It was late on the morning of April 1, 1946, and on the island of Hawaii, children from the school at Laupahoehoe Point were the first to see the Pacific Ocean disappear. They watched, awestruck, as 500 feet of sand and coral emerged glistening into the sunshine. A few of the braver ones ventured out onto the exposed reef. Suddenly the water came roaring back, sweeping away the children along with the buildings near the shore and the entire waterfront of nearby Hilo. For nine hours, a teacher, 21-year-old Marsue McGinnis, clung to a piece of driftwood before she was spotted by her fiance, who had mounted his own rescue in a borrowed motorboat. "I saw a number of children floating near me, clinging to wreckage," she said. "We just kept floating out to sea, and some of the children disappeared." Five hours earlier, an earthquake had erupted under the ocean floor off the coast of Alaska. Officials of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, a branch of the Commerce Department, knew what might be coming toward Hawaii, even if they didn't know enough to call it a tsunami. (msnbc.com)
A Tsunami is a significant global threat that can exist wherever there is a large body of water. A mega-tsunami, is a much larger scale disaster ranging anywhere from 30 ft to thousands of feet in height. These events occur when a very large amount of water is displaced all at one time. Examples of this displacement include a meteor impact or a LARGE scale landslide (in contrast to a tsunami which can be caused by earthquakes and plate subduction). The explosion of volcanos can also lead to a mega-tsunami as the land from the volcano rapidly displaces water. Mapped below are 3 active volcanos that are potential threats for megatsunami's. One in the Atlantic (La Palma, Canary Islands), one in the Pacific (Kilaueau, Hawaii), and one in the Indian ocean (Piton de la Fournaise, La Réunion Island).
The ripples do not represent the waves themselves but rather their travel times spreading from an origin, with each peak being approximately 400 miles apart. The wave travels at speeds in excess of 550 mph.
section relating distance traveled to height:each hash mark on the arrow represents 1hr of travel time
The above image is an overlay of all 3 potential mega-tsunami locations
Interesting sites of wave interference were noted.Two areas overlapped, one of these being the Indian Ocean disaster of 2004. This tsunami was triggered by an underwater earthquake that registered with a magnitude of 9.3 on the Richter scale. It was the deadliest tsunami recorded in history and killed people in Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Somalia, Kenya, and Tanzania.The following is a death map created using noteworthy historical tsunami's as data points. The largest points being locations where deaths exceeded 300,000 and the smallest being under 5,000. The areas of interference from the previous map were then overlayed to produce the image below.
Tsunami(resistant)Architecture is being proposed to provide housing and counteract the thousands upon thousands of deaths that occured in these regions due to structures being unable to withstand the destructive force of the tsunami. Below a typical Sri Lankan house is pictured.These dwellings typically consist of 4 solid cement brick walls and are fairly susceptible to a tsunami.
Analysis of tsunami debris was conducted. It was noted that load-bearing walls perpendicular to the coastline, vertical elements of buildings, and bridge supports most often survived the tsunami waves. With this information as a starting point, and using these images to learn from the tsunami it was decided that a modular, structurally sound unit was needed as a starting point. The shipping container fulfills these requirements.
The container is manufactured with heavy-gauge Corten steel, is very sturdy and resistant to the elements. They are built to withstand the violent forces on the deck of a ship at sea. So it makes perfect sense to use them in constructing Tsunami(resistant)Architecture. Below are single and double units, comprised of a shipping container(s), steel bracing, and a column that alows for 360 degrees of rotation.
The rotation of the units is to allow them to by dynamic, and in the case of a tsunami, to be oriented perpendicular to it. This is done in order to put up the least resistance to the wave and to remain intact as a living space. During calm periods, or increments of time where there is no threat of a tsunami, the units will be organized based upon user preference, being optimized for livability, creating both internal and external spaces, and not necessarily perpendicular to an impending tsunami. An example of this is located in the cluster of units below.
This image represents a single cluster that is part of a much larger whole, consisting of hundreds or even thousands of these clusters stretching along a coastline.
