Earthquake and memory: the 2004 tsunami

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National Geographic is commemorating the 20th anniversary of the deadly 2004 tsunami with “Tsunami: Race Against Time,” a new four-part documentary that honors survivors of the earthquake's catastrophe, including a young woman determined to chronicle the unfolding catastrophe. . With her new birthday present, a video camera. There is a technological story behind the human drama too, with implications for carbon sequestration and other underground activities.

Tsunami: Race Against Time debuts on National Geographic Channel beginning Sunday, November 24 at 9/8c. It begins streaming November 25 on Disney+ and Hulu.

Earthquakes, tsunamis and communications

National Geographic invited CleanTechnica to preview the show in October. It depicts humans at their most vulnerable and heroic, interspersed with absolutely terrifying animation created by VFX company Lux, with 9 billion data points crafted through Houdini and Python.

The emotional level of the production is off the charts, so instead of trying to describe it, I'll give you a link to the trailer on YouTube.

If the obvious question about the disaster is why people didn't get out of the way, the answer is just as obvious. The tsunami struck the Indian Ocean region, which had not experienced a large tsunami since 1883. Public awareness of the potential danger was low. In addition, there was no early detection, warning and response system for the Indian Ocean. People just didn't know.

Scientists at NOAA's Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii recorded the initial quake, which occurred 18.6 miles below the ocean floor. They decided that it would not cause a tsunami in their warning area, which is the Pacific Ocean.

That was true. However, as Tsunami: Race Against Time depicts in harrowing detail, workers at the warning center continued to piece together incoming data in real time, minute by minute, to reveal the impacts on the Indian Ocean. The information was at their fingertips, but there was no way to communicate the danger to civil defense authorities in the area.

I had the opportunity to talk about tsunamis with Barry Hirschhorn, a researcher at Scripps Center for Oceanography and Geophysics who worked at the warning center when the quake struck. He and his colleagues are shown in the documentary racing to collect data on the growing impact of the earthquake, and trying to warn officials in the Indian Ocean of the coming tsunami.

Hirschorn described the experience of working with data, knowing that several thousand people were at risk:

“I remember being so focused on trying to be as efficient and calm as possible. I felt like the most important thing I could do was think, study data, and process information… I was pushing other emotions aside, and I was feeling a wave of shock that kept getting worse as the death toll rose.” More and more… The scale of the disaster kept increasing… I was pushing everything aside and trying to focus on how to save people before the wave…'

Hirschorn's work at Scripps involves developing new ways to characterize earthquakes as quickly and accurately as possible. However, he emphasized that public communication is the key element.

“I think education may be more important than anything else,” he said, referring to organized public awareness campaigns and preparedness to respond. He also stressed the value of local knowledge. The receding shoreline and other danger indicators were clearly visible to coastal residents who recognized the signs and evacuated safely.

An earthquake in your area

The risk of catastrophic damage from an earthquake or tsunami is low in many parts of the United States. However, human-caused seismic activity is becoming more common.

Crushing is one reason. Hydraulic fracturing, short for hydrofracking, is a method of extracting oil and natural gas from shale formations by pumping massive amounts of fluids underground. Although much of the traceable activity is related to the disposal of hydraulic fracturing fluid, some evidence also points to the hydraulic fracturing process itself.

Texas, for example, has seen a significant increase in earthquake activity over the past five years, with the disposal of hydraulic fracturing fluids suspected to be the cause. The impacts have been limited so far, but when a building is exposed to frequent tremors, it may be more vulnerable to damage, and concerns grow. Last summer, officials declared a state of emergency after 61 earthquakes struck Scurry County over a seven-day period, including one that was recorded as the fifth-strongest in Texas history.

Beware of carbon sequestration

Carbon sequestration is another risk area. The idea of ​​capturing carbon emissions from a power plant or other industrial site and transporting them via pipeline to an underground disposal site has been tried in the US under the name Project FutureGen, and has failed miserably. Stakeholders have shown their determination, even though the risk of earthquakes is among the issues to be resolved.

A link to the earthquake has also been shown in the practice of underground carbon injection to stimulate oil and gas production, although the evidence is scant so far.

Some answers could come as part of a research project at the University of California – Santa Cruz, where Professor Emily Brodsky is working on a $1.1 million Department of Energy grant aimed at studying the potential for earthquakes to be triggered by different types of human activity including geothermal energy. Well and groundwater management systems, as well as fracking and carbon sequestration.

“Induced earthquakes can be an Achilles' heel for carbon sequestration,” Brodsky said in 2022, when the grant was awarded. “If the rocks fail, you don't have sequestration. It breaks up the carbon dioxide sequestration, and you've wasted time and money without getting anywhere near a change solution.” “Climate”…

However, the study is expected to produce more accurate ways to assess and predict the conditions that cause rock collapse, which may enable developers to avoid vulnerable sites. The result should benefit the geothermal industry as well. Industry stakeholders are relying on new improved geothermal systems to expand the range of potential sites. Unlike traditional geothermal technology, the improved systems do not depend on existing rock formations. Instead, they deploy man-made underground reservoirs, made up of crushed rock.

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Photo (screenshot): A new documentary from National Geographic depicts the human struggle in the wake of the deadly 2004 tsunami, including footage from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii (photo courtesy of National Geographic).

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