Timeline

This is a timeline of all the events that take place in the Life After People franchise. This timeline includes events depicted in the original Life After People Documentary special that aired on January 21, 2008, Life After People: The Series which aired from April 21, 2009 to March 16, 2010 and the Latinoamerica sin Humanos special that aired October 29, 2010.

Time Period	Events
1 hour	Oil refineries still run across the world, especially at the Houston Ship Channel, however the feeder tanks run out and deadly gasoline vapors fills the tank. Runaway temperature ruptures the reactor, creating sparks and the fumes which then reach the holding tank and it explodes. The process repeats until the entire oil refinery is aflame. At the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, the tram of the Satellite Transit System continues to arrive and depart along the abandoned airport.
1 day	Most fossil fuel power stations around the world begin to shutdown, causing cascading blackouts worldwide once they run of fuel. Nuclear power plants automatically shutdown into safe mode without people to consume the power. Wind-driven turbines may continue to provide power, but without proper maintenance, their rotors will seize up overtime. Hoover Dam takes little notice in the absence of people, providing the American Southwest with its virtual limitless amount of fuel from Lake Mead, allowing it to run for months & even years and making it one of the last artificial lights on the planet. As museums lose power, the ideal conditions for the preservation of Egyptian mummies shutdown and the body starts to decay immediately. Times Square is still glittering with lights but the street is silent, with only the 50 decibel hum of the air conditioning units making the only sounds in the city. In San Francisco, the cable cars are frozen in their tracks in the world's steepest urban hills, hanging in a wire thread, after power went out across the city. Artificial satellites continue to soar over the north and south poles and while the solar panels continue to power them, the ground stations are empty. As power fails across Rio de Janeiro, Christ the Redeemer become the last light to glow in the darkened city. At Levittown, gas leaks still occur and it only takes a spark like a stove's pilot light to ignite and explode the entire kitchen of the house. The twinkling Christmas lights dim at the Aldridge's Always Christmas Store as the power grid fails. As with other powerplants across the world, the plants at The Geysers automatically shutdown and super heated steam from deep inside the planet has no release causing the pressure to build. In Washington D.C., the president's dog Bo wanders through the empty halls of the White House, soon he must escape to survive.
2 days	The New York City power grid fails and the glow of hundreds of trademark illuminated signs in Times Square have plunged into darkness. Once power fails, the water pumps in the subways' systems no longer operates and the tunnels will flood in 36 hours. Breweries in St. Louis explode when built-up pressure ruptures fermentation tanks. Rats began moving into the casinos of Las Vegas in search for food as the power grid fails along the Strip. Cattle stop lactating and the milk absorbs back into their bodies over a period of two weeks. Eventually, the cattle begin to starve and begin to push against the gates of their enclosures and if unsuccessful in escaping, they eventually become weaker and starve to death. The fish at Pike Place Market in Seattle rot as ice melts and attracts animals like rats, coyotes, and raccoons. The loss of power at the sugar refineries has shut down the plant's ventilation systems allowing sugar dust to build up and eventually spark, igniting the sugar dust and causing the refineries to explode. The pumping stations along the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System shut down and oil stops moving through the pipeline. In Valdez, Alaska, without humans to shut off the flow of oil, the storage tanks continue to feed the oil tankers until they eventually overflow and spill millions of gallons of oil into the harbor. At the United Nations Headquarters, an eerie glow still filters through the hallways of offices cause by strontium oxide aluminate. The markers can only glow for up to 20 hours and without electric lights to recharge them, the vast labyrinth soon joins the rest of the city and the world in total darkness.
3 days	The first rainstorm after people hits Chicago and without people to manipulate the water levels, it cause the lower areas of downtown to flood. Meanwhile at the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, the high river levels begin surging toward the gates of the Lockport controlling works causing the cascade of water to erode the piers, which results with the gates bursting, flooding Joliet, and entire towns of the American Midwest are wiped away. In Madame Tussauds Las Vegas, the failure of the Las Vegas power grid causes the museum's air conditioning to fail and the wax celebrities dematerialize. The Lacy dogs began scavenging for food and water in Central Texas until their former home is devoid of sustenance eventually deciding to scavenge in the wild. At the Gulf of Mexico, 34,000 miles of undersea pipes from oil platforms clog with undelivered oil, but watertight valves keep the oil from leaking into the ocean. Once people disappeared, three types of lice; head lice, body lice, and crab lice, begin to die off without human hosts and eventually become extinct. Without people, sheep are in grave danger to predators, but some, protected by Anatolian Shepherd Dogs, have a chance for survival to the ones. These dogs have bred for over 6,000 years to help shepherds to watch over their flocks. Domestic turkeys face tough times after people disappeared since they cannot naturally breed or fly because of modification by humans to make turkeys more appealing, making these turkeys the last generation of Thanksgiving turkeys. While some battery powered radio still broadcasts, all conventionally powered radio stations have ceased their operations. Only the solar-powered radio station KTAO in Taos, New Mexico still broadcasts. The pumps that pump water out of the Naica Mine fail and water begins to reclaim the mine, along with the infamous Cave of the Crystals.
4 days	As power fails across Hawaii, the hands atop the clock of the Aloha Tower in Honolulu stop moving. The USS Missouri's electrically powered rust protection system fails and the ship soon begins to rust. In Detroit, at the city's waterworks plant, some machines still hum because it switches to generator-produceeed power once thee grid fails. However, with no one to turn on the faucet and as pipes began to max out, including the 4 foot diameter pipes which make it the weakest link in the system, the pipes burst one by one and the water flows up to the street of Detroit into 10 foot high fountains. In Rio de Janeiro, the Christ the Redeemer is claimed by the night as its illuminating lights turn off and so does its electric forcefield. At Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in Southern California, the German Shepherds, without their superior officers, go AWOL as hunger becomes a new commanding officer. With the absence of planes in the sky to create condensation with their contrails, the absence of any artificial cloud cover quickly changes the climate on Earth.
5 days	Raw sewage begins flowing into the rivers around Manhattan in New York City as the 93 pump stations around the city fail one by one. Left unchecked, the sewage produces methane gas which finds its way into the subways and being lighter than air, its ultimate destination is the area around Grand Central Terminal, sitting on one of the highest natural points in Manhattan.
1 week	In London, without royal engineers to rewind it, Big Ben stops and the chimes are silenced. From Florida to Texas, the invasive water hyacinth imported from South America takes over the lakes and rivers without people to control its spread. In the vast fresh water bayous outside New Orleans, escaped pets have become new treats for alligators. The machinery that filters and oxygenates the tanks at the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas shuts down and the fish begin to suffocate and succumb to increased bacteria levels. In Rome, black cats roam freely without fear of getting killed as the supposed instruments of the Devil. The stench of garbage attracts raccoons which start invading homes by entering through the chimney which turns the entire home into a haven of food and water. On the high seas, rats have taken over a cargo ship carrying 30,000 tons of wheat and start eating and breeding. At grocery stores, power goes out and the process of decay begins from meat and dairy products to produce as it starts to spoil. Rodents begin to invade, with the rats becoming the first to arrive and mold spores start to feed on everything. In New York City, the linseed oil paint smolders the soaked rags at The San Remo causing the apartments to burn and turn it into a different kind of hot property. Palm Springs still remains powered thanks to the wind turbines that still supply the city with electricity. In Chicago, the electric barrier in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal that protects the Great Lakes from the invasive Asian carp shuts down when the emergency generators fail. Seagulls and Canada geese flock to airports to graze without fear of being hit by planes.
