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National Geographic Tsunami Killer Wave
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C'mon, Matt! |
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Attention all stations. |
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Stand by for |
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for the Big Island and |
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This warning is based on a |
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near Kailua-Kona. |
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Could it really happen? |
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Could a giant wave really menace |
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There is something out there |
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and it threatens coastlines |
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It's one of nature's |
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We often see hurricanes and typhoons |
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that churn up |
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They can flood |
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But as dangerous |
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they are not the worst of |
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The real monsters are tsunamis, |
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freak waves usually produced by |
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like earthquake. |
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They can race across entire oceans |
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And they can leave |
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Throughout history, |
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tsunamis have generated |
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Reversion the shores |
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Without warning |
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killer waves have struck |
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And tsunamis are as mysterious |
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because so few have ever |
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This extraordinary footage |
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in the Kuril Islands off |
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A typical tsunami, |
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but with far greater speed |
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Fortunately it caused |
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and no deaths. |
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But tsunamis can be catastrophic. |
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In the last century alone, |
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more than 50,000 people |
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Most had little or no warning. |
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Few were even aware of the danger. |
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But for the people of |
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deadly tsunamis are not rare events. |
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They live in the most seismically |
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an area criss-crossed |
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and dotted with volcanoes, |
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so it's not surprising |
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that the vast majority |
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In the middle of the Pacific, |
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the Hawaiian Islands lie isolated |
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It's people are certainly |
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But some of them |
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Dr. Walter Dudley |
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at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, |
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We'll have a little |
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Today he's taking one of his classes |
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But first, a few words of caution. |
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Okay guys, everybody listen up. |
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We're only about 30 miles |
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from the epicenter |
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that have ever struck this island. |
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In both cases, |
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they generated |
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The waves took about ten minutes |
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and were about 10 to 15 feet high. |
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So if you are out there on the reef, |
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and you feel a big earthquake, |
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drop your gear |
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and move ashore |
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Okay, let's have a good lab. |
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They are among the most catastrophic |
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Unlike things like hurricanes, |
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The weather doesn't get bad. |
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You don't feel the earth shake. |
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It can be just a beautiful day |
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the ocean can come up |
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In the Hawaiian Islands, |
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we've recorded tsunami wave heights |
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as great as 56 feet on this island |
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In prehistoric times, |
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wave heights may have reached |
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Hilo has been struck by tsunamis |
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But it was really in 1946 |
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when there was |
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that we had |
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Nineteen forty-six... |
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Hawaiians can relax. |
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At last, their island |
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But more than 2,000 miles away, |
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a new threat emerges from the sea. |
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On April 1, |
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an undersea earthquake |
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generates a huge tsunami. |
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Within minutes |
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on the Aleutian island of Unimak, |
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90 miles from the epicenter. |
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Inside the island's |
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the men feel the tremor, |
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but they have no idea |
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When the wave slams |
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it's more than 100 feet high. |
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After it passes, |
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the Scotch Cap Lighthouse |
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and so has its crew. |
