Original subtitles

[audio logo]

[chaos]

Narrator: Imagine a huge wall, many,

Many feet high coming at you with such speed and such force

That you cannot outswim this.

You cannot outrun it.

You've got to be up high enough and pray it doesn't hit you.

That is your only escape.

[whooshing sound]

[audio logo]

Welcome to violent earth.

I'm liev schreiber.

Tsunamis are one of the deadliest forces of nature.

They're most often triggered by earthquakes

Below or near the ocean.

Unlike weather phenomena like tornadoes and hurricanes,

No one can predict when an earthquake

And tsunami might happen.

There is no season, no specific time of year.

But when an undersea earthquake strikes at a magnitude of 7.5

Or larger, a dangerous tsunami might be set in motion,

And unsuspecting people on shore might have only

Minutes to get to high ground.

[music playing]

[music playing]

A tsunami is a very powerful set of waves.

Man: Get in, get in, get in!

It's caused by this large disruption

Under the surface of the ocean that

Moves the water for many hours all across the ocean basin.

Kyung lah: The amount of power and the amount of destruction

Is really mind blowing.

To feel a tsunami is to understand the fury of nature.

It's incomparable to anything I've ever seen.

[music playing]

Dave and I were in the phang-nga province.

We could look out and see the beach,

And the water was like glass.

I remember saying to dave, my god.

It looks like a postcard.

It was shallow, which was good because I

Don't know how to swim.

Stefan kuhn: [speaking german]

We went 2004 with our two little kids to thailand.

Nele was three-year-old, and lasse was one-year-old.

We stayed in bungalow resort directly

At the beach of khao lak.

The beaches are so calm and so nice.

[eerie music]

There are different mechanisms that can create a tsunami.

You can have undersea landslides.

You can have landslide that splash down into the water.

You can have volcanic activity.

But the ones that produce the biggest tsunamis

Are earthquakes.

Ken moore: We felt the earthquake sitting on the bed.

It could have been 10, 15 seconds, maybe 30.

Sandi thompson: I just remember going,

Oh, that was an earthquake.

And then I forgot about it.

I'm from san francisco.

It really didn't faze me.

Stefan kuhn: We didn't felt anything.

The only thing we noticed was an animal who was screaming.

[speaking german]

We were all together at the beach.

I was laying down, and read a book, and my kids and my wife

Were playing at the shoreline.

The water was normal.

And five minutes later, I looked back, and the water was gone.

And what's happened there?

[stefan and wife speaking in german]

If the water recedes rapidly, sort of

Suddenly out of the blue, that is one sign that a tsunami

Wave could be coming.

Stuart weinstein: If you see that,

Then you may have a few minutes, but don't wait.

Christine lang: I had just met rubina.

We were going to do some yoga on the beach.

From where we were, we could not see the water.

We were on the sandbar.

It's a very narrow strip with restaurants and shops.

Stefan kuhn: [speaking german]

I was grown up on an island in the north sea.

I've grown up with water.

I did not recognize that.

[stefan and wife speaking in german]

We felt safe.

It was so far away.

[speaking german]

We saw a wake.

It was all across the horizon.

And dave and I were looking at it going, what in the world

Is that?

The wave came nearer and nearer,

And then I turned the camera to another spot.

[speaking german]

Sandi thompson: We should have started running at that point,

But we didn't.

It didn't look that high.

Plus, we just didn't know what we were watching.

The closer it got, the louder it got.

It sounded like jet engines.

The owner of the resort started screaming in thai.

We could tell by the fear in his voice that it was serious.

I just cut the camera, and I started running.

At the very last point, I don't know why I turned, but I did.

That's when I saw the wave hit.

It hit the bank, and it just went like that.

That wave was not 10 feet anymore.

It was 40 feet.

I just thought, that's it, I'm dead.

I was running behind dave.

He ran into this building, and I just made a split decision

To not go in the building.

I just saw off in the distance, this pickup truck.

So I just ran as fast as I could.

Rubina said, we have got to run.

This water, very shallow water, was coming in.

Maybe a foot deep, but it was very, very strong.

I could no longer lift up my feet.

And I looked up, and I saw a black wall of water

Approximately five to six stories

High coming right for me.

And then I was blasted off my feet.

We had just finished packing.

And my wife goes, grab your camera, look.

We're leaving. Oh, my god.

Look at the waves coming.

Clear out, people!

[kid screaming]

Clear out!

I hope no one was out there.

Oh, my god.

Look out. Get in the room.

Get in the room.

Get in the room.

