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00:00March 2011, Japan suffers a huge earthquake, triggering a massive tsunami.
00:17One of the world's most advanced nations teeters on the brink of collapse.
00:25This is a minute-by-minute account of events.
00:29With eyewitness videos and exclusive survivor interviews.
00:36I didn't actually realize that I was going to be documenting the final moments of an entire town.
00:40World-leading scientists analyze the megaphysics.
00:44This earthquake is one of the top five on Earth.
00:50This was a planetary monster.
00:53We reveal the actual sound of the quake and explore the future threat.
01:00Which earthquake zone is next?
01:04One of our planet's most volatile regions is the Pacific Ring of Fire.
01:23A continuous fracture in the Earth's crust which circles the Pacific Ocean.
01:30At 2.45 p.m. on March the 11th, 80 miles off Japan, one section of this fault is about to rupture.
01:51Downtown Tokyo.
01:54The largest city in the world.
01:5835 million people are going about their daily lives.
02:04200 miles north in Sendai, American teacher Paula Lutze has just finished lunch.
02:13Me and my colleagues, we were sitting in our office because I think it was like right close to three.
02:19We start to go prepare our classrooms for the kids.
02:23At nearby Osato High School, former teacher Wesley Julian is filming a graduation ceremony.
02:31It was just full of emotion and so exciting to reunite with the students and the teachers.
02:37Beautiful ceremony. It ended, we went to lunch in the staff room.
02:43A few miles south of Sendai, Katsuyoshi Hayasaka gets ready to go shopping.
02:50It doesn't happen every day, but my grandchild phoned me in the morning asking,
02:59Grandad, could you give me a lift to go shopping?
03:10There is no sense of what's about to happen.
03:15But 80 miles out in the Pacific Ocean and 20 miles down inside the Earth's crust,
03:24the Pacific plate is being forced down underneath Japan.
03:31Solid rock twists and cracks.
03:36Stresses build up in the system until something snaps.
03:45In Tokyo, seismic data streams into the country's earthquake monitoring HQ.
03:56The magnitude which was shown on the monitor was pretty big.
04:01So I thought it might be wrong.
04:04The readings must be calibrated incorrectly.
04:08Other scientists record underwater sound of the tectonic plates grinding against each other.
04:20Speeded up 32 times, here for the first time ever, is the actual sound of the earthquake.
04:39People in Sendai are among the first to feel the tremors.
04:48It just kept getting stronger and stronger.
04:52So like all of us just kind of stood up, looked at each other and ran out.
04:57About 30 seconds into the earthquake, I got out my camera and just turned it to the video mode and pressed record.
05:05Because I knew it was going to be the big one.
05:09Holy crap.
05:13This is a big one. Holy crap.
05:17There's nothing I can do. I can't run anywhere.
05:22There's nothing I can do. I can't run anywhere.
05:26Are we okay in here?
05:30We'll just follow what they're doing.
05:33My thought was, is this building going to collapse?
05:41Another remarkable video from a Sendai suburb captures the panic as a house shakes around a mother and her son.
05:51I'm coming. I'm coming.
05:54Go home. Go home.
05:58It's dangerous.
06:01I'm here. I'm here.
06:04Run away. Run away.
06:10After 50 seconds, the ground offers the only source of refuge.
06:22Are you okay?
06:26I'm okay.
06:29Are you guys okay?
06:32I think your cell phone is broken.
06:35The earthquake continues for five minutes.
06:43We had one big one and it kind of stopped.
06:47But then another one happened.
06:49It just kept going. And then it would kind of die down and then another one would come.
07:08At Sendai airport, air traffic controller Yoshi Kabune faces a critical emergency.
07:16Fluorescent lamps in the ceiling were falling down.
07:22There were aircraft flying in the vicinity at the time.
07:26So we worked hard to make them circle above because the airport could not be used.
07:38It just felt like it would never end.
07:44And I'm watching like the telephone poles just shake.
07:59The scariest part about being in an earthquake is being completely helpless.
08:04The earth is deciding it's going to move and you just have to move with it.
08:09Even in Tokyo, 230 miles from the epicenter.