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The tsunami continues |
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at over 400 miles per hour. |
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And just as in Alaska, |
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It's first impact in the islands |
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Some waves are as small |
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barely hinting |
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By the time it arrives at |
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the tsunami has begun to swell |
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Its waves wash over the island, |
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easily overtopping |
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Lining Hilo Bay |
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Kapua Heuer's family lived on |
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My family ventured as close as |
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when we saw |
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It's 32 feet from here |
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We had to step back |
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all of a sudden, |
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In the city of Hilo, |
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residents panicked |
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fleeing for their lives. |
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Many try in vain |
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We heard this horrible clash in Hilo |
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the buildings on the ocean side |
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There was turmoil all day long. |
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The whole town was awash with water |
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We did see people |
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dogs trying to swim ashore. |
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We saw that. |
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But you couldn't do anything |
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The force of the water was so great, |
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You had no chance. |
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You felt very helpless and wondered |
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was there anybody out there |
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One photographer watches in horror |
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as a wave overtakes a dock worker |
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In the next frame, |
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taken after the wave has passed, |
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the worker is nowhere to be seen... |
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I had gotten up, |
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Larry Nakagawa was 14 when the wave |
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...and as I was washing my face |
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I heard this strange sound of gravel |
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So my brother came out and said |
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"It looks like |
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We better get on the tree." |
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So he hoisted me up |
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He and my father |
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because of the way the branch was, |
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to grab hold of the trunk. |
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And I think that when the wave came, |
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he felt that |
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the way... |
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the force of the wave |
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and if he hung on, |
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So he let go |
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It was strict horror |
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When they found somebody, |
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all the bodies were covered |
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But they were covered |
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And when you pulled back the blanket |
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the horror on their death... |
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They were frightened. |
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Eyes open, mouth agape. |
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And just a terror looked-face |
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It was very unpleasant to look at. |
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Twenty-five miles northwest of Hilo, |
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the little peninsula |
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lies exposed to the full fury |
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Students have just arrived |
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and are waiting for classes |
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Among them are Bunji Fujimoto |
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That day remains vivid |
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I could see a wall of water |
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It compared to filling up |
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You just keep pouring |
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it spills over, |
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up on the wall. |
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It didn't stop with the wall. |
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It just came over, spilled over. |
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And we could see we were in trouble. |
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We had to run. We started running. |
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When the water started coming over, |
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we started running up |
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where the school building was. |
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Fortunately, we made it in time. |
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A bunch of the other children |
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the other students, |
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My brother was down here |
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We always wondered |
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what he would have turned out |
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He was 14 years old and just |
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You can't do anything about it. |
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You can't do anything more than |
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Bunji's brother was among the 25 |
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mostly students and their teachers. |
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Almost all of the bayfront area |
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The businesses were ripped |
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Many of the structures were wooden |
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The railway which was built |
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the wooden ties were floated out |
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and the rails twisted into pretzels. |
