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00:00:04,971 --> 00:00:07,098
Out of need or curiosity

2
00:00:07,240 --> 00:00:09,231
man has learned much about the Earth on

3
00:00:09,376 --> 00:00:12,243
which he is both guest and prisoner

4
00:00:12,379 --> 00:00:15,041
Often baffled in his brief journey
through time

5
00:00:15,181 --> 00:00:18,912
he has found reassurance in the
order revealed in nature

6
00:00:19,052 --> 00:00:21,612
the recurring sequence of the seasons

7
00:00:21,755 --> 00:00:23,950
the symmetry in storm

8
00:00:25,592 --> 00:00:28,152
Yet nothing has lessened his terror

9
00:00:28,294 --> 00:00:30,694
when nature seems to turn against him

10
00:00:30,830 --> 00:00:34,266
when the Earth shudders and
explodes in fire

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00:00:34,401 --> 00:00:36,767
maKing rubble of all he has built

12
00:00:50,183 --> 00:00:51,912
"Twenty thousand people dead;

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00:00:52,052 --> 00:00:53,883
anywhere from fifty thousand
to one hundred

14
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and fifty thousand injured..."

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00:00:55,688 --> 00:00:58,919
"If that's it,
there's a CCP there

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00:00:59,059 --> 00:00:59,821
The communication may go bad

17
00:00:59,959 --> 00:01:01,620
but that's the angle they ought to go."

18
00:01:10,570 --> 00:01:11,832
"There's two more in there."

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00:01:14,074 --> 00:01:16,406
Against the sudden blows of
an adversary

20
00:01:16,543 --> 00:01:18,568
that often striKes without warning

21
00:01:18,711 --> 00:01:21,305
some have tried to create defenses

22
00:01:21,448 --> 00:01:24,747
Powerless to prevent eruption
or earthquaKe

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00:01:24,884 --> 00:01:27,216
they seeK to diminish its toll

24
00:01:31,591 --> 00:01:36,392
Others light candles of faith
seeK safety in prayer

25
00:01:57,684 --> 00:02:00,847
Today new candles light the darK

26
00:02:02,122 --> 00:02:06,320
instruments whose beams are refected
from distant objects

27
00:02:06,459 --> 00:02:09,394
or catch signals from outer space

28
00:02:09,529 --> 00:02:13,431
to measure the smallest movements
of the Earth's surface

29
00:02:14,234 --> 00:02:16,725
Now man has devised new concepts

30
00:02:16,870 --> 00:02:19,134
of the forces altering
our planet

31
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forces that move the continents

32
00:02:23,209 --> 00:02:25,609
twist the globe's thin crust

33
00:02:25,745 --> 00:02:29,181
build vast mountain ranges
even beneath the sea

34
00:02:34,521 --> 00:02:39,049
LiKe all living things
Earth is in ceaseless change

35
00:02:39,192 --> 00:02:45,131
Born of fire, it too is being
transformed day by day

36
00:03:31,844 --> 00:03:34,677
Once this was blanK ocean the cold

37
00:03:34,814 --> 00:03:38,477
storm-swept Atlantic off the
southern coast of Iceland

38
00:03:38,618 --> 00:03:43,317
Then, in fiery eruption during
the winter of 1963

39
00:03:43,456 --> 00:03:46,983
the island of surtsey began to
emerge from the sea

40
00:03:47,694 --> 00:03:50,162
Today its single square mile of ash

41
00:03:50,296 --> 00:03:53,026
and lava forms one of
the newer additions

42
00:03:53,166 --> 00:03:55,760
to the land surface of the globe

43
00:03:55,902 --> 00:04:00,236
Yet this virgin terrain is
no longer wasteland

44
00:04:00,373 --> 00:04:02,671
Already life has found it

45
00:04:02,809 --> 00:04:05,107
Already seeds borne by wind

46
00:04:05,245 --> 00:04:07,475
and wave have taKen root in the ash

47
00:04:07,614 --> 00:04:11,072
and birds have begun to
nest along the cliffs

48
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A closed preserve to casual visitors

49
00:04:21,561 --> 00:04:24,530
the island has become a
living laboratory

50
00:04:24,664 --> 00:04:27,963
Here scientists from distan
countries can study the ways

51
00:04:28,101 --> 00:04:29,762
by which life tests

52
00:04:29,902 --> 00:04:32,962
and gradually seizes a new domain

53
00:04:33,106 --> 00:04:36,132
Among them is Dr. Robert Ballard, geologist

54
00:04:36,276 --> 00:04:40,076
from the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution on Cape Cod

55
00:04:42,815 --> 00:04:45,283
"The story I often tell to try
to get across the point

56
00:04:45,418 --> 00:04:47,147
that the Earth really is alive

57
00:04:48,254 --> 00:04:50,279
if you were to interview a
butterfly

58
00:04:51,758 --> 00:04:54,420
standing on a branch of a sequoia tree

59
00:04:55,194 --> 00:04:59,062
Now, a butterfly lives for
only a few days

60
00:05:00,233 --> 00:05:03,293
and a sequoia tree can live
for over a thousand years

61
00:05:04,337 --> 00:05:05,736
And if you were to asK that butterfly

62
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'D' you perceive the object on

63
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which you are standing
as being alive?

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00:05:13,313 --> 00:05:15,838
' 'Nd the butterfly would say,
'O' course not

65
00:05:15,982 --> 00:05:18,951
I'v' been here all my life five days

66
00:05:19,085 --> 00:05:21,349
and the tree hasn't done a thing

67
00:05:22,121 --> 00:05:24,112
Same problem with the human being

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00:05:24,824 --> 00:05:26,758
If you were to asK a human being

69
00:05:26,893 --> 00:05:29,555
perhaps one that's lived
a hundred years

70
00:05:29,696 --> 00:05:32,324
if they perceive the Earth
which is over four

71
00:05:32,465 --> 00:05:35,025
and a half billion years in age
as being alive

72
00:05:35,902 --> 00:05:36,732
they'd probably say

73
00:05:36,869 --> 00:05:38,769
Of course not. I've been here
all my life

74
00:05:38,905 --> 00:05:40,270
and it hasn't done a thing.'

75
00:05:40,406 --> 00:05:43,671
But the Earth really is a
very dynamic object

76
00:05:43,810 --> 00:05:46,745
In fact, I thinK of it as
a living organism."

77
00:05:46,879 --> 00:05:52,317
LiKe Surtsey, Earth too is an island
not in the North Atlantic

78
00:05:52,452 --> 00:05:54,784
but in the vaster sea of space

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00:05:55,621 --> 00:05:58,852
In time beyond the measure of
man's brief experience

80
00:05:58,991 --> 00:06:02,791
it too is in slow and ceaseless change

81
00:06:03,363 --> 00:06:05,297
Some two hundred million years ago

82
00:06:05,431 --> 00:06:10,733
its landmasses formed a single
continent scientists call Pangea

83
00:06:12,705 --> 00:06:17,142
Then slowly, Pangea's fracturing
plates began to move apart

84
00:06:17,276 --> 00:06:19,836
liKe pieces of a vast jigsaw puzzle

85
00:06:19,979 --> 00:06:21,879
gradually assuming the shapes

86
00:06:22,014 --> 00:06:24,949
and arrangement we recognize
on maps today

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00:06:29,455 --> 00:06:33,619
Riding upon a semiplastic layer
of Earth's fiery interior

88
00:06:33,760 --> 00:06:36,786
the ocean floors and continents
that form its crust

89
00:06:36,929 --> 00:06:40,092
or lithosphere are in continuing motion

90
00:06:41,167 --> 00:06:44,762
Through the continents seem
stationary to living populations

91
00:06:44,904 --> 00:06:48,032
they move an inch or more each year

92
00:06:48,174 --> 00:06:51,007
The friction occurring along the
plate margins

93
00:06:51,144 --> 00:06:52,873
is often marKed by earthquaKes

94
00:06:53,012 --> 00:06:54,604
and volcanic eruption

95
00:06:56,549 --> 00:06:59,518
Sometimes, as in California's San
Andreas Fault

96
00:06:59,652 --> 00:07:03,520
the opposing plates grind against
each other in a sideways

97
00:07:03,656 --> 00:07:06,318
or lateral motion called translation

98
00:07:07,226 --> 00:07:10,957
It is when a section of the fault
locKs, builds up tension

99
00:07:11,097 --> 00:07:14,863
then abruptly releases
that major earthquaKes occur

100
00:07:21,474 --> 00:07:23,339
In other areas such as Japan

101
00:07:23,476 --> 00:07:25,501
in a movement Known as subduction

102
00:07:25,645 --> 00:07:30,241
the edge of one crustal plate slowly
slides beneath another

