- 5/27/2025
En este emocionante documental de "Segundos Catastróficos", exploramos el devastador tsunami de Asia que ocurrió en 2004, uno de los desastres naturales más impactantes de la historia. A través de testimonios y análisis, descubriremos las lecciones aprendidas del tsunami y cómo su impacto ha moldeado la preparación ante futuros desastres. Desde la historia del tsunami hasta las estrategias de supervivencia, este video es una guía educativa y conmovedora sobre la importancia de estar ante situaciones de emergencia. Acompáñanos en este viaje para entender cómo un evento de segundos puede cambiar vidas para siempre.
**Hashtags:**
#TsunamiAsia #DesastresNaturales #SegundosCatastróficos
**Hashtags:**
#TsunamiAsia #DesastresNaturales #SegundosCatastróficos
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TVTranscript
00:00It is Sunday morning on a paradise island in Asia.
00:1040 million people live here.
00:13A short distance from the coast, one of the world's largest geological faults extends.
00:18Scientists have spent many hours studying it,
00:21in an attempt to unravel the secrets of its seismic behavior.
00:25But then, the most violent earthquake of the last 40 years hit the region,
00:29and then, a horror like no one could have imagined,
00:32claimed the lives of more than 250,000 people.
00:36It was completely unexpected and devastating.
00:39It took us by surprise.
00:42What was a wonderful and paradisiacal day,
00:45became an apocalypse in a matter of seconds.
00:50Experts are overwhelmed by a series of strange events.
00:55Unusual waves of magnitude end up with entire communities.
00:59The 2004 megatsunami constitutes one of the most unsolvable mysteries yet to be solved.
01:05Using the most advanced scientific analysis techniques,
01:09it has been possible to shed new light on what happened,
01:12and to confirm that tsunamis are a much more real threat than the world ever believed.
01:18Disasters do not happen for no reason,
01:20but as a consequence of a chain of decisive events.
01:23Join us and discover the clues and what happened seconds before the catastrophe.
01:29Catastrophic Seconds
01:32The Asian Tsunami
01:37The Indian Ocean is the third largest in the world.
01:40Its eastern border is traversed by a huge pit,
01:43formed along a vast line of faults known as the Sunda Fault,
01:47with a lot of seismic activity.
01:49In this fault, the two largest tectonic plates on Earth are joined together.
01:53American geologist Kerry See has dedicated the last ten years of his life to studying this fault.
01:58The plates are the largest objects in motion on the planet.
02:02The Indian plate moves below the Asian plate, which is dragged down by it.
02:08The collision zone between the plates is a breeding ground for earthquakes.
02:13Although the northern end of the fault has only experienced considerable activity in the last 500 years,
02:19the southern end has a different history.
02:21Statistics show that a major earthquake occurs here every two centuries.
02:26The last one was in 1833, so almost 200 years ago.
02:29There is a certain fear that at some point between the next minute and the next 30 years,
02:34part of the mega-fault will break again.
02:37The mega-fault is well known by geologists,
02:40but most of the people who live, work and have fun around this great mass of water
02:44are oblivious to the dangers lurking in the area.
02:49The last days of 2004 were going to change that forever.
02:56One of the gems of the region is the Thai island of Koh Phi Phi.
03:01Every year, more than 150,000 tourists come to it to enjoy its exotism,
03:05its exuberance and its magnificent beaches.
03:09On December 25, 2004, the Moore family of California enjoyed the holidays of their lives.
03:20It was the first time we went to Asia.
03:22The Phi Phi island was completely different from anything we had ever known.
03:26An absolute paradise.
03:27Ken was recording a video of his wife, Gayleen, and their daughters, Kendra, 8, and Daniel, 6,
03:33having fun on their Christmas holidays.
03:37My daughters were 6 and 8 years old,
03:39so the best gift we could give them was a big Christmas party.
03:43They were having a great time.
03:49Thailand is just one of the 20 countries bathed by the Indian Ocean.
03:55460 kilometers away is the island of Sumatra, with intense political turbulence.
04:01On its west coast is the Lhokna community.
04:05Despite the more than 20 years of social discontent in the north of the island,
04:09Lhokna manages to maintain a sustainable normality.
04:13Its population of 15,000 people thrives along the narrow strip that separates the hills and the ocean.
04:22December 26.
04:257.57 in the morning.
04:29Ibu Nurleli tends the family line
04:32while her three children have breakfast watching TV inside the house.
04:37We lived near the beach,
04:39and that morning she got up like anyone else.
04:42There was no wind, and the sky was clean, blue.
