All language subtitles for Apocalypse Earth Series 1 Part 3 Deadly Earthquakes 1080p

(intense music)

‐ [Narrator] Earthquakes.

(people screaming)

So devastating.

So unpredictable.

‐ [Man] Seismologists are
as surprised as anybody

when they actually happen.

‐ [Narrator] That even
the pros stay on guard.

(explosions booming)

From survival.

‐ [Narrator] To impact.

‐ [Man] Some events are so big

that they literally
break the system.

‐ [Narrator] The effects
can be apocalyptic.

(intense music)

Earth, air, fire, and water,

essential for human survival,

but in their
extreme, destructive

to everything, and
everyone in their path.

‐ [Man] Coming down,
right now, major tornado.

‐ [Man] Yeah, that's a monster.

‐ [Narrator] These are stories.

‐ [Man] Oh big tower of wet.

‐ Wow.
‐ Whoa, whoa!

‐ [Narrator] Of
Apocalypse Earth.

Earthquakes,
powerful, spontaneous,

deadly, and profound.

When the planet shifts position,

everything on it
must accommodate,

or face destruction.

And when it comes to earthquake
activity on the planet,

there's no place as extensive
as the Ring of Fire.

The Ring of Fire is an arc
of tectonic plate boundaries

that line the fringes
of the Pacific Ocean.

It extends 25,000 miles,
from South America

along Central and North
America's West Coast,

north to Alaska, and then
down through Russia, Japan,

and Southeast Asia, all
the way to New Zealand.

90% of all earthquakes
occur along this line,

as well as 81% of
the world's largest.

Up north of the American coast

of the Ring of Fire sits Alaska,

the most earthquake prone
in the United States.

It's also one of the
most seismically active

regions in the world.

But when it comes to
earthquake activity

within the United States,

it's California that
comes to mind most often.

In part, because of the
history of earthquakes

that have rocked the City
of Angels over the years.

(rock music)

Los Angeles is the biggest
city in California,

and the second
largest in America.

Its beautiful weather,
beaches, and strong economy

have attracted 13 million people

to make the metro
area their home.

But seismologists believe
the city is in jeopardy.

Not from the infamous
San Andreas Fault,

but the more recently
identified Puente Hills Fault.

Earthquakes occur in California,

because beneath the surface

of this beautiful
state are faults.

These consist of
tectonic plates,

continually pushing against
each other, creating stress.

Eventually, that stress
has to be relieved,

and when that happens,
the release of energy

and movement is an earthquake.

(earth rumbling)

(trolley clangs)

‐ [Narrator] A century ago,
the very first California city

to experience a major
quake was San Francisco.

In 1906, the San Andreas
Fault, unknown at the time,

literally split the earth open.

That earthquake rocked the
Bay Area on April 18th,

and measured a magnitude
7.9 on the Richter scale.

‐ The most costly disaster

in the history of
the United States.

Loss of lives anywhere
from 3,000 up to 18,000,

so it was quite significant
in terms of the losses.

‐ [Narrator] Over 80% of
the city was destroyed,

as a result of devastating
fires caused by the shaker.

The fires lasted
for several days,

leaving more than half of
the population homeless.

The Bay Area earthquake
is considered

one of the deadliest
in US history.

(eerie music)

Southern California
has experienced

several major earthquakes
of its own, as well.

‐ If you live in
earthquake country,

you have to just learn to
accept that these things happen,

and that there are
unpredictabilities in your life.

‐ [Narrator] The Golden State's
temblors come in all sizes,

and happen all the time.

Hard to imagine, but California

has some 37,000
earthquakes every year.

About 100 per day.

Most of them are
under magnitude four,

too minor to feel.

Seismologists use
a numerical scale,

known as the Richter scale

to quantify the
power of earthquakes.

Charles Richter
and Beno Gutenberg

determined the magnitude
of an earthquake

could be calculated based upon

the amplitude of seismic waves
recorded by seismographs.

Each whole number
increase in magnitude

represents a 10 fold increase
in measured amplitude.

In other words, a 5.0
magnitude earthquake

is about 10 times the
amplitude of a 4.0.

And while seismic impact of
earthquakes can be measured,

when they will
occur still cannot.

‐ We do not know how
to predict earthquakes

in the short term.

We can't tell you when an
earthquake is going to happen.

We try and forecast
them in the long term,

but seismologists are
as surprised as anybody

when they actually happen.

‐ Earthquakes scare us

because they're the ultimate
out of control experience.

We're always more afraid
of what we don't control.

(intense music)

‐ [Narrator] If the Puente
Hills thrust fault ruptures,

it could cause a
major earthquake

that would have
devastating consequences,

especially for the
millions of people

who live and work in the Los
Angeles metropolitan area.

‐ If we had this
seven plus earthquake,

downtown Los Angeles
would actually move

by maybe five, six,
maybe even 10 feet.

(intense music)

‐ [Narrator] A sobering
prospect, but not far‐fetched.

Earthquakes in Southern
California have been occurring

for hundreds of
millions of years.

For the most part, that's how

the various mountain
ranges were formed.

The biggest known earthquake
in Southern California

occurred in 1857.

By studying how it
deformed the local geology,

scientists determined
it was a 7.9 quake.

But because the area was so
sparsely populated at the time,

only two deaths were recorded.

‐ That earthquake was probably

larger than the 1906 earthquake,

and if it happened today,
it would be a disaster.

‐ LA's never seen an
earthquake like that,

but we have had a
whole succession

of smaller earthquakes,

but they've all taught us

important lessons in
one way or another.

For example, one of the
most important earthquakes

in the history of the world

was the 1933 Long
Beach earthquake.

‐ [Narrator] In 1933, the
population of Los Angeles

was around 1.2 million.

On March 10th, at 5:55 p. m.,
a 6.4 magnitude earthquake

occurred on the Newport
Inglewood fault zone.

The quake itself
lasted five seconds,

with about 10 seconds
of ground shaking,

and it resulted in 120 deaths.

Many of these fatalities
occurred as people

ran out of buildings, and
were hit by falling debris.

This footage from a
W. C. Fields movie,

which was being filmed that day,

is the only real time
recording made of the event.

The quake caused 50 million
dollars in property damage,

much of it to structures
made of unreinforced masonry.

Many of them were
school buildings.

(somber music)

‐ Now fortunately, school
was not in session,

so children weren't
killed by the hundreds,

but parents were so
freaked out by this

that they lobbied
the state legislature

to enact the world's
first building codes.

‐ [Narrator] The earthquake
eliminated all doubts

regarding the need for
quake‐resistant design

for structures in California.

‐ There had been a
law in Long Beach

requiring buildings to be made
out of brick for fire safety.

So they were
particularly hard hit

when this earthquake
happened, and we now recognize

that mortar just dissolves
in an earthquake.

‐ After the Long
Beach earthquake,

California enacted legislation,
the so‐called Field Act,

that improved the
building codes,

and set strict guidelines
for public structures

such as school buildings.

‐ [Narrator] Another
bill was later introduced

to require that
earthquake precautions

be taken for all
California buildings.

This was known as the Riley Act,

which became law
on May 27th, 1933.

‐ Following the 1933
Long Beach earthquake,

there was a long period
of seismic quiet in LA.

Almost 40 years of
nothing, no earthquakes.

Interestingly, that coincides

with when LA really
exploded in population.

‐ [Narrator] But in 1971,
Southern California residents

were reminded that they
live in earthquake country.

The area was hit
by a massive quake,

bigger than the last one.

On February ninth, a
6.7 magnitude earthquake

occurred on the San
Fernando Fault Zone.

Known as the Sylmar Quake, it
was caused by a reverse fault,

a type of thrust fault that has

an extremely high angle
of vertical movement.

