What happens when continents collide? - Juan D. Carrillo
View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/what-happens-when-continents-collide-juan-d-carrillo Tens of millions of years ago, plate tectonics set North and South America on an unavoidable...
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Tens of millions of years ago, a force of nature set two giant masses on an unavoidable collision course that would change the face of the Earth and spell life or death for thousands of species. The force of nature was plate tectonics, and the bodies were North and South America. And even though they were hurdling towards each other at an underwhelming 2.5 cm per year, their collision actually did have massive biological reprocussions by causing one of the greatest episodes of biological migration in Earth's history: The Great American Biotic Interchange. Our story begins 65 million years ago, the beginning of the age of mammals, when what is now North and South America were continents separated by a marine connection between the Pacific and Atl...
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Tens of millions of years ago, a force of nature set two giant masses on an unavoidable collision course that would change the face of the Earth and spell life or death for thousands of species. The force of nature was plate tectonics, and the bodies were North and South America. And even though they were hurdling towards each other at an underwhelming 2.5 cm per year, their collision actually did have massive biological reprocussions by causing one of the greatest episodes of biological migration in Earth's history: The Great American Biotic Interchange. Our story begins 65 million years ago, the beginning of the age of mammals, when what is now North and South America were continents separated by a marine connection between the Pacific and Atl...
