How South America Became Earth’s Most Extreme Continent | SLICE EARTH | FULL DOC

Video Description

South America is a land of contrasts and excesses. It is home to the world's longest mountain range, largest rainforest, most powerful river, driest desert and greatest biodiversity on the planet. The heart of the country is home to the continent's oldest geological structure, the tepuys, as they were once called by the Indians and today by geologists like Nelson Joachim Reis. Then the future South America joined with other lands, then separated from them at least three times... So how long have we been able to speak of South America? For Martin Bailey Pepper, since 900 million years ago, and that's because all the pebbles in all the continent's rivers can be traced back to that date... And he verified this by travelling 50,000 kilometers by motorcycle. A reminder of the last collision between South America and Gondwana, Renata Schmitt's field of study, the Sugar Loaf towers over Rio, just as others have remained in Africa, where Nicole Ulrich works. Today's South America is dominated by the Andes, a distinctive mountain range, as Thierry Sempere explains. As for the Amazon rainforest, it's tectonics that have made it today's largest and most diverse forest, an infinite hunting ground for Pierre Olivier Antoine. Documentary: Voyage of the Continents - Season 2 - South America Director: Alexis De Favitski Production: ARTE France, La Compagnie des Taxi Brousse, CNRS Images (2014) 🤖 This thumbnail was created with the help of artificial intelligence. 🎨 #documentary #freedocumentary #slicedocumentary #documentaries #ecology #earth #environment #sustainability #climatechange #andes #amazon #biodiversity #geology #tectonics #rainforest #desert #wildlife #southamerica #nature #exploration #science #evolution #mountains #river