[dramatic music]
* *
- Greetings. Bill Nye here.
If you've been watching this show, you'd agree,
we've survived some crazy disasters together:
flaming debris from outer space,
pyroclastic death clouds,
solar shockwaves,
the time I wore a bow tie in the hot tub.
But our next disaster is the scariest one yet.
It will happen in a region known as the Ring of Fire.
Never heard of it?
A lot of people haven't.
And yet if you live on the Ring of Fire,
you're in grave danger every single day,
including this place.
Welcome to the picturesque town of Homer, Alaska.
Today, you could say that this
is one of the most dangerous places on Earth.
[deep rumbling]
The Ring of Fire is awakening!
This is only the beginning of the end.
Brace yourselves!
[rumbling]
[dramatic music]
* *
[cow mooing]
* *
Greetings, and welcome to the Disaster Institute.
Here, we chronicle the great cataclysms that have happened,
are happening, and could happen at any moment.
We're here to witness yet another end of the world.
And we'll show you how science can carry us through
the worst scenarios.
We will also answer the question,
"Why is Earth so damn dangerous?"
Sometimes, doesn't it seem like our planet is out to get us?
Especially on this show.
We're about to experience
the most terrifying disaster of all.
After we're done here, you will never forget its name:
the Ring of Fire.
The Ring of Fire is a zone of fractures and fault lines
25,000 miles long and 300 miles wide.
Nine out of ten earthquakes
and almost all of the world's volcanoes are located
along this narrow perimeter.
The Ring of Fire stretches all around the edge
of the Pacific Ocean,
where it touches 15 countries.
If you're one of the two billion people who reside
on the Pacific Coast of Chile, the Pacific Coast of Mexico,
or the coasts of Russia, Japan, Indonesia, Canada,
New Zealand, or the United States,
then you live with ever-present danger.
That includes my beloved Seattle, Washington,
and even some places not known for extreme heat or volcanoes,
like Alaska.
You might call the Ring of Fire
the mother of all natural disasters.
And you'd be right,
because it's where most of Earth's disasters are born,
like this one.
March 27th, 1964.
This is not a movie about a disaster
or a made-up disaster.
It's a movie of a disaster.
What I'm about to show you is real.
This really happened.
[film projector whirring]
[soft dramatic music]
* *
- At Valdez, the "Chena's" come in,
always a red letter day in the life of the town.
For the men, it means the first payday of spring,
working cargo in the hold and down on the dock.
And for the kids, it's always a little like Christmas.
They flock down to the dock when the ship comes in,
knowing the deckhands will greet them
with fruit and candy.
Two of the crewmen,
Fred Newmayer and Ernest Nelson,
unlimber their 8-millimeter movie cameras,
trying to get some pictures
of the grinning youngsters and their dogs
on the dock below.
Then, at 5:36, a dozen miles deep,
the Earth begins to move.
Suddenly, the whole harbor at Valdez begins to empty.
It drains almost dry.
[loud rumbling]
A subterranean cavern opens directly alongside the ship.
Soon, only its mast tips can be seen from the top.
The dock splinters, goes down with it,
while crewmen try frantically to reach the people on it.
Out in the Gulf of Alaska, the ocean bottom plunges,
then heaves upward a full 50 feet,
and a wave starts racing for shore.
[waves roaring]
[dramatic music]
Fred Newmayer grabs the deck stanchion,
holds on for dear life,
and keeps his camera running.
* *
No one on the dock at Valdez will survive;
the longshoreman, the kids, or their dogs.
- Sorry, we usually like to show a cartoon
before our feature,
but our regular projectionist couldn't take it anymore.
When that 9.2 megathrust earthquake
rocked the coast of Alaska,
600 miles of fault line ruptured
and released five centuries of built-up pressure.
The only survivor that day was Fred Newmayer
and his astonishing home movie.
His ship managed to stay afloat.
Everything else was swept away in five minutes.
That is the destructive power of the Ring of Fire.
And now, today, we'll see the story of how
the Ring of Fire goes berserk.
We're about to take a ride on our Disaster Simulator.
