EARTHQUAKES - Countdown to a Catastrophe Pt. 2 | Full Documentary

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this is a story of molten rock wind and fire of creation and destruction it is the story of the astonishing forces that repeatedly reshape our world they work together are mutually dependent and enhance each other scientists are working to understand these interrelationships so that we can be better protected because if the earth were napple its crust would be no thicker than the skin and on it we erect skyscrapers and settle in the shadow of fire-spitting mountains volcanoes earthquakes and storms they'll be with us always so we have to protect ourselves from their violent tempers because although its beauty is incomparable our wild planet is no gentle giant [Music] [Music] [Music] of all the natural disasters earthquakes are the most treacherous they usually arrive without warning and plunge our whole world into chaos in just moments they wreak devastation on houses cities and entire regions On February 27th 2010 a magnitude 8.8 submarine earthquake rocked the Chilean coastal region mala for 18 long seconds the horrific result 523 dead and many coastal towns demolished the worst hit was the city of concepción which was destroyed almost completely inhabitants fled in panic to escape the tsunami that followed luckily it caused only minor damage in the end at first no one knew why later it slowly became clear that the earthquake itself had in effect diffused the follow-up Cataclysm a crack had opened in the seabed along a stretch of several hundred kilometers in just a few seconds the quake had lifted the coastline by a full two and a half meters drastically reducing the effects of a tsunami a year and a half after the quake a research team from the University of Bonn in Germany headed by American geophysicist Stephen Miller sets off for the Chilean Andes the remote hinterland of the earthquake region meeting up with Gauchos along the way milord questions them about the quake and what they had felt of it way up here they are headed for cheon an explosive volcano that was last active in a series of eruptions 40 years back a fresh eruption would put the entire region in harm's way and it could happen sooner than expected [Music] Stephen Miller is convinced that the powerful earthquake two years ago has reawaken the Chi on the researchers are here to gather evidence for their theory of a previously unconformity North quakes and volcanoes oh it's fantastic is fantastic feeling we picked the what we think is the right place at the right time where nobody's listening and we're quite certain that we're going to get a lot of activity both within the volcano and in response to two distant events and there's a long-standing question in our world of geophysics at what distances can you actually trigger activity if you are sitting here during the time of the earthquake you would have seen a maximum southern increase all these degasing most likely and the temperature increase of this fumarole would have been disliked when when to the side to the sky and basically it is the place where you can really find and taste the pulse take the past or the volcano at several sites all around the volcano they very highly sensitive seismographs that throughout the coming months will register the sleeping giants every movement the devices must be placed at well-protected locations with a rocky base so that tremors from the movement of animals or wind won't contaminate the data well what is really fascinating about this as a natural scientist is that I'm sitting on top of the volcano and in this complex that Charles Darwin had read had written down and documented that he saw respond to the earthquake that happened in 1837 which broke the same subduction zone the same part of the crust that just broke in 2010 so it's a complete repeat 160 years later and and so in a sense I get to play like I'm pursuing what Darwin had already observed so it's very very exciting for me Darwyn experienced the earthquake for himself only 200 kilometers from concepción he later described how the ground had rocked beneath him as if on board a swaying ship he understood then what we often fail to grasp today he realized that the earth is not as steadfast as we would so like to believe the damage to the area around concepción was as severe back then as it would be in 2010 Darwin also noted something else that three volcanoes had erupted at the same time the earthquake occurred with that observation he made a connection that still has today's sciences asking questions what do quakes have to do with volcanic eruptions how are the two phenomena related more than half of all active above-ground volcanoes are located along the coastlines of the Pacific it could be called Earth's crumple zone because here is where the planet's tectonic plates slam together causing the earth to quake and volcanoes to grow the volcanoes of the Andes are also a part of what is known as the Ring of Fire the scientists plan to install the final seismographs at the summit of the Chile on the researchers are on the lookout for a series of very small earthquakes known as a quake swarm Miller expects that after the 2010 quake it will be easier for the hot flowing lava to make its way to the surface the researchers attempt to detect the vibration known as a volcanic tremor that triggers