10 days	Produce begins to rot on supermarket shelves. Pets still trapped inside houses can drink the water leaking from thawed freezers, but a mass die-off of dogs would begin as they starve. Those that can escape homes will begin to scavenge for food, but many of the unique features from different breeds become a major handicaps in the fight for survival. Household pests like rats and mice thrive on the remaining food supplies but once it runs out, they return to the wilds where their numbers would be greatly diminished. Greyhounds have escaped from the 40 dog tracks across the United States and roam free, but their competitive nature keeps them from cooperating together to scavenge food and because they can be easily injured, their survival is short lived. Meanwhile in New York City, the Asian long-horned beetle which arrived from China in the 1990s returns to continue to spread without humans to curtail the infestation. Without power provided to the cooling pools, spend fuel rods at nuclear power plants began to boil the water and the fuel rods become a bonfire once they reach 700 degrees causing radiation to spread across the environment and contaminating the site. Guide dogs raid the abandoned grocery stores after they flee their former homes, causing the store to be a lifeline.
2 weeks	At Buckingham Palace, the Queen's royal corgis are all alone and start scavenging for food and water inside the palace where they easily located the bathrooms and the Royal Kitchen the food and water could last them for months. In the zoos of Washington D.C. and Los Angeles, elephants, using their superior intelligence and powerful trunks, were able to break out from their enclosure and begin a new life in the urban jungle. 3,000 tons of garbage goes uncollected in Hollywood and some sewer systems deliver the garbage directly into the ocean, adding to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Some of the 400,000 wolves begin invading homes after detecting the smell of rotting food in kitchens. In Las Vegas, the flashing lights and deafening clamor of slot machines in the casinos finally falls silent and turns dark. Despite the lack of humans to exterminate the rats in Las Vegas, Rat Terriers would continue to hunt it down.
3 weeks	Water becomes scarce in Los Angeles when the Los Angeles Aqueducts denies the city its main water source after power fails and the water backs up and creates new reservoirs. Inside milk containers, lactic acid bacteria multiplies by tens of thousands causing the dairy products to curdle, sour, and explode. Lack of artificial refrigeration has caused most butter to go bad and melt but some will survive deep underground in northern Europe.
1 month	Without people to restock the liquid nitrogen, the more than 100 cryonically frozen bodies as well as 400,000 human embryos & eggs and sperms also frozen in clinics, begin to thaw and decompose. Only the Immortality Drive aboard the International Space Station become the last hope for future intelligence species to restart the human race. On the outskirts of Atlanta, kudzu begins to spread as it reeks havoc across the city. The 60 million pigs in North America struggle as they begin to starve and resort to cannibalism. In Los Angeles, the green lawns, trees, and gardens are withered as the city returns to a desert climate. In Washington D.C., without water being pumped away from the city, it begins to flood. On the Potomac River, beavers return to the city.. In Phoenix, the waters of man-made lakes dry up within weeks after the shutdown of all treatment plants. The two hydroelectric power plants that divert water from Niagara Falls shut down without people to use the electricity causing the Niagara River to rise 13 feet and the falls to have double the flow of water. Downstream of Niagara Falls, the Maid of the Mist docks get blasted away from the rising tides of the Niagara River. Natural gas begins to expand in their own tanks without humans to continuously open and close valves to maintain proper pressure, which cause the tanks to rupture in a catastrophic chain reaction. Without humans to tend the reindeers, they join their herd cousins, the caribou and face the challenge of the 3,000 mile migration in Alaska. In Glacier Bay, Alaska, snow and ice build-up creates a weight on luxury cruise ships where they weren't designed for causing the ship to lean and tilt over. In the surf of Los Angeles, only the solar powered LED lights of the Pacific Wheel on the Santa Monica Pier still lightens the coastline. In the Netherlands, without people to close Maeslantkering, Rotterdam floods from the North Sea and the rainstorm causing the works of art in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen to be washed away. In the tunnels below Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, the Satellite Transit System has broken down with only the emergency battery backups for the public address system still working. Without electricity demand, the generators of Itaipu Dam automatically shut down causing the Paraná River to overflow the dam.
6 weeks	At San Diego Wild Animal Park, lions escape their enclosure and soon expand their range in search of food.
2 months	The surviving millions of pigs escape into the wilds where they start breeding with feral swine causing the pig hybrid to be more leaner, meaner, and more mobile with larger tusks and more hair. In Arlington National Cemetery, the automatic relighting system of John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame fails and the first rainstorm snuff out the flame for good. Storage of oil and gas at the world's oil refineries haven't run out and the apocalyptic firestorm still continues especially at the Houston Ship Channel. Without food to be supplied by people, the free ride of raccoons have come to the end as they return to the wild with the species surviving after the mass die-off.
3 months	At the Vatican City, the computerized climate control system inside the Sistine Chapel failed but the lack of moisture and body heat from visitors is helping to preserve Michelangelo's artwork. After depleting all of food supplies in the Buckingham Palace, the Queen's corgis escape into London in order to survive. In the United States, pets lucky enough to escape face rabies and the virus would spires for over 30% in the coming years. Oil refineries across the world including at the Houston Ship Channel have finally exhausted their fuel and with refineries in ruins, the 1.2 trillion barrels of crude oil that still lays untapped beneath the Earth's surface would never rise to propel any manmade machines again. In Central Texas, the Lacy dogs thrive by discovering food in the scrub lands by hunting feral hogs, which their numbers exploded without hunters to keep their numbers in check. In grocery stores, produce have shriveled up and meat have entirely decomposed with rodents like rats moved from meat to dry goods and inside of dry goods are insects which food manufactured have let insect eggs inside of it. Meanwhile, a specific brand of snack cakes could last last well beyond it's original expiration date of 25 days thanks to the preservatives.
4 months	Without farmers to protect their crops with pesticides, insects begin to mow down hundreds of thousands of acres. At the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, without artificial cooling system that chilled the vault to -4 degrees, temperature begins to warm up and stabilize to 25 degrees.