08:16The shocks are strong enough to catch seismologists at Toko-Oki by complete surprise.
08:23My office is in a base isolation building so it should not move.
08:30But still I couldn't even stand up.
08:34That was the biggest and longest earthquake I've ever experienced.
08:41Across town, businessman Ayumu Dokizono witnesses an extraordinary spectacle.
08:48When I just looked at the building, I was so surprised that the building was swaying.
08:55I was so surprised that I felt, oh, I have to film it.
09:05Only seven people die in Tokyo.
09:10But strange things start to happen.
09:14Cracks in the ground open and close.
09:18And in a process called liquefaction, the seismic shocks squeeze water out of the earth.
09:27The quake measures nine on the Richter scale.
09:31With a force equal to 600 million times the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
09:38That's enough energy to power the entire U.S. for 100 years.
09:45All exploding outwards from one point in five minutes.
09:50This earthquake is one of the top five largest earthquakes ever.
09:56I mean, on earth.
09:59It is so big that it tilts the world 25 centimeters on its axis.
10:05And slows the earth's rotation to shorten our days by a fraction of a second.
10:13In Japan, the earthquake even rattles the most safely guarded installations.
10:20Just 90 miles from the fault line stands Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
10:28With electricity cables damaged, emergency systems kick into action.
10:35Engaging backup diesel generators for power.
10:39And beginning the shutdown sequence for the plant's three active nuclear reactors.
10:46But 80 miles out to sea, the earthquake has unleashed an even more terrifying force.
10:55And it's rippling outwards at 500 miles per hour.
11:06Japan is reeling from the largest earthquake to strike it for 1,000 years.
11:15It's only the fifth magnitude nine tremor in recorded history.
11:26But one thing scares the Japanese even more.
11:31A tsunami tidal wave.
11:36And this is exactly what the quake triggered.
11:41When the earth ruptured, 250 miles of ocean floor thrust upwards over three meters.
11:49This displaced 100 billion cubic meters of water in the ocean above.
11:57Causing a surge that initially travels at 500 miles per hour.
12:03At the very beginning, it propagates almost the same speed as airplane.
12:11At Sendai Tsunami Warning Center, the alarm sounds.
12:17The race is on to find out the size of the oncoming wave.
12:23Due to the tsunami and the earthquake itself, most of the monitoring stations were damaged.
12:31It was something that was unreal.
12:35As monitoring systems in Japan are overwhelmed, scientists worldwide track the advancing wave.
12:43I received a call at 1.20 in the morning from a colleague in California.
12:49He said, turn on the television. All hell is breaking loose in Japan.
12:55The earthquake had occurred about 35 minutes earlier.
12:58I was able to see some of the immediate coverage of the tsunamis coming in.
13:04This was a planetary monster.
13:07Three miles out to sea, the Coast Guard filmed the first breathtaking sight of the tsunami.
13:14Three miles out to sea, the Coast Guard filmed the first breathtaking sight of the tsunami.
13:32On land, everyone is still recovering from the earthquake.
13:37They have less than 30 minutes before the big waves start to hit.
13:47And there's another danger.
13:50Parts of the Japanese coast have sunk one meter lower,
13:55meaning that the impact of the tsunami will be even greater.
13:59In the coastal port of Otsuchi, American eyewitness Brian Barnes is working on a conservation project.
14:06In the coastal port of Otsuchi, American eyewitness Brian Barnes is working on a conservation project.
14:12When I went to Japan, I didn't even think about a possible earthquake.
14:17Yeah, we're leaving. Yeah, we're leaving.
14:20I didn't know that the tsunami would happen, but I assumed that there was probably about at least a 90% chance.
14:27Where do we go?
14:28Go to the hill.
14:29Where do we go?
14:30Just go, huh?
14:31Yeah, the hill, the hill, the hill.
14:32All the employees are leaving.
14:34Brian races for higher ground, his camera still rolling.
14:38Are we hearing sirens? Yeah.
14:40Yeah.
14:41This town has a lot of history with tsunamis.
14:51When the tsunami approaches land, it slows dramatically.
