Tsunamis deadly waves that have the power to destroy entire cities in a matter of moments. There was little Public Awareness about them until december 26th 2004. That was the day a gigantic tsunami in the indian ocean killed more than 230000 people images illustrating the pools of this natural phenomenon shocked the world. 7 years later in 2011 a Nuclear Power plant in fukushima japan exploded after being engulfed by an earthquake generated tsunami. Since these tragedies scientists rushed to the scene redoubling efforts to determine what causes these killer waves. Because that knowledge can save lives its clear that tsunamis can strike any region of the planet urbanize ation has made coastal communities even more vulnerable. Can Tsunami Research protects them. On friday september 28th 2018 an earthquake followed by a tsunami devastated an area of the bay of palu on the indonesian island of slow way sea. Within minutes 4000 people. Lost their lives 79000. 00 had to be evacuated how could these new designs to indonesia occur after the devastating 2004 tsunami to tune on the specialists were commissioned by units go in the indonesian authorities to investigate cost us in our lockers at the university of Southern California and herman fritz of the Georgia Institute of technology have arrived to conduct field research. Quite impressive to see the devastation. There now 3 weeks after the event. That everything callously writes important as quickly as possible or at least ones to emergencies over because a lot of bulldozing in this area already so a lot of evidence is very lost. The researches will be combing the debris for traces of the wave time is of the essence cleanup operations have already raised valuable evidence and the monsoon rains a jew to start soon. Working as a tsunami scientist is very much like being a detective on a crime scene there is a multiple murders have taken place and you really have to piece like in the past this sequence of events. Did the tsunami hit 1st in this movie houses collapsed or where they collapsed because of the earthquake or tsunami finished them off what were the people doing why is it that some people die and some people did not. Due to researches want to determine how the disaster unfolded their goal to trace the tsunami back to the event the trick at the wave. Cost us you know luck is goes to meet survivors in the small fishing town of one e. When the waves heat pump do latif was on his boat 100 meters from the shore. Get off the boat. When the 1st wave came in there was a big trauma and when im on deck. And you feel the tremors on the boat that i hear oh yes the whole boat was rocking out because the water level had dropped and the boat had run aground. Did you stay on the boat did the news or. Got held on to the national. Guard and then i saw the way of approaching in the distance to jump out scarlett was very fast. It reached the boat in no time at all and pushed us on to land. To put up with roughly how high was. Some parts i could see my house the roof was almost at the same height as the boat how. Was your house over there having the way it was about 5 to 6 metres higher as high as my house thinking. Because hes puzzled how could a 5 metre high wave have crashed on to the shore here you know bang that up until now had not been seen as a tsunami hazards on. 20 kilometers south of one e. Hermann fritz hes conducting research in pa luke tucked away at the back of the bay the town is home to 350000 residents thousands of people lost their lives here. Accompanied by 2 indonesian colleagues and then fritz drives to the parking lot of the Shopping Center overlooking the bay hes investigation into the dynamics of the wave relies heavily on videos from mobile phones this is the exact spot that you saw on the feed you feel you can see the billboard yet. Another wave coming people running away people running away. And thats the 2nd were going to get it. Now we can basically see how high the water is almost on top of the billboard. The waves reach the height of more than fool meters. To determine the kools of the tsunami. Needs to create a computer model of the devastating wave for this he has to determine its height at different points in the city and measure how far it spread inland to try to do some Detailed Survey years to begin to try to get it to 3 d. Scan and the purpose of that is to get 3 d. Space based the lidar scans all the point plot and you can see how the wave goes through it so if you measure how high the wave reason every given instance and how fast that wave is moving across the through the houses washing away the houses and across the street and. Hooman fritz follows the weights traces to flooding the parking lot its whips deep into the sea see evidence of the falls of the way can be found in these most located just 100 meters from the shill. Thats why we have this grail here and we see this graph the debris inside so we know that the tsunami was at least to this hide of this rock and then up here we see the actual primary tsunami line which is this one right here and we can also see that in the window if you look at the blue sky we actually see a modeling going through there and then we look at that over here we also see the mud line coming around coming around coming around so the tsunami is coming pretty much at the height of my head through this mosque. And thats also very difficult to hide already because usually when the water is to this height you cannot stand any more you will be thrown to the ground by the water so can be difficult as you rock. After 3 days of field work the 2 american researches and their indonesian colleagues can now produce their 1st simulation of the tsunami that hit the bay of palu. They established that the strongest wave cut a path 300. 