Arte - Voyage of the Continents Series 2 (2014) Part 5 South America

– Original title “La Valse des Continents” –

“The Earth's great rhythm permeates everything, and man is caught up in it, in spirit as much as in body. ”

This second series of 5 x 52min tells the animated story of the genesis of our continents. This real waltz of land masses sculptures our landscapes. It will take us this time in Africa and in Americas. Since its formation, 4,55 billion years, our Earth is submitted to strengths of an incredible power. The earth's crust is in perpetual evolution, redrawing indefatigably the world map. Continents assemble and part, victims of collisions and tearings. Perceptible movements through earthquakes, through volcanic raids and through tsunamis. In this “tectonic waltz “of lands and seas, real geologic epic, we follow passionate and fascinating scientists. With them, we travel more than a billion years all over the world to reconstitute the puzzle of our continents and understand the indefatigably sculptured grand landscapes. The continents are not eternally fixed in their majesty. Far from being immutable points of reference, they are born, grow, and finally succumb to the effects of time, like living beings. The heart of our planet creates and moves them in a never-ending journey. The continents come together and separate, victims of collisions and tectonic subduction. Life in the mantle can be perceived through earthquakes and tsunamis. From place to place, volcanic action adds a spectacular, often violent touch to the Earth's surface. Around a core as hot as the sun, the Earth's crust is perpetually evolving and redrawing the map of continents and oceans. This four billion year dynamic is perceptible to people who are trained to see it, people with a third eye the eye of the geologist. To understand it, our eyes must be re-educated by looking at some of nature's lessons offered by the Earth, where we can learn to decipher its grandest creations, in landscapes that are continually being sculpted. Via the epic of continental drift, we travel to all 4 corners of the planet, to meet scientists who are carrying out state-of-the-art research on the most emblematic landscapes of each geological event. With these scientists, and thanks to their work, we discover the sites in a new light – landscapes that we often see but rarely look at closely. The journey also establishes the key reference points of life alongside the geologic time scale - the appearance of life, of plants, of terrestrial life, dinosaurs and Man punctuate the geologic time scale.

Directed by Alexis de Favitski ; Co-Produced by La Compagnie des Taxi-Brousse,CNRS Images and ARTE France in participation with CNC,TFO, Ushuaia TV and Discovery Networks Asia Pacific.

Part 5 South America

South America is a territory of contrasts and excesses. It is home to the world's longest mountain range, the largest rainforest, the most powerful river, the driest desert and the greatest biodiversity on the planet. This world travelled around the heart of the South Pacific for billions of years, before leaving Gondwana for good to join North America and build … the Americas. The heart of the country is home to the oldest geological structure on the continent, the tepuys as they were once called by the Indians and now by geologists such as Nelson Joachim Reis, and then we look the future South America which has gathered with other continents and separated from them at least three times… So since when can we talk about South America? For Martin Bailey Pepper it is 900 million years, and this because all the stones of all the rivers of the continent are found on this date… He checked this by riding 50,000 kilometres on a motorcycle, then episode is looking the last collision between South America and Gondwana, Renata Schmitt's field of study. Sugar Loaf mountain sits on Rio, just as other formations have remained in Africa where Nicole Ulrich works, while South America today is the Andes, a special mountain range as Thierry Sempere explains. As for the Amazonian forest, it is the tectonics that has made it the largest forest of today and the one with the greatest diversity, an infinite hunting ground for Pierre Olivier Antoine.

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