6 months	Urban areas are returning to the wilds as smaller predators such as coyotes and bobcats which roamed the outskirts of populated areas would become the first new residents while larger predators would wait longer for the habitat to recover till they hunt in the abandoned cities. In Los Angeles, mosquitoes begins to adapt by breeding in a stagnant swimming pool where it multiplied and can support hundreds of thousands. In New York City, the Ricoh Billboard still lightens Times Square since it is entirely solar and wind powered, making it the last light to glow in the city. The manmade lakes at Phoenix have all evaporated and the rivers follow causing the city to be reclaimed by the desert. Birds flock to the USS Missouri where they drop undigested seeds that lodge into the ships 53,000 square feet of wooden decks. Without traffic, armadillos thrive in Texas as long as the weather stays warm. In Washington D.C., the sun, wind, and rain have torn the American flag on the Marine Corps War Memorial to shreds and it only took a harsh wind in a gusty afternoon to blow it away. Some ski runs across the world begins to look the way it did but others are mysteriously free of growth as if still being groomed by humans. In Northern California, wildfires burns unchecked but for the coast redwood, it triggers a signal in the trees to sprout new limbs and shoots which make the trees to quickly flourish.
9 months	In the city of Boston, a winter storm ravage the USS Constitution, with the failure of the automatic bilge pumps months ago, the hull starts to leak causing the entire ship to sink into the bottom of Boston Harbour.
1 year	Nature begins to reclaim the land as impervious surfaces like roads can support an abundance of plant life by growing weeds in the cracks, forming a layer of poor nutrient topsoil where clover fields take root, and finally plants and ivy took over in the surface and begin damage the road surface. Wild animals like the white-tailed deer begun to find their way into the abandoned cities to forage for food. In Hoover Dam, quagga mussel begins to clog the pipelines feeding cooling water to the generators which cause it to shutdown. and as a result, the American Southwest including Las Vegas finally goes dark. Without powering the generators, no water passes through Hoover Dam causing the Colorado River downstream to run dry while the water level rise in Lake Mead which eventually spill over the dam. Triggered by lightning strikes, wildfires rage unchecked as it spread through cities like Chicago, San Francisco, and Rome. The ivies in the Wrigley Field begins to spread across the whole stadium. At the United States Capitol, the paint at the cast iron dome starts to break overtime and as it deteriorate, rust begins to be visible. In the Lincoln Memorial, the drainage pipes starts to cracks and water damage the roof without routine cleaning causing little bit corrosion on the steel by water penetration. In New York City, the plaza of the Rockefeller Center becomes a natural ice rink, then a garden and the gold skin of the Prometheus statue begin to be strip away, exposing the bronze beneath. In the Everglades, the invasion of Burmese pythons begins to be heating up against the native alligators and could eventually outgrow them. At the Burj Al Arab, hot salt air seeps in without air conditioners to battled and humidity causing mold, bacteria, and yeast to eat away the linens and walls while 9,000 tons of steel begins to corrode. The last survivor of the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas, a rare white alligator, finally dies after a year of conserving energy. 400 commercial nuclear power plants reactor including the military sites unleash the deadly radiation and would become irradiated, miles wide dead zones. The rats' population in an abandoned cargo ship experienced a population explosion but without people to use the bilge pump, water seeps in the ship, saturate the wheat, and thousands of rat flee to the upper decks. The prototype Clock of the Long Now stop dead in the Science Museum in London. Produce have almost completely decompose in grocery stores and some would be extinct like the bananas. Suburban homes face a new set of enemies in the winter where pipes freeze and burst with the spring thawing the ice and unleashing fountains of liquid flooding the place, in which after the flood comes mold, dry rot, and attracting two insects, carpenter ants and termites, which sets the scene for a primordial battle within the rotting walls. The wind turbines of Palm Springs becomes vulnerable to the wind itself as 100 mile an hour wind arrives, it cause vibration around the turbines causing it to torn apart, fly off, and cause mayhem. Despite the electric barriers where long gone, the Asian carp still haven't taken over the Great Lakes because of other man-made barriers still blocking the way including the Chicago Harbor Lock. At Andrews Air Force Base, Air Force One begins to rust while the tarmac is taken over by brush. The waters of the flooded Naica Mine have allowed the crystals within the mine to grow up to 100 feet long. Tropical and subtropical rainforests recover at an incredible rate, deforested areas have been reclaimed by nature. In Brazil, the Atlantic Forest has begun to expand into São Paulo, grass has started to grow through Paulista Avenue, vines now cover the buildings and the city is slowly reverting back to a tropical forest. In Mexico, the former Lake Texcoco begins to revive after years of diverting its waters away from Mexico City, soon 70% of Mexico City will be flooded.
2 years	The wires holding the cable cars in San Francisco rust and snap, causing it to break free and becomes an eight-ton missile of wood and steel, and rush down to slice through obstacles like a parked vehicle blocking its way. Across the bay, the weakened ropes holding a 50,000 ton cargo ship snap from stress causing to set course to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge where the central hull is hit and water begins to fill in the cargo ship causing to sink and snap in half. Without water from electric pumps, little will grow naturally besides the scrub of the Mojave Desert in Las Vegas. Within the Las Vegas Springs Preserve Museum at the visitor's center, the voices of man still echo through the halls thanks to the 2,200 solar panels that cover the parking lot. In the open seas, rats turned on each other on cargo ships. every rat dies from either starvation or cannibalism and their bodies will become food for hungry seabirds. Insects finish off the last of the dry goods and many of them rely on human foods causing insects like store product pests, garden plant pests, and crop pests to become extinct. Canned foods still rest on the shelves and some were destined to remain edible for hundreds of years, but in hot humid regions, canned goods can experience a different fate by thermophilic spores, which cause the cans to explode from the gas produced by it. Igloos vanish from Earth as the cold Arctic climate evaporates the snow material. In Latin America, Plants and wild grasses have overrun the crops that once supported humanity. Two years of uncontrolled replenishment has refilled Lake Texcoco that Mexico City was built in, causing the buildings to begin to degrade and be at risk of collapse due to the softening of their foundations by flooding. The remaining seeds in seed silos begin to ferment in a dangerous way, causing fires and even large spontaneous explosions.
3 years	The International Space Station loses altitude and falls to Earth, crashing into a nearby city, destroying the Immortality Drive in the process. In the Los Angeles Freeways, grasses and other small plants quickly take over the freeways from the seed corridors within the roads. The wind powered Ricoh Billboard in Times Square finally goes dark with no one to replace the lightbulbs. Horses begin to flee from New York City in order to find large patch of grasses around the state of New York. Expected timescale where battery powered wrist watches would finally stop. Guide dogs die of starvation and are not able to scavenge to survive because several thousand hours of training hinders its instincts to hunt and the leftovers of human society become scarce. In Sacramento, the earthen levees begins to fail one after another during a winter storm with The Pocket being the first to be decimated while others are overcome by the water and the breaches spread. Sacramento International Airport is inundated by more than 10 feet of water while 5 feet of water surrounds the California State Capitol. Dogs that were able to survive in Sacramento face a new set of challenges with swimming dogs adapting to the repeated floods while other specialized breeds are wiped out. The rubber seal in the Chicago Harbor Lock fails from ice damage and Asian carp begins colonizing the Great Lakes. In Yellowstone National Park, small surviving pockets of Rocky Mountain locusts grow in the absence of humans.