‐ Here in Southern California,

we also have a network
of reverse faults

that create our mountains.

It shows us that these
mountain front faults,

the ones that are creating
our high mountains,

pose a very significant risk
to the Los Angeles area.

(rubble clattering)

‐ [Narrator] The Sylmar
earthquake killed 65 people,

and caused more than
half a billion dollars

in property damage.

It was a wake up call

about a particular
kind of construction.

(dramatic music)

‐ Much of Los Angeles was
built in the 1950s and '60s,

and in 1971, we saw that a
very common style of buildings

called non‐ductile reinforced
concrete performed very badly.

Understatement of the year.

The Olive View Hospital, where
the first floor disappeared,

was one of these non‐ductile
reinforced concrete buildings.

‐ [Narrator] Non‐ductile is
a technical term for brittle.

The last type of structure

you'd want to be located
in during an earthquake.

In fact, the Olive
View Hospital collapse

killed three patients,
and a hospital worker.

(sirens wailing)

At the time of the
Sylmar earthquake,

it was widely believed

that the Field and Riley Acts

were sufficient protection
against earthquakes.

But while the building
of new brick structures

had been outlawed,
there were still many

pre‐existing brick buildings
that were vulnerable.

‐ The city of Los Angeles
took the controversial step

of requiring the strengthening

of existing old brick buildings.

‐ [Narrator] As
for the non‐ductile

reinforced concrete buildings,

that was a different story.

Because there were
so many of these

throughout the Los
Angeles metro area,

no law was passed requiring
current owners to retrofit.

Only that new buildings of
this type could not be built.

‐ So it showed us that in fact

we had a ways to go in terms of

improving our building codes,

and that we needed to be very
careful about our use of land.

‐ [Narrator] After
the earthquake,

the California Legislature
enacted the Alquist‐Priolo Bill,

which required the mapping
of active fault zones.

Whenever faults are found,

they are integrated into
seismic hazard maps.

Builders and
homeowners are, by law,

compelled to review these maps

in order to be aware
of potential risks.

Despite the fact that
the Los Angeles area

had suffered through
two major quakes,

it continued to experience
massive population growth.

By 1987, there were 3.3
million people in the city,

and millions more in
the surrounding areas.

On October 1st,
1987, the LA area

experienced the Whittier
Narrows earthquake.

A 5.9 magnitude event that
occurred on a blind thrust fault

some 16 miles east of
downtown Los Angeles.

Three days later, a magnitude
5.3 aftershock occurred,

causing additional damage.

Three people died as a direct
result of the temblors.

Five other deaths
were attributed

indirectly to these events.

The Whittier Narrows
earthquake in 1987,

and then the Northridge
quake in '94,

once again prompted efforts

to enhance safety and
emergency preparation.

These two quakes also
brought blind thrust faults

to the attention of
seismologists and policy makers.

They determined that a rupture

of the Puente Hills
blind thrust fault

could result in an energy
release some 15 times greater

than that of the
Northridge earthquake,

the worst in Los
Angeles history so far.

‐ [Man] The Puente Hills
earthquake would be

one of the worst events we can
imagine here in Los Angeles.

(somber music)

‐ [Narrator] When it comes
to earthquake activity,

seismologists do not consider

the Northridge quake
of '94 as the big one.

Nonetheless, it's the worst

Los Angeles has
suffered thus far.

On January 17th,
1994, at 4:30 a. m.,

residents were awakened to a
terrible and powerful rumbling.

The quake, centered
near Northridge,

northwest of
downtown Los Angeles,

had a moderate magnitude of 6.7.

But the ground velocity,

the speed at which a
point on the ground

moved during the shaking,

was the highest ever
instrumentally recorded

in an urban area
in North America.

The actual quake lasted
about seven seconds,

with ground shaking
about twice that long.

In that relatively
short period of time,

the temblor devastated
entire neighborhoods.

But its path of destruction

seemed to hopscotch
across the city.

‐ We understand these
variations to be associated

with the complexities of
the earthquake itself,

as well as the earth
beneath our feet.

I mean, some places have very
weak soils, and shake a lot.

Others are on hard rock, and
the shaking is not so bad.

The Northridge
earthquake indicated

how variable those
processes can be.

‐ [Narrator] Closer to the
epicenter, the powerful shaking

caused an apartment
complex to collapse.

(somber music)

16 residents were killed.

Office buildings also collapsed.

But due to the early hour,
hardly anyone was at work.

‐ Everybody was in
their wooden houses,

and our wooden houses
are amazing structures

to resist earthquakes.

‐ [Narrator] Had the quake
occurred four hours later,

when people were up and about,

perhaps thousands
would have been killed

throughout the city.

(eerie music)

Aftershocks triggered the
collapse of many structures,

already weakened by
the initial shock.

The quake challenged some
longstanding assumptions.

It damaged at least 120
steel frame high‐rises,

which were supposed
to withstand a quake.

The steel was expected to
absorb the vibrations, and bend.

Instead, there were fractures.

‐ The connections
between the columns

and the beams came loose,

and those connections
are quite critical

to maintain the lateral
resistance of the building.

‐ [Narrator] Some
of these structures

were 20 miles from
the epicenter,

the initial point of
the quake's rupture.

But distance from the epicenter

has been a confusing issue
for the general public.

In actuality, it is the
distance from the fault plane,

the entire length of the
moving tectonic plates

that often determines damage.

‐ There are usually
other parts of the fault

that give off more energy
than the epicenter,

'cause it builds up steam,
and is rupturing out

so that the maximum energy
release in Northridge

was coming out under Chatsworth,

and up under the
Granada Hills area.

‐ [Narrator] And yet, there
was major damage to the south.

Part of the Santa Monica
freeway collapsed.

‐ That freeway overpass
looked a little isolated

from the rest of the damage.

As it turns out, it's in
an area we call La Cienega,

which means in
Spanish, the swamp,

and it turns out that
soft, swampy materials

tend to experience
larger ground shaking.

‐ [Narrator] Subsequent to
the quake, 680,000 residents

were without power, gas,
water, or telephone service,

and lacked these
utilities for days.

The Northridge
earthquake proved to be

the most costly quake in
United States history.

40 billion dollars in damages,

with 63 related deaths,
and 12,000 injured.

Previous to this quake,

seismologists
had focused primarily

on areas vulnerable to
the San Andreas fault.

But the Northridge earthquake

persuaded scientists
to widen their scope.

‐ It occurred in a place

where we didn't
expect such an event.

In particular, it was on
a buried fault structure

that has vertical motion.

We call these types of
structures blind thrust faults.

‐ [Narrator] That's a
fault which is buried

below the surface,
hence the name blind,

and consists of two
tectonic plates.

In a rupture, one will
grind up and over the other.

‐ These are faults
that, you know,

they're not as big as the San
Andreas, but they're right,

literally in the case of
the Puente Hills thrust,

directly beneath the city.

‐ [Narrator] The Puente
Hills blind thrust fault,

aimed at a 45 degree angle from
below downtown Los Angeles,

is a sleeping
geological monster.

‐ Of any potential earthquakes
in the United States,

Puente Hills is really
the most threatening.

‐ [Narrator] Seismologists
believe that this monster

could wake up, and
unleash a deadly force,

the likes of which Los Angeles
has never before experienced.

(intense music)

‐ [Narrator] For decades,
Southern Californians

have lived with the fact
that earthquakes will come.

They will strike
without warning,

and cause death and destruction.

So geologists and seismologists,

in anticipation of
the next big one,

are in a race against time

to determine where
the faults are,

and what they're
capable of doing.

Following the 1987 Whittier
Narrows earthquake,

and the 1994 Northridge quake,

seismologists became
increasingly aware

of a threat from not just
the San Andreas fault.

