Episodes

Superstorm City: New York

This film explores the geology that shaped the city’s past and challenges its future

Heatwave City: Chicago

The city’s leading engineers and geologists reveal the secrets inside Chicago

Sinking City: Venice

How did Venice come to thrive in such an inhospitable place

Megaquake City: Tokyo

Tokyo’s engineers and geologists reveal the ingenious technology that keeps the skyscrapers standing

Hurricane City: New Orleans

How does the city’s buildings and infrastructure survive the onslaught of hurricanes?

Cavern City: Paris

We peel back the boulevards to reveal the threat that lies just 60 feet below ground.

Inca Empire: Machu Picchu

Constantly under threat from earthquakes, landslides and floods how did this ancient city survive for over 400 years?

Earthquake City: Los Angeles

How does the city’s buildings and infrastructure survive the onslaught of a destructive earthquake?

The Series

What keeps New York’s super tall skyscrapers standing during deadly superstorms? How can Tokyo survive sitting on some of the most seismically active rock on the planet? How did the ancient Inca’s build a city high in the Andes without modern technology?

This series explores these and other mysteries, by peeling the glass off buildings, rolling back the tarmac on roads and sucking whole harbours dry, to expose the ingenious engineering innovations that lie hidden beneath New York, Chicago, Venice, Tokyo, New Orleans, Paris, Machu Picchu and Los Angeles.

As we explore what lies beneath each metropolis we come face to face with the people who are instrumental in keeping these cities alive and well – the engineers building and looking after the city’s infrastructure.

We explore how engineers in Paris are expanding its huge underground Metro network and how workers in Los Angeles are building earthquake proof skyscrapers and bridges. We reveal how buildings in Chicago can weather searing heat and how New Orleans is now protecting itself from the  world’s deadliest hurricanes.

Stunning CGI animation peels back the layers, revealing alien landscapes of Paris’s underground caverns, Tokyo’s live volcano, LA’s fractured fault lines, and Peru’s ancient waterways - geological wonders that play a surprising role shaping the cities and lives of the people above.

This series reveals a world never seen before – a fascianting geological universe normally hidden our cities…a landscape of unprecedented wonder, turbulence and scale. 

Credits
Executive Producer
Series Producer
Graphics Producer
Line Producer
Production Manager
Production Coordinator
Graphics Researcher
8 x 45'' for Discovery Science Channel, Discovery Channel EMEA, France TV, SBS, Quest