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Wave That Shook the World
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Program Overview
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NOVA explores what happened and why when the December 26, 2004,
tsunami developed off the Sumatran coast.
The program:
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tracks the Indian Ocean tsunami as it progresses outward from
its epicenter.
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notes how Earth's continental plates can create earthquakes when
they collide.
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describes how the tsunami developed from an earthquake that
occurred at a subduction zone off the Sumatran coast.
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relates how the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii first
registered the earthquake but, due to lack of any tsunami sensor
networks in that region, was unable to know if a tsunami had
formed.
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recounts through descriptions and animations how the tsunami
developed after the earthquake, how it traveled in the open
ocean, and how it amplified as it neared the shoreline.
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interviews survivors in several locations and shows the
destruction caused by the waves.
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details the influence of coastal morphology and seabed gradient
on the tsunami's destruction.
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relates how Pacific Tsunami Warning Center officials were
eventually able to calculate the tsunami's travel time and alert
East African embassies of its impending arrival.
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recounts other Indonesian tsunamis and points out that some
scientists had predicted catastrophic geological activity in
that region.
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considers the impact that no tsunami warning system or little
tsunami education had on the outcome of the disaster.
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reviews the four main causes of tsunamis—earthquakes,
meteor impacts, volcanic or other explosive eruptions, and
above-water and undersea landslides.
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states that while, by some estimates, tsunamis pose a direct
threat to about one-quarter of the world's population,
protection against them remains a matter of cost and politics.
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speculates what could happen if a major earthquake occurred at
the Cascadia subduction zone off the Pacific Northwest coast or
if the Cumbre Vieja volcano in the Canary Islands collapsed into
the sea.
Taping Rights: Can be used up to one year after the program
is taped off the air.
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