by AtheistsAreSkeptics
October 6, 2011

from YouTube Website

Ever since the tragedy on December 2004 when huge waves pummeled the coastline of the Indian Ocean, people have been left with three questions: how, why, and what can we do to prevent it from happening again.

The first is simple enough. However, the other two require more thought and initiative.

The reasons may never be fully understood, but as human beings we have the ability to minimize or possibly even prevent the loss of human life should this merciless disaster ever strike again. Naked Science investigate what exactly the governments of the world are doing to get warnings out to people within hours, days, possibly weeks before one happens again.

Scientists worldwide are for the first time working together to develop an understanding of the circumstances that take place to create tsunamis and consider what it takes to prevent the loss of human life and property.

Iain Stewart journeys across the oceans to explore the most powerful giant waves in history, with ten remarkable stories about tsunamis.

These massive waves can be taller than the biggest skyscraper, travel at the speed of a jet plane and when they reach land, rear up and turn into a terrifying wall of water that destroys everything in its path.

These unstoppable, uncontrollable forces of nature caused the ruin of an entire ancient civilization, may have played a small part in the demise of the dinosaurs, and in World War II were used as a weapon.

Yet astonishingly, two men who surfed the tallest wave in history - half a kilometer high - survived.