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Foreign Correspondent: Prehistoric evidence

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Light shines on skeleton in cave
Foreign Correspondent: Prehistoric evidence

SUBJECTS:  Geography

YEARS:  7–8, 9–10


Beneath the Yucatán Peninsula in south-eastern Mexico exists a karst aquifer, the largest underground river system in the world.

Discover its deep caverns, which have been perfectly preserved for thousands of years, complete with prehistoric remains.


Things to think about

  1. 1.What features are common in the landform type named 'cave'? What role does water play in shaping and forming this landform? What other abrasive actions are involved?
  2. 2.As the divers pass through the underground river system, what features do you see? Why does cave diver Luis Leal refer to this underground river system as 'the veins of the planet, the circulatory system of the planet'? Look for evidence that the caves were were not always filled with water.
  3. 3.The underwater caverns in the clip are made of limestone. The human and animal remains are described as being 'frozen in time'? What is meant by this? What do you think the processes were that eventually caused the caves to fill with water? Find out how karsts form.
  4. 4.Flowchart the last glacial period (commonly referred to as the Ice Age) alongside human migration into the Americas. Find out about the 'land bridge' between Asia and America during this event. Approximately when did humans reach what is known today as the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico?

Date of broadcast: 12 Mar 2013


Copyright

Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2012 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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