestrial terms. BIBLE= basic instructions before leaving earth. humans: 46 chromosomes. ALL other primates: 48 chromosomes. That difference is insurmountable and requires another explaination than darwin or religion, as its conducted, can give.

Ivan Simo Simic
Ivan Simo Simic
12 years ago

Nice doc...

geamala
geamala
12 years ago

This is getting boring. Interesting though.

Mon Chudzik
Mon Chudzik
12 years ago

After having watched this (except for 7 and 8 episode) I wish I was a geologist. It is so wonderful to see how Earth is not a static 'thing' but rather an organism of a kind with various cycles. It all makes humans just a minor detail in the whole history of Earth.

Matt Kukowski
Matt Kukowski
12 years ago

This is all NON SENSE... rocks can not move! They are not alive!

GOD moves them...

Just kidding...

tkurnas
tkurnas
12 years ago

Why is evolution and geology still questioned by most Americans? Is it any wonder that we can not move forward politically? As long as ignorance permeates our populace we will produce dysfunctional government. As long as we continue to let dogma trump science out of a misguided "respect for beliefs" than we will continue to risk our society. It is people like us who must stand up and say NO MORE IGNORANCE! YOUR RELIGION IS WRONG!

Guest
Guest
12 years ago

Can't believe I watched the whole thing

panthera f
panthera f
12 years ago

6000 fundies will watch this, and still say God did it, and the earth is 6000 jears old. :-(

Yavanna
Yavanna
12 years ago

This doc is a thing of beauty. Required watching.

Justin_Funski
Justin_Funski
12 years ago

Good overview of well documented earth sciences

tariqxl
tariqxl
12 years ago

This is all way too complicated for me, I might just stick to the god theory. And whoever said sarcasm is the lowest form of wit was obviously at the brunt of it when that defense was formed. ;)

NAND Gate
NAND Gate
12 years ago

Very good.

Aaron Seyer
Aaron Seyer
12 years ago

I just watched part 1 and I enjoyed it. Considering how old it is, it is quite good. I'm not that interested in geology either. Maybe I am just bored so anything decent seems better than it normally would be

leewebster
leewebster
12 years ago

quite boring

natasha0
natasha0
12 years ago

This documentary was ok, but lacking slightly by BBC standards.
I found it was more focused on the history of human development in the understanding of geology, rather than the history of the planet.