04:47The youngest of the brothers was Ichut, 9 years old.
04:51A very intelligent and sensible girl,
04:53who liked to help her mother with the housework.
04:57Ichut had a 16-year-old brother,
04:59and a 17-year-old older sister named Fitri.
05:03Fitri is blind at birth,
05:05but she has become an expert seamstress for her mother's joy.
05:09Although she is blind, she sews and embroideres very well.
05:14She makes her own designs.
05:17Ibu had just lost her husband,
05:19and her children were all she had left.
05:227.59 in the morning.
05:26In the depths of the ocean, the earth begins to shake.
05:36The tremors last for eight minutes.
05:42Ibu and her children are terrified by the violence of the earthquake.
05:47We went out to the door of the house and started praying.
05:588.15 in the morning.
06:00A huge wave breaks against the coast of Sumatra.
06:068.16 in the morning.
06:09The earthquake has ended.
06:11Families from all over the region are trying to assimilate what has happened.
06:17The 28-year-old seaman, Samsul Kamal,
06:20measures the damage.
06:23When he looks at the ocean, he is stunned.
06:27There is a large extension of the seabed to the surface,
06:30and he feels the danger.
06:33I knew that if the sea was so far away, I had to come back.
06:38Then, in the distance, Samsul sees an amazing wall of water
06:41that is approaching at full speed.
06:47Mom!
06:49Mom!
06:50Mom!
06:51Mom!
06:52Mom!
06:53Mom!
06:54Mom!
06:55Mom!
06:56Mom!
06:57Mom!
06:58Mom!
06:59Mom!
07:00Mom!
07:01Mom!
07:02Mom!
07:03Mom!
07:04Mom!
07:05Mom!
07:06Mom!
07:07Mom!
07:08Mom!
07:09Mom!
07:10Mom!
07:11Mom!
07:12Mom!
07:13Mom!
07:14Mom!
07:15Mom!
07:16Mom!
07:17Mom!
07:18Mom!
07:19Mom!
07:20Mom!
07:21Mom!
07:22Mom!
07:23Mom!
07:39The third waves passed right above my head.
07:4513 kilometers to the north is Banda Aceh, the capital of the province and home to 300,000 people.
07:528.40 in the morning.
07:55In the center of the city, 4 kilometers inland, an amateur camera records the moments that follow the earthquake.
08:03In its recording, it is observed how a sea of water is rising slowly along the street.
08:09Suddenly, the flow accelerates and in a few seconds, the water moves faster than a person can run.
08:18Chaos breaks out in Sumatra, while the tsunami continues its trajectory to the east.
08:26On the holiday island of Hoh Phi Phi, the Mohr family prepares to leave the hotel after an unforgettable vacation.
08:35The previous night was Christmas and that morning we had woken up late and had breakfast quietly.
08:42I remember thinking, well, in just half an hour we will be checking the luggage.
08:47In his room, on the third floor of the hotel, Mama Gayleen and the girls Kendra and Daniel rest a while before finishing packing.
08:55Suddenly, my wife said to me, honey, look, record with the camera.
08:59Ken sees that the pool area is flooded.
09:03At first, I thought it was something of the tides.
09:08But then I looked beyond the bay and realized that a wave of about 6 or 7 meters was approaching the beach.
09:17I swam and immediately knew that the wave had the strength to throw the hotel down.
09:23I tried to put the girls away from the window in case the water crossed it.
09:28Ken knew they were in a big hurry.
09:32I was about to leave, but my wife stopped me.
09:37She told me we had to be strong for the girls.
09:42While people struggled to survive to the east of the Indian Ocean,
09:462,000 kilometers west, in Sri Lanka, the Squire family of England
09:51has spent their Christmas holidays on the idyllic beaches of the Bay of Arugam, east of the island.
09:57We knew it could be one of our last holidays together because the kids were already getting older.
10:05Louise and Phil have three children.
10:08Will, 16,
10:10Laura, 18,
10:12and the oldest, Emma, who today is her 21st birthday.
10:16Happy birthday!
10:18Louise and Phil stay with Emma at the beach dining room for dinner.
10:22But first, Emma wants to freshen up a bit.
10:27While waiting for her daughter, Louise realizes that the cabin is filling with water.
10:32The floor of the restaurant began to flood.
10:36Looking up, she sees an immense brown mass of water approaching just in her direction.
10:42Somehow, I feel that it is something very dangerous.
10:48The first thing Louise thinks about is Emma,
10:51because she knows that her daughter is not aware of anything that is happening.
