Dynamic Earth is a museum in Edinburgh  which shows us about the origins of our planet: the way it was created and shaped over time, and the kind of environments that we have today because of this.

The time machine

We entered by travelling down in a lift which took us back in time. We saw history pass through 4,500 million years. From the Space Age to the Ice Age, we were taken back to where it all started.

How it all started

We witnessed the  Big Bang and the formation of the universe from the bridge of a space ship.
We saw how the Earth was formed from a ball of swirling, poisonous gases.
It was  later bombarded by meteorites.

The restless earth

Next we entered a world of volcanoes and  earthquakes, a world constantly on the move. We felt the Earth shake and then saw boiling lava rushing quickly towards us.

Shaping the surface

Next we saw a film on a wide screen of a flight over mountains and above vast glaciers. The force in these glaciers shaped the surface of our planet.

Casualties & survivors

We then went on to follow the path of evolution and met some of the winners and losers in life's struggle for survival. You could learn how the dinosaurs died out or avoid being eaten by a sabre toothed tiger!

The oceans

Now it was time to dive beneath the waves in a yellow submarine. Through the portholes you could see weird and wonderful creatures of the deep.

Polar regions

Time to shiver now as we visited the poles.  yu could feel the chill of sub-zero temperatures, watch as polar bears made their way across the snow, hear the thunderous sound of icebergs crashing into the sea. We enjoyed pushing our hands into the holes in the giant lump of ice in the middle of the room

The tropical Rainforest

A contrast now as we could feel the steamy heat of the tropics as we looked up into the towering trees of the tropical Rainforest.
If you looked hard you could see creatures that live at every level of the forest, from the monkeys high up in the canopy to predators peering out from the undergrowth. The rain came on to show us one of the torrential rainstorms.