This animation, created by

the Southern California
Earthquake Center,

provides a comprehensive
look at the problem.

The San Andreas is depicted

by the colored diagonal ribbon
in the center of the screen.

Each one of the
other colored ribbons

represents the new
threat, a vast network

of blind thrust faults below
the LA metro area, and beyond.

Using a technique called
seismic reflection,

Harvard University professor
and seismologist John Shaw,

and University of
California at San Diego

professor Peter Shearer,

were able to discover
the existence

of the previously unknown
Puente Hills blind thrust fault.

It runs 25 to 30 miles from
Northern Orange County,

through downtown Los Angeles,

and all the way
to Beverly Hills.

Seismologists now believe the
1987 Whittier Narrows quake

was actually a partial rupture
of the Puente Hills fault.

Subsequent study revealed
it has ruptured many times,

over thousands of years.

‐ We're standing
above the eastern end

of the Puente Hills
blind thrust fault.

You can't see anything where
we're walking right here,

but the reason the
road behind me rises up

is because this hill
behind me has been uplifted

in hundreds of earthquakes

on the Puente Hills
blind thrust fault.

‐ [Narrator] It's unlike
a strike slip fault,

like the San Andreas, which
consists of two tectonic plates

on a horizontal orientation.

A thrust fault
consists of two planes,

and when it ruptures, one
rises up above the other,

causing the earth
to rise above it,

and stay that way permanently.

(eerie music)

A rupture of a larger portion
of the Puente Hills fault

could cause widespread disaster

the likes of which we haven't
seen in a modern era quake.

‐ If you tried to design
the worst possible fault

in the worst possible
location for Los Angeles,

you'd come up with the
Puente Hills blind thrust.

‐ [Narrator] To
understand it further,

the Southern California
Earthquake Center

commissioned seismologist
Robert Graves

to create a computer model
of probability scenarios.

By feeding it with data about
the fault's characteristics,

and the geological conditions

throughout the LA area, it shows

how a Puente Hills thrust
fault rupture would spread.

‐ What we're looking
at in the animation

is we see the ground
begins to shake

as the earthquake starts,

and there are some
small ripples,

and they begin to propagate out

from the area around
the epicenter.

What is very striking is
that as the waves propagate

away from the earthquake,

they are actually interacting
with the geological layers

in the sedimentary
structure of the LA basin.

The waves become trapped, and
they start bouncing around,

and they actually build up
very large ground motions,

very large waves.

‐ [Narrator] According to the
results of the simulations,

a Puente Hills thrust
fault earthquake

could result in
250 billion dollars

worth of property damage.

Seismologists have even
turned to NASA for help.

Incredibly, the
geology of earthquakes

can be studied from outer space.

GPS satellites send signals,

which help scientists to
continually map the earth.

By comparing the data over time,

minute changes in certain
areas are revealed.

Using this method,
scientists have concluded

that the land surface of Los
Angeles is being squeezed

at a rate of .2 inches per year.

So, at that rate, when
will Puente Hills erupt?

‐ Good news is that
our research suggests

that this thing only
generates large earthquakes

every few thousand years,

so they're extremely
rare events.

The flip side of
that, the bad news,

is that when they occur,
they appear to be very large.

Something well in excess
of magnitude seven,

possibly as large
as magnitude 7.5.

(intense music)

‐ [Narrator]
Studies of a rupture

of the Puente Hills
fault are grim.

The losses predicted
are for a disaster

10 to 15 times greater than
the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

Clearly, it would put
LA to the ultimate test.

The state spent billions after
the 1994 Northridge quake

to retrofit more than
2,100 freeway overpasses.

(ominous music)

But, are the citizens
of LA prepared?

‐ We can't imagine that
the boys in white hats

are gonna come
riding in to save us

after a large event.

We saw in Katrina, that in fact,

some events are so big that
they literally break the system.

(intense music)

‐ [Narrator] In a
worst case scenario,

Southern Californians who
survive the initial impact

of a major quake
will have to cope

with a difficult aftermath.

They'll be better
equipped if they've

heeded the advice of experts

to take the
initiative to prepare.

The big one will happen.

It's not a matter
of if, but when.

(helicopter whirring)

Northern California
had its own reminder

of earthquake
volatility back in 1989.

The devastation was
massive, but baseball,

literally, helped save the day.

(intense music)

It's a perfect day for baseball
in Northern California.

As inter city rivals,
the San Francisco Giants,

and the Oakland As gear up

for game three of the
1989 World Series.

The whole city is watching,
but fans have no idea

that Mother Earth is about
to take a game ending swing.

(dramatic music)

60 miles away, the San
Andreas fault suddenly snaps.

(earth rumbling)

The deadly fault runs almost
the length of California,

and directly underneath
San Francisco.

(intense music)

At a magnitude 6.9, this is
the most powerful earthquake

in nearly a century.

It quickly spreads terror and
destruction across the city.

(flames crackling)

(sirens wailing)
‐ Are you okay?

(dramatic music)

‐ [Narrator] On the
two level Bay Bridge,

a 50 foot section
of the upper deck

collapses without warning.

The enormity of the disaster

leaves Oakland Fire
Lieutenant Mark Hoffman

and his crew stunned.

The violent shaking destroys
a mile and a quarter section

of the double decker
Nimitz freeway,

causing the upper level to
crash onto the lower level,

and hundreds of vehicles below.

‐ [Narrator]
Rescuers desperately

try to locate trapped motorists.

‐ There was a zone
about four feet deep

over most of the length
of the collapsed area.

Every 75 or 100 feet or so,

there was a deep
beam that came down,

and of course crushed
anything under it,

but that also provided
this confined space

in which people could survive.

‐ [Narrator] Underneath
all that rubble,

Tim Petersen fights
for his life.

The injured man is
battling broken ribs,

a punctured lung, and
internal bleeding.

‐ It's hard to even breath.

The lung is leaking air,

so I figured there
was no surviving it.

It was gonna kill me.

‐ [Narrator] After
six agonizing hours,

there's a glimmer of hope.

‐ I can hear all
these sounds above,

so I was yelling to them,

and somebody did crawl down
and finally yelled to me

and said, "Hey, I'm
gonna go get somebody.

"I can't believe there's
anybody alive down in here."

‐ [Narrator] The
firefighter finds a path

through the debris.

‐ It's a small tunnel
you had to crawl into

to get to where I was.

I mean, you can't describe
somebody crawling down in there.

This thing is still falling,

and I mean talk about
risking your life,

talk about a hero.

‐ Get out of the way!

‐ Remarkably, there
were only 42 fatalities

in the Cypress structure.

Considering how many
cars could've been there,

this is a remarkably low number.

(somber music)

‐ [Man] Diane, give me a
three point search here.

‐ [Narrator] Despite
the horrific human toll,

the catastrophe could've
been much worse.

Had it not been for
the World Series.

‐ The game started at five p. m.,

so most people got off
work early, got home,

and then the earthquake
occurred at 5:04.

So just when the
Interstate 880 freeway

should've been jammed with cars,

it was virtually empty.

(earth rumbling)
(intense music)

‐ [Narrator] New York
is not the first city

that comes to mind
as being at risk

for dangerous earthquakes.

But just a few miles below
the New York City area

lay several earthquake faults.

125 years ago, the New York
area was hit by an earthquake.

‐ The largest earthquake
that we know of

historically in New York
City is the 1884 earthquake,

roughly magnitude five.

‐ [Narrator] August 10th,
1884, an earthquake rumbled up

from underneath
the Atlantic Ocean.

The epicenter of the quake was
17 miles south of city hall,

off the coast of Rockaway Beach.

10 o'clock in the morning,
unprepared citizens

across the city were
shocked to find themselves

grabbing for walls,

calming startled
carriage horses,

and ducking from falling
bricks, as the whole city shook.