10:56She barely has a few seconds to react,
10:59seconds that can make the difference between life and death.
11:07On the Asian island of Sri Lanka,
11:10Louise Squire, who is on vacation,
11:12contemplates the terrifying sight of a tsunami approaching her.
11:16Her daughter Emma is not aware of the danger she is in.
11:19Emma!
11:27Tons of water erupt in the room.
11:31In a few seconds, Emma is trapped and her time is up.
11:40Unusual currents tear apart the tourist complex and Louise is dragged away.
11:47The next thing I remember is being under an immense mass of water,
11:51thinking about how easy it was for me to die there.
12:05Louise manages to get out of there.
12:08I wondered where my children would be, but I knew I couldn't do anything.
12:16During the next two hours, a series of waves flood the Arugam Bay.
12:21The water retreats, revealing a terrible scene.
12:29I saw a completely desolate area.
12:35Unable to find his family,
12:38Louise manages to get to the highest point of the island.
12:41His last and only hope of finding them alive.
12:44But there is not even a trace of his children or his husband there.
12:48Despair invades her.
12:51I started planning my own disappearance from this world.
13:01But then she hears familiar voices.
13:08Phil comes through the door.
13:11Phil comes through the garden, followed by Emma, Laura and Will.
13:19And it was just unbelievable.
13:24And we just hugged each other.
13:28It was amazing.
13:30My mother just kept repeating, I thought I had lost you, I thought I had lost you.
13:34We all tears.
13:36We couldn't believe how lucky we were.
13:37We survived the five of us.
13:45The tsunami continues its devastating course,
13:48ending up taking the chaos to the coast of Somalia in Africa,
13:515,000 kilometers from its first attack.
13:57Even here, the waves kill 289 people.
14:01All over the coast of the Indian Ocean,
14:04the cameras recorded unimaginable phenomena.
14:08In Thailand, tourists film a seabed when it is uncovered,
14:12the water removed from the coast,
14:15followed minutes later by a vertical wall of water.
14:213,000 kilometers southwest in the Maldives,
14:24a low archipelago with respect to sea level,
14:27they are completely submerged.
14:31To the north, in Sri Lanka,
14:34a tender records the cries for help of some girls trapped in what was a bus stop.
14:43In Kofi Fi, Ken Moore and his family face a new and dismal reality
14:49when the waters are removed.
14:52The people in that bay were gone.
14:55Just the day before, we had been out there swimming
14:57and doing snorkeling,
15:00and now the waves had taken everyone ahead.
15:03There were people with very serious injuries,
15:06broken arms, legs twisted, fractures.
15:09The sheets covered the dead.
15:17In Sumatra, the coastline is unrecognizable.
15:21Ibu Nurleli desperately looks for her children.
15:27When the water returned to its course,
15:30I was terrified and confused.
15:33There were many corpses, not only from the people of the village,
15:37but also from other places.
15:40Ibu first finds her blind daughter, Pitri, and then her son.
15:44Together, they strive to find the nine-year-old girl,
15:48searching among the rubble and the corpses.
15:51But it is a race against the clock.
15:54Every minute that passes, the chances of finding Ixchut alive are reduced.
16:03We look for Ixchut everywhere.
16:06But after hours of fruitless search,
16:09we find nothing.
16:11I couldn't find my little daughter.
16:17I haven't seen her since then.
16:24Like many other children, Ixchut didn't have the strength to survive in the water.
16:30At least a third of the victims of the tsunami were children.
16:34They were all children.
16:36This is the most devastating tsunami in history.
16:41Entire communities were devastated.
16:46The magnitude of the catastrophe shocks the world,
16:50which takes action through international aid.
16:56But for many, it is already too late.
16:59The tsunami is not the end of the world.
17:02But for many, it is already too late.
17:05Only in Sumatra, 170,000 lives were lost.
17:10In total, more than 270,000 people died,
17:13although the real balance of the dead will never be known.
17:19But what could have happened?
17:22What kind of tsunami could have generated waves of such magnitude?
17:26The withdrawal of the oceans and rivers of scum?
17:29And more importantly,
17:32can we extract a lesson that will help us
17:35to prevent a catastrophe of this magnitude from happening again?
17:41To understand all the details of this complex disaster,
17:44it is necessary to have the experience of people
17:47from different disciplines.
17:50A world-class team met to investigate.
17:53For earthquake expert Kerry See,
17:55the phenomenon causes him mixed feelings.
17:58It's quite an experience.