103
00:07:30,383 --> 00:07:33,819
causing volcanic activity and tremors

104
00:07:38,424 --> 00:07:41,587
Along the 46,000 mile Mid
Ocean Ridge

105
00:07:41,727 --> 00:07:44,787
in an action called spreading
molten rocK

106
00:07:44,931 --> 00:07:48,423
or magma, emerges through fissures
in the ocean floor

107
00:07:48,568 --> 00:07:51,696
soon congealing in new submerged crust

108
00:07:51,838 --> 00:07:53,601
Sometimes, as in Iceland

109
00:07:53,739 --> 00:07:56,071
and its offshore islands of Surtsey
and Heimaey

110
00:07:56,209 --> 00:08:00,111
the action has created
new land above the sea

111
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Barely two hundred miles south
of the Arctic Circle

112
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on the fiery seam still building
Iceland itself

113
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Heimaey is accustomed to change

114
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Port or the fleet that fishes
the abundant waters nearby

115
00:08:29,175 --> 00:08:33,009
its only town of Vestmannaeyjar
has seen many a storm

116
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taKe its toll of men and ships

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Hardy descendants of the ViKings

118
00:08:38,985 --> 00:08:42,386
who colonized the island more
than a thousand years ago

119
00:08:42,522 --> 00:08:45,582
its people long have learned to
live with uncertainty

120
00:08:45,725 --> 00:08:49,422
to meet risK and hazard
with a cheerful face

121
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Each summer
by long-standing tradition

122
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the entire population moves
out of town

123
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on a three-day community holiday

124
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It is a gathering that harKs
bacK to ViKing times

125
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when villagers assembled to
review the spoKen laws

126
00:09:14,854 --> 00:09:16,151
by which they lived

127
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On the grassy floor of an
anicent volcanic crater

128
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they build a tent city where the
people of the town rediscover

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each other in a quite different setting

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Side by side, they celebrate
many things

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home rule

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won from DenmarK more than a century ago

133
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the inheritance of their ViKing past

134
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their survival of dangers

135
00:09:52,391 --> 00:09:55,485
that sometimes rise from
the Earth itself

136
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At midnight

137
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young men set fire to a great wooden
structure built on the hillside

138
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As the flames flare against the darK

139
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they summon varied emotions
among the watchers

140
00:10:25,024 --> 00:10:29,961
To their Nordic forefathers fire
brought warmth in the numbing cold

141
00:10:30,096 --> 00:10:33,554
It was a symbol of life, of rebirth

142
00:10:33,699 --> 00:10:36,395
But the people of Heimaey
have long Known

143
00:10:36,535 --> 00:10:40,130
that it also can bring destruction
and death

144
00:10:48,047 --> 00:10:52,984
In the winter darKness of
January 1973 it brought disaster

145
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Just beyond the town's edge a fissure
cracKed the earth

146
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abruptly spewing molten lava and
ash hundreds of feet into the air

147
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Roused from their beds
by the sudden threat

148
00:11:04,130 --> 00:11:07,998
most of the population was evacuated
to the nearby mainland

149
00:11:08,134 --> 00:11:12,935
but volunteers would fight a five-month
battle with the new volcano

150
00:11:13,072 --> 00:11:16,166
now called Eldfell, "Fire Mountain."

151
00:11:22,982 --> 00:11:25,416
Within a weeK Eldfell
had raised a blacK

152
00:11:25,551 --> 00:11:28,452
smoldering cone six hundred
feet high

153
00:11:28,587 --> 00:11:30,714
and covered the town in ash

154
00:11:30,856 --> 00:11:33,586
More than a hundred buildings
had been burned

155
00:11:33,726 --> 00:11:36,786
or crushed under the advancing wall
of lava

156
00:11:46,238 --> 00:11:50,800
In early February the lava threatened
to blocK the entrance to the harbor

157
00:11:51,677 --> 00:11:54,874
Desperately, emergency teams fought
to dam the flow

158
00:11:55,014 --> 00:11:56,311
by hardening the lava

159
00:11:56,449 --> 00:11:59,384
with great streams of cold seawater

160
00:12:04,190 --> 00:12:08,149
At last, by heroic effort
the harbor was saved

161
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But as the eruption continued
through ensuing months

162
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the lava would add almost one
square mile to the island

163
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while much of the town lay buried
under cinders and ash

164
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It would taKe years to dig out

165
00:12:29,148 --> 00:12:33,050
But at last the precincts of the
dead are tidy again

166
00:12:33,185 --> 00:12:35,983
Elsewhere in Iceland life goes on

167
00:12:36,122 --> 00:12:38,215
Under the shadows of the volcanoes

168
00:12:38,357 --> 00:12:40,222
that remain a perpetual enigma

169
00:12:40,359 --> 00:12:44,056
farmers gather crops, prepare
for the winter to come

170
00:12:44,830 --> 00:12:46,092
They are doing more

171
00:12:46,232 --> 00:12:51,033
Boldly, Icelanders are maKing use of
the very forces that threaten them

172
00:12:52,204 --> 00:12:54,934
In the north of the mainland
near the Krafla volcano

173
00:12:55,074 --> 00:12:58,874
they are attempting to harness the
heat of a great geothermal field

174
00:12:59,011 --> 00:13:02,606
to power homes and
industrial installations

175
00:13:14,727 --> 00:13:18,891
Recent eruptions have reminded
Icelanders of the unpredictability

176
00:13:19,031 --> 00:13:21,556
of the powers they are trying
to employ

177
00:13:22,301 --> 00:13:24,166
With Dr. Haraldur Sigurdsson

178
00:13:24,303 --> 00:13:26,703
volcanologist from the University
of Rhode Island

179
00:13:26,839 --> 00:13:29,740
Dr. Ballard visits a site where
recent lava flow

180
00:13:29,875 --> 00:13:33,106
has threatened a newly-built
electric power plant

181
00:13:40,386 --> 00:13:42,081
"There's the power plant below
us here

182
00:13:42,221 --> 00:13:43,745
and if you looK over this way..."

183
00:13:43,889 --> 00:13:45,823
"Yeah. You can see the recent flows."

184
00:13:45,958 --> 00:13:47,858
"The entire caldera, recent lavas..."

185
00:13:47,993 --> 00:13:49,483
"Now the flows that were what

186
00:13:49,628 --> 00:13:51,255
earlier this year, are down there?"

187
00:13:51,397 --> 00:13:54,332
"Yes. And you can see the steam
defining the fissure

188
00:13:54,466 --> 00:13:56,559
that's been erupting during the
last five years

189
00:13:56,702 --> 00:13:59,398
and the blacK lava flows that have
been coming out."

190
00:13:59,538 --> 00:14:03,702
"So if, let's say, there were another
eruption right along the caldera

191
00:14:03,843 --> 00:14:06,073
where we see the fissure opening up

192
00:14:06,212 --> 00:14:08,646
the lava could just come down
this valley

193
00:14:08,781 --> 00:14:11,875
and go right around the corner
to the power plant."

194
00:14:13,018 --> 00:14:16,317
Icelanders invested in the
costly geothermal power plant

195
00:14:16,455 --> 00:14:20,084
because the field had lain dormant
for over two hundred years

196
00:14:21,293 --> 00:14:25,730
Begun in 1975 as an alternative
to a hydroelectric dam

197
00:14:25,865 --> 00:14:28,527
the plant was almost immediately
threatened

198
00:14:28,667 --> 00:14:30,692
by a series of violent eruptions

199
00:14:30,836 --> 00:14:34,101
that brought the lava flow within
a mile and a half

200
00:14:39,879 --> 00:14:43,906
Trying to discern a possible
pattern in the Krafla volcanic activity

201
00:14:44,049 --> 00:14:45,949
scientists Keep watch on the plant

202
00:14:46,085 --> 00:14:49,077
and the surrounding area
for ominous signs

203
00:14:49,221 --> 00:14:51,246
Here one of the monitoring
team checKs

204
00:14:51,390 --> 00:14:53,085
for any ground tilt

205
00:14:53,225 --> 00:14:56,319
which could unbalance
and destroy the turbines

206
00:15:02,735 --> 00:15:05,568
In a field near the plant
he checKs daily

207
00:15:05,704 --> 00:15:08,002
for signs of subterranean activity

208
00:15:08,140 --> 00:15:10,768
measures any possible change
in the gap

209
00:15:10,910 --> 00:15:14,402
between two pipes planted on opposite
sides of a fissure

210
00:15:23,923 --> 00:15:26,619
LiKe a serpent's bacK rising
above the sea

211
00:15:26,759 --> 00:15:31,196
the steaming crest of the Mid-Ocean
Ridge stretches across Iceland

212
00:15:31,330 --> 00:15:34,925
Here Ballard and Sigurdsson visit
the site of the recent lava

213
00:15:35,067 --> 00:15:37,194
flow that is still cooling

214
00:15:51,717 --> 00:15:55,949
"We're in the fissure that erupted
six months ago."

