On the morning of December 26, 2004, an undersea section of the earth's crust slipped along a 700-mile-long fault off the coast of Sumatra. In one of the worst natural disasters on record, the ensuing earthquake triggered a series of destructive waves or tsunamis that claimed more than 250,000 lives. Barely a minute after the quake, computers at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii picked up seismic signals and automatically alerted scientists. They issued an emergency bulletin for the Pacific but watched helplessly as the tragedy unfolded, since no similar detection network exists in the Indian Ocean. Fifteen minutes after the quake, a colossal wall of water struck the northwest coast of Sumatra, surging miles inland and obliterating everything in its path. Over the next few hours, gigantic waves raced across the Indian Ocean, killing tens of thousands of people in Thailand, Sri Lanka, and India. Now NOVA tells the minute-by-minute story of the 2004 tsunami, featuring the testimony of lucky survivors and gripping eyewitness video footage. In an authoritative look at tsunami science, NOVA presents the first in-depth exploration of what made the waves so destructive. And with the help of a massive wave tank, scientists assess the risk that a similar or even bigger catastrophe might one day strike U.S. coastlines.

Special DVD features include: materials and activities for educators; scene selections; closed captions; and described video for the visually impaired.