Search - NOVA: Mystery of the Megavolcano on DVD

Informative and easy to watch

Rolland M. Waters | Sandpoint, ID USA | 05/06/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've been buying Nova documentaries so my 7-year old son can get some science in his head in addition to the complete list of Transformers and the details of their fates.



This DVD does that job admirably; he watched it quite closely, and after we watched it, it was clear that he understood the material and was enthused about it. He wasn't so enthused about living in a state adjacent to Yellowstone NP, but you can't have everything!



For adults, the material is still compelling, since you'll pick up more than a few interesting details of volcanic geology, how they match volcanic ash to a volano, and lest I forget, that Yellowstone's only 40k years overdue for the most destructive eruption ever.



For adults there's still a few "hmm" moments. For instance, matching ash from remote deposits back to the original "super volcano" plays a major role in the investigation portrayed by the documentary.



However, while there are several excellent scenes when not-matching samples are displayed against each other, when the matching samples are displayed, it's just two photos of the same sample. Ooh, boo, since I was really interested in seeing how an ash sample from many hundreds of miles away matches what they found in the crater. Would it be a match that's obvious to the uninitiated, or is it more like a fingerprint, where you have to know what to look for?



But that's a nit relative to the overall production, which is more than well enough done and met my goals perfectly."