How the Earth Works
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Episodes
S1 E1 - Geology's Impact on History
December 20, 202331minIf you could view Earth's history at high speed, you'd see continents whiz about, ocean basins grow and shrink, and mountain ranges rise and erode away. This lecture sets the stage for investigating our dynamic planet.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E2 - Geologic History—Dating the Earth
December 20, 202332minDiscovering Earth's exact age took centuries of detective work. Rock strata provide relative ages, but only with the discovery of radioactivity was it possible to determine the absolute geologic timescale.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E3 - Earth's Structure-Journey to Earth's Center
December 20, 202332minAnalysis of seismic waves from earthquakes allows scientists to map the structure inside Earth. Using this technique, we take a modern-day journey to the center of the Earth in the style of Jules Verne.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E4 - Earth's Heat-Conduction and Convection
December 20, 202331minWe reverse the direction of the previous lecture to see how heat flows from the center of Earth toward the surface, exploring the phenomena of heat radiation, conduction, and convection.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E5 - The Basics of Plate Tectonics
December 20, 202332minThe theory of plate tectonics accounts for the existence of continents, oceans, mountains, earthquakes, volcanoes, mineral resource distribution, climate changes, and many other aspects of our planet.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E6 - Making Matter-The Big Bang and Big Bangs
December 20, 202330minWe investigate the big bang and the early evolution of the universe to learn the origin of atoms, stars, and planets. The supernovae of dying stars played a key role in forging heavy elements.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E7 - Creating Earth-Recipe for a Planet
December 20, 202332minThe solar system formed 4.6 billion years ago when a cloud of gas, dust, and ice began to collapse and rotate, with Earth accreting in the inner region of the disk. An enormous collision with the proto-Earth produced the Moon.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E8 - The Rock Cycle—Matter in Motion
December 20, 202332minThough rocks may seem eternal, they are part of a continuous cycle of changing forms called the rock cycle, which begins with igneous rocks and can involve sedimentary and metamorphic phases.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E9 - Minerals—The Building Blocks of Rocks
December 20, 202331minRocks are made of minerals, which in turn are composed of different elements. Silicon and oxygen are the two most abundant elements in Earth's mantle and crust, and most rocks contain them.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E10 - Magma—The Building Mush of Rocks
December 20, 202332minMost magma is generated beneath mid-ocean ridges, where plates move apart and rock moves toward the surface to fill the gaps. Magma forms in these places due to a process called pressure release.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E11 - Crystallization—The Rock Cycle Starts
December 20, 202331minWhen magma cools below certain temperatures, solid mineral crystals begin to grow. With continued cooling the entire magma will eventually crystallize, and the result is an igneous rock.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E12 - Volcanoes—Lava and Ash
December 20, 202332minVolcanoes form where magma reaches the surface and erupts—at which point the magma becomes lava. The different kinds of volcanoes are related to the tectonic settings in which they occur.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E13 - Folding—Bending Blocks, Flowing Rocks
December 20, 202332minMost rock of the crust and mantle is solid. And yet, over long timescales, the crust and mantle are in motion, bending and flowing. This lecture shows how rocks deform in an elastic, plastic, or brittle manner.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E14 - Earthquakes—Examining Earth's Faults
December 20, 202331minMore than 200,000 earthquakes are recorded each year. We examine the types of faults along which they occur and the aftermath, which in some cases can leave the Earth ringing like a gong for months.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E15 - Plate Tectonics—Why Continents Move
December 20, 202331minContinents move because they are the surface expression of mantle convection. Two main forces are directly responsible for plate motions: slab pull and ridge push.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E16 - The Ocean Seafloor—Unseen Lands
December 20, 202331minThe seafloor shows a tremendous diversity of features that are related to plate tectonics and the process of mantle convection.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E17 - Rifts and Ridges—The Creation of Plates
December 20, 202332minOceans undergo reincarnation: they repeatedly die and are reborn. The Atlantic Ocean is only 180 million years old and will eventually close up again. The Red Sea appears to be a new ocean in the making.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E18 - Transform Faults—Tears of a Crust
December 20, 202330minThe San Andreas is a transform fault that separates the North American and Pacific plates. Transform faults are actually rare on land, but mid-ocean ridges are intersected by countless such features.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E19 - Subduction Zones—Recycling Oceans
December 20, 202331minSubduction zones are the most geologically exciting places on Earth. Here the most destructive earthquakes and volcanoes occur, and forces are generated that may rip supercontinents apart.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E20 - Continents Collide and Mountains Are Made
December 20, 202332minWhen plate motions bring continents in contact with each other, the result is the formation of mountains. A notable example is the Himalayas, produced by the continental collision of India with China.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E21 - Intraplate Volcanoes—Finding the Hot Spots
December 20, 202331minFor years intraplate volcanoes such as those that produced the Hawaiian Islands were lumped together under the catch-all name of "hot spots," but recent work is showing that Earth has many different ways of making a volcano.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E22 - Destruction from Volcanoes and Earthquakes
December 20, 202331minThe largest earthquakes and volcanic eruptions release as much energy as the simultaneous explosion of tens of thousands of nuclear weapons. We look at the human consequences of these events.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E23 - Predicting Natural Disasters
December 20, 202331minVolcanoes can be easily monitored, and they reveal many clues to an impending eruption as the magma slowly forces its way toward the surface. Earthquakes, by contrast, are not yet predictable.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E24 - Anatomy of a Volcano—Mount St. Helens
December 20, 202331minWe examine the eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980, triggered when an earthquake caused a gigantic avalanche that released pent-up magma and gases, leveling trees for over 600 square kilometers.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E25 - Anatomy of an Earthquake—Sumatra
December 20, 202330minThe 2004 Sumatra earthquake produced a massive tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people around the Indian Ocean. We look at the complex tectonic forces behind this cataclysm.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
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