The container is manufactured with heavy-gauge Corten steel, is very sturdy and resistant to the elements. They are built to withstand the violent forces on the deck of a ship at sea. So it makes perfect sense to use them in constructing Tsunami(resistant)Architecture. Below are single and double units, comprised of a shipping container(s), steel bracing, and a column that alows for 360 degrees of rotation.
The rotation of the units is to allow them to by dynamic, and in the case of a tsunami, to be oriented perpendicular to it. This is done in order to put up the least resistance to the wave and to remain intact as a living space. During calm periods, or increments of time where there is no threat of a tsunami, the units will be organized based upon user preference, being optimized for livability, creating both internal and external spaces, and not necessarily perpendicular to an impending tsunami. An example of this is located in the cluster of units below.
This image represents a single cluster that is part of a much larger whole, consisting of hundreds or even thousands of these clusters stretching along a coastline.While the containers in the "calm state" are oriented based upon user preference, the containers in the "tsunami state" are oriented perpendicular to the impending tsunami. This is illustrated below. The first image represents the calm state, while the second represents the tsunami state.
calm state
tsunami state
plan view of a calm state cluster (left) and a tsunami state cluster (right)
In order to orient the clusters perpendicular to a tsunami, you have to know where the tsunami is coming from. In order to do this, thousands of nodes will be placed in the ocean hundreds of miles offshore. These nodes will relay information such as direction and speed of a tsunami via satellite to the clusters on shore.
node detail
Tsunami(resistant)Architecture consists of 2 components, the clusters and the nodes. The nodes relay information, but also act as part of a public warning system. Upon alerting the clusters of the direction the tsunami is coming from the clusters orient themselves perpendicular to it, essentially pointing at the tsunami. This gives the comunity time to react to the situation and either evacuate the area or seek refuge. While acting as a beacon pointing to impending danger, to an extent, the clusters also protect the inland by breaking up the tsunami waves.
diagram portraying the relay of information
the clusters orienting themselves (the distance between the nodes and the clusters is shortened for representation)
calm state
tsunami state
plan view of a calm state cluster (left) and a tsunami state cluster (right)In order to orient the clusters perpendicular to a tsunami, you have to know where the tsunami is coming from. In order to do this, thousands of nodes will be placed in the ocean hundreds of miles offshore. These nodes will relay information such as direction and speed of a tsunami via satellite to the clusters on shore.
node detailTsunami(resistant)Architecture consists of 2 components, the clusters and the nodes. The nodes relay information, but also act as part of a public warning system. Upon alerting the clusters of the direction the tsunami is coming from the clusters orient themselves perpendicular to it, essentially pointing at the tsunami. This gives the comunity time to react to the situation and either evacuate the area or seek refuge. While acting as a beacon pointing to impending danger, to an extent, the clusters also protect the inland by breaking up the tsunami waves.
diagram portraying the relay of information
the clusters orienting themselves (the distance between the nodes and the clusters is shortened for representation)Future Proposal: Archipelago of Surveillance
The nodes floating offshore could be applied and used to warn communities not only of impending tsunamis but of a variety of elements. These elements could be anything from other forms of natural disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes to issues such as refugee migration, military surveillance, drug trafficking, or even algae blooms. The nodes could be placed surrounding entire continents to act as a type of global warning system. Obviously there are many factors that must be addressed when creating this "archipelago of surveillance." Negative factors include potentially impeding migration routes and changing ocean ecologies, while the positive outcome would be a constant stream of information that allows the entire globe to react/adapt/change in response.
speculative image of surveillance archipelago
The nodes floating offshore could be applied and used to warn communities not only of impending tsunamis but of a variety of elements. These elements could be anything from other forms of natural disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes to issues such as refugee migration, military surveillance, drug trafficking, or even algae blooms. The nodes could be placed surrounding entire continents to act as a type of global warning system. Obviously there are many factors that must be addressed when creating this "archipelago of surveillance." Negative factors include potentially impeding migration routes and changing ocean ecologies, while the positive outcome would be a constant stream of information that allows the entire globe to react/adapt/change in response.
speculative image of surveillance archipelago
