| Time Period
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Events
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| 1 hour
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At an oil refinery in Houston, pressure in the oil distillation tanks, which is monitored by a human operator, is released into the atmosphere by emergency valves in a cloud of flammable gas. A spark ignites the cloud and the whole refinery explodes. The fuel tanks catch fire and burn for days.
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| 1 day
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Without humans to maintain them, power plants across the world begin to shut down. In New York City, Times Square is still ablaze with light, but is silent without people. As museums lose power the ideal conditions for the preservation of Egyptian mummies no longer exists and they begin to naturally deteriorate.
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| 2 days
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Breweries in St. Louis explode when built-up pressure ruptures fermentation tanks. Without power to run pumps, the New York City Subway begins to flood within 36 hours. Times Square finally goes dark. The fish at Seattle's Pike Place Market begin to rot and is later eaten by raccoons, coyotes, foxes, rats, cockroaches and escaped dogs.
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| 3 days
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The first heavy rainstorm floods Chicago when man-operated flood gates burst, leading to a series of events that will eventually flood the entire city. Without air conditioning, the wax celebrities at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in Las Vegas melt. Without human hosts, Head lice begin to die off. In the Gulf of Mexico 34,000 miles of undersea pipes clog with undelivered oil. Watertight valves will keep the oil from leaking into the ocean for now.
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| 4 days
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The hands atop the clock of the iconic Aloha Tower in Honolulu stop moving.
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| 1 week
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In London, Big Ben stops running when no one is around to rewind it. Without people to control their spread, water hyacinth, imported from South America, takes over Florida and Texas. Without humans to clear them away, they absorb all the oxygen from the water and suffocate surrounding plant life. In the vast fresh water bayous outside New Orleans, escaped and abandoned pets make new treats for alligators. The machinery that filters and oxygenates the tanks at the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas shut down and the fish begin to suffocate and succumb to increased bacteria levels.
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| 10 days
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Some greyhounds have escaped from the many dog tracks around the United States. Their competitive nature keeps them from working together to get the food they desperately need. In New York City, the Asian Long-horned beetle which arrived from China in the 1990s easily infest the trees in Central Park without humans to curtail the infestation.
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| 2 weeks
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At Buckingham Palace in London, the Queen of England's corgis have been trapped inside and are desperate for food. Worldwide, animals trapped inside homes die unless they can escape. In zoos, many animals suffering from starvation will have escaped their cages. From Japan to California, 3.5 million tons of garbage goes uncollected and storms wash some of it out to sea increasing the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. In North America, starving wolves begin to make their way to the smell of rotting food in kitchens formerly occupied by humans.
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| 3 weeks
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The pumps that send water down the aqueducts from Owens Valley to Los Angeles fail and the water supply has run out.
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| 1 month
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The 400,000 human embryos cryonically frozen in clinics in the United States begin to thaw and decompose. Aboard the International Space Station the "Immortality Drive", a computer disk containing the digitized genetic information of some extraordinary humans remains the last hope for some future intelligence to restarting the human race. Kudzu grows freakishly in the southern United States. In Los Angeles, without water, the green grass has dried up and many non-native species of plants like the Canary Island palms wither and the city begins to be reclaimed by the desert. In Washington, D.C. the opposite is happening, with no water being pumped away from the city, it begins to flood.
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| 2 months
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Most starving domesticated pigs will have broken out of their barnyards. They begin breeding with wild pigs creating a leaner, more aggressive species of wild hog. Without electrical power, the automatic relighting system of the John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame fails when a heavy rainfall extinguishes it forever.
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| 3 months
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In Rome, Michelangelo's artwork on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel has been without protection since the computerized climate control system failed, but the lack of moisture and body heat from visitors is actually helping preserve the works of art. After depleting all the food supplies in Buckingham Palace, the Queen's corgis try to survive in the outside world. With no one to inoculate them, escaped domestic animals catch rabies.