I knew it was a tsunami.

No doubt in my mind.

Woman: Look, look, look.

Ken moore: I was pretty much in a panic.

It completely flooded the first floor at a time

When people were still sleeping in their rooms.

When the fisher boat capsized, it became a horrible situation.

[speaking german]

Ah, tsunami!

It's a tsunami.

It's a tsunami.

I never heard before.

And we ran for our lives.

[kid cries in german]

[speaking german]

Tsunamis are incredibly deadly because not only are they walls

Of water, but they are also carrying

A tremendous amount of debris, and they're

Moving at incredible speeds.

[people screaming]

Yumei wang: The tsunami can pick up so much sediment,

So it's very heavy.

If you're caught up in even a foot of tsunami water,

You can likely die.

It's not a cresting wave.

Just think of the entire ocean being pushed forward,

And so it's a giant wall of water coming at you.

[women screams]

Cindi preller: If you feel an earthquake,

The first thing to do is to get cover and hold.

Anybody that's next to the ocean should start counting to 20.

Man 1: Oh, my god.

Cindi preller: And if you can get to 20

And it's still shaking, then you have to evacuate.

Because at 20 seconds, it's roughly a magnitude seven.

You just got to go to high ground right then.

The epicenter of the earthquake

That caused the indian ocean tsunami was a 9.1 magnitude,

Among the most powerful earthquakes and tsunamis

That have occurred since 1900.

That earthquake was about 600 miles

Long a very long fault rupture.

The aceh province of indonesia was

The first area struck by the indian ocean tsunami

Within 15 to 30 minutes.

And then within 60 to 90 minutes later,

It struck the shoreline of phuket, thailand.

Corina allen: And then traveling to sri lanka and africa hours

After that.

And so it took some time, but not an incredible amount of time

For those waves to travel across the indian ocean.

Rocky lopes: It reached 18 countries in total.

The trouble is, no one knew it was coming.

There was no tsunami warning system in place in that region.

[birds chirping, waves crashing]

December 26, 2004, the plan was just going to have

A nice time by the pool.

Me and my fiancee, sarah.

About 10 in the morning, we heard people screaming.

[men screaming]

And then we saw a lot of people just running into the hotel.

So we ran up, I think, two floors.

And in the stairwell, we could see a lot of water coming in.

But just after that, I realized that there

Were people downstairs on the ground floor, elderly people,

Disabled people.

Because this hotel didn't have elevators.

And I realized that there might be people who needed help.

So I just told sarah to stay on our floor, the third floor,

And I ran down.

And when I came down, the water was very calm.

What you have happening is the wave is drawn back,

And it's amassing into better formed wave

Before it comes rushing in.

Oftentimes, the biggest wave is not the first wave.

Fredrik bornesand: A lot of people

Went down to look for family.

And I saw an older couple.

And when I was about just a couple of meters

From them to help them, I heard terrible screams.

It's coming again.

Man 2: It's coming again?

Yeah, it's coming again.

And then the second wave came.

[people screaming]

[suspenseful music]

The force of the water was tremendous.

This elderly couple was hanging onto a railing.

And I tried to reach them.

And then just suddenly, the very foundation that railing

Was attached to just slided away, and they just disappeared.

And then I was stuck in a corner of the hotel

With a lot of furniture just coming towards me in high speed.

Inside was almost filled up to my head with water.

I was quite sure that this was the end of it.

I got to the pickup truck.

And there were a few people on it.

And right at that point, the water hit.

The water picked up the truck, and we just floated away like we

Were on a gigantic river.

And we slammed up against one of those huge earthmoving trucks.

We climbed up on top of that, and we just watched

Everything just float by.

Off in the distance, I just saw the building that dave ran into.

It was just a little tiny tip of the roof, and then water.

That was it.

I had tremendous guilt for not following him.

I was trapped between debris, and I'm underwater.

And I'm thinking, I'm going to die here.

And I thought that was it until another wave came and blasted

Me out of that death trap.

I was being tumbled.

Random things were hitting my head, my face, my legs.

I woke up underwater, and it was pitch black.

And the water had stilled again.

And there was a circle of light in the distance.

I just started swimming to that circle of light.

[woman panting]

Any coast can be affected by a tsunami,

But some coasts are at much higher peril than others.

The ones right next to a subduction zone, that's where

You need to be most worried.

Subduction zones are the longest faults in the world,

And so they are capable of producing the largest

Earthquakes in the world.

Magnitude eights, magnitude nines.

When I'm talking about a subduction zone,

I'm talking about two plates coming together.

