Ferocious winds, deadly volcanoes, and earthquakes the world has never seen before… Mother Nature truly is the ultimate warrior! DAILY PLANET – Canada’s favourite science program – is on high alert, scouring the planet for the world’s freakiest forces on “Forces of Nature Week”, Monday, April 13 – Friday, April 17 at 7 p.m. ET on Discovery. Co-hosts Ziya Tong and Dan Riskin follow the scientists who track and reveal the fearsome power of Mother Nature – from a lizard that shoots blood from its eyeballs to lightning that fires upwards, and even daring to touch the hottest pepper in the world – DAILY PLANET turns up the heat, dissecting powerful forces in ways never thought possible!
Highlights from DAILY PLANET’s “Forces of Nature” Week include:
Surfing the Heaviest Wave
Taking on Mother Nature at her own game! Imagine a wave that’s two storeys high, is super thick, and crashes down on a shallow, razor-sharp coral reef. Well, here’s the crazy part: pro surfer Garrett McNamara has…. and he’s done it more than 50 times! The wave is called Teahupoo, and it’s considered the heaviest wave in the world. McNamara breaks down the science behind the wave with DAILY PLANET, and shares his personal account of what it’s like surfing this massive beast.
Ziya Tong in Quicksand
What’s it like to experience one of nature’s strangest forces first hand? DAILY PLANET co-host Ziya Tong jumps right in the thick of it to find out what makes quicksand so terrifying and deadly. To do that, she’s enlisted the help of David Willey, science demonstrator extraordinaire, who’s built a homemade quicksand contraption filled with sand and a water pipe to blast a high-pressure stream. During “Forces of Nature Week”, DAILY PLANET finds out how quicksand forms, how fast a person can sink into it, and the best way to get someone out of it… alive!
Volcano Sounds
When mountains of magma erupt, it’s hard to turn away from a bubbling, erupting flow of lava. Listening carefully, is it obvious when it’s going to blow? That’s what Jeff Johnson is trying to figure out by setting up infrared sensors and collecting the sounds of Chile’s Villarrica volcano. The results are surprising!
Wooden Tornado Shelter
When nature’s fury throws 400 km/h winds at a person, they’re going to run to take cover. Question is: how do they know their shelter can take the extreme punishment? Engineers in Madison, Wisconsin have not only built a wooden shelter – yes, wooden! – they’re so confident it’ll stand up, they’re pummeling it with high velocity debris to prove it. DAILY PLANET takes viewers behind the scenes to watch the terrifying action.
Hottest Pepper
By Guinness World Records’ standards, Ed Currie has created the world’s hottest pepper at his South Carolina farm. It’s so hot, it can’t even be touched without specially made gloves. DAILY PLANET heads to the farm as Currie trains a new employee to handle these homegrown forces of nature.