I want you to experience this disaster firsthand
from different points of view:
a young boat captain seeking safe haven
in a storm of water and fire,
a scientist tracking the end of the world
while facing it herself,
and from the point of view
of a world locked in seismic conflict.
In the more than 50 years since that day,
the coast of Alaska has been relatively quiet,
but the Ring of Fire doesn't care
if we're paying attention.
It's not a TikTok influencer.
It's more powerful than all of us,
and today, the Ring of Fire will awaken once more.
[rumbling]
[unsettling music]
* *
Our story begins here, in the not-so-distant future,
on a fishing boat off the shores of Southern Alaska.
This vessel has been at sea for the past three days.
This was our young captain's first solo expedition
since her dad retired and she took over his boat.
- Port Authority, Port Authority, Port Authority,
this is "Midnight Sun." Do you read me?
- She and her crew have hauled in a great catch.
Now they're headed home to warm beds,
steady floors, and sorely missed loved ones.
- Coast Guard, Coast Guard, Coast Guard,
this is "Midnight Sun." Do you read me?
- But the skipper can't dock her boat until she receives
confirmation from the Port Authority,
and they're not answering her calls.
* *
An hour later, she approaches shore
and searches the horizon
for all the familiar landmarks.
Where's the lighthouse, the dock, the other boats?
[foreboding music]
* *
- [coughing]
- This sucker almost broke my arm and my line.
Put up a hell of a fight. You gotta respect that.
It's your lucky day, little bubba.
I'm going to sauté you up with some lemons and capers.
What the hell?
[rumbling]
[screaming]
* *
[unsettling music]
* *
- Scientists at the Geophysical Institute
in Fairbanks, Alaska are shaken--literally.
They were jolted awake in their beds
at 4:37 in the morning
by a massive earthquake off the Southern Coast.
Preliminary estimates place it at a magnitude 8.3.
That's geology talk for "holy [bleep]!"
These dots represent seismometers,
ocean buoys, and other sensors
connected in a huge telecommunications network.
It allows the people living on the Ring of Fire
to share critical information about earthquakes, volcanoes,
tsunamis, and other disasters, all in real time.
And these scientists are racing to identify
what fault slipped to cause this quake.
Was this earthquake the main event,
or was it what they call a foreshock,
a harbinger of something much bigger and more deadly?
It has already been very deadly.
Satellite views show that
the coastal town of Homer, Alaska,
was destroyed within minutes.
There's nothing left.
An entire town swallowed up in just a few moments?
Really? Yes, really.
You see, Homer, just like Valdez before it,
was built on layers of
water-saturated sand and gravel,
which feels as solid as concrete
until violently shaken by an earthquake.
Solid ground suddenly becomes a thick liquid,
so we call it liquefaction.
It led to an underwater landslide,
which caused a giant wave.
What didn't collapse got washed away.
[ominous music]
* *
Hold on, another earthquake alert.
And another.
Something unprecedented is unfolding.
The global network of seismometers
is reacting to major disruptions
all around the Ring of Fire.
One, two, three, four, five major earth--
Wait.
Make it six major earthquakes
all occurring within the past few hours.
[alarm beeping rapidly]
Tokyo, Japan.
Christchurch, New Zealand.
Lima, Peru.
Seattle, Washington.
Along the coast of California.
Earthquakes are common on Earth, hence the name,
but this,
this is a first in recorded history.
Some people think it's a chain reaction of quakes.
Others say that's impossible.
Whatever the case, it is happening.
Six major earthquakes in one day,
and they're not something
you want to sit and binge watch.
[rumbling]
[electricity crackling]
That was another quake off the coast of Alaska.
She's worried that this quake could trigger an eruption
of a nearby submarine volcano.
* *
Something similar happened
during the recent Tonga eruption
under the South Pacific sea floor,
a devastating blast
that shot all the way into the stratosphere
and split the island into two separate islands.
Our geophysicist is worried something even bigger
could happen off the coast of Alaska.
This is Adak Island, population 326.
It's in a bad spot.
Other nearby islands are being evacuated by the Coast Guard,
but there are not enough boats to rescue everyone.
The people living on Adak are stranded and helpless.
If that undersea volcano erupts,
tsunamis and liquefaction
could sink Adak Island within minutes.
