Closely following one of the most destructive natural disasters in modern history, Pacific Science Center has just opened an exhibit, "Powers of Nature," and an IMAX film "Forces of Nature."
Exhibit and film are timely by virtue of not only the tragic tsunami in South Asia but also, nearer to hand, the building lava dome at Mount St. Helens. Our planet is an active, living and changing system, and those forces of nature are an ongoing fact of life on Earth.
"Over a year ago when the Pacific Science Center began planning for the 'Power of Nature' exhibit," said President and CEO Bruce Seidl, "there was no foreshadowing of the natural disasters that have occurred in the past few months. They are a true testament of the forces of nature that are depicted in the exciting new exhibit and IMAX film."
"Forces of Nature" was produced and directed by George Casey, the president of Graphic Films, who has specialized for more than 25 years in the writing and production of motion pictures in the IMAX, Omnimax and other giant-screen, 70mm formats. During his career, Casey has been nominated for four Academy Awards.
Casey was at the Pacific Science Center's première of his film, and he told me stories of how he melted the soles of his shoes walking on the crusted but still very hot surface of a lava flow on Hawaii's Kilauea volcano as they set up for some preliminary shots. "My shoe repairman thinks I've gone beyond hope," he chuckled.
The ground moves, mountains explode, the sky turns black and violent - paradoxically, natural forces that helped create life on our green planet can also imperil it. National Geographic, in partnership with Graphic Films, delivers an experience 10 years in the making - the awesome spectacle of earthquakes, volcanoes and tornados brought to the giant screen.
The film, which is narrated by Kevin Bacon, showcases three scientists who risk their lives in a quest to understand and, it is to be hoped, improve our odds of surviving these terrifying natural events.
At the Montserrat Volcano Observatory in the Caribbean, Dr. Marie Edmonds keeps watch over La Soufrière, the island's active volcano. In 1995 Montserrat citizens learned they were living on a time bomb when a massive explosion sent pyroclastic flows racing down the mountain.
Edmonds now searches for signs of future eruptions. She employs an arsenal of sophisticated instruments she has developed for data collection on activity occurring miles below the surface. Positioning such devices takes Edmonds and her colleagues to the edge of danger along the mouth of the volcano. Laser reflectors that register even a few centimeters of ground deformation deliver clues that the volcanic chamber is swelling with magma and may be ready to burst. "Forces of Nature" describes the scene as Soufrière Hills wreaks havoc again.
Halfway around the world, different forces from Earth's depths threaten life above. Turkey sits atop one of the most seismically active faults in the world. In the ancient city of Istanbul, geophysicist Dr. Ross Stein has spent much of his career studying the rumblings of the North Anatolian Fault. Stein's earthquake-progression model anticipates stress sites along fault lines. But his model's success is little cause for celebration when predictions ring true for the city of Izmit. "Forces of Nature" witnesses the aftermath of the 1999 quake that took an astonishing toll of more than 17,000 dead and thousands more injured. Is Istanbul next?
In the United States, tornados kill dozens of people each year, and Midwesterners rightfully fear the power of a sudden storm. Not all rotating storms spawn tornados, so it is up to scientists such as Dr. Joshua Wurman to try to figure out which ones do, greatly aiding warning efforts. Wurman and his team log thousands of miles each spring crisscrossing the highways and dirt roads of the nation's "Tornado Alley" in Doppler radar trucks.
Wurman's enduring mission is to get a radar's-eye view inside a tornado, solving the mystery of how these funnel clouds are born. But success on the proj-ect is an extreme version of "right time, right place," requiring trucks positioned at 90- degree angles on either side of a storm at the exact moment of a tor-nado's formation. "Forces of Nature" delivers a wild ride as Wurman's team manages to corner a massive twister.
The film's only humorous moment occurs during the end-credit crawl, a time when other films sometimes show blooper scenes to the side. Here, the film crew find themselves locked out of their chase van with a tornado fast bearing down on them. They finally find the key, but Casey told me he almost had a better shot.
"The crew was ready to break the van's windows with a tripod in order to get out of there. It was getting scary."
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