the ascent of the magma within the volcano do you 3d they aim to document that the magma under the Chilean Andes has been moving upward since the quake as proof that increased volcanic activity can be expected in the wake of major earthquakes after the last seismograph has been secured with stones the party heads back down the mountain in the hope that in the coming months the devices will reliably record data that will shed light on one of our planets abiding mysteries a hundred years ago alpha vegan shocked the scientific world with his theory of plate tectonics since then at the latest we've known that the continents are in constant motion the Earth's landmasses travel at a rate of several centimeters a year like icebergs they float atop the mighty rivers of magma deep within the mantle of the earth the edges of the Earth's tectonic plates bump and grind together bringing mountain ranges and deep trenches into being occasionally they lock horns earthquakes are the result jarring the planet and thus it's thin crust and we suffer the consequences again and again earthquakes are among the most dangerous natural phenomena and have repeatedly led to the most destructive and deadly natural disasters [Music] we're a major earthquake strikes no stone is left unturned people vehicles and buildings are tossed like toys into the abyss the force behind this massive destruction is virtually unfathomable when the magnitude 8.8 quake shook Chile it didn't only raised the coastline by two and a half meters it also actually displaced the city of concepción by three meters to the west the increased torque even slightly shifted the rotational axis of our planet accelerating the Earth's rotation the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima puts the force into sobering perspective a [Music] magnitude nine quake is thirty seven thousand times more powerful we perceive earthquakes with their indiscriminate violence as insidious' however if they didn't occur opening oceans and creating mountain ranges the diversity of life we enjoy on the planet would be unthinkable in Iceland the American and European plates are drifting apart at a rate of two centimeters a year the island is literally being torn asunder but how does the engine driving the tectonic plates work exactly the answer is still inconclusive deaning insight into the depths of our planet turns out to be much more difficult than exploring the vast realm of outer space where an oceanic plate and a continental plate meet up the oceanic plate dips below the Continental one here in these subduction zones is where the most powerful earthquakes in recent decades have occurred at other locations the plates float past each other moving in opposite directions the North Anatolian fault and especially the San Andreas Fault are prominent examples of red zones where powerful earthquakes strike with devastating regularity California has lived in resolute expectation of the big one for decades but it is not the only tectonic hotspot in the USA a highly sensitive seismograph has been installed at a secret site in Michigan one seismic monitoring station in a network of 400 that will eventually span the entire United States this US array project seeks to reveal how the world beneath the fields and meadows forests and cities is put together the data recorders are placed at carefully selected sites where no streets human beings or animal herds will interfere with the readings background vibrations from rustling leaves are surf pounding the shores hundreds of miles away are filtered out later the system brings an advanced and scientific insight comparable to the first pair of corrective eyeglasses for an extremely short sighted person so one of the outcomes of this is to get a sharper image of the structure of the earth underneath North America in particular so if you took a picture with a 1 megapixel camera and you compare it to a picture that you've same picture you've taken with a 12 megapixel camera it's it's much sharper and so the scientists are able to look at that data and learn new things about the earth this new data has already given scientists a drastically revised view of the Earth's interior for example major earthquakes can also be triggered far from the active fault lines and now thanks to the u.s. array project explanations for this are beginning to emerge the network is moving step by step from the west to the east after each two-year stint the stations are dismantled and reinstalled further eastwards this has led to the discovery of a massive oceanic plate that sank to the depths of the Pacific off the west coast over 100 million years ago instead of fusing with the Earth's interior fragments of the plate have now been found to reach as far as New York they could destabilize the continent and even trigger earthquakes on the East Coast three and a half months after installation Steve Miller and his team are back in the Andes in the mean time there's been a magnitude 6.1 earthquake nearby could reverberations from the quake have made it this far and increase the volcanic activity come on baby let's check it out have the instruments recorded everything the devices are undamaged and a first check of the data register leaves the researchers hopeful that evening the big moment arrives the seismic data is translated into sound the researchers move step by step along the timeline