215
00:15:56,088 --> 00:15:59,251
"So everything we are walKing on
is less than six months in age?"

216
00:15:59,391 --> 00:16:01,689
"That's right. And it's still
cooling off here

217
00:16:01,827 --> 00:16:03,920
That's why it's still liKe a sauna bath."

218
00:16:04,063 --> 00:16:06,554
"It's about as fresh as you can get
short of having it red."

219
00:16:06,699 --> 00:16:09,463
"Yes. Let's taKe a looK around here."

220
00:16:10,436 --> 00:16:13,303
"Now, if you can sit without
cutting your pants

221
00:16:18,310 --> 00:16:19,641
It's even warm

222
00:16:23,816 --> 00:16:27,912
Now, I understand that when the
eruption began to taKe place

223
00:16:28,053 --> 00:16:31,489
a tourist from DenmarK
was standing right

224
00:16:31,623 --> 00:16:33,523
where the fissure opened up and was..."

225
00:16:33,659 --> 00:16:39,564
"Quite close to the area
where the crust split

226
00:16:39,698 --> 00:16:43,361
and rifted apart and the
lava started to squirt up."

227
00:16:43,502 --> 00:16:45,231
"So he just tooK off."

228
00:16:46,138 --> 00:16:50,040
"Actually, I understand the lava
was moving quite rapidly here."

229
00:16:50,175 --> 00:16:51,335
"How fast?"

230
00:16:51,477 --> 00:16:52,569
"Up to ten meters per second."

231
00:16:52,711 --> 00:16:55,737
"So you'd have to be a... Let's see

232
00:16:55,881 --> 00:16:58,406
the world's record for
the 100-yard dash is..."

233
00:16:58,550 --> 00:16:59,517
"9.8."

234
00:16:59,651 --> 00:17:03,553
"So it's running about as fast as
the world's record

235
00:17:03,689 --> 00:17:05,748
Hope the Dane was a fast runner."

236
00:17:05,891 --> 00:17:09,850
"He was. He got away. So far there
have been no casualties."

237
00:17:09,995 --> 00:17:11,189
"Before this tooK place

238
00:17:11,330 --> 00:17:13,355
this area had been quiet for a long
long time

239
00:17:13,499 --> 00:17:16,366
This is why they thought it was safe
to build the power plant."

240
00:17:16,502 --> 00:17:21,064
"This area has been without volcanic
activity for about 250 years

241
00:17:21,206 --> 00:17:25,006
And therefore, there was
the general feeling

242
00:17:25,144 --> 00:17:27,510
that there wasn't an imminent danger

243
00:17:27,646 --> 00:17:30,979
and it was a worthwhile risK to
taKe to start constructs

244
00:17:31,116 --> 00:17:35,712
of a geothermal power station
in this central volcano."

245
00:17:35,854 --> 00:17:37,719
"And they've invested what?"

246
00:17:37,856 --> 00:17:40,381
"Oh, probably about 60 million dollars"

247
00:17:40,526 --> 00:17:44,189
"So 60 million dollars is
really in peril then

248
00:17:44,329 --> 00:17:46,388
if another major eruption occurs here

249
00:17:46,532 --> 00:17:48,227
and this time it does go over

250
00:17:48,367 --> 00:17:50,494
that pass and down into the basin?"

251
00:17:50,636 --> 00:17:52,365
"Well, that's always a possibility

252
00:17:52,504 --> 00:17:55,405
But in Iceland there is...
Iceland is a country

253
00:17:55,541 --> 00:17:57,406
where you have to live with
the elements."

254
00:18:12,357 --> 00:18:15,815
In patient calm, Icelanders
accept the gamble nature

255
00:18:15,961 --> 00:18:18,794
has imposed upon them
the frigid climate

256
00:18:18,931 --> 00:18:22,890
the sweeping storms, the hidden
threat beneath their feet

257
00:18:25,938 --> 00:18:28,930
Even as they Keep a wary eye
on the dangerous giant

258
00:18:29,074 --> 00:18:31,736
who has built the very island on
which they live

259
00:18:31,877 --> 00:18:35,313
they use his heat to warm their
cities and homes

260
00:18:35,447 --> 00:18:38,848
even their indoor gardens a Kind
of compensation

261
00:18:38,984 --> 00:18:41,919
for the risKs they philosophically endure

262
00:18:45,090 --> 00:18:49,754
In winter darKness they taKe
light from the subterranean depths

263
00:18:49,895 --> 00:18:53,126
Warmed by the hidden furnace of
the Earth itself

264
00:18:53,265 --> 00:18:56,428
vegetables ripen in the arctic cold

265
00:18:58,937 --> 00:19:03,135
In the volcano's fiery breath
flowers bloom

266
00:19:13,652 --> 00:19:15,381
Yet the risK remains

267
00:19:15,521 --> 00:19:19,423
Hardly a year after eruptions
threatened the power installation

268
00:19:19,558 --> 00:19:21,583
Sigurdsson returned to rafla

269
00:19:21,727 --> 00:19:25,185
as the restless giant stirred
and became active

270
00:19:25,898 --> 00:19:27,889
Once more the lava flow approached

271
00:19:28,033 --> 00:19:31,230
within one-and-a-half miles of
the electric turbines

272
00:19:50,722 --> 00:19:53,555
Though the fiery fountains
gradually subsided

273
00:19:53,692 --> 00:19:57,219
the eruption raised the ground
level to provide a slope

274
00:19:57,362 --> 00:20:00,957
for future lava flows to travel
toward the power plant

275
00:20:15,347 --> 00:20:18,748
For the present the rafla
installation is secure

276
00:20:18,884 --> 00:20:23,685
But Icelanders Know that eventually
they many have to pay the price

277
00:20:23,822 --> 00:20:26,620
of living on the edge of creation

278
00:20:39,938 --> 00:20:42,168
Sometimes the action of the
Mid-Ocean Ridge

279
00:20:42,307 --> 00:20:45,003
brings surprisingly opposite effects

280
00:20:45,811 --> 00:20:49,611
In Iceland its slow spreading
process over millions of years

281
00:20:49,748 --> 00:20:53,309
has created the great island on
which the people live

282
00:20:53,452 --> 00:20:55,147
Far southeastward

283
00:20:55,287 --> 00:20:59,451
along the nearly 3,000-mile furrow
of Africa's Great Rift Valley

284
00:20:59,591 --> 00:21:01,582
the spreading action is slowly

285
00:21:01,727 --> 00:21:05,219
but inexorably opening the heart
of a continent

286
00:21:06,298 --> 00:21:08,232
In measurable time to come

287
00:21:08,367 --> 00:21:12,064
eastern Africa will be detached
from its mother continent

288
00:21:12,204 --> 00:21:16,163
and this dusty desert landscape
will be an ocean floor

289
00:21:23,915 --> 00:21:27,715
Already, in the Afar Triangle
at the Horn of Africa the process

290
00:21:27,853 --> 00:21:32,085
has begun the sea is invading
the land

291
00:21:37,796 --> 00:21:39,855
At Djibouti's Ghoubet-Al-harab

292
00:21:39,998 --> 00:21:42,523
an inland extension of the Gulf
of Aden

293
00:21:42,668 --> 00:21:44,659
the sea is temporarily delayed

294
00:21:44,803 --> 00:21:49,866
by a narrow barrier of small volcanic
hills sealing off LaKe Assal

295
00:21:55,247 --> 00:21:58,444
But as magma seeps through
fissures in the Earth's crust

296
00:21:58,583 --> 00:22:01,450
and the seven-mile rift widens
and sinKs

297
00:22:01,586 --> 00:22:05,488
the sea inevitably will pour
into the lowlands beyond

298
00:22:11,463 --> 00:22:13,727
Already seawater from
Ghoubet-Al-harab

299
00:22:13,865 --> 00:22:15,730
has begun to worK its way downward

300
00:22:15,867 --> 00:22:18,301
through cracKs and
subterranean channels

301
00:22:18,437 --> 00:22:20,871
undergoing substantial
chemical change

302
00:22:21,006 --> 00:22:24,203
as it penetrates the heated
rocK layers below

303
00:22:31,650 --> 00:22:34,551
With Dr. Jean-Louis Cheminee
of the French National Center

304
00:22:34,686 --> 00:22:36,176
for Scientific Research

305
00:22:36,321 --> 00:22:39,484
Ballard descend into a recently
active fisure through

306
00:22:39,624 --> 00:22:43,583
which a small flow of seawater
reaches the distant laKe

307
00:22:48,867 --> 00:22:51,563
"So this is the sea coming in, right?"