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One hundred fifty-nine people died |
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96 in Hilo alone. |
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Over time, the city would rebuild. |
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But this tragedy |
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Those who lived in the shadow |
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were determined to be better |
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Just two years later, in 1948, |
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the U.S. government established |
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the Pacific Tsunami warning center |
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Today, the center remains on alert |
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coordinating the efforts |
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We try to get a warning out |
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and we have to go to our resources |
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and what its magnitude is. |
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And then, given that information, |
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we issue this warning |
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in the warning system |
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Equipped with state-of-the-art |
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seismic sensors, and a vast network |
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the warning center can track |
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and determine whether a tsunami is |
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Scientists know that |
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or a volcanic eruption |
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anything that causes the sea floor |
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can displace huge volumes of water. |
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When this disruption |
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a series of waves spreads out. |
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They can move |
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Unlike a normal wave |
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the energy of a tsunami |
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all the way |
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In deep water, there's barely |
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But as a tsunami wave |
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The energy is compressed |
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and the waves can be pushed up |
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It's always a number of thousands |
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that could possibly live or die, |
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Here in the Hawaiian Islands, |
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for example, |
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That's interesting. |
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We've got an earthquake |
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It looks like |
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in the central part of Alaska. |
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The center detects |
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Most like this one |
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present no threat of tsunami. |
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But even when a tsunami alert |
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not everyone will take it seriously. |
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When you go from one tsunami |
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people don't even know |
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So it's hard for them |
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First of all, you have to |
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that there is such a thing, |
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and secondly, |
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Even in Hawaii, |
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people can forget the lessons |
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In 1960, |
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12 years after |
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a massive earthquake |
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generates a tsunami |
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Hawaii lies directly in its path. |
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Early on the evening of May 22, |
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the warning center issues |
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...a tsunami will hit Hilo |
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But with midnight long past, |
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many ignore the alert, |
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A few even gather |
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to watch the waves come in. |
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The 35-foot wall of water |
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Once again |
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with $30 million in damage |
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This wave will change Hilo forever. |
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Today, as you look at downtown Hilo, |
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you see the highway |
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which used to be the railway |
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You see a big expanse |
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soccer fields and places |
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and play ball. |
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All of that was homes |
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very, very heavily populated |
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If you go there today, you can see |
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driveways, all leading to nothing. |
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They see that area and they think |
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what wonderful urban planning |
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to have all that parkland. |
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That's planning thanks to |
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and at great expense to |
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both in terms of property |
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Tsunamis have been rare events. |
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There has not been a destructive |
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in over 30 years. |
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But if you look at the number |
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over the last century |
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there's been on the average |
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every seven years |
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so in many ways you would say that |
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we're long overdue |
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Walter Dudley is not |
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who's worried about the next one. |
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In the Seattle office |
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and Atmospheric Administration, |
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Dr. Eddie Bernard |
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is spearheading efforts to alert |