that's really like they they listen intently to the sound within the volcano background noise then suddenly the answer whoa when a quake hits and pressure levels in the volcano dropped abruptly the gases within the rock can escape upwards shooting into cracks and cavities there they increase the pressure on the magma which can trigger an eruption the volcano reacts ah the project was perfect I would because we we we had this idea that this is a place that is susceptible for triggering processes and for evolving volcanic activity because it is directly in the door in the back door of of the male earthquake and what we found and we were fortunate to have a six point one and a seven point one at exactly the right time and and the volcano responded as we as we hoped it would comprehending the interaction between earthquakes and volcanoes could be an important step towards accurate earthquake prediction in the future Steve Miller is convinced that gasses play a decisive part and he has additional evidence to back his theory in the 1950s California Salton Sea was an Eldorado for Sun worshipers and water sports enthusiasts some years the resort location attracted more than half a million visitors stars and starlets came for the wild parties that garnish the boat races there but the saline lake soon fell victim to too much salt and pollution 1992 saw a sudden massive aquatic bird die off the culprit was first thought to be excessive salinity due to fertilizer runoff but no evidence of poisoning was found the birds had died of hypothermia the cause remained a mystery until a few years ago when Steve Miller decided to investigate he believes that co2 was the trigger when tectonic plates with all the organic and inorganic material they bear sink into the interior they're full of chambers filled with gases when the Earth's crust fuses these gases make their way towards the surface 1992 saw two major earthquakes northeast of assaultin see large amounts of co2 were likely released into the water and the space between the fine hairs on the bird's feathers allowing the water to penetrate their plumage over 300,000 waterfowl died of hypothermia the Golden Age of the Salton Sea was well and truly over the area now resembles a long abandoned gold-mining town [Music] and such co2 bombs could lead to even more dramatic chain reactions in November 2002 a magnitude seven point nine earthquake rocked central Alaska its energy traveled 3100 kilometers south to Yellowstone Park where it triggered hundreds of smaller quakes and Yellowstone is more dangerous than the Salton Sea trapped within chambers in the Earth's crust the gases could cause an extreme pressure buildup they're like ticking time bombs waiting to be set off when an earthquake clears the way they expand abruptly causing new quakes of their own more than three million people visit Yellowstone National Park every year few of them suspect that they are bang in the middle of the world's biggest active volcano the last eruption was 630 thousand years ago if gas were to clear the way for magma here searing ash would rain down on at least 20 US states we would face a new Ice Age millions would starve as the world descended into global disaster but gas is caught in the deeper strata can also trigger earthquakes inaudible even for seismologists they're so slow they can't even be felt but their consequences can be all the more devastating let's first start with what is a fast earthquake a normal earthquake is a fracture that runs through the earth at about 3 kilometers per second which is about 11,000 kilometers an hour a slow earthquake on the other hand is something that occurs maybe a couple of kilometers a day so it's a huge time difference between normal earthquake and what is a slow earthquake now slow earthquakes have been known for a while to occur at creationary prisms near the top end of a subduction zone now also known as soon on tsunamis earthquakes where you don't get any strong ground motion but it still lifts up the seafloor and you can generate a tsunami guesses within the Earth's crust or under such high pressure that they liquefy this leads Miller to believe that movement of liquids within the Earth's crust also causes these slow earthquakes and the slow quakes can then trigger fast ones when we earth beneath the ocean quakes hundreds of kilometers off the coast usually nothing is felt right above it Japanese fishermen returning from a tour far out at sea where they had noticed nothing unusual found their homeport completely demolished they called the mysterious wave tsunami wave in the harbor an undersea quake causes the seabed to lift dramatically setting the column's of water in motion with a massive jolt tsunamis are exceptional and that the water mass itself doesn't move as in a Newton's Cradle the energy is transferred and perceptibly from one molecule to the next the waves only decelerate near the coast towering to heights of up to 30 meters but the height of a tsunami wave alone doesn't determine its destructive force tsunamis can also be several hundred kilometers long these colossal walls of water slammed the coastal regions with unimaginable violence the calamity in Japan began on March 11 2011 with a horrific quake 130 kilometers off the Japanese coastal city Sendai with a magnitude of nine it was one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded tension between the Pacific and the Eurasian plates had apparently been building up for centuries what I was finally discharged Japan left almost four and a half meters towards the United States and the northeast of the country sank by almost a meter that allowed the up to 15 meter high wave to penetrate even further into the interior of the country it just rolled through the much too low retaining wall and swept 15,000 people to their deaths the tsunami also breached a just six meter high security wall at the Fukushima nuclear plant the emergency electricity generators failed and the reactors exploded a catastrophe that humankind will continue to deal with for centuries to come and Fukushima is only one of 18 Japanese nuclear power plants all of them vulnerable to earthquakes worldwide there are 38 nuclear power stations in areas where at least one earthquake of magnitude 4.5 or more has occurred since 1973 and where future quakes are certain on the Pacific coast of California stands a relic of the early 1960s notion of a scientific advancement the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station situated at water's edge and perilously close to a fault line the site is considered one of the most dangerous in the world Los Angeles is Justus stone's throw away more than seven and a half million people in all live within an 80 kilometers radius of the plant but it seems mistakes set a precedent for repetition almost the whole of Turkey is a seismic activity area the East Anatolian region around ikuyo is no exception nevertheless here is where the launch of the Turkish Atomic Age is planned construction is due to begin in 2013 under heavy guard by security personnel for the Turkish government the project is a gun deal although so much speaks against it an earthquake rift runs about 25 kilometers from the planned nuclear plant there has not been a major quake here for 500 years critics of the project are certain it is fuss just a matter of time assume the data does not correspond to the results of previous government studies the seismic faults that have already led to earthquakes with thousands of dead still time bombs on snooze alarm they appear passive that can become active at any time we address all the recent accidents and disasters the government's only responses we've taken all necessary safety precautions our standards are well above those of Japan and the former Soviet Union so our nuclear plant project involves no risk whatsoever my founders do that it is being financed and built and will also be operated by the russian company rosa tong they have set up a classroom in the neighboring village where the villagers are being indoctrinated and the wonders of the atomic age of course they are promised a better and easier life in 100% safety though many are disturbed by the goings-on over there behind the guarded gates the local farming community or many are illiterate offers virtually no resistance and so despite all the risks it looks like it won't be long now until turkey joins the atomic power club a kuyou is at high risk of tsunami the 2011 earthquake scenario in Japan played out on a similar geological structure to the one found near Cypress in Japan no one had expected such a violent event but the earthquake bolide all the predictions off the coast of Tokyo bgq the world's biggest drill ship will be the staging ground for installing a monitoring system and the depths below an existing borehole 800 plus meters deep will be extended to reach 3,600 meters beneath the seabed in the depths the Philippine plate sinks beneath the Chinese one every 90 to 150 years a severe earthquake occurs here a portion of this subduction zone has been quiet since 1854 most geologists agree that the next quake in this region is long overdue because the historically documented failure stress level on the plate borders has long been reached so the big one is imminent making the region an absolute hotspot for modern earthquake forecasting but even drilling projects costing millions can at best only vaguely predict not prevent earthquakes all that remains is to prepare for them and Japan has a long tradition of that the oldest pagodas are 1,300 years old and have survived many major earthquakes unscathed the wooden structures are susceptible to fire but despite their big heavy roofs they do very well at withstanding earthquakes and typhoons the ancient roof construction has an integrated shock absorber effect that eases the blows of earthquakes and heavy gusts of wind the different stories are hung along a central column when a quake hits the pole swings back and forth the levels are pushed together but the building as a whole remains intact the Tokyo Skytree was built on this principle at a height of 634 meters it is the second tallest and also one of the safest buildings of all time Japan is in the vanguard of earthquake-proof construction a fact that has often been obscured by the cores of the Fukushima disaster the Japanese are also retrofitting their solutions the entire length of a historic Tokyo Central Station has recently been lifted onto massive rubber and steel bumpers the tracks of the Shinkansen the Japanese Express trains are already equipped with detectors that stop the train immediately in the event of a quake and yet Tokyo is the world's biggest city a mega metropolis that never sleeps more than 35 million people