308
00:22:51,703 --> 00:22:56,402
"Yes, by a system of fissures."

309
00:22:56,541 --> 00:22:57,508
"This is where the water

310
00:22:57,642 --> 00:22:59,542
that we see on the other side
of the rift

311
00:22:59,678 --> 00:23:02,545
going into LaKe Assal originates from?"

312
00:23:02,681 --> 00:23:03,443
"Yes."

313
00:23:03,582 --> 00:23:05,277
"So it comes in from the sea..."

314
00:23:05,417 --> 00:23:09,046
"...from the sea and crosses the rift

315
00:23:09,187 --> 00:23:13,385
by the fissures inside the mountain..."

316
00:23:13,525 --> 00:23:15,049
"...and out the other side."

317
00:23:15,193 --> 00:23:15,784
"Yes."

318
00:23:15,927 --> 00:23:18,623
"Now, was this fissure
in existence in 1978?"

319
00:23:18,764 --> 00:23:19,560
"Yes, yes."

320
00:23:19,698 --> 00:23:21,393
"It just widened?"

321
00:23:21,533 --> 00:23:22,363
"Just widened."

322
00:23:22,501 --> 00:23:25,766
"Because a lot of these rocKs
are just perched

323
00:23:25,904 --> 00:23:27,565
as if they're ready to come down."

324
00:23:27,706 --> 00:23:31,665
"And the car here - just here..."

325
00:23:31,810 --> 00:23:34,779
"Yeah, well, we should move the car."

326
00:23:40,886 --> 00:23:42,410
"So we go liKe this."

327
00:23:43,188 --> 00:23:44,883
"So we'll go across the..."

328
00:23:45,023 --> 00:23:47,423
"Not across exactly liKe this. No."

329
00:23:47,559 --> 00:23:49,584
"We go across this area, right?

330
00:23:49,728 --> 00:23:52,663
Now how long will it taKe us to
get to Assal?

331
00:23:52,798 --> 00:23:55,130
If we went from here all
the way across

332
00:23:55,267 --> 00:23:57,758
went across that flat
desert-liKe area

333
00:23:57,903 --> 00:23:59,461
how long would it taKe to get there?"

334
00:24:00,539 --> 00:24:02,006
"Maybe six hours."

335
00:24:02,140 --> 00:24:03,664
"Six hours."
"Yeah, six hours

336
00:24:03,809 --> 00:24:06,744
Terrible road. Six, six and a half."

337
00:24:16,555 --> 00:24:20,821
In torrid heat that reaches more
than 130 degrees Fahrenheit

338
00:24:20,959 --> 00:24:26,295
the water here and in the Rift Valley
is often reduced to a caustic brine

339
00:24:27,065 --> 00:24:29,431
"I'm standing 500 feet below
sea level

340
00:24:29,568 --> 00:24:31,297
near the shore of LaKe Assal."

341
00:24:31,436 --> 00:24:33,904
"The ocean is only six miles away

342
00:24:34,039 --> 00:24:36,940
If it weren't for these young lava
flows filling the valley floor

343
00:24:37,075 --> 00:24:38,406
I'd be under water right now

344
00:24:38,543 --> 00:24:40,670
In fact, the ocean is
trying to do that

345
00:24:40,812 --> 00:24:42,746
As rifting develops in the valley

346
00:24:42,881 --> 00:24:45,179
these deep fissures start to form

347
00:24:45,317 --> 00:24:47,410
This lets water travel beneath
the valley

348
00:24:47,552 --> 00:24:48,246
through the fissures

349
00:24:48,386 --> 00:24:51,253
and it can enter LaKe Assal
along this outlet

350
00:24:51,389 --> 00:24:53,323
In fact, there are several of
them in the valley."

351
00:24:53,458 --> 00:24:56,791
"At the present moment it's so
hot that most of the seawater

352
00:24:56,928 --> 00:25:00,523
that comes in evaporates
leaving the salt behind

353
00:25:00,665 --> 00:25:02,326
But as rifting continues

354
00:25:02,467 --> 00:25:05,265
more and more water will pour
through these fissure systems

355
00:25:05,403 --> 00:25:07,997
until the sea claims
this entire area

356
00:25:08,139 --> 00:25:09,697
as the ocean penetrates deeper

357
00:25:09,841 --> 00:25:12,241
and deeper into the
continent of Africa."

358
00:25:24,823 --> 00:25:29,260
Here, as in Iceland, the spreading
action creates new crust

359
00:25:29,394 --> 00:25:31,555
Elsewhere, in compensation

360
00:25:31,696 --> 00:25:35,598
the distant edges of an expanding
plate must be destroyed

361
00:25:42,107 --> 00:25:43,574
Outpost of Asia

362
00:25:43,708 --> 00:25:46,768
Japan's island chain bears the shocK
of the Philippine

363
00:25:46,912 --> 00:25:50,473
and Pacific Plates as they thrust
beneath the Eurasian Plate

364
00:25:50,615 --> 00:25:52,708
in a massive subduction zone

365
00:25:54,152 --> 00:25:56,347
In the deep ocean trenches off Japan

366
00:25:56,488 --> 00:26:00,117
the aging plates plunge bacK into
Earth's molten interior

367
00:26:00,258 --> 00:26:02,351
causing powerful disturbances

368
00:26:02,494 --> 00:26:04,826
The mists here are dragon's breath

369
00:26:04,963 --> 00:26:08,558
the hissing steam of Japan's 20,000
hot springs

370
00:26:08,700 --> 00:26:10,964
and forty sctive volcanoes

371
00:26:23,348 --> 00:26:26,010
With a long history of
destructive earthquaKes

372
00:26:26,151 --> 00:26:30,087
Japan has begun a massive effort
to prepare for the future

373
00:26:30,221 --> 00:26:33,281
In ShizuoKa Prefecture near ToKyo

374
00:26:33,425 --> 00:26:36,258
school children taKe lessons
in reading, writing

375
00:26:36,394 --> 00:26:39,557
and catastrophe learning the sKills

376
00:26:39,698 --> 00:26:41,290
that may save their lives

377
00:26:47,706 --> 00:26:50,971
In this temple to the victims
of a great disaster

378
00:26:51,109 --> 00:26:54,510
memory and reality are liKe
the mismatched faces

379
00:26:54,646 --> 00:26:56,273
of an earthquaKe fault

380
00:26:56,414 --> 00:27:01,784
Here survivors come to witness
again the day a world ended

381
00:27:01,920 --> 00:27:07,722
search again for faces that exist
only in old men's dreams

382
00:27:09,494 --> 00:27:13,931
Just before noon on Saturday
September 1, 1923

383
00:27:14,065 --> 00:27:19,128
an earthquaKe registering 7.9 on the
Richter scale strucK ToKyo

384
00:27:19,270 --> 00:27:22,603
shaKing the earth for a full
five minutes

385
00:27:22,741 --> 00:27:26,837
Ignited by hot coals thrown
from stoves against paper walls

386
00:27:26,978 --> 00:27:30,505
and straw matting
the city burst into flame

387
00:27:30,649 --> 00:27:32,674
As the people fled into the streets

388
00:27:32,817 --> 00:27:35,285
they converged on the river

389
00:27:37,389 --> 00:27:41,223
From opposite banKs refugees started
across the wooden bridges

390
00:27:41,359 --> 00:27:45,056
only to meet head on in midspan

391
00:27:45,196 --> 00:27:48,757
Surrounded by walls of fire
with no excape

392
00:27:48,900 --> 00:27:52,734
the fleeing mass was locKed
in panic and chaos

393
00:27:52,871 --> 00:27:58,207
Next day two-thirds of ToKyo lay
in smoldering blacK ash

394
00:27:58,343 --> 00:28:02,507
and more than 140,000 persons
were dead

395
00:28:11,489 --> 00:28:15,357
Today the Japanese are building
more than temples to the dead

396
00:28:15,493 --> 00:28:19,327
Fearful of a predicted recurrence
of the great anto quaKe

397
00:28:19,464 --> 00:28:21,796
thirteen million persons in the ToKyo

398
00:28:21,933 --> 00:28:26,393
and nearby ToKai areas participate
in a vast drill in

399
00:28:26,538 --> 00:28:30,030
which every citizen is learning to
play a role

400
00:28:32,043 --> 00:28:34,876
Public communications center
during a crisis

401
00:28:35,013 --> 00:28:37,641
NH television relays information

402
00:28:37,782 --> 00:28:41,741
from the Japan Meteorological
Agency, or JMA

403
00:28:41,886 --> 00:28:44,946
Here a vast warning system Keeps
constant watch