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to the dangers of tsunamis. |
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Most certainly they're killers. |
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If you look at the history of the |
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more people have died from tsunamis |
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than from earthquakes |
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It's one of |
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that has such broad impact. |
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Most natural disasters |
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An earthquake, although it may be |
| 00:20:17 |
doesn't affect anything outside |
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But if you add up the dimensions |
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it's on the order of 100,000 miles. |
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So one earthquake, properly placed, |
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can affect the coastlines |
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In Japan, however, |
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the greatest tsunami threat |
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not thousands of miles away, |
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This island nation lies on |
| 00:20:44 |
of the most seismically active |
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The Japanese know that |
| 00:20:50 |
the sea's bounty |
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In 1896, an offshore quake |
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crashing into villages |
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The next morning, |
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local fishermen returning to shore |
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A few miles out at sea, |
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they had not even noticed |
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the tsunami passing |
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Now they found |
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their families decimated. |
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More than 22,000 had drowned. |
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Four decades later, |
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1,500 vessels were swept ashore |
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and many in their crews drowned. |
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Government aid is being rushed, |
| 00:21:50 |
before this stricken region |
| 00:21:53 |
of the rising sun. |
| 00:22:01 |
The Japanese are no strangers |
| 00:22:10 |
Killer waves, |
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like the ones |
| 00:22:14 |
visit their shores |
| 00:22:20 |
But even the Japanese |
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In 1993, a quake |
| 00:22:30 |
generates tsunami waves |
| 00:22:32 |
in less than 10 minutes |
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It's the middle of the night, |
| 00:22:39 |
and most do not have time |
| 00:22:43 |
One of the lucky ones is television |
| 00:22:47 |
who records his own escape on video. |
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There was a straight road |
| 00:22:59 |
We reached the crossroads |
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Usually, we would turn to the left, |
| 00:23:13 |
but the driver saw something like |
| 00:23:27 |
The disaster I saw from the hill |
| 00:23:35 |
The devastation was something |
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The fact that |
| 00:23:43 |
is something I haven't forgotten. |
| 00:23:53 |
Nearly 200 died that night |
| 00:23:59 |
On the southern tip of the island, |
| 00:24:01 |
where there were hundreds of homes, |
| 00:24:07 |
Dr. Eddie Bernard arrived |
| 00:24:10 |
with a special tsunami task force. |
| 00:24:13 |
Well, my emotional reaction was... |
| 00:24:15 |
it was like being at ground zero |
| 00:24:19 |
You just couldn't believe |
| 00:24:21 |
The power of these waves |
| 00:24:27 |
Although I had been studying |
| 00:24:29 |
I'd never seen the power |
| 00:24:33 |
and what it actually could do. |
| 00:24:34 |
You just look at some of |
| 00:24:36 |
that were ripped apart |
| 00:24:38 |
and saw how things |
| 00:24:41 |
Then you start to appreciate |
| 00:24:44 |
Looking at a photograph of |
| 00:24:50 |
who wasn't too much older |
| 00:24:55 |
really brought home the fact |
| 00:24:57 |
that most of the people |
| 00:25:00 |
were young children or the elderly. |
| 00:25:02 |
What we actually could see |
| 00:25:05 |
Then you realize that... |
| 00:25:07 |
these 500 homes had destroyed |
| 00:25:11 |
And, of course, |
| 00:25:14 |
And so... |
| 00:25:15 |
you had to be very respectful |
| 00:25:19 |
Although |
| 00:25:21 |
we didn't want to be disrespectful |
| 00:25:25 |
And it motivated me as a research |
| 00:25:27 |
the real reason for studying |
| 00:25:30 |
is to save a few lives. |
| 00:25:32 |
And that's the bottom line. |
| 00:25:37 |
Today Okushiri is slowly recovering |
| 00:25:46 |
The people are rebuilding |
| 00:25:48 |
and repairing their lives. |
| 00:25:51 |
But because space is |
| 00:25:53 |
most new homes must be built |
| 00:25:57 |
making them just as vulnerable |
| 00:26:01 |
There is no one spot, however, |
| 00:26:06 |
The devastated southern tip |
| 00:26:08 |
will likely remain an empty zone, |
| 00:26:11 |
a reminder of |
| 00:26:20 |
Two hundred miles to the south |
| 00:26:22 |
that has long suffered |
| 00:26:28 |
Over the past century, |
| 00:26:29 |
Taro has seen |
| 00:26:34 |
The people of this town have learned |
| 00:26:38 |
to live with |
| 00:26:43 |
The last great wave struck here |
| 00:26:49 |
It left Taro in ruins, and wiped out |
| 00:26:55 |
A year later, |
| 00:27:09 |
They built a wall |
| 00:27:10 |
to keep the sea |
| 00:27:19 |
Today, the wall dominates the town, |
| 00:27:22 |
a reinforced concrete battlement |
| 00:27:26 |
and in some spots, |
| 00:27:35 |
For the people of Taro, |
| 00:27:36 |
it's become a familiar |
| 00:27:45 |
In the summer, the seawall |
| 00:27:48 |
and I cannot sleep |
| 00:27:52 |
At that time |
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but I never forget |
| 00:28:01 |
If there were no wall, |
| 00:28:08 |
Taro is also protected |
| 00:28:16 |
Besides the usual |
| 00:28:19 |
there are video cameras, |
| 00:28:21 |
permitting technicians to |
| 00:28:25 |
looking for changes in sea levels |
| 00:28:41 |
And if alarms are sounded, |
| 00:28:48 |
Crack teams of gatekeepers |
| 00:28:53 |
closing the wall's six doors |
| 00:29:07 |
Each of the massive steel doors must |
| 00:29:14 |
They've never been tested |
| 00:29:22 |
The seawall certainly offers |
| 00:29:24 |
a measure of comfort, |
| 00:29:29 |
It's 34-foot height |
| 00:29:33 |
But the infamous tsunami of 1896 |
| 00:29:40 |
There's just no way to know |
| 00:29:52 |
Back on the wave-ravaged island |
| 00:29:55 |
they're building their own wall. |
| 00:30:05 |
When it's completed, |
| 00:30:05 |
it will surround nearly |
| 00:30:08 |
providing at least partial |
| 00:30:16 |
But the people of Okushiri |
| 00:30:18 |
in reinforced concrete. |
| 00:30:24 |
In a ceremony held every June, |
| 00:30:28 |
including hundreds of |
| 00:30:31 |
enshrining their memories in stone. |
| 00:30:53 |
As darkness falls, a bonfire is |
| 00:30:58 |
guiding home |
| 00:31:10 |
Paper lanterns symbolize |
| 00:31:13 |
released once again to the sea. |
| 00:31:35 |
It is an act of remembrance and |
| 00:32:00 |
The threat of tsunami is not |
| 00:32:04 |
Half a world away |
| 00:32:07 |
lies the Northwest Coast |
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The town of Crescent City, |
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shares a tragic legacy |
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People here can still recall their |
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March 27, 1964. |