4 years	In Sydney, corrosion is threatens to seize up the hinges that allow the Sydney Harbour Bridge to expand and contract. Invasive Asian carp comes face to face with invasive sea lampreys which were accidentally introduced from Lake Erie by the Saint Lawrence Seaway. The reservoir of NORAD operations facility in Cheyenne Mountain Complex begins to leak due to lack of maintenance, causing the structural integrity to slowly drip away.
5 years	Most roadways around the world are disappearing beneath the greenery. In London, Buckingham Palace is breached by vines and moss. In Moscow, Red Square becomes green as it is overtaken by plant life. In New York City, Central Park is untended and saplings sprout turning the entire park into a forest. In Washington D.C., the monuments are swallowed by greenery and the National Mall becomes a jungle as zoo animals occupy the park. Escaped zoo animals dramatically change the environment, such as lions and tigers. Although they were better off further south, they are capable of figuring out what to do and how to survive. Weeds have transformed Boston including its historic district, where the Old North Church is invaded by pigeons, vines, and maple trees. IN Chicago, the walls and stands of Wrigley Field are covered in ivy while buckthorn begins to taken over the pitch where it can grow up to 10 feet tall. Beneath the waves not far from Miami, dolphins begin to learn the remnants of human civilization. In Downtown Miami, escaped chimpanzees follow flocks of birds into apartment buildings to eat their eggs, but one intelligent chimp realizes that they need to let some eggs to survive in order to extend the food supply, which begins the first steps towards animal husbandry. In Atlantic City, feral cats move in at the waterfront casinos along with bats who could make the casinos potential bat caves. Rattlesnakes begin to return as an arm race between the rodents and snakes begins. Lake freighters still prowl through the Great Lakes, all heading to Niagara Falls. However the International Railway Bridge blocks ships floating in that direction. A typhoon bearing 200 mph wind strikes Taipei causing glass to shatter on the lower levels of Taipei 101, allowing water to gush inside. Degraded circuitry inside Air Force One fails and deploys the false target flares, causing the plant growth underneath the plane to catch fire. The flames soon reach the fuel tanks where they explode and destroy the plane. At Carlsbad Caverns, the influence of man still continues to be felt as a steady flow of toxins continues to flow into the caverns from cars, including oil, antifreeze, and other fluids. If a lightning strikes a vehicle, it will explode and leak all the melted plastic and chemicals associated with it. Skyscrapers in Chile become home to birds of prey. Hotels near the Brazilian coast begin to be degraded by the tide.
6 years	In the Mayacamas Mountains, the Geysers geothermal power plant explodes when years of built up pressure have let water touch the magma underneath the power plant causing a huge amount of superheated steam to overwhelm the power plant’s corroded pipes.
8 years	In Saturn, the mission of Cassini has ended but without Mission Control to operate its descent into Saturn's atmosphere to its demise, the probe and its stowaway extremophiles continue to orbit the gas giant. After escaping the White House, Bo escape into the banks of the Potomac River before ending up in Chesapeake Bay where his natural instincts as a Portuguese water dog have taken effect and lives on a steady diet of fish, shellfish, and clams.
10 years	In Chicago, the Sears Tower is slowly deteriorating from years of rainwater as combination of snow, wind, and rain off Lake Michigan batter the structure causing the plates to peel off the building and crash into the streets below. Without the Los Angeles Aqueduct to import billions of gallons water, the huge Canary Island palm trees lining at the streets of Beverly Hills decay and slowly die from the top to bottom. Outside of Los Angeles, a lightning strike ignites a fire in the hills which then rages across the city, burning the interior of the U.S. Bank Tower, the plant life between the fireproof stainless steel panels of the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the latex paint of the Hollywood Sign, and destroying the entirety of Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Massive sandstorms called haboobs run rampant across Phoenix, breaking into buildings and allowing monsoon rains to fill the buildings with mud. In Philadelphia, the wind breaks the windows of the west wing of Independence Hall allowing sunlight to beam down on the Declaration of Independence and erase the words upon it. In France, Lascaux II crumbles as steel and plaster construction falls apart. The original Lascaux cave paintings return to a natural balance without without the body heat and daily disturbances of people. In Las Vegas, the solar panels of the Las Vegas Springs Preserve Museum fall prey to dust and debris causing the last voices of man to fall silent and the lights to dim out. The Grand Central Terminal in New York City has become a gathering place for owls. The methane seeping into the tunnels beneath the MetLife Building is being mixed by other toxic fumes which eventually ignites from oxidation and results in a large explosion at the base of the building. The manicured grounds of Oglethorpe University are covered in kudzu and wild poinsettia but the granite structure holding the Crypt of Civilization still stands secure. In Dubai, the cables supporting one of the Burj Khalifa's window washing machines breaks loose and falls 2,000 feet to the desert below. At Santa Monica Pier, the deck planks deteriorate and the buildings began to sink one after another through the pier. The system's inverter of the Pacific Wheel which converts the solar power's DC current into usable AC electricity fails and the Ferris wheel turns dark. Outside of Sacramento, water level is dangerously high at Folsom Dam which accumulated silt and dumping water in faster than it can flow out in a winter storm, resulting the collapse of the dam. The massive amount of water released during the dam burst destroy the remaining levees of Sacramento, flowing through the city, and wiping away all infrastructure within the city including the California State Capitol and Sacramento International Airport. Airports are already crumbling and many weren't built to last. Cars stranded in Latin America for ten years are devoured by rust and vegetation. In Mexico City, the Zócalo has been submerged, the National Palace and the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral have been flooded but it only takes one earthquake for the entire square to be completely submerged.
15 years	Outside of Atlantic City, the deteriorating structure of Lucy the Elephant is on its last legs and a single storm weakens one leg and the rest of the structure falls. In Pearl Harbor, the lines holding the USS Missouri snap and the ship breaks away from the dock, adrift within the harbor. In Los Angeles, the Stahl House burns during a wildfire and although the structure survives, the vegetation that binds the soil is burned, weakening the structure. In suburban homes across the United States, bobcats begin to move in to set up dens. House dust mites, who once relied on a constant supply of human skin, begis to feed on the dander of the bobcats and other animals. Bed bugs return to being parasites for birds and bats. Human possessions are on the race of survival and the first to go are anything made of paper where it absorbs moisture and has a perfect condition to decay. Case-making moths begin to feed on natural fabrics left by man. Some shoes could survive by being preserved in deprived environments like peat and mud but for the most part, the leather quickly decays. The laminate on the particle board on household furniture becomes unglued causing the laminate to peel away and accelerate the decomposition of the particle boards inside. The thin and shiny gold and silver laminate on trophies begin to peel away or delaminate. CDs and DVDs begins delaminate, crumble, and oxidize. Photographs printed on cheap commercial paper rot away from corrosive acids present in wood pulp. The more expensive professional photographs could last longer but will eventually succumb to water damage and mold in time. In New Mexico, the computer inside the solar powered radio station KTAO overheats when the cooling fan grinds to a halt and the broadcasts finally cease.