The Coast Guard issues an emergency call.
All available vessels should proceed at once
to assist in the evacuation of Adak Island.
Despite losing everything she loved,
her home, her friends, her dear father,
she channels her grief into helping others,
determined to rescue the people on Adak Island
from a similar fate.
* *
Normally, they would just worry about
weather conditions.
Today, the Geophysical Institute
is keeping the vessels apprised
of seismic conditions as well.
Tsunamis are now happening all along the Pacific Rim.
Most will dissipate, but a few will cause major damage.
[electronic crackling]
* *
This is not an earthquake. This is intentional.
A direct cyberattack on the global seismographic network.
Vital elements of the system are beginning to shut down
in multiple countries around the world,
but no one knows who's responsible
for this cyberattack or even why they're attacking.
What you're about to witness
is our first international Act of Cow.
[cow mooing]
Act of Cow symbolizes the human negligence
that can trigger a disaster or make one worse.
It's inspired by a bovine named Daisy,
who, as legend has it, kicked over a lantern
and started the Great Chicago Fire.
[cow mooing]
With nations around the world already on edge,
the situation quickly escalates.
The American military suspects that Russian hackers
are behind the attack.
- What the hell are you doing?
Without that data, we're all blind.
- And the Russians suspect everyone else.
- You blame us for everything.
How do we know it isn't you?
- Desperate to protect their own data,
the U.S. and Russia disconnect their sensors
from the network.
China, not taking any chances,
retracts its data as well.
Other nations quickly follow suit
in a chain reaction of suspicion.
Scientists are now flying blind.
They can no longer track earthquake epicenters,
impending volcanic eruptions, or incoming tsunamis.
They can no longer reckon who or what is at risk,
all because of nationalism and politics.
But people don't have time for politics on the Ring of Fire.
What they really need is a ring of ceasefire.
[rumbling]
Get ready for the worst day on Earth!
[all shouting]
* *
[sirens wailing]
- That last Alaska earthquake was a whopper,
7.4 on the Richter scale.
The city of Fairbanks got hit hard.
It's anyone's guess when the next aftershocks will strike.
We can't stop earthquakes,
and now we can't predict them very well either.
At least we could predict the likelihood of aftershocks,
landslides, tsunamis, and other consequences,
but not now,
not without these nations talking to each other.
No one around the Ring of Fire, no one anywhere,
has any idea of what might come next.
[ominous music]
* *
[plane engine whirring]
Not even the Japanese.
You see, the people of Japan
are long-time residents on the Ring of Fire.
Their country is the most seismically active
area on the planet,
and they think of themselves as supremely prepared,
but nothing can prepare you for what they call
Daidjishin, "the big one."
[rumbling]
[passengers screaming]
[wheels screeching]
[mechanical spluttering]
[engines roaring]
* *
Although Japan records the largest number of quakes,
geophysicists will tell you that it's Indonesia
that gets hit the hardest by the Ring of Fire.
It's been battered by all the disasters,
earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes, monsoons,
floods, landslides,
and, of course, tsunamis.
Sometimes history repeats itself
in the worst possible way.
With no tsunami warning system, the people here in Bali
and other parts of Indonesia
have no idea there's been a deep sea earthquake
off shore.
Yet again, hundreds of thousands of people
will be caught tragically unaware.
* *
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Pacific Ocean,
our young boat captain races toward Adak Island
to help with the emergency evacuation.
* *
It turns out our geophysicist was right to be worried
about the Alaskan earthquake
cracking open a magma chamber just below the seafloor
and triggering an eruption.
* *
A massive quake
along a previously unknown fault line
has struck less than a mile
from the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant.
Although the plant's operators took every precaution,
they could not have foreseen
that events on the Ring of Fire
could amplify the geologic stresses quite like this.
Structural damage to the reactors is severe.
Radiation emissions rise to dangerous levels.
Over a quarter-million residents
in the County of San Luis Obispo are in danger.
A complete meltdown of Reactor 2 is underway.
The entire county and its many miles of gorgeous coastline
will be rendered uninhabitable for ten centuries.
The U.S. will have its very own Chernobyl.
