Customer Reviews

How the Earth Was Made [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I first watched this show on the History channel at the beginning of last winter and liked it immediately. So I pre-ordered the DVD on amazon right away. It arrived last week and is currently making the rounds in my office!

Many a time, I have visualized how our precocious planet formed and evolved based on paleobiological evidence. I always get a feeling of euphoria whenever I imagine a pristine Earth with dynamics that have been changing over mind-numbing time scales. Well, the graphics in this show come pretty close to my own imagination.

The playback, divided by mostly uneven time segments, starts at around 4.4 billion years ago and eventually works its way to the last ice age before briefly dwelling on the planet's future. There is a time slider that briefly appears at the start of each time segment. Yes, dinosaurs are mentioned and shown but only briefly. Yup, stromatalites are in there as well along with Trilobites. It should be noted that the Cambrian Explosion and the Carboniferous are mentioned. For some reason, I was surprised to learn that granite first formed several billion years ago.

Other subjects discussed in depth include plate tectonics (continents, mountains, etc.), land inhabitation by flora and marine animals and super-volcanoes. The DVD ends with a bunch of scientists dwelling on the future of Earth. I decided not to read too much into their predictions as I won't be around if/when what they predict happens.

Being a Geologist myself, I found this Bluray to be fantastic!, I wish all my lectures at university were similar to this (unfortunately they weren't)

From my point of view, this program delivers easy to follow and understand geological processes and how they have a direct effect on anything else in the Earth's system as a planet.

This title is a must for anyone that wants to learn about landscaping forming, dinosaur and other mass extinction events, continental positioning and what the future holds for the planet (and life for that matter) once the present Ice Age break period ends...

All in all I give it its well deserved 5 stars!

I've had this DVD on autobuy and must say what a treasure it is. We have watched it countless times, my hubby and I, as we enjoy series like these.
We loved every minute of it and the digital graphics was superb, very realistic. You sit there riveted to your screen as you watch things unfold. It's mind-boggling, watching how the earth was created.

Earth has a past we can never comprehend, a present we live in and take for granted and a future that is just too scary to contemplate. But all in all, what an amazing planet we live in.
This DVD takes us on a journey to the very beginning. 4.5 billion year to be precise, when the planet was formed by meteors colliding in space.
Earth goes from a seething hellish mass of fiery molten rock,through numerous major changes that takes billion of years and finally to the present day wonder we live in.
And that is not all, we also have a glimpse into the future, when Earth will likely end up as barren and lifeless as Mars. Now, there's a scary thought.

But it seems we don't have to panic just yet, according to the experts we still have a few billions years to go before earth becomes hell again. Phew, that's a relief! Quite frankly anyone would be scared of it!

This is another DVD worth the money spent.

An easy to follow account of the history of the earth as told by the rocks. While minimal attention is given on Darwinian evolution, the perspective of the rocks sidesteps religion while re-enforcing support for foundational principles of evolution. Entertaining, quality, unbiased, and educational, How the Earth Was Made sets the story of the rocks without directly attacking religion.

Like most people, I was fairly aware of the differences between Darwin's theory and the religious account of creation, but this documentary is presented from a totally different point of view. Watching this documentary you can just focus on the geology of the planet and see how the geological evidence clearly demonstrates what the planet has been through. I really liked this documentary and think it would be an enjoyable watch for anyone with a natural curiosity for the sciences and wants to know more about the earth's history (and future, read below).

The documentary is divided into a timeline and for each period scientists reveal field evidence from the rocks to explain what happened in that period. They take you to landscapes from around the world: South Georgia's wetlands, the Scottish highlands, the Canadian Rockies, the Grand Canyon, the South African diamond mines and even New York's Central Park and show you how these are more than just attractive scenery and staggering views. Each of these geological landmarks tells us about events in the past. There's the event, what triggered it, when it happened, and what it led to... fascinating, fascinating stuff.

At times I felt the movie supposes some knowledge of geology from the viewer but I wouldn't say it's unwatchable because of this. It still explained a lot of the concepts like tectonic plates (which I'd heard of before but didn't quite know what they were), glacier formations and the effects that erode them, and how all these things relate to what happened and is continuing to happen. If you're like me without much geology background, you'll get a lot of new and interesting information like pillow lava (how they're formed and what they tell us) and stromatolites (think of a prehistoric coral, originating 4 billion years ago but still alive today in Western Australia). The technical data (temperatures, dates, and geological aspects) are presented coherently.

What's most interesting about this documentary in my opinion is that it touches upon the future and draws predictions based on the natural progression of events in the planet's past. Sometimes the claims made are shocking. For example, they say that North America and Europe are continuing to drift apart but that one day (although a very long time from now) the reverse will also happen and the East Coast will end up in a collision with Europe. New York will be flattened and turned into a mountain (Don't rush selling your NY real estate though; it's a long time from now. Everything about this documentary is in thousands and millions and billions of years.) If you're keeping up with global warming, pay attention to what they say about ice ages. It will raise your eyebrows. I certainly felt a little more hopeful after watching this film although it's clear that our world will die one day.