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Good Friday. |
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A violent earthquake |
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generates an enormous tsunami. |
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The Pacific Coast of North America, |
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lies in its path. |
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At 11 that night, |
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Crescent City Civil Defense Chief, |
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receives urgent news. |
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My first experience with a tsunami |
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that came into my office |
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And it said that |
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and it gave an estimated time |
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Well, we didn't even know |
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let alone know how to spell it. |
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And we certainly didn't know |
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how to convert Zulu time |
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And we were really devastated as to |
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On March 27, |
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we received this teletype telling us |
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that Crescent City |
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And we were really frightened. |
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But not everyone in Crescent City |
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Many were intrigued by the novelty |
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and went down to the waterfront |
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Among them was Ray Magnuson. |
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I parked the car |
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and I met my wife there and |
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As I went down the road, |
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Some guys said, |
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"Hey look, hey look, |
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Well, I assumed it was a tidal wave |
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which was not too good |
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since I was not very far |
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I waited and watched and watched, |
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and pretty soon up the road, |
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Then there was a cafe |
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of the road looking down, |
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I thought at that time, I said, |
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"I better get out of here." |
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So I turned and started walking. |
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The water was chasing me, |
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and I got back to the car. |
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Anyway, the water kept coming |
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and as you know, Volkswagens float. |
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Well, sure enough, |
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You could hear the explosions |
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Then, |
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you could hear things break |
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stopped in front of the car |
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and it made a breakwater, |
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Water went out and we drove away. |
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We had no idea of the extent |
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And we were all dumfounded. |
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When we looked out, |
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I gave a report to the director |
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of the state of California. |
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He was giving a report |
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and I told him I think that |
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The final toll: 11 people killed; |
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And now we all knew: |
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A tsunami could happen anywhere, |
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but right here at home. |
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Three decades later, |
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the people of Crescent City |
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But unlike the Japanese, |
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no computerized warning system, |
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If a tsunami struck here tomorrow, |
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this town could be devastated |
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Was the Crescent City disaster |
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Or could another tsunami |
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Giant waves are part |
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of many native American tribes |
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The Tolowa people spoke of |
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The grandmother told |
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to go right away as fast |
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The two children ran as fast |
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upstream away from the harbor. |
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Halfway there, they looked back. |
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They could see the water come. |
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They could hear the people cry. |
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They could hear the cries |
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When they reached the top |
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the boy made a fire |
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When the sun came up, |
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They went back to |
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There wasn't anything there. |
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Everything was swept clean. |
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It's only a legend, |
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but it may be based upon |
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Just off shore |
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lies the Cascadia Subduction Zone. |
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It's a 900-mile crack |
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capable of producing |
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A tsunami generated here could reach |
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Near the mouth of the Copalis River |
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geologist Brian Atwater seeks |
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evidence that would correspond |
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The first indication of |
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a dreary grove called |
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These trees were flourishing |
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when an earthquake |
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and what had been high ground |