18:01On the one hand, as a scientist, it is very stimulating,
18:04but on the other hand, as a human being,
18:07you are dealing with a phenomenon capable of causing
18:10a tremendous damage to your equals.
18:13Professor Kostas Sinolakis is the director
18:16of the California Tsunami Research Center.
18:19During his 25 years of experience in the field,
18:21he has worked in several countries.
18:24Our work is very much like that of the FBI
18:27when they draw the profile of a serial killer.
18:30We have to analyze the clues in great detail
18:33and then come to a conclusion
18:36and point out where the killer comes from
18:39and what he can do again.
18:42Sinolakis is an expert in tsunamis.
18:45His job is to predict what could happen
18:48to coastal communities like California
18:51and where public buildings such as hospitals
18:54should be built to prevent flooding in the event of a disaster.
18:58The Asian phenomenon perfectly illustrates
19:01the need for this type of research.
19:04Tsunamis are inevitable.
19:07It's just a matter of time.
19:10George Plathker is a pioneer in tsunami science.
19:13He has been studying them since the 1960s.
19:16However, he was petrified by the images
19:18that came from all over the Indian Ocean.
19:21What was really surprising was the size of the tsunami
19:24and how destructive and lethal it was.
19:27All the experts agree
19:30to point out certain aspects
19:33that are particularly disconcerting about the disaster.
19:36The first is the unprecedented size
19:39and violence of the waves.
19:42The reports submitted by Banda Aceh
19:45confirmed that the destruction reached
19:48a chilling distance of 4 km inland.
19:51The second enigma is the extent of the devastation.
19:54For a tsunami to cause chaos
19:57from Thailand to Africa across 6,000 km of ocean,
20:00that is, almost the seventh part of the Earth's circumference,
20:03the energy required is inconceivable.
20:06What happened was completely different
20:09to any situation we would have encountered before
20:12or to anything we could have imagined.
20:14The media has no doubt
20:17that the tsunami caused a huge catastrophe,
20:20an earthquake that hit Sumatra
20:23minutes before the killer waves arrived.
20:26The experts have to come to a conclusion,
20:29but as soon as the first data on the earthquake arrives,
20:32the magnitude of the tremor is not clear.
20:35At first glance, it seems that the tsunami
20:38is not a big deal,
20:40but the magnitude of the tremor is not clear.
20:43At first, everything seems to indicate
20:46an 8-degree earthquake on the Richter scale,
20:49but it is strange.
20:52To give you an idea,
20:558-degree earthquakes can occur anywhere in the world
20:58every two years.
21:01An 8-degree earthquake is not powerful enough
21:04to cause such devastation.
21:07But then, when the control stations
21:10start to work considerably,
21:13in the afternoon, the Colorado station calibrates
21:16an 8.5-degree earthquake on the Richter scale.
21:19If it were that powerful, it would be the worst earthquake
21:22in more than 10 years.
21:25At the end of the day, world data confirms
21:28that the earthquake in just 8 minutes
21:31has released so much energy that, literally speaking,
21:34it comes out of the Richter scale.
21:37By then, we already knew that it was the worst earthquake
21:40on the Richter scale.
21:43It seems that the origin of the tremor
21:46is located 30 km below the surface
21:49and 150 km from the coast of Sumatra.
21:52Paradoxically, in the north section of the Sunda megafall,
21:55the part considered practically inactive for so long.
21:58Seismologists calculate that the megafall
22:01would break for no less than 400 km,
22:04from where, in a matter of seconds,
22:07it seems that a long and thin wedge
22:10of water would break through.
22:13Sinolakis knows perfectly well
22:16what could happen next.
22:19Along with the ocean floor,
22:22a column of water would rise,
22:25which would move thousands of millions of tons of liquid,
22:28causing a mountain of water to move to each side.
22:31To recreate the scenario,
22:34Sinolakis loads the data
22:37into one of the most powerful tools he has,
22:40the SOTWERK.
22:46The results of the simulation
22:49leave Sinolakis perplexed.
22:52The SOTWERK predicts that,
22:55no matter how high the waves were,
22:58at a distance of 400 km,
23:01they would not have reached Sri Lanka,
23:04one of the most affected areas in reality.
23:07It just doesn't make sense.
23:10If the tsunami had hit Sri Lanka,
23:13the area of the fall would have been much larger.
23:16Sinolakis evaluates the situation.
23:19He decides to check the seismic data.
23:22He knows that the seismic records
23:25recorded during a large earthquake
23:28do not always accurately reflect
23:31the true length of the area of the quake.
