How Scientists Track Tsunami Origins

In this episode, we explore the cutting-edge science of tsunami detection and prediction through the lens of major disasters and breakthrough research. We follow University of Southern California Professor Costas Synolakis and Georgia Institute of Technology Professor Hermann Fritz as they investigate the devastating two thousand eighteen Palu tsunami in Indonesia that killed four thousand people, uncovering how a seven point two magnitude earthquake triggered multiple landslides that combined into a killer wave reaching the city in just two minutes. We examine how Indonesian geologist Nazli Ismail's discovery of ancient tsunami deposits in bat-filled caves revolutionized understanding of these recurring disasters, dating back ten thousand years through carbon fourteen analysis. The episode covers Japan's advanced Dense Oceanfloor Network System for Earthquakes and Tsunamis monitoring the nine-hundred-kilometer Nankai fault, which scientists predict has an eighty percent chance of causing a tsunami in the next thirty years that could kill three hundred fifty thousand people and devastate cities like Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya. We investigate how Italian researchers traced the eighteen eighty-seven Mediterranean tsunami that killed six hundred people to underwater faults thirty kilometers off the coast, and explore volcanologist Mauro Rosi's work connecting Stromboli's volcanic activity to a thirteen forty-three tsunami that devastated Naples. The episode reveals how modern tsunami warning systems operate, from Indonesia's Jakarta monitoring center to Japan's sophisticated artificial intelligence evacuation systems, while examining why coastal development continues to increase vulnerability despite advancing detection technology.

 

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