Thousands of
chimneys in the city

were broken in the
magnitude five quake.

Parapets came down,
windows were shattered.

Luckily, there were very few

injuries, and no fatalities.

The East Coast from New
York south to Maryland,

and north to Vermont was
rocked by seismic waves.

An area covering roughly
70,000 square miles.

In fact, in terms
of seismic hazard,

New York City is
the fourth most

at risk city
in the country,

following
San Francisco,

Los Angeles,

and Seattle.

People sometimes confuse seismic
hazard with seismic risk,

but they are not the same.

‐ Because risk is
really not only defined

by the natural hazard.

There are two more
ingredients that go into risk.

Hazard is one.

The other is the
value of the assets

that are exposed to that hazard,

and there is plenty
of valuable assets

concentrated in the New
York City metropolitan area.

‐ [Narrator] The third
ingredient is the vulnerability,

or what is sometimes called
fragility of those assets

with respect to the hazard.

Meaning seismic shaking
and other seismic hazards.

‐ In this area, roughly
every 100, 250 years

a magnitude five occurs.

Magnitude six is in the
order of 1,000 years.

Magnitude seven are
almost beyond imagination,

but they can,
unfortunately, occur.

‐ [Narrator] On
the Richter scale

that measures an
earthquake's impact,

each whole number
increase in magnitude

represents a tenfold increase
in measured amplitude.

In other words, a 5.0
magnitude earthquake

is about 10 times the
amplitude of a 4.0.

Since 1737, at least
six earthquakes

of magnitude 5.1 or higher
have struck New York State.

The 1737 quake was also
centered near New York City,

but New York is not alone.

One of the earliest
recorded events

took place over 250 years
ago in Massachusetts.

An earthquake estimated to
be magnitude 6.0 to 6.3.

‐ For the northeastern
part of the United States,

the earthquake
that really defines

what we think the
earthquake hazard is

is the 1755 Cape Ann earthquake.

We think it was centered

just east of Cape
Ann, Massachusetts.

(tense music)

That earthquake did
major damage in Boston,

in Portsmouth, New
Hampshire, Portland, Maine.

It was felt up to
Halifax, Nova Scotia,

felt down as far south as
Winyah, South Carolina.

‐ [Narrator] Other East
Coast and Midwestern cities

have been devastated
by killer quakes.

‐ There are clusters of
earthquakes in the Carolinas,

South Carolina, North Carolina,

around Charleston in particular.

‐ [Narrator] On
August 31st, 1886,

just two years after the 1884
earthquake in New York City,

a massive earthquake
ripped through

the coastal city of
Charleston, South Carolina.

(earth rumbling)

Estimates based on damage
patterns and historical records

put the Charleston quake
at magnitude 6.5 to 7.3.

More than 2,000 buildings
were damaged in Charleston.

Between 60 and 100
people lost their lives.

The Charleston quake was felt
as far north as Manhattan,

as far west as Omaha, Nebraska,

and as far south as Cuba.

(intense music)

But there are more
recent reminders

of devastating earthquakes
along the East Coast.

‐ I was 18 years old at
the time, and like I say,

it was an event that
I will never forget.

‐ [Narrator] Just after midnight
on a July night in 1944,

a magnitude 5.9
earthquake erupted

in the sleepy town
of Massena, New York.

‐ It was the first
major earthquake

that this area had experienced.

‐ We had gone out to
celebrate our graduation.

There was a few of us that
went out to the local bar,

and had a few beers.

And about 12 o'clock, we
closed the place down.

Then we decided we'd
better get home.

It was a very, very quiet night.

You could hear a pin drop.

I stepped in the door,

put my foot on the
first step, and bang.

That the earthquake hit.

(intense music)

‐ I woke up feeling as if

there was a freight
train going very fast

past the door of my room,
and the bed was shaking.

‐ I could hear dishes rattling.

‐ Just like somebody had
picked ya up, and shoved ya.

‐ I think every other
person on the street

was out in the
middle of the street

in their pajamas and robes.

‐ [Narrator] The earthquake
ripped through Massena,

and across the border into
neighboring Cornwall, Ontario.

(glass shattering)

‐ The fault runs from the
northwest to the southeast,

across the river,
and through the towns

of Cornwall and Massena.

(sirens wailing)

The next day, I
think the full force

of what had happened hit.

People were wandering around
the town like zombies.

‐ [Narrator] The two small
towns of Massena, New York,

and Cornwall, Ontario suffered

more than two million
dollars in property damage.

About 50 million
in today's dollars.

90% of the brick
chimneys were destroyed,

and brick masonry and
concrete structures

suffered severe damage.

Plumbing and house
foundations were ruined.

(intense music)

The Massena earthquake
has been closely studied

by East Coast
seismologists and others

as an example of
the kind of damage

a smaller earthquake
can do in an area

of mainly brick and
masonry buildings.

‐ The Massena earthquake
was interesting

because it showed
what an earthquake

that is not quite six can do
to the type of construction

that we still have a lot
of around in New York City.

(horn blares)

‐ One of those
kinds of earthquakes

centered right near one of
our major metropolitan areas,

like Boston or New York, would
cause significant damage.

‐ [Narrator] In fact, an
earthquake on August 23, 2011

in Central Virginia, only
underscored that awareness.

The 5.8 shaker was
felt by an estimated

1/3 of the US population.

As far north as Maine,
as far west as Chicago,

and as far south as
the tip of Florida.

That trembler caused two
to 300 million dollars

in property damage, including
the Washington Monument,

and National Cathedral
in Washington DC.

Earthquakes continue to rumble
under the city to this day.

Could the next New York quake

do more than just rattle
the city's nerves?

(tense techno music)

‐ [Narrator] In recent years,
earthquakes have continued

to shake buildings
right underneath

Manhattan streets and sidewalks.

(siren blaring)

Just one month after the World
Trade Center attack in 2001,

a magnitude 2.6
earthquake centered right

at 55th Street and 8th Avenue

rumbled up from the Earth.

City officials were
initially concerned

there had been another
terrorist attack.

‐ Mayor Giuliani
was very concerned

that an explosion had gone off

somewhere in the sewer
system in New York City.

Well, they couldn't
find, of course,

where that explosion
was going on,

because the earthquake occurred

five miles beneath the city,

near Central Park, actually.

‐ We had an earthquake
back in January,

very similar kind of thing.

Made noise, shook a little in
certain places, not in others.

People probably reacted
more to this one

because of the events
of September 11

and then this thing since then.

(tense music)

‐ [Narrator] These mini
quakes are nature's way

of reminding us
that if the big one

comes rumbling up
through the Earth

and rips apart one of the
largest cities in the world,

the death and destruction
could be enormous.

(suspenseful music)

The earthquake
history of New York

and the rest of the East Coast

could have been very different.

The metropolitan area
has a geological history

that is as diverse
as the city itself.

(upbeat music)

Scientists have learned
a great deal more

about this ancient geology

from a relatively new field
of study, plate tectonics.

‐ We learned in the second
half of the 20th century

that the way the Earth
works is basically

by way of the theory
of plate tectonics.

‐ [Narrator] Plate tectonics
is the geological theory

that there is a layer of plates

or rock covering the
globe that is in a slow,

but constant drift across
the surface of the Earth.

In other words, the surface
of the earth is not fixed,

but is in constant motion,
like slow moving bumper cars

that periodically
collide with one another.

These plates
generally extend out

and under the sea around
the world's land masses.

The North American
plate extends roughly

from the western edge
of the United States,

all the way east to the middle

of the North
Atlantic ocean floor.

‐ So, most earthquakes
occur at plate boundaries

where the plates rub
against each other.

‐ An earthquake is a sudden slip

of the two sides across a fault.