14:56But as the sea becomes shallower, the waves rise higher and higher, reaching up to 14 meters tall.
15:06In the radar room at Sendai Airport, air traffic controllers are desperately diverting aircraft away from the quake-hit runway.
15:18None of us really had time to think about our own lives.
15:22Everyone was just working very hard to manage the aircraft.
15:30Outside, airport personnel frantically evacuate passengers from ground level.
15:36Oh, the cars!
15:46In nearby towns, tens of thousands of people are running for their lives.
15:56Among them, Katsuyoshi Hayasaka.
15:59The only nearby structure capable of withstanding the wave is the concrete school building a few blocks away.
16:09We were instructed to go to the third or fourth floor, as we didn't know how high the tsunami would reach.
16:20Fire crews, traffic officers, and police were walking around the neighborhood shouting,
16:27Evacuate immediately!
16:33The Japanese coastline is just seconds from impact.
16:56At 3.15pm on March 11th, 2011, the tsunami approaches the east coast of Japan.
17:27If it was close, it would be here in moments.
17:30They're taking it pretty seriously, obviously.
17:32American eyewitness Brian Barnes has seconds to escape.
17:36But he's lost.
17:39Come on, somebody help me here.
17:41Where are you headed?
17:42To the hill.
17:43We've got to go across the bridge, I guess.
17:45What if the bridge fell down?
17:46Turn left, hopefully not.
17:48We're driving through town with the tsunami's warning blaring.
17:50I just felt like it was time to document what was happening.
17:54I didn't actually realize that I was going to be documenting the final moments of an entire town.
18:01As the clock ticks towards 3.20pm, the biggest waves start pounding the coast.
18:14Hundreds capture the moment on camcorders and camera phones.
18:19In the port of Shiogama,
18:24the sea erupts.
18:41For this car and the occupants,
18:45For this car and the occupants,
18:48there's no escape.
19:0280 miles up the coast in Kamaishi,
19:05millions of cubic meters of water are forced through streets just 10 meters wide.
19:14The narrow channels accelerating the speed of the flow.
19:20I kept hearing tsunami, and it was 10 meters,
19:23and here are the towns that it's going to hit.
19:32But I had no idea the power and force that the tsunami would bring.
19:38We all had a feeling a tsunami was going to come.
19:41Because when you have that big of an earthquake, there's just always a fear.
19:44We have quite a bit of kids who live in those coastal cities.
19:50They're just sending out prayers to them, you know,
19:52just making sure that hopefully they were not there when it hit.
19:59Paula and Wesley are safe on higher ground,
20:02but tens of thousands aren't.
20:11Hurry up! Hurry up!
20:17Hurry up! Hurry up!
20:22Hurry up! Hurry up!
20:30In Kasanuma,
20:34one eyewitness video shows town become sea inside four minutes.
20:4115 seconds, road becomes river.
20:55One minute, 20 seconds,
20:57a warehouse weighing thousands of tons is picked up like a ragdoll.
21:02Two minutes, he spots a person in the water.
21:10It's a female.
21:14She's a female.
21:18She's a female.
21:22She's a female.
21:26She's a female.
21:29She's a female.
21:32It's a flood of truly biblical proportions.
21:44Just three minutes, 15 seconds after it started,
21:47the torrent has reached the third floor, over eight meters high.
21:56Up the coast, Brian Barnes is trapped on a hilltop.
22:00It's just all hell breaks loose,
22:02and the water really comes in, pushing forward.
22:04The tree that was right below me,
22:06and the tree's cracking away from the hill.
22:09Here it comes!
22:13It's completely developed, this 40-foot tree, in a matter of seconds.
22:19My thought at the moment was, when will it stop?
22:22Is it going to come all the way up to swallow this entire hill?
22:26And, you know, I mean, at that point,
22:30you just start thinking, you know,
22:32I mean, those are your final seconds in life.
22:42By 3.55 p.m., the tsunami reaches Arahama.
22:48Katsuyoshi Hayasaka gets to the roof of this school building just in time.
22:57As soon as someone shouted, it's the tsunami.
23:00A huge tidal wave came towards us with thundering noise and clouds of dust,
23:05as walls tumbled down.