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poisoning the trees. |
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The same earthquake |
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almost certainly generated |
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Atwater believes he's found more |
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telltale signs embedded |
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revealing that this region |
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Got a big piece of burned wood |
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I assume it's a campfire. |
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We might have a fire pit |
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We got a three-layer cake here. |
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We go back 300 years |
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when this site was a forest. |
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It had sitka spruce, |
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and it had native people |
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using rocks like this. |
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The brown layer records a campsite |
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The gray later represents |
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generated by an earthquake |
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The tsunami comes in, |
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Then the mud builds up on top |
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because the land had dropped |
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But this wasn't the only great wave |
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Atwater and other scientists have |
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and tsunami in the distant past. |
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There was a tsunami |
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generated in Puget Sound |
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by an earthquake probably as large |
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on a fault that goes right |
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During an earthquake, |
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The floor of Puget Sound |
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If the floor moves up, |
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the surface of Puget Sound up here |
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Temporarily, it's 20 feet higher |
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Gravity takes over |
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So that's what happened |
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And it could happen again. |
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Scientists believe |
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of a major tsunami |
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in the next 50 years. |
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Here in Washington, |
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there are many places |
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enough information |
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about what they should do |
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They do not yet have posted |
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that one sees in Oregon now |
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just sort of put it in the mind, |
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You see this on the outer banks |
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"Hurricane Evacuation Route". |
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These kinds of signs |
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so in the event |
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people think, "Oh, yeah, |
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It said, 'Go up that road."' |
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And there might be high ground, |
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far enough away that |
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you could survive |
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Brian Atwater isn't trying |
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He just hopes |
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And the message |
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Government officials |
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to save lives |
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The state of Oregon has recently |
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establishing a 300-miles-long |
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Because of the risk, |
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no new schools or hospitals |
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without special permission. |
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One town that lies within the zone |
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It's a quiet little resort town |
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whose population swells to |
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Cannon Beach is more prepared |
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conducting regular tests |
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Test, test, test. |
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But they don't want to frighten |
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so the shrill siren is replaced |
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with something |
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The folks in Cannon Beach have |
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but they do take tsunami seriously. |
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They know they have a lot to lose, |
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especially here |
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only 400 feet from the ocean. |
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We're going to add "re" |
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So what would be the new word |
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Brian B? |
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Regain? |
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Regain is right. |
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And how do you spell regain, Nathan? |
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"R-E-G-A-I-N" |
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Right. |
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These kids are well aware |
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And they know what to do |
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Let's exit calmly, class. |
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They have only a few minutes |
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You guys did it this time |
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Great job. Great job. |
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You hustled all the way up. |
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I saw people encouraging |
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You not only focused on |
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keeping yourself |
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but you also and safe |
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but you also were encouraging people |
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I really, really appreciate that. |
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Great job. |
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Alright. Great. |
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Plans are in the works |