live here at cramped quarters and a perfectly coordinated system and Kobe there is now help to ensure that the system keeps ticking over the world's biggest earthquake simulator a defense here multi-story buildings can be shaken and rattled under controlled conditions some of the insights gained here are shocking such as even when a building withstands the tremors the furnishings within can become a deadly trap the degree to which a building is rock depends not only on the strength of the quake but also on the ground beneath it parts of Tokyo are built on the ash of Mount Fuji ground that is especially sensitive to vibration and we started that iPhone out of its element when you make the calculations you see that such long waves can trigger oscillations with an amplitude of up to 5 meters on both sides which can cause heavy objects in the rooms to destroy the walls for such a dangerous quake has simply not yet occurred anywhere in the world in the near vicinity of such high buildings of course there are skyscrapers across the globe from Shanghai to New York but no major quake has yet been recorded there despite all these dangers no viable alternatives have been found all plans to move the capital elsewhere have been scrapped Japan relies on technology and rapid response the entire country is covered in a network of over 1,000 seismograph when an earthquake hits the detectors register the faster primary waves an automatic safety system instantly springs into action traffic lights all switch to red traffic comes to a standstill the same goes for the elevators and high rises just minutes later the secondary waves arrive slower but with a much greater destructive force they oscillate vertically in their direction of propagation avoid panic and evacuate premises in an orderly fashion people are drilled in these skills regularly everyone has to know just how to respond when the primary wave signal comes was in major training exercises all intervention forces are deployed the workforce waits inside for the duration of the first quake wave chief guards give information about the dead and wounded as the fire department arrives to evacuate a burning building and extinguish the flames workers leave their offices and disperse according to assigned tasks the exercises are observed from the air to aid in subsequent analysis inflatable tents serve as first aid wards bandaging exercises are part of the procedure as is the dispensing of water and emergency rations the people take the exercise very seriously if they had needed a wake-up call at all the 2011 quake was a stark reminder that they're living on a powder keg as always this year's exercise - will run without a hitch and with typical Japanese efficiency everyone is saved and the fires safely extinguished but how much these training exercises will help in an actual emergency remains to be seen well people really stay so cool calm and collected or are the maneuvers really mainly meant to give residents the feeling that the government has everything under control because even the early warning systems still need some tweaking there are regular instances of false interpretation that scientists at the Japan Meteorological Agency then try to correct they are working feverishly on innovating the system the front endurance is no other the biasing the point is not to first go back to the epicenter and the magnitude of the earthquake Tata Tata third or you go tomorrow must go first what we look at is how the wave spreads we want to be able to predict how powerful the incoming waves are we want to change the current way of thinking there have been instances of quakes occurring simultaneously book among the doodle the current system came to the false conclusion that one very powerful quake had occurred at a single site although quakes had actually occurred at two different locations for Kennard enough time when that happens it's a big problem of course Makai AutoStick once a tsunami is racing towards the shore the direction of escape is a life-and-death decision when design professor Tamaki Tamiya heard that an entire school class had met their death in the 2011 tsunami because the children had followed their teacher in the wrong direction he decided to look for a solution to keep that from happening again the result is a smartphone app that has become a Japanese media sensation the app is designed to show the user the quickest route to safety in the event of a tsunami it also warns a possible traps the topographical data of the region in question is stored and then continuously correlated with the current tsunami data if the mobile phone network goes down the last available data is enough to guide the individual to a safe destination in this case the most stable high-rise in the area there was no threat of tsunami when during the night of April 6th 2009 a magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit the historical town of L'Aquila a rude awakening for the residents at daybreak the people found their city reduced to rubble 308 dead and more than 60,000 homeless were the sad statistics the earthquake came on the heels of some odd occurrences at a nearby Lake British biologist Rachel grant had spent four years studying the native toads a few days before the quake the toads suddenly vanished they were missing for two full weeks in all and then gradually started returning to the