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Private Notes
The Gobi Desert, which stretches from northern China to southern Mongolia, is one of the world's greatest inland deserts. Every spring, fierce sandstorms hit the area. Locals call them "black storms." The swirling sand blocks out the sun, causing the temperature to drop, and day turns into night. Wind speed sometimes reaches over 20 meters per second. This program, which covers the storm in HD for the first time, also reveals the mechanism that generates these storms.
Vietnam's Son Doong cave, which is 200 meters high and over 1.5 kilometers long, was certified as the world's largest cave in 2010. The British team that originally discovered the cave has returned for their third exploration accompanied by an NHK crew. In this eight-day exploration, the crew lights up the interior of the "Great Hall" for the first time revealing the hidden world of the cave. This program examines the mysteries behind how such a giant cave was formed.
The Canadian Arctic, where the temperature can fall to -40°C, is in the middle of the Aurora Belt. The area is known for its frequent aurora displays; however, it is rare for several aurorae to occur at once. This spectacular phenomenon is called an aurora breakup. Colors explode and whirl against the black of night as though the sky is alive. NHK's crew travels deep into Yukon where the sky is darkest by using all means at their disposal, including dog sleds, to chase after and film aurora breakups.
The Arctic: Greenland. Recent global warming is causing unprecedented changes in this frozen land. The frequency of glacier collapse is rapidly increasing, and in some cases, the speed of glacial motion has doubled in the past 15 years. To understand these changes, the crew teams up with a French glaciologist and travels to the massive Greenland ice sheet. This episode introduces the frozen landscape and explores the deep mysterious ice caves that suck in meltwater.
Nearly a thousand caves dot the ocean floor near the Bahamas, southeast of the Florida peninsula. These "blue holes" are limestone caves that have formed over the course of 350,000 years. There's little oxygen in the water in these caves, making it incredibly transparent with an over 100-meter visibility. The caves reflect only the deepest blue spectrum of light. Inside are numerous stalactites. There are also calcareous crystals, some shaped like roses, that reflect light like quartz. In addition, the bones of ancient animals and humans have been found in these caves. Join us as we dive into this wondrous world.
Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire where most of the world's volcanoes can be found. It's a land densely clustered with volcanoes -- many still active. While making this program, the camera crew was able to capture footage from the sky and on the ground. They even got very close to the lava dome of the most dangerous volcano in Eurasia, and fumaroles -- fissures that release steam and volcanic gases. In addition, this adventure includes a visit to a mysterious caldera that creates a number of different minerals. Take a look at this peninsula, pulsating with the primal rhythms of the planet.
Ethiopia -- the scorched earth of Africa. This is a place where temperatures soar to more than 55 degrees Celsius while at the same time cooler high-altitude lakes feed some of Africa's most spectacular waterfalls. For the past 30 million years, volcanic activity has created a uniquely diverse terrain. Now, one man risks life and limb to come face-to-face with the driving forces that are still sculpting the landscape to this day. As parts of the region continue to sweat, local people adapt to survive. Ethiopia is a land of extremes and it soon becomes clear that nature hasn't finished her work here yet.
Indonesia's Raja Ampat is home to some of the most spectacular marine life in the world. It is known as "the Miracle Sea," and a team of filmmakers from Japan will find out why as they dive into this secret world for the first time. They'll reveal the riches of the glowing coral reefs that light up the seabed and put Raja Ampat's unrivalled reputation for wildlife to the test. They'll explore the sights that make this a place like no other and uncover the things that threaten to destroy it. The team will come face-to-face with magnificent sea creatures as they unravel the mysteries of the Miracle Sea.
The Namib Desert stretches far along the Atlantic coast of southern Africa. One area in particular, the Namib Sand Sea in Namibia, a recent addition to the World Heritage list, is a gigantic store of one trillion cubic meters of sand that produces the world's most beautiful sand dunes. These sand dunes are a product of the tremendous westerly winds continually causing the sand to shift. It's almost as if the whole area is alive. This revealing look at the great nature of the desert presents extraordinary footage of not only the continual ebb and flow of the Namib Sand Sea and of a phenomenon where surface sand is blown mesmerizingly around the desert, but it also shows one of the world's greatest flower gardens as it appears every year in August, ever so briefly, in the desert.
The Tasmanian Wilderness is in western Tasmania, Australia's southernmost island. It's a rich area that shows traces of the Earth's early history when Tasmania split off from Antarctica. Frenchmans Cap, a prominent peak formed when sedimentary rocks metamorphosed about a billion years ago, is surrounded by trees that are the descendants of plants that used to grow in ancient times. Bathurst Harbour, the world's only reddish colored body of water, is home to some bizarre deep-sea creatures. This episode captures the wonders of nature through a look at the sea and mountains of Tasmania.
Africa's Victoria Falls is one of the world's major waterfalls. The amount of water that plummets into the giant chasm in the vast plain below it can be as much as 500 million liters per minute. The mist creates showers down like rain. The waterfall generates many other breathtaking optical phenomena such as circular rainbows and moonbows that gleam in the moonlight. Using a special camera, this episode captures many of the waterfall's enthralling phenomena and explores the secrets behind the formation of this giant natural wonder.
