giant tsunamis, it's best to bring them down to size. that's what these waves and this scale version of the town of seaside, oregon, are all about. when engineers pounded it with a tsunami they learned something really surprising. more on that in a moment. you might be surprised to learn that tsunamis are a looming threat for the west coast of the u.s. >> the likelihood of having a tsunami here on our coast is one in seven chance in the next 50 years of having a tsunami. that's huge. >> dan cox is director of the lab at oregon state, a part of the national science foundation's network for earthquake engineering simulation. >> in the field they see the before and after. this allows us to see the during. a wave breaks off the coast.