lake at first the biologists made no connection between the disappearance of the toads and the earthquake that had also rocked her from her sleep what happened was a colleague of mine wrote me an email to say was I okay after the earthquake and I told him I'm okay but the toads of all gone I didn't know what that thing was at the time then about a year later I was contacted by a scientist from NASA and he had a hypothesis which was that when just before earthquakes rocks release electric charges which can oxidize water into hydrogen peroxide and other toxic compounds and bearing in mind that their sites their breeding sites potatoes quite flooded before the earthquake and normally toads would like that but they all left so we thought that it could be the water chemistry that's changed since the event Rachel grant has been networking with many fellow scientists worldwide she collects evidence of other instances where earthquakes were preceded by unusual animal behavior had it been possible to interpret the disappearance of the toads as an early warning sign the victims of L'Aquila might have been spared but it will most likely be years before anything like that is in place if it's even possible at all the reconstruction of the historic city center will be sometime in coming - after more than four years it still looks like a ghost town the circlet scenario Mazda completamente blue kata the situation was completely stymied for almost three years intra videre what caused some houses will be torn down conserving another Malita braced my house which is absurd because it has to be raised as well otherwise it will just collapse quanto non-postal impede you chained to the old town is a total catastrophe because the natural disaster that hit there was followed by an administrative and organizational one with the few each internal thoracic presenter won't be rebuilt for at least 20 years and that's what the optimists say what we missed since April 6 2009 time has Stood Still in L'Aquila [Music] Anna poignant show a protest former residents have hung up their house keys in the Main Street eight students lost their lives in this dormitory some of them cried out in fear and agony for several days before they could be rescued or fell silent forever [Music] the fires that follow on earthquake are often more destructive than the quake itself if the flames are not immediately brought under control they can annihilate all that remains rescue operations are always a matter of seconds and minutes every move must be precise and targeted although time is of the essence rescuers still have to break through walls stabilized masonry and secure buildings so they can recover victims without becoming trapped themselves when the men here fight their way through destroyed buildings they will not be finding any dead bodies disaster City is the name of this theater of whores 70,000 specialists from across the globe gather every year here and this Texan ghost town to practice the ABCs of search and rescue how do you free passengers trapped in a train wreck what do you do when a bridge collapses on top of a school bus all the disaster scenario simulated here are based on real incidents that have already occurred somewhere but before the participants hone their skills and specific mock disasters they are taught how to handle the tools the curriculum includes protocols for the aftermath of terrorist attacks a parking structure like this became a deadly trap in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing for safety reasons dummies are deployed before teams get to practice rescuing real injured disaster City is only part of a much larger training grounds the site has been used for over a hundred years to Train Texas Fire Department personnel when firefighters are called to their next or perhaps first burning train they know what dangers are lurking in the wreck and especially how to reach accident victims as quickly as possible house fires plane crashes burning industrial plants here any type of fire scenario can be simulated under controlled conditions after practicing individual techniques and maneuvers the disaster City workshop participants prepare for a specific deployment the instructors all have practical experience and all kinds of disaster deployments they know exactly what to prepare their charges for well a lot of times in a disaster there is a lot of human emotions that are played into that because of the some of the graphic scenes that you see during a disaster but what we try to do here at disaster City is give a rescuer the opportunity to select the proper skills and the proper tools to use and have the tasks laid out so that they'll understand what their responsibilities are going to be those trained here are known for getting the job done faster more efficiently and crucially more safely the routine procedural drills enable them to keep their wits about them and concentrate fully on the task at hand and without a doubt they will be confronted with these tasks repeatedly in real life because the question isn't when but where and how forcefully the next disaster will hit Japan Chile New Zealand Haiti looking back at recent years all evidence shows that the incidence of disastrous earthquakes is increasing for some time now discussion has turned to the possibility of earthquake cycles now evidence has emerged that we humans also