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| 4 months
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Deep in the ice of Norway, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is the world's reserve of crops. Seeds from every plant in the world are kept here in case agriculture ever needs to be restarted on Earth. Without people, it is beginning to warm up, threatening the lifespan of the seeds.
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| 6 months
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On Ross Island in Antarctica, the expedition hut of Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton remains preserved as it has for 100 years. With the help of abandoned swimming pools, mosquitoes thrive and rapidly reproduced. Lakes and rivers all over Arizona completely dry up, killing everything that once lived there.
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| 9 months
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In Boston, the U.S.S. Constitution, the world's oldest commissioned warship, is still afloat, but the automatic bilge pumps have stopped working when the power died causing the ship to fill with water that will sink it within the year.
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| 1 year
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The ivy at Wrigley Field in Chicago begins to grow out of control. In New York City, the ice rink at Rockefeller Center Plaza becomes a garden. The gold skin of the Prometheus statue is stripped away over the years exposing the bronze beneath. Plants begin to grow in the multiplying cracks over the highways of Los Angeles. The last survivor of the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas, a rare white alligator dies. In Dubai, along the Persian Gulf, humid air ravages the Burj Al Arab hotel with mold and bacteria. Burmese Pythons, once escaped pets, begin an invasion in the Florida Everglades, growing so large they compete with alligators. The series takes a look at the Americana Amusement Park in Ohio showing a real example of a level of decay that can take place in just a few short years after people.
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| 2 years
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The wires holding the trolleys in San Francisco rust and snap, sending the Cable Cars careening out of control all over the city. Across the bay, the weakened ropes holding a 50,000 ton ship snap sending it adrift on a collision course with a bridge that will sink it.
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| 3 years
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The International Space Station loses altitude and falls to Earth (crashing into a nearby city), destroying the Immortality Drive with it. The wind powered Ricoh sign in Times Square finally goes dark when the light bulbs burn out. Horses go wild and thrive on America's grassland. Those used by the NYPD and to pull carriages leave the city and may roam to the grassy beaches of Long Island.
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| 4 years
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Some cities have fallen victim to floods. With no people to repair the damage, homes succumb to decay and the foundations of buildings slowly erode. This future has already happened in New Orleans; four years after Hurricane Katrina, much of the flood damage remains.
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| 5 years
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Weeds transform the historic streets of Boston. The walls and stands of Wrigley Field are now covered in ivy and thick buckthorn while shrubbery takes over the ball field. In Miami, escaped chimpanzees follow flocks of birds into downtown apartment buildings to eat their eggs. One intelligent chimp realizes that they need to let some of the eggs survive to extend the food supply. Every casino in Atlantic City has become a potential bat cave as the animals move in.
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| 10 years
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The Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sears Tower) is slowly deteriorating. Forest fires spread out of control and parts of Los Angeles burn to the ground – including the interior of the U.S. Bank Tower, the plant life in between the fireproof stainless steel panels of the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Grauman's Chinese Theatre, and the latex paint of the Hollywood Sign. At Independence Hall, broken windows allow sunlight to beam down on the Declaration of Independence. Protected from the elements in it's airtight case, the light will cause the letters to fade away over time. Massive sandstorms called haboobs run rampant over Phoenix. In France, "Lascaux 2", a plaster replica of the prehistoric Lascaux Cave crumbles away, but the original cave remains on. The last voices of man fall silent as the solar panels at the Las Vegas Springs Preserve Museum fail.
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| 15 years
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In Atlantic City, the deteriorating structure known as Lucy the Elephant is on its last legs and soon a bad storm knocks it down. In Hawaii, the lines holding the U.S.S. Missouri to the docks succumb to corrosion and decay. The warship, now free of its moorings, floats away but only gets so far when it bottoms out in the mud.