00 metres inland but cost us in a lucky and herman fritz are only at the start of their investigation they now have to identify the event that triggered the deadly wave and find out how it could have swept into the bay. Soon means the port. The waves the waves that destroyed the border. The swerd now in universal use dates from the 17th century it comes from the place on the planet most frequently affected by tsunamis japan. It was coined by fishermen when returning to shore on a stone free day they discovered the waves had leveled their villages. Act the last tsunami to hit japan calls the Fukushima Nuclear disaster in 2011 it was triggered by a sea quake measuring 9 point one on the richter scale. The wave killed more than 18000 people and soon i mean up or can cause a tsunami has no me or logical cause thats the primary cause of tsunamis are earthquakes and sea quakes. The vast majority of tsunamis are generated by sea quakes which in turn are triggered by the earths tectonic activity. The earths crust is composed of several large plates the movement of magma pushes them against one another a few millimeters. To a few centimeters a year the oceanic place line beneath the continental plates creating subduction zones. Friction between the plates can cause deformation of the continental plate which accumulates a gigantic amount of energy when these energy is released it can cause a huge undersea earthquake. The earthquake suddenly puts all the water in motion. At a depth of 4 kilometers we have 4000 meters of water moving at the speed of a passenger plane you. Toss up or the wave slows down near the coast but increases in size of a result of that creates waves like we saw in 201120 to 30 meters high met. All the meanings. You cannot separate earthquake science and tsunamis science. The longer duration of the earthquake is a very good indication of how wrong it. Is basically its like a zipper if you have a small earthquake its this short rupture area and that means the regime sure it is a big ours Craig Lapsley madra. Or japan maggots and 9 plus events and basically have a very long zipper that means the shaking will go on for several minutes she just crossed over that. The longer and stronger and undersea quake the more powerful the tsunami a treat is as in the Indian Ocean Sea quake of december 26th 2. 1000 and full. Of full located 100 kilometers of banda on the indonesian island of sumatra ruptured along a length of 1200 kilometers the massive 9 point one magnitude undersea quake lasted more than 5 minutes. Within 15 minutes the 1st waves up to 35 meters high smashed into sumatra while other large waves rippled across the indian ocean in all 230000 people lost their lives the waves advance was captured for the 1st time on video by hundreds of people caught up in the disaster. The world was shocked by this devastating show of Natural Force a force little understood at the time. For scientists it was a wake up call energizing research into tsunamis then still in its infancy. Since 2008 unesco has maintained a global tsunami tracker its a record of tsunami occurrences over the past 3 millennia. To date researchers have identified 1200. 00 the least destructive are in white the most deadly in red each of these dots represents a potential danger for the future 70 percent of tsunamis located along the pacific ring of fire where most of the earths abduction zones are located. In part constance seen oloughlin sent home and for its a continuing their research at tsunami Early Warning system was set up here after the 2004 disaster so why were there so many victims in 2018. Yeah there are a lot of vendors here selling food. It was really busy 1st we heard a rumble yeah but youll get. The people started screaming the waters rising and. The so i witness says the crowds in the roads need to be to a court totally off guard by the way no warning sounded here. Our Investigation Continues at the Tsunami Monitoring Center in the indonesian capital jakarta. This control tower monitors seismic activity across indonesia including the bay of power loom. Seismologists here can detect any undersea earthquake in real time advanced algorithms allow them to simulate the formation of a tsunami and warn coastal communities before the 1st wave hits since its introduction in 2008 the system has issued 22 alerts saving countless lives why then did palu fail to receive a warning on september 28th 2018. Kian poorness inky was the seismologist on judy that night i guess that. The earthquake in palo registered a magnitude of 7 for 2 minutes then just afterward the magnitude rose to 7. 7. I instantly ran to the top table where we simulate tsunamis the houses on the modeling tsunami the center in jakarta registered an earthquake 80 kilometers north of palm bay early in the evening. And the epicenter is here. And heres. According to the simulation the tsunami risk posed by the surface quake was only moderate nevertheless an alert was treated within the purse cried time limit 5 minutes after the earthquake. So one went wrong. Last assume the lurkers will discover the and so with the help of 2 private surveillance cameras. Friday september 28th 6 o 2 pm the earthquake hits the bay of power loop it lasts longer than 2 minutes. How did you experience the earthquake it was incredible you couldnt stand up impossible i was there under camera 2 i was hanging on to the gate and it calmed down and i went out because hes more cut off. Because his show close to the water. Out there now that theyve always said a base of bay a doesnt have tsunamis. That its in the open sea where there occur you know it happened here and he said that. These images provide the researches with key evidence on the chronology of events the time on the c. C. T. V. Footage reveals that barely 2 minutes elapsed between the end of the earthquake and the own set of the tsunami. Such a rapid succession had never been recorded before. The tsunami warning issued in jakarta when town after the wave hit palu when all of its Communications Systems were already down. What is very alarming to me is that here the earthquake triggered the tsunami very quickly so we need to understand how this happens and also what is the timing how quickly after the earthquake hits. To the jakarta centers simulations it should have taken a wave generated near the epicenter 80 kilometers north of the bay about 15 minutes to reach palu. But how was it possible for this way to advance with such speed and force on the bay of palu. To find answers the researches take to