You have typically an oceanic plate, a heavier plate that

Is being pushed down beneath a continental plate,

A lighter, massive plate.

And it will push, and push, and push for tens or hundreds,

In some cases even 1,000 years before

It's released as an earthquake.

There's probably a couple of dozen

Or so named subduction zones, most along the pacific rim.

Yumei wang: The ring of fire is an area around the pacific rim,

Where you have a concentration of active earthquakes

And active volcanoes.

The atlantic is mostly lacking subduction zones.

So the big, mega, great earthquakes,

They don't occur there.

[tense music]

[heavy waves crashing]

Fredrik bornesand: I was just trapped.

And I thought, ok, I'm going to die, but I'm going to fight.

And then I started climbing and got loose from some furniture.

Then I was just pushed through this wall of glass

Into the lobby.

And after a few minutes, the water receded.

And then I saw two thai guys, and they

Were trying hard to help a man that was floating unconscious.

So me and the guy went down in the water

And just dragged this man up.

And this was the same man that was hung on the railing before.

We didn't know if he was alive or not.

Frederick gave me one task, just try to calm him

And talk to him.

He told me that his name was malcolm

And that he was from England.

Fredrik bornesand: We made bandages of sheets.

We didn't give it any big chances that he made it.

[woman yelling]

You're hearing people yelling and screaming because they're

Looking for their family.

At that point, the water had receded enough

That I was walking with all of the survivors

To get to the highest point of the island.

And dave came running up, and he was ok.

I was grateful to see her.

I just, what happened?

Where did you go?

My brain, the entire time, assumed she was right behind me.

I ran into a two-story concrete building.

My first thought was, this is the closest

And strongest building.

Let me go upstairs.

But unfortunately, I spent too much time looking for a stair,

So I had to keep running.

Christine lang: I barely got to the surface, but I did.

It was a miracle.

I was able to hoist myself up onto a floating door.

I could see that there was a hotel in front of me.

When I finally made it to the hotel,

There were people dying all around me.

And it just seemed so unbelievable

That this was happening.

And from the rooftop, we could see the entire island

Had been completely wiped out.

I thought oh, my god, what has happened to rubina?

It wasn't until a few weeks later

That she had been found and properly identified.

[people screaming]

Kid: [speaking german]

We crossed this road, and then we climbed up the hill.

When we look down, it was so unreal.

Fredrik bornesand: Me and sara went to some hospitals

To find this man, malcolm, again.

We really wanted to know if he survived or not.

And there, on a list, we saw this name,

Malcolm boyd, England.

Both me and sara was very happy to find malcolm alive.

So I just hugged malcolm, and sara took the picture.

His partner was identified several months later.

We had the luck to get into first plane,

Which was flown directly to germany from phuket.

And I remember still the words of the captain.

He only said, I want to say, welcome on board.

We bring you home.

We are so lucky, and we know that many people

Did not survive.

Cindi preller: It shocked the world.

It put tsunami into the global language.

That was one of the first events where people had cameras

To be able to capture what it looks like, what it sounds like,

What the experience was.

[man screaming]

The indian ocean tsunami was so deadly

Because it was a surprise to many, many people.

It was a huge wake up call for the need for advanced

Tsunami warning systems.

It resulted in a significant improvement of global detection

Equipment and global coordination

Of tsunami warning systems.

I don't think we'll ever see anything

Like that again of that magnitude of loss of life.

Stuart weinstein: The earliest recorded tsunami

Dates back to 2000 bc, and it occurred off the coast of syria.

Over the past 100 years, there have

Been five earthquakes with magnitudes of nine and above.

All of them generated devastating tsunamis.

Tsunami waves travel very fast in the deep ocean,

As fast as a jet plane at 500 miles an hour.

They slow down as they reach shallow water to about 20

Or 30 miles an hour.

These are very long waves.

If you're out in the open ocean, you wouldn't even notice it.

It's not until the tsunami comes close to the shore

That the water begins to pile up and creates

This dangerous storm surge.

[heavy waves crashing]

Tsunami is a japanese word.

Tsu means port or harbor, and nami means wave.

And it's a word you hear all the time.

One of the world's best and most robust tsunami

Warning systems is in japan.

Because japan has had the most experience with tsunamis than

Any other country of the world.

They've occurred there for thousands of years.

Kyung lah: Because japan is an island, because it sits

On the pacific ring of fire, earthquakes

And natural disasters are something

That japan grows up with.

The idea of a tsunami is embedded and enmeshed

In japanese culture.