So, the rock makes
a movement suddenly

and releases stress.

‐ [Narrator] This rubbing
at the western edge

of the North American plate

where it meets the Pacific plate

has resulted in a long history
of devastating earthquakes.

(upbeat music)

But there are key differences
between earthquakes

that happen at the edge
of a tectonic plate

and those that happen in
the middle of a plate.

‐ Within the center
of the plate,

it's more of the squeezing
kinds of earthquakes

that build mountains, as
we have, for instance,

in the Northeastern
United States.

‐ Most famous in
the United States

is the New Madrid area in
the central United States

along the Mississippi
River Valley.

They are in the New York
and in the Boston areas

and all the way up to
the Canadian border

in the northeastern
United States.

(swooshing techno music)

‐ [Narrator] About
220 million years ago,

a fused continent
known as Pangea,

comprised of several of
our modern continents,

began to break apart.

In the wake of this upheaval,

the modern North
Atlantic Ocean appeared.

‐ And now, New York sits

right on the edge
of this continent.

‐ [Narrator] Near the
end of the last Ice Age,

the New York area and the
rest of the East Coast

experienced another
significant set

of geological developments.

‐ Some 10,000 years
ago, the glaciers

started to slowly retreat.

But what they did
before they left,

they polished everything clear,

and they carved out the
weakest spots in the rock.

(pensive music)

‐ [Narrator] The glaciers
carved deep valleys

along the underlying
fault lines.

‐ These black lines here
are the most active faults

now in the modern
geological time.

The most prominent of them

is the 125th Street
fault that runs here.

‐ [Narrator] The 125th Street
fault is clearly visible

from its valley‐like geology.

‐ The glaciers hollowed
out the shape of Manhattan

to follow those fault
lines, and that's why

we have, actually, these
shapes of Manhattan.

‐ [Narrator] If there is a
slip along one of these faults,

devastating seismic
waves could be released

up to the Earth's surface.

(ominous music)

(rumbling)

The first seismic wave
initially stretches

and squeezes the rock.

The other seismic
wave is the shear wave

that bends the rock sideways.

It is this second wave that
gives us the horizontal shaking

that causes so much
damage to buildings.

(tense music)

(alarms, sirens blaring)

(clattering)

Seismic waves on the East Coast

travel farther than they
do on the West Coast.

‐ At the edge of the plate,

there is so much earthquake
activity going on

that it'd shatter the plate.

So it's a little bit
like your windshield

that has a lot of cracks in it

because someone
threw a stone in it,

and there's still
light coming through,

but you can't see
through very clearly.

The same thing with
the seismic waves

where those plates are
broken by prior earthquakes,

the seismic waves
go sort of through,

but it's not very clear.

(ominous music)

Here in the eastern
United States,

we can feel earthquakes
as small as magnitude one.

Certainly, magnitude
two are wildly felt

all over New York
City, for instance,

Californians have no clue

that there was a
magnitude two earthquake.

So, if a three
and a half or four

occurs here on the East Coast,

everybody is up in arms.

Californians say, "Okay,
we had a four today

this morning," and keep
drinking their coffee.

‐ [Narraechno music)

‐ [Narrator] If a major
earthquake should hit New York,

vulnerable building
types and varied geology

could be a dangerous
mix waiting to combust.

One of the most dangerous
components of this deadly brew

is a geological phenomenon
known as soil liquefaction.

Soil liquefaction
is when partially

or fully saturated
soil, such as landfill,

loses firmness due to the
shaking of an earthquake.

When this happens, the ground

becomes liquified,
much like quicksand.

This can then result in
structural instability.

(energetic chase music)

The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake
that struck San Francisco,

magnitude 7.1, was a tragic
example of liquefaction.

(ominous music)

Before 1906, there was no Marina
District in San Francisco.

After the 1906 quake,
a swampy area downtown

was filled in with debris
from the earthquake

and covered over with dirt.

Houses were built, and the area

became a popular neighborhood.

83 years later, when the
next major earthquake hit,

the loose soil caused tremendous
damage in the district.

(sirens blaring)

‐ The problem is, when
you fill these areas

with sand and dirt,
they will shake

more strongly than
the nearby rock areas.

Kind of like shaking
a bowl of Jello.

‐ [Narrator] Liquefaction
could severely harm

similar landfill areas
in New York City.

As history has shown, even
a magnitude 5 earthquake

could severely damage
thousands of buildings.

(tense music)

And risk analysis
experts estimate

that if a magnitude
7 were to strike

in the same location
as the 1884 quake,

it could kill more
than 6,000 people.

13,000 more could be injured.

(tense music)

‐ We estimate that in
a worst‐case scenario,

something like a 7
magnitude earthquake,

over 30 million people will
be impacted by the event.

‐ [Narrator] A major
metropolis like New York

requires an incredibly complex
underground infrastructure.

(tense music)

‐ Power lines, and
water lines, gas lines

are always susceptible
to ground shaking

from a major earthquake.

‐ [Narrator] There are
also sanitation canals

that carry away wastewater,

and steam pipes delivering
heat to large buildings.

‐ There is a whole
spider network of stuff

going on underground.

‐ [Narrator] Ironically,
you may be safer underground

during an earthquake,
than you would be

standing in the
middle of 42nd Street.

‐ Generally speaking, you
are better off underground

because the amplitude
of shaking diminishes

as you go deeper into the Earth.

It's safer to be underground
than above ground,

or in a building that
sticks way out and shakes.

‐ [Narrator] A vivid
example of this occurred

during the deadly Mexico
City earthquake in 1985.

Soil liquefaction destroyed
hundreds of buildings.

But below ground, the subway
system was almost unscathed.

Within hours, subways were up
and running around the city.

But there are vulnerable spots

underground in New
York, particularly where

different infrastructure
systems intersect.

Water mains may break.

‐ There are sewer pipes
that are very brittle.

Many of them are cast iron.

That's a very bad material
to respond to an earthquake.

‐ [Narrator] Moving
back above ground,

one sees the biggest danger

posed by an
earthquake: buildings.

(tense music)

In 1995, New York
City finally adopted

a seismic building code.

This was a major step in making

all new construction safer
from earthquake damage.

‐ The biggest difference
that we would have now

in our seismic building codes

for the eastern part
of the United States

is the requirement for
stronger connection,

so that if a building
gets pushed sideways

in earthquake shaking, the
connections don't break.

So, if you have a vertical beam

and you have a horizontal beam,

the horizontal beam
will now be attached

more strongly to
the vertical beam,

so that if it shakes,
you don't break the bolts

or break the welds and
have the beam come down.

‐ [Narrator] Bridges and
pre‐code buildings, however,

will remain a major problem

if an earthquake
hits the East coast.

(siren blaring)

‐ [Narrator] A major
challenge for older cities

on the East Coast in
terms of earthquakes

is bringing building
codes up to date.

‐ The building codes for
cities like New York or Boston

generally apply only
to new buildings.

By not reinforcing
old buildings,

we always take the chance
that the earthquake will occur

before that building gets
replaced with a new building.

And that's a major in
our eastern cities.

‐ [Narrator] But there are other
potentially deadly problems

that could befall some
of Manhattan's newest

and most densely
populated neighborhoods.

Areas like Battery Park City.

Before the World Trade
Center was built,

this area at the
southwestern tip of Manhattan

was mostly Hudson River water.

But thousands of
tons of dirt dug up

for the foundations
of the towers

created acres of new ground.

Ground that developers
wanted to build on.

And just as San
Franciscans created

a new neighborhood in
the Marina District,

New Yorkers created
their own neighborhood

built on landfill.

‐ They took the
piers, filled in sand,

and then built wonderful
high‐rise buildings.

They are well‐engineered,

but they were not engineered
with earthquakes in mind.