the air. 16 and board and discovered birds eye view of the place you just by being up here a little to go allows us to see how history will tune in and soon be extended. To scientists are struck by what they see their alternating areas of devastation and intact innes but thats not all and once you get outside of the bay the wave disappears very quickly and youre looking ever very beautiful indonesian beaches saturday hours to can find the zone where to look for further for the sources to inside tibet. The wave that devastated palu had formed out in the open sea the entire coast would have been affected. Him and fritz and cost us in a lock is down to the deadly wave we. Generated at the epi center identified by the jakarta Warning Center they believe the source of the tsunami must have lain inside the plane itself. Hermann fritz and hes indonesian colleague. Returned to the west coast to gauge how one tsunami could have the region and to be in this sheltered area. Paris city has received new footage that was filmed nearby. So there. So then you can see all. Of these events and then this is when they started just last night. Yeah a local landslide close i think triggered by the earthquake you have a semicircle wave that you can even see in the video so i think this is going to be a localized impact and it is landslides and. You have a lot of aluminum with serious flooding once you should get it. To whom and for its the low intensity of these 1st wave suggests it was triggered by a coastal landslide but thats alone doesnt explain what cools the tsunami that devastated the bank here we have evidence because we have a coast guard ok so the scar actually is along the shoreline. Went into the ocean and so we have a coastal landslide i dont think theres localized tsunami is big enough to be the main source of the tsunami that wiped away or on the other side of the bay. Surveying the entire bank researches discover several other similar landslides all of them could have triggered many tsunamis but its only when the team looks further inland that it finds the missing piece of the puzzle. Look this is remarkable this is the trench. Tremors opened it and closed it and opened it again. A few 100 meters further on a 2nd witness points out the extent of the destruction. The entire row of houses collapsed one. Of the houses collapsed at the same time from south to north as you can see by the slope of that house there. A deep full line opened up cutscene clear through the town causing the buildings to collapse it continues on into the bay for many more kilometers. Finally researches have the answer it is this full line that cools the palu tsunami. After 5 days out in the field and months of Data Analysis the sequence of events has at last been pieced together on september 28th 2018 at 6 o 2 pm a 7. 00 magnitude earthquake struck 80 kilometers north of palm. The epicenter correctly identified by the Tsunami Monitoring Center in jakarta did not directly trigger the tsunami the seismic waves travel through the earths crust at the extremely high speed of 900 Kilometers Per Hour generating a fold that opened up across the entire bank that triggered landslides all along the coast which in turn generated a series of mini tsunamis the energy of all these mini tsunamis accumulated in the depression of the bank combining to form a powerful wave that swept across the town Hermann Fritz and cost us in a lock his investigation has come to an end a reconstruction of the bay of palu tsunami will help improve Warning Systems all over the world we used to think that tsunamis only strike in areas where you have subduction zones we now know just like what happened here that tsunami is going to bring 3 months in any place where youre going to have an earthquake we are very concerned about this because similar earthquakes place in seattle we could take place in Southern California there could take place in the caribbean and big big place in the main there and. Watch walls of water wash weans what funda what a horrible earthquake what a frightening sound of the. The scene and the howling of a great people. These words by the italian poet petrarch describe a strange storm over the city of naples in the 14th century. 700 years later vulcanologist mauer a rosy was intrigued by petrovs description rosie has worked on naples emergency plan in case of mt vesuvius erupts most tsunamis are generated by sea quakes and fault lines but they can also be triggered by volcanic eruptions. Petrarch witnessed an exceptional phenomenon that struck the city of makers. He was asleep not far from the point when he heard such loud strange noises that he thought it was an earthquake there are a lot for the drop a truck rushed to the harbor like so many other people. And saw with his own eyes that it had been completely devastated last encourage even. Aside from his descriptions of the destruction petra also wrote of hundreds of dead and dozens of sunken ships tomorrow rosie its obvious that the strange storm was a tsunami because it got a level cut local think at that time petra could not have known that it was a tsunami because it was an unknown phenomenon in the middle ages or you know we have. Today we are certain it was a tsunami. That went on. To avoid a repeat of the catastrophe the vulcanologist has been searching for the cause of the tsunami that wrecked harbor in 1343 theres no record of a 14th century eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the gulf of naples. Some our own rosie has focused on another volcano located 200. Kilometers from naples strong bowling is one of the most active in the region. In 2002 an eruption caused a flank of the mountain to collapse into the sea a 10 metre high tidal wave reef the island. The waves spread across the terrain in sea and much weakened reach the bay of naples. Proof far more powerful eruption of stromboli have triggered the tsunami described by petrarch 700 years ago. Above the village of sendin chens 0 on the slopes of the volcano archaeologists are a levy is excavating the remains of a small church shes provided maro rosie with his 1st clues. Evan when i mean for the magical we knew that