Discovery Prepared for America's Tsunami

Original special America's Tsunami: Are We Next? will debut on Discovery Channel Sunday, Dec. 18 at 9 p.m. (EST/PST), the network said Wednesday.

The network said the special “reveals new geological evidence that seafloor uplift from the 9.2 magnitude Great Sumatra earthquake -- not a giant underwater landslide, as previously thought -- caused the devastating Dec. 26, 2004, Asian tsunami.”

Discovery added that scientists point to the northwest region of the United States -- Northern California and coastal areas of Oregon and Washington -- as being most at risk for a tsunami event because its fault lines are a mirror image of those in the Indian Ocean subduction zone.

“It is our hope that America's Tsunami: Are We Next? Helps to advance efforts in gaining a greater understanding of last year's tsunami and in predicting future destruction," Discovery Channel U.S. executive vice president and general manager Jane Root said in a prepared statement.