History of the Earth Movies
Endorsed by Sioux Falls Scientists
Sioux Falls Scientists recommends the following movies that describe the history of the Earth. Starting with our Sun and moving on to the coalescing of Earth from the surrounding rotating cloud of dust and rocks. We following the resultant mass of molten rock through cooling, rain, ice, early life, oxygenation, giant continents, giant oceans, plate tectonics, ocean life, life on land, dinosaurs, and early mankind.
The movies are available from Amazon.com but you are free to obtain them from many other sources. Amazon offers them on their website along with many alternate sources, often less expensive. Many are probably also available on NetFlix.com and elsewhere for on-line viewing. You are free to choose whatever source you please. The movie links on the following pages point to their locations at Amazon.
The Sioux Falls Scientists recommends 1 history of the universe table, 32 history of the Earth documentaries, and 9 history of the Earth books described on the following 42 pages:
6-26-19 The magnetic north pole is moving and a liquid-metal ball explains why
The pole is racing towards Siberia - but why? It's a mystery with huge implications, and to solve it, we're building an explosive model of the planet's core. CAN you point to the north pole? Almost certainly not. Even if you are armed with a compass, you could easily get it wrong. If you are in California, your needle might be a full 18 degrees out. “You need to take account of that, even if you’re just hiking – it can be the difference between going left and going straight on,” says William Brown at the British Geological Survey. It isn’t just that your compass can be thrown off by local quirks in the magnetic field. The north pole itself isn’t what it used to be. In 1900, the pole was in Canada. A century later, it was near Greenland. In the past 18 years, it has raced eastwards at about 40 kilometres per year, and is currently heading for Siberia. The weird behaviour of Earth’s magnetic field doesn’t end there. It also occasionally reverses its polarity: there were times in our planet’s history when a compass needle pointed to what we call south. Even now, there are spots under the surface where a compass would point the wrong way. What is going on? The mystery has deep implications for technology and the future of our planet. To address it properly, we would need to make like Jules Verne and journey to the centre of the Earth, where the field has its source. That isn’t exactly practical. Instead, inventive minds have sought out magnets frozen into the planet aeons ago and built giant spinning spheres of liquid sodium. All of which could help us better understand our planet, evade solar storms and perhaps take the right route home. Although few of us have been anywhere near the North Pole, it feels as familiar a landmark as the Grand Canyon or Mount Everest. Children know it as the place where Santa Claus lives. But there is more than one pole on top of the world (see “Diagram”). There is the geographic North Pole, which is where Earth’s spin axis contacts the ground. And there is the magnetic north pole, where the planet’s magnetic field points directly downwards. It is this spot that is on the move, as is its counterpart at the other end of the planet. The magnetic south pole isn’t in the middle of Antarctica as you might expect, but off the coast of an area called Victoria Land.
10-30-16 ‘A Most Improbable Journey’ offers scientific take on human history
‘A Most Improbable Journey’ offers scientific take on human history
Book zooms through key cosmic, geologic and biological events that shaped past. A new book explores how cosmic and geologic events—such as the particular details of the solar system’s formation—have shaped human history. Most people do not marvel much at sand. We may enjoy how it feels under our bare feet, or get annoyed when someone tracks it into the house. But few of us see those quartz grains the way geologist Walter Alvarez does—as the product of 4.5 billion years of improbable cosmic and geologic events that defined the course of human history. Sandy beaches exist because silicon—a relatively rare element in the solar system—happened to become concentrated on Earth during the solar system’s early days, Alvarez, of the University of California, Berkeley, writes in A Most Improbable Journey. While powerful solar particles swept lighter, gaseous elements toward the outer planets, more massive, mineral-forming elements such as silicon, magnesium and iron were left behind for Earth. Later on, in the molten crucibles between Earth’s colliding tectonic plates, these elements formed the raw materials for pivotal human inventions, including stone tools, glass and computer chips.
History of the Earth Movies
Endorsed by Sioux Falls Scientists