20 years	Houston is reclaimed by nature and slowly reverts to the swamp as the JPMorgan Chase Tower looms over the city. In Astrodome, it swelters to 125 degrees in the summer, artificial grass is swallowed up by seeds and muck, and as it turned into a bat cave, bats contribute to the environment by dropping guano. In Miami, invasive plants like Brazilian pepper and lygodium aggressively grow against the buildings. At the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center, the hundreds of stored military aircraft begin to decay once the Spraylat peels off in the wind, birds also build nests in the exposed engine intakes, and the desert storms soon bury the fleet of planes into the desert sand. The 7,000 foot seawall protecting Seattle from the saltwaters of Puget Sound gives way when gribbles chew through the wood of the seawall, turning much of downtown into a saltwater marsh. The International Railway Bridge collapses under pressure due to ships and ice and the way to Niagara Falls is wide open. In Milan, cracks begin to appear on The Last Supper from moisture as it flakes away. In Palm Springs, the desert reconquers the city as the once lush golf courses turn into acres of sand traps, vermin invade the high end hotels, and luxury swimming pools are turned into empty cesspools. In rural Pennsylvania, a late summer heat sparks a wildfire which advances to the bunkers of the fireworks factory where ,combined with water that also infiltrates to the deteriorating bunkers, ignites the gunpowder seeping into the cracks and the fireworks explode all at once. At Aldridge's Always Christmas Store, soil builds up on the showroom, grass grows in the aisles of decorations, and vines climb up to plastic Santas and toy soldiers. Fruitcakes show no sign of decay because of one key ingredient; alcohol, which creates an anaerobic environment. In Alaska, although some reindeers interbred with their cousin the caribou, most die out because, reindeer have calves 1 month behind Caribou, allowing predators to move in more quickly. On Saturn, the Cassini smashes into Enceladus. The White House returns to its original grey color as the sandstone is degrades to mud as Washington D.C. returns to the watery wetlands. In Brazil, the parks of São Paulo have gone out of their limits. Outside of Mexico City, plant life has invaded the ruins of Teotihuacan without humans to maintain the site, completely covering the Avenue of the Dead, hiding it once again and eventually will disappear under plant growth.
25 years	In the countryside, nature takes over the overgrown farmlands and crops completely die. In the suburbs, feral dogs roam in packs through decaying neighborhoods in order to scavenge for food. In London, without people to seal off the Thames River with the Thames Barrier, the city floods from the repeated storms coming from the river. In Amsterdam, water rises from the canals as the city floods from the North Sea. As metal frames corrode from rust and the shrinking of their respective seals, the windows crack and fall, including the buildings of New York City, exposing their interiors to the elements. The copper lightning rods on top of skyscrapers are corroded and a lightning strike turns buildings like 500 Fifth Avenue into a towering inferno. Pigeons take up residence inside the buildings and adopt it as kind of artificial cliff. Cockroaches are force to change their habit safter people and while some die in the first winter, many would survive by moving underground to find warmth until milder temperatures returned. Wolf populations multiply by six times each year allowing the population to reach half a million. Roads are no longer a barrier to grizzly bears and instead become pathways that lead them back into the heart of their former range. In the abandoned museums, without people to regulate the heat and humidity, the Egyptian mummies like those of Ramesses II and Tutankhamun are struck by mold then insects before the entire bodies are reduced to skeletons. In Moscow, the embalmed body of Lenin inside of Lenin's Mausoleum, shares the same fate as his body rots away like the rotting pharaohs. At the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, water leaks into one of the missiles of K-129 causing an explosion and the bomb's plutonium core to scatter. Any sea creatures in the vicinity would die of radiation poisoning. In Detroit, the atrium of the Renaissance Center is turned into a forest as shagbark hickories and giant oaks move in while providing shelter to the local wildlife. The Crystal Cathedral turns into a greenhouse and the 10,000 glass panels begins to crack and fall out as rubber and gaskets degrade. Expected timescale where snack cakes like Twinkies could still remain edible.
30 years	Most of the world's dairy cows have died out with only small surviving pockets surviving. These groups begin a rapid evolutionary change which takes them back to the wild. In Denver, the roof of the Wells Fargo Center is covered in snow that drips moisture into the floors below and periodically causes an urban avalanche. The lower parts of New Orleans are filled with water, and ironically the levees designed to keep water out of he city, holds the water within which creates new kinds of aquariums in the city. Most semblances of a prepared meal have long disappeared with restaurants in a dilapidated state. Freeze-dried goods still remain edible. The grocery stores have quickly deteriorated and the roof collapses from snow and rainfall. In the American Midwest, the population of Rocky Mountain locusts flourishes once again. The populations of grasshoppers explode without people to use pesticides, causing birds to gorge more on it than the locusts. The body of Chairman Mao Zedong at the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong remains surprisingly intact and if the wax rumor is true, the body on display in Beijing would destined to crack and warp rather than decay. The City of Bogota is almost unrecognizable. The City of Caracas is once again a great valley.
35 years	In Boston, the wooden steeple of the Old North Church collapses during a storm. Without people to fortify the beaches, Westhampton Beach, along the low lying areas of Long Island, floods, with mansions and tens of thousands of homes being.
40 years	In the suburbs, the wooden houses crumble as they are attacked by mold and termite infestations. Stone structures could last longer but are still prone to crumble after natural, chemical, and physical weathering processes and could eventually collapse. Without people to repair them, minor leaks in earthen dams such as the Trinity Dam in California burst and collapse. Expected timescale where fabrics would ultimately decay.
