Earth and Planetary Sciences Professor Yemane Asmerom and Sr. Research Scientist Victor Polyak will be featured on the National Geographic program “Naked Science: How the West Was Made.” Asmerom’s and Polyak’s research on the Grand Canyon will be featured as part of the program, “The show will broadcast on the National Geographic Channel (NGC) on Sunday, July 19 at 8 a.m. Mountain.
Also, Ryan Crow, a graduate student working with Earth and Planetary Sciences Professor Karl Karlstrom, is also part of the research to be featured.
Based on brand new research, this National Geographic documentary sheds light on catastrophic and gradual geological events that shaped the American West’s most iconic landscapes, and reveals new theories about the forgotten knowledge of its first inhabitants and how the future of the West might be predicted by the landscape of Mars.
How the West Was Made investigates catastrophic events: a mega-flood that gouged out the Washington Scablands with a thundering 500 cubic miles of water 2000 feet deep, scouring out the features we see today; the biggest known volcanic eruption this planet has ever witnessed spewing out a vast 1,200 cubic miles of volcanic ash around the San Juan range of the Rocky Mountains and ejecting ash into the atmosphere that circled the world several times; and the gradual wind erosion of Monument Valley which has an uncanny resemblance to the dusty planet Mars.
Is our future bound for same fate as the red planet? Read more at: "Naked Science: How the West Was Made".