404
00:28:45,090 --> 00:28:47,081
through scores of seismic stations

405
00:28:47,225 --> 00:28:50,888
and a 125-mile line of
seismic monitors

406
00:28:51,029 --> 00:28:53,554
along the floor of Suruga Bay

407
00:28:53,698 --> 00:28:57,065
probable epicenter of the
expected quaKe

408
00:28:58,770 --> 00:29:01,261
At the first sign of
unusual activity

409
00:29:01,406 --> 00:29:06,105
JMA instantly alerts the head of a
six man committee of seismologists

410
00:29:06,244 --> 00:29:08,007
nown as the HanteiKai

411
00:29:08,146 --> 00:29:10,842
this team quicKly evaluates
the information

412
00:29:10,982 --> 00:29:13,473
and the prime minister is notified

413
00:29:16,688 --> 00:29:19,623
While police, firemen
and other public employees

414
00:29:19,758 --> 00:29:23,194
taKe their posts to prevent general
confusion or panic

415
00:29:23,328 --> 00:29:27,355
there is a delay of 30 minutes
before a warning is broadcast

416
00:29:28,767 --> 00:29:31,133
Each of the ToKai region's cities
and towns

417
00:29:31,269 --> 00:29:33,396
has a municipal
disaster plan

418
00:29:33,538 --> 00:29:35,199
and through drills most people

419
00:29:35,340 --> 00:29:39,140
have learned the precise steps
required after a warning

420
00:29:41,012 --> 00:29:45,176
Turning off gas and electricity
citizens secure doors and cabinets

421
00:29:45,316 --> 00:29:47,341
then taKe up their earthquaKe Kits

422
00:29:47,485 --> 00:29:49,783
and march off to join
the general exodus

423
00:29:49,921 --> 00:29:52,287
through predetermined escape routes

424
00:30:09,007 --> 00:30:11,840
In the street a rope helps
maintain unity

425
00:30:11,976 --> 00:30:13,807
and orde wards off panic

426
00:30:13,945 --> 00:30:17,574
by providing a sense of common
security within a group

427
00:30:18,817 --> 00:30:21,445
Guided and patrolled by
emergency forces

428
00:30:21,586 --> 00:30:23,451
a swelling flood of people from home

429
00:30:23,588 --> 00:30:27,388
and factory moves toward assigned
refuge areas

430
00:30:36,267 --> 00:30:38,861
To escape the giant sea wave
or tsunami

431
00:30:39,003 --> 00:30:43,167
which often follows a quaKe
the harbor fleet sets out to sea

432
00:30:43,875 --> 00:30:46,275
The drill has been a costly effort

433
00:30:46,411 --> 00:30:50,370
but the price seems small compared
to the threatened loss of life

434
00:30:50,515 --> 00:30:53,882
in one of the most heavily
populated areas on Earth

435
00:30:58,356 --> 00:31:00,187
Eastward across the sea

436
00:31:00,325 --> 00:31:03,988
this tree-shaded oasis near
California's Mojave Desert

437
00:31:04,128 --> 00:31:06,460
offers deceptive sanctuary

438
00:31:06,598 --> 00:31:09,089
LiKe Japan's thermal caldrons

439
00:31:09,234 --> 00:31:13,534
it too is part of the Ring of Fire
that circles the Pacific

440
00:31:13,671 --> 00:31:17,107
Here along the 700-mile San
Andreas Fault

441
00:31:17,242 --> 00:31:20,143
the pacific plate grinds slowly northward

442
00:31:20,278 --> 00:31:23,577
against the North American plate
sometimes locKing

443
00:31:23,715 --> 00:31:28,584
building stress, then suddenly
releasing in earthquaKe

444
00:31:31,623 --> 00:31:33,887
Whether exposed as a naKed scar

445
00:31:34,025 --> 00:31:36,858
crossing the Carrizo Plain near
Los Angeles

446
00:31:36,995 --> 00:31:40,260
or pleasantly disguised
under grassy slopes

447
00:31:40,398 --> 00:31:43,765
and a chain of sag ponds
near San Francisco

448
00:31:43,902 --> 00:31:47,235
the fault stretches liKe a taut
line of danger

449
00:31:47,372 --> 00:31:50,637
between the state's two most
heavily populated centers

450
00:31:50,775 --> 00:31:55,439
In times past each of the cities
has felt its power

451
00:31:59,217 --> 00:32:01,947
Once the fabled gateway to
the gold rush

452
00:32:02,086 --> 00:32:06,648
its hills crowned with ornate palaces
of mining and railroad tycoons

453
00:32:06,791 --> 00:32:11,160
San Francisco today soars in a
dazzling array of sKyscrapers

454
00:32:11,296 --> 00:32:16,996
along its Embarcadero daring evidence
of a city that refused to die

455
00:32:21,372 --> 00:32:23,840
Dr. Ballard recalls a
fateful morning

456
00:32:23,975 --> 00:32:26,102
at the beginning of the century

457
00:32:28,579 --> 00:32:31,275
"On the 18th of April 1906

458
00:32:31,416 --> 00:32:33,976
the San Andreas Fault
suddenly snapped

459
00:32:34,118 --> 00:32:37,246
The city of SAN Francisco
felt the brunt of the blow

460
00:32:37,388 --> 00:32:39,253
Some 700 people were Killed

461
00:32:39,390 --> 00:32:41,722
and most of the city was
destroyed by fire

462
00:32:42,694 --> 00:32:47,063
"Today, people thinK of it as an
event found in history booKs

463
00:32:47,198 --> 00:32:50,531
Yet to geologists, the fault is
very much alive

464
00:32:50,668 --> 00:32:53,034
We are monitoring the fault system

465
00:32:53,171 --> 00:32:56,038
attempting to understand its behavior

466
00:32:56,174 --> 00:32:58,665
predict its next move

467
00:32:58,810 --> 00:33:00,607
One thing we do Know

468
00:33:00,745 --> 00:33:05,079
We will experience another earthquaKe
liKe that of 1906

469
00:33:05,216 --> 00:33:07,081
It's just a matter of time

470
00:33:16,594 --> 00:33:20,394
At dawn February 9, 1971

471
00:33:20,531 --> 00:33:24,558
an earthquaKe registering 6.4
on the Richter scale

472
00:33:24,702 --> 00:33:27,762
strucK the San Fernando Valley
in Los Angeles

473
00:33:27,905 --> 00:33:30,135
Twisting railroad tracKs

474
00:33:30,274 --> 00:33:32,970
shattering highway overpasses

475
00:33:33,111 --> 00:33:35,773
it strewed disaster across
the city landscape

476
00:33:35,913 --> 00:33:38,973
as if by an angry giant's hand

477
00:33:39,117 --> 00:33:40,675
LiKe a silent accomplice

478
00:33:40,818 --> 00:33:43,082
flames leaped through the wrecKage

479
00:33:43,221 --> 00:33:46,987
Great hospitals and other
structures collapsed

480
00:33:47,125 --> 00:33:50,822
Everywhere the quaKe trapped
its casual human victims

481
00:33:50,962 --> 00:33:56,696
When it had passed, the city counted
the cost 64 dead

482
00:33:56,834 --> 00:34:00,031
500 million dollars
in property damage

483
00:34:00,171 --> 00:34:03,698
Because the water behind a weaKened
dam was quicKly lowered

484
00:34:03,841 --> 00:34:05,832
thousands of lives were saved

485
00:34:05,977 --> 00:34:08,537
which otherwise might
have been lost

486
00:34:11,382 --> 00:34:14,681
In it's aftermath alarmed public
agencies radically

487
00:34:14,819 --> 00:34:17,549
expanded their earthquaKe
preparations

488
00:34:17,688 --> 00:34:20,418
Today not only standard
surveying methods

489
00:34:20,558 --> 00:34:22,822
but a wide array of new
instruments are employed

490
00:34:22,960 --> 00:34:25,929
to monitor California's
fractured landscape

491
00:34:26,064 --> 00:34:28,430
Using laser beams and radio waves

492
00:34:28,566 --> 00:34:29,692
from remote stars

493
00:34:29,834 --> 00:34:33,326
scientists can measure the state
for crustal changes

494
00:34:33,471 --> 00:34:36,634
or plate movements as small
as an inch

495
00:34:40,111 --> 00:34:43,672
Along the San Andreas a networK
of seismic devices

496
00:34:43,815 --> 00:34:48,445
reports local changes in the release
of radioactive gas from rocK strata

497
00:34:48,586 --> 00:34:51,316
sudden drops in the water level
of wells

498
00:34:51,456 --> 00:34:55,324
variations in gravity or the
Earth's magnetic field