They invest heavily in science.

They invest heavily in infrastructure,

Build seawalls, build early warning systems.

Kyung lah: A devastating impact along the northeast coastline.

[suspenseful music]

I was the cnn international-based

Correspondent in tokyo.

That day, I happened to be in the subway.

I could feel it.

It started off slightly shaking, and then the force came.

What's unusual about being underground during an earthquake

Is you don't feel the buildings shake.

I somehow couldn't comprehend that I was in the middle

Of a massive earthquake.

The train stop.

Japanese trains run with incredible precision

Down to the very second, and they weren't moving.

So the first thing I did was I picked up my cell phone,

And I called cnn.

We are getting word of a powerful earthquake

That has hit japan.

We want to go to kyung lah.

Kyung lah (on phone): Everything was shaking.

The signs were moving.

People became very alarmed.

The japanese meteorological agency is so hyper advanced

In warning and in bulletins.

And it comes across your cell phone.

People are just basically waiting here, waiting to see

What's going to happen next.

The early reports.

We're getting word it was a seven--

Seven, five, maybe an eight.

Reporter: This is a historic earthquake.

And then the number just kept climbing and climbing.

An incredible upgrade of an earthquake from a 7.9,

Which is what we initially thought this was.

And when it hit 9.0, I could not believe it.

[clattering]

Its energy release was about equivalent

To 1,500 hiroshima bombs.

There were places where the fault moved 200 feet.

Almost 2/3 of a football field.

That's a lot.

Corina allen: The magnitude of that motion was more than had

Ever been measured before.

Japan is actually sitting a little closer to north america

Than it used to before the earthquake.

Kyung lah: This was long.

[sirens wailing]

I'm talking to cnn.

I was focusing on this huge earthquake I had just

Experienced and not really comprehending that an epic

Disaster was on its way.

[people screaming]

Kyung lah: First there is the earthquake.

And you feel as if you will die.

[sirens wailing]

And then comes a tsunami.

The tsunami came ashore in japan

In as little as 15 minutes.

Man 3: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

[people screaming]

Japan may have been hit by waves,

As in some places, over 100 feet, perhaps

A maximum of 120 feet.

Pretty scary.

Corina allen: There was nothing to stop it.

And so it continued to pick up homes, debris, equipment, cars.

You see this black mass of water full of debris.

It was devastating.

[people screaming in japanese]

Satoshi ito was working at a hotel

And scrambled up the hillside.

He could see his boss scrambling up, trying to make it.

The water came right up to her.

[people screaming]

It's terrifying, watching somebody

You know just disappear.

He thought she was gone.

[man screaming]

The good fortune is that she managed to survive.

I was caught in the whirlpool.

The bus cars and houses were over my head.

I felt pain, but I kept swimming.

I just wanted to live.

Broadcaster: The city of sendai was hardest hit by today's quake

And by the tsunami that followed.

Mao takahashi: [speaking japanese]

16-year-old mao takahashi, standing on his balcony,

Described to us how, like so many people that day,

He ran out and tried to capture the images that he was seeing.

Mao takahashi: [speaking japanese]

The water was raging.

And he saw a man.

He didn't know him.

Mao takahashi: [speaking japanese]

Man 4: [speaking japanese]

And this 16-year-old kid risked his own life,

Got into the water, and saved someone he doesn't even know.

Cindi preller: We never want people

To evacuate in their cars.

Cars are quite dangerous, actually.

Cars are a lot of ways that people drown.

You can see the tsunami coming up behind very quickly.

This guy, he goes back to close the door.

And really within seconds, he is surrounded

By tsunami on both sides.

A lot of people break the windows,

Climb out, and get on top of their cars.

Breaking news, japan reeling from a monumental natural

Disaster, the most powerful earthquake in its history,

Followed by a killer tsunami.

It destroyed coastal towns for about 300 miles.

In one town that I went to, it looked like the whole city had

Been put into a mud blender.

Another town, there was a massive fire that had

Burned through the entire town.

Man 5: [speaking japanese]

Entire towns vanished, disappeared, just

Mountains of rubble everywhere.

People lost everything.

The March 11, 2011 tsunami in japan is reported to have caused

Approximately 20,000 deaths.

Man 6: [speaking japanese]

The seawall had been built to withstand

A tsunami of a certain level.

They had done their planning up to an 8.0.

A magnitude nine earthquake releases

About 32 times the amount of energy

As a magnitude eight earthquake.