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| 20 years
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Houston turns back to a swamp and the Astrodome becomes an enormous bat cave where insects and fungi also thrive. Miami begins to look like a subtropical jungle as invasive plants like Brazilian Pepper and Lygodium begin taking over habitats. At the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center, the hundreds of stored military aircraft begin to decay once their protective tarps open and coatings peel and off in the wind. Birds build nests in the exposed engine intakes and cowlings. The 7,000 foot long seawall protecting downtown Seattle from the Pacific Ocean gives way, turning the city into a saltwater marsh.
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| 25 years
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In museums, without functioning environmental systems to preserve them, insects and fungi ravage the Egyptian mummies. The same fate happens to the embalmed body of Lenin. Soon nothing is left but dust and bones. Without people to maintain levees, low lying cities such as London will have flooded. At the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, K-129, a nuclear Russian submarine, lies intact, but water pressure and corrosion develops cracks in the casings of its payload of nuclear warheads and they explode when chemicals inside make contact with seawater. The explosions however, are not powerful enough to detonate the nuclear warheads. The series gives a real life example of 25 years of abandonment by visiting Centralia, Pennsylvania, whose population has largely fled since 1981 – the result of a coal mine fire which began in 1962 and continues to burn to this day.
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| 30 years
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By now, most of the world's dairy cows have died out. Those that figured out how to mate have managed to preserve the species and the process of evolution starts taking them back to the wild. Flooded and overrun by vegetation, New Orleans is in shambles.
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| 35 years
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Without humans caring for the land and fortifying the beaches, Long Island's low-lying areas become flooded. In Boston, the steeple of the Old North Church collapses. The series gives a real life example of 35 years of decay by visiting Hashima Island, once a thriving coal mine where thousands of people were housed in apartments. Abandoned in the 1970s, the island now holds a small city of skeletal and gutted buildings battered by the sea.
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| 45 years
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The series gives a real life example of 45 years of decay with North Brother Island just off Manhattan Island in New York City. The island has served many purposes over the years, from housing returning World War II veterans to quarantining victims of infectious diseases, and as a rehabilitation clinic for drug addicts. For the last 45 years however, it has been abandoned and structures on the island are in shambles.
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| 50 years
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Former domestic parrots still retain human speech. Most buildings in Atlanta, such as the Coca-Cola Building and the Georgia Dome, are brought down by invasive kudzu. In Chicago, Wrigley Field is almost unrecognizable under a heap of overgrown vegetation and shrubs. In Seattle, the Space Needle has corroded and the windows have blown out. In Los Angeles, a 8.0 magnitude earthquake collapses the top floors of the U.S. Bank Tower. The quake also topples the Los Angeles City Hall once the foundation shock absorbers fail to steady the structure. The metal letters of the Hollywood Sign are finally brought down by the quake. Ravaged by pyrite disease, dinosaur skeletons in museums across the globe begin to fall apart. In New York City, the gargoyle statues of the Chrysler Building fall to the ground after corrosion loosens their mounts. By now, the plant seeds frozen in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault will have died. Smashed by waves, Atlantic City's Steel Pier is now just a skeleton of its former self. In San Antonio, the Tower Life Building leans to such an extremity that it topples. In the Gulf of Mexico, only one oil platform remains after 50 years of hurricanes; it is soon toppled by a large wave. Mold and metal corrosion finally collapses the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai. In orbit, uncontrolled artificial satellites begin colliding into each other.
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| 65 years
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Here the series gives a real life example of 65 years of decay with the British village of Tyneham which was abandoned during World War II when the British government took over the area to use it as a training ground for American troops. No one has lived there since 1943 and nature has partially collapsed the stone buildings.
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| 70 years
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In Shanghai, flooding in the city weakens the foundation of the Oriental Pearl Tower and causes the tower to collapse. At Pearl Harbor, the U.S.S. Missouri is now covered in green as seeds dropped by birds have caused vegetation to grow all over the wooden deck.