23:09There was a crushing noise, and the air was full of debris.
23:15At 3.57, the water pours into Sendai Airport, one mile inland.
23:30Air traffic controller Yoshii Kabune is still trying to divert planes
23:35when he is forced to escape to a higher floor.
23:38I watched as my own car, which was parked in the car park in front, got swept away.
23:52There were still people walking on the ground who were unaware of the tsunami.
23:57I heard people yelling at them to get away,
24:00and I saw some people running towards me.
24:04The tsunami wave doesn't stop until it reaches six miles inland.
24:10I saw people trying to escape.
24:33Oh no, oh no, that person is in trouble!
24:39Japan has suffered two deadly blows.
24:44First, earthquake, and then tsunami.
24:50But a third disaster is about to strike,
24:54as the nation faces potential nuclear meltdown.
24:59At 3.42 p.m., just 56 minutes after Japan is rocked
25:04by one of the top five earthquakes in recorded history,
25:10the tsunami wave approaches Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
25:17Inside are three active nuclear reactors.
25:22Diesel generators are pumping water around the reactors
25:26to cool the nuclear fuel rods.
25:30But to remain operational, these generators must stay dry.
25:38In Tokyo, one man is watching the unfolding disaster with increasing alarm.
25:44Nuclear energy is being used to power the reactors.
25:48With increasing alarm, nuclear engineer Mitsuhiko Tanaka
25:53helped design the Fukushima plant.
25:58As soon as I put on the television,
26:00I learned that it was offshore of Fukushima.
26:03That was the epicenter.
26:05And then a tsunami warning followed.
26:07I felt that this was going to be terrible.
26:12The plant is protected by sea walls 5.7 meters high.
26:18But they are no match for the 14-meter wave.
26:27Filmed just after the wave has hit,
26:29this remarkable video shows the damage.
26:34Swamped by the wave, the diesel generators are destroyed.
26:40There is something very important that has to happen after an automatic shutdown,
26:45and that is to immediately cool the reactor.
26:50Now, there is just one backup cooling system left.
26:55Battery-operated pumps.
26:57But they only have an eight-hour charge, and the clock is ticking.
27:03While Fukushima edges towards nuclear meltdown,
27:07across Japan's east coast, people are fighting for their lives.
27:14At its highest measured point,
27:17the tsunami reached 38 meters above sea level.
27:22It broke my heart to see some of the areas that I've walked to,
27:28how many of those cities are gone,
27:30how many of the places have I been to that aren't there anymore,
27:35how many of my friends are missing their homes or not even alive anymore.
27:40For many, helicopters are the only escape route from their island prisons.
27:51We heard the noise of a helicopter in the sky.
27:55We heard the noise of a helicopter in the sky.
27:58It had a searchlight and hovered around the roof.
28:01Then a rescue worker came off the helicopter and told us,
28:04we're going to rescue you one by one.
28:15Brian Barnes returns to Otsuchi to discover a scene of utter devastation.
28:22It was like nothing that you can even imagine.
28:25Hollywood couldn't even create something like this, I don't think.
28:29I think there was about 18,000 people that lived there.
28:33And at this point, there's not enough people living to take care of their dead.
28:37They've lost more than half the town.
28:41So it's pretty much hell on earth.
28:46But Japan's nightmare is about to get even worse.
28:51At the Fukushima nuclear plant, the battery-operated cooling pumps run out of power.
29:01And then, seismic event turns into nuclear catastrophe.
29:10An explosion blows the roof off reactor building one.
29:15Two days later, another explosion hits reactor building three.
29:23With all automatic systems disabled, the authorities have to make a terrifying decision.
29:30They must send men into a radioactive zone to manually cool the reactors.
29:38One of the chosen few is Tokyo fireman Yukio Takayama.
29:46When we go through the main gate at the Fukushima nuclear power plant,
29:51I think it was after 2300 hours on the 18th at night.
29:57My very first impression was that it was like a strangely silent haunted house.
30:04This footage shows Yukio and the team as they move in towards the reactors in total darkness.
30:19You couldn't smell anything or see anything dangerous.