23:34The intensity of the main phenomenon
23:37could mask phenomena of lesser magnitude
23:40and the best way to discover the truth
23:43is to analyze the replicas that follow the first
23:46and cataclysmic release of energy.
23:49These slighter tremors are caused by the failure
23:52to settle and can be located with greater accuracy.
23:55When analyzing the data,
23:58Sinolakis discovers a great movement
24:01of tectonic activity to the north of the epicenter.
24:04It is a decisive moment.
24:07If this activity determined
24:10the northern limit of the break,
24:13the gap would extend along 1,600 kilometers,
24:16four times more than originally thought.
24:19A gap of this size would have no precedents
24:22and would be traumatic enough
24:25to cause the murderous tsunami.
24:30But the signs of the replicas are circumstantial.
24:33Sinolakis needs to know
24:36where he can find more concrete evidence.
24:39If the fault has opened along that distance,
24:42at some point it must have left evidence.
24:47Sinolakis knows that Kerisi
24:50is already on the ground in Indonesia
24:53and that he will be delighted to collaborate.
24:56Although much of the fault line extends under the water,
24:59it emerges to the surface from time to time
25:02in the form of a chain of volcanic islands.
25:04He rents a helicopter
25:07and flies to the north of these islands
25:10to look for possible signs of recent seismic agitation.
25:14As he approaches the island of Simeulue,
25:17he notices something that catches his attention.
25:22A mysterious strip runs along one side of the island,
25:25a reef that seems strangely out of place.
25:30I realized that the island had emerged from the water
25:32and that the entire reef had been left undiscovered
25:35and had died.
25:38If he is willing to measure how much the reef has risen
25:41compared to its previous position under the water.
25:44Comparing the heights of the coral
25:47raised around the entire island,
25:50he discovers the exact movement of the earth's crust.
25:53First we registered about 50 centimeters of elevation
25:56and further north there was already a meter.
25:59If we followed, we measured a meter and a half.
26:03The evidence is amazing.
26:06The inclination of the island marks the beginning of the crack
26:09in the earth's crust.
26:12We knew we had hit the southern end
26:15of the source of the earthquake and tsunami.
26:18A similar survey on the rest of the islands
26:21scattered by the mega-fault could thus provide
26:24the evidence it needed to find out
26:27the true length of the gap.
26:29But at this critical moment,
26:32the investigation receives a setback.
26:35The news of the political agitation
26:38in the northern islands reaches the ears of SI,
26:41which means that it will not be able to go any further.
26:44If they fail to determine the extent of the crack,
26:47they will never find out why this earthquake
26:50broke all established schemes
26:53and generated the most impressive mega-tsunami in history.
27:00The investigators are about to find out
27:03why the December tsunami was so lethal
27:06over such an immense area.
27:09Kerry has located the origin of the earthquake's crack,
27:12but he needs to find out
27:15to what extent it reached the north.
27:19We wanted to know more about the mound
27:22that formed on the seabed.
27:25It measured 1,000 kilometers or 1,600.
27:27But with the possibility of a helicopter investigation
27:30ruled out, how could they continue?
27:33Suddenly, one of SI's assistants
27:36had a great idea.
27:39If the tremendous physical evidence
27:42that Kerry had discovered on the island
27:45could be seen from the air,
27:48why not from space?
27:51They then located a satellite image
27:54of the island prior to the earthquake
27:57and compared both images
28:00with very clear results.
28:03The perimeter of the island had changed
28:06as a result of the inclination in the water.
28:09They also observed a slight transformation
28:12of the color of the ocean surrounding it
28:15due to the change in the depth of the water
28:18after the earthquake.
28:21SI proves that it is possible to track
28:24the vertical movements of the ocean floor
28:27using satellite images.
28:30It is the first time that satellite images
28:33have been used for this purpose.
28:36The team systematically examines the images
28:39of other islands along the megafall
28:42and calculates the level of movement
28:45of the seabed.
28:48This bold analysis confirms
28:51that the crack is as extensive as suspected,
28:54no less than 1,600 kilometers,
28:57and that a crack of this size
29:00could be more than enough
29:03to cause the destruction suffered
29:06in places as far from the epicenter as Sri Lanka.
29:09Sinolakis returns to the wave simulation program
29:12and loads the new data into it.
29:15This time the simulation reproduces
29:18a tsunami with a reach
29:21practically identical to the real one.
29:24The waves created by the movement
29:27of this fragment of the earth's crust
29:30of the size of California
29:33reflect the complex footprint of the ocean floor.
29:36As the fragment of the ocean floor rises,
29:39the sea floor adopts its own shapes
29:42with peaks and valleys,
29:45and that creates the initial surface of the wave.