‐ For areas where you can't
get down to the rock itself,

the typical
construction practice

is to put down
many, many pilings,

and just let the
friction of the pilings

trying to push into the
soil hold the building up.

‐ [Narrator] These buildings
could be vulnerable

to liquefaction in a
major New York quake.

‐ That's exactly
the kind of material

we have in Battery Park City

and other places
in New York City.

So, now we have a situation

where we have very
beautiful buildings,

very expensive buildings,

both residential and
business buildings,

in an area that will
have amplified shaking.

(tense music)

‐ [Narrator] But it's
not just buildings

that could collapse.

There are other hazards,
such as bridges,

and elevated train stations.

Klaus Jacob takes us
down to street level

to demonstrate that engineers

from a much earlier period

of New York City
building history

were trying to prepare
for earthquake hazards.

‐ So, here we are, right smack

where the 125th Street fault

crosses Broadway and Manhattan.

‐ [Narrator] Normally, the
subway runs underground,

but when the engineers
tried to build the subway

through the rock
in the fault zone,

they realized it would
be a difficult challenge.

‐ So, they stayed
level and built

the bridge across the valley.

So, this bridge is there,

because the fault is there.

The bridge is a
document for the fault.

(mellow music)

And what you see here
is actually a hinge,

which rotates like this.

Why did they do that?

Well, there's the
fault over there,

and they thought the fault
would move vertically,

so the bridge could adjust.

What they didn't know
is that the fault

doesn't move this way here.

Nowadays, it moves this way.

What they should have
done is do it this way,

the axis, and then
move around like this

to accommodate the
horizontal fault movement.

For 1905, that's really
very advanced engineering.

Of course, they got it wrong,

but I think they did a very
good job in at least trying

to accommodate earthquakes
and fault motion.

‐ [Narrator] But good
intentions won't be enough

if a major earthquake shakes
New York to its foundation.

For a major urban
center such as New York,

recovery from this
kind of mega disaster

could take many months.

(mellow music)

‐ We estimate that the
amount of property damage

in a major earthquake would be

in the order of $250
billion of property damage.

But, of course, you
have to add to that

the damage to
business interruption,

so that the total economic
disruption in dollar terms

is likely to be at least
half a trillion dollars.

If it's a moderate earthquake

in the 6 or 7 magnitude range,

then even after six
months, we'll be a long way

from having all
the reconstruction

and the rebuilding complete.

(upbeat music)

‐ One of the things I am
feeling ever better about

as a seismologist working

in the northeastern
part of the country

is that the awareness of
earthquakes is growing.

We think about preparedness.

We have more seismic provisions
in our building codes.

There are more and more schools

that are doing earthquake
drills, as well as fire drills.

So, we're gradually becoming
more aware and more planned

for how we would deal
with an earthquake,

if it were to occur.

The problem is, of course,

most people in the
northeastern United States,

most people in New York,
most people in Philadelphia,

most people in
Boston don't think

that they will ever face
a damaging earthquake.

And that is just a fallacy

that we could be proven
wrong on someday.

(ominous music)

‐ [Narrator] For the
island nation of Haiti,

a catastrophic
earthquake in 2010

proved just how tragic

the lack of strong
building codes can be.

(dramatic music)

Port‐au‐Prince, the
capital of Haiti,

a country mired in
grinding poverty.

(ominous music)

A 7.0 earthquake rips
across the island nation.

(clamoring)

Panicked Haitians realize
this is unlike anything

they've ever felt before.

(energetic chase music)

(crashing)

‐ It was relatively shallow.

So, this earthquake
started at a depth

of about maybe
eight miles or so.

‐ An earthquake that's shallow,
that's near the surface,

that means more of that energy
is dumped on the surface.

‐ The earthquake in
Haiti was a perfect storm

of very intense ground shaking
and very weak buildings.

(rumbling)

None of the buildings
in Haiti were designed

to resist earthquake forces.

They don't have any
effective building codes.

‐ [Narrator] Across the region,

the massive quake
delivers a punishing blow.

(speaking in foreign language)

American filmmaker Dan
Woolley has just checked

into a hotel when
disaster strikes.

(crashing)

‐ I heard the explosive sounds

of the building
starting to crack,

and I started to feel the
ground move underneath me.

And within three seconds,
everything went dark.

(tense thumping music)

‐ [Narrator] The hotel
pancakes into a pile of rubble,

knocking Dan unconscious.

‐ When I come to my senses,

I find myself in
complete darkness.

I would put my hand
in front of my face

and I couldn't even see that.

‐ His location in the hotel,

I think, is what saved his life.

He was between a stairwell
and the elevators,

both of which tend
to be core structures

with concrete block walls,

which will have more strength

than other more open
areas in the building.

‐ [Narrator] Dan uses
the flash from his camera

to see the tight space
he's been trapped in,

and something else
that terrifies him.

‐ I pulled up my pant leg,

and as I shone the light
of my camera on my leg,

I saw the worst injury
I'd ever seen in my life.

It was just split open
from just below my knee

to just above my ankle.

‐ [Narrator] Dan
snaps another picture

and spots a safer place to be.

‐ I saw an elevator car

with its door open,
on the lobby floor.

And I just thought, you
know, by what kind of miracle

is this open and
available for me?

And I decided to take the risk

and crawl the 20
feet to the elevator.

And right after I
reached the elevator,

the building started
to shake again.

(suspenseful music)

We were hit with the
first aftershock,

which was a 6.0 aftershock.

And I knew that that
move had saved my life.

‐ [Narrator] Dan hopes
someone will come to his aid

before he bleeds to death.

Meanwhile, aftershocks
continue to rumble.

(energetic chase music)

Finally, after being
buried in debris

for 65 agonizing hours,

Dan hears the words
he's been praying for.

‐ I heard a voice coming down

from the shaft of the elevator.

"I'm here to get
you out of there."

And all of a sudden,
I had hope and I knew,

"Okay, this is not
gonna end here.

This is not gonna end today."

‐ [Rescuer] Come on.

‐ [Rescuer] All right,
we're gonna get you

something to drink first.

(somber music)

‐ [Narrator] The final
death toll is astronomical.

And as a result of
inadequate building codes,

over one million people
were left homeless.

(energetic chase music)

(mellow music)

‐ [Narrator] The heartland
of America has seen

its share of natural disasters:

killer tornadoes and floods
that have destroyed buildings

and swept away entire towns.

But despite its landlocked
position in the country,

earthquake danger also lurks
beneath its fertile fields.

‐ [Narrator] Memphis,
Tennessee sits 50 miles south

of one of the most dangerous
earthquake faults in America.

‐ [Narrator] The New
Madrid fault line.

‐ A major quake in
the New Madrid zone

would create unimaginable
havoc in Memphis, Tennessee,

which is the closest city
to the New Madrid fault

and built largely of brick.

‐ I think the first
reaction to an earthquake,

even if you're a
seismologist today

is this fundamental
sense of terror.

It just, out of
a clear blue sky,

it's like somebody's
picking up your house

and shaking it back‐and‐forth.

‐ [Narrator] The prospect of
an earthquake in the heartland

may seem unimaginable, but
it's actually happened before.

‐ [Narrator] One of
America's worst earthquakes

occurred 200 years ago in
the heart of the country.

‐ The mother of all earthquakes
in the United States

was in 1811 and 1812
in an obscure place

in southern Missouri,
where Missouri, Kentucky,

Arkansas, and Illinois all
meet, called New Madrid.

‐ [Narrator] December, 1811,

The weather was
warmer than usual

in New Madrid, Missouri.

‐ There were about five or 600
people living in New Madrid.

It was a thriving river city.

It was located on
the largest S curve

in that section of the river.

‐ A little after two in the
morning on December 16th,

the Earth sort of came unglued

with the first of
the earthquakes.

