All other life forms except humans exist to propagate themselves and pass on their genes; humans alone work to other ends. In this lecture, Richard Dawkins distinguishes between the result of eons of natural selection which has resulted in, say, a bird's tail, whose purpose is to enable the bird to fly-purpose with a survival value-and deliberate design, like an airplane's tail. Dawkins shows the relationship between the two in explaining the evolution...

Host Kirk Johnson, Director of Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, journeys on a spectacular road trip through a tumultuous deep past exploring three fundamental questions: How was the continent built? How did life evolve here? And how has the continent shaped us? In episode three of this three-part series, from Ice Age to oil boom, discover the challenges faced and the wealth uncovered as humans take over the continent. How did we turn...

Over the many billions of years of the Earth's history our planet has never stopped changing shape. Massive tectonic forces have sculpted and re-sculpted our world in a never ending journey. Tectonics has created life - and destroyed it as well. Three tectonic collisions created Europe and continue to alter the continent's landscape. In this episode, we examine changes in Iceland and the Mediterranean Sea.

The Sumatra-Andaman earthquake of 2004 is estimated to have released the energy of 23,000 atomic bombs, inundating coastal communities with tsunami waves up to 100 feet high. This program explains the undersea geologic forces that create tsunamis - and considers the possible consequences if a landslide-generated mega-tsunami were to strike the East Coast.

NOVA's expert team looks for the signature of a volcanic eruption big enough to have blasted a huge cloud of ash and sulfuric acid into the atmosphere. Killer Volcanoes spotlights the search for the mystery volcano that plunged the globe into a deep freeze and inflicted famine on medieval Europe.

Forty years ago, on May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted violently. It was the most deadly and devastating eruption in U.S. history. Combining eyewitness accounts with rarely seen images, this show reveals the unfolding apocalypse — from the first moments of the volcanic blast to the 12-mile-high ash plume and the lethal mudflows that raged down the mountain.

It was plants that first harnessed light from the sun to create a life-giving atmosphere, transforming a barren rock into the lush world we know today. In this program, geologist Iain Stewart journeys from a spectacular rain forest growing inside a cave to remote African deserts to explore the crucial role of the plant kingdom in the development of life on Earth. He also uncovers the epic battle between the dinosaurs and the planet's tallest trees,...

"A sublime chronicle of our planet." -Booklist, STARRED review A primer for every Earth resident, by Harvard's acclaimed geologist How well do you know the ground beneath your feet? Odds are, where you're standing was once cooking under a roiling sea of lava, crushed by a towering sheet of ice, rocked by a nearby meteor strike, or perhaps choked by poison gases, drowned beneath ocean, perched atop a mountain range, or roamed by fearsome monsters....

In this video, students learn why fossils are often referred to as “windows to the past.” The basic requirements for fossil formation are identified. Vivid footage and animations of various fossils highlight different types of fossil preservation, including petrification, imprints, molds and casts, freezing, amber fossilization, and preservation in tar pits. Finally, various ways in which we use fossils are discussed. Additional terminology and...

The collision zone of the massive Indian and Asian tectonic plates is one of the most seismically active places on Earth. These plates trace an arc beneath the Himalaya Mountains and run south below the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta, an area that is inhibited by billions of people. This program follows earth scientists working in seven countries who are urgently investigating this high-risk zone.