NOVA — S40E15 — Australia's First 4 Billion Years: Awakening

00:00:03 RICHARD SMITH: Over four billion years in the making.

00:02:55 Major funding for NOVA is provided by the following:

00:05:35 An hour down the road,

00:07:53 every fragment locked in mortal gravitational combat

00:10:39 So we're almost there.

00:12:36 crystallized inside molten, continental granite

00:14:44 you would have been treated

00:16:40 that the great bombardment slowed

00:18:44 and archaic microorganisms,

00:20:54 On the outside is a vast living community

00:23:05 because you can still visit them,

00:25:40 Karijini National Park.

00:27:37 but if you think that every one of these layers of rust

00:30:17 The formation of iron

00:32:53 called Rodinia.

00:35:49 because there was an ice cover over it.

00:38:09 in Earth history

00:40:23 GEHLING: It probably crawled over the mats,

00:42:14 While life was starting to soften the planet's surface,

00:44:21 ever since the Ediacaran, but now, suddenly,

00:46:47 They were bug-eyed

00:49:19 rivers had been tumbling from their bare, snowy peaks.

00:52:03 but apart from the wind and the waves, this was a silent world.

00:54:17 Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org