[ominous music]
* *
[sighs]
Nothing like a strong Seattle cup of Joe to really focus.
Maybe it's the water, the air, the ambiance.
Seattle was my home for 26 years.
I worked as a mechanical engineer,
did a little stand-up comedy,
and eventually hosted my first TV show,
all right here in the Emerald City.
It makes what's about to happen hurt all the more.
You see, the city of Seattle was built on top of
water-saturated silt, sand, and clay
scraped up here by ancient glaciers.
The earlier quake that rattled Seattle
was enough to loosen things up underground.
[rumbling] [glasses clinking]
Feels like a 6, at least!
Right now, the ground beneath our feet is--
damn it.
Liquefaction!
Damn!
- [screams]
[people screaming]
- As our disaster simulation comes to a fiery end,
I mourn the demise of my beloved Seattle
while wondering, "Why not take Portland instead?"
Major seismic events continue along the Ring of Fire
for the next few weeks.
By now, world leaders recognize that
a lone hacker was behind the cyberattack,
and they try to reopen communications.
But it's too late.
With all this destruction, you might be wondering,
"Why is Earth so damn dangerous anyway?"
Hey, wh--what are you doing here?
You're part of the simulation.
[dramatic music]
* *
[both yelling]
- As our disaster simulation comes to an end,
the Ring of Fire has left its mark on Earth,
and the Disaster Institute lies in ruins.
All part of the simulation, of course.
Someone with a sick sense of humor.
Really? I had to die twice this time?
[sighs]
Well, let's hit the lab and answer the question,
"Why is Mother Nature always trying to kill us?"
Our planet is dangerous, people.
It can burn us, swallow us, crush us, and drown us,
sometimes all at once.
But as far as we can figure,
Earth is the only place in all of known space
that has living things on it.
Coincidence?
Not at all.
This planet of ours is biologically alive
precisely because it is geologically alive.
Many scientists speculate that life began in ocean vents
fed by the churning heat of Earth's core.
It's like those bumper stickers say,
"Live, laugh, lava?"
[clears throat] Funny story.
When I was in seventh grade, my teacher, Mrs. Paul,
told us about Alfred Wegener and continental drift.
Wegener speculated that Africa and South America
used to be one continent
because they seemed to fit together like puzzle pieces.
At first, the idea that continents could scoot around
seemed comical.
But just five years after I got out of high school,
that crazy idea was established science.
See, Mrs. Paul was right.
I told you it was a funny story.
In the late 1960s, geologists on research ships
discovered that the sea floor is slowly tearing apart
at what we now call the Mid-Atlantic Ridge,
causing North America to drift away from Europe
about two centimeters a year,
about as fast as your fingernails grow.
Might not seem like much,
but over millions of years, it adds up.
Just picture millions of years of fingernails growing.
No. [clears throat] Let's--let's not do that.
We now know that Earth's crust
isn't just one big shell of rock.
It's broken into a dozen major pieces and a few smaller ones,
and all those pieces are called plates,
each one moving in a slightly different direction.
The whole system of moving plates
is called tectonics,
from the Greek word for construction.
When the plates collide or break apart, watch out.
Geologic pandemonium breaks loose,
rocks and lava living together.
While the Atlantic Ocean is expanding on one side,
over on this side, the plates are closing in on each other
from all directions,
colliding with tremendous energy,
and creating the Ring of Fire.
On our planet, it's all about cycles.
Heat inside the Earth drives cycles of melted rock,
and that's why the world is so dangerous.
And it's also why we're alive.
Allow me to demonstrate
while also getting some always welcome cardio.
I'll drive the cycles of Earth.
The inner workings of Earth are alive
with geological and biological forces,
all of them cycling at the same time,
all simultaneously sustaining life
and also destroying it.
There's the water cycle.
Everybody knows that life needs water.
Nothing on Earth would live long without it,
certainly not you and me.
Oceans become clouds.
Clouds become rain.
Rain becomes rivers and lakes.
But hurricanes, tornadoes, lightning storms, floods,
are all part of the water cycle too.
Some of that water seeps deep into the Earth,
where it's filtered through rocks and minerals
and produces the molecules needed for life.
This is the carbon cycle.
Life is made of carbon molecules.