50 years	The strain of neglect is beginning to show on even the best designed man-made structures such as the Brooklyn Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge, where their steel cables start to be weakened by corrosion and go down in time. Former domestic parrots still retain the words and phrases of human speech. The descendants of the Queen's corgis still prowl London but after breeding with other dogs, any traits of their royal lineage are long gone and have evolved into a pack of wild hounds. In Atlanta, kudzu covers much of the city including the Georgia Dome which collapses. During a periodic drought, the kudzu dries and turns into a tinderbox and soon, a lightning strike sparks a fire, spreading to the mass of kudzu and burning through the entire city, igniting the nearby Confederate Memorial Carving. In Chicago, Wrigley Field is unrecognizable as thick nets of buck-thorns blanket the playing field, and the wooden scoreboard crumbles from termite damage. In Los Angeles, an earthquake measuring 8.0 dubbed "the Big One" strikes the city causing the top floors of the U.S. Bank Tower to collapse and the destruction of the Los Angeles City Hall and the Hollywood Sign. In natural history museums across the world, pyrite disease ravages the bones dinosaurs and the skeletons on display crack and crumble. One of the stainless steel gargoyles of the Chrysler Building falls to the street of New York City below after corrosion loosens their connection. Inside of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, the decaying of the proteins have causes the lettuce seeds to die first. In Atlantic City, Steel Pier turns into a skeleton and collapses after constant wearing away by the ocean. In Las Vegas, water returns to the city, which gradually alters the landscape. A hurricane makees in Atlantic City and although some of the Atlantic City Boardwalk is buried by sand, other portions are exposed, causing the wind to weaken the corroded metal tie-downs and turning the boardwalk into battering rams. Seawater infiltrates the waterfront casinos of Atlantic City, causing the support subjected to the heaviest load to collapse one after the other. initally only half the building falls, with the middle and the other portion collapsing later. The roads leading to Pearl Harbor from nearby Honolulu are overtaken by the jungle. Cars in Detroit start to decay, turning into metal skeletons within another 25 years. In San Antonio, repeated rain has spawned cycles of flooding along the San Antonio River Walk causing the buildings to tilt at odd angles as silt and sand inundate the area, eventually leading to buildings like the Tower Life Building to collapse. At the Alamo, an army of oak trees conquers the structure and begins to demolish the walls. Without people to control the crowded space ways, collisions among the almost 3,000 satellites orbiting Earth have multiplied, with many falling to Earth, becoming extinguished in the ocean. In Seattle, the exterior of the Space Needle has flaked away and the exposed steel faces corrosion from leaves while the high altitude restaurant serves as a roosting place for peregrine falcons. After cities being silent for generations of birds, the mating calls for songbirds and others have returned to their lower frequencies. In Dubai, the Burj Al Arab collapses after the metal skin of the building falls away. In the Gulf of Mexico, a century of hurricanes have reduced the 3800 oil platforms to one and a final wave during a hurricane topples the last rusting oil platform into the deep sea of the Gulf of Mexico. On top of the Corcovado Mountain, the hands of Christ the Redeemer weaken and falls into the base of the structure. Train cars carrying chlorine corrode and the undercarriages give way, spreading chlorine across the environment: killing wildlife and creating long term deaths of ecosystems, and the aquatic life within. Although some German Shepherds mate with feral dogs, the distinctive breed will disappear because they couldn't breed among themselves to prevent fraternization in the ranks. Expected timescale on the decay of shoes, whose steel grommets and plastic aglets last for fifty-sixty years. Some ski runs are completely reverted to nature, but others still remain thanks to being intensively engineered and graded. TAfrican lions spread out and adapt to the new environment in Southern California turning them into an apex predator and and in enough time, evolve into a new American lion. During a winter storm, the devastating waves tear into the crumbling Santa Monica Pier and the Pacific Wheel is washed away by the powerful waves and wind, but the A-frame shape remains. The KVLY-TV mast collapses during an ice storm which puts huge stress on the section bolts. The Spirit of St. Louis plunges from display after 3 cables and the clamps that secure it fail. The last drops of oil and antifreeze make their way through Carlsbad Caverns, where it is then reconquered by bats whose guano provides fertile spawning grounds for millions of insects including millipedes, centipedes, and cockroaches. The Forbidden City becomes covered in snow and the Hall of Supreme Harmony collapses. In Versailles, the gardens of the Palace of Versailles are consumed by a forest and parts of the roof of the palace have collapse allowing water to leak into the Hall of Mirrors, rotting the oak supports and the mirrors fall and shatter.
60 years	A lake freighter grounded in Niagara River leaks iron ore while another empty lake freighter sheers off and tumbles over the edge ofNiagara Falls. In New York City, the MetLife Building is already crumbling and building's steel and glass facade are assaulted by neglect. In Milan, The Last Supper has flaked away and is covered by mold and dust. In Inglewood, Randy's Donuts collapses and destroys the restaurant below when water pools at the bottom of the hollow portion of the donut.
70 years	Shanghai is flooded from the Huangpu River. The Oriental Pearl Tower collapses when the foundation of the structure rots away from the Huangpu River. In Pearl Harbor, the USS Missouri is covered in greenery and vines creep up the structure and the massive 16-inch guns.
75 years	Most of the roughly 600 million automobiles in the world, even in the most forgiving of environments, will have rusted away to barely recognizable skeletal heaps. In Boston, the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge wears away. The supports under the skybridge of the Petronas Towers buckle from corrosion and fall into the mall below. In Philadelphia, The elm wooden support that holds the Liberty Bell buckles and the bell splits and rings one last time after it falls. The former stray dogs evolve back into wild predators after a mass die-off. The Jubilee Church still stands bright and tall because it was coated with photocatalytic cement and could last forever. The Crystal Cathedral collapses from the process of corrosion after the windows all fell out. Rattlesnakes grow up to nine feet long and have become an apex predator. A heavy downpour rain cause the Stahl House to collapse and fall off its eroded cliff. In Sydney, the Sydney Opera House collapses from the moist and salty air and the failure of the pilings cause the building to sink into the harbour. In Mexico City, water damage weakens the base of the pillar of the Angel of Independence causing it topple into the waters of Lake Texcoco below. In Argentina, the Obelisk of Buenos Aires collapses from the failure of the subway below and rheas that returned to the city witness its collapse. A small earthquake cause the World Trade Center Mexico City to collapse after the softening of its foundation. The Parana River has overcome all the dams ever built on it. The jungle has finally fully recovered on the Tigre River in Buenos Aires.
80 years	At Aldridge's Always Christmas Store, the building is in unstable condition and the roof of the Christmas store caves in.