499
00:34:55,460 --> 00:35:00,124
Other meters detect the slightest
movement deep beneath the surface

500
00:35:00,264 --> 00:35:03,392
measure strain in a locKed section
of the fault

501
00:35:07,305 --> 00:35:10,741
the state of California also
is checKing its basement"

502
00:35:10,875 --> 00:35:14,470
above which 24 million
people live

503
00:35:18,616 --> 00:35:20,584
From hundreds of
instruments scattered

504
00:35:20,718 --> 00:35:22,652
across the length of the state

505
00:35:22,787 --> 00:35:26,484
continuous reports flow into
separate computer centers

506
00:35:26,624 --> 00:35:29,616
for the southern and the
northern sectors

507
00:35:34,232 --> 00:35:37,793
At the nited States Geological
Survey in Menlo parK

508
00:35:37,935 --> 00:35:40,995
widely diverse in formation
is correlated

509
00:35:41,139 --> 00:35:45,007
and condensed to provide a summary
of seismic activity

510
00:35:45,143 --> 00:35:47,543
during each passing month

511
00:35:47,678 --> 00:35:50,545
LiKe scholars trying to breaK
an enemy code

512
00:35:50,681 --> 00:35:52,774
or decipher a lost language

513
00:35:52,917 --> 00:35:57,047
scientists are trying to discern
a consistent meaning

514
00:35:57,188 --> 00:36:00,157
in all the signals sent
from the Earth

515
00:36:04,028 --> 00:36:06,861
Though the San Andreas remains
an enigma

516
00:36:06,998 --> 00:36:09,330
a silent threat of havoc to come

517
00:36:09,467 --> 00:36:12,595
sophisticated technology is
bringing closer the time

518
00:36:12,737 --> 00:36:15,103
when man may be able to
predict earthquaKes

519
00:36:15,239 --> 00:36:18,106
with reasonable accuracy
and certainty

520
00:36:18,242 --> 00:36:19,436
Scientists Know

521
00:36:19,577 --> 00:36:23,946
that in prediction lies a major
defense against catastrophe

522
00:36:27,485 --> 00:36:30,886
Using an instrument no more
complicated than a garden hoe

523
00:36:31,022 --> 00:36:32,216
one young geologist

524
00:36:32,356 --> 00:36:35,189
from the California Institute of
Technology has shown

525
00:36:35,326 --> 00:36:38,693
that the Key to the future may lie
in the past

526
00:36:38,829 --> 00:36:42,492
At excavations along the fault at
Pallett CreeK near the Mojave

527
00:36:42,633 --> 00:36:45,602
Dr. Erry Sieh has revealed
a repeat pattern

528
00:36:45,736 --> 00:36:48,000
of California quaKes hundreds
of years

529
00:36:48,139 --> 00:36:51,233
before any recorded history
of the region

530
00:36:52,243 --> 00:36:54,609
"We are on the main trace of the
San Andreas Fault

531
00:36:54,745 --> 00:36:58,681
And the layer that I just scraped
off

532
00:36:58,816 --> 00:37:01,876
has been radiocarbon dated
at 1350 A. D.

533
00:37:02,787 --> 00:37:03,719
The layer right
above it

534
00:37:03,854 --> 00:37:08,723
which has the beautiful orange
color here

535
00:37:08,859 --> 00:37:13,694
and here has a radiocarbon date near
its top of about 1560 A. D

536
00:37:13,831 --> 00:37:17,392
or about the time Michaelangelo was
painting the Sistine Chapel

537
00:37:18,803 --> 00:37:23,831
This layer dates from about the birth
of Benjamin FranKlin 1700

538
00:37:23,975 --> 00:37:27,638
and this layer about right here
was the surface of the Earth

539
00:37:27,778 --> 00:37:30,076
at the time of the 1857 earthquaKe

540
00:37:30,781 --> 00:37:34,182
"Now, this is the main trace of
the San Andreas Fault running up

541
00:37:34,318 --> 00:37:37,481
through these layers up though to
about here."

542
00:37:38,856 --> 00:37:41,017
"Here's the 1353 A. D. Layer broKen

543
00:37:41,158 --> 00:37:43,126
by the fault trace coming up

544
00:37:43,261 --> 00:37:46,162
through the 1560 A. D. Layer here

545
00:37:46,297 --> 00:37:49,357
So here we have the Pacific Plate

546
00:37:49,500 --> 00:37:50,865
and here we have the
North American Plate

547
00:37:51,002 --> 00:37:54,233
broKen only by this very narrow trace,
or plane

548
00:37:54,372 --> 00:37:55,634
of the San Andreas Fault."

549
00:37:55,773 --> 00:37:58,640
"And it continues on up
up through the 1700s level

550
00:37:58,776 --> 00:38:01,643
and stopping at this level
the 1857 level

551
00:38:02,346 --> 00:38:06,077
In 1857 there occurred the great
Fort Tejon earthquaKe

552
00:38:06,217 --> 00:38:08,879
which was the last great earthquaKe
to breaK the San Andreas Fault

553
00:38:09,020 --> 00:38:10,510
in the southern part of the state."

554
00:38:10,655 --> 00:38:12,054
"Elsewhere at this site

555
00:38:12,189 --> 00:38:15,852
we have exposures a total of 11
prehistoric earthquaKes

556
00:38:15,993 --> 00:38:19,190
and the great Fort Tejon earthquaKe
of 1857

557
00:38:19,330 --> 00:38:21,423
The radiocarbon dates show

558
00:38:21,565 --> 00:38:24,125
that the earthquaKes occur
with frequency

559
00:38:24,268 --> 00:38:27,499
they occur about every 145 years

560
00:38:27,638 --> 00:38:31,005
It's been 125 years since the great
Fort Tejon earthquaKe

561
00:38:31,942 --> 00:38:33,933
The chances are really quite
good that

562
00:38:34,078 --> 00:38:35,170
within our lifetime

563
00:38:35,313 --> 00:38:38,248
we're going to see another great
Fort Tejon earthquaKe."

564
00:38:41,552 --> 00:38:44,043
"Give me the number of dead you
anticipate

565
00:38:44,188 --> 00:38:46,122
that you are estimating

566
00:38:46,257 --> 00:38:48,555
and I will try to worK it out on
the end."

567
00:38:48,693 --> 00:38:53,721
"Estimates of injured range
from 50 to 80 thousand

568
00:38:53,864 --> 00:38:56,958
with an unKnown number trapped in
collapsed structures

569
00:38:57,101 --> 00:39:01,595
At this time the numbers of dead may
be in excess of ten thousand."

570
00:39:02,340 --> 00:39:04,137
To train disaster agencies

571
00:39:04,275 --> 00:39:06,709
and to alert the public the state's
Office of

572
00:39:06,844 --> 00:39:09,870
Emergency Services stages
yearly drills

573
00:39:10,014 --> 00:39:13,814
"I would liKe to clarify what's
turned out to be a rumor

574
00:39:13,951 --> 00:39:17,785
of a radioactive release problem
at Cal Tech."

575
00:39:17,922 --> 00:39:19,253
Alex Cunninham

576
00:39:19,390 --> 00:39:22,882
director of the California Office
of Emergency Services

577
00:39:23,027 --> 00:39:25,518
"The scenario for this exercise is

578
00:39:25,663 --> 00:39:30,191
that an earthquaKe occurred
yesterday in Los Angeles

579
00:39:30,334 --> 00:39:33,792
actually about 30 miles northwest
of San Bernardino

580
00:39:33,938 --> 00:39:35,872
along the San Andreas Fault

581
00:39:36,006 --> 00:39:40,773
Its magnitude, for exercise
purposed 8.3."

582
00:39:46,584 --> 00:39:48,643
"And believe me
we are very selective

583
00:39:48,786 --> 00:39:50,845
at this level on
using Guard resources

584
00:39:50,988 --> 00:39:52,717
And I recommend strongly now

585
00:39:52,857 --> 00:39:55,155
I can't handle a delicate issue
liKe this on the phone

586
00:39:55,292 --> 00:39:57,783
I recommend very strongly that if
you want the Guard for this

587
00:39:57,928 --> 00:40:00,260
that you are going to have to come
through bureaucratic channels."

588
00:40:00,398 --> 00:40:02,059
"We need to have an update

589
00:40:02,199 --> 00:40:06,568
as of this time on the number of
injuries and deaths, please."

590
00:40:06,704 --> 00:40:10,401
"All the hospital beds in northern
county appear be down

591
00:40:10,541 --> 00:40:13,009
Southern county looKs liKe
they're in pretty good shape

592
00:40:13,144 --> 00:40:14,441
But the Needs Assessment Team
will be

593
00:40:14,578 --> 00:40:16,773
bacK half an hour and will give us
all the figures."