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but until then |
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It's the only way |
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The last tsunami hit Cannon Beach |
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And in the school playground, |
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there's chilling evidence |
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The steel swing set bears scars |
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uprooted and hurled about |
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Fortunately, |
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when the schoolyard was empty. |
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The next one could happen anytime. |
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Cannon Beach is well aware of |
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But there are other towns at risk |
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and many of them are |
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For the state of Washington, |
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there's a resort area |
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It's a low-lying sand barrier. |
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And during the summer months, |
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sometimes there's as many |
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that are out there |
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That would be |
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because there's only one way |
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and that poses |
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Probably the people couldn't |
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And anything that's not reinforced |
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And it becomes timber in the water, |
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because now it's incorporated |
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Automobiles become floating objects |
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and they'd be propelled |
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So as the wave sweeps back |
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it would probably just bulldoze |
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and leave probably |
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So when it's all over, |
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without any of man's structures |
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Warning systems |
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well-established here in Hawaii. |
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But they're only effective |
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Leave the area. |
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This is an update |
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At this time, |
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until further notice. |
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Roads out of Waikiki are now closed. |
| 00:46:29 |
In 1994, |
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and beaches were evacuated |
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Three hundred thousand people |
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But this tsunami alert |
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Well, in 1994, |
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there was a large earthquake |
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It was big enough to have generated |
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The early indications were that |
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of the water in the tidal stations |
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So the Pacific Tsunami Warning |
| 00:47:00 |
They accurately predicted |
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but they are incapable of predicting |
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how large the waves |
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When tsunamis occur |
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and with as little money |
| 00:47:13 |
we as yet just don't know |
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how to predict how large |
| 00:47:17 |
So in Hawaii the waves |
| 00:47:21 |
And unfortunately |
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most of the public interprets that |
| 00:47:25 |
when in fact |
| 00:47:27 |
It could've been |
| 00:47:32 |
The problem |
| 00:47:34 |
of course, |
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They say, |
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and we don't bother. |
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Or the flip side of this is |
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they will actually go to the beach |
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So I think it's incumbent upon us |
| 00:47:50 |
to try to find |
| 00:47:52 |
of forecasting the effects of these. |
| 00:47:56 |
Now the technology |
| 00:48:00 |
In a government warehouse |
| 00:48:03 |
you can see the future |
| 00:48:05 |
A 20-foot signal buoy, |
| 00:48:10 |
could put an end to false alarms |
| 00:48:15 |
Anchored in the middle of the ocean |
| 00:48:18 |
the system will make it possible to |
| 00:48:22 |
as well as when and where |
| 00:48:26 |
Undersea gauges will take the |
| 00:48:30 |
and transmit the data |
| 00:48:33 |
A satellite will complete the link |
| 00:48:39 |
The new system |
| 00:48:42 |
and build public confidence |
| 00:48:48 |
But there are certain types |
| 00:48:50 |
that can strike so suddenly |
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and with such force that even |
| 00:48:55 |
would be unable |
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Here in the Hawaiian Islands, |
| 00:48:59 |
where all of the land is built |
| 00:49:02 |
the islands grow up |
| 00:49:05 |
and then periodically |
| 00:49:08 |
down onto the ocean floor. |
| 00:49:10 |
They've created magnificent cliffs |
| 00:49:12 |
along the sides of |
| 00:49:15 |
But when those chunks of the islands |
| 00:49:16 |
slide off onto |
| 00:49:18 |
as huge landslides |
| 00:49:21 |
they have the potential to |
| 00:49:25 |
And there's evidence |
| 00:49:28 |
as high as 1,000 feet |
| 00:49:35 |
These landslide waves |
| 00:49:38 |
as well as its past. |
| 00:49:41 |
Here on the Big Island, a huge crack |
| 00:49:50 |
It's 60 miles long. |
| 00:49:52 |
And it's growing wider every year. |
| 00:49:55 |
Some scientists think |
| 00:49:56 |
it's gradually detaching one side |
| 00:50:02 |
The great crack is |
| 00:50:06 |
At one time, it may have actually |
| 00:50:08 |
But now, it's probably serving |
| 00:50:11 |
where part of the island |
| 00:50:15 |
and may someday slip away |
| 00:50:21 |
A thousand-foot tsunami on the coast |
| 00:50:26 |
But a giant tsunami |
| 00:50:29 |
even without earthquakes, volcanoes, |
| 00:50:33 |
A few scientists are beginning |
| 00:50:34 |
to examine another possible cause |
| 00:50:38 |
but terrifying. |
| 00:50:40 |
Recently, the effects of a meteor |
| 00:50:45 |
Depending on the size of the meteor, |
| 00:50:47 |
you could have some |
| 00:50:49 |
generated by the splash |
| 00:51:00 |
You could have a wave |
| 00:51:05 |
It is probably the surprise |
| 00:51:27 |
A giant tsunami |
| 00:51:29 |
may only happen once |
| 00:51:34 |
But it doesn't take a giant tsunami |
| 00:51:39 |
At the memorial park near Hilo, |
| 00:51:42 |
where the Laupahoehoe school |
| 00:51:44 |
today's students gather |
| 00:51:47 |
on the 50th anniversary |
| 00:52:26 |
People ask me, |
| 00:52:28 |
And I say, |
| 00:52:31 |
It's when the next tsunami strikes." |
| 00:52:33 |
Because there will definitely be |
| 00:52:34 |
It might not be this year or next, |
| 00:52:39 |
But it could be tomorrow as well. |
| 00:52:50 |
In Hawaii, |
| 00:52:57 |
The rest of us would be wise |
| 00:53:01 |
and learn from their experience. |