100 years	The Brooklyn Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge collapse when their cables snap and the roadway spills into the waters. Exposed to the uncontrolled environment, Cellulose acetate films and photographs used throughout the 20th century begin to bubble and warp. In libraries, mold spores strike books, advancing their decay. The lifespan of CDs and DVDs lasts for a few decades to a few centuries under ideal conditions. Storm water mixed with acidic droppings penetrate the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge causing it to collapse. In New York City, the copper skin of the Statue of Liberty begins to disintegrate and rivets start to pull away. In Houston, the Astrodome crumbles into great chunks which rain down into the stadium. The Chicago 'L' collapses from disintegration in a domino effect. In London, the tilt of Big Ben becomes unstable causing it to collapse. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch expands as plastics from North America, China, and Japan arrive. In the National Archives Building, the encasement seal of the United States Constitution fails but microorganisms still cannot attack it without at least 2% oxygen. The newly built beaver dams in the Potomac River cause the National Mall to be flooded. On the United States Capitol, the iron dome rusts away, attracting pigeons and other birds for an ideal nesting place. The stainless steel of the Walt Disney Concert Hall corrodes away. On the Los Angeles Freeways, rain transforms parts of them and and they become a gathering place for animals. The cables of Roosevelt Island Tramway snap and the tram plunges 250 feet into the East River. In the Florida Keys, parts of the Seven Mile Bridge fall apart and turn into a row of broken teeth. In Phoenix, mud-filled floors cause buildings like Chase Tower to collapse. At the Everglades, the more than 1,000 miles of man-made earthen barriers fail from burrows of thousands of sailfin catfish. The structures of Kennedy Space Center are victimized by the repeated South Florida hurricanes. The beaches of Miami are consumed by the Atlantic and the buildings like Blue and Green Diamond collapse into the grasp of the ocean. One span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge collapses to the deck after dirt clogs in the expansion joint. Inside the Louvre, the Mona Lisa is consumed by deathwatch beetles. Fine grains of wind blown sand begins to erase the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign. The 28,500 glass panes of the Luxor Las Vegas are broken but the concrete structure remains because of the stable shape of the pyramid. The roof of the Turin Cathedral collapses allowing fungus to destroy the Shroud of Turin. The glazing panels of the Gherkin begin to fall out of the external skin. Moisture slowly rusts file cabinets allowing mold to spread to the files within. Safes are no match from the spreading fires, as it takes only 2 hours for the heat to begin penetrating the weakened steel and the papers to be incinerated within. The buildings of Co-op City collapse from floodwaters and a winter storm. The Silver Bullet collapses from corrosion caused by water trapped by the sand inside of the rails. Expected timescale on how long the A-frame shaped base of the Pacific Wheel would last. The pressure from the seized hinges and severe corrosion cause the Sydney Harbour Bridge to collapse into Sydney Harbour. Unchecked tree growth of the London plane covers Grant's Tomb like a shroud. The Pan-American Highway is now in ruins, and nothing remains but the remains of cars and concrete that were abandoned a century ago. The descendants of zoo animals in Latin America populate their sites of origin. The San Roque Gonzalez de Santa Cruz Bridge succumbs to corrosion and collapses. In Rio de Janeiro, the head and arms of the Christ the Redeemer Statue are covered in vines, creating a carpet of green on the statue.
110 years	Marine animals turn sunken oil platforms into their new habitats.
120 years	Palm Springs reverts completely into the desert. The wires of the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway snaps and the gondola hits one tower, triggering a collapse in a domino effect.
125 years	In Moscow, St. Basil's Cathedral collapses from water damage. The LAX Control Tower at Los Angeles International Airport collapses during a 6.5 earthquake while the Theme Building survives.
130 years	Fruitcakes continue to defy decay.
150 years	In New York City, the support columns of the flooded subways fail causing cave-ins which form trenches on the streets above. Vines have grown up the sides of the abandoned skyscrapers to feed off water that allows a vertical ecosystem. Cats begins to move into the skyscrapers and may evolve into species similar to flying squirrels. Dogs have reverted to the way of their ancestors with some interbreeding with wolves. The population of marine life skyrockets without people and the ocean recovers. After a massive die-off, seagulls began to flourish by taking an advantage of the recovering ocean. In Boston, the John Hancock Tower collapses from corrosion. Human speech in parrots drops off 90% per generation and human vocalization disappears. Herds of elephants begin to appear in the pasture land of North America. Plant life covers most of the plaza at the Rockefeller Center. In the Everglades, Burmese pythons dominate the entire swampland and have spread to 40% of the lower United States. The roadway of the Ambassador Bridge falls into the Detroit River. The central tower of the Renaissance Center collapses and brings down one of the adjoining buildings. The levees of New Orleans crumble, lowering the water levels and introducing more saltwater. The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum crumbles during an earthquake. The MetLife Building collapses and falls into the Grand Central Terminal. The Clock of the Long Now lies in the rubble after the collapse of the Science Museum in London. The floors of the Gherkin collapse but the skeleton remains. Monticello crumbles piece by piece. In Sao Paulo, the Edifício Copan collapses. In Santiago, the Titanium La Portada collapses from corrosion. An earthquake strikes Mexico City, causing the Torre Mayor to collapse.
175 years	Plant life returns completely to the former dead zones around the nuclear power plants and the cooling towers collapse. In Los Angeles, the Capitol Records Building collapses but the echo chambers underneath the building survive. At the United Nations Headquarters, the roof of the General Assembly Building caves in while the Secretariat Building collapses into the East River. In Washington D.C. , the sandstone of the White House degrades to mud leading to its collapse. In New York City, the entombed body of Ulysses Grant at Grant's Tomb is buried under six feet of earth by the London plane.
200 years	Without maintenance, the Eiffel Tower collapse sinto the Champ de Mars. In Seattle, corrosion causes the Space Needle to collapse. Saturated soil around the Empire State Building allows it to lean and collapse. The elevators of the Sears Tower free fall and the flooded underground floors of the building cause it to collapse. In Houston, centuries of hurricanes and exposure to nature storms lead the JPMorgan Chase Tower to collapse. The crumbling floors of the Chrysler Building trigger a cascading collapse. The moorings of the Grand Canyon Skywalk break way and the skywalk falls into the canyon floor. In Miami, what the chimpanzees learned over the last 200 years would allow them to use tools and domesticated animals to become a dominant lifeform. Debris around the shallows of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge form new land. The Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign falls flat during a desert thunderstorm. In Denver, the Wells Fargo Center collapses in a violent cascade. On the Colorado prairie, the descendants of domestic cattle carve out a new way of life in characteristics similar to deer. The population of bisons on the Colorado prairie explode. The towers of the Ambassador Bridge yields and falls on both sides of the river. In San Antonio, the San Antonio River swallows the city. The Alamo collapses from years of uncontrolled tree growth. The populations of the Texas Longhorns number into the tens of millions. In Taipei, the damper of Taipei 101 fails and the skyscraper collapses. Around the hills of Hearst Castle, zebras thrive by living in the grassy areas. Attacks of salt crystals and a 7.2 earthquake cause Hearst Castle to crumble. Earthquakes in Alaska cause the Trans-Alaska Pipeline to spill. Jesuit temples built in Paraguay in the 17th century could survive better than many modern buildings. In Rio de Janeiro, one of the arms of the Christ the Redeemer falls.
250 years	In Chicago, the John Hancock Center collapses in a floor-by-floor implosion. The roof of the Lincoln Memorial collapses, destroying the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the process. The weight of the Statue of Freedom on top of the United States Capitol causes the dome to cave in. The rotunda of the National Archives collapses and the words of the United States Constitution fade away upon exposure sunlight. In St. Louis, the keystone of the Gateway Arch buckles which leads to the structure's collapse. In Pearl Harbor, water penetrated the hull of the USS Missouri and the warship sinks into the mud of the harbor bottom but its hull could last long enough to become an underwater reef. Extreme plant growth chokes the Colosseum but volcanic ash continues to hold the structure. In Rio de Janeiro, a strong wind topples the Christ the Redeemer. In Dubai, ocean humidity and a huge sandstorm cause the Burj Khalifa to collapse. In Sao Paulo, the Edifício Itália collapses.