The carbon dioxide in our atmosphere feeds plants.
Animals eat plants, including us,
who also eat other animals.
When plants and animals die,
they return that carbon back
to the Earth and air.
It's the cycle of life, baby,
but the carbon cycle walks a narrow tightrope.
Too much carbon dioxide, and our planet gets too hot.
We broil like Venus.
Too little carbon, and our planet cools,
and we freeze like Mars.
Too much carbon in the atmosphere
is driving climate change,
the greatest disaster we face today.
Our planet has other cycles too.
Earth has an oxygen cycle,
a nitrogen cycle,
a phosphorus cycle, and, of course, a water cycle.
[panting] These cycles run all at once.
Nothing stays in place long on our restless Earth.
They're all largely driven
by powerful geologic forces inside our planet.
When those forces are unleashed,
you get volcanoes and earthquakes.
It's why the Ring of Fire exists.
It's why Mother Earth,
in all her transformational glory,
is beautiful but deadly,
the femme fatale of our solar system.
Sure, it's dangerous,
but that's what makes it alive.
That's what makes it fun.
[sighs]
Okay, uh, who am I kidding?
You've been watching this show. It's not always fun.
But if you're like me, and I know I am,
you probably wouldn't mind living without those
Ring of Fire disasters.
Hey, you want to check out the safest place on Earth,
geologically speaking?
Somewhere far away from any liquefaction
or tectonic tsunamis?
[dramatic music]
* *
You might try the desert nation of Qatar.
Qatar has no earthquakes because the country is flat.
There are no mountains or tectonic forces,
no floods, landslides, hurricanes,
just very hot and sunny in the summer
and slightly not as hot in the winter.
[wind whistling]
Maybe you specifically want to avoid earthquakes.
Then you definitely want to head to the peace and quiet
of Antarctica,
Earth's steadiest, most stable continent.
Plus, you'll never again have to shop for sandals.
[chuckles]
[wondrous music]
* *
For the ultimate in safety, no plate tectonics,
hardly any quakes, no volcanoes,
no tsunamis, for crying out loud,
you could abandon this world entirely
and go to the Moon.
Several countries and maybe a few billionaires
are currently planning small bases there
and maybe a fulfillment center or two.
With enough work, you could even give the Moon water
and an atmosphere.
It's an idea called "terraforming."
On the Moon, we'd have to bring life to a lifeless place
and keep replenishing it.
Earth sustains itself.
Our planet is alive,
and we wouldn't be alive without it,
but isn't there a way we can learn to live with it?
Our planet is dangerous.
Is there some way to make it safer?
Well, I'm so glad you asked.
- Earth is a dangerous place.
That's why we built this institute.
But not all disasters are created equal.
Living on the Ring of Fire
isn't like knocking a comet out of the sky
or shielding our electrical grid from a solar flare.
The scope of it is just too huge.
Well, as I always say,
big problems need big solutions.
And the Ring of Fire is big,
so big it will need smaller solutions too.
We need to think about the Ring of Fire
globally and locally in our own communities.
So let's start at home.
Another earthquake?
Yes, but this one is an earthquake
in the name of science.
Behind me is the world's largest
outdoor seismic simulator,
located here at the University of California San Diego.
It's big enough to shake a ten-story building.
The goal here is to learn more about how buildings fail
and to develop better technologies
to keep buildings intact when the ground starts to move.
This facility and others like it
will help engineers build better systems and structures.
[wondrous music]
* *
Now, there's an old saying--
or an old saying among seismologists, anyway--
that earthquakes don't kill people,
buildings kill people.
So let's make our buildings safer!
Whoa!
Some of the most dangerous killers
are ordinary brick and mortar structures,
the kind that are common everywhere
in old neighborhoods.
Let's avoid building these kinds of structures
in earthquake zones.
Let's use our knowledge to make structures
earthquake-proof-- okay, earthquake resistant--
by being strong where they need to be strong
and flexible where they need to be flexible.
I keep telling people not to build on sand and mud,
but do they listen to me? No!
They want to live near the beach
or on a picturesque hillside.
Fine, but those locations can still be a lot safer
if the buildings there have deep foundations
that connect to bedrock.