influence the frequency of earthquakes the climate change for which we are partially responsible appears to reawaken old long defunct fault zones and Greenland and Alaska massive bodies of ice sit right atop these cracks and crevices and have stabilized them for centuries [Music] but it is here in the Arctic that temperatures are rising especially quickly causing the ice shell to become increasingly thinner glacial melting leads to a rise in sea levels changes in pressure distribution could increase the occurrence of earthquakes in coastal regions and not only in the Arctic but worldwide and in regions that are already highly tectonic Li active like the San Andreas Fault the alpine regions of New Zealand and the North Anatolian fault fear of a mega quake has long been mounting at the edge of a European continent Istanbul lies on the Sea of Marmara which is traversed by the world's most dangerous fault line the sinister prospect of rising sea levels does not bode well for the future according to studies by the United Nations a major earthquake would cost more human lives here than in any other city on the planet estimates put the expected death kolja between 50 and 150 thousand though even many experts believe this number to be way too low Istanbul inhabitants try to dismiss the impending disaster as do the millions of tourists who arrive here every year to admire the historic mosques especially the Hagia Sophia and many other cultural monuments it is doubtful that these architectural treasures will survive the foreseen earthquake a major quake will turn the old town with its narrow winding alleyways into especially deadly trap fires will spread quickly leaving the people no chance to escape [Music] and the underground seismic time bomb continues to tick in the immediate vicinity of the megacity the Anatolian plate pushes westwards past the Eurasian Plate in the last 100 years major earthquakes have traveled further and further to the west along the fault line in 1999 a powerful quake near Ismet only 80 kilometers from Istanbul killed almost 18,000 people it's only a matter of time until the next big one strikes the city on the Bosporus when all its destructive might one person who is facing this inevitability head-on is geologists cello Shengo a renowned scientist and ardent attractor of the government safeguards he paints a gloomy picture of the future of his hometown Istanbul is the ancestor continuing Istanbul is the oldest continuously settled city in human history you Bashir layer upon layer have built up showing us how people have lived over the past four hundred thousand years we're talking half a million years yong-gil a table with the begin bit CBDs of course with the beginning of civilization a lot was written about Istanbul and from written source material we know very well the distant ball has been hit by earthquakes repeatedly throughout history it will be catastrophic in Istanbul centipoid remember that 80% of the buildings are illegal previously we have no idea how they were built if they're well constructed it will be able to withstand an earthquake we just don't know I'm being stuck in the streets beginning many of the city's high-rises have also sprung up virtually overnight without a building permit and often with highly inventive structural engineering the city is booming and continues to spread its tentacles like an octopus but the authorities have now begun to take more consistent action entire districts are being raised and then reconstructed the residents have either received compensation or have been resettled in newly built houses on the outskirts of the city critics claim however that the safety measures are only a pretext for laying claim to valuable plots of land in the city center more room for the winners of the Turkish economic miracle but it is doubtful even they will be spared the wrath of a Turkish big one the North Anatolian fault runs just 9 kilometers south of the airport the likelihood that in the next 25 years an earthquake of magnitude 7 or more will strike Istanbul is depending on the forecasting model 35 to 70 percent no one can say exactly when [Music] in August 2009 typhoon Morakot ravaged Taiwan just half a year later the most powerful quake in over a hundred years devastated the country southeast changes and underground pressure can trigger earthquakes and volcanic activity and there's growing evidence that storms can also cause major earthquakes in the last part of the series we explore the strange interrelationships and show that our ecosystem Earth has more than earned its title

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Channel: hazards and catastrophes

Views: 132,869

Rating: 4.7067308 out of 5

Keywords: science documentary, national geographic documentary, national geographic science documentary, full documentary, full documentaries, documentary, earth documentary, ultimate science documentary, catastrophe documentary, national geographic catastrophe documentary, hazard documentary, perfect storms full documentary, storm documentary, national geographic perfect storms documentary, countdown to a catastrophe earthquakes documentary, national geographic earthquakes documentary

Id: aOcznZ0eZbs

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Length: 51min 43sec (3103 seconds)

Published: Fri May 12 2017

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