300 years	In New York City, the Statue of Liberty breaks into pieces and some turn into fossil beneath the ocean floor beneath what was once Liberty Island. Rabies struggles to survive as it can only infect as little as several thousand animals per year. The Liberty Bell is half-buried amidst the trees and the inscription may be one of the last visible pieces. Within the rubble of Independence Hall, the first blast of air causes the Declaration of Independence to disintegrate. In Las Vegas, plant life grows in clumps in moist places and new pockets of groundwater wreak havoc among the structures. The Stratosphere Tower collapses during an earthquake. Estimated timescale on how long the hull of USS Arizona to be completely deteriorate. A category 4 hurricane causes One Shell Square in New Orleans to collapse. Rising sea levels in Annapolis led to the flooding of the crypt of John Paul Jones. In London, the English weather causes the Gherkin to buckle and fall into the financial district, destroying nearby buildings including St. Andrew Undershaft. The Marine Corps War Memorial continues to endure as swamp weeds cluster the memorial. The generators in the Corbis Archive fail causing the refrigeration to stop and the prized photographs to deteriorate.
500 years	The most modern concrete structures like reinforced concrete crumble away once the iron rebar supports inside succumb to the expansion of rust. The exterior bracing buttresses of the Sistine Chapel fail and collapse in a chain reaction. The copper rods atop of the Washington Monument fail and a lightning strike leaves burn marks on the structure. In Kuala Lumpur, the Petronas Towers collapse in a progressive effect. A huge tree overgrows the remains of the Christ the Redeemer. Corrosion causes the dome of St. Peter's Basilica to collapse. Expected timescale of how long the Grand Central Terminal will still be recognizable. The dome of the Thomas Jefferson Building collapses. Pyramiden continues to be recognizable. The population of prairie dogs explode and the black-footed ferret returns to hunt down the animals. Sao Paulo is overtaken by the rainforest. Rio de Janeiro is consumed by the Atlantic Forest. Buenos Aires is consumed partly by the waters of Rio de la Plata and partly by vegetation. Lake Texcoco returns as Mexico City is made unrecognizable.
600 years	In Los Angeles, the concrete core of the US Bank Tower collapse by a moderate earthquake. The plastics of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch degrade into smaller compounds and continue to toxify the ocean's creatures and birds.
1,000 years	Almost all traces of human culture and civilization are unrecognizable. New York City is transformed by nature as Minetta Street returns to being Minetta Brook, Civic Center turns into an amphitheater of hills, and Times Square turns into a meadow. Rising sea level cause the Atlantic Ocean to flood Washington D.C. with the Lincoln Memorial still remaining intact with the United States Capitol becoming similar to the ruins of The Forum in Rome. The Washington Monument begins to sink from erosion with submerging being the only chance to remain intact. An earthquake collapses the Taj Mahal . Las Vegas becomes little more than a jagged mound and creosote bushes and other rough vegetation colonize the remains of the buildings. Detroit transforms into a wetland with massive oak trees. On the Moon, three Moon buggies left behind by the Apollo missions remain in near mint condition. In the transformed New Orleans, only Mardi Gras Beads remain buried in mud and muck. Mud seeps into the coffins within the cemeteries of New Orleans after geologic forces pile up sediments leading the city to lie beneath the Mississippi Delta. An earthquake causes the Colosseum to collapse. Anatolian Shepherd Dogs avoided interbreeding with other dogs and continue to remain on guard duty for flocks of sheep. The Molinere Underwater Sculpture Park transforms into coral reefs. The statue of El Caballito in Mexico City survives below the waters of Lake Texcoco. Popocatepetl erupts and destroys what remains of Mexico City.
1,500 years	At the Niagara Falls, the American Falls run dry after the Canadian Falls erode upstream of Goat Island.
2,000 years	Phoenix once again becomes a vast savanna. Dolphins still remember their encounters with humans. Many species thriving in the land are invasive species and have permanently changed the landscape. Within the ruins of the Louvre Museum, the Venus de Milo survives and is being slowly reburied. The Notre-Dame de Paris still stands because of being held together by gravity. The text of the Rosetta Disk becomes covered by an accumulation of a kind of microscopic goo and the Smithsonian Institution collapses, leading the disk to be crushed in rubble. The Cheyenne Mountain Complex still stands and it is entombed forever.
2,500 years	Estimated timescale on how long the many steel parts of Trans-Alaska Pipeline will last.
4,000 years	Honey stored in glass jars still remain fresh and eternally survive.
5,000 years	90% of the Confederate Memorial Carving on Stone Mountain is still completely intact. At the base of Mount Everest, glacial ice thaws reveal a long buried mountain climber but water and bacteria soon decompose the body.
May 28, 8113	At Oglethorpe University, the site is overgrown on the surface level and below ground, the walls of the Crypt of Civilization crack and breach causing moisture and corrosion to decimate the artifacts inside.
10,000 years	The radio and television signals that were beamed into space will dissipate at close to two light years and will not be able to reach Alpha Centauri. The Great Wall of China has aged like mountains and could be recognizable for eons. The Pyramids of Giza have endured long enough to be swallowed up by the Sahara Desert. Hoover Dam collapses during an earthquake. Mount Rushmore is still recognizable and could be possibly viewed by chimpanzees if they evolve to take up the mantle of civilization. In Antarctica, huts built by Shackleton and Robert Scott decay and disappear without a trace due to the warming of the planet. On the shorelines of the once New York City, descendants of horses roam the beaches and because of lack of nutrients, they evolve to be much smaller than their ancestors. Beneath hundreds of feet of once Manhattan, the vault of the Federal Reserve Bank, flooded from the rising sea level, still holds $200 billion of gold bars intact which could last millions of years. Descendants of housecats still survive in the wild but those isolated in islands have evolved to a bobcat size.
20,000 years	The last of the hundreds of millions of seeds stored in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault die. Earth returns to the Ice Age causing the sea level to drop almost 400 feet. Atlantic City is surrounded by an inland forest. Estimated timescale of how long the hull of the USS Missouri will last.
30,000 years	Expected timescale of how long the paintings of Lascaux will last.
50,000 years	The KEO Satellite falls back to Earth and crashes into the ocean where it then sinks into the ocean floor.
100,000 years	The next evolution takes place with a new species that will replace humans beginning to appear.
1 Million	A number of Ice Ages cause the Nevada Desert to return to look like how Las Vegas looked before humans disappeared. The descendants of camels from a ranch in Virginia City evolve into a species similar to guanaco in South America from low lying vegetation. The Voyager spacecrafts remain recognizable but are extensively damaged with the Golden Records having little chance anyone who finds it will be able to play it.
2 Million	In Enceladus, extremophiles from Cassini thrive turning the moon into a new ecosystem that could eventually terraform it.
10 Million	Perched along the San Andreas fault, the plate where San Francisco stands goes up causing the landscape to erode. The fossilized corpses of New Orleans are a mile and a half underground and pressure and heat carbonizes the soft tissue into a form of oil.
50 Million	Compressed into an unique thin geologic strata, buried plastics still survive, as they don't dissolve.
100 Million	The remains of human bodies are fossilized bones and teeth.
5 Billion	The cycle on Earth ends with the planet engulfed by the Sun as it turns into a red giant.