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00:58:15
Iain Stewart, Dean Ah Chee, Mike Archer
40
Using clues like Africa's spectacular landmarks, mineral wealth and wildlife, Iain Stewart shows how the continent of Africa was formed from the wreckage of a long lost supercontinent. It features, among other things, creation of Victoria Falls, diamond mines of Sierra Leone, skeletons of early whales buried in the sand, and the nutrient-rich grass of the Serengeti Plains.
These nummulite can tell us
'belonging to a very early type of whale, basilosaurus.'
I can see a snail. There's a little gastropod shell.
burying huge swathe of what was to become Africa
a craton is much cooler than the surrounding mantle...
The shallow seas that formed here would have offered rich pickings
where a team of highly trained valuer
Its nostril aren't quite in the position of those of a whale,
Driven by subduction, the Earth's cratons,
Ethiopia's Danakil Depression is in the throes of violent change.
they were the petrified remains of lentil
meaning blemish inside or outside. Right.
has borne witness to the upheaval of our restless planet,
on the cusp of dramatic cultural and social change.
These are incredible. These tubes are burrow, are they?
What a place! It's like a... an amphitheatre of rock.
GRUNTS
they've got these exquisite whirl and swirls.
I mean, across this region, it's thought that over a kilometre of lava
You've got all these chisel marks. You just can't see anything.
a rock called basalt,
provide the perfect portal for geologist,
Sudden cooling of searing-hot magma
a continent that's in the process of being remould and reborn.
all these basalts were erupt out as lava flows.
Beautiful way they get sculpt by sandblasting.
that were burrow into this. Shrimps. Small lobsters. Crabs.
how Africa was carve out from the heart of that great supercontinent.
And the reason why they all descend on this same area,
What Livingstone stumble upon that day
The Greek historian Herodotus reckon that they were...
These features have intrigue and confused people for centuries.
to uncover a layer of gravel scatter with precious raw diamonds.
'scientists have uncover the remains of around 300 skeletons
they must have been gaze upon by angels in their flight.
that not only swamp much of the North African coast,
This is a place that's been undergo
You've trump me.
'that reveal what these very early whales evolve from.'
now threaten to bring about its destruction.
are melt at incredibly high pressure.
..that owe their very existence
cascade down more than 100 metres to the river below...
Livingstone found his progress suddenly interrupt
of the Africa we know today finally emerge.
..and discovering the main turning points that forge this land...
Now, geologically, it's long been stable,
..have seen the world around them rip and tear asunder
These eruptions were the start of an immensely destructive event
But from three billion years onwards,
within an exceptionally hot layer of rock known as the mantle.
Today these ocean giants are undoubtedly the kings of the sea.
And the thing is, that continues down underneath for hundreds of metres.
what you'd find are carbon atoms that are really tightly bonded together
because, economically, this is a continent on the rise,
Cratons are incredibly thick pieces of solid rock
allow scientists to precisely date when rafts of oceanic crust
and is literally a tear in the fabric of this ancient land,
Yeah, so we've got... This is essentially an ancient sea floor,
as very occasionally a diamond is discovered lying amongst the gravel.
Whatever course it takes, one thing is virtually certain,
Like, this is obviously vegetables.
As the supercontinent began to split apart,
cracks which eventually got so big
which up until this point in time had been relatively static,
So, this kind of stone would normally be about $15,000 a carat.
..must have been extremely shallow.
I mean, this one's probably nearly three billion years old,
You can see exactly what happened here 180 million years ago
Just keep quiet. Cool. Be discretional. A precious stone.
..huge upwellings of superheated rock called a mantle plume.
of a cataclysmic geological event
Basil was a bit of a fearsome thing.
..only to find his way blocked by the most impenetrable of all obstacles...
to tempt the carnivorous animals living along its shores
You see there's a...there's a slight speckled appearance,
Without this momentous event,
started with Livingstone's fateful expedition 150 years ago.
that the grass around it has become supercharged.
For that I need some acid. This is weak...some dilute acid.
rising up as molten magma.
a continent that's in the process of being remoulded and reborn.
It must have been the most staggering volcanic event.
has borne witness to the upheavals of our restless planet,
from the rock that forms the ocean floor, the oceanic crust.
It must have been the most staggering volcanic event.
Because hidden in the rocks is some intriguing evidence
as the immense forces that shaped this continent
How frustrating!
These eruptions were the start of an immensely destructive event
they've got these exquisite whirls and swirls.
..creatures requiring an abundant source of sunlight.