:05:01
Our search for answers
:05:03
opened eyes
smaller and larger than our own.
:05:08
We read the codes of fossils.
:05:12
lmages from space
of the torn continents.
:05:18
Heartbeats of earthquakes
from the Earth's interior.
:05:24
The molten flows
of its volcanoes.
:05:30
Slender cores drilled
from its deepest seafloors.
:05:34
From a dozen sciences
came the fragments of answers
:05:37
which were to revolutionize
the study of Earth.
:05:40
An astonishing theory
took shape.
:05:43
lt is a theory called
"Global Plate Tectonics"
:05:47
but it is nothing less
:05:48
than the rediscovery
of the Earth-
:05:51
an encompassing theory
of Earth's crust
:05:53
being contnuously
created and destroyed...
:05:57
of a genesis
which has never ended...
:06:00
of extaordinary journeys
of the continents.
:06:04
The most recent journey began
almost 200 million years ago
:06:08
when dinosaurs were
in their ascendancy.
:06:12
All of the continents
were then assembled
:06:14
in a single land mass-
:06:16
a super-continent, now called Pangaea.
:06:19
180 million years ago,
a great rift has begun to open
:06:24
between what will become
North America and Africa.
:06:28
The Atlantic is born.
:06:35
135 million years ago
:06:37
the first true birds appear
in the primeval skies.
:06:42
South America fractures
from Africa.
:06:45
Great areas
of the continents drown
:06:47
and emerge with the drift
of the continents.
:06:51
Climates and weather change
:06:53
constantly shaping
the evolution of life.
:06:57
lndia has broken free
from Antartica
:06:59
and drifts north to collide
with Asia 40 million years ago