30:22There was nothing that you could see.
30:24All we had in mind was to get out of there.
30:27You couldn't smell anything or see anything dangerous.
30:30There was nothing that you could see.
30:32All we had in front of us was the collapsed nuclear power station, reactor number three,
30:37right in front of us, which was below in smoke.
30:41You felt this strange kind of fear.
30:44Inside the plant, Yukio and 300 others work in shifts of 50,
30:49pouring seawater on the reactors, risking their lives to avert even greater catastrophe.
30:58I was frightened.
31:00I don't know much about radiation,
31:02but I believe that being exposed to large amounts of it meant certain death.
31:08So fear is only natural,
31:10but counteracting that fear was a sense of duty that all of us feel.
31:16The Fukushima Radiation Leak is eventually given the maximum nuclear disaster rating of 7,
31:25the same as Chernobyl.
31:33This is the biggest disaster to strike Japan since World War II.
31:45And it's an event that has affected the whole Pacific region.
31:51Eleven hours after the earthquake, the tsunami had crossed the entire Pacific Ocean.
31:58Rushing past Hawaii, it traveled nearly 5,000 miles at an average speed of 450 miles per hour,
32:06eventually ripping ashore in Santa Cruz, California.
32:12If a tremor in Japan can cause this,
32:17it's an ominous warning of the seismic threat that lies under America's own coastline.
32:28As the true nightmare of Japan's earthquake and tsunami emerges,
32:33earthquake scientists race to work out the implications of this disaster for the rest of the world.
32:40It's been a remarkable time for big earthquakes.
32:43There was a magnitude 6.1 aftershock right beneath the city of Christchurch in New Zealand.
32:50That was a tremendously damaging event.
32:52It killed over 180 people.
32:55We had an earthquake off Chile, magnitude 8.8 just last year.
33:00And now this year, magnitude 9 off Japan.
33:05In just over a year, three points on the Pacific Ring of Fire have exploded.
33:11A possible fourth point in the sequence is the U.S. west coast.
33:17There is now one question on everyone's minds.
33:21One of the things we try and understand when an earthquake like this happens
33:25in some faraway place like Japan is what are the implications for us in the United States.
33:33Over 25 million people live along the Pacific coast of North America.
33:39From Mexico in the south to Alaska in the north, the whole region is seismically active.
33:48One of the biggest danger zones is in California.
33:51One of the biggest danger zones is in California.
33:55Where the Ring of Fire runs inland, straight down the San Andreas fault line.
34:04Professor Tom Jordan has simulated the effect of a major earthquake in this area.
34:11This shows the San Andreas fault in central California.
34:15And what you're going to look at here is a simulation of a magnitude 8 earthquake
34:20as it ruptures the northern part of the San Andreas, comes speeding down at 6,000 miles per hour.
34:28Essentially Los Angeles is a big bowl of jelly that shakes.
34:33This of course is not the kind of earthquake you'd want to be in.
34:37But further north, America faces an even greater danger.
34:42As many people now understand, there is a fault very similar to the one that broke in Japan
34:48off the northwestern coastline of Oregon, Washington, northern California and British Columbia.
34:57Lurking just 50 miles off the coast is an active seismic zone known as the Cascadia fault line.
35:07On this fault line, oceanic crust is diving under continental North America.
35:14And here too, the rock is under massive pressure.
35:19If it reaches breaking point,
35:24the Pacific Northwest could face a similar catastrophe.
35:29A terrifying earthquake.
35:35Triggering a huge tsunami that would hit the west coast of America in just 25 minutes.
35:43An event like this which is right off shore gives very little warning time to the people that live on shore.
35:51The cities of Vancouver and Seattle are right in the firing line.
35:56We always tell people if you feel a big earthquake near the ocean, get to higher ground
36:01because there's really not time for tsunami warning systems to kick in and they sort of have to self evacuate.
36:09Countries all around the ring of fire must learn from the disaster in Japan
36:16by building stronger sea defenses and learning how to predict earthquakes.
36:23We don't know how to tell you, hey, next week, you know, get out of town, there's going to be a big earthquake.