594
00:40:16,914 --> 00:40:20,645
"Hold on a second. We got to
get this together."

595
00:40:20,785 --> 00:40:24,016
"The State of California is
very well prepared to

596
00:40:24,155 --> 00:40:25,986
handle a moderate earthquaKe

597
00:40:26,123 --> 00:40:28,683
And the citizens who have been
through these Kind of quaKes

598
00:40:28,826 --> 00:40:30,418
are reasonably well prepared

599
00:40:30,561 --> 00:40:32,791
But when we talK about a
catastrophic earthquaKe

600
00:40:32,930 --> 00:40:34,261
something in the area of an 8

601
00:40:34,398 --> 00:40:36,764
or an 8.3 no level of government

602
00:40:36,901 --> 00:40:38,732
and particularly the
individual citizens

603
00:40:38,869 --> 00:40:41,133
are prepared for such an event

604
00:40:41,272 --> 00:40:44,332
It's no longer a question of if
the big earthquaKe is coming

605
00:40:44,475 --> 00:40:45,908
It's simply a matter of when

606
00:40:46,043 --> 00:40:47,067
Scientists are telling us

607
00:40:47,211 --> 00:40:49,270
because of recent seismic activity

608
00:40:49,413 --> 00:40:51,779
and other phenomena
other scientific data

609
00:40:51,916 --> 00:40:55,352
that the great earthquaKe will striKe
in southern California

610
00:40:55,486 --> 00:40:58,011
some time in the next 30 years

611
00:40:58,155 --> 00:40:59,816
Unfortunately, many people say well

612
00:40:59,957 --> 00:41:00,753
if it's 30 years away

613
00:41:00,891 --> 00:41:02,085
we don't have to worry about it

614
00:41:02,226 --> 00:41:03,352
It's not 30 years away

615
00:41:03,494 --> 00:41:05,724
It could happen tomorrow
it could happen today;

616
00:41:05,863 --> 00:41:07,228
it could happen next month

617
00:41:07,364 --> 00:41:08,922
But sometime in the next 30 years

618
00:41:09,066 --> 00:41:10,090
we're going to have it

619
00:41:10,234 --> 00:41:13,260
and people damn well better
prepare themselves for it."

620
00:41:14,872 --> 00:41:17,397
Distantly aware of
threatened holocausts

621
00:41:17,541 --> 00:41:20,533
most Los Angeles residents remain
caught in the traumas

622
00:41:20,678 --> 00:41:23,010
and traffic jams of daily life

623
00:41:23,147 --> 00:41:26,514
Too few Know the mathematics of terror

624
00:41:26,650 --> 00:41:32,213
At the time of the 1857 quaKe 11,000
people lived in Los Angeles

625
00:41:32,356 --> 00:41:35,416
Today there are more than seven million

626
00:41:36,126 --> 00:41:39,289
Many remember the impact of
the San Fernando tremor

627
00:41:39,430 --> 00:41:41,057
But the 8.3 earthquaKe

628
00:41:41,198 --> 00:41:42,961
which scientists now predict

629
00:41:43,100 --> 00:41:45,967
will be a shocK 800 times as strong

630
00:41:48,005 --> 00:41:51,873
a natural disaster
without precedent in American history

631
00:41:58,616 --> 00:42:03,383
Thirty-five hundred years ago
on the Aegean island of Santorini

632
00:42:03,521 --> 00:42:06,684
these ruins too held a civilization

633
00:42:07,291 --> 00:42:09,953
Here, long before the Parthenon

634
00:42:10,094 --> 00:42:13,757
the maritime community of AKrotiri
created a culture

635
00:42:13,898 --> 00:42:17,425
that rivaled the splendors of
nearby Minoan Crete

636
00:42:18,202 --> 00:42:20,102
In frescoes artists painted

637
00:42:20,237 --> 00:42:23,468
the sunlit landscapes of man
in his springtime

638
00:42:23,607 --> 00:42:28,101
the years in Eden when the Earth
was filled with wonders

639
00:42:30,180 --> 00:42:32,808
Upon the walls were mirrored
the ordinary tasKs

640
00:42:32,950 --> 00:42:34,611
and pleasures of a small world

641
00:42:34,752 --> 00:42:38,347
in which the simplest acts of
everyday life held meaning

642
00:42:38,489 --> 00:42:42,721
and even the gods often behaved
liKe noisy neighbors

643
00:42:43,994 --> 00:42:48,397
Over the wide sea, returning seamen
brought strange gifts

644
00:42:48,532 --> 00:42:51,831
and creatures from the shadowy lands beyond

645
00:42:51,969 --> 00:42:56,235
told of odysseys across
a world still new

646
00:42:56,941 --> 00:42:58,465
Now they are gone

647
00:42:58,609 --> 00:43:01,601
abruptly vanished in
a great catastrophe

648
00:43:01,745 --> 00:43:05,909
All that remain are a half-excavated
civilization under glass

649
00:43:06,050 --> 00:43:08,712
a few amphoras in orderly array

650
00:43:08,852 --> 00:43:12,151
life and death filed on
an index card

651
00:43:14,892 --> 00:43:18,521
One of the scientists trying to
decipher the puzzle of the past

652
00:43:18,662 --> 00:43:23,156
Dr. Christos Doumas of the University
of Athens leads Dr. Ballard

653
00:43:23,300 --> 00:43:24,562
through the remains of a city

654
00:43:24,702 --> 00:43:27,865
that died thirty-five centuries ago

655
00:43:28,672 --> 00:43:31,835
"This is an ancient street leading
to the Triangle Square

656
00:43:31,976 --> 00:43:35,810
flanKed on the left by
the Building Delta

657
00:43:35,946 --> 00:43:37,937
and on the right by the West House."

658
00:43:38,082 --> 00:43:40,380
"Now here's where you
found the frescoes."

659
00:43:40,517 --> 00:43:44,544
"Yes, we found frescoes
and other things which show

660
00:43:44,688 --> 00:43:49,921
that we are discovering here a very
highly civilized society

661
00:43:50,060 --> 00:43:51,618
of the Bronze Age."

662
00:43:52,296 --> 00:43:56,255
"The houses are individual
surrounded by streets

663
00:43:56,400 --> 00:43:58,766
There are several stories
as you see

664
00:43:58,902 --> 00:44:02,099
and we have indoor plumbing
connected directly

665
00:44:02,239 --> 00:44:04,537
with the drainage system
of the street."

666
00:44:04,675 --> 00:44:11,308
"So you had a society of individual
families living together..."

667
00:44:11,448 --> 00:44:14,849
"Yes. And every house was
an entity by itself."

668
00:44:21,258 --> 00:44:25,627
"And here we can see how
sophisticated these houses were

669
00:44:25,763 --> 00:44:27,628
The basement, as in

670
00:44:27,765 --> 00:44:31,064
many of the houses
was used for storing

671
00:44:31,201 --> 00:44:37,868
goods a variety of crops liKe barley
flour of barley

672
00:44:38,008 --> 00:44:43,139
lentils, various nuts liKe almonds."

673
00:44:43,280 --> 00:44:44,975
"So they had a pretty good diet

674
00:44:45,115 --> 00:44:46,241
I mean it was varied."

675
00:44:46,383 --> 00:44:48,044
"Yes. And they were consuming
also seafood

676
00:44:48,185 --> 00:44:50,949
because we found shells of
sea urchins

677
00:44:51,088 --> 00:44:53,215
and remains of dried fish

678
00:44:57,661 --> 00:45:01,097
"The city was captured by
the earthquaKes and

679
00:45:01,231 --> 00:45:02,391
this staircase shows

680
00:45:02,533 --> 00:45:05,468
that it was broKen before the
eruption of the volcano

681
00:45:05,602 --> 00:45:08,127
"So this probably caused
them to evacuate."

682
00:45:08,272 --> 00:45:10,797
"Yes. It was a warning
for the people."

683
00:45:10,941 --> 00:45:12,670
"And then after the earthquaKe

684
00:45:12,810 --> 00:45:14,869
the major eruption occurred."

685
00:45:15,012 --> 00:45:18,140
"Yes. It destroyed almost everything

686
00:45:18,282 --> 00:45:23,982
as you sea and then the site was
covered with volcanic ash."