But because japan had warnings,

And they prepared for this, only about 10%

Of the people in the tsunami inundation zone

Perished in that event, which is in stark contrast

To the 90% in the 2004 indian ocean event.

They saved so many lives that day.

It happened in faraway lands, and it's easy to think

It can't happen here.

In the pacific northwest at least,

There is a major threat from the cascadia subduction zone, where

We could have a magnitude nine earthquake followed

By a destructive tsunami.

If a big earthquake happened in the pacific northwest right

Now, bits and pieces of what happened in indonesia

And what happened in japan, we could put them together,

And that would be a pretty accurate picture of what

It's going to look like here.

Corina allen: The cascadia subduction zone

Stretches from northern california,

From mendocino, california, all the way up off the shore

Of vancouver island in canada.

It's about 100 miles offshore.

So you can't see it, but it's there looming.

In a geologic sense, the earthquakes occur like they're

On a conveyor belt.

Scientists, sedimentologists, seismologists,

They've been looking at trying to uncover

The history of cascadia.

There's a famous scientist, dr. Brian atwater,

From the united states geological survey.

And he and his colleagues from japan

And from across the united states

Started to discover what they call ghost forests.

Hmm, what killed all those trees?

And then right next to those dead trees,

We would find sand deposits that look a lot like what

Tsunamis leave behind.

Corina allen: They're able to figure

Out how old those different layers

Were when they were deposited.

And then they're also able to date the trees that died.

Yumei wang: So the last earthquake

Occurred 323 years ago.

The japanese looked at their harbor records

And saw that there was a tsunami that they didn't

Know where the source was.

The actual source was from the cascadia subduction zone.

A megathrust earthquake happened in the cascadia region

On January 26, 1700 at 9:00 pm.

I mean, they know it that accurately.

The geologic record in cascadia along the pacific

Northwest tells us that these earthquakes happen

About every 200 to 600 years.

What I think is important is to know that we're

Due for a major earthquake.

So northern california, oregon,

Washington, and then british columbia

Can all be majorly affected.

The buildings and our built environment

Haven't been designed to withstand earthquakes.

Corina allen: We expect the roads, the infrastructure, those

Are all going to be buckled, compromised.

The bridges will not perform, will likely be collapsed.

The tsunami that ensues would reach the washington coastline

At some places in just about 10 minutes after the

Earthquake starts.

I would say that it's hundreds of thousands

Of people that could be on the beach in the summer

Along just california, oregon, and washington.

Yes, it is scary, but there's something we can do about it.

We are not powerless.

Right now, everybody in oregon, california,

And washington will get an earthquake

Early warning through a system called shake alert.

And those come on your cell phone.

Maybe about 10 to 30 seconds notice.

So it's very, very fast.

But it's only notification that earthquake shaking is coming.

From the time the earthquake starts

In cascadia, we expect the shaking to last

For three to six minutes.

But the tsunami has already been generated

The second the earth moves.

Diego melgar: If you're by the water, you need to move.

There's no ifs, ands, or buts.

You should know exactly what the best route

Is to get you to higher ground.

Diego melgar: 100 feet above sea level is a really safe place.

If you can get to 100 feet, you're good.

So there's places where that's just not feasible.

In 2011, in japan, one of the big lessons that we learned

Is the importance of vertical evacuation structures.

That's within the tsunami zone,

A well-built building that can tolerate the tsunami,

And debris hitting it, and people can

Be up above at a high level.

Right now, there are three in existence in the united states.

That's a great start.

But in washington alone, we need at least 50 more

To be able to evacuate the people that just live there.

Diego melgar: It doesn't matter if you

Move really quickly if there's nowhere to go that is safe.

If we don't take the steps that we need to take to protect

Ourselves, then it will likely be the worst disaster

That we face in the us.

But what I fear most is that if the earthquake happens now,

Today, we're not ready.

We're very far from being ready.

It will happen.

It's just a matter of when.

The united states has two tsunami warning

Centers that operate 24/7.

One is in hawaii, and the other in alaska.

December 2024 will mark the 20th anniversary

Of the indian ocean tsunami.

Stefan kuhn's video of that historic event

Has been studied by educators and experts the world over.

Stefan says it was a while before he

And his wife could relax at the beach.

But over time, their fear subsided.

In fact, years later, his family returned to khao lak

And stayed on the shoreline.

Even after all they'd been through,

Stefan said it was wonderful to be back.

For more information on what you can do in a tsunami

And what you can do to combat the climate crisis,

Go to cnn.Com/violentearth.

I'm liev schreiber.

Thanks for watching.

Good night.