Treacherous Places

Episode One

 

Narrated by Sean Bean

 

 This week, Treacherous Places focuses on the dangers related to the Earth element.

 

"We live our lives in the assumption that nature can be counted on, that
the earth will always be firm beneath our feet. But there are places in the world where nature's basic processes pose a threat, and the earth turns into a killer!"

So announces movie idol Sean Bean as he narrates this hard-hitting
documentary about some of the most Treacherous Places on earth.

From the Channel 5 Website

Mud flats around Girdwood, Alaska, are a natural disaster waiting to happen. We hear the tragic story of the newly-weds
who attempted to cross the mud in a buggy in July 1987.

With one of the highest and fastest rising tides on earth, the mud flats can quickly become akin to quicksand. Sadly, despite the best work of
the fire department, John Dickenson lost his young wife when she became stuck in the mud, and drowned as the tide rose.

  

The Anchorage Fire Department has developed a system of high pressure hoses to help to prevent further fatal accidents on these mud flats. Sean describes them as "Magic Wands", and they have worked their magic to free a Fireman who became deliberately trapped in the mud flats to aid a training exersise.

 

   

Mudflats and magic wands    973kb

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Ever since June 1991, when Mount Pinatubo erupted after 600 dormant years, the town of Bacolor in the Philippines has lived in constant fear. For while the initial blast was huge, and a
blizzard of ash turned day into night, the long term legacy has proven even more treacherous. Lahars ­ flash floods of ash, debris and
water that flow like a raging river ­ have left
Bacolor buried beneath volcanic fallout.		  

The Blizzard of Ash that covered Bacalor and the devasting and destructive Lahar

   

 Lahars    1.46mb

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 The third part of the first episode discusses sunstorms, and their effect on Earth and on our technology. How such a storm overloaded the power-grid in Quebec causing a total blackout, and are causing the detoriation of the Alaskan pipe-line. Also how "space weather" caused by sunstorms can effect and destroy satellites, and possibly be a threat to worldwide security by triggering nuclear defence systems.  

Sunstorms    1.50mb

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The Hawian's tell of a legend of a God who rules the Canyon carved out by Sacred Falls. How he hurled boulders at Humans who dared to stray into his territory.

This is only a legend.......

However on Mother's Day in 1997 at Sacred Falls, a treacherous and fatal rockslide occurred.

  

Sacred Falls    855kb

 Treacherous Places
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