Eighteen million years ago, it arrived in warm, tropical waters. Only then could the world's greatest reef be born. Australia's epic journey may have created perfect conditions for coral, but it also put it in the line of fire of the most powerful st...
All lava has a chemical signature that tells scientists where it came from and when it was erupting. The higher up the old volcano, the more pristine the rocks will be. They are the last remaining evidence of the eruption which created this volcano m...
So we're looking at the core of the volcano which is referred to as Mount Warning. That peak extends up to just a little over 1, 1 00 meters. But when it was active, the peak of this volcano was 6, 000 feet high. Millions of years of wind and weather...
But the wonky holes will never be completely covered up, because coral cant grow in freshwater. Theyll remain an indelible reminder of the reef's past lives. But the origins of the reef lie even further back in time. And to understand them means crac...
Here it is. Got it, I think. A spring. And whats actually coming out of this is fresh water. You can drink. You see this stuff bubbling out? This is what the traditional owners of this place call 'buiur bindi''fresh water in the ocean'. The locals ca...
For thousands of years, this powerful current has regenerated the reef. But it can not repair everything. Beneath the waves lie deeper scarsthe largest coral reef on Earth is home to a dazzling diversity of marine species, some found nowhere else on...
The reef was left high and dry, exposed to air and harsh sun. A trillion tiny creatures died in their own homes. For the coral, it was an apocalypse. When the ice age ended, the sea came back and submerged the dead reef. But what brought it back to l...
Like these sea fans, the last frontier of life on the reef. The divers reach their target-- a massive ridge, 190 feet down. Here, the air they are breathing is under pressure, squeezed down so that there's more gas in every lungful. They have to hope...
shows it really quite well. In order to bring back a piece of this mystery, his team of divers will be risking their lives. Diving problems, you got currents, tides, waves. We havent been here before. We haven't been this deep, though. One of those c...
Inside the flesh of these tiny animals are microscopic plants called algae, but these aren't parasites. None of this would be here without them. Wachenfeld: When the algae photosynthesize, they take energy from sunlight and carbon dioxide, then make...
As a polyp grows, it puts up a wall of limestone around itself. And then it multiplies. Each polyp can produce thousands of offspring, which all work together to build a living fortress-- a coral reef. After just a few years, a single piece of coral...
Where every plant and animal helps sustain the whole.The waste from parrot fish cements the reef. Stinging anemones provide a haven to the vulnerable. Even killers play their part, preventing a population explosion that would destroy this fragile eco...
Where the forces of nature meet? In a hidden world, a tropical miracle. At this moment, evolution is building a living colossus, a giant built by nature's tiniest creature, a model of reincarnation, a survivor born from disasterthe Great Barrier Reef...
They wont be strong enough to challenge for females until they are five years old. Til that day, they will regularly hone their sparring skills. They will stay with the group until they mature. During the long winter chill, Lake Baikal transforms fro...
Three thousand five hundred meters up in the Sayan Mountains near the Russian-Mongolian border, Siberian ibex search for food. They scratch a living from the meager grasses on the sunnier south facing slopes. But some have a different sort of appetit...
