Field Museum exhibit coincides with nature
The Field Museum opens a disastrous new exhibit Friday.
Starring hurricanes, volcanoes, earthquakes and tornadoes, "Nature Unleashed: Inside Natural Disasters" seeks to explain the causes and aftermath of the earth's worst nightmares.
The timing couldn't be more relevant with a massive earthquake striking China May 12 and a deadly cyclone devastating Myanmar May 2.
Closer to home, the Midwest was mildly shaken by a moderate earthquake April 18 near the New Madrid fault.
More Coverage Video Nature Unleashed
And 2008 so far has brought record numbers of tornadoes to the United States. In January and February, 232 twisters touched down compared to the three-year average of 59, the National Weather Service reported. As of May 11, tornado-related deaths totaled 100 people.
Field Museum organizers say their exhibit was months in the making, and its themes are timeless.
"Nature Unleashed examines how people cope with natural disasters," museum President John McCarter said at a preview Tuesday.
Attractions at "Nature Unleashed" run the gamut from black and white stills of Californians surveying the 1906 earthquake damage in San Francisco to Hurricane Katrina victims describing their experiences 99 years later.
There's also wreckage from recent catastrophes, interactive displays explaining natural phenomena, and footage of events as the 2004 tsunami in southern Asia and Africa.
Storm chaser Timothy Samaras' video of the inside of a twister is a can't-miss.
On the heels of a tornado strike in Storm Lake, Iowa, on June 11, 2004, Samaras dropped a video probe equipped with seven cameras in its path. The result is an eye-opening view of intense natural power.
"We take a pretty calculated risk," said Samaras, a senior engineer with a research firm in Colorado who came to Chicago for the exhibition. "We do get in the tornado's path. Is that dangerous? Yes, if you stay too long."
But it's not about thrill-seeking, Samaras said; "we chase storms to collect the data." His video footage on display at the Field is being used to study a little-known area -- the low-level dynamics of thunderstorms.
"We're looking at how strong the winds are near the ground," Samaras said.
The exhibit also offers lessons in political science, said Seth Stein, a Northwestern University geologist and earthquake expert.
Compared to the complaints of inaction after Hurricane Katrina, "every level of government wanted to know what they could do to help" during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Stein said.
Although 450,000 people were left homeless by the fire that swept through the city, within days tent cities emerged with proper sanitation and water, Stein said, despite the fact everything was arriving by train.
Army troops at the Presidio helped keep order and reportedly were told by the San Francisco mayor of the time to "shoot any looters on sight."
"There was no problem with anarchy or lawlessness," Stein said.
One thread that's running through the exhibition is the impact of global warming on natural disasters and how warmer air and oceans could cause worse meteorological turmoil.
But while it's interesting to speculate, the science is still new, said Jonathan Kahl an atmospheric sciences professor with the University of Wisconsin/Milwaukee.
"You don't need climate change to have these kinds of disasters," Kahl said. "All you need is sun and atmosphere and a planet that rotates.
"That's not to minimize the potential of climate change. But the answer is not fully known and differs from disaster to disaster."
"Nature Unleashed" runs Friday to Jan. 4, at the Field Museum, 1400 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago.
"Nature Unleashed"
Highlights and facts:
The basics: "Nature Unleashed" opens Friday at the Field Museum in Chicago. It delves into the causes and aftermath of volcanoes, earthquakes, hurricanes and tornadoes. Includes footage of natural disasters and interactive displays.
Best visual attraction: Nature's Fury Caught on Camera. A panoramic seven-camera video of a tornado June 11, 2004, at Storm Lake, Iowa. Watch as the funnel cloud gets closer and closer until it washes over the screen.
Location, location: Half a billion people live near volcanoes that have erupted before and could again.
Best interactive display: Build Your Own Volcano. After you pick a level of silica (a compound of molten rock) and dissolved gas, a customized volcano erupts.
Shock and awe: Smashed items on show include a basketball backboard from a school in Greensburg, Kansas, wiped out by a tornado May 4, 2007.
Melancholy note: A clarinet that never will be played again lies discolored and misshapen in its case in a Hurricane Katrina exhibit.
Did you know? A 1970 cyclone in Bangladesh killed more than 500,000 people, the worst weather-disaster in history.
Quotable 2004: "A tree went straight through my house."
-- Girl from Hattiesburg, Miss., describes Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Quotable A.D. 79: "Many besought the aid of the gods but still more imagined there were no gods and that the universe had plunged into darkness."
-- Pliny the Younger describes Mt. Vesuvius
Earth-shaking: Leap into the magnitude measuring exhibit and it measures the Richter scale impact of your jump.
And another thing: Most tornadoes occur during the evening rush hour.
Audience reaction: "This place is cool."
-- Chicago fifth-grader
Sorry, Rex: Dogs cannot predict earthquakes.
Vital statistics: The Field Museum is at 1400 S. Lakeshore Drive, Chicago. Tickets are $22 for adults, $19 for seniors and students and $12 for children. For information, call (312) 922-9410 or visit www.fieldmuseum.org.