29:48This unique pattern puts in motion
29:51a sequence of waves
29:54that scientists call the wave train.
29:57The wave train propagates at an incredible speed
30:00of 900 kilometers per hour,
30:03as fast as a commercial plane.
30:06Under the surface, a lethal column of water
30:09emerges through the ocean's depth.
30:12As each wave reaches the surface,
30:15it slows down by tens of kilometers per hour.
30:18The back of the wave joins the front,
30:21and the wave rises.
30:24The tsunami takes shape.
30:27The simulation of the wave train
30:30reproduces exactly the moment
30:33and the place where the real tsunami
30:36approached the affected coasts.
30:39It is the evident proof that the investigation
30:42has nailed the source of the tsunami.
30:45But scientists now face an even bigger challenge,
30:48to explain the unusual and chilling effects
30:51on the victims when the tsunami hit the earth.
30:54In Banda Ache, the city was reduced to rubble
30:57facing inland.
31:00There is no evidence of anything like this
31:03in the history of mankind.
31:06Understanding this was of vital importance,
31:09not only for this part of Asia,
31:12but for all parts of the world at sea level.
31:15Why was the wave so destructive
31:18and had so much reach?
31:21It was something immeasurable.
31:24As for Sinolaquis and their team
31:27we went to the site to assess the damage in the city.
31:30The investigation of the tsunami
31:33was done with forensic rigour.
31:36We tried to reconstruct what had happened
31:39and we collected clues as detectives
31:42in front of the crime scene.
31:45There were two key dimensions that I wanted to measure.
31:48The first, the maximum height above sea level
31:51reached by the water,
31:54which is called the maximum flood level.
31:57The disposal of debris and watermarks
32:00revealed that the maximum flood level
32:03had varied about 10 metres above sea level
32:06near the beach and about 3 metres
32:09in the centre of the city.
32:12The flood was, as feared, really alarming.
32:15The water reached up to 4 km inland,
32:18something unheard of to date.
32:21Large masses of water crossed the streets,
32:24but Sinolaquis knows that it was the speed of that water
32:27that caused the tsunami.
32:30One cubic metre of water weighs a tonne.
32:34So for every cubic metre of water that came in,
32:37which were about now hundreds of thousands of cubic metres,
32:40it's like a car would come at full speed
32:43and hit us.
32:48So the first step in solving this riddle
32:51is to determine the speed at which the water crossed the city.
32:54If Sinolaquis can find out
32:57how long it took for the water to cross the distance
33:00between certain points,
33:03a simple mathematical operation will suffice to determine the speed.
33:06But obtaining this data is not easy.
33:09The first source of information in normal circumstances
33:12would be the eyewitnesses.
33:15However, unfortunately, in this case,
33:18most of them are dead,
33:21and those who survived are too traumatised to help.
33:24Sinolaquis must think of an alternative.
33:27He goes to the surrounding streets
33:30and checks that there are deposits of sand and mud
33:33all over the city that obstruct the last corner.
33:36This is marine sediment.
33:39The sand and the mud dragged it from the coast to the interior.
33:42Sinolaquis has an idea.
33:45He knows that the depth of this sediment
33:48is directly related to the speed
33:51that the water reached in this place.
33:54If the tsunami had entered slowly,
33:57or if it attacked violently,
34:00most of the sediment would have to be found
34:03more towards the interior of the city.
34:06These rubble are its speedometer.
34:09The team meticulously measures the layers of sediment
34:12deposited in certain key points.
34:15Its comprehensive analysis reveals a result
34:18that exceeds the limit of reason.
34:21The water flowed at 32 km per hour
34:24through most of the city.
34:27It would never reach this speed,
34:3032 km per hour, 3 m deep,
34:333.22 km towards the interior.
34:36This is just inexplicable.
34:39There are no words to explain
34:42how such an immense volume of water
34:45can flow so fast and so deep.
34:48But then, they give another decisive proof.
34:51Sinolaquis receives news of a video
34:54in which it is seen how the water reaches the centre of the city.
34:57The video marks a turning point
35:00in the investigation.
35:03As seen in the movie,
35:06the wave seems to defy all physical laws.
35:09When it reaches the streets, 4 km towards the interior of the city,
35:12instead of slowing down, as should be expected,
35:15the wave accelerates.
35:18If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes,
35:21he would have considered it impossible.
35:24Sinolaquis scans the video in search of clues,
35:27but, again and again,
35:30he focuses on the slight flood prior to the torrential.
