Forces of Nature

The rotation of our planet affects the lives of the creatures that inhabit it, including the humble dung beetle. Dung beetles have learned to navigate and orient themselves using the motion of the sun, moon and stars.

Learn how we experience the consequences of natural forces that keep Earth on the move. FORCES OF NATURE "Motion" premieres Wednesday, October 5 at 8/7c.

Surfer Serginho Laus rides the Prororoca Wave, a tidal wave on the Amazon River in Brazil.

Understand how Earth’s colors are created and what they mean. FORCES OF NATURE "Color" premieres Wednesday, September 28 at 8/7c.

After a long, dry summer, the parched, brown plains of the Serengeti into a lush green blanket of grass with the onset of the rainy season. The green grass is colored by the pigment chlorophyll which harnesses the energy from the sunlight. In a process called photosynthesis it transforms carbon dioxide and water into sugars which can feed cows, humans and the wildlife of the Serengeti.

Researcher Oswaldo Vasquez swims with humpback whales in the blue waters of the Silver Banks Marine Reserve in the Dominican Republic, which is a nursery for humpback whale calves. The calves rely on the warmth created by the water’s interaction with the sun’s photons. This interaction also causes the ocean to be a deep blue color.

The Baroarbunga volcano in Central Iceland erupted on August 31, 2014 spewing out red hot lava. Particle Physicist Brian Cox visits the volcano a year after the eruption and explains that the origin of the lava’s color comes from the light the object is emitting.

Learn how Earth’s ingredients, the chemical elements, transformed barren rock into a living world. FORCES OF NATURE "Elements" premieres Wednesday, September 21 at 8/7c.

At the Kawah Ijen volcano in Indonesia, bright yellow elemental sulphur is mined, but the valuable sulphur is also flammable and easily catches fire. It burns with a blue flame but also produces choking fumes of sulphur dioxide. Each night a team of workers must brave the harsh conditions and put out the flames to keep the mine active and the sulphur pure.

Beneath a forest in the Dominican Republic, divers explore an underground limestone cave system which has been carved out by water. The water in the cave is exceptionally clear but deep inside the cave system they encounter a rare phenomenon known as a halocline, where fresh water from the cave meets sea water that has seeped inland from the coast, and meet with a beautiful boundary layer.

At the Concurs de Castells competition in Catalonia, Spain, teams battle the force of gravity as they compete to build the tallest, most complex human towers. Hundreds of people come together and form a giant circle, called the pinya, to support the towers up to 10 people high. But it’s the lightest members of the team — children — who get sent to the very top.