We start by looking up. Aurorae are seen at the outer edge of the atmosphere, born from hidden processes happening deep inside the Earth’s core.

Volcanic eruptions can be beautiful and mesmerising, or explosive and disastrous. Either way, they reveal what’s happening deep within the vast churning mantle. Chris uncovers the secrets of this misunderstood part of the Earth. 

Earthquakes rock the Earth’s crust, the thin layer of rock on which all of human existence has played out. Yet the crust is just one per cent of the mass of the Earth. It’s reliable, solid, still...at least, most of the time. 

On the surface, the Earth is exposed to all the ‘classical’ elements. Air and water shape and re-shape, mold and carve, the rock into familiar landscapes with a surprising result that’s essential to life on our planet. 

The atmosphere is an incredibly complex cloak of gases that protect us, water us, nourish us. But the atmosphere would be long gone if it wasn’t for the fact the Earth itself is, in it’s own special way, alive.  

We are living through a huge geological moment, the beginning of a new Epoch - the Anthropocene. Chris finds out what future geologists might make of us, by looking at the traces we are leaving behind.