35:33This first wave was very, very slow.
35:36In other words, you could walk away from it.
35:39And then, he notices something
35:42that will radically change the science of tsunamis.
35:47The water's summer layer
35:50clears the ground for the lethal phenomenon.
35:53The first wave is a low-friction carpet
35:55for the next one.
35:58The second wave is moving on the very thin layer
36:01of the first wave.
36:04So, it's able to propagate much faster.
36:08Lubricated by the humidity of the surface,
36:11the second wave has the power to cross the streets
36:14without losing speed.
36:17Suddenly, the second wave accelerates
36:20and reaches a speed of 34 km per hour.
36:23It's a vision of extraordinary impact.
36:29It's like being thrown with a concrete mixer
36:32mixed with nails, hammers, and screwdrivers.
36:35This is, unfortunately, how these people died.
36:38They had no escape.
36:41It's a raw but valuable lesson.
36:44To survive a tsunami,
36:47you can neither run nor hide in a corner.
36:49The only way to come out alive
36:52is to face a solid structure,
36:55to stand as high as possible.
36:58The difference between life and death in Ache,
37:01in some cases, was just a few millimeters.
37:05But as soon as Sinolakis begins to believe
37:08that he has solved the mystery,
37:11he receives reports about a wave
37:14of an unbelievable magnitude, only 13 km south, in Logna.
37:16I heard that the maximum flood level was enormous,
37:19more than 30 meters.
37:2330 meters was three times more
37:26than the maximum depth of the water in Banda Ache,
37:29and again, he couldn't explain it to him.
37:32Sinolakis asks an expert in tsunamis,
37:35the scientist George Plafker, to investigate.
37:38Based on all my experience,
37:41the wave of an earthquake of that magnitude
37:43could have been about 12 meters high,
37:46more or less,
37:49but certainly not as big as 30 meters.
37:52Plafker meets with Samsul Kamal,
37:55the street vendor who climbed a hill
37:58to escape the water.
38:02Samsul describes three huge waves
38:05in the shape of a cobra,
38:08each larger than the previous one.
38:10The wave hit me right in the head.
38:13Plafker's team measures the maximum flood level
38:16at the point where Samsul arrived,
38:19and discovers that the water reached
38:22the amazing 30 meters above sea level,
38:25higher than that of an eight-story building.
38:28That's by far the largest tsunami
38:31associated with an earthquake in our history.
38:35But that's not the end of Samsul's story.
38:37He's certain that the waves arrived
38:40about 20 minutes after the earthquake.
38:43Plafker is stunned.
38:46He knows that the waves,
38:49coming from the megafall 200 kilometers off the coast,
38:52would take at least half an hour to reach Logna.
38:55For the tsunami to reach the interior
38:58in 20 minutes,
39:01some other mechanism must have taken place,
39:04something capable of causing such huge waves
39:07to reach the coast as quickly as possible.
39:10The investigation receives a blow.
39:13This is nothing less than destroying us right from the start.
39:17This anomaly emerges just in the middle of the investigation,
39:21but solving it means rewriting all the rules
39:24for the tsunami prediction,
39:27and reveals the true vulnerability
39:30of hundreds of millions of people
39:33who live near a fault not far from the coast.
39:35Investigator George Plafker
39:38has discovered that the mastodontic waves
39:41reached the west coast of Sumatra too soon
39:44to come from the original source of the main tsunami.
39:47The investigation goes through a crisis.
39:50Solving this paradox is an extremely important issue for Plafker,
39:54so he decides to go back to the beginning.
39:57He knows that the waves arrived 20 minutes
40:00after the earthquake began,
40:02and that the tsunami was about to spread
40:05through the waters on the shore.
40:08So he goes back on his own feet
40:11and calculates the starting point
40:14from which the waves began their journey.
40:17It turned out that the wave could travel
40:20a maximum distance of about 100 km.
40:23George looks at a detailed geological map
40:26of the ocean bed.
40:29There, 110 km from the coast,
40:32could be the answer?
40:35He knows that often, in the areas close to large earthquakes,
40:38there are accidents called fault branches,
40:41which mark the point where the enormous forces
40:44find a weakness in the depressed crust,
40:47and where the fractures can arise to the surface,
40:50many kilometers from the main fault itself.
40:53The fault branches can push long and narrow sections
40:56of the ocean bed to the surface in a matter of seconds,
40:59which, in turn, produces an unmistakable
41:02and brief impulse of high waves,
41:05such as those that hit Loch Ness.
41:08The theory seems plausible.
