Mystery Of The
Megavolcano (NOVA)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C- Episode: B
How about a giant volcanic eruption so bad, so
powerful and so emitting of dust that you don’t need an asteroid or comet to
set life on earth back a billion years? After
a trip by scientists to Greenland, evidence from ice core samples reveal some
of this planets craziest changes may have happened 75,000 years ago and Mystery Of The Megavolcano is another
interesting installment of the ever-impressive NOVA series from WGBH that delves deeply yet again into the science
of new discoveries on the cutting edge.
The idea of the discovery is that this megavolcanic
blast pumped so much sulfuric acid into the air that it was thrown into another
ice killing millions of unknown species and did who knows what to humans. It then moves on to list new potential
candidates for the next mega-eruptor, what we should look for and why we should
have a healthy concern about it. I liked
this show and it reminded me that the series has sadly overtaken actual Science
Fiction films and TV as the place to see the latest in interesting science and
potential science to be.
The letterboxed 1.78 X 1 image is soft, but was
produced in digital High Definition, not taken advantage of here since WGBH
does not produce DVDs with anamorphic enhancement. The sound effects are still
good, but don’t expect Dolby, DTS or Sensurround. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has not real
surrounds, but is a recent recording that sounds good. The only extras are weblinks and DVD-ROM
printable materials.
- Nicholas
Sheffo
