00:00Since the year 2000, the world has been hit by more than 1,700 earthquakes of a magnitude greater than 5.
00:08Many of them occurred around the Belt of Fire, located on the outskirts of the Pacific Ocean.
00:13In North America, the biggest threat is the St. Andreas fault,
00:17likely to cause an earthquake of an unequal magnitude, which earned it the nickname of Big One.
00:24The potential destruction of California is a terrifying prospect that could have unimaginable consequences.
00:31But the Big One is just the beginning of what awaits us.
00:36Bad news. Scientists have predicted a shocking event for the planet in 2030.
00:42The probability that we will witness this huge earthquake, the Big One, is 70%,
00:48and its magnitude should reach 6.7 on the Richter scale.
00:52The St. Andreas fault will have its origins, but our forecasts are unfortunately insufficient for the moment.
00:58However, a large-scale earthquake occurs once every 100 years.
01:03This gives us time to prepare for the disaster.
01:06If we were able to travel through time, we would be able to see with our own eyes
01:10the earthquakes that ravaged San Francisco and Fort Tejong.
01:14The buildings built a long time ago are not at the brink of this kind of earthquake.
01:18They collapse inevitably.
01:20Even if they hold the blow, you must not penetrate them.
01:23But buildings are not the most dangerous thing there is.
01:26You must pay attention to electrical installations and gas conduits.
01:30Your house on the hill may be charming, but it is dangerously exposed.
01:35During an earthquake, a hill can suffer a huge landslide, which will destroy everything in its path.
01:42Say goodbye to car trips, because all roads will be destroyed.
01:46Prepare water and food reserves, because you will no longer be able to shop.
01:50This disaster will not be cheap.
01:53The United States will have to pay about $200 billion to recover from the disaster.
01:58Know that at least, the earthquake will not cause a tsunami.
02:02But there is something that can cause even more damage than this Big One.
02:06The famous Cascadia subduction zone begins in California and ends in Vancouver, Canada.
02:12The fault of San Andreas is nothing compared to this zone.
02:16It could destroy the entire coastline.
02:19A terrifying vision.
02:21Subduction is a phenomenon of sinking of a tectonic plate under another plate of a lower density.
02:27So here we have the North American plate and the Juan de Fuca plate.
02:31Zones of this type are generally to be avoided, because the risks of earthquakes are very high there.
02:36And they are therefore extremely dangerous.
02:38Especially due to underwater disasters.
02:41But let's take a risk, we who are on Earth.
02:44Yes, because giant tsunamis can occur, flooding cities and destroying coasts.
02:50At the moment, the most active zone is the fire belt.
02:54The Cascadia zone may be less active, but it is like a sleeping beast.
02:59It could wake up and destroy everything in its path, causing unprecedented damage.
03:05The last time such a tension was released was in the year 1700.
03:09Unlike the earthquake of San Andreas, this one will cause massive tsunamis.
03:14And its shocks will be much more violent.
03:16Let's hope you are camping in a field at this time.
03:19Because most buildings and bridges will probably be destroyed.
03:22Also prepare for the replicas, which will be devastating.
03:26Nature will not be spared either.
03:28The landslides will change the entire habitat of animals.
03:31And our houses will be unrecognizable.
03:33Fortunately, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
03:36And scientists are doing everything they can to ensure our safety.
03:40New rules are being implemented.
03:42Each new building must be able to resist massive shocks.
03:46They are developing modern warning systems.
03:48And every new infrastructure must follow strict guidelines in terms of resistance to earthquakes.
03:55The plates Juan de Fuca and North American are currently blocked against each other.
03:59But they will not stay that way forever.
04:02When they are unlocked, prepare for a strong shock.
04:06The closer you are to the epicenter, the greater the damage.
04:09But even if you are lucky enough to be far from the epicenter,
04:12you may feel the ground shaking for a while.
04:16If we compare the subduction zone of Cascadia and the San Andreas fault,
04:21we see that the Cascadia zone is much more dangerous.