(rumbling)
(clattering)

‐ There was an great roar

that's compared in the accounts

to thunder or heavy artillery.

And the ground started shaking,

and people were thrown
from their beds.

Furniture was overturned.

(clattering)

And in the middle of
the night in 1811,

you would have no
idea what this was.

‐ [Narrator] Intense
seismic waves radiated

in all directions for
hundreds of miles.

(pensive music)
(lightning crackles)

‐ The thing about
New Madrid is that

it's in the middle of
a vast alluvial plain.

And the seismic shocks
from it spread unrestricted

across certainly
eastern America.

‐ [Narrator] The quake
was felt as far away

as New York, Boston, Montreal,

and Charleston, South Carolina,

where it rang the bells of
Saint Phillips Episcopal church.

(bells pealing)

‐ People went running
into the street

in their night clothes,

and birds of all kinds

were screeching
and flying about,

cattle were stampeding.

‐ [Narrator] With
the Earth convulsing,

it was impossible to stand.

‐ They threw themselves
on the ground

and started praying in fear.

And one couple grabbed
all their children,

ran into the street.

The mother suddenly realizes

that they've left
the infant behind.

And she says to her
husband, "Go get the baby."

He starts back to the house

and the ground is
shaking so badly,

he's thrown to the
ground a dozen times

before he can finally
get to the house,

crawl inside, reach the
baby, and get back out.

(suspenseful music)

‐ [Narrator] George
Crist, living 100 miles

north of New Madrid,
wrote this account.

‐ [George] There
was a great quaking

of the Earth this morning.

Tables and chairs turned
over, knocked around.

All of us knocked out of bed.

The roar I thought
would leave us dead.

(shattering)

All you could hear was screams
from people and animals.

(screaming)

I don't know how we
lived through it.

‐ [Narrator] There were
no seismographs in 1811

to record the shock.

But based on eyewitness accounts

and destruction reports,

seismologists believe the quake

measured 8.0 on
the Richter Scale,

10 times stronger than the 1906
earthquake in San Francisco.

(suspenseful music)

And the horror wasn't over.

Frightened residents next
confronted inexplicable

large clouds of strange
gas seeping from the Earth.

‐ There was a sulfurous smell,

which came up out of
the bowels of the Earth.

‐ [Narrator] Escaping
into the darkness,

many people reported seeing
bizarre flashing lights.

‐ The lights are not unique.

There are other
earthquakes where people

have said that
they've seen them.

The explanation is that
it has something to do

with the squeezing of the rocks.

They emit electrical signals.

They call that
piezoelectric effect.

‐ [Narrator] After a night
of terror, the sun came up,

but dawn brought no
relief from the tremors.

‐ There were rumblings and
shakes all through the night.

And then at 7:00 a. m.,
there was another shock,

at least as hard as the
first and maybe worse.

And it kept going
all through the day.

(rumbling)

‐ [Narrator] Many
homes and barns

that endured the
2:00 a. m. shaker

now clattered to the ground

from this massive aftershock.

(clattering)

With daylight, people could
see the earthquake destruction.

(ominous music)

(loud cracking)

‐ There were also these
large fissures created.

Sometimes they were four
and five feet across

and 10 miles long.

There are several
accounts of buildings

being swallowed up
into the fissures.

‐ [Narrator] Not only
was the land in turmoil.

The Mississippi River
and lakes in the region

were thrown from their banks.

‐ There were huge disruptions
along the river valley.

The water of the
Mississippi River

was sloshed around
like a bath tub.

Banks caved in and
took trees with them.

‐ Probably the most
dramatic thing that happened

was a huge piece of
land was thrust up,

and this piece of land
crossed the river.

And so all this water
comes down river,

and hits this impediment.

Well, it's like when
you're in a bath tub

and you push the
water away from you,

there's only one place it
can come, back towards you.

And so, a 30‐foot
high wall of water

goes rushing back upstream.

‐ [Narrator] Incredibly,
the mighty Mississippi

flowed backwards.

(waves burbling)

Churning against uplifted land,

it retreated from
its normal course,

charging back upstream
toward Illinois.

(tense music)

At 11:00 a. m., there was yet
another massive aftershock,

estimated to be close to
8 on the Richter scale,

(clattering)

the third huge seismic
event in less than 12 hours.

(ominous music)

Two hunters near the
town of Little Prairie

witnessed something shocking.

‐ They describe the
waters of the lake

draining away in
this earthquake.

This area was
described as a prairie.

That part of the ground got
lifted up in the aftershock,

such that the shallow
lake just disappeared.

And they were there
watching this go on.

‐ [Narrator] During
these large aftershocks,

the Earth belched up immense
quantities of sand and debris

from unusual gaping
fissures in the ground.

Geologists call these
strange geysers sand blows.

(bursting)

‐ So, we're talking
about a lot of sand

being blown up through
the face of the Earth,

sometimes a hundred feet high.

And of course, it's bringing
up whatever is down there.

‐ [Narrator] These
sand volcanoes

are the result of
soil liquefaction.

As the shaking saturated
Earth compacts,

pressure builds up, until a
vent or fissure is forced open.

This brings the watery sand
mixture blasting to the surface.

(noisy gushing)

‐ These things can
be 15, 20‐feet deep.

You can still see evidence
of these sand blows

throughout the Boot
Hill region of Missouri

and down into the
northeastern Arkansas.

‐ [Narrator] Massive
flooding along the river

forced people to flee
to higher ground.

‐ The town of Little Prairie,

which was actually hit harder

than New Madrid in the
first day of earthquakes,

was flooded and
the town evacuated.

‐ These people were
scared to death.

They had just witnessed
a calamitous event,

and they were moving
across a landscape

that they knew very
well, but it had been

so dramatically
affected by the fissures

it would have been
like a war zone.

‐ [Narrator] Amazingly, the
largest shock was yet to come.

Their hell had only begun.

(ominous music)

‐ [Narrator] The cities
of Memphis and St. Louis

lie in the heartland of America,

a place of bedrock values
and fertile farmlands.

(mellow music)

There is little concern for
an obscure earthquake fault

that cuts through the region.

A fault that has wreaked
havoc in the past,

unsettling life, and
transforming the landscape.

(tense music)

Early on the morning
of December 16th, 1811,

an 8.0 earthquake erupting
near the community

of New Madrid, Missouri
shook the ground

for hundreds of miles
in all directions.

(shattering)

Aftershocks continued to rumble

through the area
over the next month.

Residents abandoned
their splintered cabins

and set up makeshift shelters,

with temperatures hovering
just below freezing.

Still, the shaking continued.

‐ The Earth stayed in motion
for quite a long time,

as much as a month.

‐ [Narrator] After
people calmed down,

they began to rebuild,

only to be terrorized again.

‐ Then on January 23rd, 1812,

there was another
monstrous earthquake.

And it created very much
the same type of hysteria

that resulted from the
December 16th quake.

‐ [Narrator] These
were shocking events,

but only precursors
of what was to come.

(thuds)

Frightened residents believed

they were suffering
the wrath of God.

‐ If all of a sudden,
the hand of God

comes down and strikes
right where you're at,

there's just a natural
tendency to take that

as a sign that maybe you
need to clean up your act.

And certainly, that
happened in New Madrid.

The ground was in a
constant state of unrest

with the aftershocks,
they just have the sense

that it was moving
almost constantly.

(somber music)

‐ [Narrator] Then on
February 7th, 1812,

the New Madrid fault unleashed

its most violent
earthquake to date,

8 plus on the Richter scale.

(rumbling)

‐ February 7th is what the
locals called the hard shock,

which is kind of
amazing, by all accounts,

the biggest earthquake
of the sequence.

The fault crossed
the Mississippi River

in three different places.