36:30We are working on that problem very hard, but earthquakes turn out to be very difficult to predict.
36:38Nowhere is this problem greater than in Tokyo,
36:42as hundreds of aftershocks rattle an already shaken nation.
36:49I was actually a little shocked about the earthquakes that came after the big one.
36:55I guess that would be the one area where I really wasn't prepared
36:59because from the time it happened that Friday to the time I left around Tuesday of the next week,
37:06they happen constantly, I would say almost every hour or so.
37:11Tom Jordan has analyzed the aftershocks.
37:15We're going to look at the sequence of earthquakes that occurred during this incredible week.
37:20That green dot is a foreshock that occurred 50 hours before the main shock.
37:25You can see the main shock in red and then all of the aftershocks that occurred for the following week.
37:31In the months after the big earthquake, three powerful magnitude 7 aftershocks have rocked Japan.
37:41As terrible as this earthquake has been, we haven't seen the end of it.
37:46The aftershocks that are occurring in Japan are going to continue for months and years into the future.
37:53And one of the big concerns we have is where will those aftershocks be?
38:00The city of Tokyo, the world's largest city, sits on the edge of the current aftershock zone.
38:08So we have to be very concerned about the seismic risk to Tokyo.
38:13This sequence isn't over.
38:24As earthquake scientists continue to analyze what happened in Japan,
38:29the real human cost is only now coming to the surface.
38:35There's not a word in the English dictionary to describe the amount of catastrophic damage that this tsunami did to northern Japan.
38:44This was a mega disaster.
38:47They've completely lost the infrastructure.
38:49They've completely lost the infrastructure.
38:51They've lost tens of thousands of their citizens.
38:55If you're in the position of government, I mean, how do you even begin to start to talk about, you know, coming back from something like this?
39:02It just by-whirls the mind.
39:07Paula Lutze is staying in Japan to help the relief effort.
39:12We kind of set up an organization.
39:14We put a huge map on the wall and said,
39:15these are the locations that we're going to go to to scout out to see what they need.
39:19So, like, for the past, what, week and a half, that's what we've been doing.
39:24In the early morning, we get truckloads from down south.
39:27We get truckloads from up north.
39:29We sort them and then we ship them out in different trucks that Mason owns.
39:35Back in the U.S., Wesley Julian is still coming to terms with what he witnessed.
39:45Whenever I watch this footage, I'm always taken back right to that moment.
39:51And that moment was the scariest moment of my life.
40:02Because of this earthquake, I've reevaluated a lot about maybe how lucky I am because I made it out alive.
40:11One of my friends did die in the tsunami.
40:16So I have thought about the last time I said goodbye.
40:22And it was just a casual see-ya.
40:28Yeah, so I would say they're a big deal.
40:33Yeah.
40:35Sorry.
40:41Across Japan, tens of thousands of survivors live in makeshift shelters.
40:54I've been living for 70 years.
40:57I have experienced many things in my life.
41:00And I think I'm back to square one.
41:03We need to start from scratch.
41:05For the first time since the disaster, Katsuyoshi Hayasaka returns to his hometown to search for his house.
41:27The only landmark that remains is the building that saved his life.
41:32The only landmark that remains is the building that saved his life.
41:45This is my house.
41:53This is my house.
41:57This is my house.
42:00This is my house.
42:05This is my house.
42:09This is my house.
42:21The most important thing is, what do we do now?
42:24I'm not talking about a couple of individuals here.
42:27I mean, we have to consider what all of us are going to do.
42:31Like a place to shelter from the wind and the rain.
42:35That's what matters most.
42:55Katsuyoshi Hayasaka returns to his hometown to search for his house.
43:00The only landmark that remains is the building that saved his life.
43:04The only landmark that remains is the building that saved his life.
43:08The only landmark that remains is the building that saved his life.
43:12The only landmark that remains is the building that saved his life.
43:16The only landmark that remains is the building that saved his life.
43:19Katsuyoshi Hayasaka returns to his hometown to search for his house.
43:23The only landmark that remains is the building that saved his life.
43:27The only landmark that remains is the building that saved his life.
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