- Dr. Bob Ballard, best known for his work finding and exploring the Titanic, hosts this five-part event, which reveals what really happens thousands of feet beneath the surface of the Earth's oceans. Dr. Ballard and a team of experts -- including Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin; TV personality Bill Nye the Science Guy; and oceanographers, climatologists, professional surfers, fishermen and boat pilots -- travel the world, seeking answers to questions at the root of earth and humanity. To find these answers, Dr. Ballard visits breathtaking sites from volcanoes submerged more than 3,000 feet beneath the Hawaiian islands, to shipwrecks on forgotten ancient Greek trade routes, to cracks in the ocean floor where red-hot magma pours into open water, with cameras capturing never-before-seen rock formations, lava vents and unusual species that call the ocean bottom home. The five episodes are: "Fires of Creation," which highlights his trip from the top of Mauna Kea volcano to the crown of Loihi, its submerged cousin known as the youngest volcano in the Hawaiian Archipelago, showing how heat and magma bubble up to create life and new land masses; "Wrecks of the Abyss," which documents his deep-water search for ancient shipwrecks in the Mediterranean, informing our understanding of maritime travel from Greece to Egypt in the ancient world; "It's Alive," which features his search for life in the darkness and chill of waters thousands of feet beneath the surface on the slopes of the Mid-Ocean ridges, where molten lava superheats the ocean, mixing in the nutrients for marine life that has adapted to the harsh environment; "Ocean's Fury," which seeks to understand whether the ocean is growing more dangerous by the day and how rogue waves are getting larger and more frequent on the seas; and "Inner vs. Outer Space," which explores how the Earth's waters -- and not outer space -- may be the key to long-term survival of the human race.
- Dr. Robert Ballard is one of the worlds most renowned ocean explorers, with such amazing finds as Titanic, the battleship Bismarck and JFKs PT1-09 to his name. But this time hes going on a journey like no other. Hes setting out on an odyssey down Mauna Keathe worlds tallest mountainand into the living heart of an active, underwater volcano. Facing crushing depths, frigid water, and the very real possibility of land slides and eruptions, Ballard enters the crater to explore the extreme geology that keeps our oceans fresh and our planet alive.
Dr. Robert Ballard is the greatest underwater explorer of his generation. But he reckons the tough job of shining a light into the abyss has only just begun. The oceans cover 71% of the planet a mere 5% of which has been explored. In that 5%, Ballard has found the Titanic, the Bismarck, the carrier Yorktown and entirely new forms of life. Just think of whats waiting for us in the remaining 95%! Alien Deep is Dr. Robert Ballard's voyage of discovery, his often inspired, sometimes opinionated, vision of our ocean planet past, present and future!
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