41:11When Plafker loads the data of the fault branch
41:14in the simulator, the results are at least spectacular.
41:17Who would have thought?
41:20It more or less doubled the height of the waves of Loch Ness
41:23and, of course, reduced the time it took to arrive.
41:26With an emerging fault located near the coast,
41:29the results fit almost perfectly with the surprising
41:32descriptions of the eyewitnesses.
41:37The Japanese seismic group provides credibility
41:40to the theory by detecting replicas exactly
41:43in the area identified by Plafker.
41:48Although it is necessary to investigate in depth
41:51to demonstrate it, Plafker's explanation
41:54is a huge step forward.
41:56The definitive problem posed by this catastrophe
41:59is still in the air.
42:02Can something be done to prevent the population
42:05from the imminence of a tsunami?
42:11The increasingly developed alarm systems,
42:14implanted all over the world, are equipped to detect
42:17a tsunami on its way through the open sea.
42:20But despite their high technology,
42:23these equipment are not always the perfect solution.
42:26If it were the case for 90% of the victims of the Asian tsunami,
42:29any warning would have been useless.
42:32The coast of Sumatra is too close to the origin of the waves
42:35for the alarms to have had any effect.
42:38There would have been no time to react.
42:43However, in the aftermath of the disaster,
42:46researchers discover, stunned,
42:49the possibility of having known how to interpret
42:52an unmistakable sign of nature.
42:54In many places, the ocean receded
42:57before the waves reached the coast.
43:00Now a popular saying has spread,
43:03that warns that a seabed discovered
43:06is the universal signal for everyone to run.
43:09But to Sinolakis, this simple rule does not satisfy him.
43:12In fact, it could be a potentially lethal myth.
43:15For a long time now, he has held a theory
43:18about the possible causes for these water recesses.
43:21When the fault is broken,
43:24a large mass of water, a negative wave,
43:27comes to the shore.
43:30As it approaches the coast, the wave drags the water
43:33before it reaches the first crest.
43:36In this area where the ocean bed sinks,
43:39the first thing you see is the shore being delayed.
43:42All the waves in this direction
43:45comply with this rule.
43:48But with those that go west, the story changes.
43:51On the other side, where what we have
43:54moving to the west is a wave in elevation,
43:57that is, that the crest comes first.
44:00Until now, this had been just a theory.
44:03But Sinolakis has collected evidence
44:06that proves his hypothesis.
44:09The populations of the west did not see the sea receding,
44:12just a huge wall of water approaching the coast.
44:15It is a determining observation
44:18that paradoxically contradicts popular belief.
44:21Unfortunately, there is no infallible indicator
44:24of the imminence of a tsunami.
44:27And finally, we can describe
44:30the precise sequence of events
44:33that plunged the populations of the Indian Ocean
44:36into a primitive struggle for survival.
44:39Before 2004, scientists had identified
44:42the southern section of the Sumatra fault line
44:45as an area of intense risk of earthquakes.
44:49Then, December 26 arrived.
44:51At one minute from the disaster,
44:54a section of the fault, much further north than expected,
44:57begins to break, and a weakness in the crust
45:00creates a gap in the surface.
45:03Eight o'clock in the morning.
45:06A narrow section of the ocean bed,
45:09about 100 kilometers long, emerges more than 10 meters.
45:12Three giant waves approach the coast.
45:21Meanwhile, the tectonic plates separate,
45:24displacing millions of tons of water.
45:27The energy of the earthquake
45:30becomes columns of water in motion,
45:33with a force equivalent to more than 30,000 Hiroshima bombs.
45:36On land, the initial flood
45:39creates a low-friction surface
45:42on which a large part of the ocean bed
45:45is submerged.
45:47This initial friction creates a low-friction surface
45:50on which the waves that are about to arrive will slide,
45:53allowing them to reach speeds
45:56capable of turning debris into lethal projectiles.
46:01Human losses are incalculable.
46:05Almost all of Ibu Nurneli's possessions disappear.
46:10The only photograph he saves
46:13is a portrait of his missing daughter, Ichut.
46:18The unexpected location of the December earthquake
46:21makes it clear that, under the sea,
46:24all failures can be considered a tsunami risk.
46:28Costas Sinolakis is tremendously aware
46:31of the inherent vulnerability of his home,
46:34on the west coast, of great seismic activity.
46:37But the experience with the Asian tsunami
46:40has strengthened his determination to prepare for that day.
46:43If we ever suffer a tsunami
46:45on the west coast of the United States,
46:48we will be prepared, and hopefully there will be no human casualties.
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