687
00:45:26,156 --> 00:45:28,249
Before the great warning tremors

688
00:45:28,392 --> 00:45:31,884
AKrotiri lay on the flanK of a
steeply sloping island

689
00:45:32,029 --> 00:45:34,156
unaware that miles below

690
00:45:34,298 --> 00:45:37,028
the Earth's crust was in movement

691
00:45:45,509 --> 00:45:46,771
Soon after the quaKe

692
00:45:46,910 --> 00:45:51,313
the island exploded in one of historical
prodigious volcanic eruptions

693
00:45:51,448 --> 00:45:54,417
Suddenly a mountain had disappeared

694
00:45:54,551 --> 00:45:58,453
its walls collapsed into a volcanic
caldera now filled

695
00:45:58,589 --> 00:46:00,352
by the inrushing sea

696
00:46:05,929 --> 00:46:10,332
A vast searing cloud of pumice and
ash buried AKrotiri

697
00:46:10,467 --> 00:46:12,765
and surged over the Mediterranean

698
00:46:12,903 --> 00:46:16,805
with an impact on history that
still is being assessed

699
00:46:18,108 --> 00:46:19,905
"We're inside the caldera

700
00:46:20,043 --> 00:46:22,375
Behind me are the layered walls
of the volcano

701
00:46:22,513 --> 00:46:24,037
which record its long history

702
00:46:24,181 --> 00:46:26,581
The blacK layers are basaltic
lava flows;

703
00:46:26,717 --> 00:46:30,653
the red ones a tephra ejected
from the volcanic vent."

704
00:46:30,788 --> 00:46:32,779
"These prehistoric layers once

705
00:46:32,923 --> 00:46:36,723
formed a great volcano over
5,000 feet high

706
00:46:36,860 --> 00:46:39,351
About 3,500 years ago

707
00:46:39,496 --> 00:46:44,024
the entire volcano erupted destroying
over two-thirds of the island

708
00:46:44,168 --> 00:46:46,898
At the top today you can see a
white layer of pumic

709
00:46:47,037 --> 00:46:50,097
and ash which records
that great event

710
00:46:50,240 --> 00:46:53,004
That layer is over 100 feet thicK."

711
00:47:00,484 --> 00:47:03,647
Human beings still cling to the
narrow rim of cliffs

712
00:47:03,787 --> 00:47:05,652
that now surrounds emptiness

713
00:47:05,789 --> 00:47:09,725
Today several thousand islanders
live on the heights

714
00:47:09,860 --> 00:47:13,887
and fish or search for sponges
in the depths of the caldera

715
00:47:14,031 --> 00:47:18,092
Steep paths linK them with the ports
through which supplies

716
00:47:18,235 --> 00:47:19,566
much of their fresh water

717
00:47:19,703 --> 00:47:22,900
and occasional visitors arrive
by sea

718
00:47:26,510 --> 00:47:28,944
Today the centers of Western
civilization

719
00:47:29,079 --> 00:47:31,547
have moved far beyond Santorini

720
00:47:31,682 --> 00:47:35,482
Insulated from the rumors and
alarms of a wider world

721
00:47:35,619 --> 00:47:38,383
it has settled into the ways of
village life

722
00:47:51,635 --> 00:47:53,535
Upon the cliffs worKmen build

723
00:47:53,670 --> 00:47:56,036
and repair structures using
the very ash

724
00:47:56,173 --> 00:47:57,572
and pumice of the explosion

725
00:47:57,708 --> 00:47:59,869
that once destroyed their island

726
00:48:00,577 --> 00:48:02,044
In the fields around them

727
00:48:02,179 --> 00:48:03,646
farmers tend vineyards

728
00:48:03,780 --> 00:48:06,613
and reap grain planted
in the volcano soil

729
00:48:08,352 --> 00:48:10,752
The pumice is even sold for profit

730
00:48:10,888 --> 00:48:13,755
was once exported for the
building of the Suez Canal

731
00:48:13,891 --> 00:48:15,654
more than a century ago

732
00:48:23,033 --> 00:48:27,197
Intermittently strong tremors still
shaKe the island

733
00:48:27,337 --> 00:48:32,297
but the widows of Santorini remain
solitary symbols of the tenacity

734
00:48:32,442 --> 00:48:34,205
by which life endures

735
00:48:35,712 --> 00:48:37,646
Beneath them one plate slides

736
00:48:37,781 --> 00:48:40,341
under another in endless movement

737
00:48:40,484 --> 00:48:42,782
even the gods may change

738
00:48:42,920 --> 00:48:45,718
but prayer remains a step
in the search

739
00:48:45,856 --> 00:48:48,256
for reassurance and certainty

740
00:49:05,108 --> 00:49:06,200
On Good Friday

741
00:49:06,343 --> 00:49:08,504
worshippers are surrounded by frescoes

742
00:49:08,645 --> 00:49:13,344
that describe not the joys of life
but its tragic burdens

743
00:49:15,786 --> 00:49:17,651
Yet for the devout islanders

744
00:49:17,788 --> 00:49:19,949
faith holds a triumphant hope

745
00:49:20,090 --> 00:49:23,423
Out of death's darKness life returns

746
00:49:23,560 --> 00:49:26,552
a flame passed from candle to candle

747
00:49:32,135 --> 00:49:34,695
In the ritual of twenty centuries
the villagers

748
00:49:34,838 --> 00:49:37,363
again find a ancient recognition

749
00:49:37,507 --> 00:49:40,374
In the Easter story of resurrection

750
00:49:40,510 --> 00:49:41,943
they tell their own

751
00:49:55,759 --> 00:49:58,626
After the resurrection joy

752
00:49:58,762 --> 00:50:03,028
the breaKing of eggs to release
the symbolic life within

753
00:50:10,807 --> 00:50:11,739
Across the island

754
00:50:11,875 --> 00:50:13,570
after forty days of fasting

755
00:50:13,710 --> 00:50:16,178
the villagers feast and dance

756
00:50:41,705 --> 00:50:44,105
The world has changed many time

757
00:50:44,241 --> 00:50:46,573
since this woman lived in Santorini

758
00:50:46,710 --> 00:50:49,008
Her gods have vanished

759
00:50:49,146 --> 00:50:53,913
The wtreets on which she walKed now
end in walls of ash

760
00:50:54,051 --> 00:50:57,248
Yet in these dancing rhythms of life

761
00:50:57,387 --> 00:51:00,220
she might hear echoes of another time

762
00:51:00,357 --> 00:51:02,484
the refrains of home

763
00:51:04,561 --> 00:51:07,394
Imperceptible to living generations

764
00:51:07,531 --> 00:51:09,123
the change goes on

765
00:51:09,266 --> 00:51:11,860
toward a future
that science's computers

766
00:51:12,002 --> 00:51:14,527
already have begun to outline

767
00:51:17,808 --> 00:51:19,332
By its present drift

768
00:51:19,476 --> 00:51:21,876
Africa, in its clockwise movement

769
00:51:22,012 --> 00:51:23,809
will close the Mediterranean

770
00:51:23,947 --> 00:51:26,074
and collide with southern Europe

771
00:51:26,216 --> 00:51:30,516
raising great new mountain ranges
liKe a rumpled rug

772
00:51:41,565 --> 00:51:46,730
In Africa itself the sea at last will
flood the desert thorn trees

773
00:51:46,870 --> 00:51:48,861
isolate eastern Africa

774
00:51:49,005 --> 00:51:53,339
invade a domain once held by
elephants and lions

775
00:51:58,048 --> 00:52:00,278
In the Americas, as elsewhere

776
00:52:00,417 --> 00:52:02,476
life will be radically altered

777
00:52:05,989 --> 00:52:09,117
Mecca for millions of fugitives
from the wintry East

778
00:52:09,259 --> 00:52:13,662
Los Angeles may have to doctor its
swimming pools with antifreeze

779
00:52:14,798 --> 00:52:17,028
Set at the edge of the Pacific Plate

780
00:52:17,167 --> 00:52:19,863
it is moving relentlessly
toward AlasKa

781
00:52:20,003 --> 00:52:22,665
at the rapid of two or three
inches a year

782
00:52:24,307 --> 00:52:26,070
Ten million years from now

783
00:52:26,209 --> 00:52:27,471
San Francisco will find

784
00:52:27,611 --> 00:52:32,275
that for a time its scorned southern
rival has become a suburb

785
00:52:40,490 --> 00:52:43,982
New YorK may become part of a
vast volcanic range

786
00:52:44,127 --> 00:52:48,496
as the expanding Atlantic floor
passes under the eastern coast

787
00:52:54,638 --> 00:52:56,435
Compared to Earth's history

788
00:52:56,573 --> 00:52:59,599
man's tenure has be dazzling
and brief

789
00:52:59,743 --> 00:53:03,338
In ten thousand years he has
created language

790
00:53:03,480 --> 00:53:08,042
built cathedrals, invented the means
to destroy life one Earth

791
00:53:08,785 --> 00:53:11,015
His computers can project
the destination

792
00:53:11,154 --> 00:53:14,590
of continents 200 million years
from now

793
00:53:15,125 --> 00:53:18,686
But where man will be none can predict