Buildings themselves can also do a lot
to absorb and resist the seismic waves
an earthquake throws at them.
Case in point, the Taipei Tower in Taiwan.
It uses a massive pendulum
suspended inside the building from the 91st floor
to counter and absorb
the swaying motion in an earthquake.
Many of the world's tallest skyscrapers
make use of the same counterweight idea.
And we need to think beyond earthquakes.
Some of the biggest threats
from Earth's shifty tectonic plates are tsunamis.
They may be unstoppable,
but we can drastically reduce their impact
with seawalls and fortified structures
if we knew where and how a tsunami
was most likely to strike.
That's why tsunami simulators
like the one in London are such a big deal.
Engineers here run experiments
to simulate extreme tsunami conditions.
Their research will help us better predict
where and how tsunamis will strike
and better protect us against them.
The destructive power of tsunamis
makes them impossible to study in real life,
so recreating them in a lab helps scientists observe
how the huge waves form
and how they move across the ocean
and what happens when they hit the shore.
Model houses and buildings show how
different materials are impacted,
which helps engineers build better structures
and design seismographs, tide gauges, pressure sensors,
and other technologies to detect tsunamis
and send out rapid warnings to people in harm's way.
[siren blaring]
All of this and sturdier buildings
are great local actions.
They will make daily life on the Ring of Fire safer.
But it's our global actions that will save the most lives.
The most powerful safety measure we have is information.
That's why it's so important
that we all communicate with each other
and don't allow politics and paranoia
to cloud the free flow of scientific data.
Information also has to be secure.
We need to harden our infrastructure
against cyberattacks,
and we need better systems to provide early warnings,
another low cost, high payoff investment.
Five minutes of early warning
makes a huge difference in a tsunami.
And I can tell you from personal experience,
even ten seconds can mean the difference between
life and death in an earthquake.
In a world with early alert systems in place,
both Homer, Alaska, and Adak Island
are evacuated in time.
[soft dramatic music]
* *
With the safe decommissioning of nuclear sites
around the Ring of Fire,
as is planned for the Diablo Canyon Plant,
no radioactive wasteland.
Always a plus.
And what about Valdez, Alaska,
the harbor town that got wiped out
by that massive earthquake and tsunami back in 1964?
Well, Valdez was eventually rebuilt
at a safer location a few miles away.
Today, new buildings are designed
to withstand intense shaking,
while older structures have been retrofitted,
and development in the most dangerous areas is off-limits.
All of this won't prevent another quake from happening,
but the people in Valdez and other Alaskan communities
are much safer and better equipped
to survive future disasters,
a reliable blueprint for anyone
living on the Ring of Fire.
[hopeful music]
* *
With quake-ready structures,
more of my beloved Seattle is saved.
More important, more people are saved
by a multinational seismic alert system
that helps people get to safety in time
so we can rebuild and come back better than ever...
With the best damn coffee on the planet.
- Humankind is unique.
In the four billion years of life on Earth,
we are the first species to create
a technological civilization.
Through science, we are finally beginning to understand
our deep relationship with the planet we live on,
how much Earth influences us,
and how much we can and do influence Earth.
In the halls of our Disaster Institute,
we've shown how badly things might go for us.
We've also shown how good things could be
if we have the right systems in place.
In the coming years, we can build a stronger,
more resilient civilization
if we work together to make it happen.
No, we don't all have to hold hands
or agree on everything,
but we do have to help each other out
when Mother Nature throws something nasty our way.
[pensive music]
My friends,
there's a whole lot of crazy going on in the world.
I don't blame you if you feel overwhelmed sometimes.
But when I'm feeling blue, I just think about science,
evidence-based optimism.
While there's still a lot of work to be done,
the world is better today for more people
than it's ever been in recorded history.
And do you know why?
Because we're figuring out
how to use science for the greater good.
Make no mistake,
we're living at a dangerous time,
a frightening time.
We're facing big problems, and we need big solutions,
but we are a resilient species
with a unique ability to think and reason.
So do I think the end is nigh?
No.
The end's a long way off
because together, we can-- dare I say it--
change the world.
[bold triumphant music]
* *
[dramatic music]
* *