(ominous music)

‐ [Narrator] The region,
which had been under

so much stress and strain,
could handle no more.

(waves crashing)

This third earthquake
generated a new round

of bizarre events,
more sand blows,

foul vapors, and
collapsing riverbanks.

(waves crashing)

Incredibly, 3,000
square miles of land

east of the Mississippi
River subsided,

in some places, by 10 feet.

(somber music)

Enormous amounts of water
from the Mississippi

poured into the depressed area,

and formed a massive
lake in just a few hours.

(somber music)

These floodwaters covered
a dense hardwood forest

and killed all of the trees
except the Bald Cypress,

which thrive in water.

This body of water,
called Reelfoot Lake,

still exists today.

Pictures taken just 70 years
ago during a seasonal drought

show hundreds of stumps
just below the surface.

The Bald Cypress
left in these waters

tell the story of
this instant lake.

‐ Well, Bald Cypress has a
big root system called knees.

And they have a bulb that
grows at the water level.

One of the interesting
aspects of the subsidence

and why know that it was
three feet of subsidence,

is that after the earthquake,

so with the next 10 to 20 years,

these trees grew a
second bulbous area,

three feet above
the previous one.

‐ [Narrator] Severe
aftershocks continued

for several months.

By the time it was over,
the region had endured

more than 2,000 quakes
and aftershocks,

the most intense
series of quakes

ever experienced
in North America.

No one knows how many died

because the area was
sparsely settled.

‐ From the eyewitness accounts,

I've been able to
pinpoint about 100 deaths

in the New Madrid
earthquake series.

I think it's quite possible
that there could have been

a number more than that,
say, maybe as many as 500,

because there had to
have been many people

on the river who were
just never accounted for

because so many boats
were lost on the river.

‐ [Narrator] It
would take some time

before things returned
to normal in the region.

(thunder crackling)

‐ For at least a
year afterwards,

many of the residents
of New Madrid

lived in a tent city.

Other people left the area,

but soon they started
drifting back,

as people are wont to do.

‐ [Narrator] After a
century of relative quiet,

memories of these quakes faded,

and cities were built up again,

with little knowledge of the
hazard in the Earth below.

Some, like Memphis,
are dangerously close

to the faults that
erupted in 1812.

(tense music)

‐ If we had a series of
New Madrid quakes today,

comparable to what
happened 200 years ago,

the effect on infrastructure,

like highways and bridges,

could be cataclysmic.

(tense music)

‐ [Narrator] The
heartland of America

is sitting on a
geological time bomb.

(clattering)

St. Louis, Missouri
and Memphis, Tennessee

are located near the
most active seismic zone

east of the Rocky Mountains.

This puts both cities
in the cross hairs

of a devastating shaker.

Just 150 miles
south of the city,

and 15 miles beneath
the Earth's surface,

lies the New Madrid fault,

ready to deliver an
eight‐point earthquake

that will topple buildings,

buckle highways,
destroy bridges,

and create a mega disaster
across the region.

The historical record
tells the tale.

(electronic music)

‐ [Narrator] Nearly 200 years
ago, people in this region

had first‐hand experience
with not just one,

but a series of monster quakes.

The United States
Geological Survey

has plotted worldwide
earthquakes

from the last 50 years.

A great majority of them fall
into a predictable pattern.

‐ Most earthquakes in the world
occur along plate boundaries

where two tectonic plates
are moving past one another.

And as they try to
move, the rocks resist

until they break and
you have earthquakes.

(upbeat techno music)

‐ [Narrator] But there is
an active earthquake area

located in
southeastern Missouri,

on the banks of the Mississippi,

the New Madrid seismic zone.

(ominous music)

4,000 earthquakes registered
here over the last 20 years.

And no one knows exactly why.

‐ The theory of plate tectonics

provides an
excellent explanation

as to why we have earthquakes

over most of the world,

but it doesn't explain
why we have earthquakes

right in the middle of a plate.

It violates what the
theory would suggest.

(ominous music)

‐ [Narrator] Though not
part of a plate boundary.

there is some evidence
that there may be

an ancient fault line
under New Madrid,

now buried beneath 3,000
feet of Mississippi sediment.

‐ This entire part of the United
States is under compression

from essentially the
Mid‐Atlantic Ridge,

and the pressure of that pushing

all the way through this area.

We know for a fact that
underneath this area

lies an ancient rift,
a major fault system

that is 600 million years old.

These faults have been activated

various times through history

and have recently turned on.

(tense music)

‐ The problem today is that

what was hitherto an
unpopulated part of America

is now very populated.

There are two cities
that are most at risk.

One is Memphis to the south,

and one is St.
Louis to the north.

‐ [Narrator] And between
these cities today

lies a complex network of roads,

bridges, and
communication links.

The geologic clock is
ticking for New Madrid.

Crisscrossing faults could
erupt in a massive quake

that would make the
1811 and 12 shakers

seem like a dress rehearsal.

Yet, questions still
loom over the Midwest:

when will another
earthquake erupt,

and will the residents be ready?

(tense techno music)

With three‐dimensional
geologic mapping technology,

Roy van Arsdale has modeled
this subterranean world,

hoping to find some answers.

‐ Well, we're compiling
all kinds of information

that we can get in terms
of deep information.

‐ [Narrator] Using sound
waves, scientists determine

the composition of
the rocks and subsoil,

a geological snapshot
of the terrain

under the Mississippi sediments.

This second layer is five
miles below the surface.

‐ We're looking at what's
called the Precambrian surface

in these multi‐colored
depiction.

And what you can
also see is that

the Precambrian geology
is broken by faults.

That's what these planes are
that displaced that surface.

And there are
earthquakes occurring

along these two
particular faults.

These faults are
oriented in such a way

that it looks like they are
trending towards Memphis

and Shelby County,
the star in the model,

so we expect that
they probably do pass

beneath where we are right now.

‐ [Narrator] Next, they
plot onto the geography

the locations of earthquakes
in the region since 1995.

‐ There've been
earthquakes occurring

over a long period of time,

but these are the earthquakes

that are well located.

With the earthquakes in
this pseudo 3‐D projection,

they look like a shotgun blast

until you rotate the model,

that you see that
the earthquakes

align themselves
along the plane.

What you're looking at
now is the Reelfoot fault

and the earthquakes are popping
off along that fault plane.

‐ [Narrator] There it is.

(upbeat techno music)

Pretty small, just
149 miles long

compared to the
San Andreas fault

that stretches more
than 700 miles.

(upbeat techno music)

But it packs a devastating punch

because seismic waves travel
easily through Midwest bedrock.

(upbeat techno music)

Seismic intensity
maps of the 1811 event

show destructive shaking
in each of these quakes,

stretching for
more than 350 miles

from the epicenters on
the New Madrid fault line.

‐ Clearly, the New Madrid
earthquakes were big events,

and they were felt all the
way to the Atlantic seaboard,

and they really rocked
the whole mid‐continent.

That makes them big,
potentially damaging events

and the kind of quakes
that we really worry about.

‐ If conditions stay the same

as they've been for the
past thousand years,

another series of
earthquakes comparable to

the 1811 and 1812
series, is inevitable.

‐ [Narrator] That seems to be

the recurring theme
among seismologists.

When it comes to
these massive tremors,

it's not a matter
of if, but when.

‐ We have to realize
that the magnitude

of the biggest disasters
that we can imagine

are really catastrophic
in proportion.

And there's no way, really,
for governments to prepare.

‐ [Narrator] And then, how
to cope in the aftermath.

‐ There would be aftershocks

that would take place afterward,

that can be just
as nerve‐wracking

as the main shock.

‐ [Lucy] It's the secondary
failures, the compounding,

that takes us from
disaster to catastrophe.

‐ The consequences
could be devastating.