Overall it's illuminating and very interesting, and sometimes even frightening, but the facts are enjoyable and are presented in a way that's not overwhelming if you're not that informed about this science. But I wouldn't call it a Geology 101 course or even a full presentation of the scientific theories related to this topic. Many concepts were briefly brushed over, possibly to make the whole thing fit into the 1:30 time. I would have liked more information on the formation of the original "water world" which is left a little unclear (I found the possible explanation of water bearing meteors a little hard to swallow) and more explanation on the shifting ocean currents which is given as the main reason for climate change at one point but without much detail of exactly how this was caused.

The graphics and photography are excellent. A lot of it is special effects, but lots of natural scenery too. I especially enjoy watching documentaries with high production quality, so if you're the same, this one's for you.

Overall I can say that after watching this documentary, I have a lot more understanding and respect for geologists. It's a truly fascinating science that I wasn't adequately in touch with. It's good to know that we have this knowledge, that we can tell the future of our environment just by paying attention to the earth beneath our feet!

If you watch it with children between 12 and 16 it has information that's suitable for them (the formation of coal, diamonds, etc. reminds me of high school science) but be prepared to answer lots of questions. I don't think it's suitable for children younger than this age, beyond the great graphics at least.

I am a MAJOR science video far (just ask my long-suffering spouse), and How the Earth Was Made is one of the best I'e ever seen. I am getting it from Amazon in a couple of weeks and I look forward to enjoying it on DVD.

How the Earth Was Made presents a geological history of earth in an easy-to-understand, accessible form. The computer graphics are beautiful. I also enjoyed the narration and soundtrack to this video. I especially enjoy learning new things and this video taught me about the origin of banded iron formations, the scource of most if not all of the iron currently being mined. I also learned about the formation of oxygen on the Earth and the formtion of the oceans. Not only did I learn but was entertained as well.

I highly recommend this film to everyone.

Great CG documentary on the geological study of planet earth. Starts at 4.5 billion years ago and speculates about all the phases the earth goes through to the present day, using geological evidence. This rather boring subject was kept interesting throughout, with great CG, interesting facts and short interviews with some geology nerds. Might be too boring for the young ones, there were only a very few shots of dinosaurs and Cambrian monsters. The narration by Edward Herrmann was spot on perfect. I give it 5 starts because the price is great for what you are getting. 94 minutes and also includes a "not too shabby" volcano documentary as an added bonus.

Awesome CG work on;

1. The world on fire.
2. Green iron oceans.
5. Earth frozen into a big snowball.
6. Snowball Earth melting from the inside.
4. Pangea and Rodinia forming.
6. Lots and lots of rocks.

As I had a modest background in geology from college (I minored in earth science), which was all the way back in the early 70s, I was interested to see how much the field had changed. I knew a bit about recent developments but you know how it is, what with job and career and stuff you lose track of your old interests so I was out of date on many things.

This series made it dramatically clear that much had changed in the 35 years since I was in school. Back then, the oldest rocks known were in the Canadian Shield and the monzonite sands of Tanzania, which were a mere billion years old. Now they can go back over 3.5 billion years. Continental drift is now firmly established, but in my historical geology text by Dott and Batten, orogenesis (mountain building) was still discussed as possibly being explained by the geosynclinal theory of deposition of deep strata through erosion with mountains occurring from crustal isostatic rebound.

But the most striking thing is how they can now interpret and date many of the most dramatic events in the earth's past, such as the "Snowball Earth" phase which started 1.5 billion years ago when all the continents came together in the southern hemisphere and stopped the ocean currents, which led to a prolonged cooling phase. Its end and the eventually warming phase eventually led to the Cambrian explosion. There there was the Siberian crustal eruption in the Permian which wiped out even more life (80%) than the iridium meteor strike that killed off the dinosaurs, and so on. This was the biggest volcanic event in earth's history.

It was also fascinating to hear how the earth's atmosphere had changed; one reason Carboniferous insects and the later dinosaurs grew so big was that there was a greater percentage of oxygen in the earth's atmosphere than now (30% then compared to about 20% now).

The show features on site footage of many of the most important geological finds around the world and their rocks, with expert commentary by the geology professors, of course. I thought this was a nice touch, having once hiked up to the location of the Burgess Shales in the Canadian Rockies and seen a few of these important geological locations myself.

Overall a truly fascinating and informative series and one of the best nature documentaries ever done.

I saw this on the History channel last year and had to get the dvd for my personal collection. Saw the the show on the history channel in high-definition on tv the other night with my wife(no blue ray dvd player yet). She loved it. A must have for space buffs.

Loved the doc. Well paced. Naration great. I loved the fact that I actually learned something. I highly recommend this for all. I think children would also find it interesting.