04:25In 1994, a huge earthquake of magnitude 6.7 occurred in the Northridge region,
04:33near the San Andreas fault.
04:35Unfortunately, many people did not survive.
04:38And there were many injured.
04:40At the time, the buildings were not strong enough to resist earthquakes.
04:45And many of them were damaged.
04:48The Cascadia subduction zone can potentially cause an earthquake of magnitude 9.
04:53An earthquake of magnitude 6 has a power equivalent to about 20 million kilograms of dynamite.
04:59But the power of an earthquake of magnitude 9 is equivalent to 20 billion kilograms of this same dynamite.
05:06The most powerful earthquake ever recorded occurred in Chile.
05:10Its magnitude was 9.5 and it almost destroyed everything.
05:14Suppose you survived the earthquake.
05:17Your troubles are far from over.
05:20Shortly after, a massive tsunami will hit the coast,
05:23with waves that can reach up to 30 meters in some areas.
05:27This is not the case with the earthquake in San Andreas,
05:30which cannot cause major waves.
05:32You can say goodbye to your beautiful garden,
05:35because the salty water will destroy the trees and plants,
05:38and will change the environment for a long time.
05:40The only positive point,
05:42you will no longer need decorations for Halloween,
05:45because all these dried-up trees will look like a ghost forest.
05:48The waves, the tremors, and the extension of the zone itself
05:51will make this natural disaster much more formidable
05:54than the one caused by the failure of San Andreas and the Big One.
05:58An earthquake similar to this occurred about 300 years ago.
06:02Many others have been recorded over the last 3,500 years,
06:07which proves that they occur continuously every 400 to 600 years.
06:11Technically, we have between 100 and 300 years left before the next event.
06:15We still do not know how exactly the Cascadia subduction zone works,
06:20because we only discovered it in 1970.
06:23This area is very frightening.
06:25It is one of the most dangerous on the planet.
06:28It was discovered by chance by researchers studying the belt of fire.
06:32They wanted to know if there had been problems in this area in recent years,
06:36and the proof was under their feet.
06:38In the state of Washington,
06:40there is a sinister forest where nothing has grown for years.
06:43When the researchers analyzed the soil,
06:46they found a huge amount of salt.
06:48They made the approach,
06:50and concluded that a massive tsunami was at the origin of this situation.
06:54Experts still do not know exactly when the forest was destroyed.
06:58Fortunately, Japan has left traces of a gigantic earthquake
07:02that had a similar effect.
07:04This is the one that occurred in the year 1700.
07:07There is a 3% chance that the next one will occur in 2050.
07:11You must know how to act in the event of an earthquake
07:15to get out of it unscathed, so listen carefully.
07:18The inhabitants of the region we are talking about
07:20have practically no experience of earthquakes of this type.
07:23It is relatively easy to survive this kind of disaster.
07:27It is the tsunami that will follow that constitutes the real danger.
07:31After the initial shake,
07:33find the highest ground in your region and go there.
07:36Take only the essentials, such as food and water.
07:39Leave your baseball card collection at home.
07:42After the first wave, do not go back down right away.
07:45Seismologists claim that, most likely, there will be more.
07:49And they have proven it.
07:51On May 22, 1960,
07:53seismologist Jerry Estone and his four friends
07:56went to Hawaii to observe a tsunami that was to occur around midnight.
08:01They installed their equipment on the Wailuku Bridge
08:04and planned an emergency route.
08:06This bridge had been destroyed during the previous tsunami,
08:09but the new bridge was much higher and better adapted.
08:12After midnight, the water was 1.2 meters above its average level.
08:17The second wave struck half an hour after midnight
08:20and the water rose again from 2.75 meters at one o'clock in the morning.
08:24The water then went down about 2 meters.
08:27But the horror was far from over.
08:29They then saw a wave just over 6 meters high.
08:32This proves to us that tsunamis are unpredictable
08:35and that we must absolutely listen to experts to stay safe.
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