Inside Yellowstone, boiling pools and melting ice expose Earth's deep past.

Go beyond Yellowstone's beauty to explore an active volcanic landscape, thermal pools filled with thermophiles, and fossil forests shaped by ancient eruptions. This season also uncovers ice patches releasing rare artifacts and clues to early people in the region. Sign up to see how one extraordinary place connects the origins of life, climate change, and human history.

Episode guide

3 episodes

1Alien Life

Microbes found in Yellowstone National Park's thermal pools have structures so ancient that scientists now believe that they could be close to the root in the universal tree of life. These microbes are becoming the models for understanding the biology necessary for life at high temperatures.

14 min

2Frozen Archeology

There are places in Greater Yellowstone where the snow never melts, or at least, it never used to. Climate change is causing Yellowstone’s ice patches to recede, so many archaeological treasures—if not rescued—will disintegrate within days.

14 min

3The Petrified Forest

Greater Yellowstone sits on top of a volcanic hot spot where devastating geological events unfolded. The result? A bizarre cemetery of fossilized forests that contain the remains of trees that died from molten lava, ash, and mud around 50 million years ago.

13 min

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