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| 75 years
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Bridges begin to collapse when their protective paint flakes off and are no longer protected from moisture and corrosion, among them is Boston's Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge. The supports under the sky bridge of the Petronas Towers buckle because of corrosion, and it collapses. In Philadelphia, the Liberty Bell falls to the ground and cracks completely in half. The former village stray dogs have now devolved back into the wild predators they were before domestication. Their population however, has dwindled.
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| 90 years
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Here the series gives a real life example of 90 years of decay with the western ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada. A former gold mining town it was once a booming city built on the backs of miners. Now, 90 years after the gold dried up, the town has been left to die. The masonry buildings have nearly withered away by winds and sand.
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| 100 years
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Big Ben, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Houston Astrodome and the Chicago 'L' collapses. Washington D.C. reverts back into a swamp where beavers thrive damming up the Potomac River. In Los Angeles, some areas of the former highways collect rainwater forming small lakes and ponds that attract wildlife during their migrations. In New York City, the Roosevelt Island Tramway loosens from its joints. Without humans there to constantly rebuild the beaches of Miami, once luxurious beachfront hotels are completely overrun by the ocean water. The Blue and Green Diamond Towers collapse into each other and the Seven Mile Bridge falls apart. In Phoenix, many of the buildings, such as the Chase Tower, collapse from the weight of mud and sand that have collected after decades of sand storms and monsoon rains. Dry areas in the Florida Everglades are flooded when Sailfin catfish destroy man-made dykes. At Cape Canaveral, the Kennedy Space Center is destroyed by hurricanes. At the Louvre Museum in Paris, Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa is eaten away by death watch beetles. In Las Vegas, the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada" sign is faded away by windblown sand and the Luxor Hotel Pyramid is now in ruins. The Ambassador Bridge between Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario soups its way into a river.
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| 110 years
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Ocean waters have transformed sunken oil rigs into brand new underwater ecosystems.
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| 125 years
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In Red Square, in Moscow, after 125 years of fighting water damage and corrosion, St. Basil's Cathedral folds into itself due to a constant freeze-thaw cycle.In Boston, the John Hancock Tower eventually disappears under the lush gardens that have overrun the city. Elephant herds roam free in the American West filling the ecological niches that mammoths and mastodons left vacant at the end of the last ice age. In many cities, skyscrapers have become high-rise ecosystems, with house cats as the apex predators. Detroit's Renaissance Center shatters after decades of extreme weather. The levees in New Orleans finally break after 150 years of being gnawed at by local animals, and the city floods with saltwater.
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| 200 years
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In Houston, the JPMorgan Chase Tower finally collapses. The same thing happens to most tall structures in Chicago, such as the Willis Tower. With the collapse of the apartment buildings in Miami, the inhabiting chimpanzees have moved to the Everglades. What they have learned over the last 200 years could give them the building blocks they need to create a new civilization. The "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada" sign falls flat on the ground. In San Francisco, only the skeletal towers of the Golden Gate Bridge remain after the road deck collapses. The Grand Canyon Skywalk breaks away from its mountings and falls into the canyon. In New York City, the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building finally collapse. In Denver the Wells Fargo Center collapses way under the weight and corrosion caused by 200 years of snowfalls. Outside of Denver on the Colorado prairie, the descendants of domestic cattle have carved out a new way of life. Bison, however, dominate the landscape once again. In Seattle, the Space Needle, weakened from 200 years of corrosion, tumbles its way to the ground. Structures such as the Eiffel Tower and the Tower Bridge collapse.
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| 250 years
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In Chicago, the John Hancock Center finally collapses but outlives the more massive Willis Tower. In Washington D.C, the weight of the Statue of Freedom on top of the United States Capitol Building causes a cave-in on the corroded iron dome. By now, the United States Constitution has faded away inside the crumbled rotunda of the National Archives and Records Administration. In St. Louis, the Gateway Arch falls when the keystone buckles and finally gives way. In San Antonio, encroaching oak trees lead to the Alamo's collapse. In Hawaii, water has penetrated the hull of the U.S.S. Missouri. It floods and begins to sink deeper into the mud of the harbor bottom. It could last as long as 20,000 years, but eventually the warship will become an underwater reef teaming with sea life.
