National Geographic: Tsunami - Killer Wave

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C'mon, Matt!

Attention all stations.

Stand by for

an urgent tsunami warning

for the Big Island and

the islands of Maui, Lanai and Oahu.

This warning is based on a

near Kailua-Kona.

Could it really happen?

Could a giant wave really menace

the beaches of Hawaii?

There is something out there

and it threatens coastlines

around the world.

It's one of nature's

least understood forces: Tsunami!

We often see hurricanes and typhoons

that churn up

higher-than-normal tide.

They can flood

low-lying coastal communities.

But as dangerous

as these storm surges can be,

they are not the worst of

all possible waves.

The real monsters are tsunamis,

freak waves usually produced by

undersea disturbances

like earthquake.

They can race across entire oceans

and swallow cities whole.

And they can leave

tens of thousands dead.

Throughout history,

tsunamis have generated

legendary disasters...

Reversion the shores

nearly every ocean and sea.

Without warning

and without mercy.

killer waves have struck

again and again.

And tsunamis are as mysterious

as they are deadly,

because so few have ever

been observed by scientists.

This extraordinary footage

was shot in 1952,

in the Kuril Islands off

Russia's northern Pacific Coast.

A typical tsunami,

it moved inland like a rising tide,

but with far greater speed

and force.

Fortunately it caused

only minor damage here...

and no deaths.

But tsunamis can be catastrophic.

In the last century alone,

more than 50,000 people

have been killed by tsunamis.

Most had little or no warning.

Few were even aware of the danger.

But for the people of

the Pacific Rim,

deadly tsunamis are not rare events.

They live in the most seismically

active part of the planet,

an area criss-crossed

by earthquake zones

and dotted with volcanoes,

so it's not surprising

that the vast majority

of the world's tsunamis occur here.

In the middle of the Pacific,

the Hawaiian Islands lie isolated

and exposed.

It's people are certainly

no strangers to tsunamis.

But some of them

are acutely aware of the risk.

Dr. Walter Dudley

is director of marine science

at the University of Hawaii at Hilo,

and a leading expert on tsunamis.

We'll have a little

on-site safety briefing.

Today he's taking one of his classes

on a snorkeling field trip.

But first, a few words of caution.

Okay guys, everybody listen up.

We're only about 30 miles

from the epicenter

of two of the largest earthquakes

that have ever struck this island.

In both cases,

they generated

large destructive tsunamis.

The waves took about ten minutes

to get here

and were about 10 to 15 feet high.

So if you are out there on the reef,

and you feel a big earthquake,

drop your gear

and get out of the water

and move ashore

as quickly as possible

Okay, let's have a good lab.

They are among the most catastrophic

of all natural phenomenon.

Unlike things like hurricanes,

there are no warning signs.

The weather doesn't get bad.

You don't feel the earth shake.

It can be just a beautiful day

and then, all of a sudden,

the ocean can come up

and come ashore 30 feet high.

In the Hawaiian Islands,

we've recorded tsunami wave heights

as great as 56 feet on this island

from the 1946 Aleutian tsunami.

In prehistoric times,

wave heights may have reached

over a thousand feet.

Hilo has been struck by tsunamis

as long as there has been a Hilo.

But it was really in 1946

when there was

a built-up downtown Hilo

that we had

a very, very large tsunami

Nineteen forty-six...

after four years of war,

Hawaiians can relax.

At last, their island

paradise is safe from attack.

But more than 2,000 miles away,

a new threat emerges from the sea.

On April 1,

at around 12:
30 in the morning,

an undersea earthquake

off the coast of Alaska

generates a huge tsunami.

Within minutes

it will make its first landfall

on the Aleutian island of Unimak,

Inside the island's

Scotch Cap Lighthouse,

the men feel the tremor,

but they have no idea

what's heading their way.

When the wave slams

into their island,

it's more than 100 feet high.

After it passes,

the Scotch Cap Lighthouse

has disappeared,

and so has its crew.

The tsunami continues

racing south toward Hawaii

at over 400 miles per hour.

And just as in Alaska,

no one here suspects a thing.

It's first impact in the islands

is deceptive.

Some waves are as small

as two or three feet,

barely hinting

at the tsunamis awesome power.

By the time it arrives at

Coconut Island in Hilo Bay,

the tsunami has begun to swell

to monstrous proportions.

Its waves wash over the island,

easily overtopping

the 30-foot palm trees.

Lining Hilo Bay

were dozens of homes.

Kapua Heuer's family lived on

a bluff high above the bay.

My family ventured as close as

it could to the edge of this bluff

when we saw

this mammoth wave come in.

It's 32 feet from here

down to the ocean.

We had to step back

because where we were standing,

all of a sudden,

it was ocean.

In the city of Hilo,

residents panicked

when the first waves hit,

fleeing for their lives.

Many try in vain

to outrun the tsunami

We heard this horrible clash in Hilo

and we knew that

the buildings on the ocean side

were being knocked down.

There was turmoil all day long.

The whole town was awash with water

and hurt people and lost people.

We did see people

in the ocean struggling,

dogs trying to swim ashore.

We saw that.

But you couldn't do anything

about it.

The force of the water was so great,

you couldn't venture into it.

You had no chance.

You felt very helpless and wondered

was there anybody out there

that you knew.

One photographer watches in horror

as a wave overtakes a dock worker

trapped on a pier.

In the next frame,

taken after the wave has passed,

the worker is nowhere to be seen...

swept away like so many others.

I had gotten up,

gone downstairs to wash up...

Larry Nakagawa was 14 when the wave

struck his home in Hilo.

...and as I was washing my face

and brushing my teeth,

I heard this strange sound of gravel

being thrown on the pavement.

So my brother came out and said

"It looks like

we are having a tidal wave.

We better get on the tree."

So he hoisted me up

and then my father was hoisted.

He and my father

were on the same branch and,

because of the way the branch was,

he had to hold my father around,

to grab hold of the trunk.

And I think that when the wave came,

he felt that

if he hung onto my father...

the way...

the force of the wave

would push him,

and if he hung on,

he would take my father in.

So he let go

and he went with the wave.

It was strict horror

to go into the mortuaries.

When they found somebody,

identified somebody

all the bodies were covered

they put a tag on a toe.

But they were covered

with a blanket.

And when you pulled back the blanket

to see if you recognized them,

the horror on their death...

was terrible... when they died.

They were frightened.

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