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| 300 years
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In New York City, the Statue of Liberty breaks in pieces and sinks into the Atlantic Ocean. In Las Vegas, the Stratosphere Tower topples during an earthquake. A Category 4 huricane causes the demise of One Shell Square in New Orleans. The rabies outbreak finally reverts to natural levels. Philadelphia is now a forest, but the Liberty Bell still remains proudly within its protective walls. 100 yards away, the Declaration of Independence lies in the rubble of Independence Hall. Heat and light have left the paper brittle and a blast of air penetrates the worn case causing the fragile document to disintegrate.
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| 500 years
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Though Michelangelo's frescos are still recognizable after so many centuries, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel cracks, bringing down the entire building. In Georgia, The Confederate Memorial on Stone Mountain outside Atlanta, and the Washington Monument in Washington D.C. may stand as the sole evidence of those city's locations. On the other side of the Earth, the Petronas Towers finally collapse after five centuries of tropical sun and moisture.
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| 600 years
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The U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles finally collapses after a moderate earthquake. The series gives a real life example of 600 years of abandonment with Cambodia's Angkor Wat temple city where nothing is left but stone structures overgrown with trees.
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| 1,000 years
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Almost all traces of human culture and civilization are buried beneath vegetation and sand. The Earth itself will have buried all of man's cities. The ruins of New York City have been swallowed by nature. Rivers flow where taxicabs once drove. The Taj Mahal in Agra collapses after a fairly large earthquake, and rising sea levels flood the area where Washington D.C. once stood, leaving a highly degraded, but still erect Washington Monument emerging over the waves. After ten centuries without people, Las Vegas has completely been buried. Meanwhile, on the Moon, the three Lunar Roving Vehicles left behind from the Apollo 15 through Apollo 17 missions will remain in near-mint condition barring degradation or destruction from meteor impacts. New Orleans is now completely under water. The cities famous above ground cemeteries, or "cities of the dead," are also underwater, undergound. The tombs fill with water and mud, fossilizing the remains of the dead.
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| 2,000 years
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As it was after the ice age, Phoenix again becomes a vast savanna. Dolphins still remember their encounters with humans. Because it is basically held together by gravity, the medieval Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris may still stand and be recognizable.
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| 5,000 years
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The Confederate Memorial, carved on Stone Mountain in Atlanta, is one of few indications that man ever inhabited the area. Most of what man has built has long eroded or been destroyed.
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| 10,000 years
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Almost all traces of human civilization have been buried under sand and vegetation. Descendants of escaped New York City horses roam the beaches. Because of the lack of nutrients available, they have evolved to be much smaller than their ancestors. Buried underground, the vault of the Federal Reserve Bank in New York City, still holds $200 billion of gold bars intact. In New Orleans, plastic and glass Mardi Gras Beads can still be found buried under soil and vegetation.
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| 20,000 years
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The final seeds in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault die. Atlantic City is now surrounded by an inland forest.
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| 1,000,000 years
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The Golden Records aboard the Voyager Probes are damaged beyond recognition after centuries of collisions with dust and space debris. A new species of camelid, descending from escaped camels from a ranch near Las Vegas, evolves in the plains to resemble the guanaco with the low lying vegetation created by the new ice ages.
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| 10,000,000 years
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San Francisco has completely buried. The fossilized corpses of New Orleans are a mile and a half underground. Pressure and heat have transformed the soft tissue that remained into oil. THe bones themselves will eventually be fossilized.
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| 100,000,000 years
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All that will remain from the existence of human beings are our fossilized bones, and fragments of the structures.
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